42026-Syndicated-Liveshow103

0:00 The following is brought to you in part by MFC Studios. The views of the shows host and guests do not necessarily reflect those of the management, owners or staff of this radio station. And now it came from the radio. Yeah, but sorry. And welcome once again to It came from the radio, the official, the Big Apple Con.

0:43 This is your host, Mark Torres speaking. We're here in front of a live studio audience at the East Meadow Public Library for our 103rd live show. And I'm here with our special guest we're going to be talking to with and about, which is awesome because it makes my life easier. This is Kristen Gutsnick. Hey, thank you everyone. As I mentioned, going to be talking to a friend about Kristen in just a few minutes. But before we do any of that, we have to take it away. What's the news? The news is brought to you in part by the fine folks at sci-fi dot Radio that is sci-fi for your Wi-Fi, as well as the fine folks at the Big Apple Corner which we are the official radio show of celebrating over 26789 years of comic book, nest and pop culture stuff.

1:32 More information go to www.bigapplecc.com. The Nest Convention is scheduled all the way for November the 21st. Tickets are not on sale right now. Also want to give out shout outs for our patreons of which they are Danny Grillo, worldwinning director Jared Burrell, Newsday, famous resident media, shadrabbit, art, Yasin ray, the huracan and Melia portes. If you want to have your own little shout out, go to our website www.akanefridio.com a little button on there that takes you right to our Patreon page. Also on the IT came from the radio website is my book designated a book about two warring alien races fighting over a newly discovered power source. The war finds its way to plan our and as a result, some humans gain abilities. Issue 1 is on sale right now, and Issue 2 has been admitted to the printer as of today and will be for sale for the M Con, which will be on April 25th at the East Middle Public Library. So it's finally happening.

2:21 All right, as always, we start off with the sad news. Actor James Stewart Tolkin died recently. As of this recording, no cause of death has been announced. While James appeared in a handful of movies and TV shows, he was perhaps best known for his roles of FBI agent George Wigan and the movie War Games Commander Tom Stinger Jareden in the film Top Gun, Detective Hugh Lubrick in the first live action he man movie and of course, vice principal Mr. Strickland in Back to the Future Part 1 and 2. And he also played W Marshall James Strickland in part three. He was 94. You familiar? What's so funny? I'm sorry you're laughing that he died. That's terrible. That's.

3:04 Terrible. He had a good life. Were you a fan of his work? Yeah, all. Right, so moving on for the next and last of the sad news. Actress Valerie and actress Valerie Ritchie Perrine also died recently. Valerie is perhaps best known for her role as Honey Bruce, opposite of Dustin Hoffman and a Lenny Bruce biopic Lenny from 1974, and of course as Eve Tessmacher in the original Superman film from 1978. She was 82. Are you familiar with Why Are You Laughing? I'm not now.

3:44 I'm just thinking. Don't laugh. Do you remember? Yeah. No, no. I'm very big fan. I know the movie Lenny. You've seen the movie Lenny. I've never watched the movie Lenny. No. But you know Superman. Superman, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. There it is. There. There's the recognition I was waiting on. You know, she, she put the, she gave Superman a kiss and took the thing off of the in the water. Yeah. That's her. That's it for the sad dude. We're going to move quickly away from that. It's just starting off with that well. See the the logic is that we start off with the sad news. There's nowhere to go. But yeah, so that's. All.

4:28 Right, so now moving on to the not as sad news from the that's a lot of nod departments. The New Super Mario movie has taken the number one spot in the domestic box office, pulling in a $131.7 million in ticket sales in its first week of release, beating out the new sci-fi film project Hail Mary, which came as #2 spot, making an additional $31.7 million in its second week of release. Well, as you're keeping track, the aforementioned Project Hell Mary is still the highest grossing film of this year so far with $218.2 million, followed by the aforementioned Super Mario Brothers movie with $190.8 million. Now you have a child. Did you go and take your child to go see a Super Mario?

5:10 No, we actually left him with my parents and saw a project. Kil, Mary Last. Week. Really. Yeah. So how was Project Kil Mary? I loved it. I thought it was great. So if you were to review it, what would you? What made it so great? I thought it was really fun and funny. If I had a quibble, I'd say I don't like that. It was like a little slightly too long. But I thought it was like a good play on like the sci-fi astronaut kind of movie where instead of just being like a bleak meditation on like loneliness, it was actually like cute and fun and funny. I just really like those directors, the Lord and Chris Miller, who did like the spider verse movies and stuff like that. It's 21 Jump St. movie, so I just will see anything they do.

5:51 All right. So you were contributing to the, to the, Yeah. That's true. And I want to see Mario as well with our child and my husband's like we can't do that to all the Mario fans and disrupt them with their crying baby and all that. They don't care. But I think they would care. I was like, what if we go at like 11:00 AM on like 9:00 AM? And as I've mentioned many times in the show, I used to work in a movie theater and just having any kids movies is always a bad idea because the kids are always running up and down and screaming and always carrying on. There was a couple of times where we had customers complain that they just, the parents just let their kids run up and down the aisles and we have to go handle the law. I'm like, come on, just have the kids sit down. Yeah, well, we've never taken to a movie theater in a movie before, so.

6:36 Oh. OK. How it would work? I can say that. So when I was a kid, I watched Transformers, the original Transformers the animated movie 1986, and it was, as you would expect, a lot of kids running and screaming around. Are you familiar with the Transformers the movie? Yes. Okay, so you know what happens to Prime when he gets right, So I say you familiar. With the the. Biggest thing about the movies that they killed off the main character. Spoilers for a 2030 year, 40 year old movie. It's OK, Yeah, you can spoil transform. So during the movie we're hearing kids screaming and exciting about the action that's happening on the screen. But when the character dies, dead silence.

7:17 And it blew my mind as a kid watching a movie, hearing AH and then shoot nothing. That's a. Safe. Yeah, it stayed with me. Like, Oh my God, why is it quiet in this theater? And then it's picked up afterwards. But it was just something that never happened to me before, that a theater was just dead silent. So just one of those things that. Yeah, like just core memory, yes. So moving on from the We Really Like Money department, none other than Netflix has announced that they will be making K Pop Demon Hunters available on Blu-ray as part of their Criterion Collection. Of note, it is highly unusual that Netflix releases any of its movies on DVD, and it's the first and foremost, as is a first and foremost streaming service. No word on a release date.

8:03 Did you see K Pop Demon Hunters? No, I really want to. So I'm on the other end of that. I have no interest in watching it because the hype is too big. So if I go and watch it, it's never going to live up to this hype of of what it's supposed to be. So I want to be disappointed. I'm just not going. To I keep hearing the song, it's really catchy. And I. Was like, I want to watch that. Do you think it's odd that a streaming service would put out a DVD even though Netflix originally was a DVD company? Yeah, I still have like a one Netflix DVD from back in the day, but. Really. You never returned. Declared it as lost and kept it because I hadn't returned it in so long and hadn't watched it. But I didn't. I kind of wanted to get my money back because if back in the day you would have to like pay the fee whether or not you like took movies out and I was like, I've paid like $10.00 for this.

8:52 At this point. It was now Voyager, which ended up watching. It was good. Wait, so you were allowed to just say I lost? Yeah, you just say got lost in the mail and then they forgive you. Really. This is like no longer much of A life hack because this is like a from like 20 years ago or something. That's crazy. I never you know that was. Actually, it's still like multiple movies from Netflix. We're glad. To see you and they've got money. Statue of limitations. I think that they put out Roma on Criterion as well. Yeah, it's kind of funny for Roma and K Pop Demon Hunter. Out of all the stuff that they have. That's very merchandisable, so it makes sense I guess. So moving on, there's a serious topic now from the Stand by Your Man department. None other than Melissa Gilbert had this to say about her husband, actor Timothy Busfeld, after he was indicted on 4 counts of criminal sexual conduct with a child under the age of 13 in New Mexico.

9:47 Melissa says even if he's exonerated, he will always be that guy, the last person in the world who would hurt a child. Our life as we know it is done. We are grieving for what we had. All of our plans, all of our dreams, all of our ideas, all of our projects for Tim is done. He's cancelled for those of you who don't know or care for that matter. Tim was accused by the parents of the twin boys on the set of the TV series The Clean Lady, according to the criminal complaint and later court proceedings. One child reported nightmares and fear, and prosecutors said the boys later disclosed acts of sexual abuse to a therapist in September 2025. Times attorney says that the allegations were driven by revenge after the boys were written off the show, and they point off that both boys initially denied inappropriate touching in a police interview.

10:33 Of note, the original complaint also said that Warner Brothers conducted its own investigation and was unable to corroborate the allegations. So I watched the the the clean lady. Ever see the clean lady? So it's as standard practices for a lot of TV shows. When they have a kid, they usually make twins. So that way they get around the child labor laws. They can have the kid on set more than often. And I watched the show like this is a terrible kid actor and I just really cared for him. And then the show lasted three seasons, I believe. And then they swapped out the kid for another kid, which is also common that when they get older. They just replaced the kid. He was on it for a long time and then they fired the 2 twins and then they brought in a new kid. So there is some credence to the parents getting upset and trying to get revenge on making up the story. And on the other hand, it's very possible that it really did happen.

11:22 It's so weird because the thing about kids is that sometimes they're really honest and no one believes them and sometimes they lie through their teeth. So it's very hard to to to try to figure out what the situation is. And it's kind of rough for the other person who might be innocent and is now going to be blacklisted and labeled as a child molester or on the other hand, is a child molester. It might get off. Yeah. What do you think of that? It's a loaded question. Oh, I don't know. I mean, I've never heard of any of these people or this show. Timothy Busfeld was a poindexter from Revenge and Nerds. He's also on ERI Believe, weird guy, tall. You know Melissa Gilbert, Little House on the Prairie? She's famous for that.

12:08 Oh really? Oh my gosh. OK, no, you know what? Her husband. That's entire pop culture stuff that missed me completely. Well, I mean, you have a child, Yeah. So what would you think if that happened if your child? Would be like horrified if you got. But I know it's not actually. What would you think if they got another something? What would you think if your child said? I don't think I would if he were ever in anything, which actually would be a possibility because one time we submitted him for like a Huggies commercial because they're like, the world has to see how cute my baby is. I would just be there the whole time, like watching him like a hawk, and I would not let him be in like the show was industry.

12:49 Because of potential alleged creeps like that guy. I know I've heard that Revenge of the Nerds is like a creepy movie too, so that's like striking out right? Don't feel like I haven't seen it. The nerds get too much revenge or something. The movie has not aged well. That's that's the official landline has not aged well. So moving on from the crying time after prime time department, none other than CBS has announced their programming for After the Late Show Ends. Its 33 year run turns that on Friday, May 22nd, Byron Allen's Comics Unleashed will begin airing back-to-back half hour episodes followed by the game show Funny You Should Ask, also produced by Byron Allen. Apparently, Funny Should Ask has been on the air since 2017 and I've never heard of the show at all. And Comics Unleashed has been on the air since 2006, which I have heard of.

13:50 Byron says 50 years. I've been waiting for this moment. Definitely, I'm going for it. I'm investing millions and millions of dollars to prove myself. I created and launched Comics Unleashed 20 years ago so my fellow comedians could have a platform to do what we all love and make people laugh. I truly appreciate CBS's confidence in picking me of our two hour comedy block of Comics Unleashed. And Funny should act because the world can never have enough laughter. Now this is a different situation for CBS because Byron is actually paying for the time slot. So it's not like that CBS is producing the show and bringing it on. He's paying for that time slot. So I think that's kind of interesting that he's putting his money on to get the ratings and then obviously he gets his money back from the advertiser.

14:34 That's how usually that type of thing works. Byron Allen, You know who Byron Allen is? Have you familiar with Byron Allen? So Byron Allen, I, I always tell my my friends that I feel like I'm a Byron Allen because I've been in the industry for a long time and I know a lot of people and I have a lot of connections, but I'm just like on the low tier of things. So Byron Allen's this guy who's knows like everybody. He's had interviews with so many people throughout the years. He had many shows and he has this comics and Lee show, which is just little stupid comedy half hour show. But basically he has a set of comedians. He sits there and he throws them set up lines and then they make their jokes. That's the entire, that's the entire premise of the show. And it's just so weird that he's just kind of just been there. And if you seem like, Oh yeah, that guy and everybody knows that guy, but he's never been like a really like his name isn't like a really well known name like David Letterman, Johnny Carson, Jay Leno, Jimmy Fallon, any of those things. It's just weird.

15:33 So it's interesting that he's taking this opportunity because now there's no more Late Show on CBS to try and make his stamp after all this time, which also is interesting. Before the Late Show happened, they used to be CBS had shows called Crime Time after Prime Time, which they had these dramas and action and low budget shows that was on CBS that you used to watch. And I was a fan of those. So when they actually brought in the late night talk show, I was kind of upset. Do you remember Rhyme Time after? No, no, not at all. There was flooding bullets. It was so-called Forever Night. It was a vampire with Jerry and Wynn Davies and he had like blonde hair and he was he was working with.

16:14 It was good. It was weird because this was before Buffy and so it was like he played an immortal vampire. But then as the show went on he was eating good and got a little chunky. So it was like how can he be an immortal vampire and then get chunky later? On SO, it's kind of funny. Yeah, it was funny. There was also scenes into the Crime, which was like an anthology series that had crimes. They they would explain things on that show called Fly by Night and Dark Justice. I think it was like a judge who went out and committed, who did vigilante justice. It was a big thing. Like it was after the regular prime time, you had the news and then he watched each prime time shows or, or little shows that were, that were like little low budgets, but not like super low budgets. They were kind of like like syndicated stuff, like I was on Channel 11 or something like that.

16:56 It was a very interesting thing. And then the talk shows came in and now they're gone. So what are you, I thought on the talk show leaving and Byron Allen taking over? It's kind of sad though, like this kind of institution that's been for so long, like the late night talk shows are like all going away. But at the same. I mean, that is weird to me and sad. But I mean, I also don't watch any of those, Like, yeah, well, I mean. You're supposed to watch. Also, I don't have cable or I don't have TV. I just have a full streaming. It is my fault. But like I I like Conan and he's not really on anymore. I like would watch clips and you know, honestly I watch old clips on YouTube of like people being interviewed on various late night shows, but. So if you were a Conan fan, you remember that whole debacle with NBC and.

17:47 Yeah. So that was why all that stuff with CBS happened, because David Letterman was supposed to get The Tonight Show. He didn't get The Tonight Show. He left. He went to CVS. That's why he became the competition with Jay Leno. And then Leno, as you know, said he was going to give it up, and he didn't give it up. Well, he did for like a second and they got cold feet. And then and then Conan was being I to go to CVS because he was friends with David Letterman. So that was the whole thing. Yeah. Kerfuffle. Yeah, it was actually just watched a 30 Rock episode. That was like a metaphor for that. Wow, this is it was timely at the time, but it's cool that it's a comedy because that's really the point of late night talk shows is jokes. So if it gives comedians more of a spotlight, so have you. Better than primetime, primetime. Have you ever heard of comics?

18:37 Never. Heard of it? I haven't seen it. Well, at least you know it exists. That's something all right. Lack of cable and it's really, you know, if you ask me about 90 stuff, it's got to be like cartoons and stuff. I would watch Frasier as a kid and I told us to my husband, I was like, I thought Frasier was really confusing and the jokes didn't make any sense. And he's like, you have to watch it as like not a small child because I would say it like when I was like homesick from school and I was like the worst show ever. But apparently it's good. Apparently. So here's Here's a fun fact. Kelsey Grandma is, I believe, in the Guinness Book of World Records as the actor having the longest time as one character on TV. Oh cool. So moving on from the behind closed doors department, none other than SAG and the AM PTP, which is the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, just released a joint statement about the upcoming new contract talk before the June 30th deadline. It reads simply SAG Astra and the AM PTP will resume formal negotiations as of Monday, April 27th and remain under a mutually agreed upon media blackout.

19:44 This is very different from the last time, which was in 2003. For those of you who may not be paying attention as now, Sean Astin. Sean Astin is now the head of SAG and friend Dresser. Who is the nanny. You know, the nanny? Yeah. She used to be in charge of SAG and she was the one that was handling the last negotiation deal, which turned into the longest strike ever for actors fighting over AI. Yeah. Here we are now three years later, nothing has changed and now they're having secret negotiations, which I find is weird, as opposed to the last time which is very public and led to the strike. Do you think that because it's the secret hush hush type deal that we may not lead to a strike or not?

20:30 I hope it doesn't lead to a strike because it's not good for the the biz, but I hope that the actors, I guess, get what they want. So do you remember last the last strike? Yeah, I do. I remember it was lasted a really long time. It kind of cratered the film industry right after like COVID. So it was like, but at the same time, it's like if they have AI in movies or if they don't like stop that, then it's going to ruin like the arts. So I'm conflicted about that. But hopefully Sean Astin will be able to carry the SAG to. Do you think he has the ability? He.

21:10 Has the ability to to bring it together like I, I I was always shocked that the nanny was the one in charge and I know she's not the nanny, but that's all you see her ask like the nanny's in charge it didn't it didn't with. That voice, you have to listen to her. Yes, that's true. And but she made it. She went to the media. She made it a big spectacle to show what she's trying to fight for. To her credit, I thought that was kind of a bold move to do as opposed to her just being dismissed. You know, it's just it's just an Annie trying to fight for AI. But no, they made it a big thing and then that led to the strike. But the fact that they're kind of hush hush about this really sets off alarms in the back of my head. Like, what kind of deals are they actually doing? Yeah. Well, hopefully, hopefully it will all work out. And I mean, he's Rudy, so he's overcome. Great all.

21:58 Right. So moving on for the last, let's see it. Yes, this should be the last one last bit of news from the Get the AI out of here department. None other than Open AI Sora has announced that they are discontinuing the program. This comes after, as we mentioned in our previous episode of our show, Disney announced a $1 billion deal with the company that allowed Disney Plus users to create videos using some of their intellectual property. Turns out that, according to reports, Open AI was burning through cash at about $1 billion a month. Whoa. Executive says we're saying goodbye to the Sora app.

22:41 To everyone who created with Sora, shared it, and built a community around it, thank you. What you have made with Sora mattered, and now we know this news is disappointing, Disney says. As the AI field advances rapidly, we we respect Open AI's decision to exit the video generation business to shift its priorities elsewhere. We appreciate the constructive collaboration between our teams and what we learn from it. And we will continue to engage with AI platforms to find new ways to meet fans where they are while responsibly embracing new technologies that respect IP for the rights of What do you think of that? I think Disney is so evil. They pretend they're not, but they're just so horrible. I even have my own.

23:23 I have like a off the record Disney story. Well, we're on the record now. They're teasing me. Just read between the lines. No, no, that's just pretty terrible. It's terrible that the app got ended and now Disney was going to make a spend a billion dollars on this thing just went or is it bad that they are going to look for other avenues? They're just going to like make like crappy AI versions of like Mulan or something. And they already like don't pay their artists and this is going to be them paying their artists even less and like devaluing. Well, you know what actually, the problem with Disney lately has been like that They like devalued the things that they spent billions of dollars acquiring, which is why like a lot of their stuff doesn't do well.

24:09 So this is just them doing that even more like if they just do like AI, Star Wars is going to make no one want to go see like, you know, Mandalorian and Grogu or whatever, which is already a hard sell because you'd have to watch the Book of Boba Fett. And I refute. So I just feel like it's like a bad decision, but I don't know, can't tell the future. So maybe there's a good financial decision. So the fact that they made a big stink about it, going to spend a billion dollars on this service, and then the service is like now we're done. Maybe it kind of tells people that AI isn't as it's going. To be a bubble. Yes, it might be a bubble because you would think that if you had Disney behind your company, but you're burning a billion dollars a month, what are they doing?

24:57 Especially if it's all user stuff. So the idea was that Disney was going to be like, hey, you guys make something that you guys like put on Disney Plus so you can watch it and still pay us the money for using Disney Plus. So now they're like, we learned what we could from these guys, They're out, let's go find something else and make you do all the work and let us cast the money. I think it's really weird. Yeah, but also if it costs like a billion dollars a month, then they may as well just make movies at that point, right? But it's just so weird how the AI is, is kind of starting. I think this is the the chinks in the armor, the cracks of where it, it started off hot. And then people are like, what can I do with it?

25:38 And they're like, all right, they're bored after like 5 minutes and then that's it and it's over. I think maybe that might be the case. And AI is going to be akin to CGI where if you remember when it first CGI first came out, everybody was hating on CGI and I was taking jobs, you know, taking away jobs from the animators. What happened? It did, but I'm saying that was what they had saying about AI now. But then it's kind of going. Yeah, we'll point out, like, how many, like, 2D animation films have been in theaters since, like, The Princess of the Frog. It's been very, very few. Yeah. Like 3 maybe? No, yeah, I there's like very, very few. So it did actually, like a lot of people. Have they lost the art of making 2D animation? Some people still do.

26:25 But it's also incorporated into films nowadays. That's why I think what's going to happen with AI, it's not going to take over that. 'D be even worse though. But it is going to be incorporated and the reason is because the consumer doesn't care. I've been saying this for a long time. If the consumer doesn't care, then the well, it doesn't care. Doesn't care as in. Subconsciously breaks your immersion in something when you can tell something is CGI or if you're doubting whether something is real. Because if you watch like a 70s movie, like I watch this movie called like Sorcerer and there was this big like truck going across this bridge and water and stuff. And it was so terrifying because you're like, they didn't, this is like, they really put this truck across a bridge and like, it looks like everyone's about to really die.

27:10 And it was so much scarier and more visceral because it was a real thing happening on film. Or even if you use like tricks, like, you know, forced perspective or whatever, like if it's CGI, like it's just pings something and like you're subconscious and tells you it's not real and it lowers the stakes. So I think it's much worse and I think it doesn't impact people's enjoyment. And I think people are like burned down on CGI. But the the the point I'm making and and to be fair, I am really against AIA 100%. It's like even worse than CGI. But the consumer and the fact that that's where the money is coming, if you can go to a store and you can get the professional whatever for $20 and you can get the knock off crappy version for $2.00, a lot of people will buy the $2.00 version.

27:59 So in the same instance, if there's 8 AI made and it's cheaper and easy to access, the the average consumer will just get that and they'll be making the money. So like, oh, it doesn't matter if we put all this money, energy, effort into the better thing with a smaller, crappier thing is making money. That's my my logic behind it. And it's sad that the consumer, if they're not educated, we'll go for the lower hanging fruit. I think there's some logic there, but the difference between like a good versus like a piece of content is that we're already inundated with so much content that we most people are looking for something good and not just something that's there. And it's cheap because every like you can watch like Citizen Kane for free.

28:45 Like not that the average person is going to do that, but like you could watch like good stuff for free. So why would you watch AI slop other than for the initial novelty, which I get, but then that novelty goes away once you've seen a bunch of AI stuff. It's very boring and like it always has some sort of like, it's just like Solace. Well, that's that was my point, that that where the bubble is that is going to pop because people are like, I don't care anymore. I mean a lot. They shouldn't use it as like in movies because then it's just bad. There is an application to use it provided that they do compensate the people doing it.

29:25 There was a movie fall, have you heard of the movie Fall about people climbing up and it was in the fall. Very simple, very simple premise. It was recent, it was it was made as a rated R movie and they want to sell the movie and they decided to turn into APG 13 movie. So all the curse words, they use AI to change the curse words to not curse words in that instance as opposed to bringing everybody back to set bringing. All this stuff. Well, their their lips would still if they're saying one thing, it's not like it's not like a bad Kung Fu where they're saying one thing and it's not like no, it actually merged it in to make them appear that they were actually talking. So if, if the actors were compensated fairly for that use of that, and it was for AI and everyone was happy and everybody got paid for it, I think it'd be fine. But I think that one of the biggest problems with AI is that they're not compensating people for it. And I think that's one of the the crucial missteps of AI in itself is because they're saying, oh, we can do a cheaper, we can do a fee and not pay these other people. But if they were paying people, I think it'd be a little more, well, receptive.

30:33 Yeah, I don't know. I I still think it's just really bad publicity for your thing to do that because they did that with the brutalist where like they used AI to make Adrien Brody's like a Hungarian better. And it's weird because it's like, if I didn't know that, it would have been like, oh, we're yeah. He spoke Hungarian really well in this one scene. But like knowing that took me out of the movie. Kind of like when you're like watching the Flash and you're like, oh, that's familiar. It just like takes you out to have like a real life thing just pop in your head when you're watching something. So fair enough, but that is it for the news. So we're going to take a quick break in front of a live studio audience. Be right back with more. It came from radio. Hi, you've heard my voice.

31:14 Open and close the show. Now we want to hear your voice. If you have a business or product, you can record a commercial here. We offer 30 and 62nd spots. For more information, contact Mark at mfc_studios@hotmail.com hey. Everybody this, is Todd McFarlane Of the record setting spawn Comic series and. If you're looking for any kind of cool conversation about creators about, entertainment about, all that good stuff you, go to it, came from the radio you're. Listening to the right spot? Cradle Con returns to the Cradle of Aviation Museum May 16th and 17th. This year features AGI Joe Reunion with Larry Hama, plus The Crow creator, James O Bar, comics, cosplay, retro gaming and more, all supporting the museum's education programs.

32:03 Tickets are at Cradle of. Aviation.org. Hey, this is Billy West from Show Business. You're listening to It Came from the radio. Get out now. Back to our show. And welcome back to a came from the radio, the official, the big Alpha Con. This is your host, Mark Torres, speaking in front of our live studio audience at the East Metal Public Library for our 103rd live show. I'm here with our special guest. We're going to be talking to a friend about Miss Kristen Guzman. Thanks. It's funny, Kristen, I've known you for a very long time. We were talking before we started that. We actually did a live stream back eight years ago at Royal Collectibles, if I remember correctly. It's it's so crazy how I've known you for so long and you haven't changed a bit.

32:56 You look exactly the same. I look like super old now it. Looks the same to you. I don't know about that. We both found the fount of you. And you were, you were doing hence girl, that was, that was what you were promoting back then. So I guess the short the short question is what has happened between then and? Now, Oh my gosh, so much stuff. Yeah, it's funny. I I forgot and then you reminded me and then it all like rushed back to me at Royal Selectables. We did a little like quick show there. It was really fun. Let's see. Since then I did a whole four book graphic novel series from Scholastic called Making Friends. I'm just like looking at my books now. I made a Minecraft series from Dark Horse. I did a bunch of comics and hung out. I did a road trip, had a baby.

33:45 I got married. OK, other way around. I got married, had a baby. Very important that the world knows that. And yeah, I've just been making comics, hanging out and being so unemployed. And so before we get into your comics, I do want to mention that actually when the last time I saw you, you mentioned you were a zombie. Yeah, it was a background extra, The Walking Dead, the Michonne and Rick show. And I met Rick, the guy, the main guy from Walking Dead. He was really nice and he gave me like a fist bump and said I was a star for real. It's because I jokingly because it the shot included my shoe for a moment and I was like, wow, I'm a star. He was like, you are a star and he was keep it. He kept his accent going when he was off camera or whatever. And I also met Michonne.

34:40 She introduced herself to me. I don't know why it was all happened, but it was really exciting. And then I got to be a background zombie where I wore a zombie a very like, so the the fancy zombies who get like stabbed in the head and stuff, they get like hours of makeup, but the rest of us just wore rubber masks and loped around in the background. It was really fun. They were pretending to stab us through like you know how they do in Walking Dead where you're like, they just stabbed the zombies through like slits in the wall. So that was me. It was. Like slowly wobbling towards the wall. And it was really interesting because your impulse is to lift your arms up when you're walking like a zombie, but it actually looks really dumb to do that. And they're like, arms down.

35:25 And we all just were like, whoops, yeah, that was fun. Was it like a zombie school you had to go to or you just just showed up and they're like, you're going to be a zombie? Yeah, they didn't really tell us. They were like, you're zombies, figure it out. Most of the people there were actually actors, so they knew what they were doing. The funny thing is, is that you know how you're like, oh, where do they film this stuff? Like where they where do they find these like desolate, you know, horrible looking locations. And it was Newark and it really looked bad. And then I also was a background on like an episode of the Sex and the City show. And I annoyed the man Laney, Cynthia Nixon, although really, yeah, I was right in her way.

36:09 They were like go. And every time I went like I bumped it to her. And then I never did it again. I never like did a background thing again, but not because I I bumped into Cynthia Nixon just because I was pregnant and was like, I don't feel like you're really tired. Did you bring your comics to the system like hey, Simply Comics? I should have. No, I didn't I. Why not? You're supposed to. Give my comics away. It'd be a promotional machine I. Guess that's true. Well, like a like a bookmark or something. My newest thing is that I made stickers and I've just been tagging the city with my stickers that have AQR code. It's funny because they say read more comics. It's like I'm like being like, you know, promoting comics in general.

36:53 Then it says by Kristen Gutznock. So it's and then it has like a code that that leads you to like samples of comics. That's my self promotional thing. But I don't know, I find it very awkward to just literally promote myself directly to people who I don't know. Well, so then you're in the right place. So let us promote about your books to people who you don't know. You know, this context is different. I mean, like, cold approaching strangers and being like, hey, do you like comics? Yeah. You know, it's weird because since you've been on the other side of comic book tables for years, you have to grab people to you. Sometimes you go at a comic convention, Do you like comics you like to read? And a lot of people say no. They're like, what the hell are you doing here? Do you get that a lot?

37:36 I mean, no, well, I don't. I don't ask people if they like to read because. What's what's your what's your approach? What do you what do you tell them to raw them in? Hey, how are you? Feel free to check out my comics or look at these other things and then I leave it up to them. I don't I won't do a hard sell because I find it uncomfortable and other people like do a hard sell to me. It makes me like, makes my fight or flight go off and I know I'm not fighting so it's just running away. Let's start off with a couple of books. What about your newest books? Let's talk about that. What is that about? How did you come up with the idea? Yeah, Touched by a Demon, As we were talking about 90s TV shows, Touched by an Angel was something that was on a bunch at my grandma's house, and I used to watch it and I thought it was really cheesy, but I also kind of liked it.

38:25 Then I was watching this really bad Hallmark movie called 12 Christmas Wishes for My Dog. It was like so bad. And it was about this magical life coach that was like, what if she's really a demon? And then that gave me this whole idea. I was like, what if a demon wanted to leave hell and was trying to like redeem himself by like opening a life coach agency. And then because, like, you know, sometimes when you watch something that's really boring and bad, like your brain just starts going really fast and starts giving you ideas. So this movie just like put me into this state of inspiration. And I had the whole idea for it while watching. I could be like, pause it. I have to write this down. And yeah, so that's kind of where the idea came from.

39:08 So it's about Franz by Franz and Pazuzu, who are two demons who they don't get any respect, and how Franz, the the kind of ringleader, decides to open the life coach agency and try to help people. And it just goes terribly awry in comedic fashion. So when you do something like that, well, first of all, is it a decision that it has to be a comedic tone? Because that's kind of your your through line of of your books, right? Found on the second? Yeah, yeah. Or you like, well, it's demons. It should be serious or something like. That I don't think I have it in me to do actual 100% serious comic. I even did like a serial killer one that was actually somewhat serious. Like I wasn't trying to put jokes in and then jokes just came out.

39:50 So I just think I'm a goofy person and I just got to own my personality. So with a, with a demonic life coach, did you do any research and go to life coach and be like, well, this guy could be a demon? No, I did research into demons. But you mean like go and get therapy? Oh, you. Watch on TV like, oh, this guy, Yeah. No, no, I yeah, I probably should have. Yeah, that would have been interesting and probably useful in others. That's too because I I don't know, I probably do need a life coach, but I just made it all up. But actually I feel like in a lot of ways I put my own issues into the characters problems. Like the first character is this girl who feels like she's like, oh man, no. It's like she has like sibling issues where she's like, oh, my parents like my siblings more than me, which I actually don't think.

40:41 But I felt that because like, you know, I have a, you don't know, I have multiple siblings. So it's always like, who do you think they like the most? It's you. It's you. And like, we have long discussions about this, you know, Is that not normal? I've never had that we. Also do rankings really we rank everyone in our? I have a brother and sister. As kids we never did any of that stuff. Oh, OK, well, this is just a family tradition for me. I don't know, I guess I just was like, oh, if I I made it kind of over the top. So that way you would like her character. But and the second one, it's like this like guy who sucks, who like he wants to improve himself. And it's like kind of like that question of like, you know, they say be yourself, but what if yourself is like a crappy person, etcetera.

41:25 So it's like sort of things that I always like, wonder about and I kind of work them out through well, but I'm not as terrible as the character. One, one of the things I thought was kind of cool is that you asked your followers and readers for advice that you're for a, for a column. How? How did that work out and what kind of a submissions did you get? Yeah, I asked people for self help questions that I could because I had extra space at the end of the trade. Yeah, I gave some really terrible advice to people, including kidnap your boss and hold them hostage and make them fall in love with you so that they will give you a raise and you have job stability. And also when first I said kill themselves in a funny way, it's the joke that.

42:15 You told them to kill themselves in a funny way, or you told them in a funny way to kill themselves. They said that they were reading lots of web tunes and I was like, go get my truck so that you can wake up in a magical world. Just a plot like most web tunes I know. I was like, I was like, maybe let's cut that one out, but we'll see. I don't know. I've been reading a lot of web tunes myself, so that was kind of in my head. But I know I'm always like, hopefully I'm not giving too much bad advice and like bad messaging. But at the same time I've been doing kids stuff for so long that I was like, I naturally have kind. I have like an edge Lord sense of humor at heart. So like I had, I needed an outlet, outlet for that.

42:58 And I was like, if not these demons, then who else? So. You obviously don't. No one, actually. Don't. Commit suicide. Is there a disclaimer on the book? No, no. I should put one. I think there's still time. I was put a little asterisk. A little asterisk. Don't don't don't follow any advice during this. Follow Traffic Safety guidelines. So you work for? Well, I wouldn't say you work for Dark Horse or for a. Freelancer. Yeah, right. You're a freelancer, but they're the ones that publish your book. Is it weird when you're writing your own stuff and then you have a boss to look under?

43:38 Or is not like that at all? They're so cool and good that I don't have a problem with them. They're very like do whatever you want. I mean when they give me notes, it's it's always like helpful notes and very like cosmetic changes. They're very like artist and writer friendly. What kind of cosmetic changes are we talking about? Oh, with this guys, I read as opposed to. Blue no no, like put a comma here. Like put it hyphen in this thing because grammar. So do you also edit your own stuff or do you? Or do they edit it for you? They do a editing pass, but actually I was an English major back in school and I love grammar so my stuff is usually pretty clean by the time it gets to them.

44:22 Is it more difficult or easier when you're doing things for yourself and you're worried that you have to pass it on to somebody else before it's this time? What? Do you mean? I mean that you're making something for yourself and then instead of doing it yourself and putting it out there yourself, you're going through another company, you're going through to somebody. Else so much easier it's so much harder doing something all yourself because when you promote it yourself two you have to like print it oversee the printing and pay for that and it's great to have someone else do that and three they also have like a publicity team that promotes your thing so it's not just you and they put it in stores so there's really no only downside is getting a book deal can be difficult at times so. How does one go about getting a book deal? Well, the way I broke into comics was I was, I got a table at New York Comic Con once just totally randomly because someone on Facebook was like, I need someone to share my table. Oh, my supposed table mate dropped out. So I just randomly got a table with someone. And then I met, I made a bunch of contacts there that first year.

45:24 And so I was just doing like, honestly, doing like Reed pop shows and tabling and being approached by editors and then getting contacts within various publishers and then sending them your pitches and making a pitch. Just make ask other people like wait for your thing. Ask people, what do you think is the hook here? Because it's really hard to find the hook when it's your own thing because you're too close to it to see like what the marketable angle is. And just make sure you find the quick sell for what your idea is because it happens so many times where I'm like, this is a great idea, but if you can't explain it quickly, it doesn't matter how good it is because like no one's going to like just be like, oh, I'll take your word for it.

46:08 This thing that you're just mumbling and stuttering about is actually good. So you should just figure out how to say it quickly and interestingly. It's the classic elevator pitch, right? You have to. Is that something that you've honed over the years? I literally ask other people like how would you describe this like as I can't do it. I mean when you make a pitch usually put a log line which is like the one sentence elevator pitch or in my case it's always like 4 sentences because don't follow the rules. That table you had in your Comic Con, that was when I was in the hangar, right? Like on the backside. Yeah, yeah. And it was, it was with a guy, right? Yeah. See, I told you, you see, I told you.

46:48 I remember I'm really good at remembering situations. I remember you were splitting a table with a guy and he was very promoting of you. He's like, check her stuff out. Yeah. We tabled together a few more years after that because, yeah, between the two of us, it was always like a, you know, when you're first starting out, it's hard to know if you can actually get a table at New York Comic Con, because it's actually hard to get a table in Artist Alley when you're just coming up, you know? So, yeah. And also, I didn't have as much stuff. Nowadays, I have too much, too many comics. It's like, hard to fit everything onto my table. So it's a little complicated. So what's the biggest difference you've noticed from when you started in the world of a comic conventions and B in the world of comics in general? Well, the biggest difference I, I feel like I, I kind of in some way I checked out of the comics world, like the readership side a little bit just because I had a baby and all this other stuff and I just was like grinding on deadlines for a really long time.

47:50 So I'm probably not the most, you know, up to date on those things. And I've just mainly been in like a web tune and manga headspace lately. I don't know, I'm old now and everyone's getting younger and they won't get off my lawn. Well, I saw you at New York Big Apple Con, and I hadn't seen you in a while. Yeah. So when having that table at that time, can you think like, wow, it's different now, it's the same now, there's no difference at all? I mean, maybe there's like more women in the comic conventions than right at the beginning because it's actually quite a gender parity split now. It seems very even.

48:34 There's like a lot of sort of like female coded stuff now because I think that probably because of anime, manga and stuff. Did you find that being a female and the male dominated society that comics was back in the day made a difference, made it harder for you? Or was it because you were the girl? Like I'm the girl, I can just. Yeah, I'm like, I'm special. I have a bow. That was fine. I didn't care. You know, I feel like people were maybe more enthusiastic. I feel like in the old, old days, people were like really like psyched about being like, we got to promote women in comics. Now we're all like, yeah, you're fine.

49:15 Maybe since I was just coming out. So people were like, have you heard of Christian Gutsnuck? And now everyone's like, well, you might have heard of her if not read her stuff. I don't care. You know, it's always fine. I don't know. No one was ever rude to me. Maybe if anything, they were nicer to me. I. Don't know. Should have been like in my 20s and like naive. So what other books do you have on the display here? I don't really bring all my books, but I have my Minecraft graphic novel and the first three issues of Touched by a Demon and then my motivational anime stickers. So for the Minecraft that is a licensed property, yeah. How is working on a licensed property? Well, that was was a book that I got because my editor on Henchgrel was also like editing the Minecraft books. So they're like, do you like Minecraft? And I was like, I could.

50:13 And I actually like was like, oh, great, I can like I like bought a Nintendo Switch and got Minecraft for the Switch. And I was like, I can text and yeah, I just played a lot of Minecraft. It was really fun. It was cool because Minecraft is really like open-ended. So I didn't have to like, do a lot of research because that's honestly the part that scares me the most about doing like, I PS is being like, what if I don't know every single detail about this thing that's been around since like, you know, the 80s or whatever? So this one, I could just make up my own lore and it was really fun. I like doing it a lot. But that's do you feel that it's necessary for somebody to have that extensive background?

50:56 Because as we were talking about before, a lot of people who are making shows now are making properties now don't really know about the old stuff. And some of them vehemently promote that they don't know. I think that's a bad look. I don't like that. If it's something I like, I want the person to be into it. Otherwise I'm like, why would you even be doing this? Because if you like want to act like you're like fixing the thing that is beloved, then you're it just seems like very like egotistical. I don't know. I never do. I don't really do licensed stuff ever. That's the only licensed thing I've done because I actually no. I did some Strawberry Shortcake shorts for IDW.

51:36 So you're. And I had to watch a bunch. I watched so much Strawberry Shortcake. And I was like, my brain was like melting out of my ears. It was like bad. Did the That's fine. Did the Minecraft book came out before or after the movie? Before. So what did you think when they saw the movie? Did they take some of your ideas? I did see the movie, yeah. And. Now you don't have to because you know you're not doing it anymore, so you're not. You're not required. Actually they asked me if I was interested in doing more. So I don't know. That was legit. It was just like casually at a convention. But maybe I would someday. I guess it would have to be a different thing because I finished this story. But no, I want to watch the Minecraft movie. I just was like once again having a baby. I'm like, I feel weird watching kids movies without him because then I'm like, I should just like wait two years and watch it with him.

52:25 Still waiting to watch Kung Fu Panda? Aren't you supposed to like, watch it first to make sure it's appropriate for kids and then you watch it a second time? No, no. Not going to watch it twice. Why not? Isn't that what you're supposed to do? I don't know. No, it's not like a rule. You're supposed to to monitor all your children's stuff or you just let them go. And no, really. That sounds horrible. Really. A movie twice in a row. Not in a row. I guess you would watch something like, oh make sure it's suitable for your child. I thought that's what parents do. Now you just turn it off really quickly if. It's. Traumatizing. Are you going to write stuff for your kid? Actually, I wanted to make a baby book.

53:05 First of all, easy money. Second of all, yeah, it's like draw like 12 pictures. I did a book. But also like I now I have, I have insight into like what the market needs. Really. Yeah. What? What does the baby market need? It needs a book that has like every page. There's something that you do to the baby, not just like a little story, but like an action that goes with it to keep the baby engaged. That's what my baby likes so. Really. So like an interactive? No, no, it's just like, oh Poppins kiss, little duckling, and you kiss the baby kiss and I'm like, oh the duckling high fives Poppins.

53:48 OK, I got you. I. Got you. So like active stuff, not just you know, So that way you teach them. I don't know, some like I don't know, it was physical movement mixed with a book. I got it more engaging. So what's next? I'm working on a pitch actually, I have like 3 pitches that I'm just scattering between right now and also I want to pitch more actually have like a really good idea for a series 2 of Touched by a Demon and I just have to like organize all my notes. So that would be something that I really want to do. And I'm kind of like, I probably shouldn't say that because like you're not supposed to say that until you do it, but until you get like a deal. But maybe I'll just like speak it into existence. And then I have like this like romanticy comedy comic idea that I actually, I just thought of it like a week and a half ago. But that means that the idea is really fresh and exciting. So I've also been like developing that. Alright, so social media time, where can people find out more about your book, more about yourself Go. You know, you can go to kristinguznock.com and then I have a mailing list.

54:57 Sign up there. You should sign up for my mailing list because then you'll get emails from me every once in a while that are so great and fun. But you can also go to Henchgirl, under Score, Comic Twitter, Instagram and Blue Sky and get, you know, see my posts. So you were trying enough to rattle off. What are we rattling off? I'll do the first two touched by a demon. 1st 2 Touched by a Demon and we're also giving away 2 free passes to the Cradle Con, which is in the Cradle of Aviation. Do you want to give it as a bundle? Do you want to do the books and the tickets separate? It's up to you. You're our guest. Well, let's do 2. 2 Alright, so you want to do the books first or the the tickets first.

55:44 This is. Like a lot of decisions here, like very split second decision first we'll do the tickets. Tickets. All right, pull out. These are for the two free passes to the Cradle Con. What number we got? 376732. 732. There we go, right there, winner. We'll take care of you after that. And now for the. Comics. The comics. Let's see 376731. 731 He doesn't. He doesn't want him. He has already. He doesn't want a second coffee. He's like, I don't want. How about like you can have these anime stickers? Do you want me to do one more?

56:30 I'll give my are you? Happy with the stickers? Yeah, Stickers. All right. Is that good enough for you? Yeah. It's fine. Or I can also do a third one. I have my books here. Promote them. OK, 376738. 738. Who's got it? Oh wow, everybody's here. Oh, Kelly. So it's probably Kelly because everybody else is here. All right, So we're almost out of time. OK, final thought. Read my book. Read my book. Hypnosis Time. So my final thought is this. Thank you very much for coming out and being a guest on our live show.

57:12 It's really crazy how it's been so long since we've done anything like this. I mean, we do well. Neither of us has aged Sunday. So for people who are listening to this, you can actually go onto the YouTube page and type in Kristen Gutsnick live stream. You can find the video that I'm talking about on our YouTube page. Very different hair. You had the punk rock hair? Yeah, like Green. Cool. Yeah. Then I became a mom and I was like, I give up. Hey, I bathe. That's like a win. So that about does it for this week on. It came from the radio. So join us right here every week on this radio station. If you met any part of the show, go to our website www.itcameforreal.com. Listen to archives to build in a week or so. Our next live show, which will be on hold on. I got to check my notes, which would be on 104th show at the Eastfall Public Library will be on May 13th. And we will have a comic book writer, creator and publisher Phil Russell will be our guest.

58:09 So with that, we'll see you all next time. Thanks for being part of our live show you have been listening to It Came from the Radio with Mark Torres. The views of the shows hosts and guests did not necessarily reflect that of the management, owners or staff of the station. We now return you to your earthly scheduled broadcast.