8K
Downloads
50
Episodes
The Grail Hunters Comics Podcast: Hunting, Collecting, Flipping and Investing in comics - all while having a laugh
Episodes
Tuesday Aug 09, 2022
Tuesday Aug 09, 2022
In this episode Neville, Mike and Ben chat about the highs and the lows of San Diego Comic Con!
Yes, it starts with a 15 minute therapeutic rant about Qantas and their (lack of) customer service and care factor in general but after that we jump straight into the highlight - the meat and veg!
How was SDCC post Covid? The crowds, the people? Amazing!
We talk about the panel reception, and then move on to which comic creators were there and where Neville got lucky with signatures (Or in some cases no so Lucky...) and how Jim Lee gained a new bestie from Australia... We're looking at you Roger!
We talk Jim Lee, Todd McFarlane, Marc Silvestri, David Mack, Jim Starlin, Bill Sienkiewicz, the list goes on!
Tune in, crack a beer and enjoy the episode
Saturday Jul 16, 2022
Saturday Jul 16, 2022
In this San Diego Comic-Con Special Episode, Neville chats to Gary Chaloner
Next week Neville will be travelling to San Diego Comic Con where he will be hosting a panel to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of some of Australia's most iconic comics and the creators behind them
In his preparation for the panel, many of the great creators behind titles such as Southern Squadron, The Dark Nebula, Jackaroo, Flash Damingo, Phantastique, Nightshade and The Rock took time out of their schedules to chat to him about the story behind the stories. With the consent of the creators he will be releasing them over a number of short episodes so collectors and readers passionate about the books and stories can enjoy them as much as he does
Gary started his career in comics as a publisher in 1982 when he got the band together and formed Cyclone Comics which went on to play host to his own work.
Cyclone went on to publish a range of amazing comic books with titles as diverse as The Jackaroo, The Southern Squadron, Dark Nebula, GI Joe Australia, Flash Damingo and CCQ (Cyclone Comics Quarterly).
As the years rolled by, Gary also worked overseas, including US editions of The Jackaroo and The Southern Squadron; a very odd issue of The Badger as well as the award-winning Planet of the Apes. Gary also worked on The Olympians, a two-issue prestige series for Marvel Comics which featured his art inked by the great Gary Martin with covers inked by Todd McFarlane (Spider-Man and Spawn) and Karl Kesel.
Gary was also lucky enough to have worked with the late, great Will Eisner on stories featuring Eisner’s early creation: John Law, Detective. This was subsequently released by IDW Publishing and awarded a Ledger for International Title of the Year.
Gary's more recent creator-owned projects included a pulp adventure series Red Kelso, an Australian adventure series The Jackaroo, and The Undertaker Morton Stone.
And now? Well Gary's back with the rest of the crew to take on the 40th anniversary of our bronze age heroes!
Crack a beer and enjoy the episode!
Friday Jul 15, 2022
Friday Jul 15, 2022
In this San Diego Comic-Con Special Episode, Neville chats to Tad Pietrzykowski
Next week Neville will be travelling to San Diego Comic Con where he will be hosting a panel to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of some of Australia's most iconic comics and the creators behind them
In his preparation for the panel, many of the great creators behind titles such as Southern Squadron, The Dark Nebula, Jackaroo, Flash Damingo, Phantastique, Nightshade and The Rock took time out of their schedules to chat to him about the story behind the stories. With the consent of the creators I will be releasing them over a number of short episodes so collectors and readers passionate about the books and stories can enjoy them as much as he does.
In this episode Tad lets us see under the covers..or is that behind the covers of The Dark Nebula.
Find out why The Dark Nebula was almost a “the comic that never was” and we also talk about the evolution of the character to what we know him to be now. From multiple designs and colours, Tad wanted a point of difference and not make it not look it’s a copy from the US. Inspired by characters like The Green Hornet, The Lone Range, and wanted to created “The Dark Nebula”. The intention was also to make sure the characters biggest weakness is not the other characters he takes on but rather his biggest weakness is doubt and internal conflict.
From “Just wanting to tell a story” to creating a character embedded in Australian Comic Universe folklore, The Dark Nebula will probably survive us all! We talk about Cyclone and Oz Comics, and how the tyranny of distance meant that Tad was isolated and doing his own thing for long before the advent of OzComics and Cyclone. Tad reflects on the origins of Cyclone and how the team anchoring the titles came to know each other and work together, and how a life changing event (which almost ended his life in fact) made him refocus on The Dark Nebula.
Looking forward Tad lets us in to things to come! Issues 12, 13 and crossovers with Southern Squadron, the Reverie universe and much more, including actually writing stories about other characters than Dark Nebula!
Crack a beer, and enjoy the episode
Wednesday Jul 13, 2022
Wednesday Jul 13, 2022
In this San Diego Comic-Con Special Episode, Neville chats to Dave De Vries
In a few short weeks Neville will be travelling to San Diego Comic Con where he will be hosting a panel to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of some of Australia's most iconic comics and the creators behind them
In his preparation for the panel, many of the great creators behind titles such as Southern Squadron, Dark Nebula, Jackaroo, Flash Damingo, Phantastique, Nightshade and The Rock took time out of their schedules to chat to him about the story behind the stories. With the consent of the creators I will be releasing them over a number of short episodes so collectors and readers passionate about the books and stories can enjoy them as much as he does.
David is a film writer, director, and producer and also writes and illustrates comic books. He started his comic book career in the early 1980s with work for OzComics, Phantastique, MAD Magazine and Penthouse. Together with Gary Chaloner, Glenn Lumsden and Tad Pietrzykowski he established Cyclone Comics in 1985, to ensure that their characters could be published while remaining under their control. Dave entered the American market through First Comics, and Malibu Graphics with The Southern Squadron, a superhero team that at that stage had taken over the Cyclone title, and in America he worked on The Phantom for Marvel Comics, have worked on Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, Star Trek comics for DC Comics, and Valiant Comics, and also other projects like The Puppet Master and Planet of the Apes, Flesh Gordon, Black Lightning and a Green Lantern annual for DC, as well as recreating the origin of Captain Boomerang with John Ostrander in an issue of the Suicide Squad.
We get an exclusive behind the scenes look at the origin of Southern Squadron, the evolution of the team members into who they are today but also the purpose of the team and what makes them unique. Beyond that Dave talks about his influences, and process in putting pen to paper, whether it’s writing or drawing and shares some sage advice from legends like Todd MacFarlane!
Is this reason to celebrate? Well, they are BACK BABY! Southern Squadron along with many other Bronze Age heroes will return to Reverie and share their universe with a new generation of characters as part of the big bash 40th celebrations.
Crack a beer, and enjoy the episode
Sunday Jun 19, 2022
Sunday Jun 19, 2022
On this episode, Neville, Ben, and Mike is joined by Mark Wahlberg... Uhm... sorry Ty Salazar!
Ty is a comic trading veteran of 10+ years using social media to buy, sell and help fellow collectors complete their runs. He was also a CGC witness and travelled to conventions far and wide with creators including Kevin Eastman for signature events and facilitation.
Ty recently bought a blind box of comics, and one of particular interest was Amazing Spider-man 74, dated 1969. The book had a coupon filled out by its original owner "back in the day", and since finding it, Ty's side-quest is to track down the original owner and reunite him with his childhood Spider-man comic! A noble cause indeed. This naturally lead to us discussing privacy and social media and how collectors put themselves at risk by 'over sharing' information, and how to avoid some of the pitfalls.
We don't stop there though, Ty shares his own collecting story, including a health scare which saw him sell most of his collection, and the challenges of trying to fill the gaps again now that he's back in the game. And on the case of mistaken identity which led to a free night at the bar?
Well, you'll just need to listen to the episode!
Sunday Jun 05, 2022
Sunday Jun 05, 2022
Foreign Comics and foreign prints of US comics are booming!!
Neville and Ben are joined by Matthew Roybal. Matthew is a journalist, and also co-founder of Foreign Comic Collector Magazine as well as admin of one of the friendliest and engaging comic groups on Facebook of the same name! (Well Grail Hunters Australia set a pretty high bench mark, but I agree!!)
Matthew takes us on his collecting journey over the past 10 years as we discuss how, from humble beginnings on the CGC boards the foreign collecting community have grown to be thousands of members strong. We talk about his grail books to date, and then discuss how CBCS and CGC adopted and approach foreign books and how it's impacted the value and desirability of the foreign comics.
Matt takes us on a journey showing off "Brazilian Frank Frazetta", Mexican "non-canon" Spider-man books and so much more! Tune in for a 90 minute marathon of entertaining and insightful conversation about all things foreign comics!
Find Matthew here:
Instagram: @define999
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/274684996585171/
Monday Dec 13, 2021
Monday Dec 13, 2021
In this episode Ben and Neville are joined by Tad Pietrzykowski, the creator of Dark Nebula! On the eve of the release of issue 10, and with only months before The Dark Nebula celebrates its 40th anniversary we take a look back at where it all began. Analog printing, large print runs, cheap paper and months of wait!
Tad takes us back to what it was like to be in independent publisher in the 80's, and how his book contributed to the establishment of Australia's very own bronze age of comics. As always we get side tracked by all things 80's and vintage including recording music, reel to reel players before Tad gets us back on track and focused on 2021, a massive year for Dark Nebula. We talk stories, planning for the next issues and how Dark Nebula will usher in a very exciting era for Aussie books.
With issue 10 at the printers we talk about the 3 covers, including the Grail Hunters Exclusive and how issues 9, and 10 have not only brought back old readers but exposed new readers to the Dynamic Dark Nebula's adventures.
It's not all business however, I reflect on "What could have been" with my Amazing Spider-man 1 Marketplace purchase after which Tad gives us a rundown of what he's currently collecting and keeping an eye out for.
All while driving a few cold bevvies... as usual! So crack a beer and enjoy the episode
Friday Oct 22, 2021
Friday Oct 22, 2021
Ben and Nev are joined by a special guest, Scott Liston! Scott's been part of the comic collecting community for years, and a card punching Grail Hunters member since day one. Scott also happens to be Event Director of Supanova! Also, he needs to add to his business card "Hell'a funny guy".
Thursday Oct 14, 2021
Thursday Oct 14, 2021
Following the excitement of taking part in our first NFT drops on Veve, Ben and Neville debrief on the entire experience, from getting up (or being up) at 2am for the drops, the hussle to try and land one and how the community in itself is coming together to support each other in educating and enjoying the NFT side of our hobby.
Mike's back for this episode, and true to form we regress into a debate about whether or not we/or anyone should pooh on long haul planes, and the anxiety associated with the tiny toilet with it's suck actions!
Yes, we're deprived in VIC due to lockdowns, we chat about the things we've missed out due to the state being in hibernation but turn it into a positive where we talk about how Grail Hunters members from other states support and assist us in buying goods, be it comics or toys. We then also cast out eyes forward, as the world opens up, we talk NYCC, and Supanova plus the promise of 'normality' in 2022.
We also run through our achievements in 2021 - what collectibles we've hit so far, and what our next targets are. MOTU, Phantom Starkiller, great reads and expensive books! Grab a drink and join us for episode 3.
Friday Oct 08, 2021
Friday Oct 08, 2021