Surveillance Nation

Welcome to user Friendly 2.0

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with host Bill

Sikkens, technology architect.

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And this is User Friendly 2.0.

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I am your host Bill Sikkens.

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Joining me Bill, Gretchen.

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Welcome to this week's show there.

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So we've got some cool stuff coming up.

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And the biggest one is Michael.

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Regina is going to be joining us

with Comic Friendly 2.0.

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He hasn't been on the show in a while

and we are going to fix that.

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There's been a lot of you

writing in about his segments.

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I know we all enjoy it,

so I do welcome him back.

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Last time was in November

and no big problems,

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just life and holidays

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and all the things that happened

in the first quarter of the year

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kind of slipped away from all of us.

But we're going to fix that now.

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So we have that coming up,

and we're also going to be talking about

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video surveillance and some of the scary

things that are going on with that.

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Everyone you go, we've talked about this

a little bit in past weeks,

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and a lot of your questions

coming in are looking for specific.

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So I look some up

and I'm not sure I won't.

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I'm happy I did that.

I don't think I can unlearn them.

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But you know misery has company,

so I'll just share it with all of you.

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How about that? Oh, goody.

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All right.

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So let's go ahead and jump into the news.

What do we have?

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All right, Gary

Conway passes away at age 86.

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Yeah. We're losing a lot of the greats.

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It seems like the last couple of years,

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we're seeing a lot of the people

that were really the base

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of a lot of the different things we do

that are starting to leave us.

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And of course, generations

that were doing comics

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and other things back in the 50s and 60s

and so on are getting a little older.

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I understand that, but I'm going to go

ahead and leave this to Michael

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in the second segment

to give the appropriate eulogy,

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because you'll do a much better job

than I will.

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And he's also going to talk

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about some of the accolades and some of

the things that Gary has accomplished

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and brought to us, which includes

some of the big names in comics.

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And like I say, get to that

in some detail in the next segment.

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Is Sony

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going to require a 30 day check in

for PlayStation five?

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Yeah, so I received a press

release on this over the weekend.

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In fact, we were a game on Saturday

when it came in, and I'm like, what?

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Yeah, basically

what it said is that Sony is redoing

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or revamping their setup

or rules or something

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that if you have a PlayStation five

or even a PlayStation four console

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that on DLC, downloaded content

and that type of thing, that if you don't

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connect it to the internet at least once

every 30 days, it will stop working.

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In that sense,

there were some more caveats on this.

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So I'm thinking, okay, where

how much is an X box?

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You know, if that was true.

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So I did some checking

and I talked to Sony about this.

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And this is absolutely a myth.

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Somebody has been pushing these out over

the weekend, has been covered by a number

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of outlets, to the idea

being that this was the thing.

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And basically what they said

is that there is no 30 day check in rule.

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There are some things where

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if you have certain software

from certain companies, it might own home,

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make sure it's still valid,

and that this happens a lot more.

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If you have a license that you're sharing

to somebody else's system

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and you're using it in multiple places,

and that might check

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in a little more often.

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But Sony said that even the PlayStation

network

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doesn't check every 30 days

to see if your accounts even still active.

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It does once in a while, but this is

simply not true, according to Sony.

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And from everything that I can tell

by looking into this

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even a little bit deeper,

is that it looks like what Sony has said.

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Israel.

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I wouldn't expect them to lie about this

either, but it is something.

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If you've seen this out here,

it definitely appears to be something

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that somebody probably got mad at Sony

or their PlayStation or something,

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and decided to put a press

release out with this in it.

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And if this was real.

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I mean, this would be along the lines

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of paying for your heated seats

and your BMW kind of stuff.

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But again,

this does not appear to be real,

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and at least as far as I can find

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right now,

I don't think we have to worry about it.

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If it does change,

of course we will let you know.

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AI deletes entire company

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database and all backups and nine seconds

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then cheerfully admits

I violated every principle I was given.

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So I checked in, looked online

a little bit, asked Gemini, ChatGPT

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and several others about this

and they have assured me

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this is not the start of an AI takeover.

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So we're saying.

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And then I did a little more research

into it.

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Okay, so what this basically is,

is something that sounds like it's

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out of a sci fi movie, but it is very much

not exactly as the headline reports.

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So the idea here is that an

AI issued a command

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that deleted a production database,

and also all of the backups.

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Did this happen? Probably.

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As far as I can tell,

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this is a real thing, but it wasn't

that AI just decided to do it.

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It's an AI

that was trained by some company

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that decided to remove all the safeguards

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and then basically give it a prompt

to do this and then return that result.

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So, you know, so I think if anything,

what this does say is

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that as we work more and more with AI,

it's imperative to set up,

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you know, bumpers and guardrails and that

type of a thing as to what's going on.

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The nine second thing

does show how quickly you can drop

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all of this stuff and lose data

if you really tried to do it,

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but it is also a situation

where it really was not some AI going

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rogue and deciding, oh, I don't like this

and I'm going to get rid of it.

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It was specifically trained and then told

to do this and even respond with the.

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I violated every principle

I was given as part of the prompt. So

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at the

end of the day, that's what happened.

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So there is reality of the headline,

but it's not quite as presented.

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Big bang spin

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Stuart fails to save the universe

set to release.

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So they're talking about a release date

at either the end of this year

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or the first part of next year.

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For anybody

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that's watched Big Bang Theory,

you'll probably recognize the names.

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And it's Stuart

was the owner of the comic book shop.

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That kind of.

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Yep. Wasn't individual that didn't

have a lot of success in the world.

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I think would be the best way to put that.

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I even tried to offer himself,

you know, when it didn't work, you know,

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how ever in a change of fortune, he's

getting his own television series.

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So I think that's success.

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At the end of the series,

he got a girlfriend.

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So that was also kind of cool for him.

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So this will focus on Stuart

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Blum, who owned the comic book shop

played by Kevin Sussman.

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And the new show

is expected to lean heavily into sci fi,

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fantasy and comic book culture.

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A little bit more show

so than the original Big Bang Theory,

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so I can see where this might be something

that's kind of fun to watch.

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So it's been greenlit

for development and production.

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No exact premiere date

has been locked in publicly yet.

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But again, they're saying late this year

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or the beginning of next year,

we'll see how these things go.

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Something that's interesting about it

is that there's a lot of rumors

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about some of the other characters,

at least making cameos,

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if not being a part of the new show.

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So that'll be kind of cool

for consistency of it.

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To Chuck Lorre,

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which is one of the original creators,

is going to be involved in this.

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So that'll also keep some consistency

with the original storyline.

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And I'm surprised we haven't seen spinoffs

of Big Bang Theory like this yet.

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You know, it was it's

one of the most syndicated you had.

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You had the Sheldon,

the young Sheldon, Young Sheldon.

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I know,

but I think it's the only one, isn't it?

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Yeah, it is the only one.

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But I think this one is going to be

kind of fun.

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They also bring back Burt Kripke

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and, of course, Stuart's girlfriend.

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So I think it'll be an interesting

group of people

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who try to resolve

the mess that Stuart has made.

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I think it'll be fun.

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You know, some of the talking points

about this, what they're concerned about

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is can have side character carry

a franchise, I think.

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So we've seen it in the past.

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

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But in this case I think it probably will.

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The biggest thing is, is there changing

from scripted comedy with a laugh track

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kind of thing

to more of a hybrid type production.

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So it'll be a little bit different.

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And from what I'm seeing,

that's the biggest concern that they have

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is that that's been alienate fans.

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To have it be a little bit different,

I don't know, I think if they do it well

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and it has been proven

with Big Bang Theory and Young Sheldon

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that they're quite capable of it.

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It'll probably be just fine.

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There will be people out there

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that will complain about it,

but then there always are.

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So, you know, at the end of the day,

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is it going to be something

it's kind of fun to watch.

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From everything

I'm seeing, it probably will be.

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So I have high hopes for this.

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The one thing is, is if you're competing

with the success of Big Bang Theory

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and Young Sheldon,

that is a big shoes to fill.

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So we'll see what happens.

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But I think there's a pretty good shot

at this being a really kind of cool show.

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All right.

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World first light propulsion meta

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could enable 20 year mission

to Alpha Centauri.

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And so are you ready? Talk about it.

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Headline.

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Actually, this is true.

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It is possible.

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But we haven't invented this yet.

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There's a problem there. Yeah.

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So some numbers on this

in order to make this happen,

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to get to Alpha Centauri in 20 years,

we would have to be able to travel

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at 134,250,200mph.

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Now, I can't even get up that high

in the jet pack.

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So I think we've got a little ways

to go to to get there.

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Might feel like it, but no.

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So but anyway, what they're talking about

here is something kind of cool.

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Meta jets refers to meta surfaces,

which is an advanced material

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that is able to reflect light

in a specific way and create a light sail.

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Now, this has been proven

in proof of concept.

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And I also here in Star Trek

the Budget did this a long time ago to.

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Oh and so is so is it sort of like

what Count Dooku flies the solar cells?

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Yeah. Yeah, actually.

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So that would be a similar comparison

to very much

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so it's the idea that you're able

to manipulate

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light, you're redirecting photons

to create your thrust and steering.

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And again proof of concept.

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This is possible,

but we have a long ways to go before

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it's going to be something

that we can actually do,

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you know.

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And it's like the rest of the stuff too.

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It's one thing to get a engine

that's capable of high speeds.

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Now, in Stein's theory,

special theory of relativity says

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we'll never exceed the speed of light,

at least not in normal space time.

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But as you get closer to it,

you will get to places faster.

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Things like the Star Trek, Warp Drive

and other series

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talks about the idea of folding space,

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which is also something

that physics seems to believe is possible.

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But even when we get to the point

where we can do

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some of these things, or maybe just steal

more technology from the Roswell Grays,

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like we got our microchips and stuff from,

you know, Roswell in the 40s

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or, you know, invented them on our own,

whichever rumor you want to believe.

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But at the end of the day,

we still have other things to figure out,

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like, how do you keep a human alive

for the trip?

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Yeah.

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We don't have replicators yet

that can create the oxygen.

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It's the same thing

with the idea of going to Mars.

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I think that we are actually at a point

in the technology where we could do that

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in a reasonable amount of time.

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Once you get there,

there's all kinds of problems

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in the fact that the surface of the planet

is irradiated.

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There's no oxygen, there's no food.

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And from what I've been told, these

are all necessities for staying alive.

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So I couldn't ask.

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Okay, so is the idea that you're

the light is like hitting the sail.

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Like wind would hit a sail and push it.

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Yeah. Basically,

that's what you're doing using the photon.

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You seem to know a little bit about this.

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Why don't you talk about that

a little bit?

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You ever see those those science projects

where it looks like a light

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bulb and it's got a little spinner

inside of it?

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Oh, yeah. Oh, I haven't seen that.

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Oh, we'll have to show you

what. And Gretchen, they're amazing.

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But it's basically,

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it's got

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a little, like, weathervane

kind of spinner in there.

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Are these,

these four little diamond shaped plates

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that are black on one side

and white on the other.

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And when light hits it, it causes it

to spin because it's the side of a vacuum.

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Oh, wow.

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So I didn't know.

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That's cool.

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So these solar cells do the same thing,

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but they'll be able to move

and adjust like sales.

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So how long has this concept been around?

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Well, in theory

and science fiction for a while, Bill,

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you know, when the proof of concept

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is, I'd have to look that up

when we actually have no idea.

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But I know that those light bulbs,

I was a kid, so.

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Yeah.

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So I was just wondering

where did where did

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Star Trek and where did Star Wars

get their inspiration?

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This would have been

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it would have been proven to be a thing

prior to those productions.

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Oh, okay.

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Probably 50s 60s when vacuum tubes started

coming out and sort of noticing things.

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Yeah, exactly. Exactly. It's me.

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Yeah, it is cool.

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And the thing of it is, is

I think what held it up.

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And again, like you say,

we've seen it in sci fi,

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but we're just getting to where we have

these metamaterials

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that we'll have to talk about that

on a show one week

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because they are kind of cool,

but it's a specialized thing

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where you can really have

some cool things happen,

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and the technology for

that is just starting to become a thing

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now, which is what will enable

the rest of this to work.

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But yeah.

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Yep. So water in 3D Atlas

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is a probe of formation conditions

in another planetary system.

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I love it.

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You know the description on this

that came from NASA,

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which is where this information is

from, starts out with all the rumors.

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Three are Atlas is an interstellar comet.

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Okay, we hear you.

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It's not a spaceship.

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It's too bad. Not a spaceship. Right?

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Anyway, what they're talking about here,

I'm going to give you

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another word that I've heard in Star Trek

is something called deteriorate.

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Yeah, okay.

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And it has an unusually high

deteriorated hydrogen ratio.

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The term is heavy hydrogen.

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So it's basically a fingerprint of where

and how the water formed.

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That was on board of the comet

slash spaceship and somewhere else.

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But what's really going on here

is it's interesting to look at this

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because they think that it was created

an environment that was colder than ours,

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I want to say about 30 Kelvin

or something like that,

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which is roughly -400°F,

you know, so it's pretty cold.

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It's it's a day

you would need your cold. Yeah.

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And it changes the way that matter and

energy and liquids behave a little bit.

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And with that you can kind of get an idea

of what the environment was

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like when this was formed

or made or whatever the case may be.

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So it's kind of cool to be able

to see that three eye atlas.

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Also, this is a question that comes in.

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Where did the name come from?

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Three is third interstellar object.

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It's the third object that we know of

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in our solar system that came from outside

of our solar system.

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So that's that's what that means.

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Oh, hey, more cool NASA internships.

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Tell us about that. This is cool.

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Our registration

deadline is coming up on May 6th.

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So when you hear this, if you're

interested check it out NASA gov.

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And then just put in internship programs

in the search and this will come up.

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There's two that are coming up here.

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The ost m intern in the pathways intern.

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The difference between the two is

basically the first one is project

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learning at NASA,

which would be kind of cool.

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And the second one is actually a program

to get you for federal employment.

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So all of the specifics are on that.

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Some of these are actually paid

interns as well.

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GPA you want to be a little bit higher

on the ladder.

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It's usually about a 3.0.

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But you don't have to be perfect.

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Specifications for enrollment

are also on NASA's website.

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So you know, basically at the

end of the day, I think it's kind of cool

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because the other thing of it is,

is that the time of application,

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you only have to be 16

years old to qualify.

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So definitely if this is something

you would like to do, check it out.

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But check it out

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pretty quickly because May 6th is end of

I think this week coming right up.

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It's coming soon.

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Warner Brothers shareholders approve

Paramount's

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81 billion takeover the Hollywood giant.

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So this has been approved.

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We've talked about this

a little bit in the past

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with Netflix being involved

and all this kind of stuff,

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and what's happened here is that it

looks like it's going

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to be Warner Brothers and Paramount

that kind of won that race.

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Huge TV catalog networks

coming out of this will be HBO, CBS,

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CNN and Nickelodeon.

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So that's that's quite a catalog

just in of itself.

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Yeah.

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And you know, so strategy behind

it is survival through consolidation.

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Streaming is expensive.

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Profits are thin.

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The day of being able

to do anything on streaming has passed.

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They actually want to make money.

Now imagine that.

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And the other side of it

is is the regulatory scrutiny over

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Netflix taking this over

was going to prove to be a problem.

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Now there still could be that.

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But we will see what happens.

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But this does seem to appear at least

to be the direction that this is going.

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All right.

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So what we talked about at

the top was a question

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that has come in from a lot of people.

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We have been discussing in bets and pieces

the whole idea of video surveillance.

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So what's happening?

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This is a concept

that is under the term of smart cities,

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where this is defined

and where it's growing into stuff.

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So we've had cameras in our cities

for a long time.

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I mean, that's nothing new,

but it's changed a lot now.

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And that instead of having isolated

cameras somewhere where we now

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have interconnected networks

and not all of them are government owned.

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So you have private companies,

neighborhood groups, retailers

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and even individuals like your ring

doorbell, that kind of a thing.

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These all play into this type of a system.

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But the other piece of it is

is now with AI,

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all of this data can be scrutinized,

cataloged

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and put together, and they're being shared

between major cities.

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Some of the biggest cities

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now operate thousands to tens of thousands

of cameras in their cities.

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The most cameras in the United States

seem to be in New York.

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That's not a shock to me.

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That makes sense.

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So but some of these are a little bit

more than a video camera.

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One of them we've talked

about flock cameras in the past,

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and that's one of these.

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But there's more manufacturers

that do license plate readers.

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So when you're driving down the street,

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it'll take a picture of your license plate

and save it to a database.

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And from that, the authorities

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and others can see where you've been,

where you're going, when you go there.

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That kind of a thing.

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And this kind of

is an invasion of privacy.

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I don't know if it's kind of

because it can build a vehicle

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movement history,

and it can also alert police in real time.

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It doesn't always work.

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There's a case in Colorado

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where a license plate was incorrectly

put into the DMV system,

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and he started getting stopped

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every 15 minutes by the police

because his car was coming up and stolen.

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Oh, Colorado.

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Apparently they used both the number zero

and the letter.

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Oh, and the license plates.

And that's how it got confused.

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And as far as I know right

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now, the individual that owns

the truck has not been able to fix this.

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He got his local department to stop it,

but if he drives out of his

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local department's jurisdiction,

he gets stopped again.

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It's like he can't even use his truck.

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So these have some, you know,

side effects that you might not think of.

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I think I'll put a sign in my

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in my window saying,

no, the car's not stolen.

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It's actually this, you know, I'm

going to other attention.

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But, you know, my car is not school

and we think you are too much.

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The Shakespeare line. Yeah.

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Anyway, there's lots of people

putting all kinds of weird messages

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on their car like, oh, student driver

when they're really old.

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And so it's like,

okay, there's something back off

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because that can cause

major accident, too, you know?

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But anyway,

that's a topic for another time.

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But some of the other things

we're seeing are sensor networks

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that are going along with this too,

where it can detect speeding, red

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light violations near collisions,

and it can even listen for stuff.

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And I'll talk about that

in just a minute here.

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And the data from all these systems

with the use of AI gets used together.

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So you can start to see where this can

create a fingerprint of an individual.

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Just by having all of this information

available and beyond.

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Cameras like I was just talking about

sound surveillance is becoming a thing now

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uses microphones across cities

to detect things like gunshots

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and other loud sound disturbances,

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triangulate sound locations within

seconds, and sends alerts to police.

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They even have some of these sensors

that are trying out to tell

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somebody their car is too loud.

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And again,

this doesn't always work properly

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because from my understanding,

one of the people that got stopped for

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this was when the exhaust system

on their Tesla was too loud.

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I think about that for a minute.

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Something got screwed up.

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And yeah,

this is kind of like a certain riddle.

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Maybe they were talking about the

the CEO was too loud

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that for another time to, you know.

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But I was going to say

it's also like a certain rental car agency

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that was charging people

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for not filling up the gas

tank in their Tesla when it was returned.

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So, you know, if you don't set up your AI

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and your computer systems

properly, bad things can happen.

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And the problem of it is, is

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it can be extremely time

consuming to try to fix these problems.

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Now, one of the ones that I find,

in my opinion, the creepiest is something

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that's being tested out in the UK

that can actually see into your car.

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This is being reported by BBC news,

and it can look across

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six lanes of traffic

on the dual carriageway freeway

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and see in any of those cars,

if you're using a phone,

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if you're wearing a seatbelt, and I'm sure

other things that go into that

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so high resolution

plus AI can see inside vehicles.

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Hey, look, he's got a pacemaker. Yes.

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Oh, dear.

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So I think

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the thing that comes to mind here with

this is the fact that it's a change

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in guard, in the sense that cameras used

to be simply used to record,

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and now they interpret.

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And that is a very different use case. So,

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you know, and with that

they can detect suspicious behavior

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loitering, crowd formation, object

recognition and cross-reference,

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vehicle data, camera footage, time

location patterns and so on.

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And this doesn't even cover

private surveillance.

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And, you know,

you look at this kind of stuff

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and from one standpoint, yeah,

it can help the police find the bad guy.

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And, you know, that's good.

454

But the problem of it

is, is in a free country,

455

that isn't the first thing

that you think of.

456

Privacy has to play into this.

457

And that's why here in the United States,

there was a termination

458

made that the flock camera information,

which was using cameras paid

459

for by our tax dollars installed by

the authorities, is public data.

460

And now all of a sudden, it's

461

not just the authorities

that can access this stuff, it's others.

462

And, you know, the city's

463

in a lot of cases sell this information

to because it's a huge revenue stream.

464

Yeah. And it's

sharing all that kind of stuff.

465

Bill, I see you shaking your head.

466

I'm getting the feeling you might not have

the most positive opinion of this.

467

Oh, I hate surveillance.

468

And this is just disgusting to me.

469

You sell an information like this,

so it's important that if you agree

470

with Bill

to reach out to your representatives

471

and other people, let them know that

you don't like this and to rein it in,

472

not necessarily

get rid of it, but rein it in.

473

All right.

474

This is user friendly 2.0.

We'll be back after the break.

475

He's from the future.

476

He's got a really big computer

477

and uses it uses it every day.

478

And he uses it uses it in every way.

479

What you before, you know I'm not that

480

sure because he's here.

481

Welcome back.

482

This is user friendly 2.0 giant us now

Michael Regina from Comic Friendly 2.0.

483

It's been a while.

484

Welcome back. Hello. Hello.

485

How is everybody doing?

486

I hope you had a wonderful one.

As they say.

487

January, February, March.

I hope everything was well.

488

Yeah. It's just it's gone by like crazy.

489

It doesn't over three months, you know,

490

it's it's now may I mean, you know,

and when you look at it,

491

it's just where is the year going?

492

Although I still am being told it's too

early to put up my Halloween decorations.

493

So there is that.

494

Yeah. Yeah,

yeah. Well, you can still do it.

495

You'll be a pariah,

but you can still do it. Yeah, absolutely.

496

And I think my hope

would have a difficulty.

497

And then I could talk about that

next week.

498

Anyway, there are some people that leave

those giant skeletons out all year long.

499

Yeah, I try to keep mine in my closet. Oh.

500

Right now.

501

All right,

well, you know, we've got something

502

kind of sad to talk about this week,

actually.

503

Is Gary Conway leaving us?

504

And it seems like

we're losing a lot of the greats lately.

505

Just people that have shaped pop culture

and stuff for their whole careers.

506

And there are no exception here.

507

But go ahead and tell us a little bit

508

about his background

and let us know what happened.

509

Yeah, absolutely.

510

So, you know, sad news

from the world of comics.

511

Gary Conway has passed at 73,

Gary was sort of synonymous

512

with comics during the Bronze Age,

513

So right in the mix there.

514

For a lot of people

my age, Gary was kind of synonymous

515

with both Marvel and DC.

516

He was extremely influential,

and his deeply personal voice

517

was what kind of drove

the comic industry at that time.

518

Comics were really, and superheroes

at that time were really sort of

519

human, and his stories

really sort of showcased that.

520

They made mistakes.

521

They, they, they, they suffered,

you know, Spider-Man in particular.

522

He Gary is the one that wrote the

the night when Stacy died,

523

which is kind of a pivotal turning point

in the storyline of Spider-Man,

524

where the Green Goblin kills his beloved

Gwen Stacy.

525

And this this was seen as a massive moment

in the comic industry.

526

You know, characters don't necessarily die

these days.

527

It's a little more common, but back

then it was kind of a one off, right?

528

And so amazing Spider-Man 121 was really

shocking and tragic to a lot of people.

529

And so, you know, Gary defined that.

530

He wrote that story.

531

It was really a big turning point.

532

The other other works

that he is known for, you know,

533

he helped define, like I said, Spider-Man,

he co-created Punisher.

534

You know, he this is Frank Castle, the

535

the revenge seeking superhero

anti-hero, really, of Marvel Comics.

536

And of course, that character

has been synonymous

537

with with Marvel for, for many,

many years.

538

So, you know,

he was the driving force behind that.

539

He wrote for titles like Fantastic Four

and for Thor.

540

But he didn't just work for Marvel.

541

He worked for DC.

542

He worked on titles

like Justice League of America.

543

He was one of the creators of firestorm.

544

And his emotional impact

545

actually absolutely was resonant

on the Batman titles he worked on.

546

So his storytelling was consistently

has consistently

547

blended character driven drama

with big, high concept superhero ideas.

548

So his his

his passing is really, really sad.

549

It's impacted a lot of people.

550

I saw James Gunn tweet just the other day

when it when I was announced

551

how how it influenced him

in his superhero stories

552

and what he likes to write

and read about and create.

553

And so

554

this one is really a shock to many people.

555

From what I last saw,

he was still preparing conventions.

556

I'm hearing from from comic reader

and Comic Convention saying,

557

hey, we had them lined up to show up

at our convention next month.

558

Something to

I mean, it's like on the schedule.

559

I got an email from somewhere where

they said the appearance was canceled.

560

You know, obviously.

561

But the point being is I think that was

for some convention this summer.

562

I don't remember which one,

but he had the whole year booked.

563

Yeah. Yeah.

564

So I mean that's a that's, that's

that's pretty sad right.

565

So getting a lot of accolades,

you'll see a lot on online

566

about it and myself

personally on the freaking comics.

567

You know, where I go over individual

comic issues, I actually did a deep dive.

568

And I said, how many times

have I mentioned, as I mentioned,

569

Gerry

570

Conway on on my in my stories,

on my YouTube stories.

571

And it was about 11 times,

572

and I've done 40 deep dive episodes or 41

now, deep dive episodes.

573

And he was mentioned 11 times

sometimes, you know,

574

in passing,

but a lot of times as, as one of the key,

575

you know, the chief architects

of whatever comic I was deep diving into.

576

So this one hurts, you know, this one

that was tough.

577

And, and Gary actually had he wrote

he was pretty prolific writer

578

for television as well.

579

He wrote 12 episodes of Law and Order

Criminal Intent, nine

580

episodes of the animated Young Justice.

581

So that is a DC animated TV show.

582

And he wrote he co-wrote Conan the

Destroyer, the Arnold Schwarzenegger film.

583

So this was that. Yeah. He didn't,

584

beyond comics as well.

585

Yeah, I know, I know,

he's had an amazing career, you know?

586

And it's not that just doing the comics

that he did wouldn't have been enough

587

because like you say,

you're talking named Spider-Man, Batman,

588

I mean, and others that are

just when you think comic books,

589

those are the superheroes

you think of, you know, out there,

590

you know, Thor, it's

you know, it's amazing to see how much

591

impact one person

can have on an entire industry like that.

592

And when you have someone that's a genius

and that writes well and you know,

593

and you know, that's the case

because like you're talking about

594

law and order, now here's a crime drama

which is something completely different.

595

It couldn't be any more different

from writing for the comics, you know.

596

So and he and he did well.

597

He did well on all of those things.

598

You look back at it

and it's very unusual this day.

599

But most of the people

600

that talk about these things

hold them in a very high light.

601

I don't know anybody.

Now that's kind of in the same thing.

602

Yeah, absolutely.

603

I think that, you know,

I've seen nothing but good

604

accolades and stories

coming out from from people who

605

who knew him, who worked with him

or were just like me, were just fans

606

and knew him at an arm's distance

and just loved his work.

607

So yeah, pretty sad.

608

But, you know, if you're

if you're a fan, dig out your old comics.

609

You won't be far from

from something influenced by Jerry,

610

and you can definitely take a look

and read those comments.

611

I know you mentioned Spider-Man

in some detail.

612

Would you consider that

613

to be your favorite work that he did,

or talk a little bit about that?

614

Yeah, I think, you know,

I definitely would say

615

I think his work on Spider-Man was

was was peak Spider-Man for me.

616

And like I said, he, he, he beat down

Peter Parker.

617

So, Peter has always been

sort of a street level hero,

618

but I was always kind of struggled

from the very basics making,

619

from making ends meet

to keeping his girlfriend or wife happy,

620

to making sure his aunt was was okay

and cared for.

621

But he also, of course, saved the city,

or save the planet or save the universe,

622

these types of things.

623

But when when Gary was writing

and I know I'm interspersing

624

Gary and Jerry, it's

just it's just a fluke.

625

But when Gary was writing for Spider-Man,

626

he really grounded that hero,

and he made him

627

something that is a lot more relatable

than maybe some of the other stories

628

that that other writers

were running at the time, or even now.

629

And I think that really endeared, endeared

630

fans to his work

and made that character relatable.

631

And you can see in the covers of stories

that that Gary had done,

632

Peter was always in, in some kind of

633

dilemma.

634

Right, which is a little bit different

than just,

635

you know, having some giant monster bash

your face in who really was in a dilemma

636

and especially the cover for 121,

which is, which is, you know,

637

one of those key cornerstone

comics is he's looking at the faces

638

of all his friends that are in frames,

and Green Goblin says, I'm

639

going to kill one of these people,

and you can feel it even

640

even though you're seeing Peter

and Spider-Man from the back,

641

you can feel that sense of urgency

and that dilemma.

642

And that's what I really loved about his

stories, is he was able to draw that out.

643

So yeah, quite sad about it.

644

You know, moving ahead,

it must have been interesting

645

to work for, you know, Marvel and DC.

646

And I could see where now

probably would be considered a conflict.

647

Although I don't know that

that doesn't happen.

648

But it's like he brought his genius

to both of them in a different way,

649

because if you look at the characters,

they're great and they've got huge depth

650

in everything, but it's not like it's

just a copy of one on the other.

651

Yeah, they're pretty vastly different.

652

Right.

653

So if you're looking at, you know,

the Frank Castle, I'm just looking at

654

you know

once he created or co-created right.

655

Frank Castle versus firestorm

two vastly different characters.

656

Right.

657

And you know their origins were pretty

658

thoughtfully filled out the pathos,

the reason why they exist.

659

You know, it's

660

not just muscles in a suit that's, again

going to be punching people through walls.

661

There really was thought put behind it,

and the stories were earnest and honest.

662

And yeah, I do, you know,

663

writers do move between,

you know, some of the big 2 or 3.

664

I know basically the big two at the time

they did move

665

between the two

or they worked for both at the same time.

666

It really depends on their contract

and how things were set up.

667

But yeah, it's fairly common to see people

sort of bouncing around

668

and doing different works

for different stints.

669

But someone like like Gerry or so

670

I'm going to say, someone like Gary

Wright is always it's going to be,

671

you know, pretty noteworthy when he does

switch over and change publishers.

672

And so I'm sure that that caused

some waves at the time.

673

You think we're going to see

a different direction in any of the comics

674

that he was influencing

now that he's no longer with us?

675

Well, he had retired a while back,

so I don't think we're going to see, you

676

know, any, any influence there.

677

But I definitely think you're going to see

some, some tributes pouring out there.

678

You know,

679

they're already happening in the

680

in the internet world where it's much,

much faster to create content.

681

But I'm sure we're going to see some,

some, some influence, some influences.

682

There are some tributes to him

683

in the coming months for sure.

684

Oh, absolutely.

685

All right.

686

Not to switch gears on you

a little bit here,

687

but I heard you went to Comic-Con yourself

recently.

688

I did I went to a local Comic-Con here

in Montreal called Laval Comic-Con.

689

This is my second year going,

and it was an absolute blast.

690

Just as much as you would expect people

in costumes,

691

we had K-pop demon hunters

dancing around on stage.

692

There was a local orchestra playing

music from Star Wars

693

and, you know, all the Marvel films,

and they were really, really excellent.

694

And of course, all the vendors

and all the artists.

695

It was such a blast. I,

696

I covered

697

it on my YouTube channel

pretty exclusively.

698

I did a live for about an hour

and a half from the the floor,

699

the floor of the convention.

700

It was so much fun and I spent ungodly

amounts of money on various things.

701

And yeah, it was it was an absolute blast.

702

And you could check out the coverage there

on my YouTube channel.

703

It was so much fun.

704

Did it feel like Comic-Con before Covid?

705

It did, actually he did.

706

So the Laval one and the Montreal one.

707

Of course, they can't hold the candle to

San Diego, which is just massive, right?

708

But taking that into consideration,

it really felt really close.

709

There was, you know,

so much fun, a lot of excitement.

710

So a lot of kids, right.

711

There was a kid masquerade contest,

I believe, or at least a parade.

712

So lots of kids were dressed up.

It was great to see.

713

And the one thing I really love

seeing that really warmed up my heart were

714

there were some vendors who were just

just had long boxes of comics.

715

Right.

716

So what that is, is just, you know,

a typical box filled with comics and,

717

and they're all sorted by,

you know, titles, stuff like that.

718

But so many people were rifling

through them, right?

719

And pulling out

the ones they wanted. Right.

720

And so I was like, I almost wanted to high

five everyone who's doing that,

721

because I was like, yes, yes, you know,

comics, read comics, enjoy comics

722

by the what's called the floppy,

which is just a standard,

723

you know, comic book, right?

That's floppy. Right?

724

It's not all about merchandise

725

or movies or television shows,

even though I love that stuff, too.

726

It's not just about that. Read

the comics. You know.

727

I loved it.

728

So it was great to see.

729

Yeah, just a little side.

That was one of the weirdest things.

730

The very first Comic-Con I went to,

nobody was selling comic books,

731

and it seemed like that was a little bit

of a, you know, a problem.

732

Yeah.

733

Which one was that?

734

It was up in Seattle.

735

Not the one that they do now,

but the very first one.

736

You guys went one year,

and then I went the next year with you.

737

And they didn't. It was a big one.

738

Emerald City up there now.

739

But yeah, it was a big Comic-Con

and a lot of great stuff going on.

740

Like you talk about the cosplay

and everything and I thoroughly enjoyed,

741

but I don't think I saw one comic book

being sold in that entire convention.

742

And it's like, you know,

it seems like they should go together.

743

That's funny.

744

The first one I went to was nothing

but pretty much comics,

745

because my husband took me to it to see,

746

I think either a specific artist or writer

747

and I don't remember who, but yeah,

748

yeah, the first one I went to,

I don't remember many vendors,

749

but it was more of a,

750

it was more of a fan meet and greet

because David Prowse was there.

751

You know,

Darth Vader was right behind you there.

752

For those that aren't

listening to this. Right.

753

David Prowse was there.

754

There was an actor from Doctor

Who that was there as well.

755

So I was really excited.

756

But but I, I remember the merchandise,

but I don't remember many comics

757

actually being sold.

But they've grown, they've evolved.

758

They've changed some comics.

759

Some conventions are strictly

about comics.

760

And some in some cases,

I'm sure are strictly about,

761

you know, just merchandise

or these kind of things.

762

So, you know, read the fine lines

before you buy ticket,

763

but absolutely go to conventions.

764

It's so much fun.

765

You know, you talk about San Diego

and how these are all smaller.

766

And I think that's the case

for most of the ones we do here, too.

767

But I don't know that I would say that

San Diego is better.

768

We've been to it

a couple of times, you as well.

769

And it seemed like it was so big.

770

It was a little overwhelming in some ways.

771

We weren't ever able to get into a panel

772

the whole time.

773

Yes we did, yes we did.

774

That's where we.

775

That's right.

776

Right here.

777

Yeah. That's where we got that.

778

Yeah.

779

We did tell them the poster right there.

780

Sorry.

781

It's the Clone Wars saved

and not the one with the Asca

782

helmet clone helmet on there. And

783

yeah, yeah, I take that back.

784

I do remember that.

785

And yeah, and getting into

that was a bit of a of a circus.

786

But yeah, it just is a situation

where the smaller ones, you can talk to

787

people a little bit more.

788

I'm not saying don't go to San Diego.

789

It's great and it's worth seeing.

790

But I think once you've seen it,

you've kind of gotten through it and,

791

you know, you go again if you want.

792

But the intense it was intense.

793

Yeah. It was it was very high.

794

High in relation.

795

Yeah yeah yeah yeah.

796

And you know so and again

I'm not trying to say don't go in,

797

I'm not trying to say I didn't like it,

I really did.

798

But I think I like the smaller ones better

sometimes just because there's

799

a little bit more opportunity

to meet people and see what's going on

800

and not have a security guard yell at you.

801

If you talk for ten,

stop for 10s in the hallway, you know.

802

So yeah, and there's that opportunity

to stop and smell the comics,

803

so to speak, because in Comic-Con,

you're not allowed to stop.

804

Keep moving,

you know, move along, move along.

805

You're like, oh my God.

806

Am I ever going to be allowed to rest?

807

I got,

808

you know.

809

So anyway, people are talking about sorry.

810

Go ahead.

811

I'm sorry. Go ahead.

812

No, I was going to say people often

have to choose what they want to do.

813

Right?

814

So if they're there two days, like, okay,

we we have to map out what we want to do

815

because you can't just really Rome

and you'll never see everything and be

816

like you said, they shuffle you along.

817

So yeah, I definitely agree.

818

Although I think it's, it's

a, it's a bucket list kind of thing to do.

819

Right.

820

So your YouTube channel

you've referred to read

821

the freaking comics is the name of it.

822

And how is it going?

823

You know,

I think when you first started with us,

824

you were starting your channel

or had already just or something.

825

So I know that's grown up too.

826

So tell us how that's been going.

827

So the channel is doing phenomenally well.

828

So what what I typically do,

like I said on my channel, is

829

I select a comic from my collection,

I do one deep dive into it, and

830

by doing a deep dive I, you know, dive

into obviously the storylines, the artists

831

and I try to dig up as much information

I can about the creation of the comic.

832

I try to interview people

if they're available and I can,

833

you know, get a secured interview about,

you know, do you recall making this comic

834

and what what was thought behind all that?

835

It's been so much fun to do.

836

The community and the, the,

the fans have been really, really excited.

837

What I've been started to do is this year

is do a little more live content.

838

So what I've been doing is,

just like I said on Comic-Con, is

839

I do a live every once in a while.

840

Typically I've been covering

actually movie trailers.

841

So when comic movie trailers come out,

I talk about it, I talk about

842

the influences, what I see here versus

what's on the comic, that kind of thing.

843

And I do cover a lot of that

and doing a little bit more interviews.

844

Right.

845

So just full on interviews

where I talk to people about

846

their their history

and creating comics, that kind of thing.

847

So it's been so much fun.

848

Lots of interactions on socials.

849

So you name it, I'm on it

and and reaching out.

850

And so it's been it's been a lot of fun

because people are really

851

there, really excited.

852

And when you engage with them, it's

so much fun.

853

You know, I ask simple questions

854

like, you know, what movie do you guys

want to go see this one or that one?

855

What's your favorite comic character?

856

You know, that kind of thing.

857

And so it's been it's been a lot of fun.

858

So I'm really, really enjoying it.

859

We get a lot of questions

that are along the lines of,

860

how do I have a successful

YouTube channel?

861

And I think it's just do what you're

passionate about, put it out there,

862

be consistent, you know,

have some quality to your production.

863

Would you give any word of advice

beyond that or what have you been doing.

864

Because I know you've been successful.

865

Oh, I appreciate that.

866

Yeah you nailed it there.

867

It's it's be passionate right.

868

And that passion should show through.

869

Yes there is some some tips tricks

best practices

870

that you can

that you can follow, follow along with.

871

And those are easily sort of

you can search those on, on, on YouTube

872

or any other channel

to find what those are.

873

And it's not about the quality

of the quantity, rather it's the quality.

874

Right.

875

And so if you if you create

876

good quality content,

you don't need to post every day,

877

you know, and spend all of your time

creating that content.

878

Right?

879

If you deliver good quality content that

880

that will show through,

that will have legs, as we like to say.

881

Case in point,

a lot of the stuff I'm doing on TikTok,

882

you know, I do a lot of things

on all the different channels,

883

and it's kind of the same,

but formatted a little bit differently.

884

But I'm noticing two on TikTok.

885

Some of my older TikToks

886

are getting new likes and new follows,

and so that's giving me guidance to say

887

are people are finding the old stuff

and actually liking them a lot.

888

So follow the trends a little bit. Right.

889

So case in point,

you know, I do try different things.

890

For a while I was, you know, saying,

hey, so-and-so is birthday.

891

These are the comics they've created.

892

I noticed those wouldn't

get as many views. Right.

893

So I changed that up a little bit

and I said, okay, you know,

894

maybe I don't do birthdays.

895

Maybe it's like,

896

you know, here's here's an artist

to focus on that we're talking about.

897

I created a new a new segment

called a 92nd Deep Dive.

898

Right.

899

And so I pick a character,

900

a pretty popular character, and I say, I'm

going to tell you all about it in 90s,

901

and there's a countdown clock

and all that kind of stuff.

902

It's a little bit gimmicky,

but people actually like it.

903

People have commented like, oh,

those are cool. I like that, you know?

904

Or I totally forgot about this character.

905

That's that's neat. So.

906

So yeah, try to, you know, iterate

what you're doing and follow

907

the trends a little bit on what you're

seeing, not necessarily the trends

908

on those multi-million dollar channels,

but the trends on your on your content.

909

What's what's helping you grow. Right.

910

If you see a bump in something,

911

try doing something similar again

and try to follow that trend.

912

Thank you.

913

A lot

of people will appreciate that advice

914

because it is something

that is very much of interest.

915

Is there anything else

you'd like to tell us today?

916

Yeah.

917

Speaking of my life,

I actually was going through a couple of,

918

of of movie trailers that have come out

in the last few weeks and months.

919

It's been kind of active.

920

I have I did a live segments

921

on for movie titles

that have come out recently.

922

I'm going to be planning

another one soon, but

923

basically I covered Supergirl.

924

So that's James Guns second

installment of the DC movie universe.

925

It's not directed by him,

but it's it is part of his universe.

926

And what I did was, of course,

go through frame by frame, almost of the

927

of the trailer showcase, you know,

928

the actors, the characters

they're playing, what I suppose

929

is happening in the storylines,

if we don't really know the full storyline

930

and then talk about the comics

that were influenced by it

931

or potentially influenced by it. Right.

Of course.

932

Upcoming movies,

we don't have all the details.

933

We kind of speculate.

934

And so I did that with Supergirl.

935

I did that with a Spider-Man

Brand New Day, which introduced

936

some really interesting, unique concepts

937

that we've never explored

before in the Spider-Man film universe.

938

Punisher One Last

Kill is a special one off Disney+

939

special airing next month.

940

So I talked about that.

941

And then to that, oh, I did.

942

I didn't do yet Spider-Man noir or DC's

943

Clayface, because there's just so much

coming out that I have to stagger these.

944

But Spider-Man

noir is a really interesting take.

945

If you recall, the into the Spider-Verse

animated film where several different

946

spider Spider-Men from different universe

shows up, one was Spider-Man noir.

947

This is an actual character

from the comics, voiced by Nicolas Cage,

948

and he is a Spider-Man in a universe

that is basically like a film noir.

949

So I think the Third man,

you know, those kind of things.

950

And so the character,

the comics proved popular.

951

They they had two runs.

952

and they're really interesting.

953

So it's film noir universe, but

there's a Spider-Man that exists there.

954

Well, now they're now they're coming out

with a television show,

955

so it's going to be a television show,

and it actually features Nic Cage

956

as the character.

957

So they didn't decide to go younger

or anything like that.

958

He's actually the character.

959

I suspect he's a slightly older, beat up

960

kind of detective

who also happens to be Spider-Man.

961

And based on what

I'm seeing in the trailer,

962

I think he's retired from being Spider-Man

because something tragic happened.

963

But circumstances,

964

of course, rear their ugly heads,

and he's forced to don the mask again

965

and swing around the city,

which is which is really exciting.

966

And then Clayface, which is a DC, DC film.

967

This is a

968

quasi horror film.

969

It was something that James Gunn

wasn't planning to launch

970

in the first phase of DC,

but he read the script by noted horror

971

screenwriter Mike Flanagan,

972

and he loved it so much he decided

to fold it into the DC universe.

973

Now it's said to be a prequel,

meaning it's set before

974

even the time of the Superman film,

975

and it is about

976

a popular

977

Batman rogue character called Clayface.

978

If you guys don't know Clayface,

this version of Clayface

979

is an actor named Matt Hagen.

980

Yeah.

981

Nicer name.

982

Yeah.

983

He he yeah, he has in this storyline,

he has his face

984

disfigured by mob mob enforcers,

985

and he goes to great lengths to

get his face back because he's an actor.

986

So that's his, you know, that's his.

987

That's his meal ticket.

988

Things go awry. Of course.

989

And he starts to have

990

severe side effects,

which include his entire body

991

turning into

992

clay and without his ability

to control it at first.

993

And we see where that goes

within the movie.

994

So that's going to be an interesting one.

995

It's a high horror take,

so do not take the kids to that.

996

It's a good time

to to consider that stuff.

997

Hey, we're through our time.

998

So I'm going to have to cut you here,

999

but I'm going to ask a question

of our listeners,

what's a comic book related topic

that you would like to hear about?

Give us your feedback at User Friendly

Show.

Michael, thank you so much for joining us,

and hopefully we can

have you back a little sooner next time.

Absolutely. Let's organize it.

All right sir.

Thank you.

Thank you. Until next week.

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