Don't call it a comeback, I've been a nerd for years Ep. 1

The Origins and Journey of 'I Am a Nerd' Podcast

In this episode of 'I Am a Nerd,' the hosts dive into the nostalgic and inspiring history of their podcast 'Direct Edition.' They recount their early days in middle school, drawing comics and sharing their geek passions, leading up to their podcast's inception. Special guests include Master Juishin and Zero Cool, who share their memorable experiences and contributions. The discussion spans their comic shop haunts in Jacksonville, their inspirations from classic comic books, and their evolution from audio recordings to live radio shows and eventually video content. The episode emphasizes the camaraderie and shared love for comic books, gaming, and all things geeky. The journey reflects their passion and the lasting impact of their geeky pursuits.

Chapters

• 6:24 Comic Shop Memories
• 13:24 The Evolution of Comic Shops
• 21:27 Comics as a Life Influence
• 30:59 From Audio to Video: The Direct Edition Journey

Transcript

[00:00:00] welcome champions of the nerve rounds. You've just stepped into the Nerd Dome where nostalgia collides with the cutting edge, and every fandom has a seat at the table. This is, I Am a Nerve. The podcast forwards into the fires of passion pixels and pop culture. 

We gather here with Kendra Spirit, you included, to celebrate all things gloriously geeky from the vintage vault to tomorrow's obsessions. I'm your host, the direct edition guiding you through today's epic quest. Today we're gonna relive a few of our favorite moments, so from direct edition past, leading on into the present. 

And, I got a few guests to join me today. Uh, standing beside me here, if you wanna start from the far end and introduce yourself. I am Master Ian, direct edition alumni. Straight from the days when I rolled down a, a walkway in my MegaCon back in the 2006. Well, if you start to call numbers, I ain't gonna remember [00:01:00] that. 

All we know was a long ass time ago. It was. We caught it on video too. And a galaxy far, far away. 

And next, uh, zero. Cool here in the house. Uh, maybe not quite as long as Massa Institution, but uh, you know, been here for a hot minute. But yeah, you had your contributions as well, so, uh, so grab your dice, your controller, and your cons play Cape because the adventure starts now. Cue the music. 

lined up the screen picks with glow bright watching streams of Fortnite. Nerd cosplay. Dreams are so tight. Achieving means to reach high. Nerd out. Nerd out. Comic books, open stories, unfold. Paper, soap, operas, heroes so [00:02:00] bold. Nerd out. Figures unbroken, legends retold. On my shelf in a dynamic pose. Nerd out. 

Nerd out. Together now and forever. Bold and new. With our crew. With our crew 

nerd out. Together now and forever. Bold and new with our crew. With our crew. 

All right, so what's going on guys? I'm glad everyone could make it today. It was george Satya, who said to know your future, you must know your past. So I wanted to gather everyone, all the members of the best podcast you've never heard of for so true for. 

Is that, is that our new tagline? Cut a moniker. I want that on a t-shirt. Put it on a t-shirt. And, [00:03:00] and I, I'll explain why I call it that. Um, the best podcast that you've never heard of for like in, in oral history of sorts or some of the relive, some of the favorite moments that we've been through in this incredibly long journey, uh, decades long that has been. 

And let everyone know, you know, exactly where we came from and, you know, almost kind of like why we're still doing this today. But before we get into that, I wanna know, does anybody remember like, where. We direct edition. Like actually got it start. Does anybody remember that? 

Uh, I have my opinion about it, but, all right. That's only because we've been pick him. Teacher, I'm gonna copy off his answer. It's, it's only been because we've been voice since, uh, middle school. So back in the day when we used to draw with the LLAB, you know, four of us were sitting around, four students were just sitting around a table. 

We usually just come up with stories of what we would mash what, like what characters we had matched from the comic up books into our own. [00:04:00] So I wasn't going that far back. I was just saying that's why I'm here. You opened, you opened the Pandora's box. You did, you did. You did LLAB. I haven't heard that in ages. 

And you know, just to tell you how creative middle school students were, 

LLAB stood for. It, uh, we was in a pod in Mr. Krums class. Hoyt, Mr. Hoyt's science class, right? Yeah. Yeah. And they sat us in a pod, which was four desks together. And, um, we all decided to like, create a group. And it was just our names, like LLAB, our government names, I'm not gonna say say 'em out loud, but it was just our government names for like, the name of the company. 

And I'm like, well, I mean, for the time it worked. But after that, oh. But yeah, it kicked off a lot of, uh, uh, [00:05:00] inspiration for what we did, what, you know, where we went. Because where we collaborated from in middle school to where we went, you know, as adults, you know? I mean, really, aren't we doing the same thing right now? 

Yeah, yeah. Collaborating, sitting at a table in a pod. Doing the exact same thing because, you've got your, uh, digital, the editing that you went into, uh, yeah. As professionally. And then I've also be went into, uh, creative writing as, as well as creating my own stories that I'm gonna pre, uh, eventually get out there. 

But that's where it took us. And, you know, hey, four decades, three decades later. Yeah. It's still going strong. Dang. And after L-O-A-B-A and B dropped. Yep. And then we changed the name to the lunar universe. Yep. I still run that. That's my, my signature. Dang. The lunar universe productions. That was ages, uh, zero. 

You wanna weigh in on this? It was like, I wasn't in town at that time. I dunno what the hell you talking about. I wasn't [00:06:00] there for middle school, 

but that, that actually was kind of like. A lot of the start of why I am in the comics today is, is meeting with everyone. And we had that, that shared passion. And from there, uh, I remember it started with, um, collecting the cards. The comic cards. Oh yeah, the trading cards. Uh, and it was a, a shop called The wooden nickel. 

Yeah, the wooden nickel. And that's where we would get all of our, our comics, like trading cars. They, they only sold cars and they, they had only a panel of, of comics. And the first comic that I bought was Wolverine, number one for $7. And the Wolverine, number one, he was, he wasn't in, in his traditional suit, but he was standing on a pile of bodies and he had the black painted over his face. 

And, and, and, and just to clarify, in 2025 money, that's like $3,500. I probably, but okay, that's how old this is. But [00:07:00] this was way back, that's way back in that, that, that fantasy time of the eighties that a lot of people don't remember today. But the first comic I bought was Wolverine, number one. And I remember the guy behind the counter saying, don't open it because it's gonna be worth a lot of money someday. 

Well fuck all that because I went home and read that bitch expect me to pick up this book, but this gnarly cover not gonna read it. Excuse you sir. So, um, he told, he told a kid this. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He tried 11-year-old, 12-year-old me. He tried, he tried. Look, if he tried, if he was really trying, he would've sold you two copies. 

He, that is true. True. That is true. That is so true. But to get back onto the original port, I didn't mean to go back that far, but dang. Yeah. That, that's really where my love of comics started from, is the trading cards and then, uh, moved on to the [00:08:00] comics and spread the video games from there. And now more currently to board games. 

And it's just. I, I've been collecting ever since. Yeah. He's got a nice collection of stuff. So what I was originally talking about is where Direct Edition got it start was, um, that was a part of it. Yeah. That, that middle school sharing and, and likeness. That was a part of it. But also we had a publication, it probably lasted about six months. 

The Spinner Rack. The Spinner Rack, spinner Rack. 

We had a, a news publication that was circulated through some of the, uh, the comic shops in tattoo shops in Jacksonville for about six months, called the Spinner Rack. And in there we had such things like the interview with Dick Giordano. Yeah. Um, Mike, speedos Perkins by Perkins, Mike Perkins. 

We had talked to Mike Perkins and these, were, uh, carmic artists at the time. So that lasted for about six months and, [00:09:00] um, we put, after we put that out, we were meeting at a local shop every Wednesday Yep. And shooting the shit about comics. 

And every Wednesday like clockwork and the shop will close. I don't know if I can say the name of the shop, but. I don't think he's gonna sue us. It is a litigious society. So what on the limb, if you want, as, as long as you're not bashing them. I think, I think for safety, I know I'm not bashing. Yeah, we, we used to be at Gotham City Limits, like back in the day. 

And like I said, as far if, if you want timeline and dates, then you know, you gonna lose me on that one. Yeah. But if I had to guess, I wanna say this was in two thousands. It had to have been like 2005, I think it was between 2004 to 2010. So I can chime in at this point. There you go. Because [00:10:00] now I, now I enter the story. 

So for my experience in the direct edition, all that, we started in about oh four. Okay. It's when I originally meet you, met you guys, I moved to Jacksonville in 2003. Um. Had kind of wandered around a little bit of Jacksonville looking for a good comic bookstore. Um, I can't remember the name of it, but I started out on San Jose and I went there two or three times and I, I got the feeling from the owner that it just was not a place for me. 

So I started searching around and I found Gotham City Limits, and that's where I met you guys. The one on San Jose was Big City comics. There you go. Big city, big city comics. Because I used to go up there, I used to work in that area. And for my lunch break, I would drive over there and look at, pick up some graphic novels, grab lunch, and then head back to work. 

Yep. [00:11:00] So I don't know exactly what place you were talking about. So for, so for us, our timeline, you know, 0 0 4 to oh five in that timeframe is really where I got to know you guys and get started in this. Yeah. Well, I, I settled on Gotham. I mean, I was a comic shop. Horror. Yeah. I bounced around to at least you honest. 

I, that's all I care about. At least you honest, I bounce around to wherever I could find, like the good stuff, my missing issue. And then, and it wasn't until, because my original home, if you want to go back, my original home after Woody Nickol, they never sold comics. But when I moved Dragons Tail, off of the beach, not really off of the beach, but when I moved it was Dragons Tail. 

Oh yeah. Yeah. I remember that Atlantic, the shop of the beach. Yeah. And Dragons Tail was really where I started getting into pool list and yeah, monthly reading and certain characters that I'm looking for. Oh yeah. To coming out. [00:12:00] Then I started looking into artists and I started looking into writers. So Dragons Tell that was like another, milestone, uh, cannon, that was like another Cannon event that happened as far as getting the, towards the direct edition. Yeah. So, but as I got older and left, high school, college, whatever like that and moved out on my own, I wasn't going out to the beach as much. And besides Dragons tail had closed down. 

Sadly, yes. Sadly. So, Gotham City had opened up, I can't remember how I heard about it. I don't know if we were driving by and we saw the sign. That's how it happened for me. I was just driving by one day. You pointed it out to me 'cause I had just come back from the Marine Corps and you were like, I was like, I'll look for a shop. 

And you were like, oh yeah, ham City Limits. This is right over here. So I, I think we were driving by and they had the guy working there, Donny, he, 'cause he had worked from Universe off of when they used to be down over at Riverside Universe of superhero. I, I [00:13:00] remember that. I remember him telling me, um. He used to work at Univers, which was on Riverside, which changed over to Coliseum and now it's closed. 

Yeah. Crazy enough. Donny used to work there when my mom used to go in there and buy Bahama books for me back, uh, back in the day. So, yeah. 'cause I, I remember hanging out with you staying at your house over the weekend, and we would walk from your house up to Universal Superheroes Yep. And, and pick up some books. 

Yeah. That's where I always, always liked that particular spot. It had that old feeling and mm-hmm. The books just felt right in that building. I always liked that spot for comic book shop. I very sad to see it. Yeah. Closed down. Definitely. I mean, it's, it's definitely been quite a change in the scene as far as, uh, the comic shops go from Jacksonville because, um, there was one back in the day I never got to, to, to experience, but, uh, uh, Jeezy always spoke fondly of it.[00:14:00]  

And it was off of not Emerson, it was off of accessory. Uh, and I can't remember the name of it, but before then, my experiences was Universal Superheroes. It was big City comics and it was, um, dragons Tale at the Beach. I know which one you're talking about on CI just keep thinking of the name either. So you're talking about Dragons Tales was at the beach. 

What was the, uh, the name of the comic bookstore that was in, it was in a shopping center right there on Atlantic Border Boulevard closer towards Tom Bush. Do you remember that one? Because Coliseum, I think bought them out and then shut those doors to open up the location they have now. Where the old Barnes and Noble See you. on, on Atlantic Boulevard. Oh, borderlands. Borderlands. Borderlands. That's because they were more board, they were more RPG games and stuff. Yeah, they, they had their comic wall. They did have the comic wall and they ran comics. They did have, a side room that was dedicated strictly to, to gaming. 

Yep. Uh, [00:15:00] but they did have a, they did have back issues. Mm-hmm. And they did have a comic wall where they were getting new stuff, like weekly new stuff. Yeah. Yeah, I did remember Borderland. I didn't start visiting Borderlands until I had acquired my own car. Yeah. And then I was traveling back and forth. 

I was able to like travel. Mm-hmm. I mean, Dragon's tail was in a bike ride at the house. Oh yeah. Back in the day. That was all I could do. When you got no, uh, four wheels. I understand. You got two feet instead of four wheels. Two wheels move. So, I mean, and that was right around the time that MapQuest was coming out too. 

Oh, yeah. You, you didn't have to search stuff in the phone book. See, you was on the go. You gonna make me do it, aren't you? You gonna make me do it? You talking about the Atlas map rolled up in, in the back of the, in the trunk of the car. All right. So I'm old enough to remember that. Where I grew up, there were no comic book shops. 

Oh, damn. And the only place that you could get comics was on the news racks at the grocery [00:16:00] stores. Newsstand editions. Straight up newsstand editions. We're talking about these type of places where they had a rack that was above the ice cream. You know that rack was called, right? The spinner rack. The spinner. 

No, no, no, no. These these spun. That's what got his thing baby. These weren, the spinner rack, these did not spin. They didn't spin. They were just straight up static models. You didn't even get the spin. I didn't even get to check the size. Didn't even get the spin in a rack. If you can't spin, believe me. I know. 

Because our spins were in. That's, um, not to cut you off, but our spins were in the, um, the little champ. Yeah., In the, used to be in the gas stations. Yeah. Used to be in the drug stores and stuff like that. I still didn't have any of those. The only place you could get a comic book in the town that I grew up in was at the grocery store. 

Dang. And let's just say they did not have a huge selection. Dang. I remember Wolf Lion used to have a spinner rack of comic books too, of other periodicals. See, that's when they upgraded. They put spinner racks in the [00:17:00] grocery store. Okay. So, so let me ask you this. Let me ask you this. Initially, where did that first interest in comics come from? 

And to give you guys some time to think about it. You know, I'll jump first and, um, my initial love for comics was, it was, I don't even remember his name anymore, but it was a dude that worked with my mom and he was getting rid of his comic book collection. He had packed everything in the trash bag and my mom always knew that I liked to draw. 

So she was, I don't know how they gotta talking about it or how it came up. But he was like, I, I have these comic books. Maybe he'd be interested in those. And she brought back, she brought home this clear trash bag full of comics, uh, Avengers, west Coast, Avengers, Ironman, Punisher War machine, like full, just thrown in, [00:18:00] in a, a trash bag. 

And she brought this clear bag home and she's like, do you, would you like to read these? And it was like Christmas morning. This is, I believe it. I mean, I, I still remember the feeling. I mean, my eyes lit up and it just blew my mind as far as everything that was out there. Absolutely. So then leading into when I met Massa Institution in, in middle school, you know, the firewall already lit and then we found out we had common interests as we were like, oh shit. 

This dude must be pretty cool. He gotta be all right. I was like, he likes, you know, sequential art, storytelling gotta be all right, gotta be. And before then I had seen pride of the X-Men, but it never really like officially clicked with me. And it wasn't until I, I was reading those continuous stories, it didn't have the whole set, you know? 

And that kind of pissed me off, but it also gave me intrigue to go hunt for what happened next. It maybe [00:19:00] had five issues of Ironman, five issues of West Coast Avengers, five issues of Punisher. And I'm like, get to the fifth issue and it doesn't have one or two. It starts with number 37. And I'm like, okay, what happened next? 

I'm like, well, hell, what happened before? What the hell am I supposed to do now? So that, that kind of led me into wanting to find out, like, and get on this continuous train like it and as I call it today, they're my paper soap offers now. Yeah. So. And that's where mine started at. And who was to jump in first? 

I guess, do you want to go ahead? I can go. I can go Mine. Mine's a little bit more in depth, quite as touchy. Feel good feely. I guess that wasn't touchy feely. That was just like, that was the tug of a harfield there, Sarah. So I remember, I remember specifically, like I said, where I grew up, we didn't have comic book stores, we didn't have places where a lot of people would gather to talk about this kind of stuff. 

I [00:20:00] mean, really back in, in where I was at and it, at that time you were kind of an outcast if you enjoyed these type of things. Now everybody liked the good action movies during the eighties and you know, this and that. And you know, we had a couple of, heres heres, and theres, but if you read comic books back in the eighties and especially the early eighties, you weren't well looked upon. 

Yeah. So, um, for me. I remember I walked into the grocery store and the first time I looked at that rack, that didn't spin. I saw an issue of GI Joe. Okay, issue number 24. Know it, know it specifically. And I looked at that issue and I thought at that time, that is what I aspire to be, somebody that can go out and do those type of things. 

So, long story short, that led me to joining into the military. So comics actually [00:21:00] set me on my path as an adult. Yeah. Whereas, you know, a lot of people discover comics later on, or they work outside comics directly related unto my future life. And you said it wasn't gonna be touchy feely. I know, right? 

Good thing Jeezy ain't here. You'd be like, what the hell's wrong with you? 

And Juchen? Well, I guess mine is kind of touchy feely. I don't know. But I mean, how can you not be? Um, it is a bit of nostalgia. It is, and I mean, it really shapes the person that you are today. And, and it was, it was, uh, it, my love grew from, uh, my mom and my dad got a divorce and he, he got custody. 

So whenever my mom was able to, and sometimes he would pull things, you know, there was a bad history, uh, about it. I won't go too deep into it, but whenever my mom would [00:22:00] come around and, and come visit or pick us up, she would always bring me comic books. And my first comic book I remember was in Xmen 2 19, 2 21 when, uh, it was an issue when the X-Men were in the, they were fighting somebody, and Ro Rogan Dazzler wrote, got, uh, knocked off. 

Yeah, under this, off this bridge underwater. And then like this whole uh, mess of construction, construction debris fell on top of a rogue and pinned her down. And Dazzler was running outta breath as she was surfacing. And then she, uh, she pulled all like the last bit of energy she could to fire a beam and cut rogue free. 

So that was something for me that was like the first thing I remember. And it was like that, that was my beginning of the love that comic books were doing. 'cause then after that my mom was always like, Hey, let's go to the comic book shop. Whenever I went to go visit her, it took me around the corner of the university and I buy comic books. 

So, so that's where it began. And I met your, your crazy, but yeah, he's talking about me, not you. [00:23:00] Oh, I do that. He said, he said the word crazy a lot and very emphatically and pronounced. Hey, now I rose to match the crazy 'cause we were crazy together. Okay, so. We used to, Hey, what the kids are doing now, now is, he said he leveled up. 

Now here's the thing. Now what these kids are doing nowadays out there with their phones and recording themselves doing, you know, their little videos of action and we used to do that before the phones. We used to deal that. Yes. And we all be in jail today if yes, we all know that he's not lying because we did all that. 

So we were running off of buildings, we were jumping off in, in, through the woods fighting. Yeah, it was great. And that's, but, but that's where our love of, of action in that, in comic books began. My, mine began. Especially. So do you remember which comic book, your very first comic book, what the story was? 

What, what enticed you? What caught your attention? What pulled you into this life? Savings, not gonna lie, drain of she also my resources. She also [00:24:00] threw in a ducktails book, comic book as well. Oh. Oh yeah. Look at that. That was, I, I can't say it was, I can't say what it was 'cause. It was so many, and I reread 'em over and over again. 

So there wasn't the specific one that grabbed you? It wasn't a specific one. I, I just knew that, I liked that. It's not really fantasy, but that s heroism. Yeah. Mm-hmm. That was displayed in there, that defending the, the weak or saving the, the civilian or, you know, fighting evil. That, that's all that drew me in 

now adults, back in the day, they used to, like, they used to frown upon it. They're like, uh, my dad, they're like, you need to put that around, but you know, you're not gonna learn anything. He didn't know. 'cause I actually learned quite a bit of words from that 'cause the, the vocabulary they used. And on top of that, it's the stories they told that drew me in, because they were very interesting stories that got told, even if you, you know, between uncanny X-Men and the Avengers [00:25:00] back in the day, I mean, operation Galactic Storm. 

Oh my goodness. That was a great, that was a great story. Yeah. And that was during the time where if you're re, if you were reading and you didn't know what a word meant, you had to go look it up, you had to go look it up, physically, go look it up. And then, and then look at the, the run When expend launched in the nineties with, uh, issues one, two, and three, I have never read so much exposition in an comic book before. 

There was just a lot of detail. Uh, and in their pros, because you were talking about a lot of, 'cause they were fighting a magneto, so there was a lot of, uh, magneto, you shouldn't do this magneto, you shouldn't do this. I'm like, well, I'm gonna do this. And, and there was, there was, and you know, the team was split on why we should attack him, why he needs to stop, and then why Rogue was defending him. 

And it was, and unless you knew the history, you know, I was like. This is a lot going on. They got some real good drama and like, I didn't know all the drama from back in the, you know, from the early on before that. Right. But it was [00:26:00] still interesting to read that and know what I needed and that right there drew me into, now I gotta go find out why, why this is, why, why, where did all this take place so well to me, I think that comics took a turn in that time period going from just sensationalism, fighting bright colors, a lot of action to actually tackling real problems that these superheroes could be facing, that they could have morality issues, things of that nature. 

I think when, uh, Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns kind of was the pivot point for comics where they started to think it's not all about just saving the pretty girl. It's not all about just defeating the enemy. That there's layers upon layers of why people. Do the things that they do. And, and comics has really explored a lot of those, those underlying themes [00:27:00] starting from there. 

So when that, when that happened, it to me got more engaging. Yeah. And that's what sucked me into the comic world. And I don't know if it was b prior to Frank Miller's Dark Night Returns, but I do remember, um, God Loves Man Kills. Oh yeah. That's good. Was a good one. That was a good story. And it wasn't, comics wasn't always tackling issues like that before. 

Mm-hmm. But when those type of comics hit, they, I remember them being very popular. Yeah. And then, like you said, it took a turn now to where not every one of them, but a lot of them do have, they, they try to be a reflection of everything that's going today, going on today. But it is a lot of stuff that's going on today. 

And I know a lot of people like comics for the escapism that they provide, and they get upset that you, you see that and you, you try to [00:28:00] escape from this real world that's going on, and then you see the real world in your, your, where you're trying to escape from. Yeah. Yeah. Because, and, uh, as you said, God loves man kills. 

That was a good story about the X-Men and you're facing, uh, a reverend a, uh, a religious leader where he's condemning the X-Men because of the way they looked and, and mutants calling him satan's. Yet it was the man in God who was evil, you know? Yeah. It was just, you know, it was a, it was a flip and it was crazy to me. 

I thought that, you know, at, like I said at this term, this, this pivot part, it really made you think more about it did. Even though the stories were made up, even though they may or may not been reflections of going, what was going on at the time now, then whatever. To me it makes you really think and it gives you a different perspective because you're basically reading from someone else's perspective. 

Yeah. This is not your own, even though you're [00:29:00] using it to escape into that realm. This is not your own thoughts. Mm-hmm. So as you're reading along, you're going to develop more from that because you are going to read someone else's perspective, may mirror your own perspective, but maybe not. Yeah. And as you see the art and the, and the story combined to tell this, tell, would maybe cons make you consider rethinking your own position? 

Yeah, in certain instances, absolutely. So, you know, we always think, well, comics are just for kids. They're not for kids anymore. But even back then, the eighties. They started becoming not for kids. And it, it's a transition from when comic books were, like I said, very action packed sensationalized with, with not much of just saving the, the person and beating the bad guy. 

That was all there is. A lot of service members during World War II were given GI combat comics to read. They would fold [00:30:00] 'em up, put 'em in their back. It was something to kill time, but it also reinforced the idea of why they were fighting at that time. It was used as a social construct to improve the morale of the service members. 

Yeah. And then after the war, it kind of took another change because the war was a whole thing that nobody could, you know, disregard. But once it was over, there had to be a shift. So that's when you have your shift into the Silver Age and a lot of the sensational heroism that you think about. Uh, on that note about the military while in the Marine, in the Marine Corps, I gotta say that I actually drew inspiration from Captain America while I was in service. So that's why I collected him at that time. He was, he was an inspiration for me to continue going on. 

Helped a lot know e two, EE three Ds when you didn't know what, where was it gonna get any better? [00:31:00] So to roll back into, uh, a history of direct edition, we ended up meeting at Gotham City Limits each Wednesday, discussing comics to well after the shop closed, and then we would go grab something to eat afterwards. 

Yep. And I don't know who it was, but somebody came up with a bright idea, like, somebody should be recording this shit. Somebody actually said that. Somebody actually said that. I can't remember who it was, but it was like, I'm not that bright. So I didn't say, say it. Somebody should be recording. I wanna see. 

It might have been Jeezy, it may have been Jeezy, it may have been. Oh, you're gonna give him the, the accolades. I, I give credit where credit is due. Credit where credit's due. That's, I, one thing about it is that's what I do. And it He can do that. He can do that. He can, and I do believe that it was Jeezy that said somebody should be recording this. 

Although, I gotta be honest with you, I wouldn't be surprised. Yeah. Yeah. So, we went out and grabbed some stuff and set it up. Came up with an opening, [00:32:00] great opening by the way. 

We, we hit an intro and an opening and I mean, you can still see those. Yeah. There was great videos. Well, even before the videos we were just doing audio. Yeah, we were just doing audio at the, the shop. And it was during that time, you didn't have like, a lot of the stuff today for, for podcasting and recording. 

Is is a lot more mobile. You can carry it around. It's a lot smaller. But back in, back in then you had to go sit that time, man, you had to carry like a big ass mix, 60 cable cable. Either that or you came to a studio cable, a recording studio, which cost, which cost money. That's a lot, a ton of money back then, especially, and, and well, with the jobs that we were working back then. 

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Especially, it spent a lot of money and I'm talking about cables, microphones and mixers and, and just plugging everything up and hitting record, turning it on, and watching the power go out.[00:33:00]  

Was that the first time that we recorded that or was that another night that we, I think that was another, we turned everything on and the laptop, I had to get a laptop too, to plug everything into. And, and I I, when you said that it clicked, when that happened, I don't know if it was the first time that we were gonna start recording and we turned everything on and the power went out or, or if it was another night, but. 

We were just like, well, gosh damn, what do we do now? That was, that was a great brown out of, uh, oh five. It was, if it was oh five. Yeah, it was, I remember back in oh five. So after then, um, we threw, I wanna say between 15 and 20 episodes up on Pod Beat. I think it was back in the day. Was that where the guy, we went to the guy's house and he recorded us? 

No, that was afterwards. Okay. That was when we, we were audio recording at the shop [00:34:00] and where we were releasing the episodes too. Okay. It was a place, I think it was Podbean or I don't know, something along. I can, I can look it up and find it. Um, I'm not for sure it's Podbean, but, but those old episodes are. 

May be still out there. I don't wanna say are for sure. I, I have to go find, I probably should have looked them up beforehand, but those audio recordings may still be out there just to say that. Find them after that, after we started doing the audio, um, a particular individual was like, Hey, we can have a live radio show. 

Yeah. And I was like, okay, cool. That sounds awesome as hell. Let's do that. And he had, I'm thinking we're going into an illustrious studio as we are in today, man. Man, you know, [00:35:00] shame on me, man, as we say. So this was the white van with the free candy on the side. Almost, almost Most definitely was the white van with the free candy on the side. 

We were sitting there, need to eat. There was more space in the C one 30. Come to find out that it wasn't a, a studio, it was, uh, a gentleman's home. And I'm not bashing anybody's home studio 'cause we've been there before. Been there, done that record where you record. But the enthusiasm that was presented to me led me to believe that was, it was something else. 

It was, it was something else. Uh, but lo and behold, you know, they, um, wanted us to, to do the live show. I did the live show. Hmm. And I, I three, I did more than that. What was it? Because the original agreement was, I, we can come on and talk about comics and we'll see how it goes. Yeah. And I was like, [00:36:00] cool. So we went on and we talked, talked about comics, but the only time slot that they had was. 

Midnight, 4:00 AM on Saturday. We couldn't do that. I, our wives would've allowed that. So I presented it. I said, ideally, that's not the best time to talk about comics, however, no one listen to us. I'll do it for a month. And then we could come back to the table if your numbers are showing, you know, interest. 

This is, yeah, if your numbers are showing interest, and we can come back to the table in the hopes of discussing a better time to do this. And they were like, yeah, cool, cool. So I'm like, okay, good. Let's knock it out. So we knocked it out like Saturday 12th four, Saturday 12th, four for like a month. And then when we, when it was [00:37:00] time to come back to the table, it became, uh. 

And even after saying, oh man, I've never seen numbers like this, right? I've never seen interest like this as long as I've been doing this show. And I'm like, cool, then no brainer to, to moving us to a better time. Yeah. Right. And they were like, ah, well, uh, a lot of my other listeners are, you know, dependent on, you know, whatever, whatever, blase, blase. 

And I said, no problem. I can't keep doing this though. You know, I have a family. 12 to four is not ideal, so I'm out. And then they were like, okay, well we can keep doing the show in your absence. You won't do our show. And they didn't really tell me they were gonna keep doing the, well, okay, I presented to you [00:38:00] like this. 

They told me they were gonna keep doing what they were doing. But they didn't tell me it was gonna still have the direct edition name attached to it. See that? That's why I have a bra. Yeah. We should have set something on fire. So it happened a few more times and I heard it and I had a conversation with that person. 

I was like, Hey, you know, you're gonna have to nip that in the bud. You know, I'm not, I didn't sign off on that, and if I'm not there, then I can't let you carry the torch like that. No, it's not the direct edition if none of us are involved. So that went by the wayside. Then around that time, that's when you YouTube's kicking off. 

 What's up enthusiast? We're gonna go ahead and take a break right here. Pause the retelling of this oral history of the direct edition, but don't go away. We will be back on September 24th. So join us then and remember, live your best geek life. Play games, read comics. Watch anime, geek responsibly, peace.[00:39:00]