Pinball: A Graphic History Of The Silver Ball by Jon Chad

Dead Flip·video·28m 27s·analyzed·Apr 14, 2022

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.022

TL;DR

Dead Flip reviews Jon Chad's illustrated pinball history book with detailed artwork and comprehensive industry coverage.

Summary

Dead Flip host unboxes and reviews "Pinball: A Graphic History of the Silver Ball" by Jon Chad, a comprehensive illustrated graphic novel covering pinball history from the 1930s to modern era. The book features all original hand-drawn illustrations, includes a companion zine about Chad's work creating art for Spooky Pinball's Jetsons machine, and covers key historical moments including the NYC pinball ban, Roger Sharp's famous demonstration, and the rise of modern manufacturers like Jersey Jack and Spooky Pinball.

Key Claims

Jon Chad created all artwork for Spooky Pinball's Jetsons pinball machine art package
high confidence · Chad explicitly states this in the book's included zine as his most exhilarating project in pinball
11,800 pinball machines were destroyed during NYC's pinball ban
high confidence · Historical fact presented in Chad's book with accompanying illustration
The flipper was accidentally invented in 1947 by Harry Mabs while working on a pitch-and-bat game
high confidence · Historical account presented in Chad's book
Humpty Dumpty was the first pinball game to feature flippers, with six flippers facing away from each other
high confidence · Historical detail in Chad's book
Addams Family sold over 20,000 units, launching a new golden age of pinball
high confidence · Historical statistic presented in Chad's book
US pinball manufacturers sold 108,000 machines in 1992, declining to only 7,343 games by 1998 (six years later)
high confidence · Industry statistics cited in Chad's book illustrating pinball's decline

Notable Quotes

“i really wanted to put the spotlight on the history and psychology behind what makes pinball so amazing”
Jon Chad @ early in book — Chad's stated purpose for creating the graphic novel
“there's an inherent energy and soul to this book that is inescapable it is pinball in its purest form”
Roger C. Sharp (quoted in book forward) @ book foreword — Endorsement from legendary pinball figure Roger Sharp
“the ball is wild”
Harry Williams @ historical section — Famous pinball mantra coined by legendary designer Harry Williams
“whether you've played a pinball machine before or not you could probably pick it out on site”
Jon Chad (narration) @ book content — Describes pinball's distinctive silhouette and design language
“in reality the only certainty about pinball is that every game will be different”
Jon Chad (narration) @ book content — Philosophical statement about pinball's diversity and uniqueness

Entities

Jon ChadpersonDead FlipmediaPinball: A Graphic History of the Silver BallproductRoger C. SharppersonSpooky PinballcompanyHarry Williamsperson Harry Mabsperson Pat LawlorpersonJetsonsgame

Signals

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community_signal: Book serves as community artifact celebrating pinball figures (Roger Sharp, Harry Williams, Pat Lawlor) and modern personalities (Jack Danger, Bowen Kerins); features illustrated crowd scene with identifiable community members
high · Chad includes 'Where's Waldo' style crowd illustration with specific people 'you can find specific people like Rogers hanging out there'; includes modern streamers and tournament figures
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community_signal: Jon Chad's graphic history book represents significant community engagement and documentation effort; endorsement by Roger C. Sharp validates historical accuracy and importance
high · Roger Sharp provides forward praising book's 'inherent energy and soul' and Chad includes comprehensive glossary, historical timelines, and features contemporary pinball figures
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design_philosophy: Jon Chad intentionally represents pinball through detailed mechanical illustrations and system diagrams, educating readers on how machines function (switches, bumpers, targets, flippers)
high · Host repeatedly notes 'all of these are illustrated... he drew all of this' and highlights detailed technical drawings explaining rectifiers, relays, scoring systems
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market_signal: Pinball narrative arc from 1930s golden age through prohibition/destruction to near-death in 1990s to modern revival through indie manufacturers gaining renewed visibility and cultural legitimacy
high · Chad's book structure traces this progression: early games → NYC ban (11,800 machines destroyed) → 1980s resurgence (Addams Family 20,000+ units) → 1998 crash (7,343 machines) → modern indie manufacturers
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Topics

Pinball history and origins (1930s-present)primaryJon Chad's artistic contributions to pinball industryprimaryNYC pinball ban and legal challengesprimaryRoger Sharp's legendary 1976 demonstrationprimaryFlipper invention historysecondaryModern pinball manufacturers (Spooky, Jersey Jack, Stern)secondaryPinball industry decline (1990s)secondaryGraphic novel illustration and book designsecondary

Sentiment

positive(0.92)— Host expresses deep enthusiasm and affection for both Jon Chad and the book itself; repeatedly emphasizes quality of illustrations and comprehensiveness; encourages viewers to purchase; only minor criticism is tongue-in-cheek banter and nostalgic regret about missing Pinburgh

Transcript

youtube_auto_sub · $0.000

um and this ladies and gentlemen is the book in question all right it's just happy juice true [Music] so this is uh this just came out by our good friend john chad uh it's called pinball a graphic history of the silver ball obviously by john chad [Music] um i don't know if everyone gets this but it looks like there was a zine that came with this so let's just get right into this thing shall we [Music] let's put the book down really quick let's look at the goodies we got here looks like we got some pinball stickers we'll be putting one on our travel case and then we'll put one on the studio door [Music] these are pretty cool i dropped one i'll have to pick that up later uh the pacific pinball museum in alameda california what's up have i been there i don't know uh oh my god [Music] to jack thanks love john chad oh baby john i love you buddy that's adorable an unboxing video and then here is the uh constructing comics comics versus pinball by john chad oh my gosh it's a zine i love his depiction of himself [Music] go to the pacific pinball museum the book isn't level it's level here oh hello there my name is john chad and if you're reading this you've generously pre-ordered my graphic novel pinball the graphic history of the silver ball thank you in my book i really wanted to put the spotlight on the history and psychology behind what makes pinball so amazing what i didn't want to include was anything about my own journey into pinball since i got into pinball in 2009 i've been lucky to use my illustration skills to make all sorts of posters flyers shirts and tokens for different pinball events papa stuff if you own anything from original papa days you've got john chad stuff right the most exhilarating project that i've gotten to work on in pinball was making the art package for the jetsons pinball machine with spooky pinball in the pinball company [Music] holy shirts i've drawn a couple of graphic novels at that point and thought the process of making actual game art would be similar the cabinet art playfield backbox all seemed to be uh wait is this oh this is just explaining how he got to this point this is actually pretty cool i don't know if y'all played the i'm not going to read this whole thing because i want you to experience it um but if you haven't played jetson's that's awesome that he did the art on this look at his depiction of a spinner f f f it just keeps going all right i'm not gonna read this whole thing uh but this is pretty stellar [Music] all right make sure you check that out constructing comics see all of my process materials for making the jetson's art package here all right internet scan it that's for you only three flips need some super lube on there let's get to the fiesta resistance the book look at these old hands man i'm i'm getting old oh my back i should have taken some ibuprofen we won't be able to check it out we didn't pre-order well it sounds like uh fu then huh him it's tough being 40 shut your mouth i'm not 44. there's an inherent energy and soul to this book that is inescapable it is pinball in its purest form roger c sharp noted player designer author and the in quotes man who saved pinball end quote okay i'm done posting enjoy everyone yell if you need me all right trans thank you buddy [Music] all right let's get into it again this is a hard hard john come on dude i love you buddy hmm he even drew his own little pimp oh he drew this is adorable read us the story uncle jack i'm getting to it i'm getting to it [Music] so i want to point something out right these might look like photographs john drew all of these [Music] this is all illustrated by him he drew all of this all of these in like high detail look at that there were flippers and butts on that pin [Music] i didn't even notice oh my god flippers and butts this is i'm getting this tattooed on my body immediately um roger sharp wrote the forward on here oh my gosh at the time i was growing up on the south side of chicago there were no game rooms or arcades i'll let you read the rest look at this this is illustrated right he's so good at this beginnings wishes could draw it's just like anything else if you want to get good at pinball if you want to get good at drawing it's all practice bass thank you so much [Music] whether you've played a pinball machine before or not you could probably pick it out on site very true look at this bad cat's illustration that is amazing the detail on this is just bonkers most share a similar silhouette but under the glass each holds a different assortment of components art and angles that make up the game beautiful in this age of video games and powerful handheld devices that use controllers loaded with inputs to transport the player to lusciously rendered worlds look at this video game he made i play it i'm buying this book right now do it you might look at the two control buttons on a pinball machine realize you're swatting at a metal ball rolling down a piece of plywood and ask yourself what's the big deal that's what this guy sounds like what's the big deal it's just another arcade game a big wooden box of flashing nonsense it's called electronic furniture by the way um and there's no strategy to it you flip the flippers and hope to get lucky enough to hit something the game is built to cheat you that also might be true and i've played pinball before if you've played one you've played them all this kit this is we're supposed to hate this guy right chad that's his name sorry chet holy sh look at the art on this wrong wrong dead wrong just ordered hell yeah yo y'all if you order this please let me know in reality the only certainty about pinball is that every game will be different look at this art [Music] chad's not lying mostly chad's a piece of the skill set used to play pinball coupled with how pinball machines communicate with players creates a gaming experience unlike any other internet can i tell you something it's been a while since i've read for the public and it's a little nerve-wracking right to not like stumble and get lost where you're riding the story of pinball isn't just tied to the arcade boom of the late 70s early 80s it goes back much further than that look at this 1930 it's the 1930s and it's considered by many to be the golden age of pinball in this early iteration a ball is plunged onto an inclined playfield where it bounces off of pins finally settling in a hole with a point value looks amazing my kids are begging me for right now heck yeah just wait till we get to some of this like just wait nothing in here is photographs by the way this is all drawn [Music] but we'll get we'll get to some of this look at this [Music] anyway uh we're here talking about some stuff gum and pennies pinball is a slot machine in disguise a racket that fleeces children says the national association of citizens crime commission cool degenerates oh this is just going over the brief history of them uh destroying the crap i don't want to like give the whole thing away you know look at this when all was said and done 11 800 pinball machines were destroyed as part of new york city's pinball van the sledgehammer that is incredible [Music] yo what's up jimmy jam what the hell is this uh by 1976 the preconception that pinball was a tool of criminals and that it would corrupt the youth of america has dissipated cities that had re-legalized pinball were profiting off of them and officials in new york city were taking notice money but look at the look at the illness look at this i'm getting so many things in here tattooed on my body what happened next jack enter roger sharpay because he loved a certain kind of dog it's a sharpest look how they're depicting this this is incredible purple's proud for purple [Music] i brought this game it's got my face on it stop you can't play that game it's probably rigged play this other one that you know nothing about frick that's how the story goes roger had planned on playing the el dorado but as roger plunged the ball his years of experience playing pinball took over look at his hair flowing criminals indeed but even the myths in the midst of his masterful play roger could tell that the committee was still skeptical so he called his shot like babe ruth pointing at the fences the center lane at the top i'm going to hit that shot right now by pulling back the plunger the perfect distance and letting it go as a ball hurtled up the lane there's no way that roger sharp could have known that the future of pinball the legacy of a truly american art form bing [Music] would rest on this one shot what do we stand to lose if roger doesn't make the shot i love that he drew like a failed shot what at its core is pinball what happened dad well let's fast forward here right pinball is noisy it's old-fashioned it's big and clanky again we're not going to read this whole thing because i don't want to give it all away you know keep the pins alive jack i'm trying listen i'm part of this history y'all i would like to point something out and it's something that i like to gloat about right but michael gottlieb okay of the gottlieb family [Music] gassed me up with a comment that i kind of don't want to say now because i don't want it to feel like it's diminishing other people's like stuff but uh put me up there with the likes of um this roger sharp gentleman and um it meant a whole lot a whole lot um pinball designer harry williams is famous for among many things coining the pinball mantra the ball is wild look at the drawings in this thing abe's lincoln's true look at how beautiful this is fudge me the bagatelle going into like the the pool whatever the hell that game is this abe's lincoln's play in this game [Music] the early attempts were short-lived and not successful oh oh the okay bag of tells yeah dude let's skip ahead here a little bit this oh these illustrations i don't know if you ever saw his early zine work where he drew these mechanisms but look how great this is explaining how like the kickback works [Music] jeez ding [Music] moving right along [Music] where do they talk about um oh did we miss it humpty dumpty adding the flipper a game of skill would you say did the artwork john chad wrote the book and did all the artwork here let's get to some more modern stuff oh here we go [Music] the flipper was designed a bit by accident in 1947 game designer harry mabs was working on a new pitch and bat game this type of coin op game would have a ball roll and once it came down the center of playfield just like in baseball the player gets one chance to hit the approaching ball if the player hit the button at the right time the bat would hit the ball into a high scoring hole so pinball flippers were created for a pitch and back game how wild is that [Music] like how many of you knew that right dude as mavs was working on his new game he accidentally touched the two wires accident in the flipper bat when it started flipping on him the wires touched a couple more times each time the bat flailed around rapidly thus humpty dumpty was born by the way this looks like a one-to-one replica of the flyer but again drawn by john chad look at that and the first pinball game to have flippers had six freaking flippers on it two four six and they were facing away from each other look at the flippers uh all right let's skip ahead a little bit more here um something big points despite pinball's tricky legal status in some parts of the us it continued to grow through the 1960s oh my god like look at this this is i want this like this is like wallpaper or explaining how a switch works look at this show that rectifier i just baked a ham and it's done these illustrations are really fun to look at look that's [Music] look at this target to relay to scoring reel to chimes oh look at that freaking black knight let's go haunted house like the time that it took you know to draw all this stuff and this is a thick book [Music] friends friends arcades working together talking about the decline of pinball oh man where's kyle when you need him [Music] what is this the addams family sold more than 20 000 units a huge success in pinball terms and this was seen as the dawning of a new golden age of pinball pat lawler had carte blanche from williams to put it even more bells and whistles into his next game good news everyone and then here's waller i guess sketching some uh i mean stuff uh the result was twilight zone released in 1992 the game was packed it was six inches wider than normal pinball machines had a mechanical clock toy a secret passage behind a fourth flipper magnets all sorts of stuff the game is amazing and performed well but to the surprise of many not as well as adam's family twilight zone would love to see you play a twilight hey i would love to have my hands on one the hard truth was that pinball was just not selling all the manufacturers in the pinball industry sold 108 000 machines total in 1992 and only 7 343 games six years later total look at that number difference this is death right here holy moly [Music] yep whoa hollow pin oh this is them working out the uh the pin 3k or pin 2k sorry tz so much better than adam's family you think so [Music] oh talking about william's closing the doors that's just sad we got some councils would you look at this look at that dreamcast you knew it was bad but damn yeah right like not only did jon draw all of these amazing illustrations but he gathered so much amazing information for this book right this thing is phenomenal here's roger again getting the thing doing the stuff and let's move on to chapter six so here's roger winning people screaming uh let's move on to okay so here we go uh new companies popping up jersey jack pinball that is ambiguous Jack Guarnieri and ambiguous jjp and spooky coming on the scene uh they obviously talk about stern sort of holding the the torch aloft there they're simpsons spider-man indiana jones and iron man [Music] oh all of the companies i guess that have been and currently are uh home pin multimorphic deep root american spooky stern chicago gaming company jersey jack which is now in chicago suncoast which i don't think is around anymore highway dutch oh look it's jerry with the p3 [Music] podcasters relay pinball news and interview okay oh we're getting close to uh how pinball got expanded here's bowen doing a tutorial on papa the pinball map huge pinburg pinball showing up in bars again this is logan arcade look at that pinburg yeah as well as game reviews and playthroughs can be streamed right into your home look at this guy donate to kids this looks like a guy my mom married like 20 years ago where's dead underscore flip stop it peak danger this guy looks like his name is denny we gotta make this shot if we want them points all right internet oh my god he got me hey it's one of your favorite games and he's got me playing jackpot which i absolutely appreciate being immortalized next to that game and look at this it's him watching that's so good i love this crowd pick too because it's got a little bit of everybody in it like you can find specific people like rogers hanging out there um this is i believe this cholo looking dude was supposed to be me um lots of papa shirts lots of oh man it's so good where's waldo exactly a story in history that are directly tied to the american manufacturing industry entertainment and invention a story in history that spans multiple continents and hundreds of years someone watch your stream to make that illustration come on internet right someone go buy this book immediately or you're grounded hey look it's chad he's back that's like a scene out of akira [Music] you beat me hurtling towards new worlds to explore oh he's got a glossary here too what the apron is backbox backlash bagatella ball save body english bumpers jet bumpers thumper bumpers uh bumper pit cabinets captive ball look at this drawing look at this [Music] explaining how drop target oh my god [Music] maybe someone will have it at paths i'll pimp out the zoo that'd be cool rollover switches [Music] slingshot illustration oh what's it called it is called pinball a graphic history of the silver ball by john chad [Music] spinner that glossary makes that look awesome yeah how like scoops work [Music] john you are too freaking nice dog oh my god pinball streaming sensation jack danger has a great resource page with animated examples of flipper moves oh man uh i'm gonna sit down and read this tonight there's my guy there he is [Music] damn john ladies and gentlemen make sure you run out get this for yourself scan that if you need to 24.99 it's more money in canada for some reason i don't know how that works uh just ordered it hell yes one or two always buy two and just and just so you internet so you know this i'm not like there's no kickbacks or promotions or anything like uh i love this thing i love john chad to death and i just wanted to show off how just absolutely beautiful this thing is and how you all need to buy this freaking book immediately look at all the stuff that we didn't cover you know what look at all of this holy s [Music] they get soggy with all the maple syrup i miss pimburg me too you had my attention at comics you had my money at pinball hey that's what i'm saying arrives tomorrow heck yeah