When Winking Makes you Blind – Brainstorming Ideas for Comic-Con pt.2

A second dive into the Comic‑Con notebook, because apparently one round of confusion wasn’t enough.

Show Notes

When Winking Makes You Blind: The Tangential Giants vs. Disney, Booth Babes, and Bat Boy’s Military Career

Some podcasts stay on topic.

The Tangential Giants refuse to even pretend.

In this episode, Kareem, Ken, and Pat crack open their Comic‑Con brainstorming notes and instantly detour into a three‑course tasting menu of pop‑culture absurdity: Disney’s pettiness, 90s cross‑media chaos, and the surprisingly rich military résumé of Bat Boy. It’s the kind of episode that starts with Comic‑Con planning and ends with a dissertation on anthropomorphic cryptids.

Strap in. This one swerves.

Disney, Fantastic Four, and the Art of Hoarding Plots

The Giants kick things off by unpacking the long‑running rumor that Marvel (pre‑Disney acquisition) intentionally withheld Fantastic Four storylines to prevent Fox from adapting them into movies.

Yes, Marvel allegedly benched its own first family out of spite.

Relevant reads:

📎 Marvel reportedly shelving Fantastic Four comics during Fox era

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/marvel-cancels-fantastic-four-comic-book-737321/ (hollywoodreporter.com in Bing)

📎 The complicated Marvel–Fox rights history

https://www.polygon.com/2015/8/7/9115363/marvel-fox-movie-rights-explained (polygon.com in Bing)

It’s corporate pettiness at its finest, and the Giants savor every detail.

Cross‑Media Chaos: When Booth Babes Became Superheroes

From there, the pod swan‑dives into the 90s/early‑2000s era when publishers decided the future of comics was… models and singers becoming superheroes.

This includes:

Booth babes turned into comic characters
Models headlining entire comic runs
Singers like Nightcat getting full superhero origin stories and tie‑in albums

Relevant links:

📎 Nightcat (Marvel’s pop‑star superhero)

https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Nightcat_(Earth-616) (marvel.fandom.com in Bing)

📎 Nightcat’s 1991 album

https://www.discogs.com/release/1480783-Nightcat-Nightcat (discogs.com in Bing)

📎 The 90s trend of models in comics

https://www.cbr.com/marvel-models-comics-history/ (cbr.com in Bing)

It was a bold era. It was a weird era. It was an era that absolutely deserves the roasting it gets here.

Bat Boy: The Hero, Fugitive, Soldier, and Cultural Icon

And then… the pod takes a glorious left turn into the world of Bat Boy, the tabloid cryptid who once dominated checkout aisles and early internet culture.

The Giants go deep, shockingly deep, into:

His alleged military service
His repeated imprisonments
His dramatic escapes
His political involvement
His slow fade from fame
His influence on other anthropomorphic hybrids like Alligator Boy and PhD Ape

Relevant links:

📎 Bat Boy archives (Weekly World News)

📎 The cultural legacy of Bat Boy

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/50120/brief-history-bat-boy (mentalfloss.com in Bing)

📎 Alligator Boy & other WWN cryptids

📎 PhD Ape (yes, this is real)

https://weeklyworldnews.com/headlines/1243/phd-ape-wins-nobel-prize/ (weeklyworldnews.com in Bing)

It’s part documentary, part fever dream, and entirely on‑brand for the Giants.

Watch the Episode

EP.116 – When Winking Makes you Blind – Brainstorming Ideas for Comic-Con pt.2 – Tangential Giants Podcast

Kareem, Ken, and Pat crack open their old Comic‑Con brainstorming notes and immediately remember why last year’s planning session required snacks, caffeine, and possibly a licensed therapist. What starts as a simple recap turns into a full‑blown archaeological dig through abandoned ideas, questionable pitches, and the kind of creative spirals only this trio can produce.Naturally, the tangents hit hard.The guys revisit the era when publishers tried to make models headlining comic books a thingm, a bold experiment that aged about as well as milk in a Florida summer. Then they detour into the equally cursed world of singers‑turned‑superheroes, including the unforgettable Nightcat, whose brief comic career remains a cautionary tale for anyone who has ever said “What if we gave this pop star a secret identity?”And because no Tangential Giants episode is complete without something truly unhinged, the crew dives into the global phenomenon of Batboy Photoshop, the bizarre, inexplicable, and somehow culturally immortal creature who refuses to leave the internet’s collective imagination.If you enjoy nostalgia, nonsense, and three grown adults trying to justify ideas they absolutely should not have written down, this episode is your happy place.#tangentialgiants #comiccon #ComicConBrainstorming #popculturepodcast #geekculture #nightcat #batboys #comicshistory #WeirdComics #MediaFails #NostalgiaNerds #podcasthumor #creativechaos #comicbookculture #FandomTalk