 Okay, so this is Vertigo Jam, and it was sort of promoting the Vertigo titles for DC Comics, right? Louder than noise, and I believe they put out something before this as well. This is Vertigo Jam number one, but I think there was another one they put out, sort of a Vertigo mishmash of things, okay? We're gonna skip, and this is the Sandman, the Sandman story was really good as well, okay? So Sandman, and it goes through Milligan, McKeever, Extremus, and it's a very good story, very good story, okay? And then we've got John Constantine, Hellblazer, Black Orchids, Fantastic Reed, okay? You go through, and it's got Animal Man in here too, this one was really good, it was a toss up between reading this one, Animal Man, okay? Really liked it. And then there's Doom Patrol, and Doom Patrol TV series is super good, and then Swamp Thing was a great read as well, I really liked this one. But then I decided to go with, Kid Eternity was really cool too, this is Kid Eternity, I like Kid Eternity, very trippy, but we're gonna read Shade, a little promo that they were pushing, okay? So this is 1993, written by Peter Milligan, and art by Mike Alred, right? Okay, huge, huge, huge, madman comic books, right? So let's have a little look at the panel, Division, there's a guy lying at the tree, and these are the two main, three main characters in the Shade story arc, the series, that's Shade right there, and then his two sidekicks, to a certain degree, you'll find out who they are, you'll find out who they are, okay? So the story starts off, let's see if we can get this thing focused, the ambulance should be here in five minutes, there was a gas station half a mile down the road, and they let me use their phone, how is he, not good in fact, not good at all, in fact he died about three minutes ago, she says, and that's Jenny and the other one is, oh man, names Kathy, we'll confirm that as the story goes, and this is the dead person, laid down on the foot of the tree, big smile on his face, and just so you know, it's good to know, Shade is actually pretty much insane, right, in a weird way, in a cool way, oh he looks happy, he's smiling, she says, of course he's smiling, Shade, the illusionist made sure of that, she says, I don't understand, I don't understand, is this going to disgust me, she says, and then Shade replies, all I did was give him what he wished for, a little massaging of reality, so it conformed to what he wanted, I gave him a vision, that's the what's the harm in that, the harm in that, Father Williams died believing a lie, she says, Father Williams, he regained consciousness, Shade replies, just before he lost it for good, he said he had a history of heart problems, that's not the only thing he had a history of, she says, she's not very happy, well I think Lenny is wrong, and it was it was a very nice thing you did, Shade, you gave him some comfort, no matter how how strong his faith was, he must have had some fear as his death approached, she says, so what if it was an ex-Nazi we found dying here, do we get Shade to give him a vision of the Nuremberg rally, just to make his passing a little more pleasant, how about if I hummed some Wagner, Lenny says, that's not the same Lenny, my grandmother died when I was 14, 14, and on her deathbed she asked everyone whether they thought there was a God and a heaven, even though most of them didn't believe it, everyone said yes Lenny says, except you of course, he replies, no I was a coward too, I said of course grandma, there's a God and a heaven and grandpa will be waiting for you there, I felt sick afterwards, when I die I don't want lies, Lenny says, but Lenny, but Lenny you're getting this out of proportion, he was an old man, she says, he was a priest and he spent his entire life feeding people pie in the sky, he didn't deserve to have it confirmed, particularly after what he told us, hold on, what did he tell you, she asks, I think he was, what's the term, confessing his sins, Shade says, and one thing you should know about Shade, his origin is from another planet, another realm, and the realm is called Meta, so he's not familiar with all the traditions of earth, okay, but he only had a few minutes, so he probably just scraped the barrel when he says, look at the guy's face, great artwork, Shade says, when his eyes opened, he looked up at us, he held Lenny's hand and started to talk about his life, he'd been a priest for most of it, we go to the past a few minutes, the priest is talking, it's been a terrible and wicked life I've led, the priest said, keep quiet and save your strength, Lenny replies, our friend has gone to get help, no, the priest replies, I have to say this while I have the chance, I was on my way to confession, finally to say the truth, I won't make it now, you're all I have, we're not really qualified Lenny replies, that doesn't matter, the priest says, listen, I've been weak, I've been a disgrace to the church, the cloth, to our lord himself, I mean, hey, you can't have been that bad, Lenny replies, the priest, don't you believe it girl, guess how many women I've had, no, don't guess, I'll tell you, 32, 32, 15 of those were married, one was only 16, he says, oh my god, I've been so so wicked, I stole money from the collection box and gambled it all on horses, I drank like a fish and smoked like a chimney, but it was the women, I was the, it was the women who were my weakness, the priest says, oh god, the women and the worst is, I used my position of trust, of authority to seduce them, not that some of them weren't past seducing me, of course, god no, but I was the one who was ultimately responsible, the priest says, Lenny, calm and cool, lights up a cigarette, she's a chain smoker, the priest continues and then I'd stand up and rant about chastity and the sanctity of marriage, shit, none of us are perfect, Lenny says, you're being ironic, good, be as hard as you like, I don't deserve kindness, the priest says, but why have I been so bad, have I been testing him, oh, is that it, have I been saying, hey god, if you're up there you should be striking me down with lightning for what I'm getting up to, is that what I was doing, the priest says, maybe you just liked having sex with women, as simple as that, Shayne replies, you're right, I'm trying to explain away my less, less, less viciousness, but if only he'd struck me down, if only he'd punished me in some way, the priest says, but no, I've lived a charmed life, all that fornication and drunkenness and gambling, and I never once got caught, I've prospered, I'm 89 and have never had a day's illness in my life, apart from the odd heart murmur, he sunk, he sunk into a kind of a sleep then, we thought he died, but then his eyes were open again, oh, he's crying, he was weeping, he was really crying, his eyes out, hypocritical old letcher, Lenny says, boy, talk about carrying a heavy load, she comes in, right, anyway, now you see why he didn't deserve any illusions, I wouldn't have minded him being reprobate, so long as he hadn't chastised others for being reprobates all his life, I don't know, she says, I think in some way it was an even nicer gesture, knowing what he must have been going through, yeah, that's what I thought, shades said, by now he was getting weaker, he was rambling on and on about his sins, but it was hard to follow, I just caught an occasional reference to naked flesh and the Ten Commandments, he was slipping away fast, but he could still see, so I thought, why not, why not help the poor old bastard on his way out, his eyes started to light up as I went to work with my madness, there was a brightness in them and all the worry and all the guilt seemed to fade away as he gazed at the vision I was making for him, I mean, I know it was wrong, but why not give a dying man what he wants, he's being punished, look at him, he's so happy, yes, well, he didn't, he didn't deserve us, that's what I'm saying, that's what I say, look at that smile, he looks so smug and self-satisfied, I think he just looks very peaceful, she says at the end, that ambulance has taken his time, isn't it, the end, that's one of the shade stories, the humor in shade is fantastic by the way, it's dark, there's very heavy topics in shade, the changing man, which we're about to look at for issue number, what's this one, barbecue dude, we're gonna take a look at just a few pages from DC's Vertigo, shade the changing man, number 49, okay.