Red Raider Show Episode 3

aka Friendship is Magic

Hello there, Red Raiders, and welcome to another special episode of this show where we give some behind the scenes insights into how Comicop is operating. First of all, right, off the bat, I just want to talk about how really happy I am with how CPR, which is our our second channel, Comic Pop Returns, is operating. It has been over a year since the channel launched. We got the initial influx of subscribers from the main channel, Comic Pop. And I got to tell you, over the past year, the channel has almost immediately become its own thing and shaped up to be its own identity, but still very much a spiritual continuation and appendage of the Comic Pop channel, whatever you want to call it. And I'm really happy with it. What reminded me that I was so happy about it was seeing four episodes come out on that channel in a row in a week and have all those episodes perform pretty much exactly what I expected and maybe a little better letters page. I expect about 5000 views on that show at this point because it's such a neat show and it's such a specific type of thing. It's very much just for folk like you guys who are just big fans of the channel and the personalities associated with it. But that let's talk conversation about the Batgirl movie did really well in two respects. 

First of all, it broke 10,000 views, which is the original average that I had hoped that every video we ever released should hit. And maybe if it was 2016, that would be the case. But in this new reality, whenever any video that isn't Back Issues breaks 10k, I'm like, all right, we did it. And that's really fun and I'm really thrilled with it. But also, we got like double the subscribers out of it, maybe triple because of it. And so that tipped us over the scales. And I think we're either on the edge of or right over the edge of 18,000 subscribers on CPR. Now, I know that I said earlier in other shows or maybe in other posts that I'm really not chasing subscribers. And that's the case on Comic Pop. On the main channel, we hit 100,000. We're not going to get 200,000. We're not going to get 500,000 in the nextever. So I'm not even going to bother making big pushes. I would love to have more and I would love for us to grow further. And I'm certainly going to be monitoring the analytics to ensure that Comic Pop is still on the rise. But that's only just to maintain and to keep this enterprise going. But by and large, we're not chasing any particular milestones or goals for Comic Pop. But Comicop Returns is becoming its own thing and it's quickly been this really great opportunity for us to be creative and try new things and experiment and build new audiences. And thanks to the Battle episode, it's starting to do that. I mean, we're hitting 180 subscribers, and so there's an opportunity here for us to create goals and for us to set milestones and say, hey, can we get to 20 or more zero subscribers by the end of the year? Is that an impossible goal at this point? I mean, I don't think it is, certainly, but it's such a specific type of channel with such specific content that I understand why it would be a longer haul than, say, if I made, like, infotainment kind of stuff. But anyway, it was just a nice little experience to say, like, hey, we're doing it. Like, Comicop Returns has become its own thing. It's growing. And it was really heartening to see that happen. So that felt good. That was just a good feeling that I had while we were heading towards the next week. 

Speaking of next week, we shot Batman Endgame for Back Issues. I'm about 25 minutes edited, and when I say that, I mean the episode is an hour and 40 raw. There's no edits. It's an hour and 40 minutes and change. But I have edited down 25 watchable minutes, the first 25 minutes of the show as it will be viewed on the channel that's edited. So I've got another hour and a half left to edit, and it's shaping up. It's a fun episode. I think you're going to enjoy it. It's been a long time coming, I hope it also has a nice little infusion for us. We've had some nice success over the last week or two on Back Issues, and I'm hoping that endgame will continue that trend because I think people are interested in the Snyder Capullo run at the very least. They're kind of like, curious about it because it isn't 2012 anymore and some time has passed and there's been three different creators, like three different writers and directions for Batman since then, and none of them have really touched the Kapulo Snyder run in a major way, in a way that would yield something like Dark Knight's Metal. So we're going to do that. And then we recorded an episode called Spider-Man Perceptions by Todd McFarland. If you are familiar with it, I do apologize for reiterating it, but it's a five part Spider-Man story arc. It was one of the longest story arcs that Tom McFarland worked on with his solo adjectiveless title, Spider-Man. But I had considered doing Torment again, but then I thought, I don't want to redo too many episodes. So in this case, I thought, well, we got the collection, we have all these different McFarlane Spider-Man stories, and I would love to do the whole damn volume. So hopefully down the line we will be able to do that. And it will be established by the reception of this episode, which is Spider-Man and Wolverine presumably teaming up to fight the Wendigo. Of course, if you read it, that is kind of a lie, but technically all those things happen. So I guess it's not, but it is ridiculous. And we'll see the Spider-Man episodes that are kind of like the big Spider-Man episodes do very well. The Spider-Man episodes that are like the ends of the Earth or Big Time or Spider islands, those do very well. But those, like, niche Spider-Man stories, those Spider-Man stories that not a lot of people have heard of or don't remember, they're a little tough for, like, full circle, didn't do as well as your average Spider-Man story. And I'm a little disappointed by that because I feel like Spider-Man is Batman for Marvel, hopefully for us, or at least that's my expectation. But I'm learning a lot on this job, so you never know what people are going to actually make into the big thing. We don't know who the big Marvel character is that guarantees assets and seats, so to speak, on Back Issues. But anyway, we haven't started editing that one yet, but that comes out in two weeks, and then hopefully tomorrow, we're moving our schedules around to help accommodate Ethan's new gig, or the very least, his new schedule. And Ben is not available for at least the next week, if not two. 

So Tiffany and Ethan and I are going to do the Spawn Batman crossovers that should be tomorrow. I'm really excited to talk about that because, of course, Spawn Batman Three is coming in November, I think. I don't know where I heard that. I hope I'm right about that. If I'm not, I apologize. But I know they're fast tracking it. So the way I figure, why don't we look back on those two now infamous crossovers? I know that we once kind of covered Spawn Batman on the show very early on, but I feel like we didn't give it nearly enough time, and we didn't really have our sea legs at the time. And I think that a modern Back Issues of Spawn Batman and by association, Batman Spawn WarDevil would be a really welcome addition to the show. And so I figured since Ben grew up reading those books, literally, Ben had only, like, two or three comics in his life, and two of them were the Batman Spawn crossovers. And you know this because anytime that Batman's skills come up, he will quote the Frank Miller Todd McFarland spawn Batman part about Batman's hands being the potential for a safe cracker or concert pianist or a brilliant surgeon, et cetera. And so in this case, I thought, hey, wouldn't it be fun to have two people who definitely didn't read those books and definitely don't remember anything about them? Because I'll tell you this, ethan was on that episode about eight or nine years ago, but there is no way he remembers most of the things that happened in that crossover. And so it will be like seeing it for the first time. And so I'm excited to do that one because they are both near and dear to my heart. There's some fun behind the scenes info that I have about those stories that I'd like to share and hopefully it'll be a nice little bit of synergy to tie in and kind of quasi promote the third installment of Batman Spawn. And hey, if that works out, maybe Batman/The Maxx wouldn't be too far behind. 

As is tradition for New York Comic Con and Comic Pop, we applied for a panel this year and as with tradition, we were rejected for our panel this year. But we did get a little note that came along with it that basically said something to the effect of we like the idea, we'd be open to it, blah, blah, blah. We're going to put you on a waitlist so if anything opens up, maybe you will be considered. And this is the first time that I sent an appeal where I was like, listen, not for nothing, but we had an in-person event at the Joe Kubert school in April, and we got 60 people, and that's more people than I have seen at some panels at New York Comic Con. I left that part out. No need to be antagonistic for no good reason. I also mentioned that we were approved for a panel at C two E Two this past year for an in person show, which we were unable to do because we applied for New York and they gave us C two E Two instead. And none of us could fly to Chicago on either our own budget or at that short notice. So we are on the list for approval with the company that owns New York Comic Con. So we figured, hey, maybe there's some kind of precedent here. But I left that to them. Also, I mentioned that we conducted a poll on our community tab. This is more inside baseball, but we were talking, Tiffany and I, and she was like, you need to try to figure out how many people are actually going to be at New York Comic Con who are subscribed to the channel. And I knew that the best, most accurate way to do that was to have a poll on the community tab for the main channel because the reality is I could create a straw poll and post it on Facebook and Patreon and Instagram and all that stuff. But honestly, if I were to do that, we'd have a lot of crossover. We get some skewed results. Now, instead, we created a poll on the community tab which basically just said, are you going to New York Comic Con? And it just had two answers. It was yes or no, because as is the case with most of the polls that I conduct, I usually give like a third answer that's like, maybe or I don't know or something else. It unfortunately excuse the results. So in this case, we're just like, no, I just need to know if you're going or not definitely going or definitely not. And as you can imagine, 95% of the audience of 1000 subscribers is not going. Now, obviously, 1000 people didn't vote in this poll. Around 2500 people voted in the poll, which is still a pretty significant number, I must admit. 2500 people voted in the poll, 2300. But we maintained 5% from 500 votes to 1000 votes to 2300 votes, and that average out to about 100 people in change. 120, I think was the last count, which isn't a bad number. Like if we had 120 people show up to a panel at New York Comic Con, that would be very impressive. They'd be very happy with that. And so hopefully maybe that will sway them. But I'm not holding my breath, but if you would like to go to a Comic Pop panel that is within the tristate area, you could always come to the Zapp Con on September 10. Our panel is at 11:30 a.m.. It is a very small show. It is not a Comic Con. It is basically like a big comic book store sale. And they're selling only comic books and a lot of independent artists are going to be there. We will be there and transitioning to the next thing. 

Tiffany and I tested out a number of baseball hats over at the local merchandise production store that we've used before. You may have seen the beanie that we posted here on Patreon, which, by the way, only you guys have seen. We don't have those. I made a small run just enough to get them and see what the quality is. And the quality is good. I love them and the team got one and that's it. I think I have like one spare and so maybe I'll sell that at Zapp Con. But we also tested out the baseball cast because a lot of people like to wear them, especially Tiffany. I myself don't wear them, and that's not a condemnation of them. I just look like a doofus when I wear them, and so I don't, but I understand a lot of people do. Every friend of mine that was at least in high school wore them. And so I thought, hey, you know what? There's an opportunity here, so let's try them out. So we tested a bunch of materials and a bunch of backs snaps and stuff, and ultimately we decided upon a black cap with the Comic Pop logo on the front. And so we're going to get those before the con. And so we ordered a bunch I think there's like 30 or so being ordered, so we're going to have those at Zapp Con as well. I also re ordered a bunch of really fun Comic Pop centric stickers, some of which are reorders, and some of them are brand effing new. You probably saw the off the rack sticker that we posted. Well, we also made one for the else world exchange. The Elseworlds Exchange logo has its own sticker we also have the I YouTube channel button, comic Pop, and a speech bubble quote, which I'd love to make more of these because these were really clever. It's in the shape of a speech bubble, never addressed, never explained. I would love to get a whole bunch of Comic Pop quotes and make those stickers and maybe even make them into like coasters or magnets or something. And we also have a very limited amount of small postage stamp size, maybe a little bit bigger than that comic Pop speech bubble logo magnets. I wanted to see how their magnets were and so we'll see how those turn out. But they'll all be available for sale alongside a couple of posters that we have left over from the Joe Kubert school event because we sold a bunch of stuff at that event, which is incredible and overwhelming and humbling. But we have a bunch of stuff left over that we'd like to try and make available to you guys. So that's going to be at Zapp Con and there's no guarantees for the other shows. I'm going to be at Baltimore comic Con. Tiffany and I are going to be at Baltimore Comic Con. But that's at the end of October. And I don't know if we'll have a booth, but we'll work something out. I'm currently working something out right now. If we have a panel at that, I'll let you know that as well. Right now, no, but who knows. And of course, New York Comic Con is very much up in the air. We're going we will definitely do a meet and greet where we were like, hey, meet us at this location and we'll say hi and take pictures and stuff. But I will not probably be selling anything because we won't have a table. And it's going to be complicated. I will say though, the best way to do it right now is we should just use Venmo. I think that's the way that we should sell stuff because at least then there's no money, like physical money trading hands and it doesn't get complicated. But maybe I'll bring a couple of things to New York, but I sincerely doubt it. Unless we end up having a surface, we need to work out something with a fellow merchant or a person who is a booth and be like, hey, can we borrow the booth for a couple of hours? One of the days? I don't know. We'll see. 

And while we were prepping for Zapp Con, New York Comic Con, and Baltimore, it got me thinking about the event we had at the Joe Kubert school and how successful it was and how incredible it was to see so many of you guys in one room together. And it got me thinking about what I wanted to say and what I should have said and how we should have done it. I'd love to do another one of these. I think it would be really cool to do another show. Maybe we'll do another never before or ever will be seen afterwards episode of Back Issues. Maybe we'll just leave it open to Q and A and have everybody get a chance to talk instead of just me. But we'll see. I would also love to have it maybe earlier in the day because then people can shop at the comic book store more. Because I know that the owner and I both really wanted everybody to filter down into the comic shop after the show is over and buy more merch. But the kids who are working there were like not as accommodating as we wanted them to be. So they had to leave early and well, they all have lives and they had stuff to do and we should have made recommendations on where to go for lunch or dinner and made it a big kind of event, but we were learning and we're still working things out. But one of the things that I wanted to have a big takeaway for and it's something that I'll probably mentioned if we ever do this again, so if you were there next time, try to act surprised. But it's just something that I'm like everybody there was there for one reason. And it's so rare to have so many different people in one place for only pretty much one reason, one unifying reason, and how many different types of people there were in spite of that one kind of like singular focus and how this collection of people that came together at that time, they're probably never all going to be in one room at the same time ever again. And just because of circumstances and scheduling and whatnot, there were people who drove in from out of state and people who had never been to that kind of event ever in their lives. People had brought their girlfriends, boyfriends and whatnot. And it was just kind of like this beautiful moment. And I'm like I really should have articulated something that was a sentiment that I felt that I just didn't feel. I don't know. Confident enough to express. Which is just like if you're ever in a situation like that where it's like we're in this place where it's safe and everyone's feeling good and you're celebrating something and you are meeting people maybe for the first time. This is a great opportunity to make a friend. To try something that you might not have tried before and never had an opportunity to do in a long time. There's not a lot of opportunities post graduation from either high school or college where you are in like a safe, fun, communal space where there is no judgment and everyone kind of is from a different background and yet you can just introduce yourself and maybe make a lifelong friend as a result because I don't know a lot of people there who actually brought people with them. It wasn't like, oh, me and my six friends all came, or me, and me and my best friend came. It was mostly people all by themselves. And so it was a tremendous opportunity for people to go in alone, but leave that event with a friend or with like four friends. If you know me, then you know that I am a Firefly fan. Actually, the whole comic hop crew are Firefly fans. But when I was much younger and the movie hadn't come out yet, serenity was coming, I joined a Yahoo group that hooked us up with premier passes. And so what I would do is I would go to a movie theater in, let's say, New York City, and I'd see the movie for free, but I get to see it months before it was going to come out in theaters. And the Yahoo group was meeting in a restaurant, like some kind of lunch place before the movie to meet up and say hi and see each other for the first time. And while I did go with a couple of friends, most of the people who were in attendance were there kind of solo. They were just going there to see the movie and maybe to meet these people that they had talked to online for a couple of months. And it always struck me, I was like, look at these people who don't know each other, who are all from different backgrounds, who are all from different locations, who come together for this one thing, and maybe at the end of this, they'll be friends and talk to each other and hang out and have more joy in their lives than when they first started their day. And personally selfishly, I would love to be responsible for that kind of joy. And so that's the sentiment that I should have expressed. It's certainly one that I'm going to try and express whenever we do like a big comic pop in person meetup, is to be like, hey, this is a safe place where people are largely nonjudgmental. And so if you have an opportunity to turn to your neighbor and say, like, hey, what's your name? Where are you from? What's your favorite episode? And then just kind of use that as an ice breaker, that you should take it. And I would love to help provide those opportunities. I know that a couple of people, after the Joe Kubert School event, after the event was over, they went to, I think, a Mexican restaurant that was in a diner around the corner. And I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall to see what they all talked about and how many of them traded information and then pursued a friendship afterwards. And I know I've said that word a lot over the last couple of minutes. I'm just saying that's a sentiment that I think is really valuable and it's something that I feel like we hopefully exude and that we can hopefully in some way, some small way, provide for the audience out there because it's really important and it creates amazing things like friendship engineers, really amazing opportunities that you could never have foresaw on your own or with just your immediate circle. So that's just a sentiment that I want to express that I hopefully have imparted to you and that you can take home and work on, I guess, I don't know. 

But the point being we're doing well and we're moving forward and the numbers are going up on the channel. So I think we're coming out of the summer season and hopefully the channel will continue to upwardly trend so that we can get back to business as usual. I mean, for you guys watching the shows it is business as usual, but for us here, the business is the summer is not a very prosperous time for us, but it does create its own opportunities in as much as I can try ridiculous episodes like JLA Predator, which still has not earned its money back, basically. I'm not saying that it cost anything to make that episode, but it certainly is the lowest performing episode of the year, if not multiple years. So not that I regret doing it. It was a fun episode. We had a blast doing it and that's the best kind of problem you can have, is like, oh no, this thing we made was really fun to make and I'm really glad we did it and only we enjoyed it. I know that many of you probably did because you guys are awesome and you are like the select few who have personally ended up helping us directly in a very profound and meaningful way. And so we will always be grateful to all of you for your support. But anyway, that's the show a little longer, I think, than usually is, but hopefully it was entertaining at the very least, and informative. So we'll see you guys next time with an all new episode, of course, here on Patreon exclusively. And thanks a lot for listening.