Red Raider Show Episode 2!

aka The One Where I'm (Probably) Not Going to Seattle

Hello, everybody, and welcome to another edition of the Red Raider Show. I kind of like that, don't you? It has a fun ring to it. No one owns it because Ben's mind is a wasteland of sand traps and desert beasts that are uncategorizable. But yeah. So let's get into some updates about what's happening. So the plan had been for me to go to Emerald City Comic Con this week. So I got to leave on Wednesday, and then I was going to land Wednesday night. I'd be there Thursday for the absolute comics panel, and then I would then leave that night around, like, 12:45 a.m.. So technically Friday morning and head home. But that interruption, that three day interruption, no... two day interruption really would have derailed filming. And we had such an ordeal trying to catch up and fit in back issues, editing back issues, and getting the shows out while I was gone for San Diego only a few weeks ago, they were like, let's get this under wraps. 

isode, to be sure. And it allowed us to do our resident Batman quota. Then we shot the Sandman the dolls house episode, which Tiffany had been preparing for, I think, for about four years. Literally the last time that we did a sandman episode was four years ago. And so since there's a sandman show and more interest than ever before is in Neil Gaiman's The Sandman, we did that. And so Tiffany, Ben and I hosted that one. While Tiffany really hosted that one. Ben and I were just the chuckle has the monkeys on the couch, if you will, who listened along with her. And that's coming out tomorrow. If you are already a Morty Fleischman, then you have access to it. It's there. It's for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy it. Then we shot Donny Cates' the Hulk, and we only did the first six, I think, or seven issues, including the Free Comic Book Day issue. But that was a fun one to record. And so we shot that. And that will be available to patrons and Morty Fleischmans later. That's going to be available probably by the end of the week, like, right after Sandman drops. So, like, Wednesday, Thursday, the Hulk episode will drop. And that was ridiculous. And I'm glad we did that one. We teased that one about three days ago, but still it's available. And then I realized I was on, like, a whole kick. And so since we're still in the summer and views are still not great, I'm not really focused on that. I am focused on not tanking the channel, but I'm not focused on chasing the higher views. I know pretty much what episodes, what books will perform really well, and what will perform lower than we can afford, but right in the middle is what we're doing. I think Hulk is actually going to do really well. But this next one that we shot, and I am in the process of editing and should actually be one of the rewards coming up, where you get to watch me edit for 30 minutes and ask questions and we'll chat. 

That is Beta Ray Bill. We did Daniel Warren Johnson's Beta Ray Bill. And as expected, Ben and Ethan fell head over heels in love with this book. And I'm not surprised in the least, but that was a fun one and I'm glad we got a chance to do that. And so that's going to be edited and be hopefully out in two weeks. I'm going to have it hopefully up for Morty Fleischman patrons what, next week, because that's it. So I'm not as ahead of the curve as I want it to be, but we are producing as much as we can. We also shot a Good, Bad and Ugly episode featuring Amalgam characters, but not the Amalgam characters you might be expecting, rather the Amalgam characters that Marvel produced. And those were, of course, the Infinity Warps. So we did the three you think of Iron Hammer, the Iraq Knight and Soldier Supreme. That was a fun one. We have another, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly ready to go. Or rather we're planning to do that one. And that one's going to be on She Hulk because I couldn't prepare the Dan Slott She Hulk book fast enough for the premiere of the show. And so I guess people are just going to have to be satisfied with the episode where we talk about three different distinct eras of She Hulk. I think it's a fun episode, or at least it will be. We haven't actually recorded it yet, and that was going to be what we recorded while I was gone, what Tiffany, Ben and Ethan were going to record on Thursday, possibly Wednesday, but more likely Thursday, which is when we usually record instead. 

We are having some expedia problems and it looks like I might not go to Emerald City at all. So I'll film the good, the bad and the ugly with everybody. I'll host back issues on Thursday and we'll have yet another episode and we just engineered a backlog, or buffer, if you will, that just helps me out. All it does is just help me out. And you know what? That's enough of a reason for me. If you are on the patreon, you also probably noticed that for The Right Project, they interviewed me about a month or so ago, maybe two, three, but he cut it up into chunks and so you're getting random insights into stuff we're talking about. That was dropped yesterday, so that's available. 

Also over at Only Stupid Answers with DJ Wooldridge, we shoot our bi weekly Spiderversity show where we talk about Spiderman media. And in this we are talking about the cartoon show from the so the first episode, which is episodes one and two, dropped on YouTube for free. Normally the show is behind a patreon paywall for DJ, but this is available, so if you haven't already, it's on patreon right now. I dropped it yesterday that's up off the Rack came out yesterday. That was up, and it was a lot of fun. Tiffany did a great job, as usual, of course, on Twitch, Tiffany streaming. And let me give you a quick insight into what we did on Facebook. I noticed that there was like really inappropriate shit being posted on the Facebook group. I noticed it was done by bots and somebody complained about it, but no one actually contacted me. Nobody sent me a thing and I didn't notice it. It just came under the radar. People are just posting things in the Facebook group, so it just slip past me. But when I saw it, I'm like, this has to go. We should never have been able to let this go through. Facebook couldn't care less. There was nothing done about it. So I went into the Facebook group and I looked at the security settings and I saw that there was more we could do. They created some more kind of safeguards and roadblocks. I put them all in because I'm like, always a few paces away from deleting the entire Facebook group. I just know that if I did, someone would create one and then I wouldn't have any access or control over it. And that's the last thing I need, is to have something that has our name on it that I can't also control. Not that I'm a control freak, I am one of those. But also I need to be able to be the ambassador to the brand. I need to be able to have the brand on lockdown, especially on social media. So I put that in and the Facebook group is cleaner than ever. It looks better, it feels better. I was able to change the header and the color scheme and just made it a lot more like hands on, a lot more focused. And every day there's at least twelve to 24 bots posting like illegal pornography or trying to desperately on the Facebook group. I don't know if we were put on some kind of list. I don't know if there's some dickhead who set us up for that, or facebook is just falling deeper and deeper into a mass pit of entropy and garbage. I think it might be both, actually, now that I think about it. But in any case, the Facebook group has finally cleaned up. It's on lockdown. And I'm very happy that we got control of that because the Facebook group really needed some kind of moderation, some kind of significant hardcore moderation. Not to use that term too loosely. 

So, yeah, the Patreon has been cleaned up. We are now in week two or three of The Patreon having been overhauled. Hopefully you guys are enjoying it. I would love to see more feedback from you guys. So if you like it, if you're happy with it, if you enjoy this show, then please comment down below, or at the very least, give it a like, because that will let me know that people are listening to the show, because there's no other metrics. I guess I could look at the listens, but I would rather know that you guys are enjoying the show and that this is something that you want. So if you don't mind, let me know other things that you'd like to see here on the Patreon, but also on the Red Raider Show where I give you updates about what's going on behind the scenes at Comic Pop. I'm trying to think if there's anything else. All right, I'll let you know this. I was at a kind of like, yard sale, garage sale thing, and they had a bunch of comic books for sale, and I'm always excited about that. But these comic books were called scuba do team up from DC. And they include scuba do teaming up with random superheroes. So I got six of them. This way we could do the first one on The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. It'll be ScoobyDoo teams up with Harley Quinn, Green Lantern and Jonah Hex. And then if it does well, because ScoobyDoo is for no good reason, in my opinion, hugely popular, especially on YouTube, then we'll do a sequel with Scooby Doo teaming up with The Atom, the Challengers of the Unknown, and Martian Manhunter. But that's not going to happen for at least two more episodes of that show because, of course, we've already shot the Infinity Warps episode. We're going to shoot She Hulk to tie in with the show, and then Scoob will undoubtedly be next. So that's a little insight into things that no one has any knowledge of because nobody knows what I'm thinking and nobody has access to my desk and all the crap on it. 

Besides that, I'm trying to think if there's anything else that's going on. Just that we were preparing to leave or I was preparing to leave Framework City. I'm not anymore, or at least I'm probably not anymore because of Expedia, and it's like, nonsense. We're using points to get me a flight out there. We use those points. Originally, actually, we paid for it back in 2020 when we were going to go pre lockdowns, and then we had to cancel and Expedia, whatever flight we were going on, was more than happy to refund us, probably because they were legally obliged to do so. And then we just had those points sitting. And so Benny was like, let's use those points for your triumphant return to Seattle. And so we used them. And then two days later, after we registered, my seat, my flight, everything ready to go, it just quietly was canceled. Everything was canceled. The points were returned, and we have no idea why we called Expedia. They don't know. They said, Call United. We called United. They don't know. They said, Call Expedia. And so we were just like, in this loop where, all right, Benny calls Expedia and says, get this on lockdown. They're like, oh, okay. So they do. And then they go, well, there's no way you can get flights with these points. There's nothing available. And he's like, what are you talking about? I should be able to buy any flight I want with these points. And they're like, I guess that's true. And so they let them do it, and then they set up the exact same flight as was canceled a week ago, which I think is the first step towards because for me, if they're going to use the exact same thing, it feels like it's setting up conditions to have the exact same outcome. And a change that I noticed that he didn't was when asked to pick a seat, he was given more options than I was when I picked my seat normally. So I had an option of I think the first two rows were taken, but I had a window seat in the third row. There were just exes over the seats. So there's no way anybody can sit down in those seats because those seats are purchased. When he talked to the Expedia person, all the rows on that flight were available. That says to me that what they're looking at is some kind of, like, phantom listing, some kind of, like, ghost post that is like an echo, if you will, of the previous reservation, but actually is more bullshit that is going to occur. And sure enough, it was. I went to go register, and it was just like, no, there's no reservation here. So Benny went and checked, and he saw that you could pick your seat and your meal. And so he went in, and he did. And we have checked again, and sure enough, they're gone. They're not there, but the points are back in his account. And what I think happened was I think the seats were too good, and I think United said, that's not how much those seats are worth anymore. And without any conversation, they just cancel it and bounce it back. And I think Expedia doesn't have that experience. And so they're just like, I don't know what to do. And so they didn't do anything, and they just took the points and moved on. Benny's driving in Seattle right now. Literally right now, I'm sitting here recording this show, and I'm guessing that Seattle will have to wait for another time. 

But listen, if you would like to meet anyone from Comic Pop, at least two of us, because Tiffany and I are going to be at Zappcon in September. It's going to be on September 10 of Saturday in Wayne, New Jersey at the Wayne P-A-L I think it's police... Whatever. You'll just Google it. Or you go to https://www.zappconfam.com/ and just pull it up and you can go there. I should warn you, and Tiffany likes to remind our viewers of this, the Con is going to be very different from like a San Diego, a New York, even a Baltimore. It's one room. It's a bunch of independent artists and comic books that are discounted for sale. That is it. There are no huge merchants, there are no publishers, there are no big time creators. It's just a big room full of comics, fans and a couple of artists. And we're going to have a table. And if you'd like to get a poster or a sticker, we'll be there to facilitate your interests. Also, of course, Baltimore ComicCon. Tiffany and I are definitely going to be at Baltimore comic con and New York Comic Con. The whole crew is going, we're already locked down, we're good to go. That is going to be a fantastic show, I think, because if San Diego indication, people are going to be hungry, desperate, clawing to reconnect and to create meaningful experiences with each other. So as long as they also don't give each other COVID, we should all be having a great time. So we're going to set up a meet and greet and it's going to be dope. And we're hope to see you there as well. Yeah, that's it. I guess I've rambled on long enough. I want to thank you all so much for hanging out and for being a patron, for being a Red raider. And we'll see you guys on the patreon and on YouTube. So thanks a lot. So long. Bye.