Red Raider Show Episode 8

aka Theming

Hello, Red Raiders, and welcome to the last update of the year here at the Comic Pop Patreon. I am excited to talk to you today to get into a little bit about what we are doing, what we're heading towards, and more importantly, how we're going to approach the new year before we get started. Thank you all so much for joining and for being here and for supporting us for this higher year or even if you've only just bombed in. Really lucky to have you. Thank you so much for supporting us. It has allowed us to weather some significant storms this year that you probably have heard about. If you have at all heard this show. YouTube has been doing some serious dickery, just completely screwing around with the algorithm. Some weeks it'd be great, and other weeks it would be in the toilet and there's no rhyme or reason for it whatsoever. I'm still convinced that that Tom King New York Comic Con video either didn't get pushed to subscribers or YouTube was fussing with an algorithm or something because there's no excuse. It said Batman. It has all three of us in the thumbnail. Just because Elmer Fuds in it doesn't mean that everybody immediately avoided it. But still, lowest performing episode of the year, which the benchmark at this point is 20,000. If the show gets under 20,000, it's a total failure, and if it's over 20,000, I guess we did it. We were able to pull it off. 

I have been having this throat issue. I don't know what it is, but I'm going to the doctor tomorrow to look into it. You might be able to hear it. Right now my voice is a little strained and it just kind of happened like overnight. One day after shooting back issues, my voice felt a lot strained and I don't know why and it gets tired, so I don't know what's going on. But the doctor hopefully will be able to find something going on. I'm looking forward to getting back to normal, and then we can just jump into it, because I have a lot of energy and a lot of desire to continue to produce a ton of different stuff, which includes this show, the Wake Up Show, new Elseworlds episodes returning to that show again and making new shows like Comic Line and Elseworlds combined into a very special type of show that will feature the entire Comic Pop team. Let's take a look at that right now. 

Actually, I realized that the absolutely Marvel and DC channel that I co own with Benny is doing really well. And I wondered if I am in any way helping to contribute to the success of that channel, why aren't my shows doing as well? Why aren't channels that I'm in charge of growing, like this new channel? Why is Comicop Returns being left in the dust? So it occurred to me, I'm not jumping on topical subjects. I'm not really getting into them as often as this other show. This other show has established itself this other channel, I should say, has established itself as being like a place for topical content. And so people are there every day practically to get their content, to get an insight into what's going on. So I was like, all right, well, the reality is we can do that. And I want to do that. Like, I want to do that. So I came up with five topics off the top of my head that I felt were representative of what the audience was interested in talking about. And so I was like, all right, well, how do I know where to start? And I think I knew what the number one video was going to be, but I threw a poll on the Comic Pop Returns Channel community tab and we got 2.7 thousand votes on that, which was great because it's a good sign that the audience over there is interested in it. But I asked, what is a topic you most want us to COVID and the reason why I did that. Obviously I'm going to COVID all those topics, but I wanted to see what the number one, number two topics were. Like, if people had to give a Sophie's Choice, what are we going to oh man, what do I want the most next? And by and large, overwhelmingly 33%, said the Post Hickman Cricoa report card. So the show, I think in that regard is going to be an actual comic line. Films like three camera angles, myself and Tiffany. And we're going to go over the Post Hickman Cricoa report card. We're going to check off what kind of grade we would give Crecoa and the X Men titles in a Post Hickman world. And so that's going to be the next video. And then the rest of them can all be Elseworld's esque shows, that is to say, StreamYard using the remote location filming to make these videos happen. The next highest. Was DC cinematic universe total or partial reboot? And it's just the devil's advocate, just a question, and I want to see what my team has to say about that. Like as moviegoers, as passive fans of this kind of subject, would you rather see a complete and utter top down reboot or are there some elements of it you want to see remain? So we're going to talk about that. The next highest was the Ben Riley Better Hero or Menace subject? And I think that's just going to be a fun conversation of just like, what do we do with Ben Riley? Is he a hero or is he a villain? What do we do with him? And what should Marvel be doing with this character? The next highest massive marvel events. Yea or nay? What do you think of these events and how do you feel about them? Are they doing more harm than good or are they necessary evil. And then the next one up was, how should comics handle promotion? Lowest possible it could get. But it's a subject that I've been talking about for the better part of it. I think that's been like my theme for the year has been, what are comic books doing to promote themselves? What is marketing doing? And I still think that people would watch this episode, so I'm still going to do it. So these are all future videos that you're going to see from Comic Pop Returns and promoted, of course, via our various social medias. But I'm excited. I think that this is a good direction and it's a good focus to have because I want us to be doing videos you want to see and I want us to be the source that you go to when it comes to any given topic that you care about. So I just tried something out and I want to get your opinion on this one. 

Obviously, Twitter is in a weird place right now and it has been a major source for me to promote the channel and to get a community fostered on that side of the internet. But if you actually look at the analytics twitter doesn't really factor in when it comes to the bulk of traffic we get. Surprisingly enough, Facebook is a real source of traffic. Not a real in the sense that if we lost the bell for notifications and subscriber notification push, facebook could pick up the slack. No, Facebook is in no way that beneficial. But I was wondering if we lose Twitter or if I lose Twitter, or if Twitter falls apart. And actually now that I'm thinking about it, what if, like, all of social media just fell apart? That'd be kind of wonderful. But on another hand, I'm wondering, should the community tab be used on both channels as a kind of social media of its own, where instead of me thinking like, oh, I have this funny tweet or this idea or this observation that I want to make about the comic book industry or about a creator or a new book that I like, Instead of posting it on Twitter, why don't I throw it on the community tab? I mean, the majority of the audience is subscribed to the channel. That is where the audience literally is. And so if the YouTube gods really want us to use their stuff, including the community tab, do you think the audience would respond positively to the idea of being like, let's just use the community tab as a method of communicating with the audience? Right now, I rely on it for the most part to get information from the audience and to let them know if and when something has come out just so that nothing falls through the cracks. It's been a huge help when I write an article for CBR and I get that out there to the audience that should be reading it because hopefully if you're subscribed, you want to read something I've written. But I think that's the new plan. I think that I'm going to try to use the tab and unless I hear like overwhelming dissent from you guys, I'm going to use it for like a Twitter substitute, so to speak. Of course, that's not going to change anything over on Patreon, but I'm wondering, Patreon where you guys are. This is where you get exclusive access to the shows. Hopefully a little earlier, I couldn't release the Elseworld's interview episodes earlier on Patreon because they had sensitive information and it was an embargo that was put on both episodes and so I couldn't release them to you guys because it had information that you couldn't have at the time. I didn't set up those interviews. Those interviews were set up for me through DC Comics with those creators. And so as such, I had to abide by their requirements and rules. I don't like to do that, but I also want to make friends and I want to keep those contacts. But for the most part, you're here on Patreon to get exclusive content like this show, like early access and peaks into the structure of the channel. But would you respond to using Patreon as a kind of exclusive social media hub where maybe me and or Tiffany, Ben, Ethan post things that are observations that might normally go on something like Instagram or Twitter, but instead go on the Patreon or also go on the Patreon? I don't know. I don't know if that's what you're looking for in this experience. So I don't want to push it and I don't want to get attached to that idea, but I feel like it's something to ask. So what do you think? Let me know otherwise. 

Yeah, so I think that's what I'm going to try with the community tab and kind of move away from the social medias a little bit and stay a little indoors, so to speak. Stay hang out with you guys more directly instead of branching out into wherever the hell that is. Because it doesn't really do us any good to just build a community on a thing that someone could buy and then completely fuck up. So why bother? Essentially, we've seen the strings on social media. I've seen it and I know that regardless of how it's actually kind of a moment that reminds me of one more day when I read the last issue. I remember reading on the internet people who had no more access to information than I did, saying things like, oh, well, we know that JMS is going to have to undo the marriage. We know the joke is not. And back then I didn't really know that. I was just kind of like, what? How do you know all this? Where do you get your information from? Some of it was faulty, but a lot of it was not. And I'm like, how did you know all this before it was happening? And I had faith in the system at that time. I was like, no, I think that if they know that you think you know all this information, then there's no way they're going to just do that because it is so demonstrably unpopular. Then they did anyway, and they unmade the marriage. And it was really messy and gross and it led to an ugly period in Spiderman's history that a lot of people got into. But it was an eye opening moment for me where I was like, there is no story, there is no creator that is too precious, that is beyond editorial control. That is beyond what the corporate overlords want. They didn't want to keep Straczynski more than they wanted to kill the marriage. And they didn't care about the fans more than they cared about, I don't know, Cassada's ego or their desire for sales boost. I mean, I don't know. Looking back on that, corporate speaking, I think Brand New Day obviously got in new readers, and I think that based on how old readers behave. I wonder how many actually quit the book, because I did, but I wonder how many classic readers actually did stop reading the series. Clearly not enough to send a message. And it was the same with the Renew Your Vows series from Stegman where it was like I remember saying if this book about a married Spider-Man and Mary Jane with a kid outsells Amazing Spiderman which, by and large, according to social media, everybody hated then it will send a message to the corporate people this is what the audience really wants. The renew your vows series got canceled. Amazing continued. The status quo was maintained. But looking at that reminds me a little bit of social media and the volatility of it. Twitter is one of those things that was ingrained in our culture, in society. You will hear people say things like dictatorships were toppled, regimes were changed, lives were changed, made, destroyed, et cetera, because of Twitter. And then one person bought it and now like, it's irrelevant. I think that's a gross oversimplification of the idea, but it is breaking and getting worse, and people's dissatisfaction with it will ultimately give way to its irrelevance. And it's like no matter how ingrained or essential something is viewed, nothing is beyond getting fucked up, essentially, I guess, is what I'm saying. And so it's kind of an eye opening moment for me a little bit. Not unlike that moment with One More Day, where it's like, oh, nothing is forever and nothing is too precious. Anything can be broken and everything will end, which is pretty fucking dark. So I apologize for that. But that's all to say. 

Hey, 2023 is going to be a crazy year, I can already tell. And I'm hopeful that it's going to be a year of growth and progress. We haven't even seen some of the results of efforts made not six, eight months ago. I was given kind of like a pat on the shoulder wink and a nod assurance which, as we just discussed, could mean absolutely jack shit, but assurance that the shorts endeavor will perform for us. Shorts is one of those things that I think is like a necessary evil. You know, I don't mind having key moments from back issues or deleted moments from back issues kind of chopped up and put out there onto things like Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. If it builds audience and it shows people who might see an hour 20 minutes long video and go, I don't know about that, but seeing a 32nd video that's pulled from that hopefully engenders us to them and makes them go like, oh, like this is funny and cool. I'll I'll watch the whole thing. That's always been the basic premise of using the shorts. I hope it works. I don't think it has, to be honest with you. It's not like I've seen a massive spike in subscribers and new audience members as a result of having bitesized back issues episodes. But if that was not the reason to do it and I think at the end of the day we have learned that we're not growing the audience thanks to shorts. Okay, then what's the other reason? What are any other reasons to have shorts? Well, speaking from a business owner, supposedly these shorts are going to perform monetarily for us and they're going to start monetizing these shorts in January. Now, my question is, are they going to work retroactively and am I going to be paid for what those shorts were earning over the last eight months? The answer obviously is going to be no, right? So I guess I don't have to worry about getting a huge check in January. But since we're still rolling out with shorts and since shorts are going to get bigger and more prevalent because of the revenue spike for content creators who are making short content and TikTok creators who are looking to actually make real money. Instead of just using human Internet points as clout and completely not exchanging them for goods and services, I'm like, okay, let's hang in there a little longer, and let's see if these shorts have any benefit whatsoever. Because by I want to say June, but certainly March, probably more likely I will have a better idea as to whether these shorts are worth our time and effort. I don't know. It's fun to have them and I like having these moments. I kind of isolated. But if they are not building the audience, if they are actually driving the audience away or driving away potential new audience, if they're not earning money when YouTube says, oh no, these will definitely be earning you money, then I don't see any reason to put any effort into them. And I especially don't see any reason to even bother pursuing this new affectation that YouTube has taken on. So that's all to say that my guess is they said January. Who the hell knows when in January. So my guess is by the end of January, with a clear picture as to whether this like yearlong endeavor of shorts practically really more like May June, but almost year long endeavor of aggressively pursuing and releasing shorts is actually going to result in anything. So that'll be good to know because that's like one of the few new innovations or ideas that YouTube has come up with and implemented aggressively. The other thing that YouTube is doing is they are encouraging the literal opposite in the form of podcasts. If you go to Youtube.com podcasts, you'll find a whole different page just for those podcasts or shows that are considered podcasts. Now, this may sound familiar to you, but YouTube has been cherry picking shows that feature casts of three or four in long form video style content, typically in the form of commentary or discussion or debate about pop culture topics. I cite red letter media and Mr. Sunday movies. And yet we are not in that. And so I'm like, all right, look, if YouTube is going to start aggressively pushing podcasts, quote unquote podcasts, then I'm not going to be left in the dust, because we've been doing this for eight, nine years. And we started this, or at the very least, we started doing this way before YouTube decided to legitimize it with a moniker and a page and algorithmic help. And so that's why you've seen a couple of episodes of the show changed from back issues to back issues. Podcast. It is not a podcast. At least it's not a podcast that you can download onto your ipod and listen to. Obviously no one does that because nobody has ipods. But that's the reason why podcasts are called that in the first place. My point being that's an explanation as to why you might have seen the show labeled Bakish's Podcast. And also we might get an indication as to the future of YouTube's next push if shorts fail. Even if they don't, they're still going to do it, which is kind of contradictory and frustrating that YouTube's like, oh yeah, no, we're pushing shorts. Short content is the future. Okay, cool. And also long form content that's literally the opposite. Yeah, whatever. But it would be nice to get some kind of push from this platform because the only video as far as I can tell that YouTube was like, ah, this one, and showed everybody was the one. When the idiot fucking salesman came into the office. That was our viral video. And it didn't really hit viral, but it got a huge amount of people coming to the channel and realizing this is not at all what this channel produces and then getting mad and leaving. So great job, YouTube. Thanks so much for your help. So this year we're going to find out if shorts are worth it. We're going to continue to produce new podcast type shows, and we're going to try to jump on more like Current Affair topics, and I think that's a good takeaway for this episode and more importantly, for the plans of the future of 2023. 

Relevance is the theme of the year. At least, that's the plan. Unless things completely and aggressively change, in which case, be sure to let me know in the comments when I talk about how we're going to aggressively pursue the next thing and what the new theme of the year will be for us. Thank you all so much for being here and for your support for listening, and I'll see you next time.