Best Of 2025 Bob Schreck Editing Batman Green Arrow and More

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Welcome back everybody time again for word Balloon the Compot
Conversation show. Jon Stuntrist with you.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
Man.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
I've been wanting to talk to this guy forever and
I'm so glad that we finally are having this conversation.
Bob Shrek, Welcome to word Balloon.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
Thank you so much. It's a pleasure to be here.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
Longtime fan. Man. I was telling you there's a wonderful
DVD documentary about comics from the early two thousands, and
you were among the talking heads, and I got everybody.
I wish I can remember the title Tales from the
Tales from the Mainstream, something like that. Frank Miller is
in it, Colleen Dorin is in it, Bob is in it,

(02:19):
and Bob has amazing stories in it. And Bob, they
go back to your years prior to being an editor,
when you were a big part of the Creation conventions
of the nineties. What led you to Creation? What were
you doing prior to doing that?

Speaker 2 (02:36):
To a long and strange tale at about like I
think my first con I was the Suling con in
sixty nine and wow, you know, we were teenagers. And
after that I went to a few of his and
eventually Phil Sooling I asked me to be an and

(03:03):
like one of the volunteers. So I did one or
two of his shows. And then years later and then
of course this other convention came along called Creation, and
I would go there as a fan and just blow
my mind because there were so many cool things. I
met Jack Kirby, and when I was a teenager, he

(03:25):
was this big guy and he got a cigar because
you can smoke indoors then and I'm like, oh my god,
I'm meeting Jack Kirby. And then of course years later
when I see him again, he's just a little guy.
You look at that, Oh my goodness. So the creation
cons were being run by Gary Berman and Adam Maylen,

(03:47):
but we thought that they were being run by these
husband and wife that were in their fifties. Well that
was their Adam's parents. Uh So a few more years
go by and I start a rock band doing cover

(04:08):
stuff and I'm I'm a decent vocalist, but I can
do Ian Anderson from Tull Beyond Beyond and very very
good Parrot. And we were hiring people for the band
and this guy, Adam shows up, no idea who he is,

(04:29):
and my best buddy Larry Raggiro who him? And I
went to all the cons together. After the rehearsal, you
know the audition, we said, so Adam, Adam, what's your
last name? And he says Malan, and Larry remembers, he goes,
you're Adam Maylan. We go to your shows. This is crazy.

(04:50):
So eventually, as the band started to fade and Adam
got tired of slapping his keyboards, they hired They to
know me, and they hired me, and eventually I started
working for them. It's the third Wheel, and I went
to more airports and more cities and more convention halls.

(05:11):
I was one year I did a photo essay of
my my sneakers. I had the checkerboard sneakers and it
would have from one room to another, you know here
here we are in Las Vegas, and it was just
my feet, you know. So and Creation was another reason

(05:32):
why I went into San Diego, I mean San Francisco,
and I met well, actually, I walked up to one
of the dealers that we worked that sold tickets for us,
and it was the John Barrett's Comics and Comics, and
there was this gal behind the table and I saw
this Howard the ducky shirt and I said, Oh, can

(05:54):
I have this? I want to buy this. Oh, we
don't have your size. She knew that I was working Creation.
We kind of eventually got introduced to each other, and
about four months later this package came in the mail.
This was amazingly exquisite handwriting. And I opened it up
and she had remembered and got my size for the
Howard the Duck t shirt. So everything kind of kept

(06:17):
bouncing against, you know, everywhere else the Creation show. Also,
I got to know everybody in the industry, and eventually
Carol Kalish at Marvel hired me to pitch for Oh
I'm gonna make and forget her name. No, I'm not

(06:38):
gonna remember. But this gal that worked there was doing
all their travel and she quit or I don't know,
she might have been fired. But Carol knew that I
knew everybody, and because of my experience, I knew what
really liked to sit on the plane and then so

(06:58):
she just locked me in there. And that's when I
met Peter David actually the first time. Yeah, yeah, sweet guy,
hell of a writer. And he was still working in
the marketing department of the sales department. So that was
the first time him and I connected, and she hired
me and while I was being let go, and that's

(07:22):
a whole nother story. Having run all those shows, did
a show in Philadelphia and down there was still Sorta
and Jerry Giovinco and they're the Comico guys. Yeah, this
was before Caniko. I also met Matt Wagner and all
sorts of people, and I'd done that snow about a

(07:47):
year at Marvel, and Jerry remembered, hey, you know, and
actually Philipsorta said cool going trick And the next thing
I know, they're talking to me and I'm going down
to Comico. Uh. The funny part of that story is
in order for those guys to get tables to sell
their wares. I mean they were doing their little black

(08:09):
and white comics at first. So we would give them tables,
but only if Jerry, who had constructed a beautiful ben
Grim costume made at a foam rubber. It's one of
the best faces. It's really related. I mean, it's Kirby
and Cinnamon. We would say, okay, we'll give you tables,

(08:29):
but Jerry has to walk the line for an hour
and a half with a plastic cigar, go hey. And
then they hired me. So that was, you know, this crazy,
crazy confluence. And Diana was just had just moved out
to New York because we were just saying, Okay, I
think this is serious enough, let's do this and so,

(08:52):
and that's how you know, once I got hired, as
I've spent most of my life saying, you want her.
You don't want me, you want her. She knows what
she's doing. I'm here on a hummer, you know, and
and she you know, they couldn't get a book out.
They couldn't get a book out, you know. I think

(09:12):
Matcross was a year late. And she made those trains
run like crazy, so it all kind of snowballs.

Speaker 1 (09:21):
That's great, man. You know, I want to talk more
of obviously about your career. But I'm so glad you
mentioned Peter David because I've had all these people going,
when are you gonna say something about Peter David obviously,
you know, since the weekend, and I'm I mean, I
could do it, but I really wanted to get a
guest on that could really speak from you know, experience,
and I was thinking guys like Mike Michael, Jan Friedman
and Paul Kupperer. But also I know they worked really

(09:43):
closely with them, and like, you know, maybe it's too
early to ask them about Peter and stuff. I mean,
I'm a longtime reader, and not just for comics, but
I'm a big Star Trek fan, and Mike got his
Star Trek novels, Oh my god, the best. I mean, truly,
no disrespect to Mike or some of the other great
Star Trek writers. Peter's right there, man, you know you

(10:04):
know it, Say tell me about Peter. Tell me about
your experiences with Peter.

Speaker 2 (10:07):
Oh, you know, we didn't get to work together as
editor and writer, but it was a lot of conventions.
I knew, I knew where he wanted to sit on
that plane, and uh, just he was always a really
decent guy, very friendly. He liked kind of you know,

(10:28):
not not physically, but he would like to give you
a little honk on the nose with his sarcasm and stuff.
But he was he was a sweetheart, just a nice,
nice guy. And the fun I have a funny story
that's not even comic related, but we were in where
we were in Oakland for the convention out there, and

(10:52):
we're at dinner and somehow potstickers came up. And I'm
from Long Island, Peter was from Long Island. And there's
a thing about the Jewish community in New York primarily
and that is especially for the holidays. They love Chinese food.

(11:19):
I mean, it was like the thing. Every Jewish person
that I was really close to and everything was like, oh, yeah,
we're gonna do this. We did a he and I'm
sitting there with Peter and I said the word potstickers
and he went one of those and I went, Okay,
you're not Jewish and you're not from Long Island. You
are totally giving me a hard time here. But he was,

(11:41):
you know, he was a jovial sweetheart and he loved
what he did. You know, he just really enjoyed the
camaraderie and hanging out and meeting the fans and you
know all of us. Really there's nothing like that feeling
when somebody walks up to you and hands you something

(12:01):
that you did, especially like five or ten years ago,
and says, oh, this changed my life. And you know,
that's that's why you go to these things, because you
really get to see the effect that you've had on
people without even knowing it. You know, I hear you, Man,

(12:21):
the book comes out and somebody falls over him since
this is the greatest thing. So he was. He was
a sweetie and it was really sad. I mean, he
went through a lot the last few years. Yeah, I
think he certainly deserves his rest and peace at this point.

Speaker 1 (12:41):
I agree with you, Man, No, absolutely, And again the
epic run on the Hulk, Great Spider Man stories, X Factor.
But Man, so many of his and I always give
it up to guys like him and Marv Wolfman and
Mike Friedman and others. Kupperberg as well, Bob Greenberg that right,
you know, uh, novels that are based on existing, you know, material,

(13:04):
and no matter what the subject was, it felt like
Peter was obviously well he must have been on the
TV staff of Buffy because my god, read these novels,
et cetera. Like I said, Star Trek like that too.

Speaker 2 (13:15):
So yeah, we had a weird little moment because you know,
we were at Kimiko the Elementals actually did a child
uh not what's the word, you know, some kid? You
know it was it was the just as the whole
story came out where there's child abuse issue. Yes, yes,

(13:40):
we were, and we we might have come out three
months before whatever. Hey, but you know that's what happens.
Everybody reaches up and comes up with these ideas that
are all kind of swirling. And it wasn't anything that
he stole from anybody. It was just that Willingham said, hey,

(14:00):
I'm going to do this, and we got a lot
of accolades to that. Everybody really fell in love with
that issue. But and then Peters came out, and I
think that was the sequence. But both of those books
were just amazing, you know that. I mean, it showed
that the comics can be more than just you know,

(14:21):
a fish sight.

Speaker 1 (14:23):
I'm with you, man, Yeah, and those Comico days. Yeah,
elementals like you say, and also coach Grendel and man,
I'm glad you mentioned Bill. I was going to ask
you about, you know, when Azarello was doing stuff for
you guys too. You know, really you just had this,
you know, I was getting amazing heroes and it was
around my college years and it was so like, you know,

(14:45):
and that's really for me when the direct market, when
I became really aware of the direct market, and it
was great to see all these other publishers beyond DC
and Marvel that we're making, you know, during the black
and white boom, amazing comics and great I mean obviously
that's where the Turtles came from as well. But yeah,
that was just a great time and it was really
exciting as a reader.

Speaker 2 (15:05):
There was a distributor back then called Glenwood Distribution, and
they would always hold their distributor show in Vegas, and
the Kimiko guys did those black and white books to start,
and of course Grendel wound up being the gem on

(15:26):
that batch. But the black and white boom that they
were a part of, they were not the successful part
of that black and white boom. And I'm not kidding.
These retailers were like, don't make any more comics. Stop,
you guys are terrible. Go away, like whoa, whoa really?

(15:47):
I mean they were really angry. And then you know,
that's when they decided to go to color and the
next thing they were going, oh maybe we like you guys.
Now It's like, okay, well I'll see that stupid you know.
So but it was it was pretty scary because it
was one of the very first shows I did, and
it was like, oh my god, what do I get

(16:08):
myself into?

Speaker 1 (16:09):
You know, wow? Yeah, Robotech, Well Robotech was a big
deal for you guys.

Speaker 2 (16:13):
To Robotech, yep, I went. I was the marketing guy
and then well administrative director whatever that means. But I
you know, it's one of those great moments where you
just say, well, this is easy. And I just bought
a whole mess of my lar Robotech balloons and gave
you know, these long ropes and you know strings, and

(16:37):
everywhere he went in San Diego that that year, in
that time, you could just see everywhere there were these
Robotech balloons. So that was a you know, it was
you know, a good moment for a marketing guy. And
I always tell this story. Uh, Dennis Kitchen sees me
and I'm having a nice day and I hardly knew

(16:57):
him at all. I revered him that I didn't know,
and he walks up to me at one point. You know, Bob,
this is a very fickle market. So just to be careful. Sure,
no problem, fine, and none. Of course, a few years
later like, oh oh, he's right. It was very I mean,

(17:19):
because it turns on a dime. Sometimes you have to
be ready for the next thing.

Speaker 1 (17:24):
You know, Bob, you've seen it all, truly, you you
you experienced the boom and the bust of those periods
and everything. Man, what was Tell me when it was like?
And by the way, here first, real fast, because we
already got people in the peanut gallery that want to
say hello. Aren't your friend Deine Haskill saying hello?

Speaker 2 (17:39):
Nay?

Speaker 1 (17:40):
Uh? And now here's Carrie saying hi? And James very cool, yes, excellent.
So yeah, we're live on Facebook and YouTube everybody. But uh, yeah,
you know, honestly, tell me about that really scary period
of the bankruptcy years of the of the you know,
mid to late nineties where things were really really scary,

(18:03):
And what was it like as somebody that was working
in the biz.

Speaker 2 (18:07):
Uh well, just towards the well, just towards the end
of that. I was lucky and I wound up at
d C. So that was my saving grace, as I
thankfully I wound up at d C. But it was
it was frightening because suddenly they just stopped. You know,
it was like, well, you know, we don't we're not

(18:28):
We're not going to buy this stuff anymore. They like, oh, okay,
thank you. And that's the next trick is you have
to figure out what is going to apply next year
or in five years. And it's it's a gap. Shoot.
I mean you really, you gotta I always go by
my gut, and uh so it was. It was a

(18:49):
scary time. And we're right now in a pretty desolate
and desperate time again. And you know, the booms are great,
but when you hit you know, when you hit a wall,
you got to pick yourself up and you know, say, okay,

(19:10):
I'm gonna make this happen. But it was it was
a really weird time. And like I said, I got lucky,
and I wound up leaving and heading over to d C.
And again I had known people from d C for
years from going to the cons and that bond of

(19:32):
we all, Diana and myself and Phil. We had Dick Giardano,
who was, you know, Phil's godfather, not really, but he
took filled the sort of under his wing. We had
a lot of great people that were there to help
us through. Every one of us walked, every one of

(19:54):
our friends in the business came to us because we
were about to go on the newsstand, and the newsstand,
you know, we're like, oh no, this is gonna be great.
We're gonna be all over the country. We're gonna be
seven elevens. And Tom DeFalco and everybody walked up to
this going, don't do it, man, don't do it. You're

(20:16):
gonna you're gonna regret it. And sure enough, you know,
you sold seventy thousand copies. Yeah that's the first week.
By the end of the year, it's like, you sold
five copies and you still got to pay for seventy
thousand copies. And they were all right, and we were
totally stupid and totally wrong. But and there were other

(20:39):
factors in that. We had this very big meeting with
the Levitts. I don't know if you know, there was
a point when Kimiko was in the DC solicitations. Now yeah,
we had our own little spot.

Speaker 1 (20:55):
Wow yeah, and.

Speaker 2 (20:59):
We we were. They had given Diana a new computer
and she basically taught herself on how to make all
this stuff work, and she ran all the numbers and
she looked at me and said, this isn't going to
end well. And we go to a meeting. We go
to a meeting. I'm all in a suit and everything.
We go to this meeting and was sitting there and

(21:21):
Paul Evits is talking and the guy who financed Kimiko
was filled the sort of his brother Dennis, who was
a physical therapist, and so he had this was way
before physical therapy took off, but he had cash, but
he didn't know what he was doing. So Paul Levitt says, so,

(21:42):
what do your p and ls look like? And Dennis
little sort of said, what's a p and L? And
that was when I had to leave the room and
go to my buddy John Pope's office and just like
a beached well, I just laid on his floor going
he said, what a p and L? He doesn't know
what p and L is. That's the guy run in

(22:04):
the place, you know, so they were all sorts of
these crazy things. And eventually another quick little moment that
I thought was fun is when a certain I will
not even say his name, a certain individual bought took
over Kimiko and so he had a a Chicago kan meeting.

(22:29):
He gave Bill Willingham an award. The publisher gives the
guy in the award and like Willihan took it through
his room and broke it. But we're all sitting there
and most of the room was lawyers, and wow, you
or me and Bob Chapman and Diana, we're all in
this room and watching this horror show. And we all

(22:50):
get out of the room. I could see Paul writing, Paul,
let it's writing, and you got to remember we were
you know, we were with the See And then this
guy comes in. So we're all hanging out in the
hall waiting to get on the elevator and Paul leaves
and I stop and everybody's still there, and I go, Paul,
what was it that you were writing when you know

(23:14):
when this was going on? And he just turns and
he shows us this book, this book that he has
where it just says over and over and I am
so sorry, I ever made this deal. I am so
stever I have made this deal. All of us just
burst out laughing the guy who took over, can you
give us an end? And they go, what are they

(23:35):
laughing at? It's like nothing, don't mind it, don't mind us.
We're just goofballs. Anyway.

Speaker 1 (23:42):
Sorry, when did when did? When did owning only happen?
And you're you know, you're one of the co founders
of Oni, which is again man, hey testament, you know
still there still throw you know, doing well and putting
out amazing books. So yeah, tell me, yeah, tell me
about Ony how honey?

Speaker 2 (23:59):
Just they just got some nominations again for the Eisners
this year. Let's see, I'm trying to think I was
at dark Horse.

Speaker 1 (24:11):
Oh yes, excuse me, of course, and we'll talk about
dark Horse. But I already asked you I don't need
so we missed. We'll run with them for a second.

Speaker 2 (24:17):
And I couldn't take it anymore. When I started, Diane
and I started there together, and there were eight people,
maybe nine, And when I was getting fed up with
everything the way things were going, there were about one

(24:39):
hundred and twenty five people. And I said to Mike Richardson,
we need badges. I don't know who I'm letting in
the door. I don't know these people. It's like, oh yeah, no,
no so. And I had a lot of conflict with
Mike towards the end there. But anyway, I just decided

(24:59):
I'm going to quit. You know, that's a whole nother story.
It's funny. But my buddy who I had met several
years prior to this younger guy, Joe Osmac, he was
in Texas and I got to hang out with him
and shows. He walked up to I guess the Kinko booth, no,

(25:20):
the dark Horse booth, and thought I was And he says,
this isn't true, but he thought I was Matt Wagner
and he swears it didn't happen, but that's how I
remember it. And then I had to go, no, that's
Matt Wagner. But Joe and I connected. He's a really
smart guy, and we kind of chitter chattered. And then

(25:45):
when I just broke clean out of a dark Horse,
who looked at each other and the market was not
very good at that point, it was pretty scary again,
and his step father said, hey, you know, the time
to get in is when it is down, because it
can only go up. And he was right. He didn't

(26:09):
finance us, even though he said he wouldn't. But Joe
toddled some stuff together and we said, okay, let's do this. Uh.
The reason why we called it onie press was because
all these people that I was meeting, another gentleman by
the name is Shannon Stewart, who is very important in
my career as well, these guys from the South, they

(26:32):
all had these little ony heads hanging from their rear
rear view mirrors in their cars. It's like, what's going on?
Everybody's going where is it? And I didn't know anything
about it. Oh yeah, it's the spurned woman, you know,
when the horns and the Japanese culture. And I said,

(26:54):
let's call it one. And Joe was like, but nobody
knows what that is. That doesn't matter, it doesn't matter.
They'll they'll get it eventually. And sure enough, now they've
changed the logo to where barely can you can tell
that it's a it's a Japanese ony but but yeah,
so Joe and I just said let's do this, and
we stepped up and did it, and only double feature

(27:19):
I had jud Nick, who I was already an MTV
you know, a fan of his, and he walked up
to the table and that was another weird moment because
I knew him obviously, but he was looking at me
like he knew me. And he did through all the
Kinico books and he's like, oh, I remember that picture
of you in your purple suit and dancing with Diana,

(27:41):
And I think, what, huh what that's scary. So the
next thing we know, and he got nominated for Fairnizer
that first year that he did a short story and
only double feature. So anyway, if all these weird friendships
and connections that come together, and the next thing you know,
you're the code publisher. And it was a good run.

(28:05):
And then I got the call from DC and it
was very maybe a year and a half in to Onnie.
And that was a weird day because Jamie Rich who's
another great guy, great smart, talented guy, he was coming
because we were working out of my house at one

(28:25):
and he comes into the house and we're all hanging
out and I played the voicemail that I just got
and they're hearing it's like, Hi, Bob, this is Dannie O'Neill.
If you can give me a call. It's like, oh no,
oh no. So the next thing I knew, Actually, quick
funny story about that, Denny went to Levitt's. Denny went

(28:50):
to Carlon, He went to at least two or three
other people, saying, you know, I want Diana Shutz. I
want to get Diana Shutz. I want to get the shots,
and they're going, no, you want Bob Shrek. Hey, they
knew that Diana would you know. Number One, she's a hippie,
even though she's from Montreal, She's a hippie just like me,

(29:14):
and she just did not want to be a part
of the corporate world. And she had already bailed out
on Marvel I think at that point. Okay, she lasted
four days. But so of course he called Diana and
Diana said, no, you want Bob Shrek.

Speaker 1 (29:36):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (29:37):
So I don't know, not re think Denny was a
big fan. But you know it worked out. You know,
they gave me a trial run for Denny to you know,
see if I knew what I was doing. It's like, yeah,
I think I kind of kind of got the idea.
So I passed the audition.

Speaker 1 (29:57):
Well, I know how tough Denny was and I luckily
he was always on Denny's good side and again one
of I mean truly one of my childhood heroes as
a writer, and I respected him as an editor, and Bob,
I really became you and Will Dennis when I really
came back to reading comics late nineties, early two thousands,
it was you and Will Dennis, your editorial taste that

(30:21):
really brought me back because I trusted you guys. And
I mean, you know again going back to Tony and
part of your DC thing obviously, but Kevin Smith and
his clerk's comic book and you know, just the idea
of bringing Kevin to d C. So how did you
get to how did you get with Kevin Smith?

Speaker 2 (30:42):
I was dressing like him at the time and everything,
the baseball cap backwards, the whole thing. And I believe
that it was I had not seen what's the I
think I had seen Clerks, but I didn't Maul Rats.

Speaker 1 (31:01):
Okay, the second movie and.

Speaker 2 (31:03):
The guy like Joe and everybody else like, oh man,
this guy Kevin Smith. It's like, oh, you're right, this
guy is really really good. He's a great writer. So uh,
as I'm leaving dark Horse, actually let me step back
a year before I left dark Horse, I went to
Mike Richardson and I said, let's work with this guy,

(31:25):
Kevin Smith. I want to put him in dark Horse Presents.
It'd be great. And Mike said, I have three daughters
and we are not going to publish Kevin Smith because
he promotes drug abuse, to which I said, and I
swear to God, I said, and I said, Mike, Kevin
Smith doesn't promote drug abuse. Life promotes drug abuse. Went

(31:49):
over like a lead balloon. And when we started, only
Joe comes up there. He goes start pushing me because
I'd already been in touch with Kevin. He's like, cal
him up, called him up. He said, I'll have a
plane ticket for you tomorrow. Get on the plane, come
out from Oregon. And he flew me out there and

(32:11):
we sat down and that was it. You know, we
made a deal, and he was a pleasure. I mean,
in the beginning, he didn't you know, he had his
film career and he didn't exactly put comics up front,
so there was a lot of lateness to his work.
And I kept, you know, he kept getting mad at him,
and he actually put me in one of the Clerk's books.

(32:34):
As a guy sitting in a mental institution saying can
I poop in your mouth? It's like, thanks Kevin. But
it all worked out. And then the funny thing at
d C was they did you know they had to sing, oh,
you can't put a creator's name above the character. And

(32:54):
I was like, yeah, but you know, this is Kevin
Smith and you've got bait here. It's incredible. You're gonna
get so many fish on the line. And I had
to fight. And then I came up the copy for
the ad, which was because of Green Arrow and everything,
Welcome to the Resurrection. I was told, and I'm not

(33:18):
gonna name any names that that we couldn't use Resurrection because.

Speaker 1 (33:26):
You know, religious Christ, yeah Jesus, sure, yeah.

Speaker 2 (33:32):
Yeah yeah. And I said, well, he doesn't own the
copyright for crying out loud, you're not gonna get dude.
And I won that battle too, because like Kevin Smith,
Welcome to the Resurrection. You gotta sell it, kids, this
is how it is, you know, leave with your best punch,
you know, so uh And that worked out really great. However,

(33:53):
that first run at d C, I told him you're
not gonna see one book published until I have six
scripts in finished written. Not one piece of art is
going to be drawn, and he thanked me for it
later on. It's like, yeah, you know, these people their
lives depend upon on these things coming out on time,

(34:17):
and you know people sometimes forget all that stuff. And
then another quick aside, when I was working at Legendary
with Guermo del Toro, He's making Pacific Rim while I'm
doing the Book of Pacific Rim every day, every day.

(34:40):
Notes not crazy, notes, easy to work with, but he was.
He focused on that book just as much as he
focused on the movie. And Wow, total pleasure. He was
a joy and Chlan was a joy too. But I
had to fight one a little bit until he got
the got the message.

Speaker 1 (35:01):
I understand me. Well, god, you know, we saw what
happened at Marvel when he was there, and you know
some of the books never finished and and things like that,
so I understand. And also I, hey, man, when these
guys come from other media, and certainly big movie media
like movies and television, you know, again, I'm old enough
that I get it, but I can also appreciate it.
And really regardless, you know, uh, comic books are deadline

(35:23):
art and they've got you there every month for him
to really make an impact. So I get it. I
absolutely get it.

Speaker 2 (35:28):
You know, the NATS argument I had for them was
for retailers with children who need the money, and you
making them wait is not fair. So you've something made
a deal. You're gonna make this book. It's monthly and
that's that, you know. So yeah, crazy times.

Speaker 1 (35:48):
I understand that. All right. Before we continue with DC stuff,
shame on me for not mentioning Dark Horse. And I've
already got the uh one of the covers ready, don't I? Yes,
I do, I've got I got this Sin City cover
of course. Yes, yeah, So so again, Bob, I I really,
I mean yeah, And obviously Frank had made his name
already Frank Miller with you know, his work at both

(36:09):
DC and Marvel. But yeah, tell me, you know, were you, like,
how how involved were you in the inception of Sin City?

Speaker 2 (36:19):
That was all Mike Richardson.

Speaker 1 (36:21):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (36:23):
You know the other part of that is that he
knew that I, myself and Diana were there. Okay, so
uh he actually started before just as we got there.
He was in Dark Darkness Presents with with Randy Stradley.

(36:45):
I think was editing it at the time. So, but
I've known Frank for a very long time, being a
New Yorker and him being in New York, and actually
the real put little tail there. When I was working
at Creation, I had I was given a full show
at the Sheridan of New York to do the programming

(37:08):
to get the guests, So Harlan Ellison was number one.
I got to get Harland. We couldn't get anybody other
than bb Besh who played Shatner's wife and.

Speaker 1 (37:22):
The story yeah, the second movie, the con movie. Yeah,
she's Carol Martinus.

Speaker 2 (37:27):
Everybody yeah, yeah, no, no disrespect to her anything. She
just wasn't as big of a cell because you know,
so uh. While that was going on, the other person
that I wanted to get was Ray Harriehausen. Oh yeah,
and my friend Larry had gone to a screening at

(37:47):
the Museum of Natural History or somewhere where he actually
met Ray and got piece of stationery of Class of
the Titans with raised English England. So years later I
say to to Larry, hey give me that address a letter.
He agrees to come. We had a big display and

(38:11):
beautiful art and beautiful creatures, and I actually gave up
my chance to say, Ladies and Gentlemen of New York
fandom Ray Harry Housen. I gave that up because Gary
and Adam asked me to because we wanted to get
star Log involved. So Carry O'Quinn was the one who

(38:35):
got to do that introduction. So I'm standing in the
back of the hall and I'm so glowy and I'm
flipping out and I look over and I realized, Oh,
there's Frank Miller. And I look at him and I go, Hi, Frank,
and I put in my hand. I bomb Shrek hughes,
I know who you are. It's like, oh, okay, and

(38:56):
they go, well, what are you doing here? And he goes,
what do you mean? What am I doing Here's missed
this in the world. So that was like a really
great bonding moment that wound up moving on to that.
I think I'm trying to remember. I think that Yellow
Bastard it was either the Yellow Bastard or the other

(39:21):
one that I started, Yeah, that I started working with Franklin.
At the bottom line is I'm not going to teach
anything to Frank about storytelling, but I am gonna tell
him if something seems weird. And gee, did you mean this,
did you? And at one point early on he had

(39:45):
switched the voices from Gosh, I can't remember the characters' names,
mar Dwight and his girlfriend.

Speaker 1 (39:55):
And I forget his girlfriend's name, but.

Speaker 2 (39:57):
Yeah, and he'd switched the voices, and I just had
to you know, hey, Frank, doesn't this sound like it
should be coming out of her health instead of his.
He's like, oh shit, because you know you're running and
you're working hard and you can't you know. And then
the well, we'll leave it at that.

Speaker 1 (40:17):
So that's great, man. Now that's and by the way,
you're what Mike said about Kevin, I see, Bob, there's
and forgive me because certainly cannect compare to your career.
But I did help program a convention during COVID and
online convention for one of the big shows, and people
can do the math and know what I'm talking about.

(40:38):
I want to embarrass the guy that much, but we
can all figure out who I'm talking about. Yeah, And
there they needed a keynote speaker because they do awards
and and they do one of the bigger awards shows
and I'm like, Kevin Smith, and they're like, we don't
want that Kevin Smith drugs drugs. I'm like, he's the
biggest Hollywood guy that loves comics. Get off your high,

(41:01):
Kevin Smith. And he was great, he was good.

Speaker 2 (41:04):
It's a spot on. I mean, he doesn't need a script.
He just goes, you know, the guys what he's doing.
So yeah, and I still him and I don't really
communicate much these days. Every now and then it's a hello,
or it's a you know, a text or something. But
it's just great seeing him still out there, you know,
I'm crazy, and seeing Jace j being so healthy, which

(41:26):
is yes, yes, hidden now for crying out loud. So
just good people, you know. And we had a great
time except for him making me say, can I poop
in your mouth?

Speaker 1 (41:41):
I understand. I totally understand that. So you said when
he started, you know that that Danny hired you essentially
to be his successor? Is that is that the way?

Speaker 2 (41:51):
Yeah, he was already retiring and his whole crew eventually
dropped out eventually because that wasn't the same, you know. Sure,
And uh yeah again I didn't you know, I don't
know how many wooden teeth George Washington had. I don't care.

(42:11):
And It's Batman's pretty easy to figure out, you know,
I mean, come on, it's a pretty simple story and
it's been told five trillion times so and I was
actually somebody chastised me at one point. You're not qualified
to be doing this. It's like, I've got on this

(42:34):
character since before I was born. I don't need your help.
And I think we did pretty good with it.

Speaker 1 (42:41):
Bob. Yeah, I mean, I know you inherited several writers
because am I right? And correct me if I'm wrong,
But I know Rucca started when when Denny was still
you know, were you were you there when like No
Man's Land and that last big Batman crossover or was
that before you.

Speaker 2 (42:59):
Just as I arrived, just as like an eight months
after No Man's Land. But the Ruccket thing was also
we had already done White Out, damn right. There were
people Scott and Ibaching and Patty Jarris were going to

(43:19):
Denny and Denny went, you know, I just read this book.
It's like, yeah, I wonder how I heard about it.
So Ruccket came in after I after, you know, before
I got there. But we did work together. We did
the HECTAA together.

Speaker 1 (43:37):
And you know, yes, of course yeah, and how about Ed?
How about brew Baker.

Speaker 2 (43:43):
Brew Baker Ed? We did Low Life and DHP way
back when. Yes, you know, I knew very right at
that moment, this guy can write. This guy's got We
did a I think it was called bird Dog. I
forget the name of it, but there's the two guys

(44:04):
trying to pick up a girl in Dark Horse Presents.
And his writing was just so fluent. I mean, everybody
sounded like they they each had their own voice, you know,
and that's the hardest thing to do is to come
up with that. So yeah, so Ed was like a
shoe in and uh yeah, there were there are a

(44:28):
few others that we brought. Judd coming in, yes, and
Brad Meltzer. Brad Meltzer was total like either it was
rearranged pre arranged, or I fell into it because I
met Brad at jud Lennox's wedding. They're old old buddies,

(44:48):
you know. Yeah, So I I knew that he had
written the book, a couple of books, I think at
the time, and and I knew that if I put
Judd in first, it would from Kevin to Judd number one.

(45:09):
It's kind of like two guys from outside, you know,
one TV the other's film. But having met Brad and
I like doing that. You ever see the movie in
Justice for All? Oh?

Speaker 1 (45:26):
Yeah, of course and Jack what's his name Wharton?

Speaker 2 (45:31):
Yeah, he played the judge who was completely nuts and
go out on the helicopter. I like doing that. So
I was like, look at her, my watch. I need
a writer. I need a writer, and I need a
writer now. And Brad was doing a signing in New York.
I waited the last person online. I walked up to

(45:53):
him at the end and said, Hi, how are you doing.
You don't remember me, blah blah blah, and said, if
you're ever interested in writing a comic book story? And
I knew that he was a Green Arrow fan because
he had all the names listed in there.

Speaker 1 (46:06):
Right in his novels for people who don't know, he
would name like Oliver Queen as a random character in
a book like The Tenth Justice one of his novels,
and obviously all of us comedy we were like, hey,
wait a minute, this guy likes comics. Cleb.

Speaker 2 (46:18):
Yeah, so and that really kind of I mean, we
had we were the number one book with Kevin for
almost a year and a half and then we continued
on with the Brad and of course Brad went on
to me even bigger, more sales worthy projects. But anyway,

(46:40):
so that was you know, all these things kind of
just kind of fold in, and it's some of it's
pure luck, you know.

Speaker 1 (46:50):
So was because another thing too, and another wrinkle of
both Kevin's run and when Brad took over too. You
had Phil Hester and Andy Parks doing the art and
I know that they worked with Kevin on Clerks and
you know people are going to accept that cartoony style
for a humor book. But was there any pushback from
d C and worry about having that kind of I mean,

(47:14):
they because they still did an adventure style, but they
can't escape who the the artists who they are? Oh
you know? So so yeah, was there any Was there
any concern from DC or or on your part as
well in terms of no, this is this is good,
this is going to look great?

Speaker 2 (47:30):
No, yeah, I was. I was on board. I think
either Phil alone or Phil and Andy both worked on
a swamp thing book or something or some kind of
horror book. Yes, And that was for me like, okay,
so they can do that, they can do this over
here okay, and uh, actually Jim Mafu did the Clerks

(47:55):
book first.

Speaker 1 (47:56):
Oh excuse me, okay, yeah.

Speaker 2 (47:58):
And then those guys kicked later.

Speaker 1 (48:00):
You know, I see, okay, but.

Speaker 2 (48:02):
Yeah, yeah, so no, that was that was me. No,
The biggest trouble I had was, you know, just trying
to get the DC to get out of my way.

Speaker 1 (48:14):
Well I'm glad they did, Bob.

Speaker 2 (48:15):
These thanks, Yeah, Paul d. C is like a giant
aircraft carrier and you can't make sharp turns. It takes hard,
slow turn to get them to see something better down
the road. You know.

Speaker 1 (48:31):
Greg Rucca made the point that DC is the tortoise
and Marvel is the hair, and complimentary to both because,
as you say, Marvel was always a little more nimble,
but every now and then, all of a sudden, here
comes the tortoise.

Speaker 2 (48:45):
Man.

Speaker 1 (48:45):
And a lot of those were the books you were editing, Bob.
And it's like, truly, man, I'm telling you man that
that ninety nine to twenty ten period, so many of
the books that you were editing and stuff, I'm just like,
these are great and truly. Winne's become a friend of mine,
Meltzer's become a friend of mine, Phil and Andy are
my friends. And it's just and they are. They're great guys,

(49:08):
and I appreciate their tastes. And the same goes with
Marvel that it became a really good friend. Rutga is
a very good friend of mine, you know, Brubak is
a good friend of mine.

Speaker 2 (49:15):
Yeah. So yeah, you know, yeah, No, they're They're all
super talented people. And again, most of them were a
joy to work with. Every now and then we'd you'd
have a little scuffle, a little you know, I don't
agree with you, but you know, my rule is I
want everybody happy. You know, if you're not happy, it's

(49:37):
not going to come together. So I'm going to start
with the writer, sit down and say, okay, who do
you want to draw this? Let's develop this together, and
you know, you make some compromise, but the book is
the thing that has to win, not the ego of
the editor or the ego of the writer or anybody else.

(49:58):
It's got to be for the the furtherance of the
book and Lowe's reading it, you know, uh, you want
to give him a good ride.

Speaker 1 (50:11):
Well again, great talent all around. And that's the reason why.
All right, a couple more comic book all stars joining
us in the chat, and I can call them friends
from the Flying Fist Rancher's Bo Smith. I love here.
Bob talk about comics in the business. Reminds you that
being in a community or a community was always important
in our industry. And then our dear friend Mike Oming saying,

(50:32):
ask him about UFOs. Oh my, oh, there you go.
You know, that's so funny. Mike and I are part
of a TV show called The Unexplained, and Mike's thing
was UFOs and my thing was the Kennedy Conspiracy. We bonded,
as Bob, you'll you'll remember Chariots of the Gods. Mike
and I bonded over the Von Denikin book and everything.

(50:53):
And that's what I'm like, all right, I like Oming, Oh,
he's a great guy, So tell me about UFOs, Bob.

Speaker 2 (50:57):
Well, funny side story, Mike, Taki, Randy, my husband, and
we all went to a UFO convention in the Joshua
Tree Crazy area there and final Von Donikan was there. Wow,
he was there. He was talking. It was hot, and
we didn't stay. It was like I read the book

(51:19):
a thousand years ago. Let's go eat, you know.

Speaker 1 (51:22):
But yeah.

Speaker 2 (51:23):
I as a young boy, I was thirteen twelve or thirteen.
In my neighbor's backyard were the scow Lynn Mackin, who
I grew up next to, and she was a little
older than me, and we were on her swing set
and it was a beautiful summer night. I look up

(51:46):
and it looks like the moon is going faster than
the clouds going away, you know, going out east on
Long Island. And then I realized, no, you know, right
out of Star Wars. That's no moon, you know. And
it was this odd shaped, kind of mother shippish oval

(52:12):
that was kind of more yellowish in the center and
whiter on the outside, and it came out from behind
this big, fluffy, humulous craft cloud and it just slowly
came down on an angle and we were both swinging,
and then I saw it first and just stopped. And
she's looking at me, like, what are you doing? And

(52:35):
I finally it comes down and then it just stops.
It just hangs there. It's not going anywhere, and I
just go look and as I say look, it goes
off that way. And I turned her and go, did
you see anything? She said, I saw something go up,
and I said, good, meteorites don't go up, they come down.

(52:57):
And I ran into my brother, who kickstarted me in
beginning on all this UFO stuff. And you know, we
just had we just had hearings where people say that
we have biologics. We have them, The US government has biologics,
something from not ere and W cares, just like, oh,

(53:22):
these experts say that we've got a few aliens in
the garage, No big deal, who cares? You don't care
when something happens. But anyway, as many have said, you don't.
You know, it's just like this country. You don't always
want to meet the stranger because the stranger might just

(53:45):
take you out of the game.

Speaker 1 (53:47):
You know, I understand, man. You know when that footage
came out only a couple of years ago, of the
odd they don't call them UFOs anymore. I always forget
what they call. Oh no, I know, yeah you might remember,
and I'm sure, Mike, I'm sure Homing remembers. But that
shot of that weird craft and you hear the chatter
of the fighter planes going, I don't know what the

(54:08):
hell it is, man, there it is, and it's like, uh, yeah.

Speaker 2 (54:12):
You know, well, and that's you know when I when
I saw close Encounters, I'd gone to heaven because that
was all stuff that I had read. Uh it was
a Charles Man tell this guy Wisconsin or something flying
a plane and he crashed into the water. I mean
he chased it to the point where he died. Wow,

(54:33):
all this stuff and it goes back, It goes back
to the Bible. For crying out loud, you don't want
to kich on me, but yes, I absolutely believe. I
look at life and you just see it. Life begets life,
and you look how you look at how stupid we are.
We don't know anything that's going on. We have no idea.

(54:57):
And then you've got people like Asimov and Arthur C.
Clark and all these other people saying, okay, you can
call this science fiction until it isn't.

Speaker 1 (55:11):
I'm hip. I get it as absolutely so.

Speaker 2 (55:14):
I totally believe that we're here because somebody else begat
us and they're just staying quietly. You know, years ago
I knew that they're there. There were UFOs or I
can't come up with a new name in our water.

(55:34):
You know, you know where else would you want to hide?
We're ninety planet of water. You know, we don't we
don't even know what's in our oceans because we're where's zygoats? Where'sgoats?
You know?

Speaker 1 (55:51):
So I never mind, and we can't be so arrogant
to think that we're the only intelligent life in this
entire cosmo. So I'm I'm so with you by man,
Mike like says, thanks for sharing, Bob, and thanks for
always in believing in my art. You're one of the
first editors I ever talked to it at con and
always had great advice.

Speaker 2 (56:06):
There you go, man, Thank you, Michael.

Speaker 1 (56:09):
And the Takie's killing it on her alien invasion story
right now, do you get a chance area, Yeah, I
know of it. Okay, it's good. Yeah, it's good. I
had around the show talking about it absolutely. Man. Now
they're sweet people. I've known them. Again, I've been doing
this for twenty years now, Bob, So thankfully I actually
have some miles under me and everything, and yeah, man,
you know, it's good. Cool, Yeah, it's and it's nice

(56:32):
to be welcomed by the community. I always I spent
thirty years in sports radio, and I always said I'm
not in sports. I cover sports here in Chicago. Yeah,
that's why I'm like I'm not in comics. I cover comics,
that's what I do.

Speaker 2 (56:45):
Yeah. Well, I was at the CBLDF cruise to mexicoell
and you know these cruises will also you know, there'll
be doctors, they'll be this, they'll be that, and you
pay to go on the crew and then you the
doctor leaves and goes gets dinner without the fans. You know,

(57:06):
it's the different vibe and the whole crew and this
boat were like, you're going to dinner with them, You're
gonna get it off the boat and hang out with
these people. And it's like, yeah, well, what's wrong with that?
Because we're a very welcoming group. We don't read. We're
a community. And it's not just a job, it's it's

(57:29):
a lifestyle.

Speaker 1 (57:30):
You know, I get it. Man, I'm glad you bright.
I wanted to ask you about this CBLDF and everything.
Are you still associated with it?

Speaker 2 (57:38):
No, okay, that was a very brief situation. I wish
them all the best, but it wasn't for me. I
mean it was the first thing I said to Charles
was me, do words, me, don't do numbers. And then
it's like, oh, here's the budget. It's like I just

(58:01):
kept saying, you don't want me on your numbers. I'm
terrible to that stuff. You know. I failed algebra twice.
I understand that's not my thing.

Speaker 1 (58:13):
You know, I took a logic class instead of real math.
I hear what you're saying, man, I yeah, no, no,
I'm with you, man, that's that's hilarious. All right. So, Legendary,
I know it was like kind of one of the
last editorial jobs, and you brought your buddies over and stuff,
and like you said, I'm glad you mentioned del Toro.
But I know Matt was doing a book work for
you guys, and Simon Bisley as well. And you know

(58:35):
Matt I as I said, Man, I've known Matt for
nineteen years and he always tells me great stuff. And yeah,
I uh, you know so. But yeah, how did Legendary
get smart enough to pick you up?

Speaker 2 (58:49):
Well? I was at IDW and you know, the minute
the word got out that I left DC, Scott Dunbeer
was on the phone. Now, Ted Adams, who was the
boss of the whole thing. He was my assistant at
dark Horse when he was just a little boy and

(59:12):
he was very young, and he was great. It's like
I would go to him to ask for something and
he would go here, Oh you did it, lady. You know.

Speaker 1 (59:25):
He was great.

Speaker 2 (59:26):
He was such a joy to work with. And then
years go by, you know, and he went to image
with bo Yes, and I actually was a part of
I Got Possible hire I had. McFarlane was living here
in Oreon, and I went to have a discussion with

(59:48):
him about whether or not I would, you know, be
part of the image. And I said to him, and
his wife was great. She was just in the background
with little convents and I I said to him, how
do I tell the guy who owns the company to
get off the dining room table? And she went, he

(01:00:12):
has a point, like, yeah, I did. The other great
moment was I got in the house and they had
this beautiful thing on a piano, and the whole little
setup was right out of the John Lennon song I

(01:00:33):
hate this old you know, the giant John Lennon song
that everybody imagine. Yeah, so it looks like that saw
that set.

Speaker 1 (01:00:43):
It looks like the white the white piano and everything.

Speaker 2 (01:00:46):
I'm hip.

Speaker 1 (01:00:47):
I'm with you now man. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:00:48):
And his wife from Green just she she just gave
me a look and I said, oh wow, look at that,
and uh said, does anybody play? He said no. He said,
oh well it's a nice knick knack. And she could
hear her in the other room laughing. It's like, even

(01:01:08):
if you can't play. Well, Todd was great, and you know,
we just decided, well, this was worth discussing. And then
of course, you know, uh, Ted, Adams and Bo wound
up there. But uh so I was already at I

(01:01:30):
d W with Tad and everybody and the I'm trying
to remember what else. Oh, and then so we were
at a baseball game, NETS game with Ted and everybody.
I get a phone call from Frank Miller. I'm on

(01:01:54):
the phone, got Ted sitting right next to me, and
Frank it's like, track, I want to hook up and
this guy at the Legendary, this guy Thomas, help meet
me tomorrow night at the whatever hotel. And and I'm like, oh, no, no,
I don't want to do that. And I didn't. I
couldn't turn it down, you know, I mean, it was

(01:02:16):
very very well salaried. I got to the odd thing
is I was just so happy that I was no
longer on the Warner Brothers. Uh, you know, email and
stuff the air well and and so after I did
w where do I go? I go back to Warner Brothers.

(01:02:39):
It was like the god damn system just but uh
he was great, Thomas was great. And but the problem
that happened there was you can't give all the people
making movies for you another job without paying them. Yeah. Yeah,

(01:03:02):
I know, this guy's the accountant, but he doesn't want
to be the accountant for the comics, especially since I
don't know anything about comics. Ye. So I made it
very clear to the man. They're just like, look, I
can get you editorial, but you need to make sure
that I am packed up on this and that and that,

(01:03:23):
because I can't do it all. I've delivered good books
and that's all I can do. And that warin and
no kidding, I'm saying. By the last year and a half,
two years, I'm out walking my dog and taking him
to a dog park, and I'm getting paid very nicely.

(01:03:49):
And I looked at the dog and I said, hand it,
Did I die? Did we both die and go to heaven.
They don't want me to do any more work, so
I just hang out with the dog. For the last
year year and a half just they okay, fine, you know,
but I really was proud of a lot that I

(01:04:10):
did there because I mean I had to get the
Godzilla book out, yes, on a time frame that is
impossible in comics. When one of the nicest things that
Matt Wagner has said to me, because we rarely ever talked.
We talked about his comics, but we rarely ever talked
about my comics very much.

Speaker 1 (01:04:30):
Okay, he was like.

Speaker 2 (01:04:32):
You know, Shrek, I looked at that Zola book and
you know, you had like three or four different artists
on that book, and it went right by me. I
didn't there was a skip of beat. It's like, yeah,
a point with Matt, So yeah, you know, that was
a lot of fun. Same thing with Specific Green. They

(01:04:52):
they gave me no time and I had to hire
three or four people to get it to the end.
But I made every deadline. And you know, Thomas didn't
really understand that. You know, they thought comics would be faster.
It's like, no, it's slower. Oh yeah. When you've got
a lot of money, you can make a film in

(01:05:12):
six to seven weeks, but you can't get an artist
to draw a maxi series or a mini series. In
six or seven.

Speaker 1 (01:05:21):
Weeks, it's not gonna happen.

Speaker 2 (01:05:22):
So once that set in, that's when eventually Thomas said, okay, Shrek,
nice knowing yet, but goodbye, And it was nice. It
was a nice, friendly goodbye.

Speaker 1 (01:05:34):
That's cool. Well, that's cool. Tell me and forgive me.
I've skipped your IDW years, so you know, yeah, tell
me some of your greatest hits at IDW. What were
some of the.

Speaker 2 (01:05:43):
One of my unfortunate moments was I was being a jerk,
but I didn't feel like I was being a jerk.
They gave me Jurassic Park and I practically killed it
for them, and that's because I hired an artist who
I saw in Oh I can't remember the name magazine now,

(01:06:07):
but it was, you know, very avant garde stuff. But
this guy was his name was Nate and he was
really talented artist. So I had him to do me
a t rex head and it was gorgeous. It was
a t rex head. But he had never done comics.

(01:06:29):
And Chris was Chris Ryle was my editor, and we
got the first issue in and it was terrible. I
had him redraw. The last splash was when you see
the Carnist or whatever you call it, the bull dinosaur,

(01:06:49):
but his horns and it looked like a popsicle, just
looked like a dinosaur at all. And I was like,
you're gonna have to redraw this to make it look
like a dinosaur. And they were like, no, we should
dump this guy and move on because he's not delivering.
He's not doing the job. And I felt so bad

(01:07:10):
that I had taken this guy over here. And I just,
you know, I'll never forget the first time people saw
the Velociraptors and it's like, oh, what the hell is
this Nate. He's a sweet guy, but everybody kind of
had his head. The women and the men had this
kind of blocky. It was not the best comic that

(01:07:34):
I ever put together. But you win someone, you lose some, you.

Speaker 1 (01:07:39):
Know, that's all right, that's all right. What do you
think of the superhero TV and movie stuff that we've
been getting the last twenty years? How have you felt
about it?

Speaker 2 (01:07:48):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (01:07:49):
God, good initial reaction, but keep going.

Speaker 2 (01:07:53):
This of it is garbage. I'm with the Scar, says
he and everybody else. Look, comics are great and can
do things with story that aren't just people beating each
other up. And that's all we get. It's a steady
diet of fromage. And you know, I have hopes for

(01:08:16):
the Fantastic Four movie. I love the design of it.
There's this whole kind of kitchen. Oh yeah, looks like
the pe Wee Herman show. It's really cool, which if
you have not seen the new documentary about pee Wee Herman,
it's really good. Yeah, unbelievable, just to poot my horn.

(01:08:41):
I saw pee Wee before he met up with Gary Panter. Wow,
he was at Carolines. He probably did one Letterman show.
Nobody knew who he was, and Creation used to have
I wish I could remember his name because I'm just
getting so old. He's the guy in the Rocketeer who

(01:09:06):
sees the Rocketeer in the ballroom and says, it's the Rocketeer.

Speaker 1 (01:09:09):
And I can't remember his name, but great.

Speaker 2 (01:09:13):
Yeah, he's a comedian. He's a great guy. And he
did Jean reckfirmody. So we would have him at Creation
shows and he would do some genre comedy. And so
I went to Gary and Adam at Creation said we've
got to get this guy Peewey and they just laughed
at me. They're like, you're crazy and they had to
go look to see what he did. And I got

(01:09:35):
to hang out with him that first night and help
him take down his hulk off the wall and all
this stuff. And years later, another sweetheart that I've known
for many years, this guy Mike Sargeant, who had a
radio kind of a Star Trek radio show. He admitted
to me years later, you know, Bob, we were all

(01:10:00):
laughing behind your back. This guy Shrek is completely There's
no way this guy is ever going to be that big.
And it's like, hmm, I wonder what you think about
that now? You know? So that was that was a
fun run. But yeah, I mean again, I've been very lucky,
very blessed. I have an older brother. I have two

(01:10:23):
older brothers, but one of them, my brother, Dean, kind
of taught me what what made a movie great. Handed
me John Christopher's The Trilogy of the White Mountains and
this kind of ya back then, This War the World's

(01:10:44):
Only with Kids as the lead, and I read all
three in like an hour, and I became a voracious
reader from then. And you know, you watch the Twilight
Zones and you go Richard Matheson, Yes, you know who's
really good and knows what the and so my brother

(01:11:06):
kind of cultivated my ability to sit there and go,
that's that's cheating, you know, that's a lie. And uh.
And then of course Diana, you know, I mean there
was so much I learned from her, just you know,
well another quick and beyond the gut and knowing what's

(01:11:28):
there at Kinko, we're all hanging out and somehow that's
the subject of Johnny Question now, right. So all the
guys are like, yeah, man, what a great show. And
it took the one girl in the room to go, well,

(01:11:48):
why didn't you call Doug Wildie And we go who
because we had no idea Doug had created that whole thing.
And we're like, oh, that's a really good idea, Diana,
and then boom that was That was how Johnny Quest
the comic came together because we all loved it, but

(01:12:09):
we were all blind to not know the this guy
is a genius and off we went, you know, and
I'm sitting right next to a beautiful oil that he
did of a cowboy roping a steer that he gave
to me and Diana for our wedding. But when Diana
and I divorced, she went, he loved you more than me.

(01:12:31):
You keep it.

Speaker 1 (01:12:32):
That's great, man. Well she's a sweetheart. That's that's terrific. Still,
am I right? To Camiko published Rio his Western.

Speaker 2 (01:12:40):
Yes, yeah, that was wow. Yeah he was And that
originally was an equips uh he did. All the colors
were on these tissue papers and it had been lying
around for a while and uh. And then of course
Doug new Dave. Dave worked on god Zuki. He had to,

(01:13:04):
he had to work on Gonzuki, getting all the time.
They Oh, so all these things started kind of kind
of coming together. And it was actually I think it
was my idea too, because it was hard to sell
Rio because it wasn't Bam smash, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:13:26):
Sure, and we had the.

Speaker 2 (01:13:27):
World of Ginger Fox, which was a movie studio, a
fe know, a movie studio, and we said, I said, well,
what if we get Dave to draw a print of
Rio like this actor who plays a cowboy with Ginger Fox,

(01:13:47):
and we put that in in between the two graphic novels.
I sold a whole messodoze suckers that were lying in
the basements, and of course Doug was very happy too.
Oh that's a great idea. Correct. So yeah, we again,
there's so much of it. It's just luck and staring

(01:14:08):
reality in the face and going, oh, that's what I
ought to be doing.

Speaker 1 (01:14:11):
You know, that's beautiful man. And I and especially I
love the Peewee story. When when I was a freshman
at Illinois State University, so this is fall of eighty three,
and he had done maybe a couple lettermen, but certainly
my guy. Once you saw him, you knew what you
were in for. And he played in a room that
had no bigger than a hundred seats in this like

(01:14:31):
student like you know, the student center or whatever. And
it was we're all waiting in line for the show
and he walks by, not in his Peewee costume or makeup,
and he has his glasses on and he's holding a
textbook trying to be a student. And we're like, hey, Peewe.
We're like, we're psyched to see it, man, And he
was to sell it. He's like, oh, thanks, guys, He goes,

(01:14:53):
it's gonna be a good show, I promise, And of
course we were. You know, everything he did on his
on his big stage show he did for us with
one hundred people, had the hygiene movies and stuff that
we grew up with and it was so great and yeah,
so I get it, man, I get it.

Speaker 2 (01:15:08):
It was Yeah he was he was a riot and
you know, I mean you've had a whole nation people
dressing up like him, and yes, I was one of them.

Speaker 1 (01:15:21):
And Phil Harmon, you know Phil Harmon being so important
to him and everything, amazing stuff. Now, so I'm with you, Bob. Yeah,
that's great, this is great. Man. We can wrap up.
I don't want to, you know, I want you to
get back to your evening, hang out with Ranny, hang
out with a dog. But but please, would you come back.
I'd love to have, you know, another conversation with you sometimes.

Speaker 2 (01:15:42):
Absolutely, I have all the dirt, so I'm ready to get.

Speaker 1 (01:15:45):
You know where that, as we say in Illinois politics,
you know where the bodies are buried.

Speaker 2 (01:15:49):
I know where the bodies are buried. I know where
some of the zombies are too.

Speaker 1 (01:15:55):
There you go, man, that's it. No, it really means
a lot, man.

Speaker 2 (01:15:58):
Thank you so much for having me. It was a
total pleasure.

Speaker 1 (01:16:02):
The pleasure was mine, and I know the audience feels
the same way. Bob. Thank you so much. Tomorrow night,
I don't know if you ever met art Baltazart, but
he's not a friend of mine. Oh no, the Tiny
of the Tiny Titans fame and some of the you know,
stuff like that. And we'll see if Franco's gonna join
me or not. But Artie's gonna join me, and we're
gonna have a good conversation tomorrow night, right here on
Word Balloon Live. So I hope people will join us.

(01:16:24):
But until then, everybody, stay safe, stay happy, stay healthy.