Ben Kingsbury takes on Batman Day 2026 and Picks the Best Comics of The Summer

Badr Milligan

Sep 16, 2026

Ben Kingsbury takes on Batman Day 2026 and Picks the Best Comics of The Summer

Episode Transcript

Gotham City Limit owner Ben Kingsbury is back on the podcast for a Batman-heavy episode celebrating Batman Day 2026!

Recorded live inside the shop, Ben breaks down why Absolute Batman continues to bring new readers into comic stores, whether classics like The Dark Knight Returns and The Long Halloween still hold up as essential Batman recommendations, and his personal favorite Batman stories.

Then we put his Dark Knight knowledge to the test with a round of Batman trivia, followed by a preview of the upcoming Tyler Kirkham signing experience. We also talk shop-exclusive variant covers, the business of comic collecting, indie publishers, and the current state of comics—including some of the good ideas coming out of Bad Idea Comics.

Ben also shares his picks for the best comics of 2026 so far, including Warbird, Ordained, Rook: Exodus, JSA and more

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Badr Milligan 0:00

In this episode of the short box, Damian Wayne is the son of Bruce Wayne and what character? Talial Ghoul, who directed the 1989 Batman movie starring Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson, the guy who did Edward Scissorheads. What issue introduced the Bat Signal? Oh wow.

Intro Music 0:19

Ladies and gentlemen, the short box podcast. Yo, fantastic. The Shortbox Podcast is recorded live from Jacksonville, Florida.

Badr Milligan 0:42

Yo, Short Box Nation, welcome back. Thanks for pressing play. Nice to have you again. Thanks for joining us. Uh, if this is your first time tuning in, welcome to the Short Box Podcast. My name is Badr Milligan, and this is the podcast where we bring you the best conversations about your favorite comics with the creators who put their blood, sweat, and tears into making them. Or in today's case, uh a conversation with someone that puts his blood, sweat, and tears into selling your favorite comics. That's right. This is episode 512, and I'm recording this one live at my favorite place to be, Gotham City Limit Comic Shop here in Jacksonville, Florida. I've got Ben Kingsbury joining me once again. Three times this year, Ben. Yeah, I'm Ben. Three times. You are indeed Ben Kay. Uh like I said, I'm here at Gotham City Limit. I'm here with Ben Kay, the owner, aka your favorite comic shop. I do cry a lot as well, for the record. That's true. You get very sentimental.

Ben Kingsbury 1:39

Buy my comic, or I'll cry.

Badr Milligan 1:40

Yes. Uh I'm up here at Gotham City Limit today to talk about the upcoming uh holiday, which would be kind of a Super Bowl for this place. I'm talking about Batman Day. Uh Batman Day takes place on Saturday, September 19th. So this episode is going to be a very Batman focused episode. We'll also get into some of Ben's favorite comic uh comics of the summer. And wherever else this conversation goes, you know, when I have to talk with Ben, we could go anywhere. And that's always a good time. Um need a lot of work though. You did a lot of work. I brought the I this guy's being prepared.

Ben Kingsbury 2:14

Proper preparation prevents poor performance. Here we go.

Badr Milligan 2:18

Now, normally, this is the part of the show where I would give a shout-out to the sponsors, but considering I'm recording the phone.

Intro Music 2:22

Yeah, well, you know, it's a shout out to us. Shout out to Limit. Yeah.

Badr Milligan 2:26

Shout out to the short box Patronies. Big shout outs to everyone on the uh short box Patreon community. Love you guys. Thank you for everything. Well, it's amazing to watch what you've done.

Ben Kingsbury 2:34

I'm gonna rub you for a second. Uh, before this thing aired, did you show your fancy new logo? I did. Yeah, it's so good. It's so cool. The colors are amazing. They come out of the fist. Did he come up with the whole concept of that?

Badr Milligan 2:45

Yeah, uh uh, you're talking about my new animated intro for all the video versions. Uh, done by an amazing animator. Uh his name is Mika Mica? Mika Buzz? Mika Buzz Animations. Yeah, he hands you everything.

Ben Kingsbury 2:57

So you tagged him, uh, yeah. I mean, it's that was really cool, man. Well done, man. That was where your sponsorship is going. No, I like it. It goes into a light box. I love it. Those are important things, man. No, you're on so many episodes you don't even know what number it is. So you're doing just fine, my friend. Yeah, I do.

Intro Music 3:15

I do uh brush in homers.

Badr Milligan 3:17

I do want to give uh maybe try something a little different. I do want to give one more shout out. Okay. Uh, you not only sponsor the short box, you've been the longest running supporter and sponsor of the short box for a long time, but you also sponsor a lot of different local comic shows. And I want to give a shout-out to one that's coming up. That's Treasure Island Comic Con. It's happening October 24th in Fernadina Beach. Um, some good things going on with this uh uh uh this show. It's gonna be free admission for kids, 10 and under. You can also buy a family four pack of tickets, which I think is a pretty cool. Oh, that's cool. That's a good way to do that. So you can get a four-pack of tickets for 20 bucks. Uh and you're the sponsor.

Ben Kingsbury 3:52

Yeah, he's right, Jess.

Badr Milligan 3:55

Uh, there's gonna be artists like Maria Wolf. Uh, the wolf will be there. Yeah, that's a big thing. Kyle Willis will be there.

Ben Kingsbury 4:01

Kyle's awesome.

Badr Milligan 4:01

Uh, you got legendary comic colorists like Mike Spicer and Bob Sharon, uh, as well as a whole bunch of other comic creators that'll be there as well. So, once again, uh, Treasure Island Comic Con is taking place October 25th at Amelia Concourse in Fernandina Beach, Florida. You can go to Treasure Island Comic Con.com for more information. I just wanted to give them a shout out.

Ben Kingsbury 4:20

Yeah, they're awesome. Yep. Uh Justin, the guy who puts on the show there, uh, really does it out of a passion too. That's why they do these things and hopefully they just keep growing. Juxville's an awesome uh spot for comics in this kind of world. So it's gonna be a fun event. It's up in Frondina, so stop by, hang out. We'll have a bunch of new exclusives out uh out that week, so it'll be cool. Yeah, yeah. By then all the midnight stuff comes out. Oh, yeah, the new Marvel Midnight. I mean, that seems to be uh like everybody's next kind of radar target. So that's gonna be pretty fun. We got to team up luckily, ArtGrim Collectibles. You know, they're right out of here. They run it right out, and so Jonathan knows everybody. I don't know anybody. You know, but Jonathan knows everybody. He connected it with us, and it we get we're lucky enough to do uh three exclusives for it, like super limited, Kunkalim, Derek Chu, and Izikure. Ijikure. I don't know how to say it. I uh everybody's days, yeah, but I'm trying my best. But they're so awesome, and the midnight stuff looks so cool that I'm I'm totally in for that.

Badr Milligan 5:21

Man, uh, so we're gonna spend a lot of time talking about Batman and Batman Day. And it got me thinking, you know, I mentioned in the intro that I feel like Batman Day is this shop Super Bowl, right? Like Gotham City Limit, hosting Batman Day. You've done it before in the past. For the uninitiated, what is Batman Day?

Ben Kingsbury 5:39

Batman Day is a mini free comic book day, essentially. DC has picked an arbitrary day every September now to celebrate the Cape Crusader, and we're here for it. So they're gonna give you giveaway comics, comics you can buy, exclusive hardcovers with covers you can't get any other time of the year, and then giveaways like the masks and other things. Every year they do something special.

Badr Milligan 6:04

How seriously do you take Batman Day compared to something like free comic book day or the shop's birthday? Well, what is that? What is the event rate?

Ben Kingsbury 6:12

Maybe now it's a whole different ballgame because absolute Batman changed everything. DC outsells Marvel Comics, not on every issue, but just in general, top 10. You know, there are always six or seven issues of DC now, and that had never happened before, so it's kind of a new market over the last two years. So Batman Day isn't just cool Batman Day, obviously the second most popular superhero in the world behind Spider-Man, but it's also absolute Batman Day, and they've made a comic that has both of those characters in it. So that's the draw this year. So there's an extra special Batman Day this year because the absolute universe is tied to it. Then they made the masks, and then they've got all the hardcover exclusives, you know, Michael Keaton 89 book, which is cool to collect over time. So this year it's made Batman Day like even more special because absolute Batman kind of rules everything.

Badr Milligan 7:10

I think it's safe to say that the big attraction is the Batman of Two Worlds comic that they're putting out. So we're putting Matt Fraction's mainline Batman next to Scott Snyder's absolute Batman. And I'm curious, as a retailer, what do you think DC gets out of putting these two versions side by side? And then which Batman, in your opinion, is driving more excitement to the shop right now?

Ben Kingsbury 7:32

Well, Absolute Batman brought them in and then they started a new Batman volume at the right time, and that got them buying that one because it was a new Batman story for them to read essentially. So Absolute Batman still drives everybody in. What does DC get out of it? What I'm curious as a comic shop owner, from my perspective, is how do I tap into the reason Absolute Batman and the retailer exclusives go so crazy sometimes on the open market is because it's not comic book buyers that are doing this. Obviously, they're buying comics, so you'd classify them as comic book buyers, but they're Batman fans from outside of the comics. There are very few superheroes that do this, but Spider-Man, Superman, and Batman have huge fan bases of people who have never read a comic in their entire life. They're even incredible Hulk fans I've met who have never bought a comic in their whole life. They just watched the show in the 70s or they grew up and they just love the masculinity of it or they love the idea of the character. They watch the movie, you know, and they're the icon of it. Right. It's their kind of idea that's who they identify with. And so those characters are super special. So Batman Day is for me, from my perspective, is how do I reach out to people who don't usually get the comics but love Batman? Sure. So that's one of the reasons we named it Gotham City Limit. So people who just like you're across the street, well, I like Batman. I don't know what that is. I'm not really into comics, but it just says Gotham City Limit. Maybe I'll walk in there and check it out. And then you can find some other stuff, yeah, exactly while you're here or that kind of idea. But yeah, so DC, I think they're just gonna kind of they're trying to tie the regular Batman to absolute to keep it going strong, and it is, it's still going very well. And then for us, it's about trying to expand, you know, the people who realize that hey, you know, you you'd love this stuff if you come in and check it out.

Badr Milligan 9:27

Ben, I asked you earlier this week, what's been your favorite Batman issue or comic this year so far? Do you remember the answer you gave me?

Ben Kingsbury 9:34

Yeah, I do, absolutely. So that was actually a hard question because I had to go and look at release dates for comics because the first one that I wanted to mention came out in November of 2026. I was like, no, damn it. No, that was it. No, but it was the most recent kickoff for the new Bad Seeds event, the big DC that's going through multiple titles. Batman, uh Bad Seeds, Sunset Number One. And I I thought about all the Batman, you know, the regular ongoing Matt Fraction run is so good. Every issue they kind of introduced some new Bat Gadget. There's a new butler after Tom King killed off Alfred. Whatever, Tom King. So I enjoyed that. So there were a lot of interesting ideas, but I kept going back to this brand new comic that just came out about two weeks ago, the first part, Bad Seed, Sunset, because in it, Batman is dead to rights. He is going to die and be drowned, overwhelmed by what's happening to Gotham City Limit. And Waylon croc saves Batman's life and then explains to him kind of what's happening. And because they've always had this special connection because my runner-up from last November was Absolute Batman 14. And then that Wayland attacks Bane to buy Batman some time, rips some chunks out of him, and Bane's about to rip his jaws open. And I literally felt like sick watching or reading the comic. Like, if you rip Wayland's jaws in half, I'm gonna have a real hard time with this. And then Batman saved him. And in this comic, Wayland saved Batman, and their relationship has always been they've always had a mutual respect for each other, kind of like animosity. But when it comes down to it, they would both save each other every single time.

Badr Milligan 11:16

You've spoken like a real Florida man.

Ben Kingsbury 11:18

Yeah. You have a sentimental attachment. I do, I giant alligator. Well, no, I have a real dude. I have a problem because animals somehow have taken over my sympathy. Like, I watch humans do terrible things to each other. I watch a dragon get dragged into the ocean. I'm like, bro, I don't want to see this anymore. A little too soon for uh House of Dragon.

Badr Milligan 11:38

But that was really quick. I'm starting to break character. That was such a crazy moment. It was so crazy. I didn't know that you could drown a dragon. I didn't even know. I didn't know that was drawing. I guess spoiler warning if you haven't watched House of Dragon yet.

Ben Kingsbury 11:49

Yeah, but now I don't know so intimidated of the dragons. They clearly have something that could take them all down.

Badr Milligan 11:54

A lot of things. When you think about it, I know it didn't seem like they were that intimidating. Anyway, back to Batman. Well, Ben, I actually ended up, I ended up reading uh Batman Bad Seeds song. That's a hell of a title. Okay. Yeah. I know because it's all the news. I ended up reading it last night based on your recommendation. And as someone who has not been keeping up with the mainline Batman, for me, everything was a surprise. I'm like, wait a minute. Poison Ivy is the mayor. Yep. Randall Savage. Savage is the in charge of GCPD. Batman's like, you know, team is blood. I mean, it's like so many characters.

Ben Kingsbury 12:23

Barbara Gordon's in prison. Yeah. So Poison Ivy essentially let somebody die who was a part of the Parliament of Trees, and they wanted Poison Ivy dead, so she gave him Gotham and Chaos has ensued. The cool part about the story is it's all one solo night. Oh, that's cool. So everything that's happening online parts is that one kind of deck.

Badr Milligan 12:42

Can I can I say I shouldn't be surprised by this, but when I turn it, when I got to the very last page and it was showing, like, you know, this is the the kickoff for this entire uh series, which is uh what's it called again? Uh Bad Seeds. I don't know. I I guess I still felt surprised that there was, I think it said there was a total of, I don't know, 15, 16 titles. That might be a little conservative, but I guess it surprised me. I was like, damn, they're still doing this, they're still doing these very huge multi-part crossover events that bleed into so many titles. Yeah. I don't know.

Ben Kingsbury 13:14

DC's trying uh to do it.

Badr Milligan 13:16

I thought it's that by now they would have learned that sometimes too much.

Ben Kingsbury 13:26

So they think it's a super easy common sense thing to be like, well, let's put our series through all these stories. But it's like the boy who cried wolf, and people get burned from previous stories being like, I didn't need to read that. Why'd I collect these seven? That's not even the main series. This one's a little different just simply because it is nine parts. However, they did the same thing that the Batgirl part four is literally just Batgirl's experience of what's going on. I prefer many series with the regular ongoing Batman and Batgirl to be about what's happening. But I if Bad Seeds was just six parts, that'd be better. Yeah, that'd be awesome. You know, because they got a Gotham Central part four coming out. Yeah, it's the police officer's viewpoint of kind of what's happening. It's it's gonna be the least popular one. It makes it super hard on somebody who's trying to order for walk-in because you don't know who's gonna want it. And most people don't know they want something until it's out. So that was a little bit hard, but yeah, they still do it. Just like when Maximum Carnage came out, and it was the worst thing of my life trying to go find all the parts because it was in spectacular, it was in amazing, is it this?

Badr Milligan 14:38

That's what I'm getting at. Is it it feels like such an old school thing to continue? I mean, I guess if it works, if it makes sense. No, no, no.

Ben Kingsbury 14:45

It's a new generation of people who think it's common sense and think it's a good idea and haven't done it yet, and they're just I mean, I guess it sells well, DC does something special, at least. At least they do some bundles for retailers. They don't do returnability or anything, but they do do some deals where we get bundles of the A cover at a good price. So that motivates us to bring them into the shop.

Badr Milligan 15:05

And I want to get back to uh uh Batman Day and specifically the the two worlds, uh Batman of Two Worlds special comic they're putting out for it. My understanding is that DC is requiring uh participating shops that are taking part in Batman Day to you guys are basically under a embargo, right? Like you cannot share any previews, no interior pages, you can't review anything.

Ben Kingsbury 15:30

That popped up that um I've they've never had anybody do before. I'm fine with that. Sure. You know, I am fine with following the rules of distribution of product. I'm super frustrated when I'm the only one doing it or when like 60% of us are doing it, and then other people are selling their blind bags for Marvel online early. I'm just not gonna do it. However, I'm okay with that. Yeah, this is the first time ever Lunar made us sign something for it. I didn't know that.

Badr Milligan 15:58

So I guess from a retailer standpoint, does that sense of secrecy help or hurt the event? And it says that does it make the event feel bigger or does it make your job harder because you can't show people what they're buying or what to expect?

Ben Kingsbury 16:12

All you gotta do is say it's an absolute Batman comic. So, in terms of that stuff, not really. I mean, absolute Batman is the one that drives everything.

Badr Milligan 16:28

So I guess on the topic of absolute batman, I feel like we've talked about absolute Batman every single time we've recorded the last three, four times. But I mean, how can you escape it, right? Uh, I guess it sounds like it's still crushing for you, but has the audience like stuck around? Are are the customers now becoming Batman readers? Are they converting to becoming like Batman Batman, but more so general DC comic book readers? Or is it, hey, these these absolute fanatics are only sticking with absolute Batman.

Ben Kingsbury 16:58

Yeah, no, I mean I think they're well absolute Batman obviously is still very popular, but all the absolute Batman, all the absolute titles are popular. However, yes, I'd say my shop is special, right? Because we sell some retailer exclusives and specialty items, but the absolute Batman has two markets. It has the regular A covers and regular standard variant market of people who are the everyday comic book buyer who like to read A cover and collect everything, or they just enjoy reading. And there's a huge absolute Batman market online of people who, like I've said, don't really buy comics or are now buying all these retailer exclusives online, and so you're sold out in a matter of minutes, you know? They're a different breed, they're buying it to grade it, to resell it, to have value in the future. A lot of the people that I run into come to the comic shop, and a lot of people that come to the comic shop read first, or at least collect with the idea of reading. And they're like, oh, I'm way, way behind. But they're comic collectors for the idea of reading. So, and it is absolutely sparked a bunch of more reading in DC comics. 100%. They're in here for this, they look at Nightwing. Oh, I didn't know that guy wrote that. I'm like, yeah, check this one out over here. And and because everybody reads stuff in here, it's easy to give a recommendation and not lie to somebody.

Badr Milligan 18:21

Awesome. So I also understand that they're DC is using this year's Batman Day to celebrate the 40th, I can't believe I'm saying it, 40th anniversary of uh Dark Knight Returns. From the retailer perspective and being on the other side of the counter, our books like Dark Knight Returns, you know, uh uh Year One, Hush, Long Halloween, these these stories and and these stories and series that for the longest time have been like Batman Evergreen stories. Like, I I guess do they still function as Batman's like evergreen stories, like quick to hey, here are my easy go-to recommendations, or is there a new crop of stories that have replaced like?

Ben Kingsbury 19:02

There's a few new ones, but the smartest thing DC did was make the DC Compact Comics for $9.99 of all the old stories. So there are a ton of young people who've never read Long Halloween, Dark Knights Returns, never read Kingdom Come, never read Scott Snyder, Court of Owls. Oh yeah, those work is great. Hey, you like the new Batman? Oh, you like the new absolute? Go, you gotta read Long Halloween. You gotta read and then Deceased, I love, I sell it so much. And they still sell Kingdom Come to anybody who will read it.

Badr Milligan 19:33

I guess I get in my head like, is it generic to say stuff like Dark Knight Returns to Long Halloween?

Ben Kingsbury 19:38

Like, or is there well they're different genres, like so uh when people pick up Long Halloween? I'm like, are you into a crime detective thriller? Because Long Halloween is more about the crime families. There's a bad guy calendar man and some other main Batman villains, but it's really uh, you know, a detective story, you know. And so do you like that or do you want to beat them up? Because if you want that, then Court of Owls, you want to know about Bruce Wayne and his history in Gotham, Court of Owls, and then Frank Miller's Dark Knight Return, his story is iconic because it made Batman a tough mother effer. Yeah, you know what I mean? It really made a green, darker, more. Batman wasn't like that before. He was he was carrying the bomb across his head, kind of funny with the pals and the bangs. That's how a lot of people saw Batman. The sales of Batman were dying. So when I tell people what they're about to read, there was never an angry, beat 'em up Batman before. And so this kind of was like, oh, they like seeing that different side to it. I guess it's cool to hear that, you know, Deceased isn't like a 40-year-old story, but it sounds like that's you know, kind of like a new modern what if, you know, and it's pure like if sometimes reading DC and Marvel comics get boring because you know the character can't die, so no matter what situation they put them in, you like uh they're gonna figure out a way to not have them dead. Deceased was awesome because literally every issue is pure chaos, and so that's always fun.

Badr Milligan 21:00

Ben, I don't know if I've ever asked you this. What would you say are your Mount Rushmore Batman stories? Your personal favorite Batman stories.

Ben Kingsbury 21:08

Yeah, well, my favorite Batman stuff, period, is Nightfall, Night Quest, Night Ever. Have you watched the new animated movie Trifle? Oh, yeah, and it's so good. My brother won't shut up about it. Bane is maybe a little too giant, but it's it's Kelly Jones, it's everything I wanted in Bane. I still get uncomfortable with Batman getting his back broken and watching him go through it. You know, so that's by far my favorite Batman story period.

Badr Milligan 21:34

Did you were you buying that, reading that when it was coming out?

Ben Kingsbury 21:37

Yeah, yeah. And I was, I mean, it was so many of those parts. Do you remember the symbols change in the upper corner? And we didn't, I didn't go to comic shops specifically for that stuff. So it was wherever I could find them. But I was doing a pretty good job of keeping up with it, you know, and then it tied right into the next Superman, the death of. And so that was my whole 90s DC stuff, man. So I think that's probably my favorite. Batman period. Deceased is my second favorite DC story. I think modern-wise, in the last nine years, it's my favorite DC story. Every volume of it is so good. Batman and Bane has a special place in my heart. So then when I read Deceased and there's the Unkillables three-part series, and it's Deathstroke, who I absolutely adore, Bane, who I absolutely adore, and then Red Hood, which, you know, all three characters we've done exclusives of, having those kind of characters, dealing with the undead in their own little miniseries, and then Jonathan and Damien putting on the cow and becoming Batman in it, and just the chaos uh of the whole story. Batman at the beginning putting on the free suit, trying to hold him off. Superman, you know, turning and eating the sun. It was just so good. And it finished well. It was a hard story to finish. So I just really deceased did it for me in terms of that stuff. But then here's another one that there probably injustice that I just wasn't expecting. I didn't read until I played a video game. Oh, same, same. Never would have read it. I don't think less than the video.

Badr Milligan 23:07

Me and Drew put into that first one, but especially that second one.

Ben Kingsbury 23:10

The second one. The second one. I man, that was like 2007 to before I opened this place. I was good. I was good because I played a lot. Now I would be so bad at it.

Badr Milligan 23:20

Who were I think some of my mains were uh I was really good with Cyborg and Blue Beetle, especially. That was the one. Yeah, Blue Beetle was.

Ben Kingsbury 23:27

Blue Beetle was really good. Who were some of your uh who were you? Dark side, Bane. Oh, that's good. Yeah, and I loved it. Batman was a badass. Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah. I you know, so I mean I played. I think it was real good with Supergirl too. Yeah, they well, the best part, you could just upgrade them. Yeah. So every character you were putting on new. So I was like so deep. I was so deep. I was upgrading, putting new pieces on, adding new pieces, download. It wasn't.

Badr Milligan 23:49

And you know what we should do one day for a charity event?

Ben Kingsbury 23:51

Do something. That would be so fun.

Badr Milligan 23:53

We should play uh against each other in uh um in Justice 2, and whoever loses falls gets dunked into the water.

Ben Kingsbury 23:59

Oh, yeah, a little dunk take. I did that before. I didn't know. I remember throwing the ball in.

Badr Milligan 24:04

Yeah, that was fun. Only day in May it's ever been cold in Florida. All right, but I want to transition to I want to try something a little different. I want to test your trivia knowledge about Batman. Oh boy. How are you with trivia? Period.

Ben Kingsbury 24:16

Uh well, generally uh pretty good, but when you put on the spot, you know how the brain does. So we're gonna see what happens.

Badr Milligan 24:22

All right. Well, like I'm gonna encourage everyone at home to play along with this trivia, keep scores, see if you could beat Ben's score. Ben, uh here's uh I'm I'm gonna give you I'm gonna give you a little bit of a crutch here. All right. Okay, all right. I'm going to let you pick your medicine and difficulty level. Okay. Um, you get to pick six questions. Maybe we'll do seven or eight. We'll see how it goes. Okay. From a pool of 20. I got a pool of 20 questions that are ranging from easy to medium to medium plus. 80% of the questions are are comic related. So all you have to do is just say a number from one to 20. We'll do, like I said, six, seven rounds, and we'll see how it goes.

Ben Kingsbury 24:55

Okay, deal. We're just starting right now. Yeah, yeah, we're just going to do that.

Badr Milligan 24:58

Number six. Okay, number six. Here we go. Let's do it. Damian Wayne is the son of Bruce Wayne and what character? Talial Ghoul. Ding, ding, ding, ding. One point for Ben. Yes. All right. Uh, give me another number. We're picking up the number. All right, three. Who was the first Robin? Tim Drake.

Ben Kingsbury 25:14

Uh no, uh, Nightwing. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I screwed up. Yeah, it's Nightwing.

Badr Milligan 25:19

Dick Grayson is the correct answer. First introduced in detective comics. That's so embarrassing. Sorry about that. Oh, good. Okay, okay. Uh, pick another number. 14. Oh, okay. Now we're getting into the uh medium plus difficulty. All right. Number 14. Our speaking of battle guy, Frank Miller and Dark Knight Returns. And Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns. What is the name of the teenage girl who becomes Robin?

Ben Kingsbury 25:40

God, bro. Oh man. Oh. I don't know. What is it? Carrie Kelly. I was getting confused. Carrie Kari, Carrie Kelly. Carrie Kelly. You know what? I don't think I knew that, honestly. I don't think I knew that. That's crazy.

Badr Milligan 25:55

I feel like because she takes, you know, that story takes place in the future in alternate. I think she's kind of sometimes.

Ben Kingsbury 26:00

Yeah, I haven't read it recently. I watched an animated version of it recently.

Badr Milligan 26:04

And they're coming out with a 40th anniversary uh edition for the new one. And if I'm not mistaken, I think it also comes with a digital code to download the Dark Knight Returns movies. So that's that's the one that's gonna be on my list. Okay, so you are uh you scored one, you're down, you're gonna do them terrible, bro.

Ben Kingsbury 26:21

I'm one for three, bro. I forgot Nightwing, bro. That's the worst.

Badr Milligan 26:24

Uh pick another number. So you picked uh 14, 6, and 3. We can go nine. All right, nine. Here we go. Nine. What issue introduced the bat signal? Oh, wow.

Ben Kingsbury 26:36

What issue Batman introduced the bat signal? Uh I feel like it was 20 like that.

Badr Milligan 26:48

I'm gonna go with Batman 20. Detective Comics number 60 first introduced the bat signal. I guess I should also say the higher the number, the more difficult it gets. Well, I know, but that's okay.

Ben Kingsbury 26:59

I mean, I like these hard questions. It's all right. So when is that Ace in these? No, I know. Well, somebody's somebody knows a whole lot of old trivia about when they're trying to buy those comics.

Badr Milligan 27:08

No, I will give you a heads up that uh 17 through 20 are non-comic related to.

Ben Kingsbury 27:14

All right, sweet.

Badr Milligan 27:15

Go 17. Let's see what's up. All right, let's try it. All right, 17. Who directed the 1989 Batman movie starring Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson? The guy who did Edward Scissor Hands.

Ben Kingsbury 27:25

All right, all right. There we go. I was 10 years old once that movie with my phone. From the board.

Badr Milligan 27:31

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. All right, what's 18? All right, 18. Who provided the definitive voice of Batman beginning with Batman, the animated series, in 1992?

Ben Kingsbury 27:41

Oh, he just passed away. Uh, this is what my I can't believe. You got this one, Ben.

Badr Milligan 27:44

You got this one.

Ben Kingsbury 27:45

Um, why is my brain not working? Home alone, think home alone. Yes. He just passed away. Oh my God.

Badr Milligan 27:55

Something Schmond Roy. Trying, man. Just give it to me. Kevin Conroy. Great Kevin Conroy. I told you when you're on the spot, your brain shuts down. It's a whole other one. I'm the one asking that question. 19. Oh, one more, dude.

Ben Kingsbury 28:11

Yeah, let's do another one. Kevin Conroy.

Badr Milligan 28:13

What was the first Batman gadget to appear? The Batarang or the Utility Belt. Ooh, that's good. That's a good one. Oh, that's real good.

Ben Kingsbury 28:21

I'm gonna go Batarang.

Badr Milligan 28:22

Oh, the utility belt. Debut in Detective Comics number 29. The Batarang followed two issues later in issue 31. Bro, there is some old trivia. Yeah, there is awesome. Ben, I'm actually gonna give you a bonus slash type. I guess not really a type of thing. I'll give you more because my braid sucks. Do you know when the first Batman day took place? No, I do not. Uh-uh. 2003? Not bad. Not bad. The very first Batman day took place on July 23rd, 2014, for the character's 75th anniversary.

Ben Kingsbury 28:53

Oh, that's nah, that's uh way later than uh free comic book day. Yeah, that's crazy. I didn't know they just started doing that. Well, that makes sense. That's why I never went to a Batman Day before I uh started getting involved in comic books.

Badr Milligan 29:04

I thought it was a I thought it was new, but it's I mean it's been around what almost 12 years now.

Ben Kingsbury 29:08

So did you go to free comic book day before you had a comic book poll?

Badr Milligan 29:12

No.

Ben Kingsbury 29:13

No, no, I didn't go to the my first I don't even think I knew it existed until I had a comic book.

Badr Milligan 29:18

First free comic book day was it might have been 2008, 2009, and it's because I met I that's when I I graduated in 2007. I started working at Target, which is where I met Drew, and he really kind of like showed me all the shops and jacks. And I remember going to my first free comic book day at uh I think it was Suncoast Comics when it was on 17. They had moved from Blanding and 103rd to um uh on Roosevelt. And I remember they had all these short boxes, they like took up the entire parking lot and had all these short boxes in the parking lot, and I thought it was the coolest thing in the world. No, that's uh yes, yeah. Do you remember your first free comic day?

Ben Kingsbury 29:56

Yeah, I mean, it was 2015. I went to a couple of places in Jacksonville. That was literally it. I had never been to a free comic book day before. I didn't even know what free comic book day was. I didn't even I started collecting comics again in like 2011, literally when the Iron Man movies and stuff started coming out. I was like, oh yeah, I love that stuff. Why you know you get the life's expensive and you gotta feed yourself and pay the bills. So all of a sudden you cut some comics out real fast.

Badr Milligan 30:24

That was yeah. All right, that was our Batman trivia. If you manage to score or get all of them right, hit me up. Let me know how many. Squeeze, I'll give you a gift certificate. You heard that here, folks. But you can't lie to me. Don't be alive. Come on, guys. If you got a higher score than Ben, hit me up. That's not hard. Did you order? Did you answer two? All right. And once again, and I think we'll wrap up the Batman Day segment. But just a reminder Batman Day takes place Saturday, September 19th. It is a, I'm assuming, a national holiday. Most comic shops, whether you're in Jacksonville or not, should be celebrating it, doing something for it. But the place you want to be is the place named after Gotham City Limit here at Gotham City Limit. Um, once again, they're doing uh exclusive comics. There's going to be a bunch of stuff available. Cool giveaways. Yes.

Ben Kingsbury 31:09

You know how we do. It'll be all the masks, all the hardcovers, all the Batman 2 Worlds, obviously super popular and more.

Badr Milligan 31:16

Okay, I guess, and on the topic, you're not only uh it's gonna be a busy quarter for you, Ben. Yeah. So you're not only doing Batman Day, December 19th, but the following month, almost uh less than a month later, you're having a Tyler Kirkham signing experience. It's taking place Saturday, October 3rd. This is not the first time that Tyler Kirkham has been invited to do a signing. I remember that first one being amazing. I gotta ask, how did it go from Tyler Kirkham is coming back for a signing into the Tyler Kirkham experience? Yeah, because that's a fancy upgrade.

Ben Kingsbury 31:46

Yeah, it's a hell of a well, because we talked about it, and Tyler goes to all kinds of cool events, but usually the only way you see him is at an event where you have to go to that city or be in that city, get transportation, tickets, you know, go spend your day doing it. It becomes a whole thing. So we thought, well, he's coming to town, he lives in Utah, so to come out to Florida is a big deal. So I bring his whole family out. It becomes a vacation for him essentially.

Badr Milligan 32:14

You give him an incentive.

Ben Kingsbury 32:15

Yeah, well, he, you know, we make it a thing. We obviously wanted to do Amazing Spider-Man 1000 together. We've talked, I talked about it for a long, long time, ever since I started this place and started doing exclusives with Tyler. However, when it came to coming to the shop, we didn't want it to just be, hey, you come in and get your book signed. We wanted the Tyler Kirkham experience for a reason so that it was experienced. We're gonna have a professional photographer here with the VIP blind bags that you get a free photo. If you want to get one taken and pay for it, you can do it that day as well. But that the whole point is open the blind bag with Tyler, get new prizes, remember it forever, you know, kind of put the picture on the wall. If you get something signed and graded and you pay money to do it, or Amazing Spider-Man 1000, the first time Marvel's ever gotten. So it needed to be something that wasn't just, oh, Tyler Kirkham's coming to the shop. No, this is a big deal. This is like put it in your calendar, 27 days, have a countdown. It's supposed to be an experience, and so it starts with us making sure that everybody knows that's the kind of level of expectation we have. And then from that, the people at Jacksonville, I know, will crush it the last time he was here. It was a crazy, busy day the whole time.

Badr Milligan 33:29

I was listening back to one of our previous episodes, and you had called uh Tyler, quote, an artist for the comic retailer, someone who understands deadlines, exclusives, shop and collectors in a way that a lot of creators don't. I'm curious, what makes Tyler so uniquely good at working with comic shops?

Ben Kingsbury 33:46

Because now, especially he makes his own. So he understands. He's tried to hire people to do covers for Final Boss, his image comic, and he realizes, oh, hey man, this guy says he needs six months' notice. I don't even know. This guy says he needs five months' notices. Tyler, he'll knock out something. Hey man, Tyler, ordain number one, art's due on Monday. It's Friday afternoon. He's got the pencils done by Friday, Saturday, the ink done, Sunday got it colored and it's turned in. So he's a fast worker, uh, but he also is friendly to the comma community. You know, he understands the in and out. Unlike most people who create, they don't do any kind of selling. And so now he has a specific idea of how it works. And so now it's just a beauty. Let me tell you something. When we were setting up this whole event that Kirkham experienced, part of it is because of him. He's like, all right, so let's brainstorm this. Let's he thinks as a retailer, he thinks, how can we turn this into something that's not just, you know, I want it to be something special, and he wants it to be. We've got his kids' art uh hanging on the wall from the last time they came, you know, you know, so this place feels like home for him. Right. No, I mean uh last time I was talking to him on the phone, you know, obviously Jill in the background, hey Ben, you know, his wife and uh his kids can't wait to come back out. It is an experience. It's supposed to be like, hey, remember the day, you know.

Badr Milligan 35:08

Do you think that's the future for comic creators like Tyler? Is not only doing your own creator-owned thing, but also establishing relationships with a shop like yours where you're doing like these custom shop exclusive covers. You're also doing like obviously convention appearances, but also like signings like that. Like, do you think that might be the future for comic creators?

Ben Kingsbury 35:28

Well, online sales, online sales, I think, is the future of all retail, especially when drones become more readily available and more reliable. I think you'll see an insane amount. I think retail shops in general to get rid of theft. If you don't have to let anybody inside and you can just shop online and have it brought to you. So whether you're ordering online or whether you're doing it live sales, I think Nordstroms is going to be a giant whatnot facility for a bet. Uh they'll have their own network, they'll create their own thing. But I think you won't even have people step in Nordstroms. You'll just buy their shoes. Here it is. You got a minute and a half, we're running them for $50 a piece, and then we'll fly a drone and drop it off of your house. So for comics, I see that. But for Tyler, I see the same path that I see for a lot of these guys. Once they get big enough to produce their own thing, they don't really need comic shops as much anymore. They can kind of do it their own way. But the difference is, is Tyler is such a good guy and such a down-to-earth person and understands that his popularity comes from him doing old Death Stroke and Green Lantern. And it's not, you know, he does, he's not so full of himself that he thinks, hey, I don't need comic shops. So I think he realizes that, you know, and he likes to write. So he wants obviously every comic shop to sell his thing. But I can see Tyler doing his own thing. You know what I mean? Eventually, I can see him do kind of creating. I hope he keeps creating with comic shops. It's my favorite part of my life being able to create with Tyler.

Badr Milligan 36:57

I think it shows that he's that he's fully aware of the industry that that made him the superstar, you know, the the comic shops, the fans that come in and buy his books. I think that I think that it's a it's a good balance.

Ben Kingsbury 37:08

I'm not gonna say the artists out there right now who are causing some controversy, but I can think of three right now who think that they could have done it without a comic book store their whole career. And and that, I'm like, it dumbfounds me a little bit. I heard a story of Marky Mark one time, Mark Wahlberg, talking about how he went out to Hollywood before he was anybody. And he loved Chevy Chase because he grew up in the 80s and he watched all the Chevy Chase stuff. And he saw Chevy Chase, he was a nobody, he hadn't even done Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch yet. And he saw Chevy Chase, was like, hey Chevy, love you. And Chevy Chase said, fuck you. And Mark was like, and he said from that vibration. He said from that point on, he said, I was gonna make sure I gave everybody the time of day because you never really knew, you know, unless it was an emergency or something's going on, my family. I tried to give every fan a time of day. And so I think Tyler does the same thing, and a lot of artists realize, hey, you know, it's awesome to be popular, but we're only popular because awesome people around us. Yeah.

Badr Milligan 38:10

All right, uh, Ben, I got a question in from one of the short box patronies. Big shout outs to Brandon Holder. He sent in a question for you on the topic of the Tyler Kirkham experience and just shop exclusive uh um variants. He wanted to know, uh, he says, talk to me about the process for picking an artist to work with for store exclusive variant covers. What goes into finding that perfect artist to deliver an exclusive take on a book's cover?

Ben Kingsbury 38:35

Yeah, so a lot of it is like anything else in life. Sometimes a couple of the publishers will present you with a list of artists that you can work with. So that's how I ended up working with Tyler Kirkcom the first time for our Moon Night number one, which we'll get to into in a little bit. But the first time they kind of gave me a list of people and we got to work with them. And then for the rest of the publishers, it's about relationships that you you build. And then, you know, obviously for me, I love to create. That's why I make these retailer exclusives, but we need to make money, obviously, to keep doing it. Not a lot of money, but we need to make enough money to keep it going. And that's the whole point of the name of the game of capitalism. So I then start building relationships with people like Andrew Robinson, yeah. And you know, uh besides Tyler Kirkham. And then we get to Boom Studios was lucky enough to hook me up, and I got to do a Steven Sokov and a Chuma Hill, and you know, some of these. So you kind of like Gerard Peral when I did Superman Spider-Man. Now we're friends on social media. We talk about He-Man, and it just kind of like so you naturally start business, and then if you're not an asshole, you know, it's pretty easy to have a nice relationship with people. It's hard for me. Like, there's some books I want to do, and I can't get um, I love EOM, coolest dude ever. Uh, I reach out to him on social media because most of the time I don't even know how to reach out to people, so I'll just reach out on social media, and then I get polite responses that essentially are, you know, hey, we're so busy that we focus on con exclusives. So, like trying to get Navid Nakayama or EOM or some of these guys that that do, and girls that do stuff for cons, like New York, every con, they prioritize that stuff over the independent show.

Badr Milligan 40:22

Does it help your case to kind of like expand what artists you're able to get? Uh um because of how many artists you've already worked. You know what I'm saying? Like you've kind of built this reputation as like Gotham City Limit always seems to have a shop exclusive variant. I was wondering if that helps you kind of get the pick of the pull.

Ben Kingsbury 40:39

Absolutely. Well, it helps like I had Tyler this week. I was like, hey, Tyler, reach out to the artist and tell them I'm cool. Yeah, I mean, yeah. So I mean it it's all like relationships. For sure. So, you know, in life, 90% of your life is gonna be about being reliable, and the other 10% of life is about, you know, who you network with and who you're kind to, and you know, because everybody uh needs some help every once in a while, you kind of go in waves. So if you help somebody, somebody helps you. It's a natural kind of progression. It is difficult as a comic shop owner, though. Sometimes I'm looking for an artist or I want to use an artist and it's hard to get them on. Jeff DeCall has like a nine-month waiting list, you know, because his stuff is amazing. So who's your white whale? Who's like if I had a any pick? At this, at this point, Alex Ross. So, you know, they randomly so you can also just request people through Marvel in DC. And when I did a Marvel book, I requested Alex Ross. And they were like, he's not available for this. I said, Well, I mean, I gotta try. So if yeah, if Alex Ross ever made a Goblin, see, Alex Ross doesn't need, I would have to have a personal relationship with Alex Ross where he wanted to make a comic for this place because I own a comic shop and I buy his exclusives off his website directly from him. He doesn't need me. Yeah, you know, I mean, he's got the biggest thing at San Diego Comic-Con ever. Yeah, that's set up. He's got it on the buses.

Badr Milligan 42:04

It's like when you mentioned wanting to make a comic book museum, my mind went to his booth.

Ben Kingsbury 42:10

Have his original art hang up. That's what I'm talking about. You have original art, you get things that matter to him, pieces that maybe he has something signed by Jack Kirby, you know, or something, you know.

Badr Milligan 42:20

And it's not only just about what you know, what he's got for sale, which is always like some amazing I saw the dopest He-Man Eskelator. So good connecting cover. I mean, it was amazing, but also that it truly does feel like you were walking through a little mini museum. Like his artwork is, you know, the paints, the paintings are on display, and like you can't.

Ben Kingsbury 42:38

I just think of Norman Rockwell. That's the only way I know how to describe it to modern people. That it's the realism of Norman painting himself in the mirror, doing I mean, but he's like Leonardo da Vinci. Like they were talking like some of the greatest artists that you can think of. I think Alex Ross is there, and it's funny, they do pencil sketches of his new work, and those are the incentives.

Badr Milligan 43:02

Is equally as amazing, yeah.

Ben Kingsbury 43:03

But the painting, he is a wizard. He is able to take these, he'll do it on a YouTube video, just watch him do it, and he paints so effortlessly, and it's like the greatest thing you've ever seen. He truly is a gif of God.

Badr Milligan 43:17

All right. Uh, speaking of a variant shop exclusives, your latest one is an Andrew Robinson uh cover for Warbird, issue one. Brandon, guess what? It's yours. I said that if you sent submitted a question for Ben, oh, did we answer? That's awesome.

Ben Kingsbury 43:31

Brandon, congrats, I'll be sending that out. It's such a good read, too. It's awesome. Andrew Robinson crushed it. It's like James Bond mix with a Tom Cruise movie. I mean, it really is. It's so cool. Yeah, I mean, well, kind of top gun. They he's he's hired. Okay, have you ever hear the story Uber um back like 2015 16? It was Uber. It was where the Germans create a super soldier and then they start winning World War II instead of. Losing it. Real quick, is it like comic book? Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. No, and it's amazing. 2011 to 2015, it's called Uber, U-B-E-R. And this story essentially takes place where the Russians have a new fighter plane that the Americans that just wipes out a whole battlefield of Americans. And so they are going to lose this war to the Russians unless this guy who's basically a repo man for expensive things, he goes back and steals things back for like large banks. He steals a yacht at the beginning from a billionaire. Well, uh, he is they need him to steal one of these Russian fighter planes so that they can try to even out the war. And so that's the same thing. The reason I reference that Uber story is the Americans need to capture a super soldier to figure out how to make their own. And it's pretty cool. But that the first issue of this is the guy who created John Wick, Derek Colstead. Oh, that's cool. Yeah, and then Robert Ventetti, who did ordain.

Badr Milligan 44:58

Oh, my God, yeah.

Ben Kingsbury 44:59

And bad idea crushes life.

Badr Milligan 45:00

It's so good. Uh, we'll close out that segment and by saying hey, Tyler Kirkham's signing experience takes place here at Gotham City Limit. Saturday, October 3rd. Um, there's uh VIP blind bags, there's there's golden tickets. They can enter all of that in the code.

Ben Kingsbury 45:14

Yeah, so you can go to GothamCityLimit.com. We have uh, if you want to learn more about it, there's a link that tells you literally about it in the show notes. It's a non-ticketed event. You do not need to buy a ticket. However, the experience, there's a hundred VIP blind bags. Each blind bag is gonna have both of our ASMs in it, the exclusive that he's doing for us for $1,000. Oh, wow. So you get a trade dress and a virgin. It's gonna have two additional Tyler Kirkham comics in it that could have blood signatures, could be graded books, could be sign graded books. Then on top of it, he's doing 20 large remarks that he charges $200 a piece. So the large the VIP bag is $200, but the large remarks that he does, he's doing 20 of them. They're gonna be hidden in the hundred bags. So you have a one in five shot of getting a large remark. You get a photo op with Tyler, so you remember the event forever. Okay, and then on top of it, two out of the 100 are called golden tickets that have puzzles, prints, stickers, and more in it.

Badr Milligan 46:13

Man, you're living up to the phrase experience. That's gonna be awesome. All right, and I'll have links to all of that in the show notes if you want to check it out. Ben, let's move into my last segment of the show and just talk general comics, best comics of the year so far. I'm gonna start off with this question. If the if the year ended today, what is your comic of the year?

Ben Kingsbury 46:32

Oh, that's it's I know I was thinking about this a lot because I was really trying to get into what I like the most. Um, besides, we gave a big shout-out to uh Bad Idea. Obviously, they make good stuff. Ignition Press. They also write amazing, great adult stories that I really look forward to. And then obviously, what was the other uh Vault, Vault and Mad Cave Crush Life? Great stories. Nectar from Vault, Black Badge. They've been doing some new ones, Jerry Robinson, uh excommunicated. And then I seem like if it's a Mad Cave number one, man, Mr. Nemo, the newest one that just came out this week, uh Project Perseus, amazing story number one. But I think I go back to Ordained and Warbird number one. I think Ordained just finished up this year and they had the one-shot machine. But man, did I read it immediately when it came out? Like took it home with me, couldn't wait to read it. Yes. And then I've read Warbird three times. I I can't, I think it's it's bound for a TV show or a movie. Great, great comics, but I love Mad Cave Studio stories too. I I mean, they are they're they they're way more fun. I don't, you know, let's get into it. Why don't I want to read Amazing Spider-Man? Why is Mad Cave and Vault and all of these companies just crushing life? No, because they're great stories for adults. Jimmy Palmiotti's Denver, great first issue, just came out. That thing was fantastic too. So I like when people come in and I can be like, hey, you're gonna love this one. And then they come in and you're like, dude, you were right. I was like, I know, I don't I want you to come back. I'm a drug dealer, baby. I'm a drug. You can't be lying to you. Yeah, exactly. A lot of one star reviews.

Badr Milligan 48:12

All right, so it sounds like all right, so so answer this one directly. So if the year ended today, you're saying that Ordained would be your comic of the year.

Ben Kingsbury 48:20

Yeah, I mean, trying to think when Ordained came out, you know, the dates, yeah, you know, but the end of Ordained was so amazing, it started before. But right now, I'll put Warbird number one up there.

Badr Milligan 48:30

That's very if I read your comic before I send it to you. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Ben Kingsbury 48:35

Oh, I got some extra copies for you. Yeah, but that Warbird brand new that just came out is is awesome. And now I can't wait for the second issue.

Badr Milligan 48:42

Literally, it was well, it was just so well written. Okay. All right. Uh give me the book where the sales and the quality actually match, meaning what's both commercially hot and generally deserving of the hype.

Ben Kingsbury 48:55

You know, unfortunately, when I go to quality, I always think of Jorge Jimenez because the interiors are so amazing. So obviously, the Batman stuff is pretty face-to-back.

Badr Milligan 49:04

Who says more really quick? Because when I think Jorge Jimenez, I can't help but also think Dan Mora, I think they've got a similarity in style. Who do you think?

Ben Kingsbury 49:12

Dan Mora now has uh on that level out of like he's just come out of nowhere. The cool part about Dan Mora comics, he does a ton of stuff, but his variant card stock covers that he does on because you don't get a lot of that from Jorge Jimenez, right? You know, Dan Mora will do Batman World, Superman World's finest, do the interior of something, but then he'll do card stock covers of a random uh swimsuit event. And with him in uh with like Batman and Superman in a hot tub, and now it's $150. Wow. So Dan Moore has definitely you know gotten there, but Jorge Jimenez, but Gary Frank inside Geiger, I mean, come on, like there's some stuff in there, like inside uh the Jason Fabok uh, you know, run with uh Rook Exodus.

Badr Milligan 49:57

Yeah, which by the way, I know that you had championed Rook Exodus, I think two or three from the very beginning. Yeah, from the very beginning, and it took me a while to uh having Jason Fabbach on recently was the reason I needed to go read it. And you're right, it was amazing, so it was like awesome.

Ben Kingsbury 50:15

It's so cool, it's such a great cool the characters are great. I mean, obviously, I love the animal aspect of it, so that really gets me back. Yeah, but it gets deep and twisted, and you know what? People are always complaining because it it's uh, oh, well, we're only gonna get six issues this year. And I'm like, those six issues are better than 18 issues of Amazing Spider-Man this year. You know, I would rather have six badass issues, great, well done, than uh 18 issues of Spider-Man 3 a month, you know, or whatever it is, kind of the insane amount they do. So that stuff uh matches those sales, deserve it. Uh the interior work of the Ghost Machine universe, wow, that stuff is fun. If you haven't picked up any of those, you need to go back to Geiger Rook, uh Street if you like horse.

Badr Milligan 51:04

I want to finish uh uh Geiger. Let me all right, let me give you let me take that question and flip it. Give me the opposite. What comic is way better than its sales number suggests?

Ben Kingsbury 51:14

JSA uh from DC Justice Society of America, Jeff Lemere. Oh, wow. So good. Jeff Lemire's stuff, I think. I think there's a bunch of Taillettes up there. I've got them up there. There, it's it's amazing. Read. I read it as soon as it comes out. Yeah, it's the second one down four over. Uh but they're on 22? Yeah, already. Wow. But it's just Jeff Lemire story. I'm telling you, if that guy writes it, you need to be reading it. But it is fantastic. And again, if I brought it said Justice Society of America, they're like, I don't even like those characters, or I don't know the characters, or what is that even about, but it is one of the best reads out there. Wow. I love that stuff, and not a lot of people know about it. The other one, the new one that's come out, Dead Man. If you want to read.

Badr Milligan 51:58

I was just about to ask you, Deadman has caught my interest because the covers look so yeah.

Ben Kingsbury 52:02

Well, the covers are great, but the interior is like you get to learn about Dead Man. I didn't know a lot about him, so Boston Brand, they gave him kind of a new character. They had brought him into other stories and used him in deceased and other things. However, yeah, that dead man for DC, very, very good. I'm trying to think if there's a Marvel title. Yeah, I'll tell you Marvel titles that people should be reading. The the mini-series. And because the boy who cries wolf, uh, people get burned a little bit. But Spider-Man Long Road Home and Spectacular Spider-Man Brand New Day are way better stories than Amazing Spider-Man. They're five-part mini-series to do with Mr. Negative and Punisher. I mean, the reason I used to love Spider-Man was because it was Spider-Man versus a villain. And now I gotta learn about Aunt May's dating life. I don't give a shit. You know what I mean? Like I don't really care about Feast. I know the Feast exists, but I don't care about the everyday happening at Feast. I don't want to, when I read Amazing Spider-Man, I shouldn't be reading Amazing Spider-Man Universe. I want to know like Doc Ock and Spidey's going after him, or you know, something like that. And so I miss that in Spider-Man. So when I get the miniseries, like last year, Daredevil Cold Day in Hell, holy smokes was that amazing. Charles Sol, quick in and out. Yeah, and then nobody reads Star Wars anymore. Sucks. It's so good. I mean, if you like Star Wars stuff, the even the Kylo Wren, which I do not like for the record, do not really like the new Star Wars movies. However, Kylo Wren, I just love the idea of the character, and still think he can be badass because he's connected to Vader, the greatest literal villain of all time. And so there's a new Kylo Wren story and new Star Wars stories that have Luke like with his green lightsaber, like everybody wants, like as a Jedi. So all that stuff is amazing, but they burned so many bridges at Disney with Star Wars that people have just stopped buying it.

Badr Milligan 53:58

Last year you called it the year of the blind bag. In April, when we recorded back in April, we were both asking whether blind bags were becoming too much. Were they sustainable? Where are we now? Is it still fun? Has it been completely oversaturated? Have publishers figured out how to do them correctly? How do you feel about blind bags? Uh in DC. Yep, yeah.

Ben Kingsbury 54:18

I mean, well, um, that's how Marvel has decided to compete with DC in terms of print numbers. So if they want DNX or Queen in Black or Avengers One or Daredevil 1 to have absolute Batman numbers and they have to make blind bags with high-end incentives because then it is worth doing because it is a kickoff event. People will buy them and then they'll match up numbers. Because I mean, I know when Daredevil 1 had those blind bags, you know, I think there was a one in a thousand incentive variant. So I think we got up to one in a thousand, but I would have bought 150 otherwise. So Marvel has figured out they have changed the game. Before when we did blind bags, they were all the covers plus some specialty stuff, plus other things. Now it's only stuff you can get in the blind bags. So Marvel and DC have started to do that, like a foil version, a virgin version. I love it too here because we have won so many things. Like we pulled two Mark Bagley sketch covers out of the Queen in Black blind bags here. So those are essentially like one in a thousand. You know, so that's amazing for customers. That's why I love it. It's like selling a lottery ticket. But then I learned my lesson, I got burned by dynamite because dynamite would make these blind bags for all their cool stuff, like Harley Elvira, but then it would just be blind bag only stuff and no sketches or nothing special. You got to have a golden ticket. Sure. There's got to be a chase item. And then if there's a chase item, then it's a good idea, and then you can sell them because it's fun. And then we use them on whatnot. We'll do them like as giveaways. You put a couple up there, you you know, get people involved, you cut them open, we take pictures out front. So the blind bags are still going strong. They're definitely still rocking and rolling. Uh, they've just started to make them a little bit more exclusive. And then if the blind bag has a chase item like a sketch cover in it or a potential for a sketch cover, you can get a lot, you know.

Badr Milligan 56:14

Man, I I don't know how to I don't know. I'm I'm listening and I don't know how to react because it sounds like Marvel has leaned in all the way into it. Almost sounds like a card company.

Ben Kingsbury 56:24

You know, Marvel cares more about selling covers than they do comics, uh, the reading of the comics.

Badr Milligan 56:30

But then I I get excited hearing you praise Mad Cave, Vault, Bad Eyed, you know, like these indie comic publishers where they are putting a lot of effort into uh a great story, good art. You know, obviously they also do uh covers and whatnot, but it sounds like they've hit a perfect balance and it feels like Marvel's floundering and just leaning into the incentives and the collectability side. I rarely ever hear anyone talk about the stories or what's inside of the books.

Ben Kingsbury 56:57

Not so much that's why it's the miniseries because they run into a little bit where their ongoing is so ongoing that if you're reading Amazing Spider-Man and you don't know in 1990 that Peter Parker was married to Mary Jane and that he gave up his marriage and everything to Mephesto so that Aunt May wouldn't die. And now we're 40 years later, and Aunt May isn't had a stroke in 999, and I was like, You are the worst fucking writers of all time. Like, that's what you guys did with ASM 1000.

Badr Milligan 57:30

So I don't know what's gonna happen with ASM 1000, but yeah, it doesn't sound like it's you don't sound too excited for this like historical I'm excited for the covers because I think it'll be a collectible event.

Ben Kingsbury 57:43

Like you said, they kind of turned into a little bit of a trading card company. I mean, they make literal trading card variant covers, you know, even ones that put them out. So while I think that they have been getting better stories, I mean Chip Z on Captain America crushing it, so that Jed McKay writes great stories, Charles Sowell, really good writer. The Midnight stuff, yeah, I think is gonna be a big determining factor on whether or not Marvel is just selling comic book covers, or they're really putting out something that everybody's gonna collect. Because absolute Batman got popular because how badass the story was. Because Batman was a beast, pulling off the axe, cutting the dude's hand off. The covers were cool. Everybody hated the symbol until they read how badass he was. Yeah. So, you know, so Marvel's Midnight event, I think, is gonna be a big moment in comics books this year in October, because we're gonna find out if Marvel is leaning in with Philip Johnson Kennedy and and these guys, if they're Chip's Art Esky, if they're leaning in with the best stories and then cool covers, or if they think the covers are still the name of the game. I listen to old Marvel stories when I drive down to CGC once a month. It's a nine-hour trip to Sarasota round trip for me. Drop comics off, pick them up.

Badr Milligan 59:01

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. It's a nine-hour drive to Sarasota? Back and forth. How often are you making this drive? Once a month. And you said you're listening to Marvel stories?

Ben Kingsbury 59:08

On Audible. Oh, that's cool. Yeah, it's so cool. They novelize the events, so they'll turn like Secret Wars into a 13-hour novel. So I've read the comic, but the novel is so much better because you get the inside uh voice of all the characters. Oh, and it's like different voice actors? Yo, yeah, dude, they put so much work into it. You got different characters, you got noise sound effects. Like, I mean, it is like an entire production. It's actually Penguin Random House produces. You hear them, Penguin Random House produces. But I listened to like Secret Invasion, Mark Millar. I listened to Old Secret Wars, I listened to Infinity Gauntlet. Oh, so they've done a lot of books. All I mean, all the best stories you can think of are all on Audible. And they are so good. I just miss reading that in Marvel Comics. I don't know. Marvel just got caught up in selling covers or switching their characters up, trying to become the new generation. They just did a manga verse, you know, which is cool. I'm fine with that. Uh, that's a fun thing. But Marvel, for like the last 10 years, thought it was more important to try to find a generic, like make a new incredible Hulk, make a new Wolverine that maybe a younger generation would like, and instead they should have just wrote awesome stories that a new generation would like. Sure. That's what gets people. I didn't care about seeing a younger version of Spider-Man when I was younger. I wanted to read the real Spider-Man and an awesome story with him in it.

Badr Milligan 1:00:33

I guess on the topic of the future, and we could wrap uh and land this plan here. Man, what are you most excited for as we get into Q4, last three months of the year? What are you most excited for in terms of new comics, new creators, uh, new anything? What are we going to be talking about at the end of the year when we meet back up?

Ben Kingsbury 1:00:52

Yeah, I just referenced it earlier, but let's go through what's happening right now with us in the shop, and I'll give some people some inside information about what's happening. So we are right now at the beginning of September. Uh we obviously have Batman Day, then we have Local Comic Shop Day, Ancient Citicon down there in St. Augustine. Then Tyler's coming for ASM. So ASM 1000. I mean, it should not be overlooked. I don't care if you like the story or not. It's the first Marvel comic to legitimately put up a thousand issues. It's an iconic moment for the American hobby. It uh it should make everybody who's ever bought a comic in their entire life feel proud. There aren't many things that ever last this long. So that right there is just a huge, huge event. However, the following week after that, we're doing an exclusive with Elias Chad Zudis. I haven't even uh released the artwork yet for G.I. Joe Tomb Raider. I mean, is there anything cooler in my entire life? They finally brought Laura Croft into the actual real American hero line. So back in the 90s, they did G.I. Joe Tomb Raider, but that was always G.I. Joe characters in Tomb Raider. The first time she ever appeared, 330 just happened. And now they're doing an exclusive. And Tomb Raider, the first game, is um like bucket list, coolest moments of my life playing, having the book and trying to figure out the hardest puzzles of all time. It was so cool. And then obviously, G.I. Joe being I had more G.I. Joe toys and watched the, you know, red and blue lasers never hit anybody. So that is really cool. That comes October 7th. Then we have Treasure Island Con. October 7th also is the Midnight series from Marvel. So Midnight Fantastic Four, Midnight Spider-Man, and Midnight X-Men. Jonathan and I don't know what to expect. We're not sure if it's tied into the regular universe. Is this 616? Is it Else World? What's leading up to the story? Is there going to be something in one of these comics that leads up to the Midnight? But I have a feeling that that Midnight series could be highly, highly talked about as far as like something going on into the future. And then independent comic-wise, you know, I learn about this stuff kind of when you do. So obviously, we're only about two months out in terms of what is going down and what's coming out. However, I think that, like I said, the the war bird at the end of the year, when that's done, that's going to be on Ordain's level. Everybody's going to be looking for that.

Badr Milligan 1:03:14

Hell to the yeah. Yep. Ben, as always, I You can probably just stay here and talk all night. But this has been great. Batman Day, September 19th. Tyler Kirkcomb signing its October 3rd. I will have links to all of this. Ben, as always, it is always a great time. No, man, chat and comics, which you like.

Ben Kingsbury 1:03:36

No, this is the best thing ever, dude. You're a professional, my friend.

Badr Milligan 1:03:38

And to everyone on at home, ladies and gents, this is the Short Box Podcast. We just finished talking to Ben Kingsbury of Gotham City Limit about everything, right? We talked about Batman Day. We talked about Tyler Kirk. We talked about the state of comics now, his favorite comics of the year so far, and so many more. I will have links to Gotham City Limit's website in the show notes. You can enter in this amazing giveaway that they've got going on. Oh, yeah. I will have links to follow Gotham City Limit on social media. And then stop in the store and make fun of me because I forgot about Nightwing.

Ben Kingsbury 1:04:07

And if you've got to get made fun of, dude, sometimes you gotta get shame in life, and I deserve shame.

Badr Milligan 1:04:13

Yes. Come in the shop, make fun of Ben, uh let him and then let him hook up. And then spend money. Yeah, yeah. So with that being said, thank you guys so much for uh checking out the show. Come back next week. New episode. As always. Take care of yourselves. Read a good comic book. Make mine in your short box. Peace.

Ben Kingsbury 1:04:33

Hey, yo, run it back.

Badr Milligan 1:04:35

And it got me thinking. I don't think I've ever asked you about the naming of the shop. I mean, uh, there's a lot of people that know that uh you took over this shop from an uh someone else, and it was called Gotham City Limits. Right. You took over, decided to drop the S. Yep. And I've always been, and I remember too, you were very, you've always been very specific about that.

Ben Kingsbury 1:04:53

Oh man, dude. I correct someone. I'm nine years in, bro, and I will send him an email and be like, my shout. Like you sent me a bill, you can't give him a shout me right. No, and it's not it's not, you know, I really it's just like a personal thing. But Gotham City Limits down the street. I took over. I started a new business. We called it Gotham City Limit. I wish I could say I did it so I could tell everybody to take it to the limit, but I'm not that smart. I actually thought Metropolis City Limit. Yeah, what were some of the other contenders for the city? There were some other Coast City, everything DC, you can't do Marvel names. New York City Limit. Oh yeah. Yeah, that's just kind of like Hell's Kitchen Limit. So Gotham, City Limit, Batman probably is my second favorite uh like love or where I got a huge passion of this stuff from 1989 Batman and Breaking of the Bat, the nightfall stuff. That probably cemented a lot of my comic book buying habits. So like late 80s, early 90s, that was all awesome. And then from there, when it was time to do a shop, I thought Gotham City Limit was awesome. I've never put comics, I've never put Gotham City Limit comics, Gotham City. I get people that stop in all the time. What are you? And people ask me, why isn't it Gotham City Limit comics and more or Gotham City Limit comics and cards or something? And the reason is is the future could be anything. I know that I just want to continue to create and make an awesome place for Jacksonville, but I don't know what Gotham City Limit's gonna be in 10 years. So I don't want to pigeonhole myself.

Badr Milligan 1:06:27

Where do you see the shop in 10 years?

Ben Kingsbury 1:06:29

Well, I I see it becoming more than just a comic store, maybe a continued hangout, whether it becomes additional. I really want a comic book museum. That'd be a place that people come to visit from everywhere. There's a guy who lives in town who just contacted Guinness Book of World Records. He's going to be certified as the world's largest collector of Doctor Strange. Wow. Lives in Jacksonville.

Badr Milligan 1:06:57

Some of my favorite things about our city is just the most random things that we're going to do.

Ben Kingsbury 1:07:04

And I have old Spider-Man like AF-15s, and I know a lot of people have a lot of really old comics or memorabilia or other things that tie to this characters here. So, and over the next 30 years, unfortunately, a lot of people are going to pass away and there's going to be a lot of stuff on the open market, a lot of stuff. And I've always kind of had a dream of a uh comic book museum where everybody kind of puts their stuff up. It could even be for sale potentially, but just like when you walk through the baseball hall of fame, I want some memories, and hopefully it would feed on itself. We could do kind of a consignment thing. So I see that. I see an entertainment center where it is like video games, but more. I think the internet, digital, have taken over essentially in society, but there's such a love of physical goods. So I want to get back to, you know, whether or not it's, you know, physical locations with arcade games, whether it's food, coffee, it could be, you know, essentially gaming areas. I could see us doing a lot of different things. So I don't, I never was just gonna be comic books. Obviously, comics are are my passion and I love it, and we continue to grow that side of it. But I always wanted to have a location that became a place, destination location. Yeah, you know, so that's the idea. Ten years from now, own a big building somewhere and really m turn it into a multifaceted place that you just come and hang out for a couple hours. Yeah. So that's the idea. And then obviously, I'm gonna be the most popular comic personality in the world. So, besides those two things, I think you gotta go.

Intro Music 1:08:46

Yeah, I got small goals. Yeah, that's exactly where we're at it.

About The Author

Badr Milligan

A project manager, podcaster, and a professional moderator all rolled-into-one. Co-founder of the Jax Podcasters United Group. Host and producer of The Short Box: A Comic Book Talk Show. Resident of Springfield, but not the one on TV.

To read more about Badr, check out his full bio here.