Episode 143: San Diego Comic-Con 2024 coverage Presented by EMBARC

0:00 All right, everybody, welcome to the special episode that everybody looks forward to. Isn't that right, Mike? Everyone's been waiting for this at least one year. At least one year every year. Every year. Every year. We are at San Diego Comic-Con Preview Night. We're going to be giving you the best and hottest coverage and most exclusive coverage you can find on the Podcast Nation, probably. Isn't that right? Or at least the most exclusive content that we can get access to. Exactly. Very good. But Mike, you know what makes this episode the most special? Why don't you tell me? I will tell you. We have, for the first time ever, an exclusive sponsor who is sponsoring this entire episode.

0:41 Wow. That's the first time ever. Ever. Now, who is the sponsor? Do you know, Mike? I know, but I feel like you should tell the people because you have a very special interest in this type of company. I do. Am I wrong? You're not wrong. We are sponsored by California's favorite dispensary, Embark. If you haven't heard, we actually had the co-founder of Embark on the show. Things went off well, and now they're sponsoring this entire episode. So get this, everybody. Right now, if you go to Embark, if you go to Embark.com, my apologies, click where it says, Wins Devil's Lettuce Season 2, you have a chance to win $500 in cannabis.

1:26 And for those that don't know, like someone like me, Embark is spelled E-M-B-A-R-C. And you know, it's funny when I was driving down here from up north yesterday, I saw an Embark billboard. I guess like Fairfield area. So I was excited. As you should be. Yes. And now you're going to be hearing a lot about Embark this episode. But that's because they are. I think, Mike, and let's be real right now. Let's get real. You're even wearing an Embark Devil's Lettuce shirt. I know. Wow. I've never seen anything like this. I know. So what I want to say is me and Mike don't take on every sponsor because they throw dough at us. Although we would. But that's not the case. We also like to get things that we believe and we dig and we really believe in Embark's product.

2:11 Embark seriously offers some of the best cannabis around. You got some product. What was your thoughts on it? Sleepy joints? It helped put me to sleep. You know, I have no complaints. Yeah, yeah. All premium weed, all premium products. You can only get the best premium cannabis, period, at Embark. So get used to that name, kids, because we're about to embark on a wild ride. Wow i can't believe you just came up with that right off the cuff didn't you i sure did i see it in your i sure did you're very proud of yourself i am i am so without further ado mike let's have a great comic con you are in boot 16 nights again that information doesn't matter to the listener but if they happen to be here and you happen to walk by we were there so.

2:57 It's kind of weird isn't it but you know whatever what are we gonna do yeah we're not live so here we go, What is the one thing you're excited? Who's somebody you're excited for that we're going to interview this week? It's funny you should ask. It's Jeff Lemire. He's an artist and comic book writer. And I've loved his stuff. Multiple books that he's written and drawn and books that he's just written. I can't wait to talk to him. I'm stoked. Yeah. And for those who don't know, he created one of the most popular. It was a Netflix show too. Do you remember the show? Sweet Tooth. Yeah. He wrote. I guess he drew that too. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Very good. We're excited for that. We have the original OG Pink Pad Ranger coming on.

3:40 I'm old enough to remember watching that. I am too. You may be a little younger, but we watched it. When I was watching it, it was okay. When you were watching it, it might have been questionable. Definitely questionable. Definitely questionable. We'll be right back after this break. Attention podcast lovers. Are you ready to dive into fascinating conversations and explore Explore the world of great ideas? Look no further than Sigma Duocast, hosted by the insightful Rick. You might know that name, Rick. Rick has helped us out plenty of times hosting for Mike when he can't make it. Well, guess what? He has his own podcast that you need to check out. That's right. Join Rick as he brings you engaging discussions, thought-provoking interviews, and a fresh perspective on the topics that matter most.

4:25 Most the geek, but they can go anywhere you can imagine. Whether you're on your morning commute or relaxing at home, you can listen to Sigma Duocast for free content all the time on your favorite streaming platforms. Don't miss out on the latest episodes. Follow them on Instagram at Sigma Duocast for updates, behind the scenes content and more. Tune in today and be a part of the conversation. Howdy, everybody. Uncle Dad here. Welcome back. We're very excited right now, aren't we, Mike? I'm so excited. I can tell. I can see it in your eyes how excited you are. Our guest is arguably one of the best in the business, I feel, truly, even though he says he might not be living, a living legend. Let's give it up for Jeff Lemire. Jeff, hello.

5:07 Hey, guys. Nice to be here. Thanks. Yeah. So, Jeff, right away, I got to ask you, what is your favorite type of, what are your top three forest animals? Oh, boy, that's a, that one caught me off guard. Okay, top three forest animals. Wow. I do like birds. I like a crow. A good crow is always in my books, so we'll pick one of those. Fox, I like a fox. Okay. And I don't know, I'm stumped for a third. No deers? Oh, yeah, I guess that's a little under the nose, but I'll take it, sure. And for those who don't, Mike, do you know why I asked him that question? I think I know, yes, yeah. Can you tell the audience? Yeah, well, it probably has something to do with something called Sweet Tooth or something or other, right?

5:50 It's a little book if you ever heard about it. I don't know if people have heard about it, but it's obviously one of the best books. It's also a Netflix show. So, Mike, I'm going to hand the mic to you because I know you've got some questions you can't wait to ask him. Yes, thank you. Yeah, so you're releasing a new book, which we're very excited for. I love your writing. I love it when you're writing and drawing in the same book. So when you do a show, like a TV show, and I know you worked, you did also an Essex County show. Is it more fun to do or do you enjoy the process of working on a show more or like sitting and drawing more? No, I mean, to be honest, the TV stuff hasn't been nearly as fulfilling as comics.

6:31 Yeah, it's interesting, you know, I mean, it's interesting, especially the two books that have been turned into TV shows so far are two of my first books. So it's almost like going back 10 or 20 years and from when i when i was doing the comics and kind of getting back into the stories but yeah nothing really compares to making comics you know i even even having done two shows drawing a page of comics is so much more satisfying than the satisfaction i get out of the shows because there's so many more people involved with the tv stuff whereas when you're doing your comics it's usually either just me or me and make one to other people working very closely and very directly with the reader and it's just it's just a much more direct form of communication and storytelling do you feel when you do a television it's like being part of like a big machine rather than being like the the solo like unicycle if you will yeah i mean it's so it's so expensive to do tv and films that there's just so many more people who need to have their say and need to and everyone's you know worried about the budget and all this stuff so it's just you're not as free to make creative decisions as you are when you're doing comics and and like i said other than sometimes with an editor it's just you kind of get to do whatever you want and it goes directly right to the reader like a few months later whereas tv takes years and years to to do right one of my favorite books of yours that you did was trillium and you know just the parallel people people existing on different ends of time and space right where does that land for you in far as like your.

8:00 Favorite projects or Or do you even, do you rank them? Like, what are your, like, what are your favorite stuff that you've done? Where does that land? Yeah. I mean, it's interesting. It's hard to rank them because each one of them was so important to me when I was doing them, obviously, you know, and then I move on to the next thing and that becomes all consuming, you know? So, but looking back, you know, it's kind of, there are obviously some, some highlights, some things I hold up a little higher than others. And, you know, Essex County and Sweet Tooth are big ones for me, obviously the first two books that kind of, and I found my voice as a creator and stuff. And then Trillium was an odd one because it came, it was the first thing I drew right after Sweet Tooth. So it was sort of. Me trying to do something totally different you know and and i think very fondly of that one for sure i was really proud of like some of the storytelling kind of gymnastics i did with like turning the book upside down and doing flip books and i had a lot of fun like you could you could see me just sort of experimenting and having fun and it was also one of the first books i tried to color myself which was really really interesting so it's yeah that one i i hold that one up pretty high actually you know i think it's it's it's great because it's such a standalone story too you know it's not like something you need to read like 12 volumes of it's like a one graphic novel and it's pretty satisfying i think so as a reader because i'm sure you read comics do you prefer the continuous series or like the one shots or like a series that's just completed in 12 issues i depends on what it is you know i think they all have value i love i do miss like a good ongoing series that you can follow every month and you know i feel like those are a dying breed which is kind of what

9:32 i'm trying to do with the new book minor arcana get back to enjoying a single issue again where it's not just one part of a bigger chapter but they feel kind of satisfying as you know like when i was a kid reading you know like sandman or hellblazer and things like they they were telling a bigger story with those characters but each issue felt like a satisfying adventure you know almost and and so i'm trying to do that a bit with the new book minor arcana because i do feel like it's a dying breed in our industry now where everything's either mini series or even like the ongoing books don't last for usually much more than a year year and a half and they relaunch everything anyway. So I do miss that going to the comic store every month and like getting the new issue of, you know, whatever book, you know, but then there are other things that stand standalone great as graphic novels too.

10:13 So it really just depends on what's best suits each story. But yeah, as a reader, I kind of missed the, the, the going to the comic shop every Wednesday and buying stuff, you know, a pull list. Yeah. Yeah. I think that that might have something to do with just people's attention spans these days. Right. Yeah. It's not what it used to be. Well, okay, so I was looking at a little bit of the notes that are online about your new book, Minor Arcana, and it says that you say this is your dream project. What about this makes that your dream project? I think it's for a lot of reasons. I think if you look at, I mean, if you just take the stuff that I've drawn myself, separate from stuff I've written for other artists, you kind of see a different, two or three different kinds of books I usually do.

10:56 There's usually like the Essex County, Royal City stuff where it's more slice of life, like grounded human stories. Then there's more sci-fi stuff like Trillium or, you know, Sweet Tooth, I guess, you know. And then there's sort of the dreamier stuff like Underwater Welder and Maze Book and stuff. So this book really kind of combines all three of those avenues of storytelling into one big thing where I can kind of balance them all and get to play with them all each month. And yeah so i get to i have a lot of freedom to kind of go in between these different types of storytelling within the story you know and and to just sort of i don't know in a way it's sort of like if you boil down all my books into one new story it feels like this is kind of it you know yeah so what are your top three dreams okay okay yeah we also saw you know i like i love your covers i mean when you get to draw and and write it it's to me it's the best but you've got some variant covers like do you get to pick who you want to do the variants or does the is boom who's publishing this book do they pick them for you it's yeah it's a bit of both you know you work with the editor and also they'll ask me like do you have who would you like to do covers and i'll give them a list of people and and they'll also come to me with people i i don't i'm not aware of you know there's some new ones that there was a woman named ryoko murakami who did one who i wasn't familiar with their work but it's one of my favorite ones you know so it's a great way to of for me to kind of see some new artists as well that i wasn't familiar with but so it's a bit of both you know i gave them a list of people familiar collaborators and stuff

12:26 that i would love to see draw these my characters and but it's always a it's always sort of a conversation between two yeah i i'm curious uh when it comes to like current artists what are your like some of your favorite current artists right now that are kind of up and coming oh boy yeah let me think i always get put on the spot with these things because i've been doing that a lot today uh it's your top three artists. I can think about those. I think about this stuff all the time. And then when I'm on the spot, I can't think of anyone. Yeah. Let me think. Jesus. Jesus is one. I don't know. I'm drawing a blank just because I haven't had my coffee yet. It's okay. No worries. No worries. There's so many talented people coming up in the industry. It's crazy. You know, compared to when I was starting, there's just like, it feels like every month there's like incredible stuff being published.

13:11 I think Zoe Thorogood is really talented. Gosh, I don't know. She's the first one that came to mind. I thought her book was pretty special last year. It's only at the center of the earth. I thought that was pretty amazing. yeah she's the first one that came to mind so we'll stick with that we'll take that okay i'd like it we'll take it got about two more minutes okay well is there ever a person that you want to collaborate with that you haven't or like i would love to see you collaborate with bruce tim on a book somehow in some way i don't even know is there someone that we could just put out to the universe that that jeff lemire wants to work with yeah there's always i mean i have i have my my own heroes that i would love to work with you know i think frank whaley is a legend and i he would be just it's incredible to work with him teddy christiansen was a guy that i loved sandman and i loved his house of secrets vertigo series back in the day so and i'm working with him now on some stuff so that's that was kind of a dream come true on that one so yeah there's always, people like that yeah frank whaley he's sort of the the white whale i'd love to do something with him, yeah. Okay, well, we're on it. We'll see what we can do.

14:17 Suck that up for me. We'll see if we can make that happen. So do you have any more questions, Mike? One question. When you're drawing. What do you listen to music? Do you listen to podcasts? Do you have a TV on the background? Are you listening? All of the above. All right. Like when I'm, when I'm writing, I can't watch something like I have, but I listen to music while I write. And when I'm penciling, I mostly listen to music because there's a lot of, there's still a lot of decision-making and like storytelling going on. So you're, you kind of need, you can't be too distracted by something else. Else but then when you're inking you can then i when you get to inking then you can turn around like the tv like a tv show or a podcast or something because it's a little more of a mechanical thing at.

14:57 That point you're not you're not making storytelling decisions that's already been done you're just kind of executing a technical thing you know yeah so before we wrap up i have one last kind of fun question here look at all our questions are fun are you a fan of bruce willis have a super fan but okay well would you ever if you any of your books could you would you ever cast bruce willis in any of your books as like a live action role that's a really weird question and very specific but i'm trying to think of any of my characters that would fit him i don't know i can't think of any off the top of my head sorry mike why are you guys like giant this guy is you want to show him real quick come on there it is nice uh jeff thank you so much really it was an an absolute pleasure just hanging out with you talking to you you know i know we're a little silly but that's our charm thank you so much mike you got any last words yeah so the new book it's coming out when is it coming and where do we find it and all that stuff because i'm really excited about it too so it's it's it debuts in september boom studios is is publishing it you know so you'll be able to find it everywhere and i'm doing every issue has two covers that i'm doing one is like the regular cover and then i'm doing a tarot card cover for each issue so at the end of the run Hopefully I've created a whole tarot deck with all the different care the cast from book as all the the tarot sort of you know.

16:21 Concepts and characters. Yeah, it's amazing Jeff. Thank you so much for it's an absolute pleasure I'll go get that book when it comes out and Mike will be right back up this brick. Hi, my name is Duncan Wickle. I'm a musician from the band rising Appalachian. You're listening to uncle dad talk. All right, everybody, Uncle Dad here, and we're talking with Robert S. Campbell, whose writing and credits include Fallout, Starblood Arena, my personal favorite, Neopets, The Darkest Fairy, Myth 3, and much more. Put a few more, yeah, a few more. Robert, right away, I just have to ask you, what was your involvement in Neopets, The Darkest Fairy? The entirety of the design. Like, from, oh my gosh. So, long story, but I'll try to truncate it.

17:06 So working with Neopets, Adam and Donna, the original creators, working with them for a storyline. And they had some visions, very distinct visions of what they wanted, but they were little kind of like bite-sized pieces, and they had kind of not a lot of in-between. So I needed to fill out all the in-between. And working at Sony, I wanted to do something that Sony really hadn't done before, which was make a game more reminiscent of like a Nintendo game, like The Legend of Zelda, which is my favorite frigging game of all time. So, you know, I'm like, all right, you know what? Why don't we try to mix all these together, make it more of a kid-friendly RPG, but still have some serious elements and such. And yeah, the way the story goes is that the developers were a company called Idle Minds out of Colorado.

17:52 And, you know, great bunch of guys, you know, seriously talented, especially like, you know, the artists there. I mean, oh my gosh, these guys absolutely rocked. they were able to, like, deal with Neopets'. Fairly excruciating level of detail, like, the polish of all their characters, the color palettes had to be just perfect and all that stuff, but they just, they rocked it. So anyway... So, unfortunately, they were really good at designing sports games, games for, like, you know, kids and such like that. So they didn't quite understand what designers did. So, you know, they're like, oh, well, you know, artists make the levels, the engineers code it. What more do you need? And I'm like, oh, my God. So at Sony, I and another guy by the name of George Weising, who's still at Sony, by the way, he's now a, my gosh, I want to say he's an executive producer, but he's a producer over at Sony Santa Monica still.

18:41 Yeah, shout out, George. So the two of us were like, oh my gosh, okay, we have to basically be the designers of this game. And it turned out it was a pretty big game. I mean, it went on for a while. So George was dealing with a lot of initial combat mechanics and things like that. And, you know, had some of the creative ideas of how some of the bosses work. And I was the guy that wrote all the dialogues, all the quests. Made, you know, placed, oh my gosh, placed so many different things and really just like made the complete design document of the whole thing like how it all flowed through did all of the my god for all of the the dialogue and such like that for the cut scenes i did a little bit of that but i i'm trying to remember we had help doing some of that but anyway so anyway a lot of the design i mean like the the design of like you know you know like how your armors up you know gets upgraded your your sword the motes the pet pets even though So the pet pets, man, we ran out of time at the end.

19:39 They weren't exactly what we wanted, you know? I always thought that because they felt a little, I don't want to say unfinished, but I guess that would be the word, right? That's exactly right. I mean, like what was supposed to happen is whatever it was that they were helping you with, you were supposed to see a little particle system travel to you. So like when I think it was like the little lion guy, and I can't remember the name of it, but the little lion guy, when he's following you around, he's increasing your health all the time. So you'd see this like little stream of hearts coming towards you. So you see, oh, they're doing something. I get it. But as it is now, it's like, all right, they're just a little guy hanging out with me. That's cool. But what do they do? And so, yeah, they actually do the stuff. You just couldn't see it. Yeah. So that game, I mean, I feel like we could talk about the game in one episode.

20:20 But that game in general, in my opinion, truly was, I bought it at GameStop and I was like, I was a younger guy and I was like, oh, wow, this is, it looks unique. I bought anything that was unique and I bought it and I couldn't tell you how much fun I had. I just couldn't stop playing it. I could not stop playing it because it reminded me of a child version of Diablo meets sorry, you said it, Legend of Zelda. Yeah, and I felt that experience the entire time and I really couldn't stop. That's actually one of the games I wish I still had on my PS2. I don't have it anymore. I know I probably could find it, but it's a little expensive. Yeah, exactly. But I really did just love everything about that game.

21:00 So just thank you for being a part of that and being a part of my childhood too. So thank you. Yeah, because you were, right? Maybe not indirectly, but you were. One last thing I want to touch on before we go into your new book is Fallout. Obviously, Fallout, one of the most iconic game series of all time. You were involved in the first Fallout, correct? I was actually the lead designer of the original Fallout. So, yeah, I'm part of the original team that made Fallout and, you know, part of the first, well, group of guys and stuff. Yeah. I mean, a lot of this stuff, and this is so surreal to me. I mean, to be honest, that 30 years and we're still talking about this. You know, it's like, you know, different, like, concepts, like, different locations and stuff like that. I mean, like, Shady Sands, Junk Town, all that stuff, that was pretty much me. But, like, all the different, like, you know, raider names and types and characters.

21:44 And, I mean, the idea of using bottle caps as currency. You know, the Deathclaw, the Brotherhood of Steel. I mean, yeah, they were all in this massive design doc I put together that, you know, yeah. But, you know, a lot of inspiration from a lot of other things, right? And, again, you know, even though I say, oh, I was the lead designer, it's a collaborative effort. And that team, I mean, they're so good. Had so many very creative people that really, you know, knocked the park. I mean, my gosh, especially like Leonard and Jason are two like lead artists. Oh, my gosh. They I mean, creating the Pip-Boy stuff and all of just the visuals and, you know, the whole inspiration of that, like kind of like 50s kind of atomic punk style. Oh, my God. Yeah. They destroyed it. Yeah. I think that game, I mean, obviously we don't talk about the legacy like we know the legacy of the game, but I am just curious. So because you were involved in the original setup of everything with the TV show, what was your thoughts on it just briefly?

22:38 No, I mean, you know, I've been asked not just about the TV show, but like, you know, Bethesda's Fallout 3 and 4. It's like, well, what did you think of it? And I'm like, dude, I freaking loved it. It's freaking amazing. Right. I mean, I love first person shooters. I thought they did an incredible job. And I'm like, hell, yeah, this is great. The TV show. I mean, I had high hopes for it, but it was so much better than I was expecting. Right. It was. You know, it's just like they did. They had a such a good handle on what made Fallout Fallout. Right. That kind of like it was so strange that it's kind of funny, but it's like a dark humor. Right. And it's not slapstick or anything else like that. It's like a specific niche. And, you know, it's it's really like, you know, this kind of like worldview of like, what would the future look like?

23:24 And then like, what would it actually be if you like try to pursue that vision? And anyway, Masterful Jumps. I'm glad you say that. So now, speaking of Masterful Jumps, let's talk about your book. Oh, oh my gosh. Well, okay. So on top of all these other things, I'm a Lovecraft fan. And so I wrote this book called The Rats Beneath the Walls. If you're familiar with Lovecraft at all, he wrote this book, short story. In 1924, he had it published in Weird Tales, and it was called The Rats in the Walls. And it's one of my favorite stories of all time. I mean, it's not directly related to his Cthulhu mythos. It's actually like a gothic horror story kind of on its own. I loved it so much, I had an idea for like a spiritual successor, like a sequel to it.

24:08 And then, you know, I looked and I'm like, oh my God, 2024 is the 100th year anniversary of the short story. And I'm like, I have to finish it by then. So I did. And, you know, it's only like a month old. But yeah, the book is a modern telling. You know, it takes place in 2024. You know, it's not using Lovecraft's archaic prose or anything like that. It's very modern. and actually has a fair bit of action in it too, but it's still straight up a horror story and it definitely like takes Lovecraft's original story and concepts and things like that and just, you know, and treats it with like honor and respect. So yeah, not going off the deep end with it. I just, yeah, just kind of a nod of the hat to the old man.

24:51 But yeah, honestly, one little secret thing. So as a game designer, I have a ton of different game designs and things like that, just a ton of them. And I know that we don't have enough time, at least in my life, to do them all. I mean, there's so many. And this was an idea that I initially was thinking would be a game. And then when that kind of wasn't possible, I was like, well, I'll just mothball it for a bit. And I'm like, you know what? Why don't I just take this idea and turn it into a novel? And now I'm going to try to do that for a great number of game designs and things that I have. One of my things that I love doing is building worlds. and so I'm gonna try to build those worlds into a novel form and then hopefully.

25:35 Every so often I'll just drop a new book out there and it'll just be more crazy stuff from my head over time. So yeah. Robert, I love it. I love your, your, your passion behind everything. I mean, talking about world building, I mean, and I really mean this from the bottom of my heart, you created one of the most impactful worlds in my life, which is not just Fallout, but honestly, Darkest Ferry. I talk about that game all the time with collectors and play, you know, people who don't even like Neopets, like, have you ever played this game? Cause it's such a well done game. It really is. And it was one of those games, I don't remember, you know, and I say this with respect, I don't think it did that well financially. Sadly, it did not. And honestly, I mean, like Sony, they really actually did a great job of marketing it.

26:15 I mean, they had like TV commercials and stuff like that. I mean, they swung for the fences, but like for whatever reason, it just did not get out there. You know and we've had you know we've had people tell us that like oh well it's because there wasn't as many neopets fans as they thought and some people didn't know what it was because it wasn't very established as neopets on the cover and stuff whatever man but you know that the crazy thing is is the legacy of that game you know it's like people they didn't even know what it was but when they played it they're like oh my gosh this is great and that that to me is like the thing that just makes me grin from ear to ear it's like yeah let the game speak for itself Absolutely. And you know, in the world of like retro being popular now, right? And Limited Run makes a bunch of obscure games come back.

26:56 Maybe one day they'll talk to Neopets and bring Marcus Ferry back. Who knows, man? Stranger things have happened. That's very true. Robert, where can our audience buy the book and learn more about you and connect with you and all that good stuff? Doug? So I would say the easiest way to do that is literally just go to www.robertscottcampbell.com. That's my website. So yeah, I mean, you can get to my email through there. You can get to our publishing arm. You can see what the book looks like. You can buy it online. You can do all that other good stuff. So it's all there. And anything new I come out with, it'll all be up there. All right, everybody, go check that out. Uncle Dad, we'll be back after this break. Thank you again, Robert. Absolute pleasure. Absolutely. Uncle Dad, you are the best. Thank you. You're the best.

27:39 Hi there. This is Dave Mandel. I'd like to think you know me as a writer for Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm or Veep or even Eurotrip or, I don't know, The Dictator or Clerks. But you probably know me from Cat in the Hat. Oh, well. Anyway, you're listening to Uncle Dad Talks. All right. Uncle Dad here hanging out with Mike. Mike, it's day two. And remember, this is day two coverage of the exclusive Embark sponsored episode. So remember, GoEmbark.com. That's right. I've seen multiple people come by and take pictures and scan while we're here working at the booth. I love that. And why would you not? Because you have a chance to win 500 bucks.

28:19 Am I right? That's right. 500 bucks in what? Embark materials. Weed. But Mike, we just got done a couple of great interviews so far. We did a man himself, Jeff Lemire. How was that for you? It was kind of surreal. you know because like i've read his stuff bought his comics for so long you know and then you talk to him it just goes by like super quick but it was great it was super nice guy yes super nice guy and the fact that he had three animals ready to go that was awesome and he was willing to humor us with bruce willis for a bit and that makes you a good guy am i right in my book yeah exactly and then i just got to interview one of the original creators of fallout i mean i think if you guys If you guys don't know what Fallout is, go turn on television because it has one of the hottest television shows right now.

29:06 I mean, Mike, come on. I've never seen it, but the previews look great. But the video game is even better. And he was one of the original designers behind it. So that's amazing, man. We got to talk to him. He gave us a special copy of his book. And his book is called, for those who don't remember, The Rats Beneath the Walls, the official unofficial sequel to a classic H.P. Lovecraft story. Very cool. Very cool indeed. Mike, before we go, I got to ask our guest here, Callie Dunlap. Callie Dunlap Art. Callie. What? Callie Dunlap Art. Exactly. Callie, quick question for you. what is your favorite word to describe cannabis devil's lettuce hashish uh the ganj who would you what do you call it devil's lettuce all right devil's lettuce hey that's a good choice and remember devil's lettuce you can go to go embark and get the best devil's lettuce isn't that right callie the best devil's lettuce that's devil's lettuce indeed all right buddy we'll be right back with this exclusive episode brought to you by goembark.com all right everybody uncle Uncle Dad here, hanging out with one of my favorite companies in the collectible toy world.

30:12 We are with Jada Toys. Give it up for Thomas, the coordinator behind this wonderful product. How are you? Good. Yourself, man? You know, I'm much better because we're talking about toys. And who doesn't like talking about toys and collectibles and action figures, right? Right. No, you could talk about them all day, especially all the articulation, all the stuff they have. Yep. I love that you talked about articulation because your toys have a lot of articulated points, right? I would argue to say that kind of separates you guys a lot from the competition. I think because they're fully articulated and they come with extra heads, hands, and also the accessory effect. It's just also a lower price point. Most people like that the most about our figures. Yeah, your guys' price point is so great. But before we get into all that, let's talk about what you guys are offering.

30:56 Not necessarily here, but just all together at Comic-Con. Right away, I see the Cyberpunk Edgerunners. When was that introduced and how has that been doing? It was introduced last year as just a reveal, and right now we're still not selling it, but the amount of engagement people are having about them, talking about them all the time, the main thing here is that they also have soft goods on them, so they'll have a soft jacket as well. When you say soft, will they be like fabric or a type of fabric? Yeah, it's like fabric. It's more expensive, but we're trying to make sure it's still at a good price point. Are you familiar with a toy brand from back in the day called Migos? Yes. Okay, so let me tell you something. So the old school toy collector, what we used to love about the old school toys, Migos, they were toys like this, like little dolls, but they came with no articulation, but they had real fabric clothing.

31:44 So the fact that you have full articulated figures with clothing, that is huge, man. That's awesome. Yeah, no, I've barely learned about it this year as myself from fans of Jada teaching me about it as well, from all these action figure fanatics. It's amazing, really. So what else do we got kind of going on? What else would you want to talk about for the audience to learn about your guys' product? Yeah, here at San Diego Comic-Con, we just showed our extensive Street Fighter line from the Street Fighter 2 game. And right now, we're revealing our new few figures, which are T-Hawk, Balrog, and E-Honda. And it's just showing our exclusive Violent Cannon Pink Chun-Li as well. That's amazing. So now these are not out yet or these are out already?

32:26 They are not out yet. Yeah, the Violent King and Chun-Li are out during San Diego Comic-Con for sale, but the T-Hawk, Balrog, and Nihon are just for display only. Display only, okay. So you also have other figures around here. Let's talk about these. The Hollywood Riots caught my interest. That line is so awesome because you do some interesting things. And one of the things I see right away is I love the collaboration with the Ghostbusters. Optimus Prime, tell us a little bit about that. Yeah, no, this mashup was amazing because we just put the Ghostbusters graphics onto the Transformers, Optimus Prime G1 and then we just, decided to throw in the Transformers graphics onto the Ecto-1 as well. Yeah. That's incredible. The flip-flop on that is so awesome. Now, do they transform? They do not. Not yet.

33:09 The Transformers G1 Optimus under it has a little statue of him. You can't remove him but he's under the chastity. Oh, that's pretty cool. Okay. What is your favorite Hollywood ride? Maybe not even here but just as a fan of Hollywood rides, what's your favorite car and movies? It will actually be probably just the Back to the Future. The DeLorean? Yeah, we'll call it the time machine, but yeah. Yeah, sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's amazing. Okay, cool. So before we wrap up here, I want to talk about the Cheetos. So I feel like, you tell me if I'm wrong, I feel like the world of like mascots are really hot right now. Like the world of like snack mascots. So what's up with this? Are you going to have more characters from the world from snacks?

33:54 From snacks? Oh, we plan to hopefully we could do a lot more with that like this action figure line of the snacks and Cereal is kind of like my boss says it like this He said these are the action figures that people didn't know that they won't need it. Yeah, right I absolutely agree with that because I see that I'm like, oh man I never thought I needed a Chester Cheeto on my desk next to my office, but I think I need that Yeah, no, if you need both now, we try to give a collection of the Cheetos and the Flamin' Hot Yeah, well see what's funny is actually don't like Flamin' Hot Cheetos too spicy for me. I know not good So before we wrap up here, can you tell our audience where they can get your product, learn more about your product, all that good stuff? Yeah, you can learn more about our product through our socials. You can find us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, even on YouTube as well.

34:37 And you can find our products to purchase at Walmart, Target, Amazon, Big Bad Toy Store, even Entertainment Earth online. Everywhere. Almost everywhere. Yeah, yeah. Jada Toys is going to take over the world. One day. One day. One day. Thomas, thank you so much. It's an absolute pleasure. I will definitely take some photos for our audience so they can see your guys' great product. Because you said yourself some of this will only be shown here. Yes, some of it will be only shown here. But now that they've been revealed and now they are public, we'll sooner or later post them online. That's amazing. Thank you so much, Thomas. Appreciate it. Appreciate it. Thank you. All right. Uncle Dad here hanging out with probably the most unique names in film. Am I saying it right? Indiken? Indiken. Okay. Indiken. Okay.

35:18 And I'm assuming I know why it's called that. Am I right? I assume it gets called because of the cannabis? Actually, no. Really? Really? Okay, okay. Okay. I cannot be the first person that said that. We thought the same thing when we got into the company and our boss was like, no, that's not it. Okay, okay. Well, anyways, if you guys could introduce yourself, I'd really appreciate that. We are speaking with? I'm B. Okay, and I'm speaking with? Kyoko. Kyoko, very nice, lovely. Okay, so you guys are representing Indiekin Pictures, which is not to be associated with weed, I guess. So let's talk about, what caught my attention was, I love independent film. My sister works in independent film.

35:59 Independent film is a very big part of who I am. And seeing people out there pushing the art of film on the lesser side of things, right? It needs to be around forever. So my question to you is, what would our audience get from watching your guys' pictures? What kind of films do you guys put out there? So we used to do a lot of horror films because that's really what sell, kind of. People like to watch it. But recently, we started doing a lot of artistic film, kind of, from international. National we just got a film called hounds and it's in the canes festival and it's actually a really cool film but a lot of the big platform don't want to take it just because it got like dogfight in there so we we're trying to include like i guess like different cultures and kind of like subcultures that's not really like what wildly accepted things that are controversial as well but yeah these are a lot of independent you know directors and creators and so we're We're giving them a chance to be part of these bigger platforms so that they could put themselves out there as creators and not, you know, have to go through the struggle of like building, like already being at the top to be seen, you know?

37:06 Absolutely. I think, you know, when you're talking about controversy, some people always say, oh, we can't be controversial, especially in today's world. But I think realistically, controversy is art and art is freedom, right? Because if you can't, you're not allowed to express yourself. What can you do, especially in the world that we live in America right now? It's very divisive, right? Right. And so being able to be controversial, I think, is what makes kind of America kind of great. Right. That you're able to do that without some censorship. So what are some of your personal favorite movies that you guys have here that we see here? Well, here, I'm not so sure because this are all the films that are kind of older. And that's why we are doing a DVD. Yeah. Some of the newer films are like a streaming more on streaming services. And my favorite one is the one that I was mentioning the hounds That's like a recently favorite one and one of like the older one.

37:53 I think it's a comedy, but I can't remember up the name It's okay. No, I'm sorry, but that's okay That just means our audience has to go find out what your favorite is So they're gonna watch all the movies and be like, I think this is his favorite. What about you? What's your favorite one? What was the one that we're working on? It says with a P. Oh Petrol petrol. Troll or petrol, I guess. I'm not sure. Petrol. I guess. Okay. Yeah. So you're working on that right now? Yes. So we're doing the design work for that right now. And it's a very interesting film. I'm very artsy, you know, very artistic. And that one is a film where it's really for art students, I feel. I feel like that's their main audience. It's very, like a very psychological film, I'd say.

38:36 Yeah. Awesome. So I guess my last question is where can our audience like really watch your movies, buy your movies all that good stuff all of the streaming services uh we have amazon prime and also i if you check out our website that will just take you to all the different options out there like hbo max uh pretty much like any and what's the website uh indikinpictures.com okay so this particular episode that i'm doing right now is actually sponsored by a cannabis company so i have a question for you i don't know if you partake in cannabis but i think all of us kind of do at some point. But let me ask you this. What's your favorite way to call cannabis cannabis? You know, people say devil's lettuce. They say dank. They say whatever.

39:18 What would be your favorite one? I'm very traditional. I just say weed. Okay. Okay. I love that. What is your favorite way to cannabis? Probably weed too. Okay. I love it. I love it. Awesome. Well, remember everybody, this episode is sponsored by Embark. Remember, go to goembark.com. But thank you guys so much really for your time. Go check them out. And can you say that website one more time where they can look at your guys' pictures? IndikenPictures.com. Very easy. Go check them out. And you guys have any social media or anything? Yeah. We have an Instagram. Is it just IndikenPictures? IndikenPictures. Easy peasy. Alright, everybody. Be sure to check them out, and we'll be right back after this break. Hey, everybody. This is Jacob Bruner from Empire Strikes Brass, and you are listening to Uncle Dad Talks.

40:02 Alright, everybody. Uncle Dad here. Mike, say hello. Hello, hello. Mike, I'm very nervous right now. It's your turn. I know it's my turn to be nervous. This guy that I'm sitting next to means the absolute world to me. His films changed my life. It's one of the reasons why I do what I do. There's three people that influenced me to do talking to people and conversating and all that stuff. And that's Kevin Smith, James, the Nintendo nerd or video game nerd. And of course, Lloyd Kaufman, who just fell asleep because he is so used to everybody saying how great he is. As long as introduction, nobody knows me anyway. Well, I do. And I, and I am so grateful for your time. Well, thank you. And I'm here with, uh, Christy Rose.

40:45 Hello. One of the stars of Hashtag Shakespeare Shitstorm, who's nice enough to be in charge of the wardrobe department here at the Chomart here at San Diego Comic-Con. How was it, Christy Rose, on Hashtag Shakespeare Shitstorm? Well, it's always fun to be a glorified actor person is what we call extras. They're not extras. They're actor people. And it turns out that it was going to be, I don't know, life-changing for me. I didn't realize that at the time. And then, yeah, I'm Troma for Life now. And Lloyd is actually shooting a new film coming out of retirement, huh?

41:27 Well, I wasn't retired, but I've definitely seen it. Yes, a new movie based on Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, a hilarious slapstick. The Three Stooges used that as their source for most of their oeuvre. At any rate, what else can we talk about? Well, you're casting for it. And so if I was an actor person and it changed my life and you're casting right now, I was trying to just segue into slime and cumishment or what is it called? Well, it's when you speak of casting, you're not talking about fishing, I take it. You're talking about not fly casting. No, I am from Idaho. So if you want to fly fish, let's go. Hey, Idaho's a nice place.

42:10 My son-in-law's to Idaho. Everybody's going to Idaho. They thought you were there, but you've moved to San Diego. Idaho, you'd have pimped. We don't even have to work do you want to do a podcast like, just taking trauma has taken over Lloyd first off thank you that's a great intro, hashtag I think Christy Rose has brought Mike out of his shell did she Mike something happened I don't know, that's usually what happens with Mike Mike usually gets he gets everybody likes Mike of course nobody likes me either Oh, no.

42:52 That's why I'm here. I'm very hard to get. Uncle Lloydy doesn't just turn down the New York Times. Okay. See, so Uncle Dad and Uncle Lloydy. Wow, that's a combo in heaven right there. So when we talk about your whole entire career, I have to ask one major question. What has been your least favorite film you worked on? Well, that I've worked on? Well, Saturday Night Fever. That was horrible to work on. Did you really work on that? It's a great movie. It's a wonderful movie, but the job I had was awful. What was the job? It was executive in charge of locations, and they shot it for what was considered a small budget, so I had to go out and get all these people to give us their houses, and it was all on location, so it was horrible. What's your favorite line from that movie?

43:40 For that one? Your mother's sauce don't drip. Mike, I know you had a question about something. Well, what's your favorite line from that movie? Oh, that's my pussy finger. Oh, pretty good. You know, Lloyd, like you, like it's what, 40 years? This year is 40 years of, since you did the first Toxic Avenger. So what is it about him that you think that has transcended decades, like four decades now? People still love it. People still see it. You have a booth here at Comic-Con. What is it about this character? Well, a few people read books, but I can tell you're very uneducated.

44:20 I've written some books in which I discuss the Toxic Avenger. If that's what you were asking about, I don't remember. and well, Stan Lee wrote the, he and I were buddies for a long time, over 50 years. So he wrote an intro to one of my books in which he said that like Spidey, Toxie put a new face on the cinematic super human hero because he's got, what makes him a hero is that he solves his earthly issues. He's true to his significant other. He takes care of his mom. He's got skin problems. And the only mop is he's a janitor after all. So, you know, he's got pathos.

45:04 My stepmother cried through the first investor screening of the original Toxic Avenger to which she brought Lenny Riefenstahl, famous German female, non-cis identified, non-male cis filmmaker. You know, the movie that changed my life when I saw it was Tromeo and Juliet because that, Romeo and Juliet is one of my favorite about stories of all time period but you made it in such a way where it was you know honestly to me it's way ahead of its time it's still ahead of its time in my opinion you touch on so many things when you made that film i'm just curious where does shakespeare like land for you in writing well the tempest is my favorite of shakespeare plays and most recent film that i've directed until the dostoevsky which is not dostoevsky nor is the nor is hashtag shakespeare shitstorm or The Tempest.

45:55 You can enjoy it either way, if you've seen it or not seen it. But that was always my favorite play from the time I was in eighth grade. I was intrigued by it and saw it on stage with Morris Karanowski. And, you know, it's about, I waited till I was old to do it because Prospero is old. He's losing power. That's my issue. There's magic in the movie. We make magic as a The movies are magic. There's a monster. There's a romantic couple who make hot monkey love. There's mythical creatures running around and fairies, rather. No, not like you. No. Definitely not like me. I know. Those are like the storybook fairies.

46:39 And it's a wonderful play. It's beautiful. And arguably, it's Shakespeare's very last. Yes. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. So before we wrap up here, because I don't want to take too much of your time. I'm just, what can we expect from the future of Troma for another 50 years? Well, Troma Now, our streaming service, Mike has already subscribed. It's 50 years of Troma movies. And Christy Rose is in hashtag Shakespeare shitstorm. You can't miss her. And you'll see 50 years of failed cinema. I mean, 50 years of legendary underground movie making. About a thousand movies. movies and mike as you know first month absolutely free do you know that mike that's right that's right yes so what and then it's only 4.99 but what mike did he signed up for a second month under under uh uncle dad's email so uh clearly you just keep switching different email clearly lloyd you you're overseeing all actions that are taking place because you totally figured me out i'm totally caught red-handed yeah he knows how he figured you out mike he's like i just don't trust this guy huh well that's why uh you know like i could feel that mike and i have probably wear spirit animals you can't actually can't say spirit animals that's uh appropriating from the people for whom i'm wearing this tie to whom i donate money instead of yale university but if you watch the morning show that's an issue the weatherman says mentioned spirit animal and

48:11 he's not a basic Native American so he takes a lot of shit from the cancel people but that's what hashtag Shakespeare is all about right cancel age cancel culture hashtag cancel Kaufman I'm just kidding. KKK and what better way to end the show there we go we'll be right back after this break all right as all good things must come to an end well we're not really ending but day two is over day two of the exclusive brought the brought to you exclusively by, goembark.com and of course that's embark supply right mike you're absolutely correct i'm very proud of you thank you i remembered that uh and of course that's where you got to go to get the best weed in california yeah so mike let's talk about our day today what a day so many tribulations, no trials.

49:10 Well, and it's only Thursday, so there's more to... Trial room, right? Yes, we both got to talk to some of the people that we really admire in the industry, so that was really cool. I also want to point out, you and I took kind of the back seat on the Lloyd Kaufman one, huh? Hey, easy work, huh? Yeah, work smarter, not harder. Indeed, and you know what? That's what Lloyd Kaufman would do, right? He would work smarter, so we took his advice. Would you agree? He seemed like he knows how to work, depending on how he was just lounging in that chair back there, so yeah. And dude, 50 years, of course you know how to do it, right? You probably figured something out. Exactly. One day when we're doing this show, 50 years in the future, we'll be the same way. What do you think? Oh, God.

49:58 50 years of Uncle Dad Talks. We probably will be Uncle Dads. Dead dads. So, Mike, before we wrap up, we should play a game. And I want to include our very lovely guest Callie Dunlapart the game is going to be our new favorite called Two of a Kind Two of a Kind the way it works is we say a category and you have to say the same, word that comes to your or you have to say the word first word that comes to your mind so an example would be for our audience would be Marvel Super Hero 1, 3, 2, 1 we both would say Batman wait I wouldn't say Batman, I mean you could because you would screw it up but yeah you're right so for today's version because we have embark sponsoring we're gonna do what is your favorite or sorry a strain of weed a strain of weed would be indica sativa right so a strain of weed ready are you guys in sync we'll find out at the end at the end of one three two one.

51:11 Why indica scares me because it's nicknamed in the couch exactly and that scares me and that's why they call it scary it's too much that's another nickname for weed is scary so mike again not in sync but that's okay but you can be in sync by going to goembark.com to getting the best weed in town period in california so go check them out i will be right back after this break unless mike Mike, you got some last words. I like it because I want to go to sleep. That's a good point. All right, everybody. We'll be right back after this break. All right. It's day... What day is it, Mike? Day of the week, is it? I don't know what day anything is. Well, today's Friday.

51:52 Today is the second official day of Comic-Con, but third day that we've been here because we were also here for preview night. Oh, you actually separate those then? Yeah, because if you look at here on the badge, there's... Our audience can't see? Yeah, I'm going to explain it to them. Okay. Everyone's badge on the side has a list of numbers, is one, two, three, four, and a P for preview night. And so whenever it's highlighted on your badge is the times that you're allowed to be here. Thank you for that information. And it's separated. Oh, okay. For those who didn't know, now they wanted to know. Mikey, yes, we're here. Today we got some exciting stuff. We're doing something with Texas Chainsaw Massacre, who will actually be guest hosted with a very good friend of yours. Who's that?

52:39 The Rocket Monster. That's right. He loves horror. You don't love horror so much? It's going to be a good time, I think. We also are going to talk to a science advisor. I think that's really exciting. I don't think we've ever had somebody like that on the show yet. Yeah, I don't think we've really dived deep into science exploration. What do you mean, deep into space? Or that. Or the next generation? You get what I'm doing here? Yeah, you're tickling the listener's bosom with a feather. Their bosom, yes, indeed. But another thing that tickles bosoms is my favorite thing to do, and that's smoke cannabis. And the only way to get cannabis is really the best place in California. And they are exclusively sponsoring this show. What is the name of that cannabis brand?

53:24 Embark. Embark, indeed. And you need to embark on that journey and go to GoEmbark.com. Go check it out. They have the best cannabis product, period. Isn't that right, Mike? That's what I've heard. Yes. Throughout this whole weekend. I know. I want to keep hearing it as we continue our days. And you love it, though. I love it. Yeah, who doesn't? We'll be right back after this break. All right, everybody. Uncle Dad here, hanging out with the one and only Just Mike. That's right. Just Mike. But we had a very special guest, and I'm going to allow her to introduce herself because I don't think I could do it justice because she's brilliant in all sorts of ways. If you may, introduce yourself to our audience, please. Sure. I am Erin McDonald, otherwise known as Dr. Erin.

54:04 I am an astrophysicist, PhD, and I am the science advisor for the Star Trek franchise. Wow, Mike. This is probably the most impressive person to ever be on the show. Franchise advisor. Yes, I would say so. Absolutely. We've never had anybody as intelligent as you. So I feel scared. I feel like my intelligence goes up just a little just because we're with you here. Yes. There we go. So I think one way I want to talk about is the Star Trek franchise, right? And I want to know, were you always a fan of Star Trek or is it just something you kind of got into later in life? Later in life, but before I started working for it, it was basically when I was in college. There's a big i joke that like the venn diagram of physics majors and star trek fans has a big overlap and so going through my undergraduate degree i was hanging out with a lot of star trek fans and we'd be having parties and they would have star trek on in the background and playing drinking games and they were like i made the mistake of saying i'd never seen a whole episode and so that's where it started but i fell in love very fast so it was absolutely my jam So I got to step back a second. There's drinking games for Star Trek?

55:08 Yes, there are. You could do the Picard maneuver every time he tugs down on his uniform. Every time Riker swings his leg over the chair, you can get quite a few in there. Okay, so what are your top three drinking games? I'm kidding. You don't have to answer that. Mike, I know you must be curious of something. I'm curious of what was the thing that caused the most drinks? Oh, definitely the Picard maneuver. the tugging down on the uniform that'll do it that'll mess you up pretty fast yeah you gotta play that tonight i never knew that never really even noticed that but i guess now i gotta go back and watch yeah so you know what's it's interesting how those moments like shape your life right like you're just having a good time and then one day you end up working for them what was that progress like to get to that point i mean it always was sort of fan first like i actually got my start once i left academia and i missed teaching i would come to conventions and give talks on the science behind science fiction.

56:01 I would talk about Star Trek or Mass Effect or all these other franchises that I was super into. And yeah, then CBS heard about my Star Trek talks and invited me to come to their official events. And that's kind of how I got on their radar. And it just went from there. Just with intention, right, Mike? Yeah, intention, manifestation, maybe a little bit. But it's also interesting to know that they actually do use real science in the story writing, right? So is there a lot of stuff that you know that's coming in the future that the general public and people like us don't know? I mean, it's a good question because a lot of my work is very futurism almost of predicting what we're going to... I don't have any foresight into it.

56:43 But I mean, that is what we do, right? We look at a technology we have now and we kind of extend that into what we would have in the future. And if you go all the way back to like 1966 when Star Trek first aired, they were using stuff that's commonplace now, right? Flip phones are like out of date. And that was the cool future technology they had on that show. So, you know, we'll, we'll see. We keep progressing. No predictions for me and Mike. Sorry. I was hoping for that. Yeah. Well, you know, my, my, my stepfather loved the old Star star trek from the 60s show and uh he would talk about that like there's stuff that they were doing you know on that show that was like unconceivable you know now is like you're saying almost out of date right so it's just really cool that science fiction actually has real science and it's not just fiction and so i kind of touched on something really fast about you brought up mass effect.

57:35 So i know that sounds like i know you don't work in that right or okay i'm just a nerd so i bring bringing that up because like you can't bring a mass effect and not talk about it for a second because it's truly in my opinion one of the greatest video games ever created especially with the science aspect of things so we never got i've never got an opportunity to talk to somebody about this so i'm just curious how accurate is it truly oh heck yeah i'm so excited first of all i have a normandy tattooed on my arm like i am a hardcore mass effect fan but one of the things i love about it is like you said the science is really good if you go through the codex and you like actually read the science behind Mass Effect. I mean, even the title, right, is called Mass Effect. And it's this whole idea that humans discover a particle called element zero, which when you run a current through it allows you to manipulate space time so you can like artificially create a gravity well.

58:23 And you can do a lot of stuff when you're able to do that, both inverting a gravity well, so it basically pushes you faster than the speed of light, or creating artificial gravity. It's all element zero. It's all the literal Mass Effect. and there's some really good science in that series yeah you just blew my he doesn't know what we're talking about he's not a big gamer but his mind is blown right now i'm so i'm just i'm i'm blown now also you not only are you involved but you also play a fictitious, character of yourself i know mike you had a question about that like so how much of your real self is in your fictitional character of yourself or do you get to act like a completely different version of yourself. It is very much me. I mean, they named it Dr. Aaron McDonald and I am a professor at Starfleet Academy.

59:08 And I mean, originally I appeared in season one at the very end to meet the character Rock Talk because she's the young girl who really wants to get into science. And so the showrunners were like, you know, they used me a lot of like my growing up to kind of help shape that character. So they were like, well, she has to meet Dr. Aaron at Starfleet Academy. And then so they have me as a character already. And as we were going into season two, there's tons of time travel. And I kept explaining to everyone, like the rules of time travel and how we would have to do it. And they were like, you know what? Like, we just need like a Mr. DNA explainer video. They were like, I think Dr. Aaron should just give us a lesson in temporal mechanics. And that's how I kind of got that more big role in season two. So yes, it is me.

59:52 I don't know if I'm a time I don't know if I get plucked out of our universe and get put in the Star Trek universe, but I'm not unhappy about it. So I'm very curious too, like when you saw that version of you in the movie, Does that blow your mind? Yes. Yeah, it's only myself and Stephen Hawking have played themselves in Star Trek. And so like no pressure, right? And, but yeah, I mean, it's great. I get to cosplay as myself and it's the dream. Even when I was in grad school, if you'd asked me like what my dream job was, it was to work at Starfleet Academy, but it was like, well, I can't because it doesn't exist. And now I do. And that's pretty cool. So I'm gonna throw this out there. If you ever need any space podcasters on the show, I think me and Matt can, you know, to see casting, we can do it, huh, Mike? Yeah, yeah. I'm good at giving space.

1:00:39 Exactly. That's what I meant. I didn't mean going to space. Yes, exactly. Before we wrap up, though, you're also working on other projects, too, right? You work on, I'm sorry, correct me if I'm wrong, there's a film you just did, correct? Space Cadet. Space Cadet. So Space Cadet just came out on Amazon Prime. It's basically Legally Blonde Goes to Space. And it's really fun. It's just a fun family movie. Like, it's hilarious. Hilarious stoner chick from Florida gets into the NASA program. And yeah, it's awesome. So highly recommended. Are NASA people stoners? I think there's more than you would expect. And I mean, genuinely, that's something that I try to get across too. It's like, yes, I'm a scientist, but I'm also covered in tattoos. I play a lot of video games. I love heavy metal music.

1:01:21 I drink whiskey. We are multifaceted human beings. Are you a stoner? No, that's in the past for me. Unfortunately, I did some work for the federal government and you're not a stoner when you do that. But yeah. So I have a question for you because I've been asking people this question. It's funny that you bring this up. What is your favorite word to call weed? You know, people say devil's lettuce or whatever. If you can notice, I'm wearing a devil's lettuce shirt. Oh, that's a great. Whoa. You're like taking me back. I went to college in Boulder, so there was a lot. I mean, I feel like, well, my mom went to college at Berkeley. So I'm like a generation of this stuff and she still calls it dope.

1:02:03 OG like yeah the OG like boomer she's like oh yeah that dope that dope I smell that dope don't be a dope, it's got a little place in my heart okay okay I like that I like that before we wrap up Mike any last questions well since you're talking about weed and dope and devil's lettuce, and science and space and would you if you smoked weed in space would you get higher without since there's no gravity right would you would you would it make you higher than it does on earth that's That's a great question. I'm going to get weirdly sciencey about this, but this is a beautiful intersection. So there is a thing called the observer's effect that they see when astronauts go up into space and they look down on Earth for the first time.

1:02:44 And everyone who's done it is like, you can't describe it. There's no way you can achieve that feeling of looking down on this planet with a tiny atmosphere that we all live on. And so I imagine you already have that going on. You want to add some extra enlightening moments it would definitely help plus the ratio of oxygen to like compared to the oxygen on earth is different in space and so it's also going to affect you differently that way but i would not i i'd probably go for the gummy route in space not not lighting up because fire in space is usually pretty bad i feel like though you take an edible in space when it hits you it's not gonna be fun like it's it's not fun normally so like Like, you know what I mean? A little more than that. I don't know.

1:03:26 I don't know. I mean, you would be high and then you'd also be really physically high. So well said, Mike. Before we wrap up, I said that three times now, sorry. Where can our audience connect with you and learn more about you? Absolutely. You can watch Star Trek Prodigy, which is great. It's on Netflix right now. You can also find me on Instagram and Blue Sky at Dr. Aaron Mack, D-R-E-R-I-N-M-A-C. And I've got some videos on YouTube. If you search Dr. Aaron Explains the Universe, you can find some videos out there. So thank you. I absolutely love that. Go check it out. Maybe you can make your own drinking game about it and have a good time. We'll see everybody in a few seconds. All right, Uncle Dad hanging out with one of the greatest people in our family of friends.

1:04:06 We're hanging out with the Brocken Monster. What's up, man? How are you? I'm a bit chilling, but you have an important task right now. Oh, what is that? As you see, if you haven't heard since you've been around us, this episode is sponsored by Go Embark or Embark dispensaries. Yeah, the Devil's Lettuce. The Devil's Lettuce, right, yes. That's a fun name, right? I love that name. I actually want to make a shirt that says the Devil's Lettuce on it. Don't tell Embark because I got that. I won't. No, it's going to be in a different font. Okay, good, good. But that leads me to a question. What is your favorite way to describe weed? What's your favorite word, weed, your weed word? My weed word. How about this? Top three weed words. Top three weed words, meaning like how I would describe what I'm doing. Hey, I'm smoking dank.

1:04:54 Hey, I'm smoking perp. I don't talk like that. I'm old. I'm old. I get stoned. Okay. That's a good reference at least. High as a kite. Okay. Okay. Give me one more. Blitzed. Okay. Old school right there. Okay. Well, I'm old. Another favorite of mine, we'll put an asterisk on it, is higher than a giraffe's ass. That's a new one. That's a good one. That's a good one. All right. So remember this, everybody. buddy you can get higher than a giraffe's ass when you go to mbark dispensaries all over california the best weed period isn't that right brandon that's exactly right uncle dad yes and who doesn't like premium weed i don't know but whoever does it i don't want to know them exactly so the people who do they shop at mbark so go check them out go mbark.com and we'll be right back, all right everybody uncle dad here hanging out with just mike mike i'm just hanging oh that's It's a new one, Just Hangin' Mike. All right.

1:05:55 We are with one of our first high-caliber guests we ever had. And now we've had a slew of them, but that's okay. Yeah, he's still our favorite. Let's give it up for the man, the myth, the toy-making icon, the one and only, Brian Vogweiss. How are you? Thank you for having me back. How does it feel to be back? It feels great. It literally feels great. I don't know how you guys felt about last year or the year before. Last year was weird. The year before was depressing. This feels like 2019 like it's fucking back like it's like it's crowded it's cool shit i got a bet last year i bought one thing the year before i bought nothing like this year i bought probably 10 to 12 things like yeah it's it's back so last time you said you had to watch your you had to watch your collective so now you don't have to worry about that, So, we did move. I do have a bigger collection room.

1:06:49 That's the good news. The bad news, yeah, it's getting full again. So, I'm all ready. Like, did you see the Rattler that Hasbro for a class of... Yes, I did. I mean, I need that. Like, I need it. Like, I need it. Where am I going to put that? Like, that's... I might have to glue it to the fucking ceiling. But it's... I need that. But in your kid's room? That tells me you don't have kids uh yeah no that is the last place on earth it would if you want to see what biker mice from mars look like when they've been thrown against the wall 89 000 times and i think one of my other kids like literally took a shit on throttle then yes you you should you should come put put it put the rattler in my kid's room well what do you think about that mike sounds like you're having a great time brian with that yeah time it's just not the best for It's stuff you care about.

1:07:42 Yeah, of course, of course. Well, I mean, clearly you should bring them here and then let them see what they do here in the convention, no? It's funny you say that. This is my first San Diego Comic-Con in five years. Technically six because of 2020 that my family's not here. Yeah, we just had so, like normally I'm here for one day. So I bring them down, we goof around, we have fun, and we go. So this year, we're here for three days, and it just couldn't bring the kids. Yeah, bummed me out. But that's okay because you're doing hard work because we're going to talk about the Nacelleverse. So let's talk about the Nacelleverse. What can you tell our audience about the Nacelleverse? Yes. It's not on video. No. I have to put my Pepsi down. No.

1:08:27 So let's talk about the Nacelleverse. Tell our audience what that is and all the great stuff in it. So, I mean, the Nacelleverse is, I mean, sort of to a certain degree what it sounds like. The name of our company is Nacelle. We have been buying properties like RoboForce, Biker Mice, Sectars, whatever, and combining them. Into a shared universe. As you could probably guess, I'm not the first person to think of this or do this. There's a certain company I think has about a 90-year head start on us, but we're trying to make up for lost time. And what we're doing is, I mean, it really is, literally is, and not to sound all highfalutin, but it's a mixed media program. So RoboForce, which we're doing with Dwayne, with The Rock, that's six episodes, and we're going to be fully done before September. December.

1:09:14 Biker Mice from Mars, we're doing with Ryan Reynolds, and that's in the script stage now. So we should be done with the scripts hopefully by October, and then we start the animating somewhere between November and December. And then all of these, so in RoboForce, which is the first series, all of these have cameos. So we're actually later today showcasing the first new biker mice from mars footage in 17 years and that's their cameo from robo force and then when biker mice from mars comes out the mirror of that scene so like in robo force you're like wait why are they on earth when you watch biker mice for mars you'll know why they're on earth and then you'll see the robo force go by so the inspiration was you You remember that scene in Back to the Future 2 where he goes back to the enchantment under the sea dance and he's like climbing around himself from Back to the Future 1.

1:10:15 So we're doing a scene like that with RoboForce and Biker Mice. Yeah. And they're all in it. So like the fourth lead of the show is not Stellara, but is a Sectarian. So everybody's in it. You see Moo Mesa's walking around, a little bovine action. Action so yeah it's it's it's a shared universe and we're we're we're showing a lot of footage tonight that's never been seen what one thing i want to point out is he said bovine action and i do love me some bovine action so i'm very excited for that. What is your memory with these platforms or these platforms, these series? Well, I mostly remember biker mice from Mars and great Garlu.

1:10:55 I think we talked about it last time, mainly because Howard Stern talks about that character all the time, but I just think it's really cool that now we're at the point where all these different worlds that were all separate, you know, you see it with, with all the, like the Marvel movies and stuff. They're not like crossing over. And it's so cool that you guys get to do that and just have fun with, with, with, with it in every way you can. Gar blue check this out oh we did this uh exclusive with wall so he's gonna have us walk over to there's a shelf here that has a bunch of characters on this character we have the figures of the line and he's gonna tell us all about it so that yeah that's our nickname for him but i'm pretty sure we're gonna make it canon that is gar blue so that's those are literally we got the walmart pantone numbers for their blue and their yellow and that is exclusively sold at walmart starting in about six weeks same thing that's night fighting dargon i don't know which is based on the original repaint i'm not sure why if you're fighting at night you want to be bright silver but so be it and that's fireproof max 89 which is taken from a scene in one of the comic books we did with oni press so yeah but yeah if you're a garlu fan hopefully you're going to be a gar blue fan too i like it great gar blue yeah gar blue uh you know that brings up the next great point is you also have a whole connected universe in the comics as well, correct?

1:12:19 So this is the exclusive variant of Biker Mice 1 that we're doing for Diamond. So these are all Diamond exclusives. We call them the Sports Bros. So that comic book, the story is this regular one. Every single IP we're doing has at least a three-issue comic book that acts as a prequel to the series. And that, oh, I thought that was you. And so basically between March and the middle of 2025, we're going to have a comic book come out every month. And Biker Mice, it was just announced, they're doing a full year run.

1:13:00 So starting basically late 2024 there's going to be one biker mice issue every day every month through early 2026 yeah we just talked to somebody earlier this this week jeff lemire is a famous writer and artist he talked about like the dying breed of like the monthly comic so it's kind of nice that you guys are doing that because then like we said earlier mike it's something you just don't really hear as much it's always a mini series or i got three of three so the fact that you guys are doing like an actual monthly series that's awesome man it's you're keeping you're keeping comics alive right yeah but we're we're we're partnered with oni press and they have been absolutely we've had no better partner that's amazing that's amazing so something else i want to talk about was uh apparently there's a chance that a lucky person a lucky listener or attendee i guess you would call them at your guys's panel yeah will be animated into the series yes that's right so we did this at la comic-con last year to great effect and we just we want to involve the audience like it sounds cheesy or gimmicky maybe and that's fair but it's just cool to engage the audience yeah i grew up with that so that's what we try to do make it fun well if you ever need podcasters inside your show we're here just just noted uh mike before i wrap up any other.

1:14:16 Questions you know what i was walking around just not that long ago and i saw someone dressed up as one of the biker mice from ours is that was that your you guys fabricated that whole contracted with a company that makes costumes and that is everybody loves it and i'm really grateful but that to call that a prototype would be a staggering understatement. Yeah, we got that last week, and we even had notes, and we got new stuff the day we drove everything down here. So, yes, so we'll be selling those later this year, but they'll look a little different. A little different. And last thing, we got to talk about one of my favorite TV shows.

1:14:58 It's coming back. Toys That Made Us. Toys That Made Us. Let's talk about that real fast. So when can we expect that, if you can say, and all that good stuff? We've started research this month. We do about five months of research, and then we start casting, and then we shoot. So we're hoping to have season four out next year. Can you tell us any of the toys? When is this going to air? Next week. Oh, yeah. That's fine. Hot Wheels. Just a little tickle. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hot Wheels, Ghostbusters, Polly Pocket, Super Heroes, which is primarily Batman and all that stuff. I'm so bad at lists. But yeah, that's a good chunk. Wow. Oh, you just got Mike excited. Pokemon.

1:15:39 Whoa. You're excited. There you go. Wow. Brian, always a pleasure getting a chance to sit with you, talk with you. Such a great time. As always, work on our audience, learn more, and connect with your brand. I'm on Instagram. So it's my name, Brian Volkweis. And it should come up. And then the company is the Nacelle Company. And then, of course, Toys That Made Us is our main page for the toy stuff. I love it. Any last words? Well, I just, I feel like I was, I was telepathically saying Ghostbusters because I love the Ghostbusters toys and all things real Ghostbusters. And you said it. And so I feel a tingling inside. The number one episode we've been asked for.

1:16:21 Wow, Mike, you made that happen. Mike made that happen. I made it happen. Thanks. Thank you. All right, buddy. We'll be right back after this break. What's up, everybody? Like all good things must come to an end. This is now over. That's right. San Diego Comic-Con 2024 is now in the books. Now, that doesn't mean that we don't have more content coming for you. There were some interviews that we had to reschedule due to scheduling conflicts, and that's okay. So you may, if we're very lucky, we may get a part two of San Diego Comic-Con coverage. In the meantime, though, as we always like to say here, we like to end on a positive note. And what better way to end and talk about the sponsor, the exclusive sponsor of this episode? That's right.

1:17:02 Embark or GoEmbark.com. Honestly, it has been such a dream to work with them. They are absolutely incredible. We would never push any product that we didn't believe in. We truly do believe in this product. And when I say product, I mean this dispensary, this brand. This brand is very loyal. They're innovative. They are creating new experiences for cannabis enthusiasts all across California, and hopefully one day that will be all across the U.S. Right now, you can go to the California State Fair. They have a whole setup there where you can smoke at a state fair. Most recently, they did something for California. Not outside lands, but they're going to do outside lands too. Outside lands, they'll have a whole entire experience there as well.

1:17:45 And grasslands, they had an experience at Callier Roots. I'm sure they'll do that again later on next year. But there are so much great things happening from this brand. I cannot say that enough, guys. Go check them out, really. Go check them out. If you're in California, go to GoAmbark.com. See what location's near you. Go check them out. Even if you're visiting California, just go find a Embark dispensary because I really can't tell you enough how high quality their product is. Everything they have in that store is some of the best flour, edibles, cannabis-infused lemonades.

1:18:26 I mean, you name it, they have it. And it's smooth. It's incredibly smooth. Incredibly at a great price point so that you get the best premium quality. I really can't say this enough. And they have a loyalty program you can check out. Not only that either, again, they are California's best flower. They have California's best flower. So go over there. Go check them out. As I said in this episode, go embark on your own quest and go check out GoEmbark.com. And of course, be sure to follow them at Embark Supply on Instagram. Instagram guys ladies and everything in between for listening thank you guys so much for always listening to our show we really appreciate it we had some we had so much fun this year we cannot wait for next year and before we wrap up the last thing I gotta tell you is we got some things coming up Uncle Dad will be at Galaxy Con that's right Galaxy Con San Jose he'll be there from August 16th through 18th hanging out doing press if you happen to see him definitely say what's up so you can get a sticker pack.

1:19:31 On top of that, we're also going to be at Burning Man. Me and Mike will be, as you guys know, me and Mike is a hardcore Burner. And we have been waiting for the opportunity for me to join. I'm officially able to join and I will be joining him this year. So we will definitely talk about that when we return. So there may be a lack of content, but that's okay because we got some other great things in the works that you'll be sure to check out. Also, be sure to check out another show that I host right here on the stream. That is the Game Papas hosted by myself and Retro Gaming Nomad, where we talk about just all things gaming, give you a little bit of history. Right now, we're doing the Game Informer Trilogy. if you haven't heard Game Informer is no more that magazine was a big part of my life and it's no more but we're celebrating in some ways by talking about their top 100 200 and 300 gaming lists so definitely be a part of that as well so everybody thank you from the bottom of my heart thank you guys so much I really can't wait to give you for you to just enjoy this episode hear you guys' feedback and hopefully we'll have more San Diego Comic Con coverage to give you if we don't as always next year and of course remember, to follow us on Instagram at Uncle Dad Talks and at Mike Hampton Art.

1:20:39 And last but not least, we're not uncles, we're not dads, we're just someone you can talk to. We'll see you all next week.