Transcript: Please Hold for Eddie Khanna 7/4/2019

Hi, Everybody!

AMOC Special Friend of the Year (2019) Jesse Lee Herndon is back with more transcripts of Please Hold videos.

Which means he's once again, AMOC Special Friend of the Day:

Suitable for framing...

First up is the July Please Hold For Dave Sim, where we all held for Eddie Khanna instead...

With added 'Merica!

__________________________

Please Hold for Eddie Khanna 7/4/2019

[Part one is sponsored by the Richard M Nixon Library]

Part one:

…

Part two:

Eddie: …Really really enjoyed reading Cerebus, and how much we want to see it preserved and the legacy kept alive.

Matt: Okay. And that’s, I mean, as I said when I first… when Tim first asked for someone to take over, I said, “I’ll throw my shiny metal helmet into the ring if nobody else wants it”, and… ever since then, I’m pretty sure he went, “Great, it’s yours!” and jumped in his car and drove away.

Eddie: [laughs] It’s funny you should say that, because that’s the sense that I’m getting from Dave while I’m here.

Matt: [laughs]

Eddie: [laughs] “Alright, kid. See ya later!” No, no, no, he’s still doing stuff, but I can tell, I think he’s a little bit happy to have someone here to maybe take over the reins for a little bit, just to get his feet wet.

Matt: And, I mean, I can understand the idea of, ya know, it’s better to have a trial run of “okay, this is what’s it’s gonna be like, are you sure you still wanna do this?” as opposed to, “okay, here’s the keys, I’m gone!”

Eddie: [laughs] Yeah, yeah exactly, that was a big part of me coming here too. But, it’s kinda like, it ties in with your first question as to like why he chose me and a big part of it is “Strange Death of Alex Raymond.” He said I’m the biggest fan and I’m the only one who really knows… I am the only one who knows where he’s going with it, and knows a lot about it, as much as him. There’s some things I can honestly say that I might know a little bit more, or maybe I just haven’t brought to his attention yet. And then there’s a lot that he knows that I don’t know what his thoughts are on. But in terms of “The Strange Death of Alex Raymond”, that’s, I think, a big part of the reason why he wanted me to be able to take over. So, like I said, it’s still just the second day and I’m still trying to get myself organized here. It’s…

Matt: [laughs]

Eddie: It’s a lot to take in, but not in the way that you would think. The biggest problem I’m having is just trying to figure out like how I want to set up and what I want to tackle first. Like, Dave’s showing me a bit of the business side. We kinda had a bit of a daily walk through of what he does for business things. And then, I’ve had a tour of the Off-White House, a quick tour around and it’s like, there’s just a lot of stuff that I kinda want to see. Like, “okay what’s this? What’s here? What’s this? How would I organize this? Where would I put that?” He’s got a lot of it already organized, but I think his main concern right now, and it kinda should be, is working on “Cerebus Hell” and “Strange Death of Alex Raymond” and, ya know, if there’s other little minor things that need to be done around the house, that’s not… I don’t think it should be his main priority right now.

Matt: ‘Kay. So… Dave’s at an undisclosed location, hold up with, I’m assuming, a remote control, and probably…

Eddie: [laughs]

Matt: …All the bliss that he’s missed since, ya know, the last vacation that he had. I mean, that’s one of those, the big question I’m gonna have for him next week, is “how did you enjoy your summer vacation?”

Eddie: [laughs] Well, I am meeting with him daily to go over stuff. Like I said, this is only the second day, and I’m gonna meet him later after this phone call, and he did call to say, “Can we postpone it a little bit? I just found out that Donald Trump is going to be doing a, I guess, July 4^th speech” and he goes “I’ve never heard Donald Trump speak before, which I’m probably the only person on the planet who’s never heard him speak.” And I’m like, “you’ve never heard Donald Trump speak before? Like that is… that’s interesting to me.” So, yeah, I’m gonna go and ask him what he thought of Donald Trump’s voice, because he says he’s never heard him talk before.

Matt: That’s… I find that surprising, but at the same time, I don’t find it surprising, if that makes any sense?
Eddie: [laughs] Not at all, Matt. Oh my God. Like, the weird stuff you would kind of expect to see and experience and happen around him? It happens. Like, I kinda went in expecting like, okay, the computer stuff is gonna go weird. Yeah, the computer stuff went weird. You think something is gonna go fine, like there’s no reason why it shouldn’t, and then something just, “Oh well, ya know, this isn’t gonna work today”, or something. Like, it’s just unbelievable. So we shouldn’t be surprised, but we still sometimes are.

Matt: I was just gonna ask about, is there a digital version of the Archive? Does Dave have all the digital stuff he’s supposed to have organized? Or is there, like, just a stack of floppy discs going back to the big 5 and a half inch ones, just, ya know, “Oh yeah yeah, this is the stuff you have to take care of, Eddie.”

Eddie: [laughs] That’s a good question. I think some of the stuff is digitized, and some isn’t, and the extent to which it’s digitized, I don’t know. Like, I think, I met Rollie today, and I think a lot of the correspondence is being digitized? How much of it has been digitized, I’m not sure. But, I think that stuff is. But in terms of the older stuff, like the stuff, like you said, are on 5 and a half inch floppies, which I don’t think they have that here, but maybe they do somewhere. They might have 8 Tracks somewhere, Matt, I dunno. Those ones, I don’t think have been digitized. So that’s definitely one of the things I kinda want to get my head around, in terms of, “okay, is this something where we’re gonna want to digitize everything as much as possible right now? Or is that something that can be held off for a little bit and done sometime in the future?

Matt: I know that somewhere in the Archive is supposedly is the VHS tape of the making of 105, the Flaming Carrot crossover.

Eddie: 04.

Matt: And that’s, Dave has mentioned in the past of, “someday we’re gonna find this tape”, and I’m like, I just feel like it’s gonna be in a box in the back of the closet, completely forgotten. Or worse, it was one of those things where Dave got rid of his electronics and went, “I don’t need tapes anymore!”

Eddie: [laughs] I hope not, I think he’s, yeah, that is one of the things, it could be in the closet somewhere around here. Some of the stuff is organized, and some of the stuff isn’t, or it’s in piles where it’s gotta be put away. Like I said, I don’t think that’s necessarily a big priority for him right now in terms of… compared to doing the comics and getting the work done. So, it is something where I am eventually like, if I do, and when I do take over, that is something that I would need to address and look at. Yeah, where is the videotape for the making of 104? I asked him yesterday, actually, if he had any copies of “Prisoners of Gravity”, starring him, and he said “no, but aren’t they all on Youtube?” and I said, “well a lot of them are, but I can’t seem to find any with Dave Sim on them.” and he said, “Oh, that’s interesting.” He goes, “No, I don’t think I ever got any copies of them.” So, something like that would be something where I would want to track down and see whoever has them, or whoever did the show, if they have copies of it, and then it’s like, “could I have some copies for the Archive?”

Matt: Right. That reminds me of the second Ye Bookes of Cerebus signing, in Salt Lake City. I’d gone to the first one with the wife. We’d packed up, drove 11 hours to New York for the first one. Had a great a time with the Yahoos. And they announced they were doing the second one in Salt Lake City and I said to Paula, “They’re doing another show, but it’s in Salt Lake City. I kinda want to go…” and she’s like, “let’s go, let’s go!” So, okay we get in the car and we drive 27 hours one way. It was a 25 hour trip with a 2 hour nap. And we get there, and she finds out it was the same art show that we’d already seen and she was pissed. But one of the things that I had brought with me was a copy of “Future Day” by Gene Day, which has a half dozen, or maybe a dozen different stories Gene had written and drawn and a lot of them have lettering from Dave. And I was at a half-priced book store, found three copies of it, bought all three of them, and I’m like, I’m gonna get one signed for me and the other two I’ll do something else with, I dunno what. And I pull them out of my bag to have Dave sign them, and he’s looking at it, and he’s like, “I’ve never seen this before.” And I’m like, “what?” and he’s like, “I don’t own this.” And I’m like, “well, ya do now! I only need one copy.” So, he and Gerhard, cause there’s a photo of Gene on the back, and Dave remembers the photo from when it was taken but he’s never seen the book. So he’s looking at the three, and he and Gerhard are comparing them, and he’s finding the best copy of the photo, because that’s what Dave wants the most. So he’s like okay, and he signs one to me, and I have him sign the other one to the next Gene Day Prize winner at SPACE and at that year at SPACE I gave it to the winner. I think it was Steve Peters, but I could be wrong. And it turns out that photo of Gene that was on that book is what Dave used for the photo reference for an issue of Cerebus Archive. And that’s why he wanted the book.

Eddie: Oh wow.

Matt: Because, when he got to doing Cerebus Archive and he got to that issue he wanted to have that photo of Gene. And it’s one of those, you would assume, well hey, Dave you have work in the book, didn’t you get a copy? “Nope. Never saw it.”

Eddie: [laughs] I think that happened a lot more before email and before everybody was in touch with everybody. It probably still happens quite a bit, where it’s like, ya know, they’ll suck up and you know, “Oh, you know, I need this this from you”. Then once they get it and they publish the book or whatever they don’t send a copy to anybody who contributed. Again, I don’t know how often that happens. It probably happens quite a bit still, to be honest. But, that’s a great buy! You keep you finding really good stuff, Matt!

Matt: [laughs] Well, you gotta keep your eyes open. Ya know, it’s one of those, the best part is, I got to keep a copy. The copy I have is bound upside down, so the front cover is the back cover.

Eddie: [laughs] That’s beautiful.

Matt: So not only is it a weird, rare book but it’s a weird, rare printing of a weird, rare book.

Eddie: [laughs] Matt, I think you’ve got the knack for having weird stuff that’s relevant to Cerebus and Dave Sim in the Archive.

Matt: Well, that’s, anything I find, I try to send Dave a copy of. Did he mention anything about the Stan Drake illustrative thing? Have you guys talked to…

Eddie: We had a… it came up in our conversation, I think, but indirectly.

Matt: Okay.

Eddie: And, yeah, I haven’t had the chance to fully debrief with him about… like, I have a ton of stuff on my laptop that I brought over that I’m like, “Okay, I’ve gotta go over that stuff with him”. And it’s just like, we… other stuff keeps coming up and it’s like okay, so hopefully I’ll be able to get to it in a bit. But yeah, no, it was a good one, I mentioned how that was an incredible find. And he said yeah, especially the part about Stan Drake mentioning Alex Raymond, in talking about those blacks being quiet pools of black, or whatever it was, you said they were. And that quote, especially, as that was a quote that was affiliated with Alex Raymond before. So I can tell, we didn’t, again, talk about it too much, but that was a huge find, Matt. That’s just.. especially finding something from Stan Drake’s death.

Matt: That was, like I said, in that email I sent you, that I found… or that someone was selling that a year ago, or in the past year, on Facebook, and I’m like, “Oh! I should buy this” I’m like, “ahh, it’s coming from England and I don’t wanna have to pay ya know $30 to ship it. Ya know, let it go, it’s fine, you know, then the other day I just stumbled across it. And of course, I’m with my friend, and I’m like, I just checked out the comic store when he finds it and I’m like, “hey, it’s $2, can you buy this for me and I’ll pay you back?” And he’s like, “yeah, we’ll make it part of your birthday present.” I’m like, “Okay, that works for me.” And then, ya know, sat on my nightstand for two days, finally open it up and I’m flippin’ through it, ya know, just readin’ a magazine where there’s literally a facing page to the ad is an article about the upcoming Walt Disney projects that talks about, and I’m not kiddin’ ya, this imaginative new short that was spun out of the failed movie called “Trick or Treat” by Tim Burton, and the short’s called “Vincent” about a kid who wants to be Vincent Price.

Eddie: [laughs]

Matt: Then the article continues, saying, Disney’s gearing up… the animators are gearing up, because there had just been an animators strike in 83 that ended right before this issue came out. And they’re gearing up for production on the adaptation of “Who Censored Roger Rabbit?” And I’m reading it like, this is all ancient history, and of course, they’re writing about it, because, ya know, it’s new and upcoming and exciting, isn’t it? And I’m like, “this movie is 30 years old!” and I’m reading the article and I’m lookin’ at the ad and I see Stan Drake’s name and I’m like, “wait a minute, this is the 21^st century, I can find anything I want by going to the Google and type it in”, and I think it was the third link. It wasn’t even like, ya know, the first five links were eBay auctions that ended a year ago. It was the third link was some guy on some board. “Hey, I scanned this. Anybody is interested, here’s the scans.” And I’m just like, download, download, print this off, mail it to Dave. Because, I’m sure, it was gonna be one of two things, either Dave has never seen this, or Dave has a copy that’s well-worn and falling apart from…

Part Two falls apart.

Part Three comes together

Matt: …years.

Eddie: It’s better to be safe than sorry. And it’s interesting how that happens, like, you had no problem finding the article, and while I’ve been helping research all this, it’s like, it’s amazing when that happens. Things just fall into place, and it’s like, “oh look it’s, ya know, it’s right there. It’s almost like you’re meant to find it.” And then there’s times when you’re just like, spinning your wheels on the internet and it’s just like going through pages and pages and pages and I can’t find it. Like I bet you anything if I had come across that article, I wouldn’t have been able to find downloadable PDFs. It’s something that seems to be specific to you finding it at that time, and then being able to search it out and get it so easily. Whereas I bet you if somebody else had tried to do it, it wouldn’t have worked that way.

Matt: Somewhere in the Archive, I don’t… I honestly haven’t heard from Dave at all, it’s one of those, I sent it up. I sent him a box of stuff. And he talked about like two things that were in the box that were near the top of the box, and nothing that was at the bottom.

Eddie: [laughs]

Matt: And at the bottom, I sent him a copy of “Scarlett: The Official Authorized Sequel to ‘Gone with the Wind’”, authorized by the Margaret Mitchell estate.

Eddie: Right.

Matt: And a copy of “The Wind Done Gone” the parody of “Gone with the Wind”, written by, I forget her name. And it’s one of those, both authors’ initials are A.R. And I believe one of them is Alexandria? And I’m like…

Eddie: Alexandria Ripley.

Matt: Yeah, and I put a note, a letter, “to the Cerebus Archive” saying, “I’m sending these along” and then in parentheses, in the letter, I said, “I make no connection whatsoever to the fact that both authoresses have A.R. as their initials, one of them even has Alex in it”.

Eddie: [laughs]

Matt: And then, in the copy of “The Wind Done Gone”, I included the original article, it’s, I think it was George Will, wrote, it was some column I came across in a newspaper. And it’s George Will talking about the court case that the Margaret Mitchell estate brought against the author of “The Wind Done Gone” and the court finding it’s an authorized parody and it’s legal and they can’t sue. And I read the article, and I saved the article for the parody and fair use stuff, but I was talkin’ to my Aunt about it, and that year at Christmas, and I opened up my Christmas present and it was a copy of “The Wind Done Gone” she ran across and went, “here you go, you can have this.” And I never read it, I put it on the shelf. I was gonna get to it, and then Dave started talkin’ about Margret Mitchell and “Gone with the Wind”, and I’m like, “I’m wondering if Dave’s seen this book. So I’ll send it to him.“ And then, ya know, I kind procrastinated, and then I was out at a rummage sale and it was the last day of the rummage sale and I found a copy of a first print first edition copy of “Scarlett” for a dollar, and I’m like, “Okay, I’ll buy this for Dave and mail it to him. Ya know, he’s kinda into Margret Mitchell right now.” Ya know, it’s one of those, he’d just brought that into glamourpuss so I didn’t know how far deep the rabbit hole was, and, “Okay, I’ll buy this for Dave” and I get up to pay for it and they’re like, “Oh, it’s half off today, so it’s 50 cents” and I’m like, “alright, a first print of a copy of a book that’s probably gonna turn out to be important to Dave eventually.. 50 cents, yeah sure, just buy it and go.”

Eddie: [laughs]

Matt: Yeah, Dave hasn’t said anything to me, like, ya know, “Oh yeah, ya know, thanks for sending these in.” Like, either he was already aware of it, or it’s just… further down the rabbit hole. Cause I’ve asked him, how deep are you going with this? And he goes, “it never ends.”

Eddie: You know, one of the reasons why he probably didn’t respond to you about those books? Is because I just have been burying him in Margret Mitchell stuff over the last few years. Like you would not believe, like there is a part of me that is feeling like very very very very guilty about this. Because, like… I don’t think… Yeah, there’s interesting parts to it and she does factor into it in a big way, but it’s not about her, and I kinda… when I started pulling on this thread, I started finding so many things and I just started sending him so much stuff. And you know, you get really worked up, you get all this enthusiasm about it. But, within that enthusiasm, you have a tendency to send a lot of stuff that isn’t necessarily pertinent? Or maybe it’s just you like, “oh yeah, he could use this.” and it’s like, it’s a one man operation here, pretty much.

Matt: [laughs]

Eddie: And he’s got a lot to do, so it’s like… I’ve probably given him more Margaret Mitchell than he ever needs. And I remember one time when he had finally had kind of come to the end of the Margaret Mitchell stuff, he was like, “that’s it. I’m done. I’m out of here. Thank you. It’s not you, it’s me”, to Margaret Mitchell, ya know, hypothetically. It’s like, that’s it, no more. And then he’s got me looking up stuff on Margaret Mitchell again. [laughs] It’s like, okay, I think he’s doing this just to get back at me, but I could be wrong.

Matt: [laughs]

Eddie: And it’s like, I thought we were done with Margret Mitchell. No more Margret Mitchell! Enough Margret Mitchell! And then I made that amazing discovery, that I posted to Patreon about the Raymond and Drake name connection in the Margret Mitchell encyclopedia. So it’s like, you just… you don’t know, you’re kind of flailing in all of this and then you just kind of have to trust your instincts. But, with him, I think usually... usually if he’s got something and he’s found something useful out of it, like, he knows pretty much… he’s got good instincts for where the story is. And I think he can usually tell whether or not something is… how important something is going to be to the work. Like the A.R. initial thing, I completely missed that connection, but I did make the connection that her last name is Ripley, ya know, which is like Rip, which is like Rip Kirby.

Matt: That was the other half of it, yeah.

Eddie: So, the already weird connection… yeah? Go ahead?

Matt: I said, that was the other half, but now that you’ve said it, I’m like, oh yeah I remember that being part of it too, was that one of them has Alex in her name, the other one has Rip and I’m like… you look at it and you’re like, there’s something there and it might be somethin’ small, but it doesn’t feel like it’s somethin’ small. And…

Eddie: Yeah! And then you pull on it and it just opens up a whole bunch of new things. And sometimes it doesn’t lead to anything. That’s the problem. Like sometimes you get discouraged and you’re like looking for something and you’re like, “I think this is the right path I’m on but it’s like I’m not finding anything related to what I would expect to find.” So that’s why I’m pleasantly surprised you were able to find that Stan Drake interview so quickly and easily. And speaking of Alex Raymond, too, and that’s a big thing, like, how… how often did he actually bring up Alex Raymond in his interviews over the years? Especially when talking about art? Ya know, was that a common thing he did, was it not so common? I mean, I just don’t know.

Matt: Well, and that’s… goin’ back to glamourpuss that was kinda one of Dave’s hypotheticals that we’re never gonna get the real answer to is, “how close were these two guys?” Ya know, they were rivals, but were they also… was it a friendly rivalry or was it a… ya know, constant one-upmanship between the two of ‘em? I mean, it… the Stan Drake article implies “Alex Raymond said to me”, well did he say it to you Stan, or did he say it a lot and you heard him say it? Ya know…

Eddie: [laughs] Yeah, exactly. Like, don’t forget, Stan Drake was a big time embellisher. He was quite the storyteller, so you don’t always know what he’s saying was necessarily the truth or how much you can take it as face value.

Matt: Yeah, and that’s… I mean… it’s one of those, I’ve got the scans, and I’m like, okay, I’m gonna save however many pages of Stan stuff, ya know, make them into Jpegs that I can fax up to Dave. Cause that’s the other one… ya know, it’s really weird, cause last time I talked to Dave he was saying… ya know, I said I sent him a fax and in the fax I sent him images that I’m sure it’s gonna look like mud because I know it’s how fax machines work. And he’s like, “it’s really weird, Matt. When you fax something it comes through almost as a greyscale. Everybody else it turns to mud.” And I’m like, “I don’t know how this works. I don’t know what I’m doin’, if it’s somethin’, ya know, I’m formatting things ‘wrong’ and they work better, or if it’s just his fax machine likes me?” So when I’m sending the scans and I’m kinda… I’m readin’ this, but I’m not readin’ this type of thing? I’m just kinda skimmin’ it, and then I saw Alex Raymond, and I’m like, what? And I back up and I read it and I’m like, yeah okay, definitely have to fax this to Dave today. Like, ya know, normally I would wait… cause I think it was even a Sunday when I sent it to him. And normally I would wait until okay, I’ll wait until Monday, I’m not gonna disturb him on his day off type thing, I’m like, no this is just weird enough I need to send it now.

Eddie: Oh yeah. And like, not just the Alex Raymond part, but the part that he talks about his technique. And the other thing is how quickly he does a strip. Like, I knew that was the part Carson was probably gonna glom onto, which was the fact that he talks about how he just, ya know, how his process and his method is for working. But also just how quickly he can get them done. And it’s like, Stan Drake can draw that fast that good? It’s like, just, unbelievable.

Matt: Which… it might be! Unbelievable. Like, it might have been one of those, ya know, Alex Raymond saying “yeah, I’m six weeks ahead on my strip” and Drake lookin’ at him, like, “what are you crazy? Nobody’s that far ahead in their strip”. That was one of the things that rung a bell, like. Is this, ya know, Stan telling, sayin’ “oh yeah I can get a strip done this fast”, well, really, Stan, or is this one of those, ya know, “Yeah, this one day this one strip I was in and out before lunch.” And twisting the story so that, “Oh yeah, everyday is like that. I don’t anguish at the boards all day ever!” And I mean, that’s… it goes back to what you said, he was a fantastic storyteller. So was it a story, it was it real?

Eddie: I just briefly mentioned, talked to Carson about it, and I said it reminds me of the story of someone saying that they watched him do the hair on Juliet Jones or on Eve, and it was like, “Yeah he just ya know, whipped it out and that was it.”And it was like, that’s it, like I can’t compete with this guy. And I think Carson said it was Russ Heath, and I’m pretty sure it was Russ Heath, who saw Stan Drake working, and it’s like.. cause a lot of Juliet Jones was known for the way he drew the hair on the women and it’s like, ya know, it was apparently a big part of his style, was drawing women’s hair accurately in the right way, and when he saw him do it that way, he was like, “that’s it? That’s all it takes for you to do that? Like, that’s incredible.” And a lot of those guys, don’t forget, they really… this cartooning gig might’ve been secondary to them wanting to just go and play golf, ya know? [laughs]

Matt: I mean, the number of golf jokes in the article, it’s only like, seven pages? And I think there were at least five or six of ‘em. And I’m goin’, I think it’s one of these… he had a… he says at the beginning, “well, ya know, you can’t teach penciling in ten days” and I’m thinking… err, I mean, “you can’t teach penciling in ten pages” and I’m goin’, okay, they said to you, hey, ya know, keep it to ten pages and describe your technique. And of course, immediately, it’s, well, here’s a golf joke, here’s another golf joke, and I’m like, “was he on his way to the course when he went, ‘oh yeah, I have this deadline?’”.

Eddie: [laughs] You can tell where his priorities were. What his mind was on.

Matt: Well, that’s… I mean, I freely admit, when I draw the strips for these, if I’m workin’ more than an hour, I did somethin’ wrong in my life. I’m very much the Ernest Hemingway of cartooning of, “okay it’s been an hour, we’re done.”

Eddie: [laughs] Matt, put down the gun!

Matt: [laughs] Not that way!

Eddie: [laughs] Okay, okay, just makin’ sure! Just making sure, Matt, I need all the help I can get. Trust me, you’re definitely on that list of the top five people I need around to help me out.

Matt: Okay, not a problem. I mean, that’s… it’s very much the Legion of Substitute Wise Fellows at this point of, ya know, whatever you need, we’ll see what we can do.

Eddie: Oh yeah, and I’m one of them, right now, so that’s exactly what it’s like. Oh, what was I gonna say? Ya know, what you just said about, if it takes longer than hour to do one you’re doing something wrong. It’s funny, Dave’s got these quotes that he always used to put in the front of “Cerebus” in the notes from the President about… I think they stick out in a lot of people’s minds. Especially the ones about how to become a cartoonist and self-publisher, and there’s that one quote he said where, “first you get good, then you get fast, then you get good and fast.” I think that’s the way it was.

Matt: That is the exact quote. When I train somebody at work, the boss will come by and say, “how are they doin’?” I’m like, “first we get good, then we get fast, then we get good and fast. We’re still workin’ on good or we’re still workin’ on fast.” I’ve said that probably 3000 times in the past seven years.

Eddie: You know, and it’s funny, because I’m sure that we’re not the only ones doing that at work? Like, the one I do at work, because there’s a lot of bureaucratic stuff I have to work with, if the term Steering Committee ever comes up, right, I’m like, we don’t need a steering committee, we need a ‘everybody get out and push’ committee. Every time I say it, it’s like everybody cracks up.

Matt: At work, we’re behind, and I was talkin’… it’s a family business that the owner retired and passed it on to his kids and he’s got like six kids. He’s got one son and five daughters, and all their husbands work for the company. And the lowest on the totem pole’s son-in-law will come by and talk to me and I have told him multiple times, “Hey, I’m not on the steering committee, I’m on the everybody get out and push committee. What do we gotta do to get this company goin’ where we need to go?” That’s all… I’ve said that, and that’s another Dave-ism that I’ve dropped many times. Because it is a classically perfect, any organization you’re in, ya know, there’s gonna that be one guy of “okay I’m on the steering committee, this is the direction we’re goin’” It’s like, yeah, just quit steerin’ into the ditch, we’re in the back pushin’…

Part Three steered into the ditch

Part Four gets out and pushes

Eddie: … He nodded, and I said, “that to me is just one of the most impressive things, like, you basically landed right on when you said you were going to do it.” He said that for a long time he did the math wrong and thought that it was going to be 2003, so when he finally realized it was 2004, he was like, “aw Dave, what’re you doing to yourself?”

Matt: That’s… The Comics Scene magazine that has an interview with Dave & Deni, he says, “oh yeah the book’s gonna end in 2002” and I’m like, “this is back before Dave did the math!”

Eddie: [laughs] Yeah, he did the math wrong and ya know, it’s like, “oh, I forgot to carry the one. Ah, well, what difference is a year going to make?” Well, when you’re at that point, at that stage in the game, it… from the sounds of it, it made a big difference, just from reading the back of “The Last Day” and everything he had to do to get the whole thing done on time. And Gerhard, too. I don’t think we should underestimate what an accomplishment it was doing all those issues and doing it in a timely manner so that it finished in March 2004. Like that, I don’t think… I don’t know that anybody would be able to do that again? They might be able to, but I’d like to see… I’m curious to see how often something like that could happen.

Matt: Well, the classic one is [distant boom], that explosion was fireworks. I live in America, we’re gonna blow stuff up tonight. I dunno if you heard that…

Eddie: Matt, put down the gun!

Matt: No, no, no! Again! It’s not me, it’s the neighbor, the neighbor’s blowin’ stuff up… Where was I goin’? I lost my train of thought. Yeah, no, the March 2004 thing… the issue was supposed to come out, I think, the second or third Wednesday of the month? And my store got it the first Wednesday of the month. It was a week early.

Eddie: Oohhhhh, you lucky!

Matt: And yeah, that’s… cause Dave has said, “Oh yeah, ya know, issue 300 it was a week late, but it still came out when I said it would” and I’m like, no it was a week early. And it turns out it was probably one of those Diamond things where they got a bunch of books and ya know, half the shipment got packed up to ship out and then the other half of the shipment, “ahh, well, it can wait a week, nobody’s gonna care.” I have friends that are retailers that are, “oh yeah, ya know, the book’s supposed to be out in stands this date. Well, that’s depending on if Diamond decides to pack the box this week.”

Eddie: Yeah, I think uh… was Diamond the only game in town when March 2004 came around?

Matt: Yep! By 2004, Diamond was pretty much it. I think there was a few small independent publish… uhh, distributors, but they weren’t doin’ gangbusters. By that point, Diamond had secured their monopoly. But we love their monopoly! Don’t cancel the book, Diamond. We’re good.

Eddie: [laughs]

Matt: We love Diamond!

Eddie: Diamond good! We love Diamond! Yay Diamond! Thank you, Diamond, for all the help you’re giving us. Because they are giving Dave and Aardvark-Vanaheim a lot of help. So thank you. Do you remember the day when you bought Cerebus 300?

Matt: Yeah! Pretty… I mean, it was one of those, went down to the store. By 2004 I was pretty much livin’ at my comic book store. I’d work all week and then by the weekend, I’d pretty much just live there. Back in the late… well, it was the early 2000s, I was living at home and had more money than brains and I pretty much paid the rent on the comic store every week. Or every month.

Eddie: [laughs]

Matt: And I’m not lyin’! There was one day, I walked down, and the owner came over and gave me a big hug, and was all… it was like an old episode of “Cheers” where Norm shows up and everybody screams your name. I walked in and everyone was like, “Matt!” and I’m like “what’s goin’ on?” The owner gave me a big hug, and I’m like, “what’s up?” and he’s like, “oh you’re gonna pay the rent now” And I’m like what? Open my file, and here’s $400 worth of stuff. Oh yeah sure, I don’t need things like saving for the future to buy a house to have kids and a wife and stuff. No, no, I’m gonna buy a replica of Thor’s hammer because it’s Thor’s hammer and I need this in my life.

Eddie: [laughs] Did you get that out of your system?

Matt: No. Now I buy original Dave Sim art when Seiler doesn’t outbid me. That’s why I love Jeff Seiler. Jeff Seiler’s the best.

Eddie: [laughs] Jeff Seiler is,uhh, yeah, I think I started buying some artwork over the last few years, as well, and I’ve said to Dave, my plan is to donate it to the Archive after I’m gone… or sometime before. I think I’m probably not the only one who’s thought about that?

Matt: Back when Jeff lived near me, cause he lived in the same 15 mile radius for about a year or so, and he was talking, “Oh ya know, when if I die, I’m gonna give you all of my Cerebus stuff” I’m like, understand, any original art is goin’ right back to Dave, and he’s like, “What?” and I’m like, I don’t really have display space, ya know, it’s one of those, yes, I want it, but at the same time, no, I can just send it back to Dave and I’ll know where it is. I don’t have to worry about, ya know, “hey what happened to that painting on the wall?” type thing.

Eddie: [laughs]

Matt: And he’s brought it up a couple times of, hey if something happens to me I’m gonna send you stuff. He posted something on AMOC about offering it to anybody who’s willing to take it, type thing, and I’m like, just send it to Dave. You got an original page, you’re thinkin’ of sellin’ it? Send it to Dave. I mean, then everybody goes, “well I paid good money for this”, and it’s like yeah, but at a certain point, I mean… how many pages from issue 8 still exist, and how many pages from issue 8 did Dave sell to get weed and some kid bought it and his mom threw it out?

Eddie: Yeah, and that’s the thing, right? If you have Cerebus art, you kind of… I don’t think you can not help but think about what might happen to it after you’re gone. And it’s like, would… ya know, the people who inherit it, would they sell it or would they want it? Are they interested in it? And I don’t know how many people have Cerebus art where their family would be like, “oh yeah, I’m gonna keep this”. It might be like, “oh I’m gonna sell it and see what I can get” and then it’s lost to time and space. Or they might get some good money for it, but then it’s out there in the wild again.

Matt: Well, hopefully, whatever fan it is has already submitted it to the Art Dragnet and Sean’s got a copy. Or the family when they finally decide, “okay, we’re gonna sell all this” it goes to an auction house that is partnered up with… where, ya know, like Heritage sends all the scans they get to Dave right away. At least, that was how somebody told me. I think Sean said that yeah, Heritage emails the scans whenever they get anything.

Eddie: Well, that’s good.

Matt: And I mean, it’s… I’ve said this before and I’ll probably continue to say I like Dave a lot. I mean, I wouldn’t take on a blog devoted to his work if I didn’t like him, but I really want to smack him upside of the head for the day he went “why do I need two copies of the negatives for the first four phonebooks? Ya know, this is just wasted space. I can get rid of half of these.” and of course, then they burned up in a fire. Ya know, it’s like, that’s why you had two copies, Dave!

Eddie: [laughs] That’s one of those things, you just don’t know. They always say hindsight is 20/20. It’s like, yeah there’s a lot of things where you didn’t know how it was gonna turn out, but maybe you had to go through that for some reason and then to get to where you are now, so you know, okay, that didn’t work, or don’t do that, or don’t do that again. Because he really… he was in uncharted territories in a lot of way, right? Like, it wasn’t, like, he was running his own self-publishing company, he’s doing his own trade paperbacks, that kind of thing, ya know, he’s trying to do all that. I don’t think anybody had done what he did on this scale before, certainly not as a self-publisher. So in that sense, I think that, there was a lot of learning on the job and learning as you go along for him. In this day and age, a lot of it has been done already. Or you can say, okay, that’s how this person did that. But back when he started out, and he was doing it, I think he was in a lot of new situations and a lot of unprecedented situations, so it was something where I think he had to pretty much kind of learn as he went along and, ya know, you make your choices, and you live with your mistakes.

Matt: Well, my biggest complaint about it was, at the time, he’s like, “oh yeah, I threw them all away”. It was me, Margaret, a couple other guys, ya know, sent faxes and calls of like, “Dave, Dave, do you still have access to this stuff, cause you can sell these and make money!” and he’s like, “oh no, they’re in the garbage, they’re in a landfill, they’re gone forever” and I’m like, is it worth going to Kitchener, finding where the landfill is and gettin’ a shovel?

Eddie: [laughs] That’s one pretty big devotion there. I don’t think that’s something Dave would do himself, so I don’t know if that’s something that should be done.

Matt: Well, it’s like the documentary they did about the E.T video game where the legend is it’s in a landfill in Arizona, and they went and found it, and I’m like, see? You can do this! You can recover crap that was thrown away, we can do this! And I’m like, just knowing my luck somewhere along Dave’s garbage route is like the nastiest place in the world where they throw away things that’re practically toxic waste and the bags are right next to Dave’s stuff, so whoever does it takes the challenge and the shovel is gonna die.

Eddie: [laughs] You might have a good premise for a TV show, there.

Matt: [grunts]

Eddie: Ya know, we’ll call it “Take the Shovel and Die”.

Matt: [laughs] It would be the ultimate reality show. Okay, whoever can find the original art wins a million dollars.

Eddie: Yeah, Cerebus treasure hunters out there, ya know, with their Indiana Jones hats and everything. I was gonna say, I think he did realize at some point the value of the stuff he has when he stopped throwing away the tracing paper drawings that he used in the creation of the art. Like, I have a couple of them. I have quite a few glamourpuss ones and I think one or two tracing drawings of Cerebus that he used for issue 300? And it’s like, yeah, that, to me, is very, very valuable. That’s something that I think is very important as a Cerebus fan and a Cerebus reader to have. And it’s like, ya know, for him, it’s maybe not… it wasn’t something that he originally thought that was that valuable but I think over time he came to realize that, yeah, no this tracing stuff, people are interested in it, no matter how rough it is or how bad it is, it is part of the process, and if you’re a fan of something, or enjoy reading something you wanna know how the process went.

Matt: Has he shown you the watch?

Eddie: You know what, Matt, I was gonna ask you about that. You were the one who gave him the pocket watch, right?

Matt: Yep!

Eddie: I haven’t asked him where it is, but I think I have an idea where it might be.

Matt: If it’s not with him, then yeah he’s probably got it someplace… well, the last time I talked to him about it, I go like, “hey, you still got the watch right?” Cause it’s not a fancy gold watch like I originally presented it to him? It’s a very cheap watch but I believe the last time I asked him the cover had fallen off… somethin’ else, or the chain had fallen off, the cover was falling off, and I’m like, “ I can get it replaced” and he’s like, “no, no, no! This is the original, I want this one.” But yeah, so, Cerebus 295, and I know it’s 295 cause that’s the one that I have on a wall. It’s all tied together. It’s a series of blog posts that I have to knuckle down and write because it’s one of those stories that when I tell it to people they’re like, “wait, what?” So, to pause the watch story, I did the Cerebus coffee mugs because I wanted one. Ya know, the “Darr pretty sunsets, darr pretty flowers” Cerebus in his bathrobe coffee mug. I wanted one and when I went to the company that I went to, to get ‘em, they’re like, a minimum half order is 36. And, remember, this is back in my “more money than brains” days, so I’m like, “sure, I’ll buy 36 coffee mugs! And I’ll sell ‘em! Ya know, I won’t recoup my costs too badly, but it’ll be fun! I just want one, that’s all I need is one. And that way I can send Dave one. It’ll be great.”

Eddie: [snickers]

Matt: And I sent one to Margaret, cause Gerhard… it was one of these, I called Dave, asked for his permission, and he’s like, “yeah sure, you can do it.” And did ‘em, and the first box was misprinted, they screwed up the logo, instead of being a white circle on a black mug it’s white linework on a black mug, and I went to them and said, “hey, you guys screwed this up” and they went, “oh, okay, we’ll replace it” and they sent me a second box of mugs that were exactly the same as the first box of mugs, and I’m like, “No, really, guys, this is what it’s supposed to look like.” And the third box was good. So there’s 72 bad mugs out there that I’ve given away and sold and ya know, I just sent one to Jesse Herndon for doing the ‘Please Hold’ transcripts and I got the good mug. And I was sellin’ ‘em, and Gerhard, or Dave through Gerhard, one of ‘em contacted me and said, “hey, send one to Margaret, we’ll pay you for it.” And I’m like, “okay, sure!” so I sent one to Margaret and never charged ‘em because, ya know, it’s technically their mug. I’m illegally producing these things, I don’t feel good takin’ their money. And…

Part Four shatters on the kitchen floor.

Part Five pieced together with glue

Eddie: Right.

Matt: So then I ordered the copy of the “Guide to Self-Publishing”… and Gerhard’s gonna kill me when I tell this story.

Eddie: [laughs]

Matt: Dave signs it and mails it to me. And I sent him a check for five bucks for it, ya know, to cover shipping and handling and stuff. And two weeks later I get an envelope in the mail from Aardvark-Vanaheim and I’m like, what’s this? And on the back of it, there’s a handwritten note from Dave saying, “Dear Matt, Gerhard was so excited to finally pay you back for sending Margaret a coffee mug, the other copy will just be our little secret.” And I open up the envelope, another copy of the “Guide to Self-Publishing” along with my original check and a note… ya know, signed by Dave and a note from Gerhard saying, “haha, now I’ve paid you back for Margaret’s mug.” And I’m like, okay, cool, can live with this. And I think it got back to Gerhard that Dave had sent me another copy or something, because, then when they were selling the tracing papers… issue 295, there’s the image of Cerebus and She-Shep in the rowboat fishing. And it’s the tracing paper original and Ger was sellin’ ‘em on eBay and I bought it for $30. And when I went to pay him, he’s like, “don’t worry, it’s all good” and he sent it to me. And I’m like, yeah, but eBay really wants me to give you money. So I have that framed with the issue. But anyway, in the issue - going back to the watch- Dave, in the opening inside cover is talkin’ about the problems of dealing with Aardvark-Vanaheim and stuff, and then he says, “but in four months it won’t be my problem, I’ll be retired.” And that’s when it hits me, of, yeah, wait a minute, Dave keeps talkin’ about issue 300 he’s done, he’s retired, he’s throwin’ up his hands and walkin’ away type thing. Wouldn’t it be funny if I got him a gold watch and sent it to him of, hey, now that you’re retired, thanks for the good work, here’s your watch. So, then, I think it was around that time they announced he and Ger were goin’ to SPACE that year in March or April of 2004, so right after issue 300 came out. So my buddy lives in Ohio so I went to Ohio with my buddy, we went to SPACE, and I got this huge box full of trade paperbacks. It’s all “Mothers & Daughters”, “Melmoth”… uhh… I think there was a copy of “Guys” or “Rick’s Story” in there. And my buddy was like, “you’re gonna get all this crap signed?” Cause I had a bunch of other stuff, too. But I’m like, don’t worry about it, don’t worry about it. And we get in line, and the people around us in line are like, “that guy is gonna get all that crap signed? What a dick!” But they’re being nice about it. And we get up, and we’re like two away from the front of the line, and I turn to my friend and I’m like, “here, these are yours, get ‘em signed.” And he’s like, “what?”, and I’m like, I’m giving you these phonebooks cause I’d gotten him into the series but he didn’t have them. So, he’s a little shocked of, ya know, I just spent $150 on him, and he’s not in the right frame of mind, gets up, Dave & Ger sign their stuff, and Dave turns to me, because I still have a stack of crap, and I’ve already decided I brought too much stuff to this signing, I’m not going to waste this man’s time, so I just pull out the box with the watch, open the box and like, “ you said you were retiring, here’s your gold watch” and Dave’s jaw hits the ground like, “okay, what do I do now?” Ya know, mentally he’s thinking… “I really want to thank this guy, but I’ve got a line of 100 people” and at the time at the convention he’s in the middle of the convention. Like, they didn’t put him at the end, or near the door, and he’s in the exact middle of the room. So his line goes in front of like seven other tables and these guys aren’t getting any business because all the people in front of their tables are waiting for Dave Sim. So he’s mentally goin’, “I gotta hurry up and get this line moving, because Jimmy Gownley, who does ‘Amelia Rules’ is at the next table over and Jimmy’s not gettin’ any business. I can’t just stop everything to do something.” So, he thanks me, shakes my hand, gets Gerhard to take a picture of us, which, ya know, okay, and he’s like, “you want this stuff signed?” and I’m like, “no, no, you got a long line, it’s fine” and he’s like, “no, it’s cool!” and he and Ger just whip signatures on 12 things? 20 things? Whatever I had. Because, again, in my head, I’m never going to see Dave Sim again in my life, he lives in Canada, I live in America, he doesn’t really do conventions, he’s retiring. Ya know, he signs everything, thanks me again, I walk away, and we’re walkin’ around the convention kinda like, well, that was the only five minutes we really cared about, anything else we do now is icing on the cake. And, we’re walking around, and we come back, and they’ve moved Dave from the middle of the convention to the entrance and his line is all the way out and around, and almost down to the side of the hotel. And I’m like, oh this is great, ya know. I touched this nice old man’s heart, type thing. I mean, Dave wasn’t that old at the time. I go home, and forget about it, and… oh yeah, he asked for my name and address so he could say thanks properly. And I didn’t think about that. So, like a month later, I get this package in the mail from Dave with a nice letter thanking me, and the first five tracing paper drawings he did of Old Cerebus from “The Last Day”.

Eddie: Ahh, look at that. See, that’s the kind of stuff he does.

Matt: Well, including the first Cerebus Old where he’s not quite as old as he is, but he’s got a penis. And I’m like, I’m lookin’ at this picture and I’m like, “that’s not what I think it is” and I ask Dave about it, years later, and he’s like, “oh yeah, I figure, as you get old, everything drops so yeah that would make sense” and I’m just like, wow! I didn’t need to see a tiny little aardvark wang but at the same time, it’s so funny.

Eddie: [laughs] Aardvark Wang is a great name for a band.

Matt: If ever I form a band, that’s probably gonna be the name for it.

Eddie: I was gonna ask, are you finding enough stuff for the blog? Like, running it and posting everything on a daily basis, or are you finding that you have to struggle sometimes?

Matt: It comes in waves. There’s some days where I’m like, oh God, I’ve gotta do this, or I have to do that. I have my big ambitions and then I come home and there’s an email from David Birdsong of, “hey, look what I’ve found.” Or there’s somethin’ from you, or there’s somethin’ from Sean Robinson. Or, the best ones, and the ones I love the most, are when I go “okay, I’ve gotta post on the blog” and I open up my browser and I go to the blog and there’s a post from Sean, and I go, “well, I get to go home early today!”

Eddie: [laughs] Yeah, my job is done for today! I was gonna suggest that, I don’t know if this is a good idea or not, but if you were struggling or trying to find stuff, like, “A Moment of Cerebus” is… ya know, you don’t have to sign up to watch it or see it or view it or anything. But Facebook isn’t like that. I think you have to be on Facebook to look at the Cerebus facegroup stuff? And I don’t know if that’s something where you want to use stuff from there and post it on A Moment of Cerebus or if you want to keep the two completely separate.

Matt: Oliver and I have talked about it, and Oliver’s said, “anything I post, go ahead and use” and 90% of stuff is from Twitter, and I don’t do the Twitter. Cause it’s a wretched hive of scum and villainy. It’s one of those, I will borrow liberally when I need to, but a lot of that stuff I just leave there. Cause I know there’s a lot of crossover between the two, and I don’t want somebody to be like, “oh let’s go on Facebook, and oh okay, we’ll need Cerebus stuff. Okay let’s go to A Moment of Cerebus, hey I just saw this a minute ago.”

Eddie: The reason I was just suggesting it was I find it useful to look for things on A Moment of Cerebus in terms of using it like a database sometimes? You know, you don’t always find what you’re looking for, but I kinda have a rough idea of where it might be, and I just thought it might be easier to have everything under one umbrella. But if the Facebook stuff is mostly like tweets and all that, then it’s not worth it. Not if there was like, say for example, somebody found a great article like you did, and posted it on Facebook, it wouldn’t hurt to have a link to that or somehow post that on A Moment of Cerebus.

Matt: When that stuff comes up, then I do it. I will grab anything I can, because the editorial philosophy I have is, “Gimme that, it’s mine!”

Eddie: [laughs] And rightfully so, I should think.

Matt: And the working theory is as long as I credit where it came from I don’t think anybody is really pissed that I’m using it. Cerebus in Matt’s life, it started as a joke because I did a “Cerebus in My Life” back when Tim was in charge and I titled it “part 2” and he was like, “did we ever do part 1?” And I’m like, “No, but this is technically part 2”. And he’s like, “well, I’m just gonna run it without that if that’s okay”. And I’m like, “yeah, no, that’s fine, it’s your blog, do whatever you gotta do”, and then when I took over… [phone makes the dreaded ‘Eddie had enough and hung up’ noise] Uh oh!

Eddie: Hey Matt, I don’t know what happened there. But having been on the other side of that when Dave’s talking to me on the phone I guess I can tell Dave that it doesn’t happen to just him.

Matt: Well, okay, so the caller ID on the phone the first time you called has an international area code of 011, and when you just called now, it didn’t, and it says “Ontario, Canada”. And I’m like [stammers] Dave talks about the phone being goofy and weird and I’m like, “no, no, I don’t think so, Dave”. No, no, the phone is goofy and weird.

Eddie: Trust me, it is. Every… technology does not like Dave. I don’t know what it is, but it’s like, I told him, I said, you know what, it’s almost like that’s your mutant power and they should draft you into the CIA and send you off to one of those foreign countries where you can go in there and just completely disrupt their electronics, because… I’ve seen it happen to other people, too. I’ve seen that where, for some reason, it’s weird, stuff goes weird around them. And I think he’s one of them as well. But, I should probably take that as a sign, because I do have to go meet him and pick up some stuff on the way over there.

Matt: Okay.

Eddie: So, this actually kind of flew by! [laughs] This was actually really, really enjoyable for me.

Matt: Okay, well, if ever Dave takes another vacation and makes you do his job again, I’m here.

Eddie: Yeah, I think… I’m hoping this will help charge him up a bit, and recharge his batteries a bit, and sort of fire up his creative… I mean, he’s pretty creative as it is, but I think… I’m hoping this will kinda give him a little bit of a boost and umm..

Matt: Well, I was gonna ask, you guys, basically, as Dave has said, “Eddie’s coming, I’m making him do everything.” Does that include, do you have to write “Cerebus in Hell?” today?

Eddie: [laughs] No, I think, I’m leaving that to the big boys, there. I think, Dave’s still doing it but I’m hoping that maybe in a more relaxed setting he can really focus on that. I did meet with him this morning and actually he did a power stint on some “Strange Death of Alex Raymond” stuff which, surprised, like he got through a lot of stuff in a few hours, which, if you had asked me, it would’ve taken me like days to go through that. SO, I think it’s being helpful right now, me being here? And I think it’s giving him time to focus on other stuff, and definitely one of the stuff is “Cerebus in Hell?” and I’ve seen some of the stuff that’s coming through the fax and uhh yeah, your name is on it, Matt!

Matt: Yeah, I know!

Eddie: [laughs] How does that feel?

Matt: [sighs] Part of me is like, okay my official Marvel Bullpen name is Manly Matt Dow, but part of me is like, yeah, but I think Momentary Matt Dow would be funnier.

Eddie: [laughs] Hey, suggest it!

Matt: Ahh, I want to, but at the same time, it’s like, ehh… I trust Dave, ya know, it’s one of those, it’s one my list of… I’m gonna send Dave a fax, but of course anything I send him in the next week it’s goin’ to you, so.

Eddie: I am relaying his messages to him.

Matt: Okay.

Eddie: That’s actually one of the things I gotta do now. I’ve gotta go give him his messages and stuff that needs to be done. I did see the original of the Spider-Vark... the Spider-Vark picture that he did, and yeah, it’s pretty funny to see that up close! [laughs]

Matt: [laughs] He says that I’m the one who unlocked the origin, and I’m like, okay, I just… it’s the this one image that I keep seeing and every time I see it, I’m like, this is so creepy.

Eddie: [laughs] It is! And the way he’s got it set-up is very creepy as well. Don’t forget, Dave can do creepy.

Matt: Yes! Yes, he can.

Eddie: Yeah, definitely. He definitely knows how to draw them in. Okay, Matt, I’ve got to run! Cause I’m getting really close to having to meet him.

Matt: Okay!

Eddie: So, yeah! I really enjoyed doing this. Hopefully we’ll do it again.

Matt: Okay, that’s fine by me! This should be posted on Saturday so you can watch it and go, “oh God, I said what?”!

Eddie: [laughs] Yeah, “I said that? What? What did I say? What did I say?! Yeah…” So, and happy July 4^th and best to you and your family.

Matt: Thank you! Happy Thursday!

Eddie: [laughs] Thanks, Matt!

Matt: Yep! Bye!

__________________________________

Thanks again Jesse!

And thanks again to Eddie. Here buddy, you can be a special friend too:

Suitable for framing...

Next Time: Oliver Simonsen went on the tweeter, and you can too!