(Bell melody)
- Over the last few weeks,
we talked about Spider-Man
and bar codes, and something about seasoned eggs?
I don't know.
You guys left some great comments,
so let's see what you had to say.
We are officially done with Spider-Man videos
for the foreseeable future.
I did not intend to do so many in a row.
Lazar Lilic actually coined the term "Spider-Manuary",
which is something that I rather enjoy,
and actually, now that I think about it,
I think in 2015, the very first video I ever did in January
was one about Spider-Man, so I don't know.
Is this a new tradition that we have?
And even though the bar code episode
didn't focus around Spider-Man,
it did kind of revolve around a Spider-Man picture,
and so DoctorTopper coined the term "Webuary" too,
'cause that's, jokes!
But no, we're not actually going to be doing
more Spider-Man videos for quite some time.
Also in that video, I had mentioned at the beginning
something along the lines of how
all comic books from the very start used to have
bar codes on their cover, which is just not true.
In fact, bar codes themselves were not even invented
or implemented the way that we know them until
the early 70's, so you'll never see a Golden Age comic book
with a bar code on its cover.
So on the video about how Spider-Man can stick to walls,
Fabrizio cargnelutti points out Mayday Parker,
which has a very different explanation for how
she can stick to walls.
It's more about a bio-magnetic field,
which is really cool because not only can she
stick to things, or attract things to her body,
but she can also repel them like a magnet can do,
which makes for some really cool scenarios.
Also on that same video, Yahya Rajaee
and a number of you point out that the
story I told about how Stan Lee was inspired to create
Spider-Man was wrong.
I said that he saw a spider climbing on a wall
and thought, "Yes! I'll create a Spider man!"
When really, you guys said that the story you had heard
was that he saw a fly on a wall,
and then just kind of ran through,
"Well, fly sounds dumb, so how 'bout spider?"
And I knew, I've heard that story before,
it was actually in the original script that I wrote,
that version of the story, but here's the thing.
Stan Lee has told this story in so many different versions
and variations, that it just, again, lends itself
to the idea that it's probably not true anyway.
Like, I think focusing on the details of the story
misses the biggest detail of all,
which is that it's probably a lie,
so why even bother worrying about it?
In the video that we did last week
about bar codes on comic book covers,
and like the comic book industry, history stuff
we talked about a whole bunch of stuff,
but in that video, Benjamin Abruzzo brought up
some really interesting points that I had failed
to mention in the video, which is some additional perks
of direct market distribution and also just some
other additional elements that go into the back issues
market kind of plummeting a little bit.
It's a really great comment, I encourage you to read it.
It's linked in the description below,
along with all the rest of the comments.
Matthew Thompson asks a question that I knew I was gonna get
and I really tried to work into the video,
but I couldn't find a place for it,
it didn't flow very well,
which is which copy of a comic is more valuable?
A direct market version, or a newsstand copy?
So the ones with the bar codes,
or with the pictures instead?
And from what I can find, it really doesn't matter.
Collectors will treat them as the same comic book.
But I have found that some people
claim that the newsstand ones, the ones with the bar codes,
can be more valuable under certain conditions.
So if it's a direct market version,
the one with the picture on it,
then it will go to a comic book shop,
which usually treats their merchandise with more care.
But if it's a newsstand version,
the ones with the bar codes,
then usually they don't really care.
It's like just a piece of paper for them,
they don't treat it very well.
So it can be harder to find mint condition copies
of specific newsstand editions of comics.
If you are like a hardcore comic collector,
I would actually like to know the answer to this.
If you have any insight into it that I clearly don't,
you guys know me, I'm all digital comics all the way,
so I don't really collect comics all that much.
But yeah, if you know any more information about this,
let me know in the comments.
On an unrelated note,
declaration14 asks if I'll ever do a video about
the Marvel No-Prize.
And I don't think I will 'cause it's really short
and it's not even long enough to do a tie-in over.
I mean, maybe, who knows what the future holds.
But I think it might be interesting
to take these videos, these comment-response videos
and kind of award our own NerdSync No-Prize.
So these are rewards that don't mean anything at all
but I'm just gonna give them out to people
who leave some really great comments on videos.
For example, on the tie-in from two weeks ago
about the joke that was played on Stan Lee
and the character of Sise-Neg being the actual God,
I had asked you guys to go over to Auram's channel
to his latest video and comment "Sise-Neg"
without any context other than that.
And so many of you actually did that.
He has like 800 comments on that video right now.
So majority of them just say "Sise-Neg"
and you guys are amazing.
Out of those 800 comments, he says that he thinks
at least 500 of them are just "Sise-Neg",
which makes me smile.
I would wager that it's probably closer to 700,
but that's just me.
So to all of you wonderful nerds who participated in that,
I wanna give you the very first NerdSync No-Prize.
Each one of you has earned it.
You're fantastic.
But I especially wanna give one to Don Masters,
who was the very first of many to point out
that Sise-Neg backwards is actually Genesis,
which is something that I feel so dumb
for not even realizing.
Lastly, we've been getting a lot of fan art in lately,
so I wanted to showcase some of that on this show,
starting with a couple of them today, we got Lazar Lilic,
once again, who drew me as Cyborg, which looks fantastic.
And we also have one from Kei Sato,
who drew myself, Bryce, and Chris from the NerdSync podcast
and it also looks spectacular.
I think Chris actually made that his profile picture,
so good job.
If you have your own fan art of NerdSync
that you wanna send in,
you can do so on Twitter, we're just @NerdSync.
We'd love to feature you on this show,
'cause you guys are so crazy talented.
And don't forget to send in your submissions
for the 100th episode of Comic Misconceptions.
The deadline is February 20th.
We already have so many of them, and they're all great.
You guys are great.
I love you.
You're the best.
And if you missed out from some of the videos
from the past two weeks here at NerdSync,
you can watch this one, all about the science behind how
Spider-Man can stick to walls,
or you can check out this one,
exploring why certain comic book covers have a picture of
Spider-Man on them where the bar code should be.
There's some fascinating comic book history behind that.
It's even got an appearance from another
comic book YouTuber in it.
What more could ya ask for?
And, if this is your first time
hanging out with us here are NerdSync,
please hit that big sexy Subscribe button
so you don't miss out on all the new videos
that we make for you every week that explore
the history, science, philosophy, and art
behind comic book superheroes.
It's always good stuff.
It's fun.
It's mandatory fun.
I'm Scott, and I'll see you Wednesday
for another episode of Comic Misconceptions.
See ya.