72: Something Is Killing The Children 💀

Halloween Episode! With a special guest! 

Erik from ICPWWE joins us to talk about Something Is Killing The Children by James Tynion IV and Werther Dell'Edera.

Find Erik's podcast here:
IG/Twitter - @icpwwe
Website - icpwwe.com

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Original Music by Alex Productions
Show notes include some AI generated content

Transcript

Dave (00:00.995)
Welcome to the Comic Dudes, a podcast about comic books and comic book related things. This episode is going to release on October 30th, the day before Halloween. So every year we do like a Halloween episode. Last year we read Ghost Rider, like 90s Ghost Rider and talked about it. This year we're doing something similar but different. We read volume one of Something is Killing the Children.

But we brought along a friend this time. We have a third person here with us. So in addition to myself and Matt, we also have my friend Eric, and he's waving. It's also an audio podcast. You do have to speak. I don't know if you knew that.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (00:40.008)
Yeah, hello. Well, I mean, it's both. So, I mean, I'm used to only having audio, but I was like, whoa, I can actually gesture. People can see me. Take off the mask.

Dave (00:49.571)
Yeah, you can. Yeah, and you know what? The 10 people that watch us on YouTube will love it.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (00:54.356)
Fuck yeah, I'm gonna make more than 10 people watch it.

Dave (00:57.187)
Good, I'm glad. So before we get started, why don't you tell us who the fuck you are?

Erik, uh, Slaughter (01:01.612)
Oh, hey, I'm Eric. I have known Dave for, I don't even know, most of my life since we were in school. And, uh, we've spent much, much time together on all things, music and video games and comics and movie related. It's just been part of our, I guess, relationship and, um, yeah, I, I do a podcast it's called twisted with us.

It used to be called ICP with We, but then we finished all the ICP albums and then we started talking about Twisted. So if you like spooky rap music and people being fucking stupid on a podcast, you should go check it out. We just dropped episode 150.

Dave (01:42.915)
Yeah, congrats on that. I know that's that podcast started out kind of as a joke and Now it's taken on like a very serious life of its own and I think that's awesome

Erik, uh, Slaughter (01:44.492)
Thanks.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (01:48.96)
Kind of did. Yeah.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (01:55.72)
Yeah, it's like a second job really. I mean, I spend a ton of time on it and I'm happy to because we have an amazing community around us. So as long as they keep listening, we'll keep doing it.

Dave (02:04.899)
Hell yeah.

Dave (02:08.579)
Matt, you an ICP fan?

Matt (02:12.371)
I've dabbled in the Juggalo, but I'm not a fan. No, I would not. Back in the day, my one friend was really big in the ICP, so I kind of got some secondhand Juggaloneness from him. We'll just put it that way.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (02:25.388)
I mean, that was kind of us. Like I listened when I was younger, like high school and college, and then kind of fell off, stopped paying attention. And one day Aaron, cohost, actually there's three of us now, Aaron and Robbie, but Aaron just tweeted, I want to start a podcast called ICUP with me. And I was like, let's do it. And so then we fucking did. And, you know, he had never heard them.

Matt (02:48.174)
I love it.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (02:51.72)
really before and I was like, I haven't heard them in 15 or 20 years. Let's catch up. And the goal was let's review every album. Little did we know there was like a hundred releases to talk about. And the community was like, okay, we're here for it. And we're like, oh, really? For real? Okay, cool. So it's, it's definitely, you know, become a real weekly when we can thing. Life gets in the way sometimes. So we miss them here and there.

Dave (03:17.635)
Yeah. Yeah, that's where same thing happened to us, kids and jobs and relationships and whatever else just gets in the way sometimes. So, but yeah, I mean, I love the story of how your podcast has grown particularly because it started out. Yeah. It started out like when you start using slang ironically, but you're actually making fun of it. And then a few months later, you're like, oh, fuck, this is just a part of my vocabulary now and it's no longer ironic. It's kind of the same thing.

Matt (03:22.135)
sure.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (03:22.192)
Yeah.

Matt (03:32.008)
I'm out.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (03:32.59)
as a joke.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (03:44.328)
Yeah, man, I'll tell you of all the creative ventures of my life, this was not the one that I thought was going to take off. But I'm not mad about it. It's been fun.

Matt (03:52.846)
Hehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe hehehehehe hehehehehe hehehe he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he

Dave (03:53.123)
Hehehehehehe

Dave (03:58.339)
Yeah, I mean, you should go check it out. I was honored to be a guest on that podcast as well. When you had an episode about the multiverse sort of, yeah, some Earth two clown horror rap. I don't know how to say that, but that's what I'm gonna go with. Also, one more fun fact about Eric and I that most people wouldn't know, but we also got laid off from the same company too, several years apart, but.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (04:05.505)
Hell yeah.

Yeah, we talked Earth too.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (04:14.569)
Yes.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (04:18.097)
No, that's right. Yeah.

Dave (04:27.459)
Our lives have been intertwined in many, many ways throughout the course of our lives.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (04:30.724)
Oh, yeah, we were in the same band at different times when we were in high school. Then, I mean, later in life, we were in the same band at the same time, which was way better. I liked that a lot more. Yeah, we started working for the same company in similar ways around the same time. You used to work with my brother and sister.

Dave (04:36.995)
Hmm? Yeah.

Yeah. Me too, that was more fun.

Dave (04:53.283)
I used to work with Matt.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (04:55.004)
Yeah, that- Oh, okay. Matt, did you work with my brother and sister?

Matt (04:56.526)
Crazy, yeah. Yeah, yeah, I did.

Dave (04:58.723)
Yeah.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (05:00.72)
Okay. Wild. I don't know if we talked about that before, but then like, yeah, moved to Texas, Dave moved to Texas, got laid off from the company. Dave got, well, opposite way, Dave got laid off, then I got laid off. Yeah. So we'll see. I start a podcast, Dave starts a podcast.

Dave (05:10.723)
That was B first. Good times.

Dave (05:17.763)
Yeah. Who knows what's next?

Erik, uh, Slaughter (05:20.108)
It's just how it, who knows, who knows.

Dave (05:23.587)
I guess maybe next up for me is moving to the Pacific Northwest.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (05:27.188)
Man, I recommend it if you can afford it because it's not cheap, but it's awesome.

Dave (05:30.083)
Yeah, well, I think East would be where I had.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (05:34.974)
Yeah, that's fair.

Dave (05:36.515)
Um, but that's neither here nor there. Um, let's, let's get to it. So I mentioned, um, we read something is killing the children. Volume one, Matt, Eric, you've both read this before. This was the first time for me, uh, the way we kind of do these review discussion episodes, I'll do a brief recap, hitting main story beats and some other fine detail. And then we'll just talk about the things we liked some of the things we didn't like, we have any sort of hot takes or controversial opinions.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (05:49.074)
Yeah.

Dave (06:05.315)
That'll be the last piece of the conversation. This is also the part of the episode where I tell everyone there are going to be massive spoilers discussed starting very, very soon. So if you do not want spoilers for Something is Killing the Children, volume one, now is the time to leave the episode. We'll give you a brief moment to do so.

I can't make the moment be too brief because when the software we use to record edits things down for me, it's going to take that out and there'll be no brief pause whatsoever. So the longer the pause, the more manual work I have to go back and do later. So that was the pause that you get. If you're still here, prepare to get spoiled. Uh, so I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna give like an overall like, Hey, this is what this comic is about. I think if, if you're still here,

You probably already know this is more recap for, you know, if you've read this before and you're tuning in for a conversation about maybe your favorite comic, who knows? Um, so first of all, I want to give credit where it's due. This comic is written by James Tynan, the fourth and art by, I'm going to mess this name up, Werther De La Dera. Look at me go. Um, I'm a big James Tynan fan. I love his work.

Matt (07:13.302)
were there deleted. Yep, that's good.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (07:15.884)
Mm-hmm.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (07:23.073)
same.

Dave (07:23.843)
So I've been meaning to read this for a while. Eric has recommended this to me so many times. Matt's been on me about it too. I bought all the trade paperbacks, never touched them. And then I got a free month of Comixology Unlimited to read volume one. All that being said, preferred reading digitally. Yeah, in bed before I go to sleep at night. So volume one kicks off. There's a few boys at a sleepover. They're playing truth or dare.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (07:40.523)
Alright.

Matt (07:41.272)
Yeah. In bed, yeah, exactly.

Dave (07:52.643)
It's not as salacious as it sounds. They're young and they're stupid and it's prank based. James is sort of our main character here for now. He tells a scary story and then we jump to him talking to the police because all his friends died outside his house in the yard. We also meet a blonde woman who we can assume is a monster hunter of some kind. She's called to Archer's Peak where James lives to take care of whatever this problem is. And at the end of this issue,

James tells our monster hunter what he really saw which was a monster killing his friends Previously he had just said hey, I didn't see anything. He was a liar. He saw it all She says she's going to take care of it and James is asking if he can help Then they had to I'm just gonna say Applebee's because that's what it's supposed to be. It's an Applebee's Yeah, yeah They go to Applebee's. Okay, they go to Applebee's to I'm gonna air quote they work the case They cause a scene with the employees

Erik, uh, Slaughter (08:40.684)
Apple beans, I think. Yeah.

Matt (08:41.622)
Yeah, exactly.

Dave (08:51.843)
and the monster hunter. We don't know her name. I keep calling her the monster hunter because we don't know her name yet. She goes back to her hotel slash motel, whatever it is, and then she talks to her stuffed octopus who is also some sort of spirit guide, ethereal creature. We don't know and we're not going to find out. We do find out, however, that our main character's name is Erika Slaughter. We find this out because she gets picked up by the police for questioning.

after she leaves Applebee's and goes back to her hotel because the hotel motel manager is a little unnerved at what's going on in her room. While she's being held at the police station, five more kids are killed and there's a back and forth between Erica and the sheriff and the sheriff reluctantly lets her leave. James is outside waiting for her. She kind of snaps at James and she also finds out that the threat that she's hunting is

Basically she says it's a higher class. We don't know what it is yet, but it's a little bit more intense than initially expected. And it's something that she hasn't faced like that in a while. And she's also still talking to this stuffed octopus. Next, James and Erica go and shop for weapons to hunt this monster. They're in sort of like a Lowe's Home Depot type of place, getting chainsaws and bats and spikes and whatnot. And then Tommy.

the server from Applebee's, gets his dad's gun because he's gonna take care of Erica. He doesn't trust her. Once her dead, I don't know, he's gonna go take care of what the police won't because they didn't do anything when the police were called on her. I'm gonna call this person Erica's boss. It's a very mysterious, we never see anything but like sort of their chest and arm, calls the sheriff and sort of lets him know how it's gonna be.

And then we get what feels like a really quick wrap up to volume one. We find out some important information here as well that we find out only children can see monsters. And while Erica is in this cave nest, whatever, trying to take care of this giant spider monster, she's also attacked by Tommy. He tries to shoot at her or the monster. James gets hit by a bullet. And then.

Dave (11:19.811)
Erica does something, we don't find out what, I'm sure we can find out in subsequent volumes, but she has something to his head that gives him the ability to see monsters too. Eventually Erica takes down what is called the mother, this monster, spider monster type of creature. She calls her mysterious boss, says, hey, I'll deal with the consequences, but you misclassified this. It has children and she's going to go and hunt them down.

and I am assuming this is what sets up the rest of the series, because we don't get a whole lot of explanations in Volume 1, but we do end with a lot of questions.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (12:01.472)
sets up the first arc, I will say. Yeah.

Matt (12:04.104)
Oh my god, he has no idea what he's in for. It's... Yeah. Yep! Exactly like it.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (12:07.548)
It's tough because the entire time you were talking I'm like I need to be super careful not to ruin anything

Matt (12:15.17)
Super super vague.

Dave (12:15.331)
Sorry.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (12:17.416)
Yeah, yeah, this, I mean, this first volume, just this one trade is really just barely scratching the surface and introducing this world because it gets bigger and it gets bigger. It just keeps going. And you learn a lot of the things that you said, we don't know.

Matt (12:36.812)
Nice!

Erik, uh, Slaughter (12:43.508)
you find out. And there are things that even as you find out are mysteries, which is part of the beauty of it.

Dave (12:51.331)
Okay. I mean, I'm so I actually don't have a lot of like good, bad hot takes written down. I have I have a few things. But I think the bad I'm I'll wait, I want to hear from the two of you because this is a reread for the two of you, right? Both of you. So similar to how Matt and I have been doing invincible all year long. I'm on like my third reread of invincible.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (13:10.408)
Yeah, yeah.

Dave (13:19.971)
I'm way closer to it. Like I'm really in there and there's a lot of stuff happening that Matt has like, he kind of forgot about so it feels first time for him. I just, I would, I'm gonna take a back seat. I'm gonna let y'all kind of talk about some of this stuff and I'll chime in. I have three things written down for what I liked. I'll chime in where appropriate.

Matt (13:28.972)
Yeah.

Matt (13:42.53)
So I definitely have that goldfish. I have the most goldfish memory out of probably all of us here on this podcast. So I do, I do tend to forget things. So when we get to revisit something, I get really excited. So, um, Dave told me about Eric and their relationship or whatever, and just randomly, cause I'm just that kind of person. Dave mentioned something's killing the children. I hit like Eric out of the blue. Like, this is like two years ago. I was texting him on Twitter or whatever. And I was super excited cause I picked up. This.

collection of something's killing the children video listeners if not it's the deluxe edition it's freaking beautiful and I started reading it because I've heard nothing but good things from this about this book Rereading us again. It was like it was kind of like invincible. I remembered the main beats But there was a lot of things that I forgot and honestly Eric is right. There's a lot of things that this is just like honestly the setup the next arc

Erik, uh, Slaughter (14:14.036)
Yeah.

Matt (14:40.118)
What happens is like, holy shit, like there's some stuff that goes down in like the next, I think two trades in this series. But dude, just like if we're doing like likes and good stuff, I'm just gonna say like Erica Slaughter, man. Like Erica Slaughter, I've heard of this Erica Slaughter character for, I've heard about it for like two years and I'm like, whatever, whatever. This is how you write.

a badass female protagonist in my opinion. I don't leave this to Marvel and DC, I leave this to the independents because they know how to do it best. And especially when you leave it in the hands of a writer like James Tynion, who I can talk all day about James Tynion and how much I respect him. Like just unrelated to this, just understanding the comic business, understanding how to put a series. There's also, I don't know if you know, Dave, there's a supplemental series called House of Slaughter.

Dave (15:37.955)
heard of that.

Matt (15:37.974)
Um, I don't want to, I don't want to, yeah, I don't want to spoil too much, but that little group of people around the table when they got bonked on the head, that there, that is explained way more in the house of slaughter, which is like the lore of everything and it really gets in, uh, Erica and her backstory and all that stuff. But like Taneon wrote, he writes this in a way where he'll do house of slaughter. Then he'll take a break and do, or do, he'll do something's killing the children. Then he'll do house of slaughter.

So like, you're not doing the double book thing. Like he gets it. And he's very knowledgeable in like the variant cover game too. He doesn't go nuts in that. But Erica Slaughter, I like that this book is like, kind of like a weird, like dark Peter Pan, where like the kids know everything, but the adults kind of don't. And like, they can't see the monsters. And I almost spoiled something, but I'm not going to about like, how the monsters kind of come to being. I'm not gonna talk about that. I-

Dave (16:11.075)
Mm-hmm.

Matt (16:35.906)
They kind of alluded to it, but I think they get more depth in later volumes. So I'm not going to talk about that. Yeah. They say it like really early on in like the first or second issue, but like, they'll, they'll really explain it later. So I don't even want to mention like how they come to be. Uh, but I like the dark Peter Pan aspect. Cause like, even with my kids, like Elena is like super smart. So I don't know sometimes if she's lying or telling me the truth half the time, but like these kids are saying like.

Dave (16:40.035)
They alluded to it. It went way over my head because I don't remember any allusions to that.

Matt (17:05.47)
We're getting killed like this is going on XYZ and you're going to hear that later volumes but like in the adults like don't believe them because it's so fantastical. They can't see these things. It's just like it was just like a nice little a little twist. And I'm just gonna say this book came at a time like for me it really I'm not like a crazy horror person. I like some horror stuff. But like this filled that kind of like Walking Dead.

sized hole in my heart. It's not, I love Walking Dead. That's like one of my top series. I have all the volumes, but like, this is that horror book for me that really latched on and it connected for me. And I just, it just hit. I don't know. That's me, I've rambled. That's all my good stuff, but.

Dave (17:37.347)
interesting.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (17:51.777)
All good.

Dave (17:52.099)
I can I get, can I get one, I got to get one little jab in there real quick. It wouldn't be, it wouldn't be an episode of this podcast if I didn't go up Matt for something. I know you said you respect the author of this book quite a bit. You don't respect him enough to say his name properly. I just think that's interesting. Tynan.

Matt (17:56.311)
Get it in.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (17:56.48)
job.

Matt (18:00.302)
That's a jab.

Matt (18:08.459)
Tenon.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (18:10.076)
His website is TinyOnion, so I believe his name is Tinyon.

Matt (18:12.098)
Tanya, Tanya.

Dave (18:14.563)
It's Tynan. I promise it's Tynan because I looked it up before this podcast. The man himself in an interview said how to pronounce his name. It's Tynan.

Matt (18:20.084)
No.

Nah, it's Tanyan. It's Tanyan. It's Superman. It's not Superman. It's Superman.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (18:23.232)
There you go.

Dave (18:27.427)
I, it's Tynan, Tynan. Call him what you want, whatever. I tried, sorry James, I tried. James, if you ever listen to this, you heard me try.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (18:28.716)
Hehehehe

Matt (18:33.162)
Educate us, Eric. Please, please.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (18:37.824)
So Matt, I definitely agree with you that this filled a hole in my heart, but the hole it filled in my heart, because I was lucky or random enough to start buying with issue one. So I've bought every monthly issue and now I realized that they're valuable. And I was like, oh, that's cool. But it filled the saga hole.

Matt (19:00.851)
Ooh, that's a- oh, okay.

Dave (19:02.051)
Really?

Erik, uh, Slaughter (19:02.556)
because I started buying in 2019 and this pulled me in a similar way. Because it's very, even though it's in a fantasy world, it's very human. It's, it's relatable. And it's in a world where you look at things and go, okay, that's crazy and outlandish, and yet it doesn't feel. Impossible within the world that they've built. And it's sort of like filled that place for me. And as it goes, I think even more, you start to learn about these characters, but.

agreed again, Matt, on that conversation in issue four, I think it is, where they're talking about knowing versus believing and why kids can see the monsters, but adults can't. And it's a concept I've always thought about, usually in a religious concept, like there's a difference between I know something, I know this is real and I believe something is real. And they flip it on its head. They go, adults don't see it because they know there's no such thing as monsters.

kids see it because they believe that it's real, even if they know it shouldn't be. So I thought that was really cool. Much like Saga, one of the things I love about this book, this series, is the pace of it. It's just a page-turner. It's a fast read. And somehow, without getting into these dense dialogue blocks, it builds a really elaborate and interesting world that I think is pretty, you know…

relatable even with all the mystery and dark fantasy in there. And I think it's neat because it's written like episodes of a TV show. Every issue has a cold open and then that like big double page splash of the title. And like you can totally picture what that would be like and that's the pace of it. It feels it feels really good. But agreed again. I love Erica Slaughter. Like

Like everything in this series, she's human and relatable, but just different and weird enough in like these subtle fantasy ways, like the big eyes. And they reference it multiple times. They're like, that's weird, right? But the design works for me. I like her confidence in scenes like that police interrogation where she's just not phased. And she's like, you're gonna get a call. They're gonna tell you to let me go. Because everybody in the small town just immediately is looking for somebody to pin the problems on. They're like, kids are dying.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (21:20.412)
It's this stranger that's weird. She must've done it, right? And she just isn't fazed by it. I also, I love the art in it. The, I'm gonna say the name wrong too. It's De La Dera. Yeah, okay, cool. Just really cool, because it's rough. It lacks the polish that like a lot of mainstream, especially superhero comics do.

Matt (21:34.67)
That's right.

Matt (21:43.342)
progress.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (21:49.264)
And it really sets it apart, makes it feel really independent, I think. But it also works for the vibe and the tone of the book. So there's a lot of my goods. I know that's a bunch of goods. I just rambled.

Dave (21:59.587)
That's okay. That's kind of how we do things around here. We just, we go through lists. We talk about the things that we've said. Boy, we could not be further apart here. You are both like, you're going really deep on this thing. And so I agree. I love the character of Erica and the character design. I actually wrote down, Erica is a bad ass and extremely well-designed and cool.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (22:02.112)
Sick.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (22:14.035)
Oh.

Dave (22:29.347)
Um, it's, it's a rare, I guess it's not as rare anymore, but it used to be, but she is a rare female protagonist that is not drawn for the male gaze. And I think that's, I appreciate that. Um, and the, you know, like the, the thing you were wearing, Eric, when we started the episode, her little like, Scully bandana mask thing, I think that's. Fucking cool as hell. I love that. Um,

Erik, uh, Slaughter (22:51.712)
The mask, yeah.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (22:58.198)
Hell yeah.

Dave (22:59.747)
I'm not, and this could just be because I have, my exposure to this is only these five issues, you know? You two have the advantage of an expanded perspective.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (23:06.236)
Yeah.

Matt (23:06.302)
100% whatever you're about to say. Whatever you're about to say, I'm telling you.

Dave (23:12.931)
Your perspective is one of, I know what's coming, and this is awesome rereading it because I know what's about to happen next. However, I am just going into this blind and I have, I'm at a decision point of do I continue reading this or do I just file this away as that wasn't bad, but you know, I'll never know what happened. I will, I honestly, Eric, I thought you were gonna say this filled the hack slash hole for you. I was surprised to hear you say saga.

Matt (23:16.008)
Yeah.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (23:40.416)
That, you know, I almost wrote that in my notes cause I'm a huge hack slash fan. I've read and collected all of the hack slash stuff. And this is like a non juvenile hack slash. Like if you took it more seriously, there are so many similar elements cause you've got that Cassie hack parallel with Erica Slaughter, you know, killing the monsters and going from town to town to like take care of the slashers, the supernatural thing that shouldn't be real.

It does fill that hole as well, but in a different way. I think it's more serious. So that's why it feels more like it fills the soggle.

Dave (24:15.267)
Yeah, I mean, hack slash was kind of titties and gore.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (24:19.688)
Yeah, and I'm okay with that.

Dave (24:21.059)
So I, I mean is what it is. Yeah. Yeah, it is.

Matt (24:22.094)
The male gaze. The male gaze is this.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (24:26.436)
Tim Seeley never shies from the male gaze when it comes to designing female characters.

Matt (24:29.099)
I'm sorry.

Dave (24:30.083)
Didn't those two comics crossover though? Isn't there a hack slash something's killing the children crossover? I'm I thinking of something else. Okay then I'm thinking of maybe a nail piter and hack slash.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (24:37.552)
No, hack slash. Yes, yes, yeah. That definitely happened. Hack slash has crossed over with tons of stuff. Like hack slash crossed over with what? Like I want to say lady death and Vampirella, stuff like that, like all kinds of things, but never something that's killing the children that I know of.

Matt (24:41.08)
Eric would know, I'm sure.

Dave (24:46.755)
Yeah.

Dave (25:02.307)
Okay, so I was wrong. Sorry. Maybe. I don't know. Who knows? We'll never know. I only had two other sort of good things written down, and they're both very much like... One is just, I think James Principal fucking rocks. I wanted more of him. That dude's awesome. I love his principal. That was a rare teacher W. Big fan of the principal.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (25:06.668)
It would be a good crossover. Or maybe not.

Matt (25:21.194)
Yeah, that principle. Cousin, cousin, why don't you push that kid?

Erik, uh, Slaughter (25:23.392)
Yeah.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (25:29.674)
Yeah.

Dave (25:31.267)
Hopefully there's more of him in the comic. I don't know. I'm okay with it. Does he come back? I'm okay with some principal spoiler. That might keep me to read volume two.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (25:38.132)
Duh. And I believe in the next trade.

Matt (25:41.73)
volume t- I'm tellin' you, you can't jump off before the next volume, I'm tellin' you.

Dave (25:45.603)
Hey man, I got Comic Solid Unlimited for three more weeks, so we'll see what I can get done.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (25:45.999)
Yeah, no.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (25:50.077)
Yeah.

Matt (25:50.658)
No, you have, which I read it on this time, you have Global Comics. Six volumes, first.

Dave (25:55.587)
Yeah, I don't have a panel by panel guided view, so I don't have Global Comics yet. Give me that panel by panel view and I'm in. Until then, I'm out. Sorry.

Matt (26:00.13)
Gotcha. Sweet.

Matt (26:05.162)
Gotcha.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (26:07.52)
That's actually a really interesting thing. When we get to bad, I want to talk about that.

Dave (26:11.523)
Okay. And then the only other good thing I had written down, there's a quote in the second issue. It's Tommy's mom. She says, he's talking about his sister being missing. She says, you don't believe that, but you don't know what else to say and that's okay. And I think that was just a really, I just love that sentiment, the quote. I just love James Tynan, man. I just think he's a great writer, but.

Matt (26:11.85)
Mmm.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (26:36.107)
Yeah.

Yeah, that line hit me even rereading it the second time. I'm glad you brought it up.

Dave (26:42.179)
Yeah. Yeah, that's just one of those like, it's a very quotable, memorable, just... It's not a main story beat. It has nothing to do with anything in the comic other than like... It's just one panel of goodness. I love it.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (26:57.216)
But that's what I'm talking about how, right. It's human and relatable, yeah. And like that whole scene is something that taken out of the context of fantasy. And this is a man and his mother who his sister, her daughter is been missing. And the mother has clearly given up hope. And the son says, don't worry, she's okay, we'll find her. And that's when she says that line. She's like, you know, it's not true.

Matt (26:58.554)
Saga ass line right there. That's a saga line like Eric Span like We've all said that

Dave (27:00.419)
Yeah.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (27:26.612)
but you don't know what else to say. And I'm like, fuck, that's like real life. That's like a real thing.

Dave (27:32.707)
You know why else it's so, I think why we latch on to it is because in real life, no one's actually going to say that. It's, this is like, you're living vicariously a little bit here, yeah, because, you know, people say things to us all the time, you know, something bad happens, and they give you the positive reinforcement that they think you want to hear, whether they believe it to be true or not. Just, I don't know.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (27:43.428)
now.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (27:47.372)
It's a thought.

Matt (27:49.399)
Good point.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (27:59.656)
Yeah, it's like what I thought and would have said, but didn't.

Dave (28:07.203)
That was it for my good. Not a lot of, I didn't have a lot of good. That doesn't mean I didn't like it. I just didn't have a lot of good. Again, my lens here is different. And you'll understand why I don't have so much good when we talk about some of my more scathing feedback.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (28:11.049)
Huh.

Okay. Yeah.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (28:22.116)
Interesting. See, this is cool though. Like from talking to people like I've read it all, I'm going back to reread it, I've got a different perspective on it. You're coming from the perspective of somebody that's going, should I pick this up and try it out? So it's like getting both sides of it.

Dave (28:39.235)
I've also got, literally, I'm dealing with the hype machines named Eric and Matt, who have both told me multiple times how good it is. So expectations were really high going into this.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (28:45.94)
Yeah, you've got the wrong people. Yeah.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (28:52.272)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I was hooked when I read the first two issues. I remember reading the first two and being like, fuck, this is this is awesome. So, I mean, for me, I was in. Yeah.

Dave (29:00.323)
I remember you doing that and telling me about it. You actually texted me and you were like, dude, you picked this up? And I was like, mm-mm. I did not. Sorry.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (29:06.665)
Hehehehe

Matt (29:08.706)
I saw Erica and was hooked. That's like Erica's Erica hooked me. Like she was such an appealing character. Something different. With that big ass eye. Like I was hooked.

Dave (29:13.219)
Yeah, that's fair.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (29:17.322)
I see.

To me, this was at a time, like, so for context, where we used to practice, our band rehearsal space, was right by a comic shop called Titan Comics. And so I had a box with them. So on Wednesdays when we'd go to practice or whatever, I would stop in and pick stuff up. But I also was just like randomly trying new stuff. I'd walk up and down the aisles and go, this looks cool.

I'll buy an issue or two and see how it is. And this was one of those that I was like, all right, let me try this out. I hadn't like heard about it. I didn't read it in previews. I didn't go online and see people saying how to pick it up. It was, that might be part of why I was like, holy fuck. I randomly grabbed something that like really grabbed me.

Dave (30:03.875)
That's how I found Invincible. Same way, well, not exactly the same way. I was working at the comic shop at the time. I was looking for something to read on a Saturday evening when no one was in the store. I was just walking around and I was like, oh, this looks interesting, superheroes. I like superheroes. And 20 years later, I'm still loving it just as much as I did the first time I read it.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (30:05.821)
Yeah?

Matt (30:27.15)
I also think this book took off. It was one of my kind of like hot takes or whatever, but like this book really took off. Like it came out during the pandemic and I think that had a huge impact. Like people were looking for things to do. And I mean, comics just in general were up during the pandemic just because people were at home. It was something kind of safe. Get a comic, stay home, read it digitally, XYZ. And I do remember the hype around this book. Like there was a lot of buzz in shops talking about this. Like in the...

In my shop, they have the different masks. Like it's like a thing. So I do think that had a part of this for sure.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (31:05.076)
Yeah, I mean, so not to like correct you, it can't, it started the first 10 or 12 came out before the pandemic. It started, started in 2019. And I remember because when everything shut down, I actually moved during that time and trying to pick up the two or three because they shut down production and a couple came out trying to track down the two or three that I was missing was really difficult. I had to like pay triple the price online to get, I think issue like 14 or 15,

Matt (31:12.63)
Did it really? Okay.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (31:34.62)
Not that many went out and not that many hung around in shops. So, uh, it definitely, I think blew up over the pandemic. Yeah. I saw you definitely right in that regard.

Matt (31:42.09)
Yeah, the collectors. Yeah, the collect. Yeah, yeah.

Dave (31:49.219)
So should we move on to the bad? Do you guys have anything bad to say about this comic even? Should I start?

Matt (31:51.359)
Yeah, you gotta-

Erik, uh, Slaughter (31:54.313)
I do.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (31:58.529)
I don't know. I don't have a lot of bad things. I have two bad things.

Dave (32:00.835)
Okay, so do I. But I think one's gonna spark some conversation.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (32:06.013)
Okay.

Dave (32:08.675)
Number one, contrary to what opinions have been stated so far, not super loving the art. I think that... Oh.

Matt (32:17.77)
That's one of mine too.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (32:19.264)
That's also one of mine. I actually, I have it in good and bad. As good as it is, it's also pretty fucking ugly sometimes.

Dave (32:23.779)
Okay.

Matt (32:23.917)
Okay.

Dave (32:26.755)
Yes. And it's, it bums me out because I, you know, I, one of my, one of my creature comforts every month is flipping through a paper copy of the previews catalog and writing out my comic book order to then send into Lone Star Comics where I buy all my comic books. I do mail order. I don't go to a comic shop. I don't like your local comic shop. I don't think it's a good experience. So I do all of my stuff mail order. Um, that cover art, huh?

Erik, uh, Slaughter (32:54.668)
Mine's pretty good. As I say, my local shop's pretty good.

Matt (32:56.579)
That's great.

Dave (32:59.523)
I'm glad you guys have good shops. I can't find any here. Happy for you. Very happy for you. I'm also kind of a grump, so you know what, I'm not out there making friends like Matt. Matt befriends every single person he sees in public. Couldn't be me.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (33:01.58)
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah

Matt (33:03.174)
Fuck me, I don't know.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (33:13.492)
I don't make friends either, so.

Matt (33:15.412)
I'd appreciate that shot, but that's cool, man. Whatever, no big deal.

Dave (33:18.307)
Well, but it is true. That's I'm trying to fit. Let me finish. Let me finish. So part of going through previews, I see this incredible cover art for something is killing the children every single month. And now finally, literally, I bought all five trade paperbacks a year ago this month. When Matt was in town visiting, we went to cow town comic con, which is in Fort Worth. Shout out cow town comic con, by the way, it's probably the best

Erik, uh, Slaughter (33:18.464)
So you don't think the cover art's cool? Wait a minute, you think the cover art sucks? Ha ha ha.

Matt (33:23.374)
I'm going to go ahead and turn it off.

Matt (33:35.894)
You're in.

Dave (33:46.531)
regional con I've ever been to. They understand that it's a comic book convention first and a pop culture and Funko pop collection convention second. But I bought all of those a year ago. I've been just sitting around waiting and expecting to have the interior art be as good as the cover art. And boy was I surprised in a bad way.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (34:11.848)
I mean, I guess it depends on expectations because I didn't have that expectation when I first bought it. So I was like already there. So even though I can acknowledge that I'm like, sometimes these characters and stuff look ugly. And I think some of it's intentional and some of it's probably not, but yeah, I get that. I hate, hate when I'm like, oh man, this looks cool because fuck what people say. I definitely judge comics by a cover. If there's a cool cover, I'm gonna pick it up and look at it. And then I look inside and I'm like, this.

Matt (34:40.822)
Yep.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (34:41.14)
fucking sucks. So, but I do like the art, but I also hate the art.

Dave (34:48.482)
I think stylistically it's, I guess it sort of matches the tone, but it doesn't lend itself to particularly cool or scary monster design. So far, I don't know. Just a big spider.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (35:01.6)
Hmm

Matt (35:07.754)
It gets kind of muddy too in the combat. It's just, there's, I don't know. That style, I don't know.

Dave (35:15.235)
Yeah. Again, I don't hate it.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (35:15.668)
Yeah, I won't disagree with you because I kind of feel the same at times.

Dave (35:22.819)
I don't hate it. I just don't love it. I'm very indifferent, but indifference doesn't have a spot on our three categories of conversation, so it had to go bad.

Matt (35:26.19)
It's just different.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (35:34.516)
You know, it's funny though, because it's like, you know, I grew up listening to a band that I fucking love. I listened to them all the time. And then I tell somebody else to check it out, who was not there from the beginning and didn't like listen to it all along. And they're like, I don't fucking get it. So it's kinda, there's a little bit of that level. Jumping in now is a little different than picking up issue one and reading along. I think, I think it's like.

Dave (35:59.843)
Yeah, that's fair. That's fair.

Matt (35:59.927)
Good point.

Dave (36:04.323)
The other sort of negative thing here is that, again, I mentioned it in the recap, it wraps up so quickly, the entire five issue arc feels like an MCU origin movie. And that's not a compliment. That's actually an insult because the MCU origin movie is one of the worst possible things about the MCU.

where you make me sit through an hour and 40 minutes of whatever to give me 20 minutes of our hero in costume doing super hero-y things. And I feel like that's kind of what happened here. Like I barely got any monster hunter action until the very end. And I just, I feel like if it would have been, I don't know, I, again, I'm not gonna armchair quarterback a guy like James Tynan, who is, again, I think an incredible writer, but I think they're

Matt (36:57.875)
I'm sorry.

Dave (37:01.027)
For someone like me, I would have preferred that this first arc be told sort of non-linearly where we're getting the backstory interspersed with maybe a longer drawn out fight. The end fight kind of pulled forward, maybe started in issue three or something. Just give me a little bit more. I think there's some cool concepts and there's, I went into it expecting like,

monsters and fantasy and some more of those supernatural spooky type of elements. And there, there wasn't a lot of that. There was a lot of anticipation. And then I think maybe due to the art not being super great for me, the anticipation didn't hit quite as strongly as I would have wanted it to. Again, this feels, it's kind of nitpicky, but that's sort of, when I was done, I actually, when I finished issue five, I actually went, oh, that, that's it. I expected a sixth issue. I didn't realize I was only getting five.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (37:48.691)
Interesting.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (38:00.704)
First off, I hate that trade paperbacks and comic arcs are now five instead of six. I miss six. Because I think, not to say that this didn't tell the story it wanted to tell, I think it does. But that's, I actually think what you said there is a really interesting take and not one I would have even considered. Because, and I'm gonna, I don't think this is a spoiler for you, but as you go forward, this is not necessarily a series about gore and fighting monsters. It's a series about

Matt (38:06.815)
Yes.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (38:30.48)
intricate characters and their relationships. And it's a lot like saga and that regard as well. So, you know, it's kind of like I remember when that whatever 2015 2017 Godzilla came out and people were like, there was only a couple minutes of Godzilla at the end. And I'm like, yeah, but that's okay. You know, it didn't have to be Godzilla front to back. However, if you went in thinking this is going to be that kind of thing, then I could definitely see where you'd be like,

This is not what I anticipated. So I get it.

Dave (39:05.219)
I can tell you you got it you you bit your lip at one point

Erik, uh, Slaughter (39:06.796)
Hehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe

Matt (39:09.734)
No, no, I think, no, honestly, what I was doing, I was flipping through volume two and I'm like, dude, you really, I don't volume two will really, it, it will. And there's a lot there. That's why I was like, I remember volume two, this was almost like invincible. The, I like the 12 issues instead of the first six, because it really, I feel like the 12 issues is the first real arc.

Dave (39:10.115)
I feel like I'm gonna get blown up right now.

Dave (39:20.963)
I mean, if it reads as fast as volume one, I can probably give volume to a try because

Erik, uh, Slaughter (39:25.097)
Yeah.

Matt (39:39.266)
Cause you're going to get a lot of the supporting characters that just abruptly cut off at the end of issue five. Dude gets bonked in the head and there's all these people around a table with weird masks. Oh, you get that in volume two, who those people are. Like that's what I'm saying. And there's like a, there's a huge fight in that second volume that that's what I've been thinking about. I'm like, oh man, I just really hope he sticks it out. Just one more trade. I want you to give it one more trade. Like, and they do read quick, like Eric said, like, I love it. It's like,

Dave (40:02.819)
All right, all right, fine, I'll do it.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (40:05.014)
Yeah.

Matt (40:09.39)
cold open Miami Vice. Like, you know, and they're like, it reads quick like that. So I think you should give it a try.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (40:12.268)
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah

Dave (40:17.795)
All right, all right, I will. However, if I don't like it, I'm invoicing both of you for my time.

Matt (40:23.426)
That's fine. You paid $5 for those trades, so I'll send you 10 homie, I got you.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (40:23.776)
Fair.

Dave (40:28.483)
I spent more than five, dude. It was 25% off. They weren't $5 trades. They were not $5. Don't make me go back and look at the credit card receipt from a year ago, because I will do it. I am that petty. You know I'm that petty.

Matt (40:32.799)
No, it's just for five dollars. I don't care.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (40:36.416)
Yeah

Matt (40:39.666)
This dude's gonna get pulled up in her seat. Petty, that's some petty. I love it.

Matt (40:49.942)
My only bad was Tommy. Tommy kind of sucked. Tommy was like, yeah, he was very realistic in like how anyone would react, honestly. But I was just like, dude, like you're flying off the handle, you're getting a gun, you're trying to kill Erica, you shot James, like dude, you're out of control, man. Like you're a bit of a hothead, but I get it. I was just like, you kind of suck, that's all. And I had similar art complaints. I had similar art complaints, like.

Dave (40:53.443)
Yeah, he's kind of a bitch.

Matt (41:17.59)
The art style does grow in you. I remember reading this at first. I was super like, this is like really jarring, but I liked the story, so I stuck with it. And then like Werther's style started to build and there's a different artist on House of Slaughter if I remember correctly. Eric, you can correct me. I believe it was a different artist on that. Is it Werther Q? Is it? Okay, nevermind. All right, I'll shut up. I'll Werther, I'll Werther.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (41:35.5)
I think it's still Della Dara. Yeah.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (41:41.54)
i mean, house of slaughter looks fairly similar as you read through it yeah yeah, it's pretty much the same kind of art

Matt (41:44.555)
It just looks good.

Is it the same guy? Okay, alright, alright. I'm wrong, I stand corrected.

Eric is the correction master. Yeah. Spoilers.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (41:54.38)
Spoiler. Okay, here's my bad. And Dave, you brought up reading digitally. And I don't know how you read it if it was guided panel by panel, but like, okay, good. Reading physical, and this doesn't continue happening, but in these first couple of few issues, there are these, you know, normally you read

Dave (41:56.419)
Mm-hmm.

Matt (42:05.454)
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Dave (42:09.315)
Always guided view.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (42:23.232)
page by page, and then they'll do spreads across two pages. There are multiple places just in this first trade where it's not clear when it spans two pages, and I go, fuck, I read it out of order. Even this time I read it out of order and had to go back. That was really frustrating to me. I remembered feeling that way the first time. And he fixes it. He fixes it after the first couple of trades, but.

Matt (42:36.91)
Yup.

Dave (42:37.443)
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Erik, uh, Slaughter (42:51.67)
That was one thing that bothered me.

Dave (42:53.315)
That's one of my pet peeves with reading comics in general is like accidentally reading something out of order and then going, fuck, now I gotta fix this. Like mentally, I have to fix my brain. Yeah.

Matt (42:53.559)
You ready?

Erik, uh, Slaughter (42:59.668)
Yes. Especially when it spoils something. Yeah.

Matt (43:02.05)
You re-

You read it physically, Eric. You got your issues out or whatever, or did the trade.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (43:09.629)
I won't touch those issues, but I didn't read the trade. Yeah.

Matt (43:13.155)
video. Okay, so you did trade. So digitally on global comics, Dave, to drive even more nuts, what Eric is saying to build on that. It literally takes like page one, and then page two. So I read multiple pages out of order. Like comicsology, it's normally like the whole thing. And it's just like really tiny. No, it was like page one. And I'm like, someone got shot. And then I go to the next one. I'm like, what like, completely out of order. So I had to keep going back and forth. I was like,

Erik, uh, Slaughter (43:24.462)
OHHHH!

Erik, uh, Slaughter (43:35.476)
Yes.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (43:40.19)
sucks.

Matt (43:40.283)
Out of control. Out of control, bro.

Dave (43:43.619)
I would not handle that well. That would make me very upset.

Matt (43:45.691)
Drop. Oh shit.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (43:48.372)
Yeah, fuck that.

Dave (43:54.787)
All right, well, if there are any controversial opinions or hot takes, now is the time to share them as we hit the home stretch here. I only have one, and mine's also potentially, well, I'll just let you guys, I'll defer to y'all and then I'll share mine if you don't touch on it.

Matt (44:19.098)
You guys kind of hit on mine. My one point was, are you not entertained? It was a question to Dave and the gladiator voice, but we kind of hit on that. He's like, he's going to stick with it, but he's kind of on, you know, whatever ground. It's like, I'll give it one more shot. But yeah, I get it. Yeah. Yeah, you're on a

Dave (44:26.563)
Mm-mm.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (44:36.82)
I got it.

Dave (44:38.147)
It's like when I drop a monthly book, it's one bad issue away for me cutting it from the team.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (44:45.289)
I will say, of the past five years, this is my favorite new book.

Matt (44:49.893)
That was mother thing.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (44:51.348)
I think it's worth continuing to read. However, I don't think everybody's gonna like it. You know, I mean, I think Saga is one of the few books that I would say anybody read this. You'll like it if you give it some time. And I think this, right, right. And I think this is a close second. However, the subject matter is, you know, maybe not to everybody's liking. There might be elements of it that people don't like, but I do have a hot take. And...

Dave (45:05.059)
Even if you don't like comic books, you'll like Saga.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (45:21.192)
It's not necessarily about the book, but it's about a decision that Tanyan made. And I mentioned that this is like reading or watching episodes of a TV show, and he has optioned this to Netflix for a series.

I don't think that's going to work and I don't want to see it because I think comics are the right format for a story like this. Because although it's grounded in a reality that we recognize, we aren't looking at real humans. We're looking at art that is clearly fantasy and not real. And there's a lot of things that are abnormal or fantastical that are easy for us to accept are part of this comic world that has been created in these books.

put human beings on the screen. I feel like you start to look at it differently and go, that doesn't make sense, that doesn't work, that's weird. Even if you're not saying it, I think there's some of it there. Now, if they did like an invincible treatment and kind of took this art style and cleaned it up and maybe, you know, did a 3D version of it or something, maybe, but I feel like I'm worried about them doing it. Cause I, as you can tell, I really do love this series.

I like it for what it is, but for the same reason that these Disney live action remakes don't work, when you pull somebody out of the fantasy, you destroy that immersion and go, here's people doing this in real life. And you're like, this doesn't fucking make sense. This doesn't work. In comic format, I feel like you just accept that all things are possible in this world and what's presented makes sense. So I'm worried about that. That's my hot take is.

Matt (46:41.334)
Oh my god.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (47:01.168)
I want it to come to the masses, but I want to force people to read it. I don't want them to just see it on Netflix.

Matt (47:06.734)
If we confirm my brother that it is live action though, that's, I knew it was option, but if we confirm, the assumption would be that it would probably be live action, but yeah.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (47:12.929)
I don't know.

Dave (47:15.171)
assume that it is based on Netflix track record. The only thing that Netflix does that's animated is anime style animation. Like when they did Pacific Rim, Castlevania, they have their own like yeah like they do anime that is their own IP so I would assume this is live action. That's actually my hot take as well. It's about the Netflix show.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (47:23.852)
That's true.

Matt (47:26.957)
Yeah.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (47:29.096)
Devil may cry, yeah.

Dave (47:43.075)
much different hot take. I think for me, this works better as a show than a comic, for me. And this is primarily because the shows that Netflix have done that are sort of in this vein, I've really, really enjoyed. I think the risk is that they're only gonna give it one season and cancel it before they have two weeks worth of viewer data to make a decision, like they always do.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (47:48.689)
Interesting.

Dave (48:12.739)
But I think in the stranger things, like that vein of Netflix production, I think this could be a cool show and one that maybe I would appreciate more than in comic form. And given that each of these issues is written like an episode of a TV show, I don't know how far off they really have to go to adapt it.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (48:39.528)
It's basically a storyboard for a TV show. It really is built that way. I've seen the comparison to Stranger Things, which is weird for me because although I loved the first season, which I do think has similarities, from there, it's just gotten silly. And I'm like, don't do that to it. Just don't do that.

Dave (48:57.283)
That's fair. The most recent season of Stranger Things was really, really good though. I did, I'm sort of on like an inverted bell curve with Stranger Things, where I really like it and then I really don't and then I really do.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (49:11.84)
All right. I would trust Amazon more because they've done great comic adaptations except for Paper Girls, which I think they fucking botched. But.

Dave (49:14.403)
Yeah, me too.

Dave (49:19.363)
I didn't even watch it because I heard it was terrible.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (49:22.196)
I love Paper Girls, the comics, but I did not like the show. I couldn't even get through the show.

Dave (49:24.227)
I know.

Matt (49:29.726)
Team Eric on this one. I'm sticking to the source material. I don't want to watch cheese-grated children that personally. I'm a little too close to that. Understandably, I just like that. I don't know how they're going to pull that off. Because if you're going to do it, do it. Like, whether I want it or not, you should do it like you portray it in the comic, personally. That's my opinion. Not everything has to be for me though, too. So, and I understand that.

Dave (49:31.363)
Yeah, I know. I know.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (49:31.389)
Hehehe

Dave (49:45.059)
Yeah.

Dave (49:52.131)
Yeah, that's fair.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (49:55.668)
Here's the question though, who would play Erica Slaughter? Because I have my, so my wife, Christie, has also read the entire series and she disagrees with me because I was like Emma Stone is obviously Erica Slaughter. She was like, no, she wants, if you've seen the show, Ahsoka, Ivana Sacco who plays Shin Hati on that, I don't disagree with her, but I just need somebody to agree with me that Emma Stone would be a good Erica Slaughter.

Matt (50:23.108)
I can see Emma Stone as Erica Slaughter.

Dave (50:23.363)
So that was the first person I thought of when you said who would play it. Emma Stone was the first person I thought of. Then I was thinking, well, she might be a little old for this now. Is there anybody better? And I don't know if there's anybody better.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (50:27.775)
Nice.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (50:33.248)
That's what Christie said.

Matt (50:36.086)
You said that. Avana Soko, is that what your wife said? From, I could see it with those eyes, man. I could see the Erica. She's got the Erica eyes. If you Google that, Google that woman. Uh, I can see it. Uh, I K S a K and oh yeah. Like those eyes. Yeah.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (50:40.853)
Yeah.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (50:44.476)
Yeah, she's got the eyes.

Dave (50:48.003)
person up.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (50:50.31)
Yeah.

Dave (50:51.267)
How do I spell that?

Erik, uh, Slaughter (50:53.512)
uh i vana i think her last name is s a k h o something like that

Dave (50:59.139)
Yep, found it. Oh yeah, that would be a good choice. Yeah, she has the look.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (51:07.564)
So everybody agrees. We need to start the petition if it's gonna happen Netflix needs to hire

Matt (51:12.054)
One of these. One of these two. Let's go.

Dave (51:13.571)
Emma Stone is only 34?

Erik, uh, Slaughter (51:15.909)
Oh, then she could do it.

Dave (51:17.187)
definitely could do it.

How is she only 34? I feel like she's gotta be like, I mean, that's what the internet says, man. The internet's not wrong, ever.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (51:21.996)
Is that right?

Matt (51:24.036)
Yeah, probably.

Dude in Hollywood you can be like 70. Look at Tom Cruise. We're good. Emma Stone's good. It doesn't matter.

Dave (51:31.235)
That she was born in 88.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (51:32.104)
Yeah, 34. Yeah. She's I mean, she's about to turn 35, but still that I just assumed she was older than that.

Dave (51:38.019)
Yeah. I mean, in the MCU, we got literally people in their 50s and 60s running around playing superhero now. So, like, who cares?

Matt (51:43.801)
Hahaha

Erik, uh, Slaughter (51:45.844)
Bro, in the MCU, you've got people in their 50s marrying 25-year-olds in real life, so, I mean.

Matt (51:51.149)
Exactly. Yeah.

Dave (51:51.619)
Yeah, it's completely off the rails.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (51:55.36)
Totally.

Dave (51:56.963)
completely off the rails. Well, yeah, I guess that about wraps up our House of Slaughter discussion. I will give it another volume. You've both convinced me.

Matt (52:07.234)
Something is killing the children.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (52:08.245)
Hell yeah.

Yes. House of Slaughter. We'll get into that way later. Yeah.

Matt (52:12.898)
You're something that's killing this children discussion. If you want to jump to house of slaughter, we can do that if you want Dave.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (52:18.178)
Yeah

Dave (52:18.531)
When do I read that?

Matt (52:21.994)
Oh, that's Eric, is it?

Erik, uh, Slaughter (52:22.804)
Oh, that's a good question. Yeah. So House of Slaughter, like, like Matt said, it's in breaks. So they do something, but they did the first several arcs of house or of something is killing children before they started House of Slaughter. So we are into the fifth, the fifth arc of House of Slaughter now, I think. So I would say after probably the fifth,

Dave (52:23.939)
Yeah, see? See? What do I do? Who knows? I don't.

Matt (52:31.357)
Yeah, like...

Erik, uh, Slaughter (52:51.64)
arc of something is killing. I have to look it up what order to read in, but it's something somewhere in that range. You don't have to start until you're like several trades in though.

Matt (52:55.342)
He'll gotcha. He's gotcha.

Dave (52:58.627)
There's a...

Matt (53:01.933)
Yeah.

Dave (53:02.947)
There's probably a reading order somewhere on-

Erik, uh, Slaughter (53:05.824)
Definitely is there definitely is

Dave (53:07.843)
but it's not as easy to find as I thought. I thought I would get that with a quick Google.

Matt (53:11.286)
But Eric, it's also not super contemporary if I remember. You can definitely read it out of order. And let's.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (53:18.824)
I really think you could because House of Slaughter, although it touches on, there are parallels, it talks about characters and stuff, it follows other characters. It's kind of like saying, hey, here's Erica's story. Now let's follow other characters in their story and how there are through lines between the two series. So.

Matt (53:29.323)
Yes, that's right.

Matt (53:39.182)
Yes.

Dave (53:40.515)
It says here, after volume four, if something is killing the children, you should go to volume one of House of Slaughter if you want to go in release order.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (53:48.608)
That's right. Yeah. Yeah, and then you just go back and forth. Yeah. That's what I was saying. I was guessing five, so four makes sense, yeah. But also when it's time to talk about this, you just let me know. I'll come back on.

Matt (54:04.334)
I've heard about that.

Dave (54:04.387)
World Tree, okay. I actually, I got issue one of that in like a free bundle of number ones digitally, and I remember reading it and going, this is cool, I should check this out someday. And then I just like never went back to it.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (54:20.392)
Well, it's our guy, Tanyan. And I've read a bunch of his books, like, Blue Book and Wind and stuff like that. Man, not since I started reading something as Killing the Children did a book grab a hold of me like World Tree did. I was stoked on it right from the beginning. And it's not that deep in. Like, if you're gonna start...

Matt (54:43.624)
Uhhhhhh, snap. Oh snap!

Erik, uh, Slaughter (54:48.452)
I think they just finished the first five issue arc and there's a lot in there, so it's worth picking up and reading.

Dave (54:54.691)
I must be thinking of something else then because I yeah, I'm thinking of something else. I didn't realize that was that recent. Scratch what I said.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (55:01.716)
Yeah, it's new, it's new. Okay, scratched. It's out of my memory.

Dave (55:05.859)
Perfect. Perfect. Thank you. Eric, any closing thoughts? Since you are the esteemed guest of honor.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (55:12.604)
Um, well, I mean, my closing thought is I'm glad you took a chance and read the first trade at least, even if you don't read beyond that, I'm glad you, you gave it a shot because it's my goal to like get people to check out this book. So I'm glad you did.

Dave (55:29.443)
I'm sorry it took me so long.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (55:31.64)
fine. Hey, and you invited me on to talk about it, which is even better. I got to talk about something that's killing the children, so I'm stoked.

Dave (55:37.603)
Yeah, we're happy to have you. It was a good conversation. Before we go, I always like to let everyone know that their support is appreciated. So not only do we need you to share our podcast, rate it on Spotify, whatever Apple podcasts, share it on social help us grow growth means we can keep doing the podcast. But while you're at it, you should do the same thing for Eric and his podcast.

Matt (55:40.318)
Absolutely, absolutely.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (55:40.512)
Thanks.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (56:06.984)
Hey, thanks. Twisted with us, that's T-W-I-Z-T-I-D with us. Or you can look up ICP with we, or you can go to our website, icpwwe.com.

Dave (56:07.011)
What's it called again? One more time?

Dave (56:20.099)
Perfect. So check out Eric stuff. If you're a juggalo or a jugglet, you'll probably enjoy it. I enjoyed my time on his podcast, you'll probably enjoy it too.

Matt (56:28.366)
This was great.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (56:29.224)
Yeah, even if you're not, if you don't identify as a Juggalo, which we now use that term as all genders, by the way. And yeah, but yeah, I mean, it's just a fun show and the whole premise was music lovers that are interested in this weird phenomenon, trying to like explore it and understand it. So even if you're like, I've heard of these guys, they're weird, it's worth checking out.

Dave (56:37.763)
Okay, okay, I didn't know that.

Dave (56:55.843)
Cool. Any socials that you want to plug. I know you're not really a big social media guy.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (57:00.553)
I used to have X, but I got logged out and I don't remember how to log back in. So.

Dave (57:05.955)
Hell yeah. Well we still call that shit Twitter around here. I'll never call it X. But if you wanna follow Matt and I on Twitter, our handles will be in the description of this audio or video episode along with my threads, which no one uses including me. But if you follow me on threads, I'll follow you back.

Matt (57:06.856)
Probably for the best.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (57:10.064)
Okay.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (57:25.141)
You can follow our podcast on Instagram or X slash Twitter. Just go to the website. That's it.

Dave (57:29.251)
Perfect. Send me your info. I'll put it in the description of the episode so it's easier for people to find. I mean, just direct link to it. That's way easier. So, happy Halloween. This comes out on the 30th of October. Hopefully you listen to it the day it comes out. If you don't listen to it then, might sound weird that I'm wishing you a happy Halloween, but that's your fault, not mine. We'll see y'all in a week or two. Until then, we have Eric with us. My name is Dave.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (57:37.648)
Awesome. I love it.

Matt (57:57.651)
I'm Matt.

Dave (57:58.915)
Take care of yourselves everybody, bye bye.

Matt (58:01.102)
Peace.

Erik, uh, Slaughter (58:02.401)
Bye!