Nine years. 213 episodes. Dallas and Celeste are marking Comm Talk’s anniversary by looking back at how it all started — including a hosting disaster that nearly wiped out the first 13 episodes of the show.

Plus, Free Comic Book Day just happened, and it’s not quite what it used to be. Dallas and Celeste break down the books they picked up — from Mega Man and Street Fighter to Avatar Legends and a Webtoon crossover into print — and dig into what’s actually going on with comic distribution right now.

What’s been the best part of nine years? What almost broke the show early on? And what do you want to hear more of? Tune in — and let them know.

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Blog Version

Nine Years, 213 Episodes, and a Stack of Free Comics

Comm Talk by Geek Devotions just hit its ninth anniversary, and Dallas and Celeste marked the occasion the way they do most things: by sitting down, being honest, and talking about what they love.

How It All Started (And Almost Didn’t)

The show launched nine years ago with one lapel mic, a stuffed triceratops named Azul doubling as a sound absorber, and a first episode recorded right after Free Comic Book Day. Humble beginnings, to say the least.

Things were rolling along until their original hosting platform, Podcast Garden, collapsed under them. Feed broken, account locked, and the first 13 episodes gone. They moved to Podbean, and our friend John Harju somehow recovered everything. We are genuinally grateful for his help!

Looking back at the archive, the highlights come fast. Superman month, a GeekCon road trip episodes recorded on the drive home, a Godzilla series, and a two-part Alien movie deep dive that Celeste admits had zero SEO value but absolutely needed to happen. Also, Glix? Dallas slurred his words, the audience heard it wrong, and he just owned it, giving birthed to a beloved character for the show.

The throughline they keep coming back to is community. Not fans, as Dallas is quick to clarify, but people they actually care about. Geek Devotions is a ministry, and that shapes everything about how they run it.

The Comic Book Haul

Free Comic Book Day has hosted by two different companies this year. Traditional Free Comic Book Day still exists, but Marvel and the Disney/Fox properties now run their own thing called Comics Giveaway Day. Most of what they picked up fell into that second category.

Celeste grabbed an Avatar Legends book (which also contains a Minecraft comic, somehow), and Dallas dove into a Mega Man Shadow Special. Dallas’ second pick was a Marvel/Fox anthology with Alien, Predator, and Planet of the Apes stories, the last of which ends with a Predator showing up to hunt apes, which he was not expecting and fully appreciated.

The highlight of the segment is Celeste’s pick of a Jem and the Holograms book, which somehow turned into a rabbit hole about whether Jem eventually becomes Jessica Jones in the comics. A Google session later, the answer is no, but the fan theory exists, and Dallas has already offered to build a full murder board if the audience wants that episode.

Dallas closes the haul with Street Fighter Forever Issue Zero, which follows Ryu through a meditative dreamscape. He has watched every Street Fighter cartoon and movie ever made and somehow had never read a comic until this one. He liked it.

Still Going

Near the end of the episode, Dallas shares a small story about a young artist who came up to them at a conference after seeing her artwork highlighted on the show. She was fangirling a little having seen Celeste in person.

That story is kind of what the whole episode is about, honestly. Nine years of irregular podcasting, one recovered archive, and moments like that one.

You can find Comm Talk wherever you listen to podcasts and on YouTube at Geek Devotions. If you enjoy the show, a rating or review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify means a lot.