Comic Book Men s03e03 Episode Script
Super Friends
Who do you think has the best head of hair in comics? - Wolverine.
- Ridiculous.
- Come on.
- Why "ridiculous"? - Who wears mutton chops? - Look at how angry he is.
I think, and I'm comfortable enough to say this You know, Thor is definitely the sexiest That long, flowing, blonde mane.
Go on.
Like that? - No.
- Just like that? It looks a lot different in the comics.
Somebody give him a hammer.
Hello, and welcome to another episode of Comic Book Men The only show that slides down your batpole and enters your batcave.
I'm your host, Kevin Smith.
- Bryan Johnson.
- Walt Flanagan.
- Mike Zapcic.
- Ming Chen.
Okay, men, what kind of money did we make this week? - How you doing? - Good.
What can we do for you today? I'm looking for a Howard the Duck number one.
- Number one? - Number one.
Hey, Ming, can you do me a quick favor? Could you grab that Howard the Duck number one? - You like the duck? - Oh, I love the duck.
It's the only one missing from my collection right now.
So you have a complete run of Howard the Duck, huh? Got Howard the Duck, got his first appearance Adventure into Fear with Man-Thing, #19.
Oh, yeah.
This is just the missing piece of the puzzle here.
Do you remember the lawsuit that Disney almost waged? Because he looks so much like Donald.
Do you think he looks like Donald Duck? Maybe not this panel, But this one He definitely does.
Yeah, that one, right there.
That's part of the joke is that he looks like Donald Duck, but Donald Duck's, like, dirty uncle or something like that.
And how ironic that decades later, Disney owns Howard the Duck, 'cause they bought Marvel.
That's right, man.
So now Donald Duck and Howard the Duck could cross over.
Add Daffy What the duck, man? Wait.
What was the backstory again? - He was from another dimension? - Duck World.
Then he comes to our dimension, and he gets trapped? Trapped in a world he never made.
And gets a woman way hotter than you could ever get.
- Beverly Switzler, yeah.
- Beverly Switzler.
That's right, yeah.
Remember the last issue of number one? - Mm-hmm.
- Shocked a young Bryan Johnson.
Howard seals the deal with Beverly.
You see her ample bosom.
- They are naked.
- They showed that? It wasn't Gerber who did this but another writer, Bill Mantlo.
He made them consummate.
Do we have that one? All right, well, give me $25 for a number one issue of Howard the Duck.
Well, looking at it, I mean, there's a little wear and tear here at the top.
Right.
Couple things along the spine here.
Okay, I mean, if it was mint, it wouldn't be $25, though, my friend.
That's true.
Um, $16.
Duck you.
Um, what what Okay, throw me a number, then.
$20.
$20? That's fair.
All right, my friend, 20 bucks.
- Okay, thank you.
- Thank you.
- Enjoy.
- Later, guys.
- What's with that face? - What face? I know you got something on your mind spit it out.
He's thinking about how a duck gets more than he does.
Did you ever [Bleep.]
a duck, Ming? No.
What would you value a New Teen Titans Omnibus volume 1 at? I mean, you're not gonna find one for less than $175 now.
That brings my grand total up to $33,798.
- Wow, man.
- I took a bath.
- Was that pun intended? - Yeah, pretty much.
Last year New Jersey sustained $30 billion in damage from hurricane Sandy, and unfortunately, one of us got hit hard.
Mike, you were, like, at the eye of the storm where you live, right? went right through my house.
A wave just pushed through your house.
Right.
Yeah.
And kitchen's gone, dining room's gone, and I lost my entire comic collection.
- Oh, man.
- It's It's heartbreaking.
What's the one piece you're like, "If only I had known what was gonna happen that night, I would have took this with me?" The one thing it's not even the most expensive thing.
It's the Teen Titans poster from 1984.
The one with the With the kind of pastel-y looking colors? - Yeah.
- Oh, yeah.
I've had it since I was - Wow.
- How do you go on? You're such a dick.
Ah It's gonna be hard to find another one, right? Yeah.
It was my favorite Perez piece.
So what are you gonna do, man? You think you'll rebuild, or you think maybe at this part of your life, you just close the book on it and move on? Nah, are you kidding? I'm gonna rebuild.
I'm gonna rebuild better than ever.
We should sell bracelets at the Stash Like, "geek strong.
" Yeah.
You know what? We should.
Help people who aren't as fortunate as me to have this stuff come back.
That's awful, man.
His story is one that a lot of people in Jersey are going through, and I think we should do something for him, maybe just kick-start the quest to rebuild You know, some jewel in the crown maybe we could find.
I'm telling you right now Cherish what you guys have 'Cause you never know when it could be gone.
I feel like there should be, like, an '80s hair band here right now with, like, a monster anthem.
It was banned.
They took it off the shelves.
He does this motion.
Oh my God.
I got something here I think is pretty interesting.
And I don't know if you guys I don't know if this is exactly your thing or whatever, but this is the Rad Repeatin' Tarzan.
You've had this thing for how long? I've had this in my personal collection for a long time.
Do you Do you play with it? Yeah, I mean Well, there's one thing that's very cool about this.
Okay.
Impress me.
Right back here, there's this.
He does this motion.
- Oh, my God.
- He does the standard It basically looks like what you do at work all day long, Ming.
Gives the motion that, well, all men know in times of silence and solitude.
Now, as as a parent, your kid gets that.
Do you feel the need to call the company or write into the company? I'd be so delighted.
I'm like, "Thank God the doll is teaching him to do it.
I never have to talk about it.
" It was banned.
It was They took it off the shelves.
Not something we normally carry here Usually, you know, comic books, superheroes.
Yeah, but, I mean, like, Tarzan's, like, one of the original superheroes, right? - Mm - Yeah.
I'd call him one of the original superheroes, sure.
In what way? How is he super or a hero? Well, he policed the jungle.
He was like a jungle cop.
His parents were murdered.
He has no right to police the jungle.
Nobody's asking him to do it.
Do you even consider Tarzan, like, a superhero? - Without a doubt.
- Really? I mean, the Lord of the Jungle? He can beat all the animals.
He can control all the animals.
Why? You don't think Tarzan's a superhero? He never occurred to me as a superhero as much as like a comic-strip character.
Was Tarzan essentially the terrestrial version of Aquaman? Pretty much, yeah.
He was Aquaman of the land before Aquaman existed.
He didn't control animals, though.
He wasn't like, "boop, boop, boop, boop, boop," and suddenly a gorilla would dance for him or something.
Oh, that'd be sweet.
This is a talent we all want.
I mean, really, what are you trying to sell this thing for? I think somewhere in the range of $50 to $60, - maybe $70.
- It never ceases to amaze me.
Too many people start their negotiation with, "Oh, you know, $50, $60, $70.
" Like, you've already said $50, so why bother saying $60 or $70? Granted, it was recalled or banned, but it's not one of the more desirable recalled/banned toys.
Honestly, I'd give you - I-I couldn't do it for $10.
- All right.
I mean, that's as high as I can go.
All right, you know, I mean, actually, talking about it with you guys, kind of made me realize that I want to keep this a little bit longer, and I'm not gonna give it up for $10.
All right.
I mean, have fun with it.
Good luck with it.
Relish that hot dog.
See you later.
- See you guys.
- Are you out of your mind? Yeah, seriously.
You shook hands with a guy who would bring something like that in here? Oh.
Do we have any hand sanitizer around here? So any suggestions to jump-start Mike's collection again? I know he's really broken up about his Perez poster The New Teen Titans, the pastel one? We can look for it.
It it's not really super common, but if we go out and we spend, like, that kind of money, maybe we can find something even better.
Something better? I think we can find a character that is his favorite.
I know right off the bat Simon Williams, Wonder Man.
Right.
Right.
We have that book, right? Show Robert real quick.
Bride of Ultron.
But, you know, that's a great character.
I've never heard of such a thing.
There he is Wonder Man in his Christmas color outfit.
That looks like jingle belle.
Look, there it is.
That's what I'm talking about, man.
- Look at that costume.
- But you know what? I've been doing all these conventions, talking to a lot of artists.
I've actually developed a friendship with George Perez.
George Perez, the artist? Yeah, he's a really decent guy.
I think there's a great opportunity there, where maybe we can get him to do a Wonder Man for Mike.
Perfect.
Let's get it done.
Mr.
Perez? Oh, my God, look at that, man.
That's amazing.
Favorite superhero sidekick.
The Falcon.
One of the greatest costumes.
I know he's slated to be a major character in the new Captain America movie.
Could you imagine if they give him the full plumage? Aw, that'd be awesome.
It'd take all my money.
Take my kids' inheritance.
All right, Ming.
What about you, man? I always liked Speedy, Green Arrow's sidekick.
- Ooh, controversial choice.
- Ooh, yeah.
Speedy, of course, is the sidekick who at one point is depicted right on the cover of a comic book using the old "H.
" - Is that right? - So why would you want that? I want a sidekick that has a lot of emotional problems, baggage with drug abuse.
I can't even save this guy, let alone the city.
Looking to sell something today.
It's not exactly a comic.
It's something a little different.
- It's Power Records.
- Oh, my gosh.
This may have been the greatest value in comic-book history.
For $1.
50, you got the reprint of the original, but thrown in there was a gorgeous 45 vinyl record that literally was the only way for a comic book to come to life in the '70s.
If you try to explain this to a kid who grew up watching, like, the new Avengers movie Like, "There was a time when we listened to comics" You know, they'd think you were bafflingly old.
But this was treating a comic book very seriously by bringing it to life with voice actors, doing it very heroically and over the top, sound effects, music.
It was better than anything that was on TV at that point.
There was legitimacy in some weird way.
You know, you'd go into a record store, and you could hold your head up and be like, "I'll have a Spider-Man, please.
" And then you get outside, and the kids buying Kiss beat you up.
You know what that means? Revolutions per minute.
You're losing me with this technical jargon.
And it's called a record, so - Yes.
- Thank you.
What were some of your favorite albums that you'd you know, you'd fight your friends over, or you'd close the door, like, "Ma, we're listening to records.
- Don't bug us"? - We're dancing.
The first album I ever bought, like, for myself was Talking Heads, but the first record that I ever had one of these listening parties you're talking about was They did a Star Wars reading on a picture disc.
Yeah, I mean, I can remember having friends come over, and we would put our Kiss albums on and try to mimic Kiss and the poses that they were on on the front of the album covers.
- I mean - Then we'd really kiss.
What are you talking about? You were there.
What are you looking to get for 'em? I know these are not near mint, so why don't we try $120? A little high, considering the condition of 'em.
They still look great.
I mean, they are in nice shape.
But there are some stains.
There's some dog ears.
I was thinking along the lines, maybe - 50 bucks for all three? - $50? I mean, I'm not even sure If I put 'em on, you know, am I gonna need to stack a penny on my arm of my record player because there's so many skips? Um, can you do maybe $70? I'd give you $60, an even $20 for Spider-Man, $20 for Cap, and $20 for Superman.
And then we'll all put in, right? We'll all pitch in, all threesies.
We'll all go out, and we'll buy ourselves a record player.
Actually, you and I will.
He'll kick in the penny for the Sounds fair.
- Huh, you'd do that? - Um - I can do $60.
- All right, deal? - Deal.
- All right, good.
There he is.
Hello? Mr.
Perez? - Oh, hi.
- Hi.
Rob Bruce sent us over.
We're the guys from the Stash.
- Yes, yes, yes.
- How are you doing? It's great to meet you.
My name is Ming.
- Bryan.
- Hi, Bryan.
- How are you? - This is Walt.
I am a ginormous fan, going way, way back.
Oh, thank you.
George Perez is one of the greatest living comic-book artists of all time Teen Titans, Infinity Gauntlet.
Fantastic Four, The Avengers.
Justice League.
The list goes on and on.
There's no character he really hasn't drawn.
So, coming face-to-face with him, what was it like, man? Did you have dry pants or what? Oh, no.
I see a lot of your artwork around here.
Oh, my God, Crisis on Infinite Earths number seven, the cover.
One thing that's funny about that particular cover, as iconic as it has become, for me, it was just being able to draw all the characters in the background.
There were over 500 characters in there, and I lament to this day that one charact who should have been in there was not in there Hal Jordan's Green Lantern.
Another little bit of trivia.
Getting to the point that you're here Yes, why we're here.
A co-worker of ours and a great friend, Mike Zapcic - And a huge fan of yours.
- Yeah.
Just as big a fan as I am He lost almost his entire collection.
He had a poster of yours, the New Teen Titans poster? That was one of his prized possessions.
He had kept it throughout his childhood.
He had framed it, but he lost it in Sandy.
And we thought, "What if we got the guy "who did the poster to maybe do a piece, "an original piece, a one-of-a-kind to, like, kind of kick-start his collection?" I mean, I'm not just blowing smoke here.
Simon Williams, Wonder Man, is his favorite character just because of the way you drew it.
- That's it.
- That's the one, right? If you think he'd like an original drawing of the character, I would love to do do it.
He obviously knew the devastation that a lot of people in New Jersey got hit with with Sandy, and he was more than happy to do it.
- Wow.
- Yeah.
Oh, my God.
Look at that, man.
That's Simon Williams.
- Come to life.
- Thank you so much.
- It's gonna be fabulous.
- Okay.
- See you guys later.
- Thank you.
That's amazing.
Hello.
I'm looking for a gentleman named Michael.
You're George Perez.
Holy crap.
There's a sex act they call "the Chewbacca.
" Does it involve having to sound like Chewbacca? At one point, yeah.
Let me hear your best Chewbacca.
Why? 'Cause I'm gonna go and do this now? You've been doing it you just didn't know what it was called.
Aw.
Hold on.
Hold on.
Aw! I can't do it.
I don't think that that's it.
- That's my best one.
- What about you, Mike? Can you do a Chewbacca? Rah, aw.
That's pee-wee Herman doing Chewbacca.
Rah! I liked yours, man.
You got yours down.
Just get your tongue roll going.
Like that? Yeah, exactly.
That's what you got to do tonight when you when you go in the bedroom.
Just stand in the door all seductively, give 'em your best wookiee call.
Ah.
Yeah, there you go.
That'll get her motor going.
Hello.
I'm looking for a gentleman named Michael.
That would be me.
Michael, I heard that you actually had a bit of a loss because of hurricane Sandy.
And the main You're George Perez.
- Holy crap.
- Yeah, this is my wife, Carol.
- Nice to meet you.
- Pleasure's all mine.
One of the things I wanted to do at least was to help you on the road back.
They said this happened to be one of your favorite characters.
Oh, my God.
Yes, Wonder Man.
Found out from your dear friends here.
No kidding.
You guys did this? I think it's absolutely great.
- Oh, my God.
- And I hope it does help.
Look at that.
"To Michael.
To a new beginning.
" Awesome.
Thank you for the sentiment.
Guys, thank you so much.
I'm not normally Wear my emotions on my sleeve, but I got to tell you, I got a little misty.
You're gonna make me cry right now.
Oh, my God, that's so adorable.
These guys went and I mean, who thinks to do something like that, you know? It was guys, I can't thank you enough.
I mean, you're the best pals a guy could have.
We're almost Super Friends.
- You are Super Friends.
- Oh You are all three of you, and Rob Bruce.
While all this was going on, I stole a couple CDs out of George's car.
He was distracted.
And one other thing we wanted to do, and this one's actually my wife's idea.
A little something for your shop.
I don't know if you know George is famous for his shirts.
Which my wife makes.
She makes all my shirts.
Carol makes all my shirts.
There was a really particularly famous one The lamb chop shirt.
I thought you might like to put it on your wall in the store.
Oh, hell, yeah, man.
- Would you sign it for us? - Oh, sure.
Here we go.
All my detail I have to take my glasses off.
That's awesome.
Imagine how many panels, how many characters he drew wearing this shirt.
- Huh? - Well We'll hang it from the rafters like a retired hockey Jersey.
And now that your friends have managed to make you into a nice, whimpering little kid again, my work here is done.
Thank you just doesn't seem like enough.
Well, believe me, thank you is more than enough.
- Bye-bye.
- Bye-bye.
- Take care.
- See you later.
It couldn't have went better.
I couldn't imagine meeting someone that I idolized so much being more nice or more warm to me than George Perez was that afternoon.
As great as an artist as George Perez is, I may say he's a better human being.
There it is, kids.
They say never meet your heroes, man, but in this instance, not only can you meet 'em, you can depend on 'em, man.
And they could really come in and rescue you just when you need it the most, just like a true superhero.
It would have been cooler if he got there before the storm hit, but George Perez hero.
We're closing the book on another episode, kids.
Sorry about that.
For Comic Book Men, I'm Kevin Smith.
- Bryan Johnson.
- Walt Flanagan.
- Mike Zapcic.
- Ming Chen.
Friendship is magic, kids.
Good night.
- Ridiculous.
- Come on.
- Why "ridiculous"? - Who wears mutton chops? - Look at how angry he is.
I think, and I'm comfortable enough to say this You know, Thor is definitely the sexiest That long, flowing, blonde mane.
Go on.
Like that? - No.
- Just like that? It looks a lot different in the comics.
Somebody give him a hammer.
Hello, and welcome to another episode of Comic Book Men The only show that slides down your batpole and enters your batcave.
I'm your host, Kevin Smith.
- Bryan Johnson.
- Walt Flanagan.
- Mike Zapcic.
- Ming Chen.
Okay, men, what kind of money did we make this week? - How you doing? - Good.
What can we do for you today? I'm looking for a Howard the Duck number one.
- Number one? - Number one.
Hey, Ming, can you do me a quick favor? Could you grab that Howard the Duck number one? - You like the duck? - Oh, I love the duck.
It's the only one missing from my collection right now.
So you have a complete run of Howard the Duck, huh? Got Howard the Duck, got his first appearance Adventure into Fear with Man-Thing, #19.
Oh, yeah.
This is just the missing piece of the puzzle here.
Do you remember the lawsuit that Disney almost waged? Because he looks so much like Donald.
Do you think he looks like Donald Duck? Maybe not this panel, But this one He definitely does.
Yeah, that one, right there.
That's part of the joke is that he looks like Donald Duck, but Donald Duck's, like, dirty uncle or something like that.
And how ironic that decades later, Disney owns Howard the Duck, 'cause they bought Marvel.
That's right, man.
So now Donald Duck and Howard the Duck could cross over.
Add Daffy What the duck, man? Wait.
What was the backstory again? - He was from another dimension? - Duck World.
Then he comes to our dimension, and he gets trapped? Trapped in a world he never made.
And gets a woman way hotter than you could ever get.
- Beverly Switzler, yeah.
- Beverly Switzler.
That's right, yeah.
Remember the last issue of number one? - Mm-hmm.
- Shocked a young Bryan Johnson.
Howard seals the deal with Beverly.
You see her ample bosom.
- They are naked.
- They showed that? It wasn't Gerber who did this but another writer, Bill Mantlo.
He made them consummate.
Do we have that one? All right, well, give me $25 for a number one issue of Howard the Duck.
Well, looking at it, I mean, there's a little wear and tear here at the top.
Right.
Couple things along the spine here.
Okay, I mean, if it was mint, it wouldn't be $25, though, my friend.
That's true.
Um, $16.
Duck you.
Um, what what Okay, throw me a number, then.
$20.
$20? That's fair.
All right, my friend, 20 bucks.
- Okay, thank you.
- Thank you.
- Enjoy.
- Later, guys.
- What's with that face? - What face? I know you got something on your mind spit it out.
He's thinking about how a duck gets more than he does.
Did you ever [Bleep.]
a duck, Ming? No.
What would you value a New Teen Titans Omnibus volume 1 at? I mean, you're not gonna find one for less than $175 now.
That brings my grand total up to $33,798.
- Wow, man.
- I took a bath.
- Was that pun intended? - Yeah, pretty much.
Last year New Jersey sustained $30 billion in damage from hurricane Sandy, and unfortunately, one of us got hit hard.
Mike, you were, like, at the eye of the storm where you live, right? went right through my house.
A wave just pushed through your house.
Right.
Yeah.
And kitchen's gone, dining room's gone, and I lost my entire comic collection.
- Oh, man.
- It's It's heartbreaking.
What's the one piece you're like, "If only I had known what was gonna happen that night, I would have took this with me?" The one thing it's not even the most expensive thing.
It's the Teen Titans poster from 1984.
The one with the With the kind of pastel-y looking colors? - Yeah.
- Oh, yeah.
I've had it since I was - Wow.
- How do you go on? You're such a dick.
Ah It's gonna be hard to find another one, right? Yeah.
It was my favorite Perez piece.
So what are you gonna do, man? You think you'll rebuild, or you think maybe at this part of your life, you just close the book on it and move on? Nah, are you kidding? I'm gonna rebuild.
I'm gonna rebuild better than ever.
We should sell bracelets at the Stash Like, "geek strong.
" Yeah.
You know what? We should.
Help people who aren't as fortunate as me to have this stuff come back.
That's awful, man.
His story is one that a lot of people in Jersey are going through, and I think we should do something for him, maybe just kick-start the quest to rebuild You know, some jewel in the crown maybe we could find.
I'm telling you right now Cherish what you guys have 'Cause you never know when it could be gone.
I feel like there should be, like, an '80s hair band here right now with, like, a monster anthem.
It was banned.
They took it off the shelves.
He does this motion.
Oh my God.
I got something here I think is pretty interesting.
And I don't know if you guys I don't know if this is exactly your thing or whatever, but this is the Rad Repeatin' Tarzan.
You've had this thing for how long? I've had this in my personal collection for a long time.
Do you Do you play with it? Yeah, I mean Well, there's one thing that's very cool about this.
Okay.
Impress me.
Right back here, there's this.
He does this motion.
- Oh, my God.
- He does the standard It basically looks like what you do at work all day long, Ming.
Gives the motion that, well, all men know in times of silence and solitude.
Now, as as a parent, your kid gets that.
Do you feel the need to call the company or write into the company? I'd be so delighted.
I'm like, "Thank God the doll is teaching him to do it.
I never have to talk about it.
" It was banned.
It was They took it off the shelves.
Not something we normally carry here Usually, you know, comic books, superheroes.
Yeah, but, I mean, like, Tarzan's, like, one of the original superheroes, right? - Mm - Yeah.
I'd call him one of the original superheroes, sure.
In what way? How is he super or a hero? Well, he policed the jungle.
He was like a jungle cop.
His parents were murdered.
He has no right to police the jungle.
Nobody's asking him to do it.
Do you even consider Tarzan, like, a superhero? - Without a doubt.
- Really? I mean, the Lord of the Jungle? He can beat all the animals.
He can control all the animals.
Why? You don't think Tarzan's a superhero? He never occurred to me as a superhero as much as like a comic-strip character.
Was Tarzan essentially the terrestrial version of Aquaman? Pretty much, yeah.
He was Aquaman of the land before Aquaman existed.
He didn't control animals, though.
He wasn't like, "boop, boop, boop, boop, boop," and suddenly a gorilla would dance for him or something.
Oh, that'd be sweet.
This is a talent we all want.
I mean, really, what are you trying to sell this thing for? I think somewhere in the range of $50 to $60, - maybe $70.
- It never ceases to amaze me.
Too many people start their negotiation with, "Oh, you know, $50, $60, $70.
" Like, you've already said $50, so why bother saying $60 or $70? Granted, it was recalled or banned, but it's not one of the more desirable recalled/banned toys.
Honestly, I'd give you - I-I couldn't do it for $10.
- All right.
I mean, that's as high as I can go.
All right, you know, I mean, actually, talking about it with you guys, kind of made me realize that I want to keep this a little bit longer, and I'm not gonna give it up for $10.
All right.
I mean, have fun with it.
Good luck with it.
Relish that hot dog.
See you later.
- See you guys.
- Are you out of your mind? Yeah, seriously.
You shook hands with a guy who would bring something like that in here? Oh.
Do we have any hand sanitizer around here? So any suggestions to jump-start Mike's collection again? I know he's really broken up about his Perez poster The New Teen Titans, the pastel one? We can look for it.
It it's not really super common, but if we go out and we spend, like, that kind of money, maybe we can find something even better.
Something better? I think we can find a character that is his favorite.
I know right off the bat Simon Williams, Wonder Man.
Right.
Right.
We have that book, right? Show Robert real quick.
Bride of Ultron.
But, you know, that's a great character.
I've never heard of such a thing.
There he is Wonder Man in his Christmas color outfit.
That looks like jingle belle.
Look, there it is.
That's what I'm talking about, man.
- Look at that costume.
- But you know what? I've been doing all these conventions, talking to a lot of artists.
I've actually developed a friendship with George Perez.
George Perez, the artist? Yeah, he's a really decent guy.
I think there's a great opportunity there, where maybe we can get him to do a Wonder Man for Mike.
Perfect.
Let's get it done.
Mr.
Perez? Oh, my God, look at that, man.
That's amazing.
Favorite superhero sidekick.
The Falcon.
One of the greatest costumes.
I know he's slated to be a major character in the new Captain America movie.
Could you imagine if they give him the full plumage? Aw, that'd be awesome.
It'd take all my money.
Take my kids' inheritance.
All right, Ming.
What about you, man? I always liked Speedy, Green Arrow's sidekick.
- Ooh, controversial choice.
- Ooh, yeah.
Speedy, of course, is the sidekick who at one point is depicted right on the cover of a comic book using the old "H.
" - Is that right? - So why would you want that? I want a sidekick that has a lot of emotional problems, baggage with drug abuse.
I can't even save this guy, let alone the city.
Looking to sell something today.
It's not exactly a comic.
It's something a little different.
- It's Power Records.
- Oh, my gosh.
This may have been the greatest value in comic-book history.
For $1.
50, you got the reprint of the original, but thrown in there was a gorgeous 45 vinyl record that literally was the only way for a comic book to come to life in the '70s.
If you try to explain this to a kid who grew up watching, like, the new Avengers movie Like, "There was a time when we listened to comics" You know, they'd think you were bafflingly old.
But this was treating a comic book very seriously by bringing it to life with voice actors, doing it very heroically and over the top, sound effects, music.
It was better than anything that was on TV at that point.
There was legitimacy in some weird way.
You know, you'd go into a record store, and you could hold your head up and be like, "I'll have a Spider-Man, please.
" And then you get outside, and the kids buying Kiss beat you up.
You know what that means? Revolutions per minute.
You're losing me with this technical jargon.
And it's called a record, so - Yes.
- Thank you.
What were some of your favorite albums that you'd you know, you'd fight your friends over, or you'd close the door, like, "Ma, we're listening to records.
- Don't bug us"? - We're dancing.
The first album I ever bought, like, for myself was Talking Heads, but the first record that I ever had one of these listening parties you're talking about was They did a Star Wars reading on a picture disc.
Yeah, I mean, I can remember having friends come over, and we would put our Kiss albums on and try to mimic Kiss and the poses that they were on on the front of the album covers.
- I mean - Then we'd really kiss.
What are you talking about? You were there.
What are you looking to get for 'em? I know these are not near mint, so why don't we try $120? A little high, considering the condition of 'em.
They still look great.
I mean, they are in nice shape.
But there are some stains.
There's some dog ears.
I was thinking along the lines, maybe - 50 bucks for all three? - $50? I mean, I'm not even sure If I put 'em on, you know, am I gonna need to stack a penny on my arm of my record player because there's so many skips? Um, can you do maybe $70? I'd give you $60, an even $20 for Spider-Man, $20 for Cap, and $20 for Superman.
And then we'll all put in, right? We'll all pitch in, all threesies.
We'll all go out, and we'll buy ourselves a record player.
Actually, you and I will.
He'll kick in the penny for the Sounds fair.
- Huh, you'd do that? - Um - I can do $60.
- All right, deal? - Deal.
- All right, good.
There he is.
Hello? Mr.
Perez? - Oh, hi.
- Hi.
Rob Bruce sent us over.
We're the guys from the Stash.
- Yes, yes, yes.
- How are you doing? It's great to meet you.
My name is Ming.
- Bryan.
- Hi, Bryan.
- How are you? - This is Walt.
I am a ginormous fan, going way, way back.
Oh, thank you.
George Perez is one of the greatest living comic-book artists of all time Teen Titans, Infinity Gauntlet.
Fantastic Four, The Avengers.
Justice League.
The list goes on and on.
There's no character he really hasn't drawn.
So, coming face-to-face with him, what was it like, man? Did you have dry pants or what? Oh, no.
I see a lot of your artwork around here.
Oh, my God, Crisis on Infinite Earths number seven, the cover.
One thing that's funny about that particular cover, as iconic as it has become, for me, it was just being able to draw all the characters in the background.
There were over 500 characters in there, and I lament to this day that one charact who should have been in there was not in there Hal Jordan's Green Lantern.
Another little bit of trivia.
Getting to the point that you're here Yes, why we're here.
A co-worker of ours and a great friend, Mike Zapcic - And a huge fan of yours.
- Yeah.
Just as big a fan as I am He lost almost his entire collection.
He had a poster of yours, the New Teen Titans poster? That was one of his prized possessions.
He had kept it throughout his childhood.
He had framed it, but he lost it in Sandy.
And we thought, "What if we got the guy "who did the poster to maybe do a piece, "an original piece, a one-of-a-kind to, like, kind of kick-start his collection?" I mean, I'm not just blowing smoke here.
Simon Williams, Wonder Man, is his favorite character just because of the way you drew it.
- That's it.
- That's the one, right? If you think he'd like an original drawing of the character, I would love to do do it.
He obviously knew the devastation that a lot of people in New Jersey got hit with with Sandy, and he was more than happy to do it.
- Wow.
- Yeah.
Oh, my God.
Look at that, man.
That's Simon Williams.
- Come to life.
- Thank you so much.
- It's gonna be fabulous.
- Okay.
- See you guys later.
- Thank you.
That's amazing.
Hello.
I'm looking for a gentleman named Michael.
You're George Perez.
Holy crap.
There's a sex act they call "the Chewbacca.
" Does it involve having to sound like Chewbacca? At one point, yeah.
Let me hear your best Chewbacca.
Why? 'Cause I'm gonna go and do this now? You've been doing it you just didn't know what it was called.
Aw.
Hold on.
Hold on.
Aw! I can't do it.
I don't think that that's it.
- That's my best one.
- What about you, Mike? Can you do a Chewbacca? Rah, aw.
That's pee-wee Herman doing Chewbacca.
Rah! I liked yours, man.
You got yours down.
Just get your tongue roll going.
Like that? Yeah, exactly.
That's what you got to do tonight when you when you go in the bedroom.
Just stand in the door all seductively, give 'em your best wookiee call.
Ah.
Yeah, there you go.
That'll get her motor going.
Hello.
I'm looking for a gentleman named Michael.
That would be me.
Michael, I heard that you actually had a bit of a loss because of hurricane Sandy.
And the main You're George Perez.
- Holy crap.
- Yeah, this is my wife, Carol.
- Nice to meet you.
- Pleasure's all mine.
One of the things I wanted to do at least was to help you on the road back.
They said this happened to be one of your favorite characters.
Oh, my God.
Yes, Wonder Man.
Found out from your dear friends here.
No kidding.
You guys did this? I think it's absolutely great.
- Oh, my God.
- And I hope it does help.
Look at that.
"To Michael.
To a new beginning.
" Awesome.
Thank you for the sentiment.
Guys, thank you so much.
I'm not normally Wear my emotions on my sleeve, but I got to tell you, I got a little misty.
You're gonna make me cry right now.
Oh, my God, that's so adorable.
These guys went and I mean, who thinks to do something like that, you know? It was guys, I can't thank you enough.
I mean, you're the best pals a guy could have.
We're almost Super Friends.
- You are Super Friends.
- Oh You are all three of you, and Rob Bruce.
While all this was going on, I stole a couple CDs out of George's car.
He was distracted.
And one other thing we wanted to do, and this one's actually my wife's idea.
A little something for your shop.
I don't know if you know George is famous for his shirts.
Which my wife makes.
She makes all my shirts.
Carol makes all my shirts.
There was a really particularly famous one The lamb chop shirt.
I thought you might like to put it on your wall in the store.
Oh, hell, yeah, man.
- Would you sign it for us? - Oh, sure.
Here we go.
All my detail I have to take my glasses off.
That's awesome.
Imagine how many panels, how many characters he drew wearing this shirt.
- Huh? - Well We'll hang it from the rafters like a retired hockey Jersey.
And now that your friends have managed to make you into a nice, whimpering little kid again, my work here is done.
Thank you just doesn't seem like enough.
Well, believe me, thank you is more than enough.
- Bye-bye.
- Bye-bye.
- Take care.
- See you later.
It couldn't have went better.
I couldn't imagine meeting someone that I idolized so much being more nice or more warm to me than George Perez was that afternoon.
As great as an artist as George Perez is, I may say he's a better human being.
There it is, kids.
They say never meet your heroes, man, but in this instance, not only can you meet 'em, you can depend on 'em, man.
And they could really come in and rescue you just when you need it the most, just like a true superhero.
It would have been cooler if he got there before the storm hit, but George Perez hero.
We're closing the book on another episode, kids.
Sorry about that.
For Comic Book Men, I'm Kevin Smith.
- Bryan Johnson.
- Walt Flanagan.
- Mike Zapcic.
- Ming Chen.
Friendship is magic, kids.
Good night.