And as we wind on down the road, I said I'll come and I'll go. There was a lady, we all know, who shined with light and was the girl. Now everything still turns to gold, and if you lift it very high, Look at the time you left, where I was and what is all, to be a rock and not a real love. And she's finding the stairway to the moon. Aloha. Getting into the Loser Kid Pit. Small Players Podcast. A special whim. I don't know, I'm drunk. The Slapstick. The following is an ad-hoc radio production. And now, ladies and gentlemen, time for the show. Sit down, kick your feet up, grab a cold one, and get ready for... The Super Awesome Spinball Show! That's the right sign for everybody's favorite pinball show. With your host, pinball artist Christopher Franchi. Texas Pinball Festival's Ed Vanderby. And Dr. Pin himself, French and Wine. Sponsored by Chicago Gaming Company, the home of your favorite top quality pinball remakes like Medieval Madness, Monster Bash, and more. Visit ChicagoGaming.com. And by Cointaker, distributors of new in-box pinball machines, mods, accessories, and Franchi pinball wear. That's Cointicker.com. Also by BackAlleyCreations.com, creators of the most badass pinball mods, Black Pearl Pinballs, and the Easy Spy Playfield Support Bracket Set. That's BackAlleyCreations.com. And now, ladies and gentlemen, time for the show. I don't care! Hello, hello, hello, all you pinball rock stars out there, and welcome to Season 1, Episode 11 of the Super Awesome Pinball Show. This week, we've got the conclusion to our great Zombie Yeti interview, Also, Kaneda's departure from podcasting, Multimorphic trumps Deep Root again, The Turtles are crawling out of Stern, Hot Wheels streams, Don't count out aliens just yet, Also a weird new podcast from an old friend, And much more. Now I have to warn you right now, In just a second, my voice is going to change to sound real shitty, Because we had a wrong setting on the microphone, On a recording that was just doomed from the start, Because the first time we recorded it, it didn't take, We had no recording and had to do it again. So my apologies that I sound like I'm talking out of a garbage can, but it will be corrected on the next episode. And the crappy microphone sounds something like this. Hey, Kristen, how are you doing? I'm doing great, man. Happy to be here, as always. Yeah, well, you might notice somebody's not here. Yeah, man, let's touch on that right away, get into it, because we've got some sad news on the show. it's changing and we are losing a regular co-host in Mr. Ed Vanderveen. I don't know if you know this, but podcasting takes a ton of time and it's really fun to do, but it's also a lot of work. And Ed's retired. He wants to enjoy his awesome life at the moment. And he's got a lot of interests and hobbies outside of this. And he wants to step back and work on other things right now. So man, we're going to miss the guy. He's like family to us and we have had an awesome time with him on the show and he will definitely be back in the future to talk about tpf next year and hopefully to co-host with us every once in a while but for now he is stepping back and we are going to just be left with uh us two schmeckleheads for a while we'll have some awesome guest hosts come in and then uh we're accepting applications if you think you can keep up with us let us know but otherwise yes uh well i'll say happy turtles today but what i mean by that is I'm sure he's going to be embarking on his pinball tour in his motorhome, and we'll see him come around our parts with a pin-tastic or something. It's close to you, isn't it? I know that's in Boston. Yeah, it is, but it's on the way, hopefully, for Ed. He can swim by here. I would love to have him out here, and I'm definitely going to go down to Texas and hang out with him and Kim and just catch up because they're awesome people, and they will be missed, and I hope that Ed gets back on the show sooner rather than later. But for now, we're going to probably have some rotating co-hosts, and we'll wait. Eventually, we'll get someone probably more permanent, but Ed's leaving some pretty big shoes to fill. Yeah. Well, I finally get to say about his size. He's a little fewer than me, and I'm a 13, so. He's a tall, big dude. So anyway, Ed, sign our man. We'll talk to you soon. And thank you for getting the show off the ground and everything you've done for it. Thanks for 10 fabulous episodes. Yes, sir. Anyway, yeah, so, wow, this week, what have we done the past couple of weeks in pinball? You have a boner? You have a boner. Well, I will tell you what we have done for the last two hours of pinball, which was record episode 11 and then have it completely get deleted. So everything you're about to hear, we're doing for the second time, and it's a real ass-burner, but hopefully this time it will go a little quicker than last. It's a big suck, because it was two hours, and it just, yeah, Skype just decided that it wasn't going to stop recording. I kept hitting the button, and it wouldn't stop, so I closed it down, and poof, it was gone. Gone, like Kaiser Soze. But dude, you... Good one. Yeah, you need to tell us about your last two weeks. Let's get back into it. So what have you done over the last... you want to hear some shit sure talk about sucking the word fast out of fast food I'm coming home I haven't eaten all day and I'm like I gotta whoop something down before we podcast I pull into Wendy's and I'm not kidding as I pulled around and pulled out of Wendy's I counted 12 fucking cars in the drive through 12 cars that's not fast food I'm not waiting that long crying out loud so I circled around and went to McDonald's And then there were, I hate when this happens. McDonald's has the split drive-thru, and you can either go to the right or you can go to the left. Well, I pull up, and there's two in the right and two in the left. Which one's going to exit first? So I'm just sitting there waiting. And, of course, a car comes up behind me, so I've got to pick one. I pick the right one. The guy in the left pulls in. Oh, son of a bitch. So not a big deal. I'm just going to wait one extra turn, and the person who got there after me gets to go before me. Oh my God, this is such an involved story about a drive-thru. But I get the pleasure in the meantime of sitting in my car cussing this person out. You fucker, like I was your first. Fuck you, goddamn it. Because I'm already pissed I had to circle around and backtrack to go to a different restaurant because one of these was so damn bad. I get my fries. This is the whole gist of the story. Okay. I get my fries. I'm going to say this. Oh my God, I sound like Canada. I'm going to say this now. I'm going to say this. mcdonald's french fries are completely worthless unless they're just out of the fryer because it literally tastes like you're eating chopped up wet laundry oh my god if it's not when they're cold it's just like it's not even food i don't know what it is but it's just like it sucks so from now on i'm just going to ask for fresh fries because like i'm reaching the bag i'm driving home and i pull it i pull out the first fry and i can feel it just limp and dangling and i don't Even though I put it in my mouth, I shouldn't have put it in my mouth. I'm just like, it's just like, like I said, chewing on wet rags or something. It was just motherfucking, god damn it. So, anyway, yeah, I've got a container of nasty-ass fries that I'm not even going to eat. Welcome to the super awesome fast food podcast. That's right. Well, let's talk some pinball. Let's do it. My week. Modding out my Munsters. Having a good time. I got a bunch of diesel mod stuff and I put that in there. I've already got the thing decked out. I got these cool bat things from our sponsor, Bat Gallery Productions. They're like the lily necklace bat and I bought two sets. He sells them as like a hinge decoration, the backbox hinge. So I put them there and then I got a second set that I put on the speaker grills and that looks really cool. Cool. But then I put the Tesla coil mods on or at least two of the flasher, two of the four flasher bulbs, the ones in the front that were easy to replace. I'm waiting on some parts from Mr. Borgi to do the two in the back because I've got to level up the plastics first. But that is coming along. Got my captain a fantastic fix, thanks to Clay here. Even though Dr. Tilt, EJ, Dr. Tilt came over and tried. EJ, I love you, but he tried to fix one problem and broke three other things. That's how it always goes. And then he goes, you should probably have Clay come over. And he's like, can I watch him? Ask him if I can watch him because I want to learn. And Clay is an interesting person. He's an awesome dude, and he's a good friend. But he's like, I don't want anybody watching me. It's still weird. I'm like, I understand. I asked. Did you see that picture of Clay, the one I sent you, I think today, right? Yeah. It was an eBay ad or a Facebook Marketplace ad or something. Yeah, it was a Facebook Marketplace ad. Will sleep with your wife for pinball machines, and it's got a picture of Clay sitting on top of a bowler game. Is that legit? I mean, obviously, he's not really trying to do that, but where did that come from? I don't know. I don't know if it's him. I know that it's him in the picture, but somebody else might have put that up. So, I don't know. I haven't had no time to investigate that. So, I don't know. But, yeah, when he was over, he was like, I was trying to pay him, and he wouldn't check. I was like, I don't dig. Like, if he's a pinball dude, and he comes over, and he's like, hey, I'll help you paint your house, you know, paint your living room, whatever, like that, you know, cool, whatever, you know, I'll buy some pizza and beer. But when somebody does something for you that's their living, I like to pay them for that. And he wasn't having it. And I'm trying to give him the money, and he's like, no. And he's going down the stairs. And my dog, Barlow, loves Clay. But Clay wasn't having Barlow because Barlow was a little hyper. So Clay was not feeling Barlow on this day. And so Clay's trying to leave. I'm trying to give him money. He's not taking it. And I said, Barlow is running down the stairs towards him because you have to go down a flight of stairs. leave my condo. So he's going down the stairs. Barlow's coming after him. I'm like, don't open the door. Barlow's coming. And he opens the door and Barlow tears out. No. I live pretty close to a main road and Barlow has no collar, no anything. And he doesn't go outside. You know, I don't have a yard, a fenced-in yard. So he doesn't go outside on his own. He's always on a leash. So is he on a leash? If he's not on his leash, does he head to the hills? Oh, yeah. First he did like a bunch of you know, Daytona 500 laps like around the front yard. He was just chugging. That dude can chug. It's like watching the Mr. Universe pageant when he's running because like every muscle's just bulging and he's hauling and he's going so happy to be free and running around and then he stops and then he takes off. So he goes, what do I do? And I'm like, you fucking chase him because I got a bad knee, dude. I can't run after him. So poor Clay had to run like a fucking half a mile down the edge of the sun. and he caught him in mid-shit. Oh, Jesus. So he had to hold him while he was pooping. Oh, my God. So I drove down there as fast as I could, and then I picked him up. But I tried to bore you, dude. I told you he was coming. I said, don't open the door. He just opened the door like I wasn't even there. Well, he saved Barlow, and it sounds like it wasn't a pleasant experience for him. So who does the clay? Yeah, I hope clay, please come back when my shit breaks. good luck with that I'll bring Barlow to puppy camp so that he doesn't offer you anyway so yeah there was that geez what else is going on in my life oh I'm recording for the first time at the French compound yeah congratulations you finally have internet you have Skype hooked up you can actually edit at home you don't have to drive to your office and you know add an extra layer to the whole process so congrats on that and you can finally watch Netflix Yeah, yeah. I haven't signed up yet. I haven't signed up, but I have enjoyed the fruits of the Internet on my computer. And I don't need porn. I just need, you know, like Facebook. Everyone assumed that you meant porn when you said that. So I'm glad you clarified. I do not. Because you think so. They've got better blockers on the Mac phones. Don't ever touch Mr. Peretti's phone. Everyone now knows. Or me. Microphone or anything else. Yeah, so there's that. Oh, I got a new car. Cool. Congrats, man. What'd you get? Durango GT Plus. So it's a pretty posh model. It's got the cool new hood with the scoop and the little vents, and the front end looks really cool. Way different than the one on the side. How many pinballs can it fit is the question. I'm going to guess I could probably get two in there. Nice, man. That's a good one. Yeah. Yeah, so I got a new car. I forgot to tell you, our superstar guest host, Sorry. Our superstar interview on this show, Jeremy Packer, saved my ass last week. Ah, yes. My computer took a shit. It would not work. It was working weird. I'd open up an art file in Photoshop, and it would just start scrolling to the left, start panning. And I'm like, I couldn't stop it. So you can't work on something if you can't stop the canvas from moving. But I don't know what it is. I'm like, is this something on Photoshop? So I think I was playing with a speaker. I went to turn the speaker down. and I clicked on it, the volume opened up and it started at 100 and it started counting down really fast and I wasn't touching anything. Yeah, it's not Photoshop. I don't know what it is. So I reloaded Windows. I reloaded Creative Cloud. I reloaded Photoshop and I reloaded the driver for this technique that I used, which is like a monitor that you draw on. It shows your work right there. I mean, for the layman, it's just like take your monitor, tilt it down on an angle like a drawing desk and then you got a corpus pen and you're drawing on a monitor. That's how it works. It's for us artists, folks. We have our own special things that you can't have. Some fancy shit. Yeah. So anyway, I called Brian Allen, artist of Alien Backglass, and the remake he did for Monster Bash. And he's doing a new one now with like Williams characters or something. Yeah, he did that. He's doing, he did a Medieval Madness. And he does a ton of like Frisbee golf stuff. some frisbee uh frisbee art which is kind of cool he's such a good guy on stickers yeah anyway so i called him up and uh he was uh completely baffled i don't know i'm like just panties i've never had that problem i don't know what to say and i'm like okay and i put the on here now i've lost like three days of work and i'm going insane because it took me a good four months just to get this shit all set up here so that i could work So I'm like, well, who else do I know that runs our music? Oh, Jeremy does. We just had him on the show. Perfect. So I call him up, and I explain what's going on, and he's just like, right out of the shoot, he just goes, do you have a cordless mouse? I'm like, yeah. Oh, dude. How would you think of that? Yeah. It's more genius than that, because he goes, do you have a cordless mouse? I go, yeah. He goes, is it Bluetooth, or does it have a toggle? It says it's got a toggle. Where do you have the toggle plug in? in the computer. He goes, not in your Cintiq, it's in the computer directly? I said, yeah. He goes, pull that out. So I pulled that out, and he goes, are you having a problem? Nope. Wow. He geek-squatted the hell out of that. Yeah, so he says, take the toggle and plug it into the USB in your Cintiq. So I did, and he goes, now is your mouse working? And I said, yeah. And he goes, are you having a problem? And I said, no. And he goes, there you go. And I'm like, you are my fucking hero. Not only a great artist, but a tech whiz as well. And you know, it's funny when, like, here I'm just being allowed to work on my computer, which would be something you'd expect to just come over, sit down, turn your computer on, and work. But I'm working on my computer and I'm like, you know, like all excited, like, I'm working on my computer, like I just won the lotto. You know, it's funny how that shit happens. So thank you, Jeremy, for staying on my ass. He's probably like, yeah, big deal, wasn't nothing. No, it was. Three days of no work and trying to get it to work and trying to figure it out. I was thinking, I'm going to take this $7, 000 just to throw it in the trash. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just want to figure out what it is. That's crazy frustrating, even if you just want to surf the Internet. So I can't imagine. I mean, this is your livelihood that you can't do. Yeah, that's so huge. So that's awkward. Thank you, Jeremy. And other than that, I found stuff. I'm going to make four or five people very happy because I've been going through all of my archives lately in this downtime, and I found a 66 Batman Translite signed by Adam West and Burt Ward. Cool. And I already had one signed by Adam West, but this one was signed in silver and the other one was signed in black sharpie. And I liked the one in silver and I thought, well, I don't need two of them. And, you know, as a standalone, it just looks better. You know, if someone's going to put the one with the black sharpie in and have it lit up, it'll look good. But the silver one looks good not lit up and mine's not going to be lit up. So I kept that one, and I sold the other one. A bunch of people were bummed because I only had the one. Literally, I posted it, and five seconds later, I got a PM from someone saying, I'll take it. You have a treasure trove of stuff in that place, man. Do you even know all of the stuff that you have? I mean, you must have boxes and boxes of artwork and prints and things that you save. I should own a tote company because I have, well, just in the hallway leading from a laundry room past the utility closet to a storage room, I have 20 totes stacked up along the wall. And that, in those totes, are just the overflow, the seconds and thirds of my TV show Batman collection. Wow. The main collection is in my spare room, and it's all displayed. That's just the overflow. And that's just that. I've got other crap. I've got totes in the storage rooms. I've got totes in the garage. Artwork I've got everywhere. I've got these big poster-sized boxes that, you know, you can stack them on top of each other. and I've got tubes, I've got probably 20 tubes laying around with like 30 prints each all rolled up in there. I don't even know what's in there. So that's what I've been doing. You could charge admission just to come into your house and look through your shit because you have so much cool stuff in your house and a lot of it you don't even know about. See the free-for-all with a giant pile of shit. The last time we recorded this segment, you had talked about how you would just purchase something or you were about to buy something because you thought it was cool and then you found it in a bin somewhere that you didn't even know you had. Yeah, it was like this Freddy Krueger action figure or something like that. And I'm like, that was really cool. I should get this. And, you know, I don't know. It was one of those times where I'm like, you got it up, John. Put it down. And two days later, I'm digging through a tote, and there it is in my house. I didn't even realize. I got tons of shit like that. I come across crap like that. I didn't even realize I had this. I don't remember buying it. Yeah. Yeah, it's crazy. I have way too much shit while I'm trying to get rid of it all. But anyway, the thing that's going to make four or five people happy is that I found five posters that I had signed, a Batman movie poster that I did based on the TV show. I found five of those that I had signed by Adam Westenberg Award as well. Oh, cool. And again, you know, you'd think I'd remember this shit. Because I have one myself that's like all personalized that I had. It's really tough, actually. They won't, Adam in particular, would not sign something without putting a name on it. But I explained to him that they were prizes for something. And now I remember what that was, but that's how I forgot that I had them because I got them for something else, and that never happened. So he kindly agreed to sign them without a name because we didn't know what the name was going to be. They were prizes. Anyway, so I'm going to be selling those in the coming weeks. So that will probably hang under one. So I don't know. So far. But anyway, that will make people happy because people have been looking for that poster from you anyway. that and the Wonder Woman that I did recently. I did, for Chicago Expo, I did a Wonder Woman trans light. And then recently I got hired to do a Lindy Carter Wonder Woman model kit box, artwork for the model kit box. And so I kind of pulled that other artwork out just to kind of reference it and see what I did. And I thought, hey, I should put a print together because a lot of people asked about it. I didn't realize there was this huge underground swirling for Lindy Carter Wonder Woman, but there it is. There's rabid fans out there that are nuts for it. Like, they're sending me messages like, you know, you've got to do this. I need one. I have to have one. That's cool. Did people freak out about your Translight? I mean, I know you did a very limited run of that, and I unfortunately missed out on that. But I would love to see that in either Translight or, you know, wall-mounted art. I did ten of those for Expo last year, and they sold out, but it didn't cause, like, this big, you know, ruckus. Like, oh, my God, they're just shooting, you know. people saw it and thought it was cool and they bought it and that was it I didn't have people running up to me and asking do you want to cut it anymore a couple people asked but it was no big deal but people that are non-pinball people well the larger percentage are non-pinball people that are asking me for art prints so I put together a poster and I kind of showed it and said this is what it's going to look like but it won't be available for another couple weeks because I got lost anyway so yeah I finished the box art for the pinball thing or I'm sorry I finished the box art for the model kit, and that's in Linda Carter's email right now for approval, which is very exciting. I think that she's looking at my artwork. Maybe she'll call me. I'm going to go, will you come over and paint me? Yeah. Will you wear less than you're wearing? She still looks damn good. She's got to be, like, in her late 60s or something. And she looks fantastic. She's got that same disease that Victoria Principal and one of the Charlie's Angels, Jacqueline Smith. The three of them just don't age. They look the same as they did on TV. It's insane. But anyway, that's my week in Pimble. What did you do? That's a lot, man. You did a lot more than I did. This week and a half has been a bit of debauchery for me. Out here in central Pennsylvania, we call it Rumspringa, which is an Amish thing, because my wife and kids have been out of town. So I've had a lot of time hanging out, drinking booze, playing video games, playing pinball. I've bought way too much stuff online for my pinball machines. I bought you some really cool stuff, actually, that I'll send your way that I'm going to like. More stuff, right? That's what you need. And then other than that, though, I mean, just from playing pinball, man, and enjoying life. I don't know how you feel about location play right now in the COVID age, but a place that's close to me, it's about 45 minutes to an hour away, called the Pinball Gallery. It's run by Bill and Sherry Disney. They are two amazing pinball people. They basically devoted their whole lives to the business of pinball. He's a distributor, but he also has this really amazing place. If you're ever in Melbourne, Pennsylvania, you've got to go check it out. It's got about 50 to 70 pinball machines, and they just reopened. And I was curious because, you know, obviously location play is a little risky these days. You know, I wasn't sure how that would go down, and places all over the country are opening up. So I looked online to see what they were doing, and it's really impressive. Their strategy, I think, is the kind of strategy you need to have if you're going to open up pinball at this point in the COVID era. They're doing, you know, the obvious stuff. If you have any symptoms or temperature, you're not allowed to go in. Everyone needs to wear a mask all the time and social distance. But they've reduced the number of machines they have. They've turned off every other machine. So there's built-in distancing. They have, you know, gallons of hand sanitizer and, you know. No shower curtains? No shower curtains, buddy. But, yeah, I mean, it's done well. It's done really well. So I went out there. I was one of maybe three people there. So I felt totally safe. I obviously wore a mask the whole time I was sanitized like crazy if I had shown up and there were 20 people there I probably would have bounced but it was so freaking good to get out and play pinball again it's like a dream though too walking into a place with that many games and there's only three of you so you have no waiting for anything just hop on it was exactly that it was so cool and Cherry Disney was there and she said you know because there's only three of you here if there are machines that you want to turn on just make sure you turn the other two next to it off so that we can social distance. So I really had to run the place. My buddy Rodney Comagese and I were out there. So that was really, really cool. Do not go out and play location pinball unless the situation is good like that and you can wear a mask and you can social distance. But these companies have been out of work and out of business for months now, right? So we've got to support them. We have to, there are lots of ways to do that. If you don't want to go out and actually physically be there, you can always buy gift cards and that sort of thing. But I'm glad to see that we are returning to some new normal at these sites, even though I don't think the coronavirus is going anywhere anytime soon. And even if we get a vaccine, that sort of thing, it's going to be many months to years off. And it's going to be similar to the flu vaccine where, you know, you got to get it once a year and not everyone's going to get it. And it's only going to be partially, you know, protective. This is America. I don't need no vaccine. If I don't want no vaccine, who cares? Right. Be smart. You know, I'll put my doctor cap on. It is absolutely critical that you guys wear a mask. It is, you know, if we're ever going to get rid of this thing and we're ever going to go back to any semblance of normalcy, wear a mask. Be safe. Wash your hands. Why are people talking about their rights? I have a right not to wear a mask. Whatever your rights are is not the point. You have the right to be stupid, too. Just don't. Choose not to. Just be smart. Yeah, this is a public health thing. It's not a political thing, and people are making it political. If you want your fellow man not to be sick, and hopefully we can go back to normal, you've got to do certain things that may not be awesome for you, but it is the right thing to do. So do it. Exactly. Practically. So anyway, the reason why this week and a half was crazy is because my wife and kids have been out of town. They went to see Grandma and Grandpa, and they are doing a great job social distancing. Grandma and Grandpa have quarantined for forever, it seems, and they basically said to us, we do not want to go any longer without seeing our grandkids, so bring them out, and we will be as safe as we possibly can. So that's what Sarah did with the girls, but they're coming back tomorrow, so I can't wait to see them. I am totally stoked. I have played way more video games than I thought I ever should. I'm working on a bed sore because I've been in bed for so long playing video games. It's time to get back to normalcy here. But yeah, man, life was fun for the last week. That's my life all the time. I know. I'm jealous, dude. I'm jealous. Noah, you want to hit up the Pinball News? We can hit up the Pinball News, but before we hit up the Pinball News, because I don't want to bury it in a bunch of other headlines, We do have some additional sad news to pass on besides departing the show. Yeah. No, we just heard today on Facebook that Barry Osler had been hospitalized for coronavirus. And, you know, that's obviously scary. And we are thinking about him and we wish him the best. And many people have beat this thing. You know, Barry is a freaking pinball icon. He has done a lot for the industry. And I know there's been some drama lately with him, but, you know, health and his safety trumps all that stuff. So let's, you know, send him positive energy and hopefully he can get through this. Definitely. Love you, Barry. I also wanted to call attention to some really sad news with someone who's really done a ton for pinball. She's the head of the Women's International Pinball Tournament at Pinburg and just a great, you know, ally for women in pinball. and that's Kate Martin and her father passed away last week. Really sad news. You know, it's horrible to lose a loved one and I really feel for her. And I just wanted to give her a shout out on the show. And there's one more guy who has done a ton for pinball who just recently passed away. A lot of podcasts have talked about his contribution t o the hobby. That's Steve Epstein. He is a... Epstein. Papa Epstein. That's right. the founder of Competitive Pinball, the IFPA, Papa, and the owner of the Broadway Arcade for 35 years in New York City, which is one of the biggest and best arcades out there during the pinball heyday. So our condolences to him and his family, and that's a huge loss to the pinball hobby. I know Jeff Teolis did a really, really nice show honoring him. So if you don't know much about Steve, take a listen to that podcast because it really goes into his history and I think does a lot of justice to his legacy. That's a pinball profile with Jeff Teolis. our favorite canadian that's right and now it's time for our educational part of the show where we do the pinball news don't fucking just read news off the internet you fat piece of shit well first up canada departs podcasting now this this is I wouldn say this is a can of worms This is like a vat of worms Oh, yeah. This is like a big thing, because to use one of Canada's favorite words, he is very polarizing. Yes. You either love him or you hate him, and there's very few people that are sitting on the fence. And the people who love him may not necessarily love him as a person, but they love his show. But that still falls under love. Yeah, Tenedo was forced off the air, basically. It was his choice. Somebody went to his employer and basically called him out as a shitty person, more or less, for revealing pinball secrets and things like that. I completely understand that the marketing company had a problem with that because they're like, look, we market products for people and that's one of our employees is out leaking things. It doesn't look good for us. So he volunteered to finish the podcast. Episode 499, which really sucks. It would have been nice to get 500, but it just sucks in general. My opinion on this, I was fucked over by Kaneda. Everybody knows that, that I shared the Munster's photos with him under sworn secrecy, and he just basically turned around and said, which probably helps sound my relationship with Stern. And basically I was blamed for every leak and everything after that, which was really hell. So it was a big problem. But, you know, down the road at some point I decided to forgive him, not for him but for me. It was just something that I wanted to do. I thought, you know, help me grow as a person, be a little bit more forgiving because prior to that I really wasn't. You know, I was one of those people who were like, you don't get three chances, you get one. And if you fuck up, fuck off. So anyway, I did forgive him. I never trusted him again. And I never shared anything with him. or anybody else for that matter along those lines. But I'm telling you, you don't go after a man's livelihood. You don't try to take food off of his table. You don't try to shut down a podcast that you have the choice to ignore if you choose. I'm not making excuses for the guy. I'm not saying that he's done good things. He's done a lot of bad things. He has, but he loved podcasting and he should have the right to do that. He should be able to do it, even if nobody listens. If he can put on a podcast and it makes him happy, that's great. And to take that away because you don't enjoy his podcast or you don't like him, that's shit. You know, I'm not getting Miley Cyrus, you know, taking off her record label because I don't listen to her crap. You know, she has the right to make it. She has the right to express her feelings and whatever. And that's what it, I mean, yeah, sure, it's two different things. You know, music, I don't know, sometimes I think some of her songs are as offensive as some of the shit that she's pulled. But you get my point. And I'm not going to dwell on it. I'm just, you know, Kanaan and I are not friends, but we're not enemies. We're somewhere in between. And that's fine with me. And like I said, I just don't, I do not believe in what happened. I think that's a shame. I think whoever did it should be embarrassed for not only acting like a child, but, you know, just destroying somebody's life. You know, maybe not completely. I'm not saying that the guy can't live and he's six feet under, but he's had some pretty big take away. That's a shame. Yeah, man, I'm not really sure what to say about any of this because Kaneda, he's a controversial guy. I think half of the people out there are excited he's gone, and half of the people are really upset that he's off the airwaves. And I know plenty of people, including good friends of mine, who will get angry if you even say his name, which is why he's been called the Voldemort pinball in the past. And he said things about people that I care about that I really can't condone. But he's a really smart guy. He's very articulate. I did listen to his show. I will never deny that I thought he was entertaining. He can speak for an hour off the cuff about pinball and keep things interesting, which is a skill in and of itself. He's made close to 500 episodes of a pinball podcast, which is nothing to shake a stick at. We have a hard time even making one every two to three weeks, so I have to give respect to that. I just wish he had kept the drama out of his podcast and the personal attacks and the bullying of guys like Hilton and all that stuff. It was unnecessary. Well, he's showing after Josh, too. Yes, and Zach and everyone. He was really good at coming up with very good points about pinball. His shows where he went into the company's background, and he left, he peppered some opinion in there, but it was mostly a fact-finding podcast where he just talked about the origins of American pinball. Those episodes were great, and I wish he just took the drama out of it. But he has the freedom to do whatever he wants. He has the freedom of speech. He can go and do a podcast, but words have consequences, and you have the freedom to say what you want, but people can react and do whatever they want with that information. It's out there. You've said it, and it can come back to bite you. And if, you know, I don't condone someone going to his work. I think that's absolutely inappropriate. As you said, I feel for the guy in that sense. Nobody wants to feel like their livelihood is at risk. But, you know, he did open some doors to people criticizing him. And, you know, some would argue he got off on that and he liked that. I think that he is going to leave a void in the pinball podcasting world for better or worse. And there's a lot of people out there who enjoy listening to a show on the way to work. And I think that they are, you know, they're really going to miss the guy. and I hope whatever he ends up doing, he's able to, the fact that he's so ingrained in the pinball world, I'm going to find it very hard to believe that he's going to stay out of it. We'll see what happens. Right, yeah. It's the, you know, the Joe Smith podcast pops up. That's right. Don't be surprised. Another thing, though, is, you know, all those people that were attacking him and running after him, trying to chase him off, you know, they've all benefited from his mistakes as well. You know, him sharing photos. I can guarantee you the person that ratted him out to his employer has went and looked at the photos that he posted, you know, prior to the release of the game. So they're just guilty. You know, they're curious and they're looking. And that's why he does it, because people want to see it. But then at the same time, then they chastise him for it. You know, and it's like, well, then why are you looking? You know, so there's a bit of hypocrisy involved. And that's not cool either, but, you know, whatever. It is what it is. It's unfortunate. And like I said, I don't condone what he's done to tear people down and to badmouth people and to threaten their jobs. You know, that's obviously not cool. Again, I was part of that. I was one of those victims. But, you know, I still say live and let live, you know. The one thing I've learned from Kaneda is that words on a podcast have weight. I mean, I'm nervous about every time we podcast, I'm nervous about saying something that's really dumb. You know, that's going to make me look like someone I'm not. And there's even, you know, not saying things at certain times. I mean, we talked about this off the air, but the last episode we did, we talked to Jeremy Packer about why he wasn't podcasting anymore. And one of the things that he said is that Kaneda and Martin Robbins, when he was doing the podcast circuit, kind of turned him off from pinball. And we didn't follow up on that. We didn't say, hey, what do you mean by that? Marty's a great guy. Like, what happened? Because, you know, we didn't follow up on that. And it turns out after digging a little deeper post-podcast, podcast. Marty had nothing to do with it, and Jeremy had just kind of misremembered how things played out. And, you know, Marty's good guy status is completely untarnished. But it's important that we know that what we say matters, you know, and it could come back to bite us. Yeah, and this is the perfect time to add in that Jeremy did ask us on this podcast to apologize to Martin for that, because he, even if he listened to it again, you could tell he was struggling to remember names, And I think that name just popped up in his head. That's what it was. But he was rather remorseful that he was wrong about that. And he asked us to send his apologies to Martin. So we are doing so. So let's move on to other news. And the next item on the list is Hot Wheel Streams and some positive feedback for the game. So have you watched the latest and greatest Hot Wheel Streams by Jack Danger and Zach and Greg and the whole podcasting world that has their hands on Hot Wheels? I watched a few. I know for sure that I watched Jax. And I've got to say, you know, I mean, it's not the Adams family, but it looks like a good game. You know, of course, because I'm an artist, I'll go with the art first. Originally, the art I was disappointed because they didn't go with, like, a vintage theme because I had made a mock-up, actually, and said this is what they should do. And they didn't go that route. But what they did, you know, they went a more modern route, but it also seems to have its toe in the pool of vintage. and so if you're trying to span it it swerves in and out of both of those lanes if you will, pun intended just thought right ahead of time yeah, sure and yeah, but it's it looks cool, the artwork looks good, even the video it reminds me of that robot chicken shuttle, you know, so it's originally I thought, what is this, some kind of kiddie crap and then I saw it and I'm like, no, it's got that adult edge to it where it's not naughty, you know, it's for kids, but adults can enjoy it too because it's kind of got that corpus as a humor. But yeah, it works for the game. I agree with you. When I first saw that, the stop motion kind of vibe, I wasn't feeling it, but seeing it in gameplay on the streams, I think it works for this game. And I was a little bit unsure about how I would feel about it being a pared down version of American Pinball's games because I played Houdini this weekend, I played Oktoberfest this weekend. They are super well-built games. It just feels solid when you play them and they are packed, man. There is a a ton of stuff under that glass. And I didn't really get that when I saw pictures of Hot Wheels, but seeing it played, it doesn't do away with that, but it definitely makes the gameplay seem like it's a lot more fun than I had initially imagined. The LED lights are used in ways that are really cool and make it look really fun. The multi-balls look fun. It just looks like a fun game. I mean, it's not loaded. No one's going to argue that this game has got mechs for days. or... But it's got everything you need to have a good, fun pinball experience. And I hate to say it, but you know, because some people don't like it when you say it, mod it out a bit, and you'll fill it out as far as look good. You know, people are going to come out with their junk and you throw it in there. I don't think it hurts too much on, you know, granted it doesn't have a big ramp that goes way up and you land in a barrel ride or whatever, but yeah. And it's not, you know, it's a low-priced game. It's not, like I said, it's not Adam's family, but it's not shit either. it's the learning lesson that don't knock it till you play it because it was a game that was very easy to knock when you're just looking at pictures and you don't know what's going on and everyone says well you can just play it first but we all seem to forget that and we just react when we see pictures and I was never really critical of it because we had Josh and Joe on to talk about it and I was always hopeful for it absolutely and the way they talked about it and the features they talked about, and their description of why it is what it is. I mean, it's $1, 000 plus cheaper than their other games. So, you know, you're not going to have all of the bells and whistles that the other ones do. You know, if you're a bells and whistles guy and you need those mechs that wow people, the catapults, the roller coaster habit trail in Oktoberfest, then this game might not be for you. But I think it hits the mark with a very fun-to-play game with code that looks pretty well fleshed out. Yeah, look at one of the favorite games that people love, Vintage Stern Game. Look at S.T.A.R.S. What's in that? That's right. It's just fun to play. Yeah. I can think of a ton of games that are stripped down, that are just fun to play, that are far more stripped down than Out really Hot Wheels is about speed. And I think the more complicated you make the play field, the more you slow up the game. So maybe it did the property justice to keep it a little cleaner and a little faster. As much as we're blowing smoke on this game, I think people are going to call us shills. But I truly feel that this is it. It looks like a fun game. And exactly what you said, it is not for everyone. I mean, if you like the Twilight Zones, in terms of if that's the game for you, this is not probably the game for you. I like both yeah exactly I like both and yeah we're not showing the game we're you know actually I feel a little pissed off at American Pinball because they promised three of us some swag in the mail after we did the interview nothing ever showed up yeah I'm checking my mailbox yeah got nothing everybody lies on the internet so hey American Pinball you guys owe us some swag for doing that interview but yeah they don't sponsor our show or anything that's not it I'm just you know I'll call it like you see it you know people you know even Canada you know again another story against Canada He fucking dogged this game hard when it first came out, but he never saw it playing or saw it. He just said, you know, the artwork's so, this, that, everything sucks. I chose to, for one of the first times in my life, reserve my opinion until I saw more. And was happy with what I saw. So, you know, okay, yeah, in the interest of not sounding like a shill, we will move on. Let's move on. Malti Morphix, fantastic Bluetooth headphones. If you guys don't have this, you've got to get a bit right now. Aw, yeah. New and improved. Innovative. This is another innovation coming out of Multimorphic. Jerry Stelenberg over there, he's finding stuff that people have wanted for a long time and implementing it into the P3 system. The whole purpose of the P3 was to do something new, put a spin on pinball that hasn't been seen before with the play field. It's a video. It's kind of a hybrid of video game and pinball all in one. And now he's, you know, he did, we talked about the internet connectivity on the last episode where you can play head-to-head matches online. And he just released Bluetooth support for the platform as well, which is really cool. Because when you're playing in a loud place or you just want to, you know, Chris, you mentioned the last time you recorded this bit that you've got a neighbor next door. Yeah, on the other side of the wall. Yeah, exactly. I mean, that's a perfect instance where having Bluetooth support would be awesome because then you can just put in your headphones, hit the button and pair it, and then listen to the audio without making a racket in your house. And I could crank it, yeah, because now the volume's down low and all that. It kind of makes the audio experience kind of sucky. I think Jerry's done a couple of the sound packages on the games I have. But if Jerry only knew how crappy it sounded at a really low volume, he'd be ashamed that I could turn it up louder and get the whole experience. But, yeah, it blows. So this is very cool. And, you know, again, he's got, you know, this is another notch up on Deep Group because Deep Group keeps talking about all these innovations, but they haven't come out with shit yet. Well, we haven't seen anything, right? We saw a prototype, and that's pretty much all we've seen. What are they waiting for? What the fuck is going on? We've been sitting here on our asses for, like, four months. Captive audience. And still nothing. Way longer. Oh, you mean during the quarantine, yes. But, I mean, they've been promising stuff forever. I mean, the five days of Deep Root was supposed to be two years ago now. I mean, what? Yeah, and they're like, oh, we hit a snag. What, a fucking two-year-long snag? Like, come on already. People are starting to get to the point where they're just forgetting that they're even around. Right. Unfortunately, when you talk a big game, you have to come out and you have to represent. And the longer it goes after you've spoken highly about your product, the more people are going to expect from you, right? So if you've taken two years beyond the big reveal, we're going to expect something so grandiose that it's going to be so hard to produce that degree of product that is so unique and brings the wow factor. I'm really curious. I can't wait. There have been rumors that July is going to be the month where they start to reveal things again. So I'm fingers crossed that that's going to happen. But like you said, I think people have kind of just, the hype is almost gone, right? I mean, until we see something they get hyped about again, the hype is pretty much fizzled. And that's not good because we've seen similar situations like that happen before in pinball. And what happens is when it finally does come out, people are so soured on it that even if it's awesome, they're just kind of like, whatever. Two years for that? You know how hard, how fickle the pinball audience can be. Oh, my God. Imagine if we were waiting three years for a plug-in pinball machine from this company and they put it out. You can't match people's expectations. Waiting that long, there's nothing you could possibly put in the game. Four people are going to be like, all right, that's what I waited for. They're just going to go like, yaw, whatever. You're absolutely right. And it could be the coolest shit ever, and you are still going to get the haters. And you're going to get a larger percentage of haters the longer you go without showing stuff. But that being said, people will come around. I mean, cooler heads prevail. If they come out with a product that is really cool and really innovative, as they say that they're going to, I think people are going to be excited. And even if they don't, man, new pinball is great. I mean, if you can come out with a new game that people have access to that might do a few things differently than other pinball machines, then that's all you can really ask for. I think they're a victim of their own hype. You know, they came out with such big statements that, you know, I don't know if it did them any favors, but we'll see. Maybe they'll live up to it. Definitely the kings of pinball bravado. Yes. So, okay, well, we'll see about that. Anyway, congrats, Multimorphic. That's cool. And also congrats to Stern for rolling out the turtles because they're shipping out L.E.s now. L.E.s are on the line. I saw pictures on Facebook. Congratulations, Jeremy. We're getting the, you know, it's always good to see the artwork, you know, on the game itself. And Borg, did you see Borg's picture out there playing the LEs? Did you know that he plays every single LE that's out there? There was a Stern post that said he physically flips every LE. That's crazy. Every model LE or every actual game? Like, he flips all 500 of each? Every actual game, apparently, according to Stern's post. You should reach out to him and see if that's true. Yeah, because then he flipped my monsters, so if anything's broken on there or breaks, I'm going to blame him. So I'm just going to fix it for free. The warranty, man. I mean, you messed up my warranty. Actually, he sent me some stuff for my monsters because I stripped some bolts on the, I don't know what they are, little screws on the lens for the lower play field. I was trying to adjust it. Be very careful because if you don't have a super sharp, brand-new Allen wrench, those things get fried real quickly, just a little bit of torque, and they're gone. so I'm putting that back together. Do you have a premium or an LE? I have an LE. Okay, so what made you choose that over the black and white? I wanted the color. I worked too, you know, as an artist, I worked too hard on the color to just throw it away and get a black and white game, you know? I mean, I know the black and white one is cool, you know, and it's unique and all that, but from an artist, like the only reason I have these, well, I should say the only reason is because pinball is fun. Of course, you don't want a pinball machine, But I buy them because I don't buy the ones I want. Like, you know, oh, I want, you know, a Twilight Zone. I want a saddle. I buy these because I did the art on them. Right. And that doesn't mean they're bad games. You know, I'm not saying anything. You know, I got a Guardians and a Batman. These things are awesome. And Munsters even, you know, a lot of people don't know, but I like it because, you know, because of what it is. And so because I buy it for the artwork, I just, you know, because I spent a year of my life doing it. And a lot of it has to do with, you know, all the coloring and what you do. And I just couldn't seem to get in the black and white. I know it was unique. It's a neat thing. I know Borgi has the black and white. I just wanted the color, so I had to go to LE to get the color. Of course, they put the premium out in color later on down the road. But I'm glad I got the LE because I got the cool casket, you know, cabinet. So it's really fun. I put gold trim, you know, gold coin door and gold lights on it, and it looks just amazing. And Borgi is so jealous. That's awesome. Yeah, so that's it for that. Congrats, Jim, and Borg and Dwight. I'm not sure he did a sound on that. Yeah, he did. Dude, is there anyone else who does sound? He seems like he does a sound on every single game. I don't know. He's just a cool dude, too. Oh, my God. And how he does that. Like, these guys are doing these games over 18 months or whatever, right? So he's got to be doing multiple games at once, and he somehow puts out epic sound packages for every single game. No one is ever sitting there saying, the sound on this game sucks, right? I mean, the fact that he's gotten kudos for every single game, I don't know if he gets enough respect for that. Yeah, I think he does. I think he's pretty well-respected and people like him. And we have a special birthday greeting for him later on in the interview. Very nice. But, hey, you know what? Since it's that birthday, do we have another birthday we want to mention? We do. Birthday boy Ken Cromwell, happy birthday, sir. Your birthday was yesterday. I hope it was a special day. I saw you with your family, your wife and kids, and that seemed like you were having a really good time. So happy birthday, Ken Cromwell. And also our guest of honor today, Jeremy Packer, Zombie Yeti, had a birthday recently. Happy birthday, sir. And, yeah, back to Cromwell for a minute. Do you know what I was saying to him every time I called him? Oh, Jesus, what? Cromwell, can you hear me? Can you feel me near you? Well, I get the Call Me Dr. Love song. Let's hear that. Oh, you want me to hear the Gene Simmons? Yeah, man. They call me Dr. Love. They call me Dr. Love. Okay. Gene Simmons is the only person I know that can take the word baby and make it 12 syllables long. I guess how many of you write songs like that? I can't think of any of yours. Just put the word baby in there and it goes, Oh, baby, baby, baby, yeah. So move it for your love. We've got to get Ron Hyland to do a little bit of that. But yeah, if anyone hasn't heard, we have to get a soundbite of your voicemail message. So Chris never checks his voicemail. I guess it's full, right? But I tell people that in the message. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. But when you call, it's Macho Man Randy Savage. And this was way before Macho Man did his podcast. Chris was a big macho guy before that. And when you call his phone, it is freaking hilarious, dude. You've got to get an audio clip of that because it's all Chris doing Macho Man. and he's like, don't leave a message. I'm like, that's me. This is from my show, Matt Brady. Yeah, my show, I'm going to tell you something. Yeah, yeah. I'm going to come back and help you. You're going to get a head up. Oh, yeah. It's going to be a check. Sorry, man. I laugh. I've heard that a million times. I laugh every time. First of all, that's a lousy impression. I could do that much better now. And second of all, much of me, I would never swear. and I said, rip your goddamn head off. This is a macho being really savage and I'm not into it at all right now. You know why? Because I don't feel like it. You can leave a message and maybe I'll call you back. Yeah, maybe I'll call you back. But maybe I won't have time. Yeah. That's awesome, man. So good. Okay, anyways. Hey, I don't have a whole big news story about this but it's a little tidbit and the headline would be don't count aliens out I talked to somebody very much on the inside of this whole thing and I was just told don't count it out with a winky face so just saying some people may have said oh that's dead in the water or whatever that's not going to happen and you know if you're looking for it you might want to make sure to squirrel some money away because you might have a chance to get one. Just saying. Just pass, you know, hey, don't hold me accountable because I'm just passing along information I was told. Now, rumor's been out there forever, but I have heard that that's picking up some steam, so we'll see where that goes. Yep. So the next item of news is a new podcast alert. Now, we have so many freaking new podcasts that come out on a daily basis, it seems. The Pinball Network has released, it feels like, maybe a new podcast a week, which is awesome because the more variety out there, the more people can get their voices on air. And not everything out there is for you, but there is a podcast that just hit the airwaves that I was super psyched about because one of my, probably my favorite podcasts of all time is Head to Head Pinball with Martin Robbins and Ryan C. They did some great stuff and probably the greatest of all time. And they are back on the air to a point, right? So Martin Robbins is in the Final Round podcast. But Ryan C has been off the air with Mr. Teal's silver tongue. And Ryan C finally made an appearance on a new podcast called Jesse J's Pinball Adventures. And it's kind of like a Mrs. Pin Australian version. And it's hilarious. You've got to check it out. Ryan is always good on the airwaves. We've got to get him on the show at some point soon. But he met this girl, Jessie J. They're just friends, but they are kind of going through this, like, you know, exploring pinball. She's new to the scene, and he's quizzing her and telling her about, you know, pinball history and that sort of thing. So it's really like she's curious, and he's shoving her into it. That's right. He is definitely her pusher. But he's doing it in a funny way, as Ryan C. always does. So check that out. Good new podcast alert. Yes. Yeah, that was a good one. Is it time to move on to the star of the show, Mr. Jeremy Packer, and part two of his interview? It is, but first we need to do a commercial break so that our fine sponsors can peddle their wares. So we're going to go to a commercial break, and we're going to come back with Jeremy Packer. Stick around, and we'll be right back. We'll be right back. Guess what? I got a fever. And the only prescription is for the super awesome pinball show. Oh, yeah! Super! Yeah! This show is sponsored by Cointaker, distributor of brand new full-size authentic Stern pinball, Chicago game, raw thrills, arcade games, and much more. Also, a full line of dramatic pinball mods, LED flipper kits, speaker lights, custom laser LED toppers, playfield protectors, Valley Williams parts, pinball apparel, and much more. Get the latest releases and glam out your game room with Cointaker. Everything at your fingertips at Cointaker.com. Get your game on. Hey, it's me, Doc. It's my name's Pinball. Want to play me? Play the Prime's Pinball. A rugged machine with plenty of fast action. Pretty quick, huh? The Fonz Pinball is the real thing. With drag strip breakways. Lots of buffer action, too. Watch those independent action flippers. Perfect. Hell, it's like real scoring. The Fonz Pinball Machine. Hey! By Coleco. Hi, you're listening to the Super Awesome Pinball Podcast. That's it? That's all I have. Who is this? Okay, I'm sorry. Hold on. Let me, okay. This is Kaneda. And you're going to think... I don't know. Let's see. Let me think of this one again. Okay, so... I'm trying to think of the best way to put this. Uh... Alright, so this is part two of Jeremy Packer's interview, and man, I'm excited to hear this because it's been a few weeks since we did it, and I don't remember everything super clearly because at that point I was a few drinks in. You sounded drunk or something on the radio. So here it is. We left you on a cliffhanger last week. Will Franchi work for Stern? Let's find out. so Chris let me ask you this would you or could you ever work with Stern again will Frankie say yes will he say no will Christian start the official Jeremy Packer fan club will Ed continue his retirement lifestyle of booze and cigars find out all this and more on the exciting conclusion of the Zombie Yeti interview fuck yeah I'm answering that for you I'm answering that for you, dude. Well, no, I was actually, no, I was asking you because I think I can get you a job. I'm so honest. Do you want me to answer your question now? Yeah, fucking answer it. Well, let me tell you why I left first. Okay. I heard Gary Stern was involved. That's all I heard. Yeah, well, I mean, it's kind of convoluted, and I don't even know exactly what happened, but as I perceive it and why I made the choice, this is what I know. After I did Batman they invited me out to Expo for the reveal And you know this was my first thing You know like had like you with primus i had like i think four weeks maybe that why batman is primarily artwork that was already seen elsewhere like on you know model kit boxes or you know whatever i had done i did a dvd box for warner brothers because i didn't have time by the way you can blame me for the additional work on the playfield because when they showed me what you did and they showed the playfield i said uh you're going to leave the playfield like that, are you? You need to get him to do the stuff on the playfield as well. Oh, I don't blame you. I don't blame you. Thank you. No, I did get paid for it, and it makes it a little more mine. I mean, because you've seen what they had. There were photos with paint on them. It was Kevin O'Connor, actually. Yeah, he took photos, and then he kind of airbrushed Photoshop in sort of a rear highlight coming in from the back. Yeah, yeah. It looked kind of weird. Very bare bones. Yeah, I love Kevin's work, but I don't think that was a good example of his work, you know. Anyway, so ever since day one, and you're familiar with this, there's that unwritten rule that artists have that, let's say you're a comic artist for Marvel. Well, you go to a comic book convention, you print off a bunch of your artwork so that people have something to get signed, you know. And it's not licensed. It's just printed art, you know. And Marvel might be right across the hall from you, and they'll come over and they'll go, Oh, hey, you know, how's it going, Johnny Crap? you know nice senior you know great cover you know whatever and walk away they're not going to scoop the shit up and go these aren't licensed and throw them away it's that unwritten rule that if you're the artist they just kind of look the other way well along with this i'm like okay well if i'm going to be a guest i wasn't a guest at expo i was just there to you know be part of what's going on and meet adam west and all that sure but then i got asked to do that i don't know what the next one was maybe it was tpf i don't know i don't remember i don't remember what my first show as a guest was. But anyway, when I went there, I printed off some stuff to have somebody, you know, I'm not going to bring a pinball machine in to get some, I might bring the back glass in, but right. So I figured like, whatever. Yeah. You got to have something. So I made some prints. Well, Gary's not familiar with this process and Gary also would not, I don't know why he was afraid of me or if it was because he was afraid of me or what, but Gary would call Joe Kamenko and say, Like, Frenchie's got, you know, whatever, Beatles prints on his table. God damn it, blah, blah, blah. Joe would call me, do you have Beatles prints on your table? Yeah. Well, you can't. Gary doesn't have a license for prints. You don't have a license for prints. You can't sell that. And I'm like, well, Joe. And then I would explain to him the unwritten rule. Well, Joe, love Joe to pieces. Joe's not the kind of guy who's going to take the time to properly explain this to Gary. I can help you out tremendously here and just let you know that Gary being a lawyer, That entire company is very, very protective and careful of how they do everything in regards to licensing. So I wouldn't take it personal at all. Oh, no, I never took it personally. It's just that I would explain it to Joe. Joe would go back to Gary with probably a very simple explanation that just by the matter of it being a one- or two-sentence explanation, Gary didn't buy. Gary didn't get. He's like, no, I don't want this happening, whatever. So, you know, I think the first time I took it off my table or whatever, and then the second time I did the same thing. Whatever the latest greatest was, I made a print of it, and the same thing happened. So this happened all the way up until I started working on Monsters. So when I finished Monsters, of course, I pulled the stupid rookie mistake. Because he begged and promised he wouldn't share it, I let Kaneda see all his artwork. You idiot! Okay, there we go. That's probably more than me. They hate Kaneda sometimes. Yes, they do. Well, they hated him a lot less at this time. You're right. No, you're right. You're right. Yeah, this was a year and a half ago. Anyway, so that got out there. So this is the answer to your question as far as would I work for Stern again. I've done a lot of thinking over the past couple of years since I walked away, and I did a lot of thinking about the people that work there. The bottom line is the only person I had a disagreement with was Gary. And, to be completely honest, Gary was completely justified in what he was upset about because he didn't understand it. He didn't get it. So I can't say that I'm angry at him because, you know, well, damn it, you understood what I was talking about, but you're still pissed off. He didn't get it. So how can you be upset at someone who didn't get it? And everyone else at Stern that I knew, that I dealt with, I was very respectful of. Love them to pieces. I had a great time. I missed working with Greg. Steven's awesome. Yeah, absolutely. You know, they were really good to me, and I really enjoyed working there. So the answer to your question would be, yes, I would. Fuck yeah! Let me ask you this, Jeremy. So from a guy who's still in CERN, do you hear people talking about Franchi? Because it's very obvious across the board on Pinside and Facebook and all the other sites that Chris has done some amazing work there. And that, you know, their games are better off for him having been involved with them. Has anyone said, well, fuck, you know, I wish we had Franchi for this project? Or, you know, do you think we could get him? Like, is there any sentiment there? Yeah? No, I've absolutely said it. I'm like, you know, the perfect fit here would be Frenchie. Like, I've said it many times. I've had the conversation. What was the reaction to that? Greg agrees. You know, I mean, but it's one of those things where, like, he then kind of, you know, dismisses it like, well, but I guess that'll never happen or something. So, you know, personally, this is my feeling. Whatever transpired, I don't think that it's irreparable damage, in my opinion. I think time is the healer of all wounds, not to be hacky. And so I personally think that I wouldn't count it out. You know, I think as long as people are supportive. I know John Borg, obviously, he brings up you for things as well. I mean, like, so I wouldn't rule it out. And I don't think anyone internally that I encounter in the PD area is against you. in that regard, so I wouldn't worry about it. You know, not that anyone listens to me there, but occasionally they ask me for opinions, and they do listen. And I try to always be a force of good as much as possible. That doesn't mean I can't be a dick. Just ask my art teacher. But having said that, let's say the stopgap, let's say the issue is Gary. And don't take this the wrong way, anyone, But Gary's got to retire eventually. But having said that, I think he could be persuaded. Just to give you a little perspective, I don't know that Gary likes me at all. I don't even know that he knows who I am. I've encountered him a handful of times. I've been there at exec meetings for the projects I work on. And I'm not sure often if, you know, how things are being taken. I can tell you this much, I'm very resistant to making off-color jokes at those meetings because I don't know that they'll know how to take them. But it gets very passionate. We'll just put it that way. Lots of fights, like passionate fights for, like, you know, like, well, no, this needs to stay in and this, that, and the other, and, you know. So here's a good one. I was in the executive meeting, the first one, for Iron Maiden. And by the way, let me just say that, just to put this out there. Greg Ferris knows how to manage me to perfection. I'm a very, believe it or not, I can be very high strung. I can be a little bit of a fatalist at times as I put the pressure on myself. He's been the greatest manager, and I'm glad to consider him a friend, you know, in this space. And as soon as he leaves CERN, I'm gone. Anyway, no. You know what's interesting, Rez is leaving Stern. I'm getting on the pin side right now. If he does. I'm just kidding. What's interesting, though, is on TMNT, he was working on Outlier. So he did not actually come in. I was left to my own for probably the first five months of that project. And maybe I think about this now, and I haven't even told him this, but I think about this now. Maybe that's why I was driving myself so crazy, questioning myself all the time, because I didn't have Greg there to, like, whip me into shape and be like, shut up. But, no, he's not that way. He's very kind. But I do have to say that the teams that I've worked with at CERN, and obviously starting with my point man, Greg, I've had nothing but a great experience, and that's why I continue to work with him. As soon as they make it a bad experience, I'm out of there. Well, I mean, go into that, A-Wing. Oh, ouch, ouch. No, no, no. Listen, I've been fortunate enough to work with George Gomez. I've been fortunate enough to work with Keith Elwin. I've been fortunate enough to work with John Borg, along with, you know, Dwight and Keith's wonderful team. Those guys are incredible. And so I've not had a bad experience, other than that first guy. But anyway, that's a whole other story. Well, let's go into that because, I mean, you like to crack jokes. You like to have a good time. You made this game with a great group of guys, Sullivan, Borg, and Thompson, and, you know, everyone else involved. I didn't say Thompson. Oh, Thompson is a great dude. I'm kidding. He's a great guy. Jerry, Jerry. Happy birthday, Jerry. Happy birthday, yes. This is a birthday. Happy birthday, Jerry. Happy birthday, dear Jerry. I started that. I get full credit. You guys were all, I mean, you're all good dudes. So how was that working environment? I think that that grouping of people would be a lot of fun to work with. Nice grouping. It was. It absolutely was. The only thing I can say is the only roadblock, or I should call it speed bump, that ever occurred in the entire project was my own making. And what happened was, again, you know, just like with Ghostbusters and sort of focusing my energy into one's face, I usually end up doing the same cabinet art on both sides of every mop, right? Like, I don't do, like, a specific left versus a right. And the reason why is because I know that I'm going to have to split my time, and not that I'm going to give away anything, and Chris won't either, but cabinets don't pay a lot. in the grand scheme of how things are scoped out. And so I put way too much time into those to begin with. So if I'm going to do two unique sides, you know, that's a problem. So what happened was at one point management came in, I think it might have been sales or someone, and said, you know what, we'd really like to moving forward have the LE have two sides. And now I had already finished the LE, and all it was, not all the plugs, that sounds terrible, but it was the van side, right? Like I was going to have that duplicated on both sides. And they're like, nah, we want to do, you know, we want to do a unique second side. And I'm like, god damn it! Crap, you know, schedule. Like, you know, you guys are, you know, like, I've got this other stuff that I'm trying to, you know, finish for you guys. Like, are you okay with the schedule, you know, moving out a little bit so we can accommodate? And, of course, no, that's not how it works. And so then I always feel this pressure on me and that Daniel cracks that whip. And so I'm like, okay, well, so what's the idea here? And John and Dwight wanted, because the glider is very important in the game, on the LE in particular, they're like, well, let's do the other side and replace the van with the glider coming and swooping in through the street. And this is a personal preference that caused this problem. I could have just done it and been done. They said, I don't like the glider. I don't. It visually is not as interesting. Now when it's attached to the balloon, even at that, it's not as interesting. I said, you know what, what I would love to do since we have the back glass, good against evil, and we have this light against dark, I said, I'd like to do something, you know, we haven't done anything on here with the underground layer of the Technodrome and the transport modules and this, that, and the other. and they're kind of like, eh. And so I did a sketch, and that's the only sort of back-and-forth we had debate in the entire project. Otherwise, everybody was like, yes, yes, yes. And it wasn't until I actually did it and finished it that they're like, okay, let's see what you're getting. Because I don't explain myself well all the time. And with visuals, it takes a while until you've had it locked in. But I think it was the right answer. I'll stand by it. And I don't, again, when I say that we had back-and-forth, It's not like we were fighting or anything like that. We were just kind of like, I don't know about this, that, the other. I probably should have been voted out and just done what I said. But that brings up another question in that how much freedom do you have to really just do whatever the heck you want versus them saying, you know, this is what we want for the pro, the premium, and the LE, or is it all you? It's usually pretty much all me. Now, when I say that, I mean like up front I'll ask, you know, is there something specific you want? So Keith Ellin's a great example. Iron Maiden, he's like, I know that I want the premium to be, you know, sort of somewhere in time or, you know, like we want to get the pyramids in there. We want to do something, you know, along those lines. And he knew that for the pro, he kind of thought, you know, you kind of go with trooper. You know, so he had sort of general ideas of what they were, but I was supposed to just figure out, you know, where to take it, obviously. But other than that, it's up to me. Like, you know, and when it comes to playfields, in this case between Dwight and John, Dwight's like, okay, I know that this rule, this shot is this rule, this rule, this rule. And so figure out how to incorporate this or that. And then I kind of decide what's going to go. for the most part, you know, I don't think other than text there's ever really a lot of input asked. You're sort of understanding what the rules are to be able to support that with the art more than anything. Being that you and I, I think, have kind of similar sensibilities when it comes to humor and whatnot. Do you ever have those conversations with Greg where you throw out this like left field joke and then there's just crickets and then he just like kind of shifts the conversation back to work and you feel like an ass because he doesn't have the same gross sense of humor that I do. I know what you're talking about. For the most part, I've learned very easily what not to joke about. Yeah, where to pull back, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And actually, Greg has gone out of his way most recently to, out of left field, make jokes that take me off guard. I've been shocked at some of the disgusting jokes I've heard from him. No, no, no. Greg's a funny guy. So, like, we're at the point now where we have a pretty good shorthand in that regard. And when a joke does bomb, it becomes funny because it bombed. Yeah, Greg's got a very dry sense of humor. He's a funny guy, but it's a dry funny. And I think you and I are very wet funny. I consider myself moist funny. Moist and tender. And flavorful. Moist funny. I feel my funniness is very satisfying. Ah, yes. Oh, Jeremy's unfamiliar with that. We've talked in the past about how much I hate the word satisfying and pinball. When people say, it's a very satisfying shot. I'm like, did you cum? Like, what do you mean satisfying? It's a fucking pinball shot. It was fun. It's not satisfying. It's an odd one to me. Like, I would go with, it's a very, what's the best term here that I'm looking for? Super awesome. Gratifying. Gratifying would be a better term to use there. Yes, I agree. Gratifying says I enjoyed it. Satisfying says it's okay, it's good. You know, like it doesn't, for me that doesn't sell it, I guess. That's how they're using it, though. The intention is that it's a great shot, it's satisfying. Listen, I'm not the best with the English language, so I'm not going to jump down any one. I'm telling you, I totally follow you on that. It just seems too proper to me of a word. It's cool. It's awesome. You know, whatever. It's satisfying. That just sounds, whatever. I'm with you. I can see that coming across as a little bit. So, Ed, would you like to ask a question from one of our fine listeners? Mr. Kerry Hardy asks, The days before a pinball machine is released, what's going through your mind? Take this job and shove it. I ain't working it. Well, it's apparent he's had a pit side. Have pictures been leaked yet? Depends on what the man is. Let me rephrase the question. The days before the pinball machine is released or leaked, what's going through your mind? I'm frightened and I'm excited. Number one, I'm excited because I can finally talk about something that I haven't been able to talk about that I am genuinely excited for. And then I'm also frightened because I do feel like everything that I do once it's released is going to determine if I do another one. If people don't like it, then I'm gone. Or at least I'm not quote-unquote hot or whatever the hell it is, right? Like, you go, oh, well, it's flavor of the week. I mean, you know what I mean? Like, in trash, Chris, it's like one of those things where, like, I kind of feel like any day now all that's got to happen is somebody new has to come into the fray and then you're old and irrelevant. Yeah. And, like, I don't really care about that per se. Like, it's not like I'm, like, you know. But what I care about is the fact that people appreciate and recognize my effort. And if I haven't done the right job, there will be factors that will prevent them from being able to see it. Right. Like when those pictures leaked and people saw like the front of the Ellie and I was goofy, smiling turtles. This was stupid. And I'm like, you guys don't understand. You don't understand. That and trench coats as a disguise is the most ridiculous and funny thing in the world to me. And including that in the LE is because the LE is the most unique special package. Like, I was going to put everything that I hadn't been able to get in anywhere else into it, and I thought, that's hilarious. I'm going to smile every time I walk up to that game if I were able to get an ND, which I'm not. Well, speaking of, do you have all of your games? Do you own them? So I'm going to get in trouble here. I don't. I actually got rid of every game I own for a Magic Girl. I'm joking. Oh, that's a joke. Oh, wow. Mr. Sarcasm. No, I actually, I own Ghostbusters. I own Deadpool. I own Primus. I do not yet own an Iron Maiden. And I do not yet, obviously, own a Turtles. I like Turtles. But one of these days that'll happen. And Chris can talk about it. So no one at Stern gets free machines, and nobody gets them in their contracts, whether you work there or whether you're a contract worker. And that's based on principle, and I understand that. And so you have to buy one. Now, it doesn't mean you don't get a discount, obviously, but it's not nearly what Kaneda thinks it is. Idiot! Right. his bomb is way off on that lead. But listen, he's smarter than us. No offense, I'm not. I'm sorry, Chris. That's not meant to be. Oh, he's coming after you now. Three episodes are coming up tonight. You just threw down the gauntlet. No, I just mean that sometimes when you say things with authority and you don't know them for a fact, it's not a good look. So just to let you know, that's not, you're not close on that. I'm a guy entertaining at times, except for when he's bad mouthing myself. I will smack your face off of your face. But yeah, so anyway, yeah, I try to own them if and when I can. I actually reached out today about trying to obtain a Turtles premium at some point, whenever those are on the line. I don't have a clue. Now, if you could only have one of all the games you did, which one would you want? That's tough. But as of right now, at this very moment, I would have to say Turtles. I like Turtles. The new shiny? No, not because of the new shiny, but because, you know, one of the reasons is the co-op in particular. And the reason why is because in my household, I am obviously the best in the whole world. and nobody wants to play them. And the prettiest. Yeah, wow, that's true too. The tallest, also. And so I'm really excited to be able to play co-op and reach further into the game with my kids, with my wife. I mean, like, I love that idea because I think people like them who kind of feel intimidated and don't always, you know, want to get that far. Now, having said that, my daughter, who I had to do some work on, because she's actually the second best player in the house, and there are times when she can actually take me. So, you know, we'll see how that goes. But even, you know, one versus three would be fun as well, you know. But, yeah, so I say that. Second to that, I have to say Iron Maiden. No, no, listen, Deadpool is, for me, is the most fun. Don't get me wrong. Because that's what I have to say. Go ahead. We love playing it. My wife and I love playing Deadpool. She picked, you know, that's one of her games. And, you know, the guys will attest, you know, when your wife says, I want this game, you go, okay. You know, you buy that game. So, yeah, we love Deadpool. I appreciate that. I'm glad to hear that. I think, so here's a side story that I shouldn't tell, which I'm really good at. So the original incarnation of that game that was designed by he who will not be named, or as I like to call him, J2. it would have been interesting, to say the least. And I don't, I'm not sure if I'm allowed to say this. Without going into specifics, do you think the game would have been fun to shoot? Or do you think it would have been a dud? Well, okay. I might get in trouble for this, in which case Turtles was a great game. And hey, you guys can hire me, anyone. To hear the rest of this story, tune in next week when I'm just kidding. So his main feature on this game, I go in, I walk in, I see it for the first time. It's the White Woods buildup. And he's in his office, and I knock on the door, and he actually, like, he just, like, goes crazy, like, trying to, like, hide his monitor and turn things off and whatever. Hey, everybody, I'm looking at gay panels! I'm sorry, that's a terrible joke. And, uh, so... I got the baby oil. I'm sorry, I'm in trouble now. So, Turtles is definitely my last game. And so he's like, oh, I want to show you my game. And he goes out there and he shows me and he's looking through it. And one of the main features was a ramp, a retractable ramp that would come up. And I'm not going to go any further than that. But here's the important part. Me being the jackass that I am, I go, oh, my gosh. I said, John, and he's all excited. And he was a very excitable guy. I go, oh my gosh, Todd, you're right, this is incredible. I'm like, you literally took all of the feedback from Ghostbusters and decided to put it into the main feature of the game, air balls! He did not like that. And what ended up kind of happening before he even left was Tanio Klyce and I were left to ourselves. And we were, you know, Tanio Klyce was fleshing out the story and what was going to be in the game, and, you know, we had all this back and forth. And he basically became the lead on it because I don't know. Maybe I offended him. I don't know if I offended him. Or maybe he had other things brewing in the background going on that were going to catch up with him someday. I mean, I don't know. But, yeah, that's as far as I'll go with that. So, again, yeah, I'm a genius. So a giant retractable ramp. That was the feature. That was the big one. Yeah, I won't go into any more detail because there were some good things about it. But overall, how do you guide a ball on an open-sided ramp? You know, you don't. Depending on the angle that you hit this thing, it's just going to send balls everywhere. Oh, balls. A little of them straight at the glass. Well, I don't know if you're talking about something like Lord of the Rings where it shoots it into the... No, it's a little different than that. It was wild. It was wild and crazy, man. It was very far down. it was not, yeah, again, I won't go any further than that. Back on the Turtles trains, what inspired you for Turtles? Was it the, I know the video game obviously had a role in how you guys created the game. Did that impact your art at all? Obviously the show played the biggest role. What other media from the Turtles kind of fell into the art package? The only things that I really focused on were, we focused the game on the first three seasons of the original cartoon, And I also focused on the toys because for me, it wasn't just the cartoon. It was the toys. And so there's a lot of sort of hybrids or areas where I said, okay, this is going to end up looking more like the toy than the cartoon. Because obviously anyone who's grown up who loves toys and watched cartoons knows that they didn't always stay on model. Sometimes they had different versions. And so I always, from the get-go, said, okay, whenever we have something like the Turtle Man, anything else, let's default to the toy versus the TV show. Because at the end of the day, what we're looking at is a giant toy, in my mind. And as a kid, as much as I loved watching the cartoon, seeing the toy was the cool thing, right? Holding the toy, you know, things like that. So, again, trying to just sort of pick and choose where to take inspiration, those were the two things. the cartoon, the toys. So, and to that end, one of the things I did, you know, stylistically, that I, again, I don't, whatever, I could be right, I could be wrong, I don't know, but I think it adds and reinforces, you know, my love of the cartoon is the only black line that exists is in characters. Anything that is a background has a more painterly, softer approach, and there are no black lines that exist in background elements. So again, I was trying to play off of the way cell animation of that era was done and kind of support that. And, you know, it's a little thing that probably no one will even notice or care about. But to me, you know, I did tests and to me it just sells it. Hey, pun intended. Sells. It sells. I should have got the marketing guys. I got another listener question for you. And this is like something I dream about a lot too, so you'll probably have some answers in your holster ready to fire. Bryce Alt would like to know, what products, other than pinball, would you like to see your art on, i.e. lunchbox, backpack, disco jacket, whatever? Well, so I've got a bittersweet answer to that. One that I would love, but know that I would not enjoy it, and that it would end terribly, and that is video games in general. I would love to, again, my background 3D animation, things like that, long time gamer, having knowledge of programming languages and made a few goofy flash games over the early years of those days. I love video games. I mean, I love gaming in general, so the idea of interactive is always interesting to me. So first and foremost, I say that. However, I'm realistic and I know enough people in the gaming industry to know that's not a space where you can have fun and stand out. So I'm going to have to retract that one and say that, you know what? I don't know. I really don't. I just like making things. And I like it when, I really like it when people like me. So someone else tell me and I'll weigh the issues. Maybe, I don't know. Comic book, how's that? There you go. Your graphic novel you've been working on. Yeah, there you go. It's in the comic book. There it is. Follow me to Comic Book Land! Hooray! You've said it, you know, tonight a couple of times, you love gaming, and your gamer tag I guess on Xbox and PlayStation Network is your mom which is freaking hilarious So half of the pinball population that you know isn a video gamer is falling asleep So let get back to pinball We need to ask the question that people really want to know about Ninja Turtles Where is the vanilla ice Easter egg? Yes. What plastic do I have to take off to find that? Nope. Didn't do it. I'm so good talking to you. Listen, we were dealing with the first three seasons of the show, and I got to be honest with you. When I started to sour on the turtles, it was when I discovered girls. But before that, it started with Vanilla Ice in the second movie. But, yeah, no, I didn't go that route. Again, I was dealing with, trying to deal with happy memories. Well, you know, speaking of that, we've got another listener question that fits right in. Ian Harrower would like to know, having such a quirky sense of humor, have you ever done anything in a pinball art package that licensors rejected. I have. Actually, you know what? I don't know if that's true. It might have actually before it even got to the licensor guy. I think I can say this now because it's not in production anymore, but on Ghostbusters, Rick Moranis in the apron, you know, he's sitting there in the movie, which as a kid I didn't know this, he had just had sex with the gatekeeper. Right? And I had his pants, like, opened and unbuckled all the way. Because that's the way it was in the movie. But I never really put that together until I started looking over it. But there was a conscious decision to button those pants up. That's probably, you know, as close as I can say to anything that didn't make it. I mean, again, I would have thought that the Calabunga It Is meme would not have made it onto the premium cabinet. But it did. They try to be very professional. Like there are things that I have done as jokes and sent to Greg that are never meant to go in the game. But that but that's about that's yeah, I'm a professional. I'm a good boy. We've touched on some of the work that you've done outside of pinball, but you've got a long list of companies that you work with, you know, outside of Stern. What is your breakdown now? I mean, I know you're working at Stern pretty heavily. Do you do a lot of these contract jobs? I know Primus gig posters and stuff, but you work for Microsoft and Charlie Sheen. and what's that about? Oh, my goodness. You know the week that he went all, like, you know, tiger blood and all that? Yes. I literally got called the data interview drop by his management about wanting to do T-shirts and all this other stuff. So I knew it was a bunch of crap from the get-go. Like, that was all, like, you know, just made-up TV, you know, horseshit that he had this all planned. whatever it was, whatever the plan was and I still, I mean, I don't understand I don't know and so they wanted some merch for that and I don't put it in my portfolio because it's just stupid, like I would never claim this stuff, but at the same time I put it on my site long ago as I thought it was fun and now I really should just take it having said that, yes right now I'm and this is the scary part With COVID and with the music industry, like all the tours and everything are canceled. So like I had a bunch of stuff lined up that is now being postponed until next year. And so at the moment, you know, I'm like for the next probably six months, I'm like probably close to 100% start. Wow. Supposedly this week or last week, the next project was supposed to start, but I'm still finishing up the last one. So I don't even want to sit there. Hold on, I can tell you what that is. No, you can't. By the way, I don't want to say this because I don't want to give anything out there. I don't want to let people know when they're wrong, but I can tell you right now, one of the major things that's being bandied around is so dead hard, it's hilarious. Oh, interesting. There's only a couple out there. There's Led Zeppelin and there's Godzilla, and there's, I don't know, there's not too many future titles that are rumored at this point. That happens. At some point we can have a conversation about that after the fact. Okay. I think we've exhausted the turtles questions. Unless there's anything you really need to know. I've got a couple artist questions for you. All right. First of all, my childhood was spent being grounded for everything and anything. I grew up with an older brother and a younger sister. Whatever they did wrong, I got blamed for. So I was pretty much grounded. So I spent my entire childhood in my bedroom drawing, which is what I would attest. You know, when people say, oh, you're so talented. I don't know how to define the word talent. I think it's how much time you dedicate to something. There's different talents when it comes to design and art, too, right? Right. Like, I look at some people and they go, oh, they really can do this well or that well. And I kind of go, well, actually, what I see there is this or that. And it's different, you know. Yeah, I tell people that all the time. Because I say, the kind of artist I am is somebody who recreates something. I'm not a creator. I'm not the kind of guy who sits down and doodles and comes up with a crazy monster and all that. I can take TV show properties, cartoons, different things like that, and make a nice drawing of it. But someone else already created it. That's not my thing. Sure. So when you were a kid, how much time did you spend inside drawing as opposed to outside playing? A lot more than I should have, but I spent even more time playing video games. So I'll be honest. This is the appropriately God's honest truth. I spent most of my time drawing when I was very young in church. So where I grew up, you know, my parents and my grandparents were very involved in my grandparents' church, right? And so, like, I was a very shy boy, and I refused to go to Sunday school. So I would have to go sit in a pew with my parents and grandparents in the big people church or whatever they called it. and they would always just give me paper or the back of you know like a hymnal thing or whatever I don't know doodling in the hymn book not in an actual hymn book it was like whatever they what do they call those things they give program yeah program there you go that's perfect and I would draw during that hour and I would draw much it was funny because my mom would always like you know like little by little I would see my parents start to recognize that I was getting good, and they would be like, wow, that's really good. And then I would start drawing monsters and stuff like that, and then my mom, your famous go-to, even to this day, is, why can't you draw nice things? Because I would. I would draw monsters. So, by the way, let me throw this out there. The psychology behind monster drawing for me was, I was a scared little shit as a kid. I was afraid of everything. I had an older sister who was a great student and who was perfect in everything. And I was sort of the troublemaker. I questioned everything. I talked when I wasn't supposed to talk. I was a little more rambunctious in that regard. And as a result, my sister would get me afraid of everything. And so it was kind of a control thing for me, again, in regards to drawing scary things. Owning your fears? A little bit. But, like, to this day, like, you know, it's like, you know, I would much rather, you know, see people happy than scared or sad. And so the same thing goes sort of when you elicit, you know, emotion from art, I guess. I would rather, you know, create things that make people smile than anything else. But I still have that sort of in me, you know, where I do enjoy drawing monsters. They're kind of fun. And it's whatever. I mean, and so maybe there's a little bit of even the religious background there that adds to that. I don't know. You want to hear a funny church story? Absolutely. I got hit in church once. It was, you know, communion time. For those who aren't Catholic or Christian, communion is when you line up and you receive the body of Christ, which is like this little round wafer sort of a thing. And then when you get older, you get to sip the wine, and then you go sit down. And since I was raised Catholic, which is why I'm not religious anymore. Oh, I remember sitting in the pew with my mom at my grandmother's church. And my mom goes, are you going to go for communion? And not being a smartass at all, I said, yeah, I'm hungry. And I got whapped across the face. Oh, wow. Wow. That wasn't very filling, man. That wafer like melting your mouth. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Jesus needed to eat some more or something. You know, the worst thing I think I ever did in church is when I was old enough, when it was time to sing hymnals, I would sometimes horribly sing, like, goofy lyrics and stuff to try to get people around me to laugh, which I guess is disrespectful. But at the time, I didn't, you know, whatever. I feel like I'm going to hell just for knowing you guys. I'm sorry. So another one of my favorite questions to ask fellow artists, because I always like to see if I can find it in their work, is who are your favorite artists? Because people come over to my house and they're like, how come you don't have any art hanging in the house? Because to me, art is work. If I see my own art hanging up on the wall, I'm thinking of work and I can't relax. I've got my own art heroes that I love, and that's where you can find books and stuff like that in my house. Who do you look up to? And we'll make it easy. You can't say Christopher Ferranchi. Oh, darn it. Well, a lot of different artists for a lot of different reasons. Because, again, like I was saying before, and we were saying that there's different things that people are good or great at. I do actually go back to the world of animation a lot. I love Ted Sennett from the, you know, people kind of throw away the Hanna-Barbera heyday of, you know, the 60s and the 70s as destroying animation. And that is true. But at the same time, someone like Ted Sennett was so ridiculously, his draftsmanship, his design eye, I mean, everything was fantastic. So much character and everything. Alex Toth, obviously, they got him, you know, involved. and he's him times him to a degree. Early comic book influences for me, to this day, obviously, I'm one of the few people who actually likes the ugliness of Frank Miller, his full style. I really appreciate the energy and design of what he does. You know, that's an interesting thing, too. So Mike Mignola is another one. Oh, that's one of my favorites. Yeah, so what's interesting to me, and I don't think people understand, and this was what was hard for me on Turtles, too, is doing something simpler. It's really easy to busy something up and make it look like, like a lot of comic book artists use the Lytle one. And, you know, McFarlane was a great example. Lytle. Yeah, Lytle was a great example. using a lot of lines, it really, like, and it's about density, and there's all these other things going on, but to design and to simplify, Mignola is probably, in my opinion, one of the greatest artists who will never be appreciated for the things that he should be appreciated for, and that is the simplification. And so, again, that's why I go back to, you know, cartoonism and style animation and stuff like that, and I appreciate it so much because I know doing the complex thing is actually easier than being able to sort of hone in on, you know, the simplest version of what that is. Yeah, trip it down to the bare essentials. Yeah, you know, another thing that Mignola's really just a master at is lighting, you know, light and shadow. Yeah. Which is none better. But that's part of the design, too. Yeah. So there's this thing in realist work where subtlety is very tangible, right? Like when you do soft edges, when you do small details, the subtleness is tangible because you recognize it as a human. When you do subtlety in tiny line form, and what I'm talking about is the way Mignola will perhaps cut like a shadow on an arm or a face, There's a subtle decision that was made for that little tiny angle, whatever it was. If you change it ever so slightly, it destroys the balance of everything. There are things like that that I try to be aware of, and it's a difficult thing to do. And that's why the only thing I can say that I absolutely love about working in the digital realm is the ability to see my artwork at multiple scales in real time as I'm working so that I can have one monitor that has it at actual size, one monitor that has it, you know, smaller than normal, and one that has it larger than normal. So I can sort of see how is this going to be perceived at different, you know, spaces, at different distances. And I try to be very cognizant of those little tiny things. And so I can actually see little, tiny, subtle changes and the huge effects they can have on things. And whenever I see someone like Mignola, who's, by the way, not doing it digitally, I go, he's insanely and immensely more talented than me. Why, you know, why is this? How do I get there? And I beat myself up. It's great. You just needed to be grounded more, apparently. I've got two other artists in mind that were big influences on me and if you look at my artwork one of them you'll never guess but the one of them you might who would you say uh Ditko no I like his work like his work but no no yeah um I'm gonna go Alex Ross to a point right no really I like him but I don't I wish he would die so that other artists could get some appreciation No, I'm with you. He is, people don't understand that he uses models. This guy is incredible, but he uses models. You can't come up with that in your head. I mean, there are some people who could, let's be honest. There probably are a few, not many. But, yeah, boy, I'm trying to think of poster artists in particular from, like, Like, nowadays, I would say, like, Paul Mann is up there for me, and, like, maybe, but that's probably not one for you. You're going to have to feed me, I think. I don't know. Well, the one that's not obvious, you might be familiar with, is a guy named Charles Burns. He's an independent. Oh, absolutely. Burns' line work is a huge inspiration to me. He's inhuman. I actually called him up once. I read an article about him and found out where he lived, and I just called information and said, like, Charles Burns, I remember it was Brownstown, Pennsylvania or something like that. Yeah. And he fucking answers the phone. And I'm like, dude, so I just started asking him questions. I was like, what do you use? Like, your line work is, like, insanely inhuman. He goes, I just use a brush. I'm like, you fucker. Here's what you don't know is he draws lines very slow and controlled. And that's the thing people don't, like, they just assume. And here's the worst part about getting paid as an artist. I'm sorry to segue this. People assume, if you're an artist, that it just comes natural and your brain works different, and therefore it's almost just like jogging for you. So that's why they always ask you to do things for a little money or free, right? Am I wrong about that? No, no, you're not wrong. You're dead on. They don't appreciate you. The other artist that should be more obvious is a Drew Struzan. Well, yeah, I should have gone with that one right away. I thought if I did that you would call me, like, hacky or something. Some people are very divisive about him, even though everybody agrees his stuff is untouchable. Yeah. You know, my style, my true style is not as near to that as the stuff that I've done for pinball art, but I kind of got pigeonholed into that when I got the Batman job. You know, that was originally based off of commercial work that I did for something else that, again, wasn't in my style, but that's what Stern wanted. And then after that, they're like, you know, we can do the same thing, but we're going to do Guardians now. And, you know, so, like, I never really got a chance to kind of pull out my own style. And so that, you know, definitely lends to be more of a Struzan, but not as good. But, yeah. You're talking about certain schedule and the amount of work versus what Struzan gets to focus and listen to working on one piece. I mean, and that's not to detract from his skill. I'm just saying that focus has a huge factor in being able to, you know, like I have to and you have to sort of decide where the energy is going to go. And, you know, they would love it if, I mean, you know, we were talking about this earlier. I would love it if I could, like with Primus, I got to do one package. Unfortunately, with the time frame, the time frame was the least amount of time that I had. and I focused it almost primarily on the play field, probably 60% play field, probably, you know, 40% back glass, and the remaining 20, if my math is well, I'm not sure, went to, you know, the cabinet and plastics and stuff like that. So, yeah, I mean, I would not feel bad about comparing yourself there and saying anything because pinball is a much different beast. Yeah, that it is. Sportsguiding.com. Yeah, man, a couple random questions for you that we got from other listeners, and some things that were just too funny not to ask you. David Dennis, for instance, asked, what would you want to fight, a hundred duck-sized franchise or one franchise-sized duck? Well, I would have to say the duck-sized ones because I got pretty big feet. That's what I would have. This is what we've come to on this show. That's right. We've run out of questions, essentially. That seems like the easy one. Over the last few episodes, Franchi has been talking a big game about his pinball skills. So do you think there would ever be a pinball artist pinball off? And who would truly win? Who has the skills in the art world of the pinball scene? You know, I really don't know on that one. I am, as I've said many a time, I am the equivalent of a bashful bladder player. If you put me in front of a crowd, I will choke. I can't concentrate. But if I'm less to my own devices, I'm very relaxed and I can play very well. So, you know, I don't know. If you put me in a urinal, I can probably play very well. No, that's a tough one. I would think there's got to be, you know, like I know Greg can hold his own. I know he says he can, but he can't. I'm terrible. and I try to force myself, and that's the only reason I'm glad that I have a Primus is because it forces me to do it, but I'm terrible at nudging. I'm awful. To me, in my head, I think of the physics behind it, and I think, do I want to move the play field or the ball? And if so, how am I going to nudge it? So I take too much time to think about it. I don't just react. And so one of these days I'll get comfortable enough and that won't be an issue. So I guess it's not me. How's that? Well, I'll give you a tip. If you're talking about nudging as far as saving it from going the out lane, I was also no good at that, so I mastered the slap save. So when it's going to go down the out lane, you whap it on the opposite side, and it shifts the play field over and the ball drops down the in lane. That makes perfect sense. And that's my problem is I try to decide in a split second, and by the time it's over, I haven't decided. So it needs to be reaction. Right, exactly. I just wanted to say, Jeremy, that on your website you have listed that you are a freelance illustrator and designer with a heart of gold. And I can verify that's true because I just wanted to thank you for all the work that you did with the Make-A-Wish that you were involved with. There's a boy named Jack who lives close to me in Pennsylvania, and you were very gracious with your time. And you gave him a costume illustration of Bill Murray and the Ghostbusters gear for him for his Make-A-Wish. kind of went above and beyond with that. And thank you very, very much for that. It was very nice. That's no problem. Listen, I told you, I have a very unique perspective on life now that I didn't have prior to, you know, what's gone on over the last couple years and with my daughter and with, you know, friends and family. When you contacted me, it was a no-brainer for me to take time and do something. I mean, you know, like I'm trying to be more present. How's that? And because it's real easy to just sort of, you know, get stuck in your own head and in your work and kind of ignore things and people. And I'm trying to at times precious, you know, and I'll give you an example. And you wanted a short answer. And look at me. My grandfather who passed away basically of a broken heart after my grandmother. he spent so much of his life trying to berate people of the opposite political spectrum. He was a hardcore Democrat. And where I live, it's a good mix of both. And when I said, I mean, like, we have, you know, liberal colleges here. I'm not too far from Notre Dame, as a matter of fact, so that helps at home. And he spent a lot of time being upset, making other people upset. He was a great guy. Don't get me wrong. It's not like he was doing this all the time. And when he passed, all I could think about for days was how much time and energy he could have spent being present and being happy. And I couldn't help but think, you know, he never changed anyone's mind. He didn't change the world. All he did was waste focus. And so I've gone out of my way now to try to be aware when I'm wasting energy in different areas. You know, if I drop over, if I get hit by a bus, you know, hopefully, you know, my kids, you know, my wife and everyone will be like, man, you know what? One thing about him, he was always present when he was in the room. I don't know. I just throw that out there. You know, people can think what they want. I don't have a problem with that. But, you know, try to get along with people when you can, especially if they're family. That's an amazing story and very, very true, man. Yeah, I'm sorry. I can't say things in, like, sentences. Well, I want to know is what do I got to do to get you to Texas? I know your life's been kind of crazy. Well, I don't know. I really, I mean, I think, for one thing, I think you need to come up with a cure or a vaccine. Well, I'm working on that myself. No, listen, I've always wanted, I mean, like, one of these, yeah, absolutely. We'll talk next year. I mean, it's a long ways away and we still got a ways to go. Yeah. And I'll be there. Added bonus. And Chris and French. Wait, maybe I won't. Well, you know, French, we're going to have Jeremy do the post here. No, no, no, no, no. Please no. I don't have time. Go for it. Well, I withdraw my offer. I can't. I'll see you at Expo. Hopefully. Yeah, I hope Expo happens. I do. I guess at this point it's got just as much a chance as anything. So are any of the assets that you made for Zidware, are they going to end up in the games? Because Deep Root has pretty much said they're going to remake Alice in Wonderland, they're going to remake Raza, Magic Girl. Are they going a different way with the art packages, or is your stuff going in there? You know, I wouldn't know. They own all of it, and so whatever I've done could appear in some form. I really don't know. Again, I'm not a part of it. I wish him the best. I hope that whatever they come out with, people like. More pinball is never a bad thing. And, you know, I've talked with Robert. I like Robert quite a bit. You know, I wish John the best. Like I said, I, you know, there was a time when I was maybe a little, I don't know, more cavalier. Maybe a little more flippant. Maybe, okay, I was a dick. God, what a dick. Anyway, yeah. How's that for a soundbite? But now that's behind me. I was going to say, this might be in it, and all of a sudden I turn on the... Oh, it's amazing, dude. Your fucking professionalism just showing through there. It was great. Oh, I feel dirty. Sorry, go on. No, that was good. I liked it. Lastly, and you can take this one off, too, but... I can't. No, just laugh. No, you can't put your teeth in. Wait, what? He's going to go somewhere serious, and he's chuckling. So he's... Yeah, this is going to be... No, this is actually serious. That's the bad part. and that's why I can't, like you, and I chuckled so that's bad. So you can't have this in here and I mean that. So you need to cut it off right now. Alright. Off the record, obviously. Listen, you can edit anything, any words or sentences that I say. Anything that makes me sound stupid, get rid of it. Or get some trouble. Dude, you have been fucking amazing as we expected fully. This might have to be two podcasts. I'll leave that up to Franchi, but thank you so much for your time. Do really short ones. Do the Canada thing where they're like 15 minutes. That's right. We'll do a two-parter. One will be two and a half hours. The other one will be three minutes. I would be okay with that. We just didn't have enough space for all of it. I like the idea. I like that kind of thinking. That's very good. Week two. Here's the rest of our Zombie Yeti interview. So thanks for being on the show. We'll have a great time. Anyway, actually, I was talking with Greg, and we're getting ready to send over to the licensor the next phase of everything, and I had to do some targets, some decal targets. And I said, hey, I had a good idea for a new one today, and I'm just wondering if it would be okay. It would never fly. No, listen, this has been fucking awesome, and we really appreciate you coming on, man. You're an awesome addition to the pinball world, and everything you've done has been heralded as some of the best in the business. I don't know that that's justified, but I appreciate that it's not despised. That's all that I care about. And I do appreciate, and again, I assure you I'm not going on any other podcast. Well, no, I appreciate it, guys. Have a wonderful evening. All I ask is don't give me any trouble. That's all I ask. We really appreciate you coming out, man. No problem. I appreciate it. Thanks, brother. Yeah, and we'll talk soon. I'll keep whittling away for you. Nice, man. I'll hit you up on Facebook. So we can be pals again. Let me tell you about my best friend. Okay, man. Take care. All right. See you, Jeremy. See you. Bye. All right. And that's going to do it for episode number 11 of the Super Awesome Pinball Show. We'd like to thank Zombie Yeti for joining us. What a great interview. Two parts pinball podcast history right there with that gentleman. And don't forget, we're going to be giving away a $100 Back Alley Productions gift card in a contest coming up. I'm going to give you a little hint. You better start polishing it up on your rap lyrics. You're going to be spitting some rhymes to win this card. Anyway, send us a question and ask a pinball pro whatever you want, and we'll get your favorite pinball personality to answer it for you. That and any correspondence to our Facebook page or superawesomepinball at gmail.com. And if you think you should be our next co-host, send us an application in a PM to our Facebook page, because we do need a third co-host. Could it be you? Who knows? anyway thanks for tuning in we love you guys and we will see you on the next show bye-bye if you'd like to drop us a line or ask a question we can be reached at super awesome pinball at gmail.com questions or comments may be read on the air the original content of this podcast is copyright 2020 asshat radio productions the commentary and opinions shared on this show by the cast and the guests do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the sponsor chicago Gaming Company. Their sponsorship and endorsement of this show only serves to add to the continuing support of the pinball community. Cause we're gonna be legends I'm against their attention But what you can't just hear me It's gonna be legendary Well, I'm the dude To you bears, that ain't ladies. It's the bathroom. Okay, bye-bye now. Bye-bye. Bye. Okay, bye-bye for now. Bye. Mwah, mwah. Later, dears. Goodbye, goodbye, good friends, goodbye. It's a bit over, I know I say it's over. Time, time, time. Bye, bye. Bye, bye, bye. Goodbye. Good day, sir. Get the fuck out of here. I'll see you later Okay, okay, show's over Bye-bye Bye-bye Hasta la vista, baby Hey, your fucking chalupa sucks Let cock magic be done by the professionals