Comic Book Men s07e09 Episode Script

1 [Upbeat music.]
Zapcic: If you could spend one day in a fictional pop culture universe, - what would it be? - Hmm.
I'm goin' Star Wars, man.
Like, I get a lightsaber, I can be a Jedi for a day.
- For a day.
- Chen: Fly around in a spaceship, move stuff around with my mind.
Wait a minute, I thought you would just spend a day there.
- Zapcic: Yeah.
- How come, all of a sudden, you have the powers of a Jedi just for one day? Yeah, why do you get Jedi powers? - Why not? - You don't have the ability to use the Force.
All right, so I just sit there and I watch Jedis I would still do it.
[Laughter.]
It went from "I have a lightsaber, I'm a Jedi" to, like, "Those guys look like they're havin' fun.
" I'll just I'll just watch it, though.
- [Laughter.]
- What about you? Zapcic: I would do "The Munsters.
" You know, hang out at 1313 Mockingbird Lane, maybe mack on Marilyn a little bit, take, uh, Marilyn out on a date.
So wait, let me just be clear, you-you think you could get a Marilyn Munster [Laughter.]
in the Munster world, or any other world? [Laughter.]
[ Dramatic music.]
[Roar.]
- Help! - Help! Help! [Mechanical whirring.]
[Boom.]
[ Funky music.]
Hello, and welcome to another episode of "Comic Book Men", the only show that believes that where Ned leads, we follow.
I'm Kevin Smith.
- Bryan Johnson.
- Walt Flanagan.
- Mike Zapcic.
- Ming Chen.
Okay, Defenders, defend me.
What happened this week? The other day, a guy brought in some items that came out of a landfill, and could technically be considered garbage.
Smith: How weird, 'cause most of the stuff people come in with and leave with are eventually gonna wind up in a landfill.
[Laughter.]
[ Funky music.]
- Hey, how you doin'? - Hey, guys.
I got you a bunch of garbage, here.
That's what I brought today.
People normally do.
These are the Atari video game cartridges - from the Alamogordo landfill.
- Chen: No way.
The-these are the fabled games from the video game crash? - Seller: Correct.
- Chen: Oh, my God.
Uh, this is from the landfill.
"Centipede", "Defender", actual "Missile Command.
" Now, these are titles that people loved on the Atari.
This is amazing.
I mean, this one, obviously, wasn't from the landfill.
Seller: No, it's just a sealed box of E.
T.
.
Do you know anything about the E.
T.
video game? I mean, basically documented as the worst video game ever created.
So bad that it brought down the video game industry in the '80s.
They were bankin' on selling millions of these.
Seller: E.
T.
s were so bad that people were returning 'em to the actual stores that they bought them from.
From what I heard, they were left with, like, three million unsold cartridges.
They took truckloads of these, in the dead of night, to this landfill in New Mexico and buried them.
Flanagan: So you went down to the landfill and dug these out? Seller: No.
This guy went and and made a whole movie on it, but he came and they dug it out, and he was thinkin' they weren't gonna find anything, and he ended up finding all of it.
So, in the '80s, they dumped these in a landfill? '83, they dumped these in a landfill.
Flanagan: And in a course of time, garbage piled on top of it - for 40 years.
- Seller: For all Yeah.
Chen: Yes.
These are artifacts.
These are This isn't just garbage.
To me, this was like unearthing, uh, you know, like, the stone tablets.
You know, forget Smith: Sounds more like opening up Al Capone's vault.
Whole lotta nothin' inside there.
Chen: Not to me, though.
I love video games so much that I dreamed of, you know, maybe, goin' to Alamogordo one day and taking a shovel and finding these video games.
To me, video games were like gold.
You don't just throw 'em away Then I don't buy you as a video game player, 'cause no video game player ever wants to leave the couch, let alone go to New Mexico to look for dead games in the earth.
My life revolved around Atari when I was eight years old.
'82 was basically the year of E.
T.
.
- Yeah.
- And so when I heard there was gonna be a video game on it, I was like, "All right, it's gonna be as good as the movie.
" Right? But I I got it for Christmas, and I was like, "This game's terrible.
" So bad.
But this, this is legendary, though.
It's legendary.
Now, do we throw the word legendary around too loosely? I'd say so.
No.
I mean, is is this really legendary, what we're lookin' at right here? Seller: It's-it's a part of history, it really is.
Johnson: The kids didn't want it.
It wasn't about that, though.
It was about the legend, - though, or it was like that a video game - Stop saying legend! It's not a legend.
- It is, though.
- Flanagan: It's not.
It's not a legend.
Let me tell you what it is.
- It's - Crap.
- Seller: It's not crap.
- Chen: It's not crap.
This is actually the-the C.
O.
A.
for the actual dig of Centipede.
Um, it's actually signed by the mayor of the town.
"This is one of the limited games of that Number One Urban Legend in the gaming industry to be offered.
" Flanagan: Oh, my God.
This is the day that the word legend became meaningless.
Johnson: The world was abuzz.
They're like, "Who killed the word?" They're like, "This guy, Ming Chen.
" He just He wouldn't stop referring to garbage as legendary.
- Chen: Now, I mean, the legend was they - Stop saying legend! Okay, all right, okay.
So, whatever, the story was that they dumped millions of these, but how many of these did they actually unearth? - Not many.
- Not that many.
So, you're actually looking to move these today.
- Yeah.
- How much? Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
I am not interested in this.
Not at all.
Not one bit.
Uh-uh.
Well, all right, well, how 'bout for me? I mean, how much are you lookin' to move these for? I mean, I'd like to get at least $1,000 apiece for 'em.
- $1,000? - Yeah.
Can you advance him nine month's pay? [Laughter.]
Come on, Mr.
Legendary.
Chen: I don't know about $1,000 each.
Would you take $500 apiece for these? Flanagan: Please, take that, please.
I want to see him hand you $1,500 for this.
- If you could sell me all three of these for $500 apiece - Please.
The minimum I could take is just, like, at least $800 apiece.
I'd have to stay at that.
No.
I know that this E.
T.
, though, I know this one didn't come out of the landfill.
How much are you asking for this? I mean, I could do $25.
I could-I could totally do $25.
- All right.
That's yours.
- Thank you.
- Yep.
- I'm sorry these two dullards don't get it.
Seller: They never will.
That's normal.
We're smart! [Laughter.]
Hello, hello, hello.
What's up, guys? - Luke Cage.
- Mike Colter, yeah.
Same guy, right? Sweet Christmas! Like, what are you doing here? I am looking for Ben Cooper Jigglers.
I don't know if I've ever had anybody request a Ben Cooper Jiggler.
I'm actually the grandniece of Ben Cooper.
Hello, hello, hello.
What's up, guys? - Holy crap.
- What's up, man? How you doin'? - Luke Cage.
- Mike Colter, yeah.
Same guy, right? What's up? Sweet Christmas! Like, what are you doing here? [Laughter.]
Man, I was in the neighborhood.
I just did Kevin's show at San Diego Comic-Con.
He said, "Stop by.
" and, uh, you know, we're filmin' in New York, so I figured, why not.
Why not come by? - And you're filming - "Luke Cage" season two.
- Oh! - Yep.
It was crazy when he walked in, right? - I mean, impressive.
I mean - Yeah.
with the guns.
I mean, it's Luke Cage.
Smith: Yes.
He's, uh, a dapper, debonaire gentleman, but he is jacked.
You were a big Luke Cage, Power Man fan going way back, so I figured him comin' through the door, you'd be like - [Gasps.]
- [Laughter.]
Zapcic: I've been a Luke Cage, Power Man fan for at least as long as you have, and, I mean, he is every inch Power Man.
He looks the part, he walks the part [Laughter.]
Smith: I think it was the "every inch the Power Man" is what got 'em.
[Laughter.]
Season two is gonna be good, really good.
You got any inside dirt you can give us? - Any kind of - Ooh, well, I'll tell you this.
Second season is gonna be a lot of badassery.
A lot more fighting.
I'm gonna be squaring off against a lot of people, so it's gonna be fun.
So, darker than season one? Yeah, it's a little darker than season one.
It's so relevant and it feels like this is what would happen if superheroes were walkin' around the streets.
This is what it would be like.
Yeah, that's why this feels so crazy.
Like, I know Luke Cage is a character, - but it's so real, like, it - Colter: It's almost too real Yeah, it's almost too real sometimes.
I feel like Luke Cage is in the Stash right now.
So did he.
I mean he's just [Laughter.]
Luke Cage, what a storied history.
He's been a Defender, he's been an Avenger.
Zapcic: A member of The Fantastic Four.
Flanagan: And a member of The Fantastic Four.
I mean, this guy has cemented his place in the Marvel Universe as a upper echelon character.
How do you like to call him? You like to call him Luke Cage or you like to call him Power Man? 'Cause I know he's got the two names.
It's like a 50, 50 split.
You know, some people call him Luke Cage, some call him Power Man, and the reason is because in issue 17 of "Luke Cage: Hero for Hire", the title changed to "Luke Cage, Power Man.
" He felt he needed a snappier name in this superhero community.
Smith: He did, or the marketing department at Marvel? [Laughter.]
You guys got some some really good comics here.
What I'm lookin' for is, like, what is the first time where, uh, Luke Cage, you know, Power Man, meets up with Iron Fist? And so, I don't I don't have that one.
We just got it in.
- That's-that's what I want.
That's what I want.
- Flanagan: Got it on the wall.
The very first comic where Power Man and Iron Fist became a team.
Wow! Tough for any actor to walk into any role, even tougher for an actor to walk into a role that people know.
There are a lot of people that are like, "I've read 'Luke Cage' my whole life.
You better do this right.
" There's a high bar to reach for 50 years of fandom.
Yeah.
This is awesome.
Can we take it out? Yeah.
You wanna take it out? Yeah, sure.
- Zapcic: Artwork by John Byrne.
- Colter: Oh, man.
Flanagan: And I'm sure you're well aware of the relationship that Luke Cage - will have with Daniel Rand, right? - Colter: Mm-hmm.
- The Iron Fist.
- Oh, yeah, absolutely.
What's great about it is that Danny Rand, you know, boy billionaire, born with a silver spoon in his mouth, and then you have Luke Cage who was from-from the streets, I mean, but blue collar, like, had to earn his keep.
The two of them meet up, of course there's gonna be some tension, things are gonna be different.
I mean, even their fighting styles, everything's different.
So, you know, sometimes opposites attract.
Well, it sounds like you really are interested in the comic, and you're gonna need this for reference material, I imagine, uh - You know - So Yeah.
I think a fair price for this would be, what [Stammering.]
$30.
$30?! You're gonna make him pay for this?! - Come on, man.
- Right?! Finally somebody is the voice of reason.
People assume because you're on the telly that you're just poopin' money.
You know? Oh, yeah, oh, yeah.
I'll tell you what, I'll tell you what, I'll tell you what.
Since I tend to sign things, from time to time What if you have some other Cage book, or somethin' like that I could sign, and I can take this with me.
What do you think? - Absolutely.
We just - Sounds good? - We, uh We must got some Cage comics sittin' around.
- All right.
What do you got? - What do you have? - Uh Let's see what I got.
We got a stack of "Luke Cage" number ones.
Marvel Comics.
Whoa.
Zapcic: $30 worth of Cage comics.
Yeah! Colter: All right.
All right.
Fair enough.
- Chen: Deal? All right! - Colter: All right.
All right.
- My street cred's gonna go, oh, my God! Huh? - Colter: Wow.
Chen: Walt wins again.
Whatever you do, don't come back in a couple days to see what he marked them up to.
- [Laughter.]
- I don't wanna know.
Flanagan: Thank you so much.
Colter: Pleasure, guys.
Have a good one.
Thank you, Mike.
Give me that! You don't get one for free.
- What? I gotta buy it? - Yeah! 30 bucks, just for you.
Flanagan: I just got over on Luke Cage.
You think you're gonna get over on me? - [Laughter.]
- Not a chance.
Sorry it took me so long.
I had to dig some boxes out of the toy vault.
All right, man.
So let's see what Jigglers you brought in.
I was interested in that wall book over there.
"Justice League Annual" issue number two.
Flanagan: This book is happenin' right now.
Flanagan: Hello.
How're you doin'? Woman: Hi.
Good.
What can we do for you? I am looking for Ben Cooper Jigglers.
Do you know what those are? I do know what Ben Cooper Jigglers are, but I don't know if I've ever had anybody ever come in and request a Ben Cooper Jiggler.
They are very rare.
I go to a strip club named Jigglers.
Is it kind of the same? No, not really.
They do wiggle and jiggle, though.
[Laughter.]
Flanagan: Jigglers were, like, these little rubber figures that you could shake, and they would have, like, comic book characters, movie characters.
Chen: Ben Cooper's, like the mask company? - Yeah.
- The Halloween company.
Flanagan: I'm a big fan of the company, those costumes, the Jigglers.
But it's very unique.
The collector that you don't come across a lot is the collector of Jigglers.
Well, I'm actually the grandniece of Ben Cooper.
Oh, my.
Oh, wow.
You just don't have 'em all? You just don't have every Jiggler - that was ever made, every - I wish I had every Jiggler.
Ben Cooper costume that was ever made? Nope.
Mh-mh.
Wow.
I would've bet the farm that the niece of-of Ben Cooper would have every Ben Cooper item.
Yeah, no.
I mean, I wish we had some Jigglers here, I mean, but they are not easy to come by.
But, I mean, I could call somebody who may have - who may have some Jigglers.
- Yeah? - Rob Bruce, he might have some.
- Chen: Yeah.
Got some time to hang out and chill out? - I have time.
- I can make a call and see if he has any.
- Let's do that.
- All right.
I am familiar with the Jiggler.
I believe I had the Superman Jiggler when I was young.
I didn't have it, we found it in the garbage, and the cape was a little damaged, but I was like, "This is clearly Superman.
" So, I had one of those.
Just when I think, like, he's had the worst childhood, you come with, like, "I got a Superman out of the garbage.
Or, at least, I convinced myself it was Superman.
" [Laughter.]
Flanagan: So we had to call in Rob Bruce, the, Mr.
Miyagi of, uh, toys.
Mr.
Jigglers.
[Laughter.]
- Hey, Walt.
- Oh, Robert.
Sorry it took me so long.
I had to dig some boxes out of the toy vault.
- This is Rob Bruce.
- Pleasure.
- Nice to meet you.
Shifra.
- Shifra.
Pleasure.
Uh, the grandniece of Ben Cooper.
Wow! Ben Cooper, holy cow! - This Ben Cooper.
- Cooper Jigglers.
[Laughter.]
Did you find these Jigglers on the Serengeti? Why are you dressed like this? [Laughter.]
Dr.
Bruce, I presume.
[Laughter.]
All right, man, so let's see what Jigglers you brought in today.
'73 Batman with a '73 Superman, as well.
- They came out together.
- Right.
There also would've been a Spider-man and a Hulk in that series.
- Cooper: Mm-hmm.
- Then, I actually have, uh, two of the "Planet of the Apes" from 1973.
Flanagan: Look how awesome they look.
Bruce: Now, these are really nice, 'cause they have the tags.
A lot of times they're missing the strings and the tags.
Then we have the Halloween devil from the '70s, and we also have the Doctor Strange - from the last run, 1979.
- Oh, very rare.
- Well, let's hear your price.
- Bruce: Pricing? - Cooper: Yeah.
- Bruce: These are relatively common.
- They go for about $25 apiece.
- Cooper: Okay.
- Bruce: The tagged apes, these are about $55 apiece.
- Cooper: Okay.
Bruce: The devil's a little more common than the "Planet of the Apes.
" 40 bucks.
The Doc Strange, really hard to find.
Even without the string or the tag, I usually get about $200 for Doc Strange.
Ouch.
Bruce: So, I mean, lookin' at 'em all combined, we're lookin' around $400.
If you were gonna sell it to somebody who wasn't a Cooper.
Bruce: There's always a toy royalty price, I mean, you know, you gotta come down a little bit.
I could do $375 without even thinking about it.
25 bucks?! Come on.
She's a Cooper.
All the money you've made off Cooper in your life, - and you just can't knock a couple extra bucks off? - It's true.
It's true.
I mean, how do you live with yourself if you don't? - Chen: Yeah, it's disgusting.
- Johnson: Can I ask you something? How often do you pop in and start harassin' him about his prices? - Never! - Johnson: Never, right? And I You know, you're right.
You're right.
Flanagan: All right.
$335.
How 'bout $325? Uh, three and-a-quarter's fine.
Deal.
Flanagan: I'm glad, you know, that it all worked out.
- I'm glad you were able to get some Jigglers.
- Cooper: Me too.
I'm really excited to add these to my collection.
Bruce: Thank you.
Thank you.
- Cooper: Thank you very much.
- I hope you complete the set.
- Thank you.
- All right.
- You have a good day.
- Bye.
Flanagan: "Justice League Annual" number two.
It's the first appearance of Vibe.
The first DC Puerto Rican superhero.
When I saw that book I just needed to get this.
I had to buy that.
Chen: Let's say an alien crash-lands on your lawn.
Would you turn it in to the government, or would you hang on to it and nurture it and take care of it? Like, a relationship like Elliot had with E.
T.
? Yeah.
Flanagan: I like to think I would be that open and progressive to become friends and love E.
T.
the way he did.
But I'm tellin' you, what you don't get in watchin' movies is odor.
- Big-big-big-I have a big aversion to smells.
- Wow.
- Right.
- And I guarantee you, E.
T.
, his skin probably smelled, just by lookin' at it, and if it smelled bad, I would have to be like, "I can't deal with it.
" Where-where on Earth did you did you think he smelled bad? Like, you never saw anybody gagging around him, or Are you gonna sit there and tell me when you saw E.
T.
you didn't think to yourself, like, "That probably stinks.
" - No! - Johnson: Come on.
No.
To be honest with you, that's-that's kind of out there, but I see your meaning.
[Laughter.]
I get it.
- Right.
- Zapcic: 'Cause look at Alf.
It's hairy.
You know that that thing is sweating.
If he does smell, he probably just smells like a dog, and I like the smell of dogs.
But what if he smells like, I mean, something that doesn't have any correlation to this planet? Well, then, it's over.
You're goin' to the government.
[Laughter.]
- Flanagan: Hi.
- Buyer: Hey guys.
How you doin'? Good.
What can we do for you today? Well, I was interested in that wall book over there.
"Justice League Annual", issue number two.
Absolutely.
Ming, would you, uh, mind grabbing that comic book - for the gentleman, please? - Yeah.
"Justice League Annual" number two.
Yeah, it's the first appearance of Vibe, as well as Gypsy and Steel.
Flanagan: Vibe's on that show right now, "The Flash", and, uh, you know this book is happenin' right now.
A significant, uh, issue in the history of the Justice League, you think? Yeah.
Wonder Woman, Superman, Batman left, and Aquaman brought in three new superheroes.
This is the first appearance of Vibe, alongside second Steel, you had Gypsy.
They all debuted on the CW show as well this year, and when I saw that book, I just needed to get this.
I had to buy that.
So, 1984, were you born yet? No, no, I was, like, negative five by then.
Flanagan: Okay, so, at your age, you see these characters come on the TV screen, and you're intrigued by them, and they look cool, but in 1984, though, it's very, very risky for DC to be like, "Let's remove all of our powerhouses and replace them with a faceless and nameless Justice League.
" Buyer: But, you know what? Vibe is the first DC Puerto Rican superhero, and me, as a Puerto Rican, it's just a great honor to just look at something like that that represents people of the Hispanic nation.
- Diversity in comic books, it's a wonderful thing.
- Zapcic: Right.
Yeah.
Should put that on a T-shirt.
We're gonna sell so many T-shirts.
[Laughter.]
It's a pretty historic book when you think back on it, man.
That was a permutation of the League where, finally, they were like, "You know, hey, it's more than just these white people you know.
There are there are other people in this universe, as well.
" By introducing more newer and more diverse characters, they-they just, you know, expanded their playground and now we're reaping the benefits on all these television shows.
Vibe is now insanely current, finger on the pulse, because the good folks who do those Arrowverse shows, they've kind of gone down to who some would consider second and third tier characters, and really made incredible TV shows of 'em.
Yeah.
Some have say that Vibe is one of the most powerful superheroes, uh, in existence.
Buyer: Like the quote in the show, he can literally shatter a nervous system without breakin' a sweat, and I think with those powers, he could beat heroes like Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Superman without no issue.
True, but in this series, he had a very, very, uh, ignoble death.
Remember that? - Yeah.
- Uh, Professor Ivo? Zapcic: Yeah, one of his androids just went up and-and, like, shredded him.
It never ceases to amaze me you guys found wives.
[Laughter.]
- These two are impressed, right? - Buyer: Yeah! We-we start, like, spittin' that knowledge out like that? - Yeah, man.
- Don't want to run off to Vegas with you.
[Laughter.]
So, what do you think? $40? I mean, first appearance of Vibe.
You know this book was, you know, in a lot of 50 cent bins, just a couple years ago, now elevated to the wall.
Well, I was hopin' if I can get it at a little bit around $20, because my birthday's next week and I could be a birthday discount for me turning 28.
Oh, turning 28.
Remember when we were 28? - Not really.
- No? [Laughter.]
Zapcic: Yeah, it wasn't really that significant.
I don't think I could go that low, but how 'bout this? I could do $30 and you get to hear the wall book bell.
The wall book bell? That's right.
You're buying you're buying a wall book, for God's sake.
Let's celebrate that.
Yeah, let's do it.
$30 with the bell.
- All right, let's do it.
- $30 with the bell.
I love that.
- There you go, sir.
- All right.
- [Zapcic laughs.]
- $30.
You have bought a wall book.
Congratulations! - [Triangle clanging.]
- [Slide whistle warbling.]
Wooh! Wall book sold! Yeah! Come on, man.
Up high! There you go.
- Thank you.
- Thank you.
- Thanks very much.
- Thanks, guys.
- All right.
- Where are you hidin' that whistle? It's-it's in my back pocket at all times.
- At all times? - At all times.
Do you even take that into the bathroom with you? - Uh, yeah.
- You don't hear it sometimes? [Laughter.]
The faint whisper of a slide whistle? [Whistling.]
Ming dropped a deuce! - [Cheering, applause.]
- Zapcic: All right! Sweet Christmas, that's all the time we got left for today.
For "Comic Book Men", I'm Kevin Smith.
- Bryan Johnson.
- Walt Flanagan.
- Mike Zapcic.
- Ming Chen.
In the words of the immortal Pops, kids, "Never backwards, always forward.
" Goodnight.