The Boone Show

The Boone Show - S6 E17 - Rob & Michele Young - SC Comicon 2026, and other things...

• The Boone Show • Season 6 • Episode 17

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SC Comic-Con weekend is almost here, and we sit down with Rob and Michele Young to talk about how a family-run convention grew into one of the biggest pop culture events in South Carolina. We dig into guests, vendors, community impact, and the behind-the-scenes decisions that keep the show fun and manageable. 
• using the Greenville Convention Center at full capacity and managing the morning line indoors 
• what changed after COVID and why being first back mattered 
• standout guests including Ron Perlman plus Star Wars, Supernatural, and Walking Dead favorites 
• the limited coffee date with “Luke” and other fan-focused extras 
• new vendors, refreshed booths, and a big Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles spotlight with Kevin Eastman 
• how the convention supports the community through charities, blood drives, and Vet Tix 
• picking up wristbands early at Borderlands to speed up entry 
• why Borderlands stays in-person only and how the gaming area builds community 
• what’s trending in comics right now and why physical comics are up 
• student questions on supervillains, favorite series, artists, collecting, and getting started 
Tickets at sccomicon.com. You can come by Borderlands and get your wristband. 

Tell your friends about the podcast and to listen to the show! 

Support the show

Thanks for listening! Direct all inquiries to jboone@mypulseradio.com.

Welcome And Weekend Plans

SPEAKER_10

And hello everybody. How are you doing? Good. How are you, John? Hello, boss lady. Holly Harold's here. Got a couple of great guests for you tonight. These are people that are here all the time.

SPEAKER_05

All the time.

SPEAKER_10

I mean, it seems like it.

SPEAKER_05

It does seem like it.

SPEAKER_10

It's a nice little every six month schedule.

SPEAKER_05

It's good too bad.

SPEAKER_10

I'm always entertaining. Yes. My full education on the Comic Con scene has come from this guy and this lady. Because I knew nothing going in except for my sons being involved in some stuff. So I've had to learn a lot. But Rob is here and Michelle is here, which is great because we didn't know she was going to make it because this is a little bit of a busy week.

SPEAKER_17

It's a little crazy.

SPEAKER_10

Just a little bit. It's like living in a blender.

unknown

Yes. Very much.

SPEAKER_10

So hopefully we can have some fun over the next hour, and then Rob will take Michelle out to dinner and then they can get back to work with whatever.

SPEAKER_17

Come meet us over at Southern Weep. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07

Oh, yes. It's cool.

SPEAKER_17

It's awesome.

SPEAKER_07

It is very cool. It is. It's very cool.

SPEAKER_10

Where's that at?

SPEAKER_07

In Easley.

SPEAKER_10

Well, Pickens.

SPEAKER_07

Is it really Easley or Pickens? I think it's Easley. Okay. It's right on that line. Yeah. It's a cool little facility. It's very similar to the silos.

SPEAKER_10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07

But it's got a bigger outdoor area, I guess. It is beautiful.

SPEAKER_10

I'll tell you, there's been some nice sunsets lately. I saw one last night. Man, it was like fire. We were watching. And then there's like a blue, blue stripe between the clouds. It was just so weird. It was one layer of clouds and it was all red and everything. And there's a blue stripe, and then there's another layer of clouds. It was amazing. I couldn't stop to get a picture. I wanted to.

SPEAKER_07

Well, you and your wife need to go on up to Easley.

SPEAKER_10

It's a long way for us. But we may do it when we're up that way.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, for sure.

How Big SC Comic-Con Is Now

SPEAKER_10

We'll have to do that. All right. But anyway, we're here too. There's the recommendation thing. We don't even have to go back to that at the end. We've already got one. But let's uh talk about Comic Con coming up this weekend at the Greenville Convention Center. We've got a group of kids going and the mascot and all that. And uh so what do you guys got going on at uh at the con this year?

SPEAKER_17

Nothing really.

SPEAKER_10

Nothing, nothing at all. It keeps getting bigger. Everybody keeps talking about it. Is it actually getting bigger? Are you taking up more and more space each week?

SPEAKER_17

We are maxed. Um we're using the two biggest halls in the building, both of the the actual textile halls. Um we're using all of that. And uh and our line ends up using the rest of the building in the morning.

SPEAKER_08

Wow.

SPEAKER_17

Yeah, it it snakes all the way through in the morning. It's pretty crazy. Um and we we like that because if we can keep people out of the sun and out of the rain, we keep as many people inside as we can, as we possibly can, just to try to make it a better experience.

SPEAKER_10

And I think the weather's supposed to be fantastic this week. It is, so that's weird. Oh, yeah. You don't want that.

SPEAKER_17

That's always always a nightmare, right?

SPEAKER_04

I think we've only had rain once and had to make it. Yeah, for the show.

SPEAKER_17

Oh, okay. Very first show.

SPEAKER_10

Really? So what uh speaking of that, how many years has it been?

SPEAKER_17

This is twelve and thirteen years, because we lost, obviously lost COVID. Right, right.

SPEAKER_10

How's it been going since COVID? Obviously, it's it seems to me like it's exploded since then. There was one level before COVID and now it's just gone to another level.

SPEAKER_17

Yeah, it was it was really interesting. So when we came back, um we were the first comic convention of any size to run in the United States. So you can imagine what the messages and emails and the negativity that we got. And on the flip side, the positive messages and and things that we got as well. Like nobody talks about those. We had people going, thank you for being the first one to go, thank you for you know being the one to show people. And um and after that, it really did take off because I think what happened was a lot of people came and gave the show a try just to get out and do something. Absolutely, and then became regulars.

SPEAKER_03

Um they needed it, yes, right. We all needed it. It was a great escape. Yes, something positive and gave them something to look forward to.

SPEAKER_17

And we were we were nervous.

SPEAKER_07

Of course. We were we were that's probably back when your attorney said you have to have people sign, you have to have people do this, you you know, all those We didn't have to do that, but they they they had City asked for people to wear masks and and all that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_04

And um guest contracts were a little more interesting because they had certain requirements to attend shows. So that was dope.

SPEAKER_17

But it you know, we got through it and it did great, and we're so thankful that people enjoy this mom and pop convention. I think people are constantly amazed that it's just you know just a family thing. But and uh it's awesome. It's awesome that people want to come.

SPEAKER_10

So what do we got? Uh what are you most excited for about this year?

Coming Back First After COVID

SPEAKER_17

God, people are really stoked about Ron Pearlman. Because people watch Sons of Anarchy and Hellboy and and all that. But I mean, really, there's so many of them. The Star Wars Clone Wars people. Uh we've got uh Matt Lanter, who's done other stuff too, Ashley Xteen, James Arnold Taylor for people that are big Star Wars cartoon fans, and then we've got two folks from Supernatural, Mark Shepard and Ruth Connell. Kids love that show. Oh my gosh, my my son loves Supernatural so much. Um, and then Kane, who doesn't love Kane. Um, and then the surprise for me, because it's not something I watched, is Scott Patterson off Gilmore Girls. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_04

He was Luke. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_17

Oh my gosh, he blew up.

SPEAKER_04

Yes. People are going crazy.

SPEAKER_10

That show has had probably its third uh recurrence or whatever, because now my 14-year-old is watching it.

SPEAKER_07

And I would assume that's a little different audience than your traditional I mean, you'll get your your people, but the to me that Gilmore girl, you know, Gilmore Girls is just a little different. He's such a niche TV. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_17

Oh my god, it's been huge.

SPEAKER_07

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_17

Uh Ross Marquan's coming, he was Aaron on Walking Dead, but he was also the Red Skull in Avengers uh Infinity, and he was also in Invincible. He's on one of the guys, Immortal and Invincible, which Invincible is a huge show on Amazon. I think they're on season four, maybe at this point.

SPEAKER_10

So Boy, you're you're hitting all the all the popular points here with this.

SPEAKER_17

We try. We want we want people people want to come see. We do our best. I'm not gonna say we win every time.

SPEAKER_10

So you have to like do research during the year.

SPEAKER_04

Oh yeah. We're already working on next year.

SPEAKER_10

I was gonna say, are you are you the one that schedules the people or just she does most of it, don't let her fool you. I know she you say she's busy all the time, and it seems like you just go around and just have fun visiting with people.

SPEAKER_17

Yeah, she's the wizard behind the curtain. I'm the monkey that does all the media, but she's she's the wizard that's getting everything done.

SPEAKER_07

Um you gotta have one of those.

SPEAKER_10

Is there anything that fans can look forward to that maybe they haven't seen at Comic-Con before?

SPEAKER_17

Um well, we're doing what's the coffee event?

SPEAKER_04

Oh, with Luke. We're having a coffee date with Luke at Bridge City Coffee at the intersection on East Washington Street, I believe it is. It's limited to 35 people, and it's just a very comfy little cozy area. Yeah, coffee, a pastry, and find out different things about you know Gilmore girls behind the scenes. That's kind of cool. That'll be Saturday morning. Yeah.

SPEAKER_10

Wow, and only 35 people.

SPEAKER_04

Only 35 people. Have you already got them sold out?

SPEAKER_07

No, there's a few left.

SPEAKER_10

Yeah, so many that are left, yeah. You a Gilmore girls fan, Holly?

SPEAKER_07

Um I mean, I've watched it. I mean, I I don't know if I would call me a die hard, but you know, yeah, I've watched it.

SPEAKER_10

Um you already talked a little bit about the the fans. Um, what about the vendors this year? Are there any new vendors that are going to be exciting to see there?

SPEAKER_17

Um there's a bunch of new vendors. There's some new comic vendors that folks haven't seen before and um new toy vendors and things like that that haven't been there in the past. And I know several vendors are kind of doing uh refresh setups with some different product mixes than they've done in the past as well. Um the Borderlands booth will have some things in it that we've never had before. So that's gonna be kind of fun to see how that does. And uh with Kevin Eastman coming, the creator of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, um we're gonna have a whole section of turtle stuff that uh that we have not had out for sale. So it's gonna be pretty cool.

SPEAKER_10

Yeah, that is pretty cool. Uh what do you think? I know you're big community people, and um obviously this is so impressive being the mom and pop con that it's getting so big now that it it gets ri it really is being recognized around the country as one of the best ones now. You're you're in the the the higher in the in the list as far as what uh my research. You look up Comic Con's, they come right up, right up with San Diego and New York and all those. But well, I didn't say you're all the way up there, but you come up with them.

SPEAKER_17

So, you know, one of these days. No, no, we couldn't even have we we literally couldn't park them. I think the attendance the attendance for San Diego is 300,000. Oh wow what is it for you by the way? It's around 25,000. Yeah, that's good. That's great. Which for us is huge. We have to use a a runway at the airport to help park people because there's not enough parking. They're kind enough to let us use a runway. Yeah, just cool. It's kind of crazy, right? Um, but you know, there's not a a venue other than that convention center, and we're so thankful they're there and they really work with us. But there's nothing that big. People go, Oh, you could use the Bonsa Cores. I'm like, it's way smaller.

SPEAKER_07

Is it?

The Guest Lineup Fans Want

SPEAKER_17

I didn't realize it's when you think about the usable space. We we looked at it and it's less than 50% of what we use.

SPEAKER_07

So is there opportunity to grow there?

SPEAKER_17

There's some um ballrooms and things, but I don't I don't think they would work for like the standard floor because it's so broken up. Um we used one of the uh ballrooms for Jim Lee, uh, who's the president of DC Comics, created image comics. People that aren't comic people will will get the image comics published Walking Dead, and Jim Lee created image and then left to do the stuff at DC. Um so he was massive. Like there's only one other comic guest that's bigger than him, and that would be Todd McFarlane, um, or at least on par. So when we had him, that was about as big as it gets, and we had to have a special room for him and all that to handle the crowd for him. So it'll be tough to get bigger from a footprint standpoint. Um bigger guests, that's something that seems to be happening every year. We keep scaling up the level of guest, and um, if folks don't know how it works with the media guests, it's um usually it's they have a guarantee, a number that you say they will make this number. And then you pay for all their travel, you know, hotels, per diems, right, all that stuff. And then if they don't make it, then we have to pay the difference.

SPEAKER_07

That's interesting.

SPEAKER_17

So we're gambling on them in a way every time. And you want to scale up slow so you don't bankrupt yourself by being too aggressive too early. Right.

SPEAKER_10

I just finished watching a series with Ron Perlman, by the way, called The Capture. Have you seen that? No. What is it? It is a series about um well, it's kind of AI. It was the the first it came out like pre-pandemic, but they've had like three seasons. I think the new one is the new season's actually on now. It's a British thing. Ron Perlman's in it as uh as kind of a uh a little off the beaten path um CIA like agent, you know, one of those guys that's got his fans all over the place. Not a good guy, not a bad guy, but he's kind of running things. And of course he's great in everything he's saying. But what what the what it focuses on is closed caption TV cameras, which every town has, and it's how these agencies will change the footage to change what people are seeing. And it's like it's so nowadays, uh I mean, you think you're seeing one thing, but they have agencies that hack into the CCTV and they're changing what you see, and it's called correction so that they can kind of run things from who gets uh arrested for things, uh, who doesn't get arrested for things by what people see on video, and uh also how it ran all the way through how it affects elections by affecting what people think they saw and what they did see on video. So it's like a really fascinating thing. It's called the capture. It's interesting, and that and the whole thing is correction, is what's called. And it and they they reenact things, but they have people hacking right now. You're just not seeing what you think you're seeing, and you wonder, it's one of those things where you walk around, you're looking at all these cameras and wondering what they are doing right now, whether how are they changing what I'm doing into something else? Um, it's fascinating, it's a good series. But I I love Ron Burlman from the Hellboy days and all that.

SPEAKER_08

That's my favorite.

SPEAKER_17

Uh was a favorite for me.

SPEAKER_10

Yeah, yeah. I mean, he's just great and everything he's in. So it would be nice to see him. I'll have to scramble up some cash to like get a picture or something. I don't know. Um, Joe Godet, he's there this year again, right? Such a great guy. And he was nice enough to our kids to take a picture with all of them.

SPEAKER_17

Dude, he's he's great. The Five Nights in Freddy stuff is big, but if folks haven't watched, he can do impersonations that are incredible. He can do Arnold and Michael J. Fox, and he does some great impersonations. If you follow him on social media, um he's done a great job with that too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_10

So some great people to see. It's always fun. Um, I'm always, as soon as I see the guest list, I mean I'm right on it whenever you send out the social things. And anybody I know who's interested in whoever it is, I'm like, okay, it's gonna be a Comic Con, you're gonna come to Comic Con. So even that strategy is good. Uh releasing the names and over time and hitting targets.

New Vendors And Special Events

SPEAKER_17

Yeah, we try not to drop everybody all at once because it's you kind of lose people in the shuffle. And if you can release them spaced out, we feel like it works. It's worked so far. I think it does. I would think so. All right.

SPEAKER_10

All right, we're gonna take a quick break, and when we come back, we'll talk about what's going on at the store at Borderlands, and I love the jersey.

SPEAKER_17

How do I get one of those? Yeah, I mean that has that cool Dodger thing. Yeah, I know.

SPEAKER_10

Other than the colors, it's it's great. But uh, we'll take a quick timeout here. We'll come back. It's the Boon Show on My Pulse Radio.

SPEAKER_00

SC Comic-Con is just around the corner. Don't miss the biggest comic and pop culture convention in South Carolina. On Saturday, April 11th, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. And Sunday, April 12th, from 11 to 6. Meet your favorite actors, voice actors, artists, and writers, including the original voices of Sonic the Hedgehog, Shadow the Hedgehog, and Ash Ketchup. There's something for everyone at Comic-Con, where you can browse a giant vendor haul of comic books, collectibles, handmade products, art, and more. And Micpulse Radio will have its own booth where you can meet and get your photo taken with the comic books. April 11th weekend, Green Book Convention Center.

SPEAKER_01

Don't be late. Are you hungry and are you looking for somewhere good to eat? Yes. Do you like pizza? Yes. Well, I know the perfect place for you. Where is it? It is located on 315 East Greer Street in Honey Pat, South Carolina. Do they only have pizza or do they have something else? No, they have a wider range of stuff, coming from cow zones to wings to even chocolate chip pizzas and cinnamon rolls for dessert. So what are you waiting for? Come on down to the Mel Pizzeria in Honey Pat, South Carolina at 315 East Greer Street. Hey, thanks for the ride.

SPEAKER_13

No problem. What was that? Oh my goodness, my bumper's destroyed. Don't even worry about it. Just go to Palmetto State Automotive in Anderson on Highway US 29.

SPEAKER_00

You think so?

SPEAKER_13

Yeah, it's the best auto repair place in Anderson. They do everything from engine work to interior repairs. Just call 864-328-9169, and the team at Palmetto State Automotive will do everything they can to get you back on the road in no time.

SPEAKER_16

So stick to these crappy barbershops. What do you mean? Own a barber shop that treats me like a family.

SPEAKER_15

Have you heard of Doc's Chop Shop? Doc's Chop Shop? Yeah. It's a veteran-owned and operated barbershop that provides quality haircuts at affordable prices. They even provide discounts for seniors, military, law enforcement, and first responders. Wow, that's great. Where can I find them? You can visit their location in Piedmont or visit their website at DocChopshopBS.com for more information.

SPEAKER_12

For veterans can be veterans. Ladies, ladies, older horses. He'll be here Saturday from 10 to 2 and Sunday from 11 to 30. Visit the My Pulse Radio booth and get your picture taken with the platter poles. The IP passes are now available. Kids 12 and under are free. Get your tickets now at STComicon.com.

SPEAKER_10

Welcome back to the Moon Show, My Fulse Radio. We're here with the people that make SC Comic-Con possible. Rob and Michelle Young. Glad to have them, which means means when we have them, that means Comic Con's coming. And it's coming quickly because uh it's this weekend. Normally we have them on earlier, but we were on spring break.

SPEAKER_07

So it's incredible that they're here. Yeah, I know.

Economic Impact And Community Giving

SPEAKER_10

When Rob said yes, I was like, what? And then I said, can Michelle come? He's like, no, I don't think so. Then Michelle said she'll be here. And I'm like, what? So um I'm glad. I'm glad you guys are here. Uh the the question I was gonna ask about the community was how has Comic-Con impacted the community? That's a that's a huge event as far as Greenville goes in the upstate. How has it really impacted?

SPEAKER_17

Well, from an economic standpoint, like for the community, pre it was pre-COVID. They did a study. It was called Yeah, that Greenville back then. They did a study back then, and obviously we are many, many multiples bigger. And back then they said we had 50% of the economic impact of the SEC. At that point, the SEC came every three years and we were every year. So technically, you know, we over three years we had a larger impact, but we are much larger now. Um but as far as things that we've done at the con to help the community, um we've had service dog charities there, uh, we've done the blood drives, thousands of pints of blood. So there's a lot of things, food drives, there's a lot of things like that that we've done as well.

SPEAKER_07

Um Yeah, vet ticks. I was gonna say that.

SPEAKER_17

Yeah, vet ticks, we do that every year. But vet ticks got so big that they have to have a lottery.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, so we're you know, my husband's in the military, and so when our son was younger, pre-meeting you guys, he used to we used to get our tickets from vet ticks every single day. That is awesome. I didn't know that. It's so great. Yep, and he used them obviously. But yeah, it was kind of cool. So we appreciate that.

SPEAKER_17

Hey, it's it means a lot to us. Um, I think it's something that kind of goes unnoticed sometimes for people that you know there's a lot of veterans too that just can't afford it. So when you can try to get them in there to have fun with their family, it's totally worth it.

SPEAKER_10

Yep. All right, so what's going on at the store these days?

Wristbands And Convention Logistics

SPEAKER_17

Man, what's a little insane right now? Uh so this week we do a thing where folks can come get their wristbands, you know, sub wristband for ticket. Your wristband is your ticket. Um, and folks can buy their tickets now and get their wristband now. And then on Saturday, all you got to do is go stand in the line that has wristbands and walk in when it opens, and it kind of makes your experience a little faster, a little easier. Um, and then people we do will call as well. So if they bought them online or bought them in the store earlier, folks are doing pickup for their wristbands. And obviously the guys are loading, loading big trucks of all the stuff we have to take over, so they're doing that too. So it's it's been a little crazy, but everybody's just killing it. The crew just is really doing a great job.

SPEAKER_10

That's great. Has there been any changes as far as retail with uh you know online and takes over a lot of a lot of things, people buying things online. Have you seen any change?

SPEAKER_17

Um yeah, we don't sell online.

SPEAKER_10

You don't? Okay. Not allowed.

SPEAKER_17

Um everything goes out the front door of the store. There you go. Um and it's I I think the reason people buy online is is convenience, right? But it's also like in person, if you can hold a thing, look at it, talk to someone about it, get some information, learn how to play a game, meet other people that like the same stuff. You know, in person, that's a completely different experience. And I think RShop is uniquely kind of positioned to do that because it's a big store with a lot of different varieties of product and it lets people do that easily.

SPEAKER_10

Aaron Powell And you've always been someone to want to have the community come in, play games, that kind of thing.

SPEAKER_17

That's why we have a huge gaming area, right?

SPEAKER_10

Yeah, and it is that's that's still a big thing with people coming in, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_17

It fills up with Warhammer and Magic, and now all the card games are magic and Pokemon and One Piece and Riftbound. We have all these different card games that are like magic. Um, then everybody loves them. It's really fun. Wow.

SPEAKER_10

How has the industry itself kind of changed over the years with comics and gaming and stuff like that?

SPEAKER_17

So when I bought the store, the only games that they really carried were tabletop miniature games like Warhammer, where you paint miniatures and build armies. Um the way we've evolved it since then. It didn't have any board games, they didn't have Dungeons and Dragons and role-playing games. We added all that. Um and then all the card games, we obviously added all that and then expanded it when we moved into the new location. So that's that's what it is. It's just the ver same thing, the variety of games and and things that we can carry. That's huge.

SPEAKER_07

And you know, our students can get not our students, any young person. I don't want to say just our students, but I hear from our students that they can go in and play and not cost any money.

SPEAKER_17

Correct. We don't charge to play in our game area at all.

SPEAKER_07

You just walk in and sit down and play.

SPEAKER_04

That's something fun for them to do with their friends. Absolutely. You know, not always on a video game or something. It's it's a interaction with the safe there.

SPEAKER_07

Like it's a safe place in your facility. Right.

SPEAKER_10

Yes, it is. So we just had a new place open up in Williamston, small place, that is trying to do the same thing. For and and kids need that in this area up here. They're something a community place to go. And I haven't been in there yet. They just opened it and I the name escapes me. But they're right up here on Main Street. And uh they're trying to do the games and you know, sell kind of the same stuff that you guys are. What about comics? Are comics themselves still as popular as that?

SPEAKER_17

They're actually uh on the uptrend at the moment. Uh the absolute line from DC is is just killing it. Absolute Batman is on its called wealth printing of number one.

SPEAKER_08

Oh wow.

Why In-Person Shopping Works

SPEAKER_17

Um, so it's doing great. Uh the ultimate line from Marvel was doing great. Uh the Transformers and G.I. Joe reboot under Skybound, which is Robert Kirkman that created Walking Dead. Um, that has turned that into one of the largest franchises in the industry. And the rumor is that they are working on an animated series with Robert Kirkman as the showrunner. Um, and in this world that they've created, Transformers and G.I. Joe exist in the same world. They exist in the same universe. And it's really good the way they I don't want to blow story points because I'm not a I wasn't a huge fan of either. I was a little too old. I was just past it when they came out. Um, but the way they combined them is really intelligent, makes total sense, and uh it's really well done, and it's pulling in a huge audience. I would say Transformer sells 75% of Batman, which is nuts because it used to sell like two or three copies.

SPEAKER_10

Yeah. And manga is still popular as well. Always. He had a whole case shipped to the house of books, and he'll go through them in like a week or two. Yes, that is the possibility.

SPEAKER_17

Like I always say, if you're not staring at your phone, you're eating.

SPEAKER_10

That's why I wanted to ask you about the comics. It's like nobody reads and looks at that stuff anymore, not unless it's digital, but yet you say it's exploding, and that's that's awesome.

SPEAKER_17

We have a 75-foot new comic wall. Wow.

SPEAKER_07

Wow, wow. That's cool.

SPEAKER_17

So that that absolutely it does great. There's people lined up every Wednesday morning to get their books from Comics Drop. They always come out on Wednesday. You remember when Tuesdays was CDs and DVDs and all that stuff dropped on Tuesdays? Well, Wednesday's Comic Day, and all the publishers have agreed, so they release all their stuff on Wednesday.

SPEAKER_10

Have you still been doing your little uh you did a sort of like a podcast or something on Facebook Live.

SPEAKER_17

We did a Facebook Live. Uh we started during COVID and we ran a little over a hundred episodes of that. They were like sales. And uh when we moved into the new location, there just wasn't time to do it. And obviously you didn't really need to. Yeah. It would have been nice, you know, during you know, when we opened, but the um whatnot was trying to recruit us before they ever went live. And I don't like the the auction sort of atmosphere of that. Uh I feel like people overpay, and I feel like for some people it it's gambling, right? A little bit, and it's a little predatory on that. And so uh so I feel like that's the challenge with that sometimes. So we decided to to kind of go away from that model.

SPEAKER_10

Okay, I was just wondering if I was missing you never knew what the algorithm's going to do on your Facebook. Or I mean, I wake up someday and I'm like, I haven't seen that person in months. Why? And then I'll go back to their site and see they have been posting, but they haven't been popping up because I've been looking at other stuff.

SPEAKER_17

We had a weird one pop up the last it happened to me and it happened to a buddy of mine that the con page uh today was showing him a post from four years ago in his feet.

SPEAKER_04

But then it wasn't doing it for me.

SPEAKER_17

It wasn't doing it for her, yeah. And then I had the same thing. I wasn't seeing a post she had when I went to our page. And if I switched over. Yeah, Facebook was that's a really good way to do it. Facebook was Facebooking.

SPEAKER_04

Now, have y'all gone into TikTok?

SPEAKER_17

No. Absolutely not.

SPEAKER_04

We've had many requests to do it, but we haven't haven't pulled the plug on that yet.

SPEAKER_07

You almost need a full-time person to do stuff like that. I mean, you really do.

SPEAKER_17

If we were to add TikTok, we would have to. And I just I'll be honest, we're like, eh. Everything we're doing fine. So it's like, you know, why why add more work that you don't think will actually increase anything?

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_10

Yeah, not to go back and overpromote that series I was telling you about, but the capture that the algorithm thing is what they're trying to affect the whole time by showing the different videos and slants and bias is to get people to go in different directions. And that led to who they voted for and all kinds of other things. If big business didn't like your business, then they take you out of business and put somebody else in power. Great show, you gotta watch it.

SPEAKER_17

Sounds good, but don't get me putting my tinfold hat on.

SPEAKER_10

Yeah, well, yeah. I mean, I love those. Uh I'm not, I don't consider myself a conspiracy theorist. I like to check out everything and find the truth somewhere. But I love those shows that make you think about others like could this really happen? I don't know. Um, we gotta go and uh talk to we're not going anywhere, but let's uh talk to uh Zach. Did you put him up there or not?

SPEAKER_05

I did.

Comics And Gaming Trends Right Now

SPEAKER_10

Zach, are you there? I'm here. Yeah, hey, how are you doing? I'm doing good, man. How are you? Good, good. What's going on in your world of sports?

SPEAKER_14

Oh well, the NCAA basketball um tournament ended last night.

SPEAKER_10

Yes, and thank goodness it was Michigan and not Yukon.

SPEAKER_14

Yeah, neither neither one of them I had winning. So I decided to choke at the last minute. So there went my bracket, which my bracket's usually shot about the second round anyway.

SPEAKER_10

So uh no one in the office said it either.

SPEAKER_06

That was I made third.

SPEAKER_07

I got it.

SPEAKER_10

Yeah, but no one had the up to the championship game in it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07

I think they only had something like 12% that even chose them in the final four.

SPEAKER_10

That's crazy. But you would think a lot of people would have chosen Michigan because they were good on here. Anyway, go ahead.

SPEAKER_14

Yeah, the the two, the the uh what I'll do is is I I try to pick upsets, and if I pick upsets, there's no upsets. If I don't pick upsets, there's a lot of upsets. Of course. I just I just try to I just try to go with the flow. That's about all I do. So well, you didn't lose anything. Right? No, I didn't. No, I didn't. That's that's pretty good. Matter of fact, um uh my mom won our family. My mom don't know anything about the four the family. And my dad, who always talks about how Zachary, you're doing horrible, you're doing horrible. He comes in big old fifth place. Yeah. But uh, but anyway, before I get off here, I'll uh kind of a little change of subject. I want to wish Tiffany a happy nine-year wedding anniversary. We'll celebrate. Oh, it is, yeah.

SPEAKER_10

Rob seems to be on his show that is.

SPEAKER_14

We'll be doing Southern weaving here and easily and eating on Friday night. So uh we don't get to tomorrow night because of church and I wanna for Carson. So, but but we'll go celebrate Friday and uh try to let her do as much as she can before she has her surgery on May 19th. So, but other than that, everything's good. Not you know, MLB season just got kicked off, so really don't have much to talk about there. Just uh not really much to talk about. Won't really know about that until around what June, July, about how things are gonna go.

SPEAKER_10

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_14

Not really a whole lot going on.

SPEAKER_10

No, no, no. Next weekend's WrestleMania. And we knew the Dodgers would be in the playoffs.

SPEAKER_14

So yeah, the Dodgers are being the playoffs.

SPEAKER_10

They better be.

SPEAKER_14

They should be in the playoffs for that payroll they have.

SPEAKER_10

Yeah, the Mets never are owned GMP for the Gennyway. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_14

So But anyway, but yeah, WrestleMania is next weekend. Looking forward to that. I I gave my sister down the road because her and her husband, they're going out. I can't remember why they're going, if they're going to celebrate an anniversary, or I know they got married in September. I'm not sure why they're going, but they're flying out to Nashville. And I said, hold on a second. I said, Hold on a second. I said, you've known for about a year the dates of WrestleMania, and you're gonna be out of town on WrestleMania Saturday. So Carson was asking me, Katie, is is people gonna be coming over for WrestleMania? I usually have people over, especially on Saturday. And I said, why don't we call Aunt Katie right now and let her explain to you why she won't be here on Saturday? I never understand why people get married on WrestleMania Saturday. You don't get married in the fall time because I got married in April. Now I got married on the Clemson Spring game.

SPEAKER_07

Well, there's a problem there.

SPEAKER_14

Yeah. Um that don't mean he. Yeah, my best friend's dad was there, and you can see him on our wedding video looking down at his phone to check the sleep.

SPEAKER_10

You're breaking your own rule. You got married in April. These people get married in April. You're just lucky you missle WrestleMania.

SPEAKER_14

Yeah, yeah. So and then my cousin, who usually comes over too, he's deciding to go to prom on Saturday night. You don't go to prom or WrestleMania Saturday. Nah, of course not. Come on, are you serious?

SPEAKER_17

Oh yeah. Crazy people miss. How can you dance when you're thinking about Cody Rhodes?

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07

I can promise you, your girls will never go to prom on WrestleMania.

SPEAKER_14

No, no. Wow. No, no, and they won't be getting married. I don't care if I'm paying for it or not, from what August to um what December. August to December. Now we've got what six, seven more months to plan a wedding? Yeah. So um that's when Tiffany, Tiffany wanted to get married originally on October 8th. Oh, yeah. What's wrong with her? And I told her, I said, no. I said, that's football season. No. No. So but but we'll see. But yeah, I don't know what's wrong with people going on WrestleMania Saturdays. They know better than that. That's a cardinal sense. I mean, I'm playing softball for my church for my games at three and four. Oh, yeah. And if I had games at five and six, you wouldn't be not missing the second game. Yeah. Yeah, some things are more important. Some things are more important. So, but but anyway, so all right, Zach. Y'all take care.

SPEAKER_09

We love you.

SPEAKER_14

All right. Love y'all too. Y'all be good. See y'all.

SPEAKER_09

Take it easy. Bye.

SPEAKER_17

What a character. Um, all right. Let's by the way, I I wouldn't get married on WrestleMania weekend either. So if you want to renew our vows, I just want to say that that that one's off.

Marketing Reality And Social Algorithms

SPEAKER_10

Uh yeah. Well, you've scheduled the con around it because wasn't a few years ago, it was actually on WrestleMania weekend.

SPEAKER_17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_10

Yeah, a couple years ago. So you avoided the the Final Four weekend and WrestleMania and got right in between.

SPEAKER_17

Yeah, we got lucky. I wish we got to pick our dates. It's usually like we have this weekend for you, we'll take it. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_10

Um your free time, which I'm sure you have plenty of. Um and some of these questions that we're going to get to were actually submitted by students. So it'd be interesting to see the the ones that will be coming this weekend to take part in uh Comic Con. Um but uh yeah, like uh what do you do? Like uh you you worked a date night into here tonight.

SPEAKER_17

Yeah, well in uh in in her free time, she started working out. So now she's deadlifting like you know 200 pounds or something when she's bored. When she's at bored. And then I spend my time sitting in front of Diablo 2 right now, uh playing Diablo 2 and getting two 80-pound dogs off my lap while they they want to tell me they love me while I'm you know, and then growling at the TV because there's dogs and things on the TV, then they have to protect me from the TV.

SPEAKER_10

So she's over there working out, lifting 200 pounds, and you're you're playing video games.

SPEAKER_03

And they're making sourdough. Ah, so you're into sourdough. She is a sourdough sourdough. Yeah, I just started it about what six months ago.

SPEAKER_17

Yeah, she hasn't made a bad loaf yet. Every single one's been perfect. Oh my bad. Wow. It's unreal. It's so good.

SPEAKER_04

It's been fun.

SPEAKER_17

All right, nice. She made sourdough Pop Tarts. Oh, that's interesting. It was like mana from heaven.

SPEAKER_10

Do you guys ever go to other Comic Cons, like not working, like just as fans? Yes, on purpose.

SPEAKER_04

That answered that question.

SPEAKER_17

Um pretty rare. Um, usually because you do it so much for work. Right. Yeah, when we go somewhere, we tend to find a cabin in the mountains. Yeah, get away from them and hide from people.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah. Or go to a concert or right, because y'all have been to um law um Vegas and went to the spear. Yes. You did a few things like remember that?

SPEAKER_17

Would you believe we were there for work? You told me that we're there for work, but she managed to get tickets to the Eagles.

SPEAKER_06

Heck yeah.

SPEAKER_17

And if if they do another residency and you like the Eagles, it's worked out.

SPEAKER_10

It is coming back. They're actually coming uh where to uh Braves Stadium. Oh, that's right, that's right to do a show. And then I think they're going back to Vegas.

SPEAKER_17

And in Liberty?

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, the Liberty I don't know what they call it.

SPEAKER_10

Oh, it's Liberty University.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, not the outdoor little area. I think it's uh Blue Ridge. Uh I don't know exactly what's going on. The Blue Ridge, is it power?

SPEAKER_17

They're gonna have Sister Hazel and Billy Bob Thornton.

SPEAKER_10

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_17

No, but they've got some amazing acts coming.

SPEAKER_10

Yeah, they got Stryper coming too. Did you see that? No, oh my gosh. They were like one of the first Christian rock bands wearing their black and yellow and singing Christian rock. Uh I remember growing up.

SPEAKER_05

The Pickens County Performing Park Center. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_10

Yeah, they are incredible job, but uh they're getting some good shows. This is the second time, yet, like you said, with uh Billy Bob Thornton. They sold all out the first one pretty quickly.

SPEAKER_07

Didn't we have Justin from um that was doing some um scheduling at Pickens County Performing Arts Center?

SPEAKER_10

Oh, yeah, Justin Williams.

SPEAKER_07

Williams, that's his name. I knew he had a yeah, is it I bet he's running this all?

Sports Break With Zach

SPEAKER_10

Yeah, yeah. He he helped get the great yeah, he's doing a good job getting some great ideas. Yeah, he's too busy to even get him to come in here anymore.

SPEAKER_05

That's what I'm saying. I was trying to think of his last name.

SPEAKER_10

Yeah, Justin Williams. All right, so uh the remainder of these questions are from the kids, and you guys can uh decide if or who is going to answer them. I mean, Michelle, are you into the all the comic stuff?

SPEAKER_04

Not really. I mean, I've read some comics, but the movies.

SPEAKER_10

I read a few books.

SPEAKER_04

If I had more time to read, I think I would read more. I did read Walking Dead, which I really liked. Didn't watch the show, but I loved reading the trades for that. And then uh Strangers in Paradise, which was a Terry Moore Yeah, real early indie that was huge in the 90s.

SPEAKER_17

And Hellboy.

SPEAKER_04

Hellboy, I love Hellboy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_10

Yeah. Okay, so first question from the kids. Uh, who's your favorite supervillain and why? Let me think.

SPEAKER_17

I think I would have to say Doctor Doom. Because Doctor Doom's idea and and the really correctly written stories are protecting his country. And so is his mind when he goes out and does all this crazy stuff, it's to protect Latvia. So it's a little bit like Thanos, like maybe you have a uh a goal in mind that in your mind is a good thing, but you're really doing something evil and bad. In your mind it's not bad, right? It's to improve something or do something. So that was a lot of Doctor Doom and a lot of the good stories, and it it makes it more interesting, right? It's he's not a good guy. He's still doing a bad thing, but in his mind he's looking at it differently.

SPEAKER_10

Yeah, yeah. Do you have one, Michelle?

SPEAKER_04

I don't know if it would really count, but it would be Kingpin.

SPEAKER_10

Oh, yeah. He's definitely a bad guy.

SPEAKER_04

He's a bad guy, but he was also like a tortured soul, you know, just all those villains.

SPEAKER_10

He was a tortured soul. Yeah. Um well, Michelle, you already answered this one, but uh your favorite comic book series.

SPEAKER_17

I mean, it'd have to be the shadow. And then Captain America is like 1D.

SPEAKER_10

Okay. Um what elements do you look for in a series that particularly interests you and makes you want to read it?

SPEAKER_17

Something different. A different take, a different angle. Kind of like I talked about with the Transformers G.I. Joe thing. Right. Like I'll give you one of the one of the hints. Um in the Cobra Commander book, you always wonder why Cobra always had better technology than G.I. Joe. And and then why does Megatron want to destroy Earth? Well, in in the comic, they go into a cave and Megatron is strung up being tortured by Cobra Commander. Because he crashed on Earth, he's torturing him for technology. And of course he's gonna hate every human because it's happened to him. It's like they wrote this really interesting crossover story that made so much sense. So when somebody does something different and creative like that, that makes total sense, and then like now you got me with the with the hook, and now I want to read it.

SPEAKER_10

Yeah, yeah. You get into it that much, Michelle, that you can't.

SPEAKER_04

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_10

There you go. You'll like this.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, I kind of know what you like, but I'll be like, I'm gonna look at this.

SPEAKER_17

Yeah, yeah, it works all the time.

SPEAKER_10

Um, who are some of your favorite comic artists?

SPEAKER_17

Uh Jack Kirby, who created Captain America, Black Panther, and basically most of the Marvel Universe. Um Mike Kaluda. A lot of folks don't know who he is, who's really a big fantasy artist, but he drew the shadow um when I was a kid. And then the uh desk of the gentleman who wrote that is actually in my office. So he wrote stuff that got me into comics on the desk in my office.

SPEAKER_07

That's kind of cool.

SPEAKER_17

But he also wrote Neil Adams Batman, which was massive. Those are the stories where they created the yellow circle around the bat symbol. It wasn't there before that. And he also wrote Green Lantern, Green Arrow back at the time where they were addressing race issues and drug addiction. And in the in the 70s, no one had done that. So all that stuff was written on that desk. He wrote his whole career, Denny O'Neill used that desk. So that's probably my most prized possession. Because if he didn't write it, I'm not sitting in this chair.

SPEAKER_07

So to follow up on that, I know, John, you have a few more questions. That's right. So you guys literally have access to everything comic rel, you know, your entire store. Is there personal things that you collect? Because you have access to all that, but actually things that like it's at your house, things that maybe you collect.

SPEAKER_17

For me, it's actually war comics. So I love war comics, and um, I'm trying to get every DC war comic, and Atlas was Marvel in the 50s, and they had a great war comic run. And uh, I'm working on those runs for things that I like. But for her, it would be Hellboy because you have so much Hellboy stuff, right?

SPEAKER_02

A lot of Hellboy artwork and art.

SPEAKER_17

Original art that's been published and things like that.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, very cool.

SPEAKER_10

Uh the next question was do you have any hot take about anything going on in the comics where the Comic Con universe?

SPEAKER_17

Um I think it's that um when companies do something original like the absolute stuff that DC is doing, um, it works. Right? So you've you've gotta have an idea and you've gotta you've gotta go all in. And they did. And it's now they're outselling I think they're outselling Marvel. I mean, which doesn't happen very often. It hadn't happened since New 52 and uh 2011 that I think they were outselling, but they're outselling them right now.

SPEAKER_10

You have any hot takes there, Michelle?

unknown

No.

SPEAKER_10

Um good question. What do um wait a phrase? What do people do to do what you do? In other words, if they want to start being someone like you, comic book store, maybe make a Comic Con at some point down the road, how do they get started doing that?

SPEAKER_17

I mean, just take those first steps. Uh the the first one would be if you want to shop, go work in one. Like learn the industry by work. That's what I did. Learn the industry by going to work in the industry, and uh, you'll start soaking things up without realizing you're doing it. Um my first convention was at a Howard Johnson's on Lawrence Road.

SPEAKER_07

And uh Which there's no Howard Johnson anymore.

Life Outside The Convention

SPEAKER_17

It was a hot it was an old hotel. And um, I remember we had 300 people come, which people thought was absolute insanity then, like that was incredible. And I had to get a lady away from the front door because of her vocation, we'll say. Oh wow. At 10 o'clock in the morning.

SPEAKER_03

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_17

Oh yeah. Yeah, I remember going like that. I'm like, there's gonna be kids here. I need you to go. Come on. Um and it's it was something we did for fun. And um I actually have to fly her for that convention hanging on the wall.

SPEAKER_07

Oh, that's kind of cool.

SPEAKER_17

Yeah, that's cool. Where's it hanging on the wall? At your store. In the office so that way when people come in, I can show it to them.

SPEAKER_10

Yeah, very cool. Um last question is because these guys do a show that's called the Sandwich Club on the air here, and they talk about different things about sandwiches, which believe it or not, is a is a pretty wide-ranging topic. It is entertaining.

SPEAKER_17

That's an incredible idea. It's entertaining.

SPEAKER_10

You know, there's a lot of things they can talk about with bread and meat and cheese and history and um geography. That's exactly they're working on a history one right now with the Earl of Samuel.

SPEAKER_17

We literally talked about that just the other night. That's what's so funny. We we had that discussion.

SPEAKER_10

Because you know why it was because he was playing a game. He was gambling. Yes. Oh, see, so he was playing something. What an easy way to get a bite to eat, and so he stuck some, I don't know, beef or something in uh between two pieces of bread, and he was able to continue playing while eating.

SPEAKER_17

So uh necessity.

SPEAKER_10

Yeah. But anyway, um, if you were to make this what they want to know, a signature sandwich for Comic-Con called the Comic Con something, what would it be?

SPEAKER_17

I'm gonna let you do this because you you eat some amazing sandwiches. Nobody wants my she likes Cubans and Rubens and Yeah, all the standard stuff. What would the SC Comic Con sandwich be?

SPEAKER_04

I don't know. Would it be the the one between the two donuts that I made for you that time?

SPEAKER_17

Like the crispy creams.

SPEAKER_04

I had a it was cut, it was a donut cut in half. Wasn't it?

SPEAKER_17

It's a donut cut in half. A burger, a bacon cheeseburger with peanut butter on it. Oh my god, arteries are clogged.

SPEAKER_07

I know, it was delicious.

SPEAKER_17

Between two donuts.

SPEAKER_07

That sounds phenomenal.

SPEAKER_10

And what else do you put on the burger? I mean, it obviously wasn't peanut butter. Just peanut butter?

SPEAKER_17

Yeah, so if you do peanut butter on a hot burger, it melts like a peanut sauce. It's almost like a Thai sauce.

SPEAKER_10

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_04

It's different. Not sure.

SPEAKER_17

Had it at a place in Charlotte on a dayer, and then it became a thing. And it's really good. Really? Yeah. And who doesn't like peanut butter and donuts? Well, that's true.

SPEAKER_07

It's all good things. I just don't normally mix it.

SPEAKER_17

I like I like the donut burger. It's got to have peanut butter on it too. Yeah, definitely. That would be the official.

SPEAKER_10

Something for a C Comic Con sandwich. Tell the convention center, get that on the on the menu for this weekend. Oh my gosh, I'll explode. All right, that was all the questions they have. We're gonna take another real quick time out here. And when we come back, uh, I want to get your opinion on some things that are going on in the news. So the news is weird nowadays. We try to keep it a little positive here. Um, so we'll uh we'll get your opinion on some of the things that I picked up. The way I do this now throughout the week is I'll just take screenshots of things I see pop up on my phone and say that'd be kind of cool to talk about, and uh then go back and line them up. So we'll see what you think coming back on the Boon Show, MyPulse Radio.

SPEAKER_00

SC Comic-Con is just around the corner. Don't miss the biggest comic and pop culture convention in South Carolina on Saturday, April 11th, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. And Sunday, April 12th, from 11 to 6. Meet your favorite actors, voice actors, artists, and writers, including the original voices of Sonic the Hedgehog, Shadow the Hedgehog, and Ash Ketchup. There's something for everyone at Comic Con where you can browse a giant vendor haul of comic books, collectibles, handmade products, art, and more. And MyPulse Radio will have its own booth where you can meet and get your photo taken with the public. April 11th weekend, Green Book Invention. Don't be late.

SPEAKER_18

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SPEAKER_15

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SPEAKER_12

That's the Economic Month 2026 at the Green Book Inventory Temple. Saturday, April 11th and Sunday, April 12th. Ladies, ladies, hold your horses. He'll be here Saturday from 10 to 2 and Sunday from 11 to 30. Visit the My Pulse Radio Booth and get your picture taken with the platterpuls. The IP passes are now available. Kids glove and under are free. Get your tickets now at stcomicon.com.

SPEAKER_10

And we are here for one more segment with uh the people that run Comic-Con. Rob and Michelle Young. Just uh that's all they do.

SPEAKER_17

With the person that runs it and the person that has to do all the media.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_10

Do you want to switch sometime, Michelle? You do all the media and Rob run it?

SPEAKER_17

Yeah, this is the agreement that she made.

SPEAKER_04

No, no, right. These are our lanes.

Student Questions About Comics

SPEAKER_10

All right. Well, in the news, of course, everybody's talking about this. It's not really a story, but I I just asked for your thoughts. What do you think of the whole Artemis space mission?

SPEAKER_17

No, I think it's awesome. I'm just playing. Yeah. It's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_10

Boy, everybody's got their tinfoil hats on.

SPEAKER_17

That's not real. That's not real. Well, I mean, at this point, like and then some of these images they take, people think that like, come on, man, some of them do have to be altered or run through a filter or whatever. I mean, so you know. And at this point, I think everybody looks for everything to be fake so they can get clicks. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

Sure.

SPEAKER_17

That's obviously part of it.

SPEAKER_05

Sure.

SPEAKER_10

But uh Well, if it is real, it's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_17

I want to see how much the dark side of the moon.

SPEAKER_10

Yes, well, they went they had those pictures from around the other side. Yeah. First time that that's ever happened. Supposedly.

SPEAKER_17

Um They're not the first guys to I mean, every moon mission orbited the moon.

SPEAKER_10

Yeah, or why are they saying, but they went further out, I guess? They're going further out.

SPEAKER_17

On the dark side. They circled all the way around the moon with some of the others too. And I'm like, what's the difference?

SPEAKER_05

Maybe, maybe picture wise. I don't know. I don't know.

SPEAKER_17

They're like, no, their orbit was a little bigger. I'm like, I don't know. They're still like if that thing goes wrong, they're still gone. Oh, yeah. It doesn't matter how far they were from the moon, they're still gone. That's it's so risky.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_10

Um, the World Cup is coming up this summer. Are you into soccer at all?

unknown

No.

SPEAKER_17

What's a World Cup?

unknown

It's a cup.

SPEAKER_10

It looks like the world from a picture from the arcans. I don't know anything about soccer. Um, but anyway, what was interesting for our soccer fans is that Lego is coming out with uh some World Cup um edition stuff, like uh Leon Messi, who's one of the most famous players. Uh it only costs like 80 bucks to get uh a little uh figurine. A little bigger than a I mean, not one of the tiny ones that they have, but uh and they have a Ronaldo uh figurine as well. They're they're actually 10 inches tall. And the Ronaldo one is 854 pieces uh in his signature pose when he scores goals and he goes, you know, he has his knees down and all that. Um or you can get it with him doing a bicycle kick. Uh Messi's is uh 958 pieces, and uh his can be a celebration or a dribbling pose and a larger celebration set, 1,427 pieces, 15 inches high, and that goes for I think uh$120 on that one,$80 for the other ones, and they have smaller ones like the trophy, you can get the World Cup trophy, and all that stuff's available on May the 1st. So for those people into the Lego scene, similar to what uh you guys do, collectibles and all that. So fun. They are. Uh you have that to look forward to. If you're a soccer fan and you want to shell out some money, boy, I tell you, my kids were down to the Lego store in Orlando, and they just go in there, they'll spend tons of money, they'll put it on uh payment plans, they'll do whatever to get these giant Lego sets. Um Lego is yeah, think about it when we were growing up, it was just bricks. You know, just building houses or whatever. They were like, Oh, you can make a bus.

SPEAKER_17

Yeah, exactly. And then they they expand it out.

SPEAKER_03

Or a house, right?

SPEAKER_17

Yeah, yeah, yeah. They expanded out and they did the theme part and all that stuff, they were about to go under. They were going bankrupt. And they had the idea to narrow all that down and start doing licensing.

SPEAKER_08

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_17

And when the licensing hit it changed. Right, because you had people that didn't I always say didn't care about Legos, but maybe they were like, Yeah, I did that when I was a little kid, and they're like, Oh, wait a minute, I can build Star Wars or Harry Potter or whatever.

SPEAKER_10

He's still Yeah, my sons are 24 and 26, so they're still getting them. Like they're little kids. I mean, my son still gets the City Series stuff, which you would think would be for a kid, but he's been collecting them all for 15 years.

SPEAKER_07

Madeline does the flowers. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_10

She's got that's cool.

SPEAKER_17

My mom just got some of the flowers, she's 76.

SPEAKER_06

Oh, wow. And my six. She started building them. Go figure.

SPEAKER_10

There's one that's an old time, old time radio that my son wants to put together for me. Um, so I mean, there's something for everybody. They can catch everybody when you go in the Lego store. Um, oh, have you heard about this uh this whole Kit Kat thing with the people stealing the Kit Kats? No, you didn't hear about that?

SPEAKER_08

You wanted to get it actually happened like on April Fool's Day.

SPEAKER_10

That's why I had a special special gift. Everybody gets a Kit Kat. Yours should be over there too. I got a Kit Kat. Okay, okay. Make it short, Michelle is already all on our way. Um but um it was real, nobody thought it was because it was like on April Fool's, and it happened between Italy and Poland, so it was overseas, not here in America, and 400,000, 413,000 Kit Kats in a truck were that's 12 tons were stolen. The truck and everything. The truck, the Kit Kats, everything stolen. And some of these were or or most of them were like uh custom Kit Kats that were made into Formula One racer-looking things, cookies. They were shaped like Formula One racers.

SPEAKER_07

I could see that with Reese cups, but not Kit Kat.

SPEAKER_10

Kit Kat, yeah. But evidently, I went for an update today, and as of today, they still haven't found anything. They haven't found the truck or the Kit Kats.

SPEAKER_17

I mean, it's so difficult to sell those because they're custom.

SPEAKER_07

Well, and then they gotta melt.

SPEAKER_17

And if you have to eat them all, you're gonna be diabetic in a week.

SPEAKER_07

So or die because you've ate too many.

SPEAKER_10

Well, and Kit Kat thinks they're gonna track all this down, so I guess they've gotta have people eat them pretty quick here because um they know the the serial numbers and the lot numbers that are on every one.

SPEAKER_07

In fact, I was just looking on the back of this one.

SPEAKER_10

Yeah, you'll see a number on there. Uh huh. And in fact, TikTok, TikTok, Kit Kat, not TikTok, uh, Kit Kat has on their website where you can type in the lot number and see if it's part of the uh so did you do it with ours? I did, and we're not. I was kind of wishing we were because then they send you to another site and you can say, Oh, you got it, and all that and they're trying to track everything down. But literally, they sent out that is so it's on their on their site, they sent it out on social media. You can get this tracker to see if your Kit Kat was part of the uh the big uh theft.

SPEAKER_04

Well, social media had a ball with that. Oh, they did. All the different companies started posting, you know, we're really sorry to hear that Kit Kat had all these stolen and blah, blah, blah, and other news we are now serving chocolate-covered, yeah, wafer flavored, like a lot of different businesses were doing it. It was a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_10

It's 400,000 of them they got online. And specifically F1 themed bars. So it's you just wonder this someday this is all gonna get figured out, obviously.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_10

But it's just why?

SPEAKER_07

They're either gonna find melted chocolate or wrappers. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_17

And both are fun.

SPEAKER_07

Yes, yes, sir. You're exactly right.

SPEAKER_10

All right, and the final thing is we're pretty much out of town, out of time. And my gosh, that's my vocabulary tonight. You know, I'm tired, and that's why. Because last night our dog had nine puppies.

SPEAKER_08

Oh, yeah. Congratulations.

Building The Signature Comic-Con Sandwich

SPEAKER_10

And they never ever have them during the day. It's always overnight. Mine never did. And my wife, she's amazing, because she let me go to sleep for at least like four hours anyway, so I could get to work and everything. And and she birthed birthed them all. Um but I'm still tired. Well, all but one. So it was nine, there was ten, but he was really tiny. He just didn't make it. He was like 0.25 pounds. Oh, he didn't make it. There was a couple that are tiny, but uh, in fact, the one that's the next tiniest, but he is just crazy. He's running all over the place, uh, you know, latching on to mama and pushing other puppies out of the way. So we think he'll be fine. But um, yeah, I'm tired. And um there's been all kinds of other things uh going on that uh getting ready for this Comic-Con, you know, for these kids and trying to get the tomorrow. We're going over the setup. That is our class thing. Tomorrow going over how we're setting things up so that they can do some of the stuff and not me all the time. But you will see me on Friday night loading it in. Um but anyway, the big news was that uh you all remember WKRP in Cincinnati. Yeah, and that was uh you know, great TV show about radio, very entertaining. But you know, it never was real. There's not a WKRP in Cincinnati, it was not a real radio station. Um but somebody bought the call letters after the show and kind of independently, just with a low-power FM station, not in Cincinnati. I think it was like in Virginia, they just played around with it. They did the stuff on Thanksgiving and uh some other things where they just played around with some events that happened on the show using the call letters. Well, they got tired of doing that and they put them up for bid. And there was a place in Cincinnati that said they wanted them, and so they sold it to them. Rather, they got better offers from other places, but they sold the call letters to them. So now there will be a real WKRP in Cincinnati for the very first time.

SPEAKER_02

That's kind of cool. That is really cool.

SPEAKER_17

I just got goosebumps. No, I'm trying. That's the coolest thing to do. It is, isn't it? It's the right thing to do.

SPEAKER_05

I was just gonna say that. And I'm right thing to do that.

SPEAKER_10

I didn't even know till recently that there wasn't uh that it wasn't real call letters in Cincinnati. But they never had those call letters, and now they will. Unfortunately, most of the cast is is dead. They passed on. Um the main characters, uh Johnny Fever, of course, he's gone, and the Lonnie Anderson character, she's gone.

SPEAKER_04

And the uh the manager Les Les Nessman.

SPEAKER_10

Well, not him, the uh the general manager, the guy that was saying guys my witness, I thought they could fly. Um he's gone, and maybe even a couple others. So there's hardly anybody left. But for us old people, I was gonna say our kids probably know nothing about they they haven't said what they're gonna do with the station yet. Uh, you know, what kind of format and all that. And of course, radio is very different nowadays. But the fact that they're they have a WKRP in Cincinnati is gonna be fun. I'm just doing it. And I hope they do it in something. That's what they should be there, right? Absolutely. It doesn't need to be a big station because again, yeah, the best thing to do with radio nowadays is just do it local.

SPEAKER_05

That's right.

SPEAKER_17

Focus on local.

SPEAKER_10

Because everybody else is doing all the national stuff. And you know, if you can keep track of what's going on in your town, that's that's the cool thing. But so you said you got goosebumps. I did. It's so cool to me, and I'm really looking forward to hearing what they do.

SPEAKER_07

So keep your ears open. People do the right thing. Like I just love that. And it's not just for money.

SPEAKER_10

Yeah, that was the thing. They put them up, but they said they saw somebody from Cincinnati wanted them and they said, Okay, we're selling it to them. Done. Yeah, done deal.

SPEAKER_07

The right thing to do.

SPEAKER_10

So, all right, so I guess that about wraps things up. We don't even have to do the recommendations because we've done them throughout the show.

SPEAKER_07

Yes. What about the brackets? Where are we?

Weird News And Pop Culture Updates

SPEAKER_10

Okay, here's the brackets. Rob's, I know Rob's not paying attention, but because he's on one of the brackets for we're doing this. I did. We're doing this thing about uh the best guest, and uh you're on there for for the year, and it's based on the brackets were based on number of streams on YouTube and and radio streams and all that added together. That's how you got your seating. And I don't have one in front of you. Um Rob was one of the lower seats, which disappoints me. But um what we're doing for people that are listening that are involved in this is the the brackets close on Thursday, and that's we have 16. It's a field of 16, and it'll be narrowed down to eight on Thursday, and then next Tuesday we'll narrow it down to the final four, and then we'll get to the final two and over the next couple of weeks. So, but the deal is you can affect your score or affect your bracket by getting other people to download the stream and up your own numbers. So if Rob wants to attach to his tickets on uh this weekend, say you must listen to the Buncha stream, and we get 25,000 people that tune in to Rob's stream. I can I I don't think it's beyond measure to think that he would win.

SPEAKER_07

And you know, we we don't have to do that. So we let people stack the ballot box.

SPEAKER_10

Spare no expense.

SPEAKER_07

No expense.

SPEAKER_10

Yes, I mean we can cheat all the way through this because it helps us because it gets us more streams. But we're giving away a$50 gas card. So hey, it's a tank of gas.

SPEAKER_07

No expense.

SPEAKER_10

If you got a small card, it's a tank of gas. Three gallons, it'll work good.

SPEAKER_07

Yes, yes. Not diesel. Yeah, really one gallon.

SPEAKER_10

But uh anyway.

SPEAKER_07

Um He's up against uh Denver Downs.

SPEAKER_10

Oh, he should win that. But that's also Trey, though.

SPEAKER_07

Trey and um Catherine Garrison.

SPEAKER_10

So we'll that would be a close one. I think Rob can win that. He's the underdog, but I think he can win it. We're always the underdog.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_16

We like that position. That's right.

SPEAKER_17

Except being the Dodgers, then you're just uh overdogs. I like them, they were not that good.

SPEAKER_10

When were the Dodgers not that good?

SPEAKER_17

Oh man, you can well we've been probably my whole life they've been good. They did not win a playoff series from 1988 to 2017.

SPEAKER_10

Really? They were that bad during that stream? Yeah, it was like they don't. At that time?

SPEAKER_17

Yeah, it was like 16, 15, somewhere in there. They didn't win a playoff series. We were married before they won a playoff series. Wow.

SPEAKER_10

Yeah, they always remember back in the 80s they were or the late 70s. Late 70s. The Phillies would always play the Dodgers in the playoffs and always lose. Except finally they got by in one year and won the World Series. Yeah, 1980. Yep. Um But I didn't realize that they had that many down years. They're never gonna have a down year again.

SPEAKER_17

Well, I mean, here's my argument.

SPEAKER_10

Until all that deferred money came to the case.

SPEAKER_17

Nobody talked about the Mets. Uh the Mets having a higher payroll than the Dodgers last year and not even making the playoffs.

SPEAKER_10

Well, the Dodgers is all deferred.

SPEAKER_17

Trevor Burrus, Jr. The problem with everybody can sign deferred contracts. It's not by fault. They're they're general managers.

SPEAKER_10

But when you're only having to pay Shohei a million a year and he has$700 million deferred.

SPEAKER_17

Well, they offered that same deal to Toronto. Chicago turned it down, and uh they've already paid his entire contract on sponsorships. Oh, sure. And that's that's what I'm saying. And I'm like, this is like the easiest signing of all time. Why don't more teams do that? They could have said a billion dollars for Shohei, because he's a he's a unicorn, right? He's so unique. And I was like, it doesn't matter the number, you're gonna make it over time. And uh and they have. And it was actually his idea because he wanted the team to have cash flow to do it.

SPEAKER_10

Yeah. And that's that was smart. Give him credit. I don't know why other teams aren't doing it. I guess they're just uh they're not deciding on their own system.

SPEAKER_17

They've got several guys that got signed this offseason have.

SPEAKER_10

Even the Phillies had a little deferred money in the case.

SPEAKER_17

Yeah, Chicago did when they signed uh Bregman. Like it's it's a thing teams are doing, but they they always point to one team because I don't know, we keep winning.

SPEAKER_04

And it's uh it's just fans, so I don't know anything about Orioles.

SPEAKER_17

Hey, they signed Pete Alonso. Yeah, yeah. And traded for a good outfielder? The polar bear. I think they have a winning record right now. Tough division.

SPEAKER_10

Very tough division.

SPEAKER_17

I mean, it didn't look so tough last night, Toronto. 14 to 2 or whatever. I was just saying, I enjoyed it.

SPEAKER_10

Well, anyway, we could talk baseball for a while. You know I can do that. You could talk all day, Mr. Bang.

SPEAKER_17

We can do a baseball podcast.

SPEAKER_10

Yeah, that sounds good. All day. Let me know. I'll bring the equipment to you. We'll do it wherever you are.

SPEAKER_17

Oh, we'll do it.

SPEAKER_10

I'll come to you this time. Oh, well, that's fine too. All right. Uh, but thanks for being here again. We appreciate you guys so much. Thanks for having us. I mean, we appreciate you even more. And I'm glad you could come, Michelle.

SPEAKER_08

Thank you.

SPEAKER_10

I I know you probably are like, well, what in the world? I just got to sit there for an hour now. What a waste of time. I've got other things to do.

SPEAKER_06

Hopefully you put a smile on your face.

SPEAKER_10

But he's doing what I hoped he would do. And and and when he said you might be busy and not be able to come, I was thinking to myself, you know, she's got to eat around that time. So just bring her along, take her out to dinner afterwards. And you you nailed it. Good job, man. But thanks for coming, Michelle. I will see you in your more stressed form on Saturday, running around.

SPEAKER_17

We didn't know she was a transformer.

SPEAKER_10

I see her everywhere. And Rob, you Rob will just be around there and greeting people and shaking babies and kissing hands. So we're looking forward. Looking forward to being there. Tickets at sccomicon.com. Um and you can get the wristbands still, or is it a good thing? Absolutely.

SPEAKER_17

You can come by Borderlands and get your wristband. You can even come to Borderlands at 410 South Pleasantburg and buy wristbands there.

Tickets, Wristbands, And Final Wrap

SPEAKER_10

Yeah, which is, as Rob said, very convenient because you can skip the big line and get in and make sure you come by our booth, get your picture taken with our mascot, the platyples. And uh you're gonna have fun at Comic-Con. We always do. Um all the kids want to go, but I tell them I can only take a certain number of you guys. This isn't a field trip. You're there to work. So, but they still get to enjoy the uh the perks of of coming to work. So, all right. So next week we'll be talking chili.

SPEAKER_07

Ah, chili cook-off's coming out.

SPEAKER_10

State chili cook-off is in Belton, and uh that'll be next weekend.

SPEAKER_07

Eleanor Dorr's gonna be here.

SPEAKER_10

Eleanor Dorn's gonna be here along along with a couple of people, and I've asked them to you know cook up a little chili for us to taste.

SPEAKER_07

We should taste it.

SPEAKER_10

I want to know the you know the different styles and all that. Yeah. So yeah, maybe they'll do that, maybe not. But that's what we'll be talking about next week, the chili cook-off. So thanks again, everybody, for joining us. Uh, tell your friends about the podcast, the brackets. You can still get them at uh mypulseradio.com, download the brackets. It doesn't matter if you know who the people are or not. You don't know all 64 teams when you do the March Madness bracket. This is only 16. Just find somebody on there you like, listen to the listen to the show again. Tell your friends to listen to the show, boost your chance to win, and turn in the brackets, and you might get 50 bucks for gas. And that'll at least get you home, right? That's right. All right, so we'll talk to you next week on the Boon Show, My Pulse Radio.