Jessika: [00:00:00] Oh no. I've hot boxed myself. Hold on.
Jessika: Hello. Welcome to Tencent Takes the podcast where we took our way through the pages of Indie Comics, one issue at a time. My name is Jessika Frazier, and I'm joined by my co-host, our resident Square Bear, Mike Thompson.
Mike: I feel attacked by that statement.
Jessika: It's not an attack. We're all different, Mike.
Mike: I mean, it's also very factual. It's very factual.
Jessika: Oh, how you doing tonight
other than feeling attacked.
Mike: I'm fine. it's been a good weekend, so I can't complain.
Jessika: Good. I'm glad to [00:01:00] hear that. Well everyone. The purpose of this podcast, if you don't know, is to study comic books in ways that are both fun and informative. We wanna look at their coolest, weirdest, and silliest moments, as well as examine how they're woven into the larger fabric of pop culture and history. And now, listen, if you're enjoying the show so far and you wanna help us grow, it'd be a huge help if you'd rate and or review us on Apple Podcasts because that super duper helps with discoverability and you want us to be discovered, right? Right.
Mike: I hope so.
Jessika: yes. So listen up friends, grab your favorite weed accessories and get set to take a major chill pill. Today we are going to be discussing a comic that is both zany and illicit in so many ways, the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers. We are going to discuss the history of this property, the creator, [00:02:00] and about the different publications as well as other media where these strange brothers have appeared. We are also, of course, going to insert our own opinions on the, er, content of this comic.
Mike: Yeah, we uh, we got some takes on this one.
Jessika: We got opinions, folks. Always. I mean, always, but wait, wait. Listen, listen. Before we get into all of that, Mike, what is one cool thing you've read or watched lately?
Mike: Yeah. So this is actually something that I read today.
Jessika: Ooh.
Mike: yeah. So we are recording this the Sunday after Free Comic Book Day. And so I went with my stepson down to Blue Moon Comics. And for free Comic book day, they actually had a Bay Area comics creator named Jimmie Robinson, who is the guy behind Bomb Queen I think, over at Image.
He has a new series that just came out called Junk Rabbit, and he was just giving away copies. He gave me a [00:03:00] sketch cover and it looks amazing. Like I wanted to pay him money and he wouldn't take it. I was like, okay.
Jessika: Aw.
Mike: I wanna stress this is like a rad new dystopian sci-fi series. Like, it's, it's really cool.
so remember how like the first half of Wall-E is like just kind of a silent film where we see the wasteland left behind after rampant consumerism ravaged the earth.
Jessika: Um, well, I haven't actually seen Wall-E.
Mike: Killing me smalls.
Jessika: I know, I know. Sometimes I'm a disappointment to everyone
Mike: Okay, so,
Jessika: out on this episode.
Mike: so your homework is to go watch Wall-E after this.
Jessika: Oh, oh, darn. Sure. Sure. Okay. Hard homework.
Mike: Okay. So basically this comic takes that, that general premise of like, this like kind of garbage filled planet and it removes anything wholesome or adorable from it and like, feel good [00:04:00] and turns it up to 11. the story takes place in 2198 when most of the United States is just a trash filled wasteland and the super rich have fucked off to orbiting cities and moon colonies.
But there's still billions of people living here, on the earth, and the populace divided into two groups. They're those living in dome cities, which kind of give off mega city vibes from Judge Dredd, but they don't really have to worry about the landfills because they're all domed and they've got, you know, filtered air and all that.
And then they're the rest of the people, the poor, who are basically scraping out in existence in these slum cities out in the trash. And the story kicks off with a, with like, with a streamer from a dome city. So, you know, some things never change in, in what used to be California. He is out engaging in what's called "dark tourism", where he breaks outta the city and he streams from the trash fields.
And he's like, he's pretty terrible. Like he spots [00:05:00] some, some locals, and he is like, oh yeah, remember, there's no rules outta here. Like, I could go kill someone and like, I wouldn't be held accountable.
Jessika: Jesus Christ.
Mike: But then he's killed by someone that we don't see. And so it's like, okay, this, yeah. I'm like, I'm fine with this.
Jessika: Excellent.
Mike: I'm like, this is, this is acceptable.
Jessika: He was giving Tate vibes
and I didn't dig
Mike: Oh, 100%. And I was just sitting there and I, you know, it's one of those things where you see him getting murdered like granite. He is talking about murdering other people. And I'm like, be the change that you want, man. Like, it's good.
Jessika: Oh, I love
that.
Mike: but yeah. So the streamer is actually the sole heir of the domes ruler, like the dome that he came from. and so as a result of investigation to find the killer and bring them to justice, has to happen. And it turns out the killer is someone that's known as the junk rabbit. And the junk rabbit is a person who's, kind of like an urban myth among those outside of the city.
There's like a whole church among the wasteland I believe like [00:06:00] the wasteland itself is called the sink, which is kind of cool. So there's like a whole, there's a whole church they preach about, like, you know, the gospel, the rabbit, et cetera, et cetera. there are a lot of really cool ideas in this comic that are centered around inequity in class warfare.
And what's really impressive is that Robinson is actually handling all of the art and all of the writing duties, and the art is incredible. Like the first few pages are these really cool full page spreads showing all sorts of stuff from across history, gathered into what's basically a trash pile of time, and then it eventually morphs into a map of the United States.
Like it's stunning. I am like going back to the store today and putting it on my pull list. It's so cool.
Jessika: Oh, nice.
That's cool.
Mike: the other thing is like I've seen this, it's been on my radar because Robinson's been going around to different local shops, like he was at Cape and Cowl in Oakland, and I think he was also at Flying Colors recently, signing copies.
Our friend Tom Bayland has talked about it a bit on Facebook, but I am so glad that I started [00:07:00] reading this.
Jessika: That's very cool. That
sounds awesome.
Mike: yeah.
Jessika: I love a, a good dystopian story as long as it's not the one we're currently in.
Mike: I know, right? As long as it's not our actual darkest timeline.
Jessika: Which is God can you even believe? Can you even even believe
the fucking world we live in? I just,
Mike: Oh
Jessika: I could wax poetic on that, but I guess instead I'll, I'll talk about something better.
Mike: Yeah. So please, what are you bringing to the table today?
Jessika: Yeah, something much better. So the other day, my dear friend Matt and I ended up watching one of the Power Puff Girls movies, the Christmas one, because we're not at all seasonally appropriate.
And then we went back and watched a few of the episodes of the show starting from the very beginning. And I have got to say that show is funnier than it has absolutely any right to be.
Mike: Oh, it's really good. Like all that stuff holds up really well,
Jessika: It's so good. And I mean, [00:08:00] I watched it a ton as a kid. I used to love Power Puff girls, and so much of it went over my head when I was a kid. Of course. The show is so freaking funny. So many puns. There's callbacks to pop culture and film. There's so many little adult jabs that make it fun. I think even for parents or adults to watch, you know, or aging millennials needing a nostalgia boost, like myself, give me the serotonin. Overall,
I was super pleasantly surprised at how well, like you said, the, the show held up and heck, it's even relevant now as it features and normalizes without making fun of drag and drag culture.
Mike: Yeah.
Jessika: There are like two or three of the episodes that we watched even in that timeframe that had really funny jokes, including drag references, but not like, not poking fun at or punching down.
It was just jokes about drag.
Mike: Yeah.
Jessika: So, all in all, I think I'm [00:09:00] gonna need to take more of a deep dive since I know this is on Netflix, by the way. It's on Netflix. Um, And go back and check out all of the seasons. I think there's like six on there or something
Mike: I mean, there's a ton. Yeah.
They were trying to make like a live action TV show somewhat recently, and I know it, I don't think it got picked up or it, it, it got retooled and then kind of went into development hell. But
Jessika: I thought I heard something about that.
Mike: like the power puff girls are still they still have a lot of, of relevance and, and you know, fan base,
Jessika: Yeah. Yeah. I'm not gonna be able to like physically read anything for a couple of days probably. Or like maybe the day, day after, a couple days after my LASIK eye surgery that I'm getting this month.
And so I think I'm just gonna like throw some power puff girls up on the TV and just like watch that.
Like if I can't like do close up, just like distance focus right away.
Mike: Yeah, you're gonna want stuff that's like, kind of like bright and [00:10:00] like simple and not too visually complex. So that checks out
Jessika: Yeah. Yeah. So that should be good. So that shit heals again in two to three days. I'm
Mike: what a time to be alive.
Jessika: It's freaking amazing, man. Lasers, man. Freaking lasers. Alright, well Mike, what do you say? We smoke our way into our main topic.
Mike: I'm asthmatic, man. Come on.
Jessika: Well, I mean, I am too, but here we are. onto our main topic, the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers.
Now, Mike, I found issues 1, 3, 6, and seven.
Mike: Mm-hmm.
Jessika: Of the Collected Adventures of the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers at that stellar moving sale at Outer Planes last year. And I picked it up because it was an indie comic. It looked interesting [00:11:00] based on the cover. again, I'm a stoner and these guys were like running around smoking pot it looked like, and had cops following them.
I was like, I'm in, let's go.
Mike: Right?
Jessika: But, you know, actually let's give a better example of the cover. Mike, do you wanna give us a, a better description? Cause that wasn't great.
Mike: Yeah, sure. So there is, it looks like a very seventies setting. Like it's a back alley with like tons of litter and gross garbage everywhere. And you can see the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers running away from a crowd of basically kind of keystone cops. And there is Fat Freddy, there is Phinneas, and then there is Free Wheel in Franklin and they are, all smoke and dope and you know that it's dope because Fat Freddy is carrying a box that says "dope" on it. there's also a hookah that is being carried Freddy's Cat is up on the fire escape. [00:12:00] And like you look at the architecture and everything, the skyline, it's very late sixties, early seventies. yeah, it's a, it's a trip, but, um, I, I mean like you look at this and you're like, this feels like an indie comic. like, it very much is kind of like indicative of that indie Comics with an X scene.
Uh, it says on the cover the Collected Adventures of the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers. Cuz Freak is like, you know, in huge wavy font. it looks a lot like, kind of like a mad magazine comic almost.
Jessika: Oh, totally.
Mike: no, it's like, it's one of those things where you look at it and you're like, okay, so I know what I'm getting into, like as soon as I look at the cover.
Jessika: For the most part. For, well, we'll see. For the most part.
Mike: Well, yeah.
Jessika: I, yeah, I had my, I had my suspicions about the content.
Mike: But yeah, it's like, oh, okay. So this is a book for stoner culture, which I have come across this every now and then in like back issue boxes and stuff like that. And I just kind of like [00:13:00] breeze right over it because I am not a stoner
Jessika: right.
Mike: am.
Jessika: Me, I always go hunting when I am baked, so I'm like, look, they're, they're high too.
Mike: Yeah. And it's funny because Sarah and I have talked about this a bit. Like neither of us has ever had pot, like
Jessika: Oh, babies,
Mike: um, well, you know, and it's just for different reasons. Like, my big thing was I got raised in a family where there was a history of addiction and so that just kinda, that kinda like, you know, I was like, eh, I think I'm good.
And then, I got really irritated dealing with a lot of stoners when I was an EMT and like, especially when I was on ski patrol cuz people would like go hide off in the trees and then get stoned and then go skiing and I was like, okay, you morons, like, come on.
Jessika: Fair enough.
Mike: But yeah, like, it just, it was never my thing.
And yeah, these days it's like, well it's legal, like it's fine. I'm also asthmatic so like, you know, I can't really smoke anyway [00:14:00] cuz I'll die. But yeah, it's just never been my scene. And again, no judgment. Like I don't care. It's fine.
Jessika: No, for sure. I mean, you've known this about me forever, so.
Mike: I'm pretty sure I knew this about you, like the, pretty much the first time we hung out.
Jessika: Yeah, that wouldn't surprise me cuz I like have social anxiety and this calms my social anxiety. Like I host trivia. There's absolutely no way I could like be that charismatic and outgoing and have no social anxiety if I weren't baked a shit. No way. That's my secret, folks. So if you're following me from trivia now, you know, dude, people never know though.
, honestly, like what it does for me is it really does cut down that anxiety.
Mike: Yeah, and I mean, like I, am well aware of like the benefits of marijuana and, and like how it helps people across a [00:15:00] spectrum of issues like medical, psychological, everything. it is stupidly criminalized. And I think as a result there's still that stigma, in media a lot of the times.
And then also, I mean, it's still criminalized in like a bunch of states, but like, you know, we live in California where it's been legal
forever. I don't know.
Jessika: Well, and it's still federally criminals, so you know what I mean?
Mike: Is it still federally criminal? Ugh,
Jessika: it's still federally criminal. So that means that if you work for like a federal organization, you also are subject to the, even if you live in a state where it's legal, you're still subject to those rules.
Mike: Yeah, when I was in college in Arizona, it was still a felony, but they basically, it was a Class E felony, so they prosecuted it as a misdemeanor, at least like in my county, because
Jessika: I see. A Trump level felony.
Mike: yeah,
Jessika: that's pretty harsh. Like, I would like you to look at the difference between those two things. Smoke it a little green and [00:16:00] like everything, everything Trump has done
that is under that umbrella of
Mike: yeah. Insane money laundering and
Jessika: it's just fucking wild to me.
Mike: Yeah,
Jessika: Yeah. So anyway, but that's, that's, that's not quite our topic today.
Our topic is, uh, Comics about weed. So in order to really get down into the history of the series, we need to talk a bit, and by a bit I mean a lot about the creator of this comic. So, Gilbert Shelton was born in Houston, Texas, May 31st, 1940. Gilbert's got a birthday coming up Gemini just like me, watch out everyone and, uh, stayed in the Houston area through his formative years and he attended undergrad in a few different universities in Texas, graduating with his bachelor's degree in social sciences in 1961.
He started his cartooning career through publishing his [00:17:00] cartoons in the University of Texas' Humor Magazine called the Texas Ranger
of
Mike: Alright. Like,
Jessika: Exactly. So he moved to New York immediately after college and continued cartooning, despite moving into a different type of work where he snuck his drawings into the automotive magazines he edited.
Mike: Like that's some, Grade-A trolling though. I love it.
Jessika: That's pretty funny. I know. I like that a lot. I can't be mad at
that at all. So around that time, more of his work was published in Warren Publishing's Help! which is a satire magazine. And this was also around the time in 1961 that he came up with the character Wonder Warthog. Have you ever heard of this?
Mike: No.
Jessika: Okay, so, think of a warthog with the powers of Superman. You're just on the right track.
Mike: Okay.
Jessika: A porsine superhero.[00:18:00] So Shelton then booked it back to Texas in 1962, enrolling in graduate school in order to be deferred from the draft.
Mike: Oh, okay.
Jessika: Yeah, so he finally published his Wonder Warthog comics for the first time in 1962 with two short stories appearing in Bacchanal, which was a short-lived college humor magazine. He switched from graduate school to art school where he became friends with, you know, casually Janice Joplin.
Mike: Okay.
Jessika: I know, I know. No other thing to say other than that. It just like was mentioned and I thought I'd throw it in there.
Mike: Yeah, why not?
Jessika: So even after state hopping and enrolling in school to avoid the draft, they finally got to him and he was drafted.
However, he was not accepted into the military after being deemed unfit due to his confessed prior use of psychedelic drugs.[00:19:00]
They're like,
no, thank You You are damaged goods now.
Mike: I'm, willing to bet that this was the inspiration for the one comic that he did about Fat Freddie getting drafted.
Jessika: Oh, a hundred percent. Absolutely. Absolutely. And I'm glad you talked about it. Cause I did not bring it up. I brought up other things, but
not that one.
Mike: there's a lot to discuss.
Jessika: There's a lot. After that point, Shelton did some bouncing around between 1965 to 1968, going back to New York, then to Los Angeles, then home to Texas, and then finally settling in San Francisco in 1968.
Mike: Oh, okay. Cool. Like, cause I was actually like, I had some thoughts about like, it's not really implied which city they're in, in the comic.
Jessika: yeah. They're a hundred percent in San Francisco. Yeah,
Mike: Are they In San Francisco. Okay. Like I
Jessika: Oh, they're in San
Francisco. Yeah, they're in San Francisco. They make it more clear in the show and they actually say it in that maybe in like the second episode or [00:20:00] something like that. Cause I know you only
kind of checked out the first one.
Mike: Yeah, the show itself, it's like, no, it's San Francisco, obviously, but like the, the comic, I just, I wasn't like, I was like, I don't know. This could be kind of anywhere, like,
Jessika: Yeah, I think it was supposed to be like modeled after, but yeah, it certainly was the, the vibe was supposed to be that, I believe.
Mike: All right.
Jessika: Yeah. 1968 was also when we reached the subject of our main topic as Shelton self-published a chronicle of his own strips titled Feds and Heads and featured Works that had been previously featured in Austin Texas's indie publication, The Rag, and that included the previously mentioned Wonder Warthog, as well as what is now Shelton's best known work.
And our main topic, the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers.
Mike: Mm-hmm.
Jessika: So when he initially self-published, he did this out of his own house. He collated and stapled by hand in his [00:21:00] garage every single copy. Initially creating 5,000 copies.
Mike: Wow.
Jessika: Yeah. I thought that was wild.
Mike: Yeah, this is like, T M N T all over again. It's like a real Mirage Studio situation.
Jessika: Totally. Totally. That's how it feels. The publication was so popular, however, that it ended up being reprinted by San Francisco based publisher print selling over 200,000 copies by 1980. So in 1969, Shelton co-founded Ripoff Press with three other former Texans,
Mike: Oh shit. He founded Ripoff Press. Holy
Jessika: Yeah, I know, right?
Mike: All right. Like cuz that's a San Francisco publisher and they're, they're based outta Auburn now, I think, but they're still in
Jessika: oh, interesting. Okay. Yeah, yeah. I I didn't get too far into the publication, like any of, like those, those publications, but
I did think that was super interesting
Mike: Yeah, no, I, I know about ripoff.
Jessika: okay.
Mike: I've had to research them before for stuff, so, yeah.[00:22:00]
Jessika: Oh, nice. Nice. Maybe we'll have to do a little deep dive and we can tell our listeners more about it. You wanna do that, Mike?
You wanna fall on that knife for us?
Mike: sure.
Jessika: Cool. Cool. I'm like assigning you things.
Mike: Yeah. You know, I know how it works.
Jessika: So the other, you know, the other co-founders as you know, were Fred Todd, Dave Modi, and cartoonist Jack Jackson.
And at that point, one of the things that they did was sold, weekly content to underground and student publications. They also printed their own strip style Comics and compilations of these. So Shelton created a spinoff to the brothers called Fat Freddy's Cat, due to the popularity of the original strip or the cat within that strip. Shelton also worked on many different projects with the Indie Comics publisher, zap Comics, which is why you may have seen some references to Zap in [00:23:00] the properties if
you, I
Mike: sense.
Jessika: any of that.
Mike: Yeah. I I noticed it a couple of times.
Jessika: Yeah, a couple that, like they used the sound effect a lot and they kind of like, every once in a while someone would say Zap or, yeah, it was interesting. I noticed it myself
and that was even before researching it.
Mike: I have a very strong memory of like the first issue of Zap and its cover. And I feel, I feel
Jessika: have it, I
Mike: yeah, I was gonna say, I, I feel like it is a, a Shelton cover. It looks like something that he would've drawn at least.
Jessika: yeah, maybe I'll have to pull it out for one of our, uh, dollar bin discoveries even
Mike: Yeah.
Jessika: cuz it's a, yeah. Yeah. I think I might have that one. I at least have some Zap stuff. So the fabulous Furry Freak Brothers was in publication from 1969 to 1997 with Ripoff Press Publishing 14 issues of the comic. During that time, one source said 13, one , source said 14. So I just kind of went with a higher number.
Mike: Yeah.
Jessika: many of the issues have [00:24:00] multiple reprints as well. But let's get into the meat of the episode and talk about these free quote brothers themselves.
So, like you said, it's Phineas Freewheelin Franklin and Fat Freddie. And then Fat Friday's cat, and they live in San Francisco. They're not actually brothers. They all have different parents. And FreeWheel in Franklin doesn't even know his parents. but they're all brothers nonetheless. So however that works, I guess just in the
brotherhood of
smoking, you know, smoking a lot of doobs together. the plot of the comic is pretty basic. Uh, it really just revolves around three stoners who get into some wild antics while using and or procuring their recreational drugs. It's also a pretty illicit comic, very much for the over 18 crowd, with
other adult content, a hundred percent. It's very pornographic, sexual situations, addiction, other really pretty [00:25:00] intense topics actually. I can see where they were trying to toe the line of making light of some really heavy situations, but it, it did feel a bit extreme at times, which was very obviously the point, but also, you know, rides that line of being a little uncomfy.
Mike: Yeah, and I mean, like , the issues that I read were pretty beefy, but like each adventure starring the brothers, they're, you know, they're like one to what, five pages maybe?
Jessika: Yeah,
Mike: Yeah,
Jessika: exactly. Exactly. And sometimes they'd have like a, yeah, they did that. That kind of a a, I didn't write this down, but that was kind of the formula that they did where they had some stories where it was a few pages like that, you know, where it was kind of like about four or five pages.
And then they would do a one page kind of interlude one, and then they would do a Fat Freddy's cat strip.
Mike: Yeah.
Jessika: Yeah. Yeah. Which, you know, now I can't really pick part the content like we would with a comic that has a [00:26:00] cohesive storyline. So I'm not gonna be giving you like a play by play.
But since we're working with more strip style Comics today, I'm just gonna give you some situations from the more than half of the fabulous, furry freak brothers omnibus that I also purchased
in a red half of, I read like half of it and I was like, it's fat.
Like I wasn't gonna be able to read all of it. I mean, just being honest with everyone. There was only so much time, like I was gonna need so much fucking time and I just didn't know that I had that much energy for it, especially based on some of the things that I will tell you about.
Mike: Yeah, it's definitely of an era.
Jessika: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it is.
But, you know, let's spice this up a little bit, Mike. I'm gonna present these examples as things that instantly shouted red flag,
and
I'm just just gonna go in order from start.
Mike: All right. My body is
Jessika: I'm not, yeah. I'm not gonna include everything. I think [00:27:00] you've a, you're gonna actually cover some of the things that I didn't talk about, which is great, but here's some of the things that I noted for this section.
So, starting with, there is an alarming amount of rape jokes, including talking about very young children. There's a whole joke that they set up about how fat Freddy loses his sense of smell after drinking too much and accidentally buys parsley instead of weed. So one of the bros makes him eat all of it with the setup being that he shouldn't have done that because it's a powerful aphrodisiac.
The punchline that there's an article in the newspaper the next day about a serial rapist going on a rampage the night before.
Mike: Yeah.
Jessika: that's like incredibly early in the Comics.
Mike: issue.
Jessika: The first, actually the first page actually mentioned child abuse, child sexual abuse, which is like awful.
Um, like the very first, like within the first cover inside cover page, I was like, wow, that's really fucking setting a tone.
Mike: Yep.[00:28:00]
Jessika: So, there were jokes about putting holes in Fat Freddy's condom because the other two were sleeping with his girlfriend behind his back and she gave them all the clap. That's, that
Mike: That was the thing.
Jessika: was a thing. Uh, one of their favorite people to make fun of is the stupid, deaf and blind officer that the other officers are always sending to the wrong place on purpose. And the ableist joke, of course, being that he looks so stupid because he has no idea that he's not doing what he thinks he was supposed to be doing.
Mike: Yeah, and I mean, we should preface that by saying that these are, those aren't part of the freaks brothers. Like kind of like narrative. It's like kind of the, the inserted comic that's sort of a, a break between the Comics.
Jessika: Yeah. But they do bring him up sometimes. So
it is within, they? do, it is within the world. Yeah. No, I know. It's within the, yeah, in the omnibus part. If they do like, bring him up
like at one point later on, I know, uh, fat Friday goes back home and accidentally sleeps with his own sister.[00:29:00]
Mike: Yeah.
Jessika: That Freddy almost gets busted by the police and then paints his car and himself black to evade the police. The black face was not cute.
Mike: Mm-hmm.
Jessika: Uh, tons of really degrading jokes about people from Mexico where Freewheeling Franklin, his clothes get torn to shreds and he's accepted by everyone because his clothes are quote unquote matching the native garb.
Mike: Right.
Jessika: It was gross and there was just a whole section with other racist jobs like that. I, that was just one of them.
Mike: Yeah. And the problem is, is that like a lot of times the people that are making the racist jabs are. basically, they're meant to be, satirical, stabs at like, a lot of times the establishment. But the problem is, is it doesn't make it better these days.
Jessika: Right, right. yeah, I, I do think it was supposed to be heavily satirical, but it has some really like heavy edge Lord [00:30:00] vibes, like
very much feeling like it's trying to push the envelope with some of the situations that are brought up, like,
Mike: yeah. It's a, it's a thing.
Jessika: Yeah. Well, what did you think about the comic?
Mike: Uh hmm. Okay.
So ev like
we, I have to acknowledge that we are reading this through the lens of 50. Plus years later. but
it feel, it feels like something that I would read in like a raunchier version of Mad Magazine for better or worse. some of it still works and feels relatively clever, like in the first issue, strip that they do.
The first story is basically, it's a comic version of the movie Reefer Madness. And I was like, what is this? you know, cuz it's people who are driven to murder and rape after smoking pot, only for it to be revealed as a movie that the Freak brothers are showing because they were hired to make it.
They're like, they paid us to make this. And I'm like, okay, that's actually pretty funny. Like, or there's one where they went to Disneyland. But I think [00:31:00] Freewheeling Franklin and Fat Freddy, make it past the dress code, the grooming and the attitude inspectors. And, and Phineas doesn't, cuz he's like a filthy hippie.
and then they end up selling, you know, in quotes, drugs. It's really like a bunch of spices to parents in the park. I thought that was really funny.
Jessika: I
thought that was funny too.
Mike: so when I worked at Disneyland it was like, they didn't have like, really, they, they had like a loose dress code and stuff like that, but apparently, cuz they had a barber who you could go to, like, you could go on the property and get like a, a nice kind of inexpensive haircut,
Jessika: Interesting.
Mike: because they paid us, you know, like minimum wage.
Jessika: Yeah.
Mike: he was telling me about how they, they had like a haircut like code where it was like guys couldn't have long hair and they used to have like a much stricter dress code too. It was like, okay, you know, like, so anyway, so I was reading that. I'm like, oh that's kind of interesting. Um,
Jessika: Yeah.
Mike: uh, let's see.
There's the one where Fat Freddie is a department store Santa and he's asking kids. What they want for [00:32:00] Christmas. But it's all kind of like iconic cartoon character kids. Like
there's Charlie Brown and there's Dennis the Menace. I, it wasn't Orphan Annie, it was someone else. It was like Little Susie or something like
Jessika: It was like
Mike: her name. Yeah.
I don't remember her name. But she's got like kind of the black spiky hair and, and they're all just like, they're like, nah, fuck those toys. We want drugs. I was like, that was pretty good. Or, or you know, there's one where Fat Freddy is like walking through the park cuz he's trying to score some weed and then he gets mugged.
so he loses his $15. But then the muggers keep getting mugged like by like, it's
basically like gangs of
Jessika: That was funny.
Mike: And then Fat Freddy is like walking back the way he came. And then he kind of finds the remains of the mugger gang war. And so he not only gets his money back, but he also gets a ton of drugs and weapons.
And so he comes home and he is like, sorry, I couldn't get grass, but I got like a bunch of heroin and like reds and blues. And you're like,
Jessika: Yo,
Mike: that's [00:33:00] pretty good.
Jessika: that, that was pretty funny. They did have some clever ones, you know,
Mike: yeah, like,
Jessika: some clever ones.
Mike: there's some stuff that still holds up. But you know, it's, it's one of those things where I was like reading through it and I'm like, all right.
So like about every, third one that I read, I was like, okay, this is pretty good.
Jessika: Right. Same. Same.
Mike: but you know, again, 50 years later, I, also, I can appreciate how the comic. Isn't afraid to take pot shots at everybody. Like it does not paint the brothers as aspirational. It is making fun of the counterculture movement.
It is making fun of drugged out hippies of that era. It makes fun of cops, it makes fun of politicians, like nobody is safe, which I, I did appreciate. But you know, like you said, there's a lot of problematic stuff in this. Like there's the story, where Fat Freddy gets drafted and he's trying to get out of it any way he can, which like at the end includes him going like, I'm a queer.
And then they go, well that's fine. We'll just put you in general Gaylord's homosexual division. And then it's like this strapping dude [00:34:00] with like a riding crop. And he is like, we're very disciplined. And I was like, okay.
Jessika: Yeah.
Mike: Or, um, tricky prick years. He was the, the blind and deaf cop. Um, so like aside from the ableism. There's also like, you know, a lot of various slurs. Like the first panel basically is talking about n words. And
um, you know, there's a line about, Jewish lawyers. But, you know, they turn that into a slur too. I'm like, okay.
Jessika: Mm-hmm.
Mike: you know, and in that one he is, I think he's sent to like, they tell him that he's going to the UN, but he basically goes to like the equivalent of Harlem.
And so he's like yelling at large crowd of black people about how he doesn't like them. and the black people are drawn kind of, they're supposed to be drawn in a way of like, kind of like the thirties and forties Comics, where they've got like the very exaggerated features and like the [00:35:00] white mouth on the, the, the ink black skin.
And it's, it's pretty shocking to see like,
Jessika: yeah,
Mike: Um, I, I get that like the style of that particular comic is them trying to, to mock kind of that, that earlier era of Comics, but it's still rough. it's very uncomfortable. You know, there was also, what was it? It was like a little orphan amphetamine. It was like, you know, it was obviously meant to be a parody of Little Orphan Annie comic, where the main character is a pretentious heiress, who basically she runs away from home after telling her dad that he sucks cuz he's like, oh, you should go out and do something.
You've been lounging around the mansion this whole time.
And then Is repeatedly raped by scores of just awful men. Like, and it's like a repeated thing. And that's the joke is, is like, oh, look, like she's just, she's so dumb that she's just, you know, basically being raped. And then she calls her dad from San Francisco and she's traumatized and she says, can I have [00:36:00] $400 to fly home and see my therapist?
And then a week later she's again telling him how he's an awful capitalist pig. the ending caption is like, and so the cycle begins again. And that's the joke. And I'm like, Jesus Christ.
Jessika: Yeah.
Mike: I ultimately think, I don't know what to think of this comic. It's,
it's from a very different time.
It is focusing on such a different type of humor than I'm used to. And you know, I mean, like, I get it. I'm a boring straight arrow. Like I am one of three people I know who has never done any kind of recreational drug. But I also think it's a prime example of how humor evolves. Like if you go back and rewatch sex comedies from the seventies and eighties, consent isn't a thing in them.
And like female characters are generally not actually characters. They're just props for the main dudes to pork, like,
yeah.
Jessika: was the same with us as well.
Mike: Oh, absolutely. And like the way that they, the way that they draw women a lot of the time, [00:37:00] it's, you know, very, very uncomfortable to see now. And it's like, you know, they'll be like, the women will be running and then like, they'll be thrown back and you'll see that , their boobs are basically higher than their head, and you can see the nipples poking through the dresses.
it's really uncomfortable. But like, the thing is, is that change often, change often happens starting out on the margins. And this was a comic that was very much on the margins and it was also an extreme form of satire. So it's hard. to judge this as harshly as I have judged other Comics.
I'm not saying it's not problematic, I think it's very problematic in certain ways, but I can also, I don't know if appreciates the right word, but I can, I can understand what it was trying to accomplish, I
Jessika: Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Mike: sense? Yeah,
Jessika: Yeah. And there were a few in there, you know, like there actually were a couple that you mentioned in there that I actually found. Genuinely like enjoyable, like that one with the, the gangs that were mobbing, that were [00:38:00] mugging each other. I thought that was really funny.
Mike: yeah. And I mean, the other thing is like, that was an era where there was a massive urban crime problem. Like, like, you know, central Park was like a place that you did not want to go after dark.
Jessika: right. Yeah. Well, like I mentioned earlier, the comic was published from 1969 to 1997, and of course there was an omnibus that was printed after the fact, et cetera. But that's the Comics are not where we leave the freak brothers. Okay. And we've already given a little hint about this, but there's more even beyond that because while they were being independently published, the Freak brothers also found their ways into publications like Playboy and High Times.
Mike: Oh wow. I mean like high times make sense, but like Playboy, that's pretty edgy for Playboy.
Jessika: It's pretty edgy. Yeah. And maybe they did more of their softer stuff or I, I don't know. I can't speak
to that cause I, I didn't see what was featured, but [00:39:00] just was a call out. The freaks were also found in other media, including in 1978 when without permission, the Freak brothers appeared as characters in the full length pornographic film Up In Flames.
Mike: What,
Jessika: Yeah, I
know, right?
Mike: please tell me you watched at least some of this and
Jessika: I didn't, I didn't.
I know I found out about it too late. I read it, I read about it as I was writing this and I was, I just didn't have enough
Mike: I'm, so morbidly curious about what this entails, but I don't
Jessika: I kind of am too.
Mike: near my streaming devices.
Jessika: maybe I'll do an update on it later. Cause I don't give a fuck. You have children. I don't.
Mike: Only sometimes times
Jessika: Only sometimes you
Yes,
Mike: were too pure.
Jessika: they really are though. They really are. So Shelton and the others did however, sell the rights to rip off press or to be used at least to Universal for $200,000 [00:40:00] with some aspirations of making a Freak Brothers film.
Among others though, none of these ever came to fruition
Mike: I mean, that's like, That's a lot of money back in the seventies. That's,
Jessika: of dump and not do anything with. Yeah, yeah. I
agree.
Mike: like
Jessika: I agree.
Mike: that. I think that's gotta be close to a million dollars worth of like purchasing power these days, if not more.
Jessika: right.
Mike: yeah, that's, uh, that's pretty wild.
Jessika: Yeah, for sure. And then in 2006 there was another attempt at making a show based on the Freak Brothers called Grassroots. And it was through grassroots films. However, work on the Claymation Show ended in 2013 without being completed.
So I don't know what
happened there. It was gonna be Claymation.
I saw a couple stills. It
was pretty fucking goofy. Yeah. And this is where things get interesting and [00:41:00] way more fucking recent. We getting your time Machines friends. We are going to jump. All the way to 2021.
Mike: Yeah. Oh man,
Jessika: So yes, we have indeed reached Modern Day and we have new Freak Brothers media, which I also had you take a look at
Mike: you did. I downloaded Tubi for this. I set up an account with Tubi for this episode.
Jessika: because yes, Tubi actually bought rights to the property. And in 2021 season one of the Freak Brothers was released, and this included 8 25 minute episodes. the general premise is that the brothers, along with Fat Freddy's cat go to Woodstock in 1969 in order to find this special spiritual leader who will get them the most high they've ever been.
Like they want life changing High,
and how. the
Ultimate High, [00:42:00] Exactly. I like how you remember that. And I don't, I was also very baked, um, appropriately. Of course, the three of them and the cat put the Magic elixir on a joint they all took up in their basement apartment in San Francisco. And then we see the passage of time as the brothers sleep through 50 fucking years, like Rip Van Winkle style waking up in the year 2020.
Mike: it's very much like Futurama, where you see like
Jessika: it's very funny.
Mike: numerous times while
Jessika: Yes,
Mike: is going on above them.
Jessika: it's so good. And they're just fucking passed out like drooling on themselves. They freak the actual owners of the house out and the sister who happens to be a social advocate for those experiencing housing crisis. And they end up being able to stay in the basement as they adapt to their new world. They have many exploits like discovering dispensaries for the first time, trying to find that spiritual leader again to send them back in time since they thought they had like time traveled to get to the future to [00:43:00] begin with. They do find the guy, they make the elixir they think is gonna take them back in time and they basically just end up sleeping for two weeks, which is pretty funny too.
Mike: Yeah. Well, and the whole thing is when they wake up and like, how long was I asleep for? And Phineas is to there and he is like, well, like I'm a pretty good judge of this. So I think like an hour and then, and then Freewheelin is like, Hmm, I could use some more sleep. And he just like goes upstairs to like lay down in bed.
Jessika: They have like cobwebs on them and shit. It's the, yeah, that was, that was pretty clever.
Mike: Yeah,
Jessika: did I mention that there is a knockout fucking cast,
Mike: dude, it's wild. There's no reason that this cash should be
Jessika: It feels far too extravagant for the subject matter, but it's Woody Harrelson, Pete Davidson's in it, fucking John Goodman's in it. And Tiffany Hadish is Fat Freddy's cat
Mike: anytime that she shows up in
something, I'm like, all right, I'll, I'll give it at least like one
episode.
Jessika: Exactly. [00:44:00] Exactly. And she definitely, she definitely like pulled the show through. She definitely was
like definitely a highlight of the show and kept me interested. She's got her own exploits, which was great.
Mike: yeah, I've got thoughts about the show, but we'll talk about 'em in a sec.
Jessika: Yeah, totally. So prior to the full season coming out in November of 2021, there was a mini episode that aired, though I'm not sure where, and it was called Kentucky Fried Freaks. I didn't watch that one, so I'm not sure what it was about, but
I think it was probably just like a little introduction probably to the, uh, freaks would be my guess.
But
Mike, what did you think about the show?
Mike: I mean, it's fine. I think it's, uh, it's very true to the spirit of the comic, and I mean that as both a compliment and a criticism. I mean, the cast is absolutely unreal. I think the whole Rip Van Winkle esque plot was a smart move I don't think the brothers would really work today without having [00:45:00] other people to kind of balance them out.
I also think San Francisco, like, cuz they explicitly call it out a San Francisco in the show, whereas in the comic it's like, you know, it could be kind of like anything and like, it's just kind of like, you know, a city.
Jessika: yeah,
Mike: I can't think of another city that has changed so drastically in the last 50 years.
yeah. And, you know, the characters in the overall tone feel pretty true to the spirit of the comic. Like, but I'm not really the target audience for stoner humor, so I was like, man, I, I kind of sat through it and I was like, it's fine. the animation quality is, it's fine.
Jessika: Yeah,
Mike: I, I, really think like it's one of those things where it's like, I.
It's not a bad show, but there is no reason that you should have a cast this stacked for it.
Jessika: seriously.
Mike: it's wild. And like that said, like there were some definitely funny moments. Like they wake up because they smell the pot that a couple of cops are smoking.
Jessika: Right?
Mike: And, like I, I did genuinely like just guffaw because [00:46:00] one of the cops is like, oh man, it's so nice to be able to smoke pot on our breaks cuz it stresses me out after shooting unarmed civilians or something like
Jessika: Oh my God.
I was on the floor at that comment. Seriously? Yes. Oh.
Mike: Yeah. also like, I love how they now have these like, you know, monied kind of hipsters living above them and like the, the dude has like a collection of like samurai swords, like on his display case. And I'm like, yeah, of course you fucking do. Like, all right.
Jessika: Yeah.
Mike: I think it is a pretty solid adaptation of this comic in a way that, you know, that works actually pretty well for today.
Like it is, it is rude and it it still skewers everybody that it can, but it feels less problematic
Jessika: Yeah,
Mike: yeah,
Jessika: it feels like it polished a lot, a lot of those rough edges
for the audiences that were [00:47:00] really probably, I mean, definitely too rough for mainstream
Mike: You could, you couldn't do just a straight adaptation of it today. But like
I think you can take a lot of kind of like, of the vibe. and then,
with some massaging it, you can make it pretty palatable and like, I actually did a little bit of reading about this.
Apparently this was like, the top streamed original content for Tubi, if not like their top streamed content when they launched it,
Jessika: What?
Mike: okay. Wild.
Jessika: Look at you coming in
Mike: to 'em. Yeah.
Jessika: Damn.
Well I know, I, I'm still a couple of episodes away from the end. I, I don't know if I'll watch it or not after this. It was kind of for research,
but we'll see. the rest kind of feel the, it's the same thing, you know. but guess what I, I know you're excited about this cuz we're getting even more of the freak brothers. As
they
have
been renewed for a second season as of May of 2022.
Mike: I am very excited to let those episodes sit, unwatched [00:48:00] in tub
Jessika: Yeah, right. So, but here's the thing, it was slated to be out in December of 2022, but there hasn't been even a whisper it
since that
date has passed. Yeah,
Mike: okay, so this was
Jessika: there's been no updated release date. Yeah. So, yep. And then it was, it was renewed 2022 and then
it
was
Mike: mean,
Jessika: come out in December of 2022.
So I don't know what happened.
Mike: yeah, that's, hmm. That'll be interesting. I,
Jessika: Yeah,
Mike: I don't know. I'm really curious to see if they actually come through with it or if it just winds up on the chopping block. It might, depending on who is producing it, that might have something to do with it too, especially if it's part of like Warner Brothers or something. But I don't know.
Jessika: that's fair. That's fair. Well, that's really it for our main topic today. Mike, do you feel ready to roll a doobie into our brain wrinkles?
Mike: Can I just have the munchies anyway without getting stoned?
Jessika: Yeah. I'm not gonna, I'm [00:49:00] not gonna bar you from doing anything.
Mike: Cool because we baked cookies last night and I really want them,
Jessika: Oh, good. Oh yes. Have them have them. I just remembered that Matt gave me a box of thin mint Girl Scout cookies and they're in my freezer right now.
Mike: we have so many fucking Girl Scout cookies in our house. We have so many,
Jessika: I didn't buy any this year. This is my only box. And it was only because he was like do you want a box of girl scout cookies? And I was like,
what? Do you got thin mints? Yeah,
Mike: is my stepdaughter is a girl scout now, and they, like we bought, we had so many Girl Scout cookies in our house and like most of them have been delivered out to everybody. But good lord, it is the worst fucking temptation.
Jessika: Oh no. Do I need to buy something from you? So it keeps you away from the temptation.
Mike: I've eaten them all already.
Jessika: Oh, okay. Well, that's, there you go. Then I was gonna, I was gonna fall on that sword for you.
Mike: [00:50:00] Yeah. Thanks for jumping on that grenade. I appreciate it.
Jessika: No problem. No problem. All right, well let's, let's roll over, but I'll take us there. Hold on.
So we have reached brain wrinkles, which is that one thing. Comics are Comics adjacent. That's just been rattling around in our noggin. Mike, what you got for us today?
Mike: I have been thinking about Conan the Barbarian again. I found out that the new volume of Savage Avengers is, I guess it's on hold or maybe canceled because Marvel lost the rights to Conan. They, they actually lost the rights around issue five, and I think we're on like issue nine or 10 now. they a whole thing where they basically sent him home, to his time.
And I was like waiting for them to bring him back. And then I found out that apparently he's just not part of Marvel anymore. So yeah, it was, it was nice. They at least got to send him off in a fun, meaningful way while continuing the series [00:51:00] for a little while. But I mean, you, that was all before things got put on pause.
it's kind of a bummer because the new series was really fun and Conan is over at Titan Comics now. I actually managed to snag the premiere of the series for free comic book day yesterday, but it just, it kind of makes me a little sad how Conan keeps on bouncing around between publishers and I, I've yet to really not enjoy a Conan story regardless of which publisher he is at.
I think the Dark Horse series was what really got me into it, and it was beautifully written. It was by Kurt Busick and, uh, Carey Nord, who was the artist on the Star Trek X-Men crossover that we discussed a while
Jessika: Oh, okay. Yeah,
Yeah.
Mike: yeah. And like, absolutely beautiful. it makes me a little sad because like they kind of have to restart everything.
And then Conan somehow worked really well as part of the larger Marvel universe. He, and, you know, as well as like, he had his own series in his own time, [00:52:00] and the writer of that series, I think is actually writing the new one at Titan. So like, hopefully it'll, you know, kind of continue the general vibe. But like, I, I don't know, it just, it kinda makes me a little bit sad because I really enjoyed watching him, like, drink with Wolverine or, at one point, like, like at the end of the first Savage Avengers run, it's like this crazy epic story where like, they get Kang, the conqueror involved, and like Dr.
Strange is there and Dr. Doom winds up working with him and everything. And it was, it was just really cool. Like, he has a,
Jessika: Nice.
Mike: he has like a symbiote sword from Venom, like, Or, you know, like from the species of like symbiotes that, you know, that, that are, that venom's a part of it was just, it was really wild to see him kind of causing chaos and it turns out he became like bros with the Punisher.
Like, you know.
Jessika: totally.
Mike: I don't, I don't really have a, a larger, deeper thought to this, but it's just kinda like, oh, I [00:53:00] guess, my beautiful boy is no longer part of Marvel. Okay. Yeah. What about
you? What is, uh, what is wrinkling the old noggin this time?
Jessika: Oh my gosh.
So I am, trying to improve my situation here and as I gesture vaguely around my,
Mike: Your blanket fort,
Jessika: my blanket fort of a recording space.
Mike: which is doubling as a hot box today.
Jessika: Right. Yeah. That was unintentional, but, but it happened. So, but I'm, I'm trying to, this, this is legitimately, like, I live in a tiny house. I, we built my house, my family and I, and my house is eight feet wide.
And when I put this together, like legitimately, there's only four feet of room here. Like in the space. This is literally , just the hallway of my house. My house is a hallway. It's like [00:54:00] a 20, it's like a 30 foot hallway. That's
it. And I just, I needed some space and so I ended up purchasing, one of those build-it yourself sheds from Home Depot.
And I gotta tell you, like, don't start one of these things if you're a fucking amateur. Like if, if it, I know you can build this shit yourself, but it's complicated.
Like,
Mike: some of the TikTok footage and it's an undertaking.
Jessika: It is like my brother and dad, well first of all kind of told me to stay the fuck out of the way and then got mad at me when I went to a comic book signing day. I show up the next day and my, my brother, like that evening when I got home was like, it would've been nice if you were there. I was like, you literally told me I would get in the way.
And he was like, we were just shoveling gravel. And then like my dad too was like, it would've been nice if you were here.
Mike: Oh my God. Was
this the day that you, that we hung out with Liam Sharp?
Jessika: [00:55:00] yeah.
Mike: Yeah.
Jessika: like, it would've been nice if you told me you needed me here, but you literally told me to fuck off. So that's what I did. I fucked off and I went to a comic book signing
and then I went and I got a Casper
dog. Absolutely. It was, I was chilling reading she hulk, eating the Casper dog afterwards. It was great.
Mike: Yeah. And you got to go to Flying Colors, which is an
Jessika: I got to go
Mike: in the
Jessika: colors. Yeah. So, yeah. But. So yes, I did get yelled at for that, but
Mike: Whatever. They can kick rocks.
Jessika: literally they were kicking rocks without me that day cause they were just shoveling gravel. So, but I helped the next day with gravel and I pulled my back.
Mike: God.
Jessika: It was a whole fucking thing. Yeah. But we got that all down the, it took days and days, but we finally got the majority of the outside of it done. Like, I'm really just doing the finishing up of like caulking around everything and I'm talking like anything that touches [00:56:00] together, I am putting a caulk strip next to, so that just takes some time.
We've had rain on and off, but I've done the majority of it to where, like the affected areas, basically where it would be affected the most. It's mostly just like ladder work around like this time and then. I have to do some caulking on the inside and then I'm gonna be completely redoing the inside. And I, this is going somewhere regarding the podcast.
Cause I'm making a recording studio space in there. I'm just gonna put in a couple extra walls and make a little, a little pod for myself that I can open and close the door and,
Yeah,
So yeah, that's, that's what I've been working on. That's what I've been really busy. I'm somehow, like I've, I've quit my job and I'm still busy.
Mike: yeah.
Jessika: have another job. It's
not like
I'm not doing
anything.
Mike: like like you only have five jobs now instead of six.
Jessika: I know, right? Geez Louise. I know. And I've got prospects because I need to get another something. So, Oh, good times. God hustle culture. Hustle culture really [00:57:00] got me to choke hold. So yeah, I guess that's what I'm thinking about. Just like building my recording space.
Mike: I'm honestly, I'm so excited to see the end result cuz you're gonna have an area to like store your Comics. You're also gonna have like an area that's like dedicated for recording space. I think it's gonna be great and you know, I'm
Jessika: It's gonna
be craft space.
Mike: the bedroom, so, you know, it's
Jessika: That's okay. That's okay. We, we do what we can. I happen to live on a five acre property where I have the ability to, you know, build a, an extra tiny house outside of my tiny house, which is basically what it is. It's got windows and shit. This is nice living.
Mike: Yeah, well, you know, like, it's funny because we had to adjust the setup of our bedroom, , because we put in bookshelves and all that. And so we moved the desk over to the other side of the room and, and so suddenly I wasn't recording in the corner anymore. And then I got a standing desk and,
you know, and so now I'm, instead of recording into a hard bare corner of walls, I have like, you know, curtains [00:58:00] that I'm recording into, and so I don't have to worry about using my studio box as much that I had where basically you couldn't see my face for about two thirds of the episode because I was just sticking it in a soundproof little box to record.
Jessika: Mike was just ostrich diving into his sound box like
every five seconds.
Mike: you say that, but it's not not true.
Jessika: I know, that's why I'm laughing so hard. Cause it was like, it was quite the visual. You'd just be like plunk.
Mike: Yeah.
Jessika: Oh. Well, you know what? I think that just about wraps up our episode this week.
Mike: All right.
Jessika: Yeah. So I think next week we're gonna do Kids Hydrators. We're finally doing that, aren't we?
Mike: We're fine.
Jessika: That's finally happening.
Mike: only recorded that episode, what, two months ago?
Jessika: Two. Yeah. Pro more than maybe, maybe it was three. Yeah. So we are finally going to be talking about kids Hydrators.
[00:59:00] Which
water? It was a water brand. Like a water gimmicky brand thing. It
was, yeah.
Mike: I'm, I'm very jazzed about it.
Jessika: Yeah. So that was, that was a Mike episode. And I, I'm gonna go back and do more editing, Alright. Well, but you know what guys, until then, we'll see you in the stacks.
Mike: Thanks for listening to Tencent Takes. Accessibility is important to us, so text transcriptions of each of our published episodes can be found on our website.
Jessika: This episode was hosted by Jessika Frazier and Mike Thompson, written by Jessika Frazier and edited by Mike Thompson. Our intro theme was written and performed by Jared Emerson Johnson of Bay Area Sound. Our credits and transition music is Pursuit of Life by Evan McDonald and was purchased with a standard license from Premium Beat.
Our banner graphics were designed by Sarah Frank, who's at Look Mom draws.com.
Mike: If you'd like to get in touch with us, ask us questions, or tell us about how we got something wrong, please head over to Tencent takes.com or [01:00:00] shoot an email to Tencent takes gmail.com. You can also find us on Twitter. For now, the official podcast account is Tencent, takes all one word. Jessika is Jessikawitha, and Jessika is spelled with a K.
And Mike is Vansau, v a n s A U. You can also fight us on Instagram, Mastodon Hive, Facebook, and TikTok. A full list of our socials will be listed in the show notes.
Jessika: If you'd like to support us, be sure to download, rate and review wherever you listen
Mike: Stay safe out there.
Jessika: and support your local comic shop.