The Grail Hunters Comics Podcast

In our first face to face episode since start of lockdown Ben, Mike and Neville took the show on the road to the Big City Comics store in West Melbourne to talk to owner Mark Catania!    Be warned, it's jam packed with great content! The origins of his shop, how comic stores compare to other retail businesses, how he evolved his business during COVID, and overcame the distribution challenges in 20...

State vs. State - Member vs. Member - Who will win over the judge and score a point for their state?   We all have those comic books in our collection. At times worthless, at times controversial, at times actually wothe a few dollars but they are just plain bad!  Sometimes the bad is so bad, that it comes full circle and is actually good, whether infamous or famous this episode explores some of th...

State vs. State - Member vs. Member - Who will win over the judge and score a point for their state? Over the past 40 years, the Indie Comic industry have added a world of flavour to the publishing landscape! Many creator owned properties have changed our childhood, inspired our dreams, and formed our personalities. This episode's challenge is to bring to the table a Indie Grail which have already...

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT! State vs. State - Member vs. Member - Who will win over the judge and score a point for their state? Episode 1: Modern Grails  Episode 2: Iconic Covers Episode 3: Best Antagonist After the first two episodes, we have Western Australia and New South Wales at one each, with all other states still looking to get on the scoreboard.  Each member have two minu...

With no guest this episode, Neville, Mike and Ben use the opportunity to vent about COVID Stage 4 restrictions and it's impact on shipping with packages being stuck in no-mans land. But fear not, We swiftly tackle more fun topics like recent comic and toy scores and comic characters in the public domain. We chat about new movie and TV  trailers and somehow land on South Africa creating their own S...

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT!   State vs. State - Member vs. Member - Who will win over the judge and score a point for their state?   Episode 1: Modern Grails Episode 2: Iconic Covers   Like a thief in the night, Murray Jackson stole the first round for Western Australia, and returns in round two to defend his crown.    Each member have two minutes to pitch their book, after a round...

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT!   State vs. State - Member vs. Member - Who will win over the judge and score a point for their state?   Each member have two minutes to pitch their book, after a round robin, each member gets one vote. Our grand master flash, and very own Wendigo Ben Gee casts the final judgement and one state walks away with a point tellied up across episodes to find t...

In this episode we go Full Bec Beetson!!   We have a hilarious yet insightful chat with Bec Mcnaboe Beetson on what it's like with a household filled with pop culture enthusiasts! Who rules the roost, DC, or Marvel? Which child is named after which character, and what other collections fill the walls of her Bat Cave (Here's a hint, it's deadly and sharp) We talk about her love for creating indigen...

Brendon Dann owner of Dee's Comics (ACT) joins Neville, Mike and Ben for a great chat on everything you need to know about Local Comic Shops!    We chat about how the world's changed for local comic shops due to COVID, and what role Diamond Distribution, DC Comics had to play in it. We talk social distancing in the shop, and which politicians collect comics. Ben shares how speculation's changed th...

COVID-19 retail therapy kicks into high gear as the Grail Hunters Comics podcast hosts, Neville Howard, Ben Gee and Mike Speakman explore the world of Australian collecting trends, whether it's Australian price variants, print errors, childhood toys or sourcing those pesky grails from the United States - we have it covered! Note, all books and toys we discuss can be seen on the video uploaded as p...

The episode we didn't want to end!! We are joined by superstar creator and bad boy of Australian comics, Dean Rankine. We recap his comic journey to date as we chat about how he got started with Simpsons, his brush with Matt Groening, and memorable experiences at SDCC. He shares how keeping busy opened doors over the past twenty years, from Indie books like Itty Bitty Bunnies, to Rick and Morty an...

We are joined by special guest Mark Randall of Thump Music and GeektopiaOZ, and talk all things collectibles! It's a glorious rabbit hole as we start with comics and move to vintage toys before deep diving into the world of Masters Of The Universe and the hidden variants in the range. We talk about landing bargains, and helping out our fellow collectors in the community. We do a check in on the pr...

It's episode unlucky 13, and we are joined by Point Cook Geeks page administrator Andrew Caird to chat about all things Horror - From classic horror movies, to terrible remakes, and how the advances in gaming technology and VR are breaking boundaries with interactive horror experiences. Andrew also talks us through the process of 3D printing, and shows off some oh his creations (we'll post photos...

Lenore Zann, actor and member of Canadian Parliament joins Neville, Ben and Mike for a very special episode to chat about her many roles during her career! From adding voices to many of our favourite cartoons, including Rogue in X-Men: The Animated Series, Tigra in Avengers, and Chikara Shisho in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, to sharing with us how she became known as Scream Queen of Canada, actin...

In this episode we are joined by fellow Grail Hunters member, and owner of MJ Comics, Michael Swindells! Michael shares with us how he came across a container of 300,000 comics, how he started off collecting and selling, and the unforeseen benefits of being too lazy to sell! We chat about the updates from DC, and Diamond on comic distribution, and the fallout of San Diego Comic Con (SDCC) being ca...

We jumpstart the episode with Tiger King speculation, and debate how we would dispose of said hypothetical husband! With Covid-19 causing chaos in 2020, we talk about the industry fallout - the positives, negatives and inevitable delays it will cause. We speculate about how our beloved comic shops will cope through this, Diamond's likely return dates and talk about the great initiatives the profes...

It's a new world, and the team have adapted to accommodate it! Join Mike, Ben and Nev as they implement social distancing via ZOOM! They recorded their ninth episode on Friday, some wearing pants, some not, and we're sure you can guess who... They debriefed on Supanova and debate the challenges left by Diamond Comic Distribution halting distribution. How will it impact readers, and more importantl...

Recorded in front of a live audience at Supanova Melbourne, we are joined on stage by Fats Comics owner, and industry expert, Norm Bardell. We talk about what got us into collecting, and investing in comics and how graded books are a safer bet when selling high end comics. We field questions from the Grail Hunters community and audience! Grab a beer, put your feet up, and have a listen!

In this episode, we talk signed comics! Do signatures increase or decrease the comic book's value, and where do you draw the line? Beyond comic creators, would you have Chris Hemsworth sign a Thor comic, or Mark Hamill sign a joker book? Talking Joker, we debate the most profitable comic movie ever made. We talk about indie comics which influenced modern pop culture, be it movies or games, and als...

We're joined by fellow Grail Hunters member, Geoff Kerrigan! Geoff discusses his influences as a collector and then move into a debate on the old school Brick and Mortar comic shops! We as collectors absolutely love our Local shops, and support them no matter what, but are printed medium, and thus the comic shops we love so much following in the steps of Video, Music, DVD and Book shops? We then d...

In this episode, we are joined by fellow Grail Hunters member, and Stanley Artgerm's biggest fan, Roger Navarro. We talk about the merits of slabbing comics and getting comics signed. Be it assurance of value (and condition), or purely prolonging the life of the book, is it the thing to do? We also touch on the #FlipKings2020 progress, and discuss our favourite "Bad" comics movies all while being...

Join us in part two of our Christmas episode, we talk about mistakes we've made over the years in collecting and ramble on about Ebay war stories! We also kick off the Flip Kings challenge #flipkings2020 and preview Kevin Eastman's visit to Australia in a few months! 

We kick off the episode talking about the top books for 2019, and discuss everything from Donny Cates's Cosmic Ghost Rider, Silver Surfer black to Marvel and Disney's movie announcements the past 12 months and how that impacted the market. We touch on the Grail Hunters top 25 count down, and get lost in collectors and the market speculation with modern books and variants and how to ensure you don'...

In this episode we field listener questions, and explore our favourite non-comic collectibles and how collecting anything pop culture related is as joyful yet slippery slope. We also introduce the Grail Hunters Facebook group 2020 initiative, FLIP KINGS and close with Mike tackling the Ghost Pepper while doing a review of Silver Surfer Black issue 1.

Episode 1: Our pilot episode is here! We introduce the hosts, provide an overview of our purpose and then chat about how we got into collecting, and what drives us. The passion, the desire... the thrill of the hunt! Whether you collect runs, modern or back to Golden age this show is for you.