Chip Zdarsky on Captain America, Batman and Beyond

On this episode of Word Balloon, I sit down with writer Chip Zdarsky to dig into his bold, current run on Captain America. Chip explains his vision for the Star-Spangled Avenger, including the introduction of a new Cap born in the wake of 9/11, during the years when Steve Rogers was still frozen in ice. We also dive into his celebrated DC work on Batman, where he created the relentless Failsafe, repositioned Vandal Savage as a core Gotham villain, and shook up the city’s status quo with a brand-new police commissioner.

But that’s just the start—Chip and I explore his Marvel catalog as well, from the gritty, character-driven drama of Daredevil to the cosmic and family-centered Marvel Two-In-One with the Thing and the Human Torch. And of course, we talk about his creator-owned stories, where he continues to push boundaries and surprise readers with inventive, personal storytelling.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back everybody time again for another word balloon The
Comic Book Conversation Show. Welcome Back Everybody time again for
another word balloon. Comic Book Conversation Show. Jon Sutris with
you really happy to welcome Chip Sadarski back. I'm really sorry, everybody.
I had every intention of making this a live streaming
broadcast with questions from the fans, but Streamyard kind of

(00:23):
has been buggy lately. I don't know why, but it has,
and we were on a delay on stream Yard and
that wasn't going to work. So, I mean, you might
have seen it in my gym's ub video when I
talked to him about ConA twenty five. I still haven't
released the audio of that. I should because ConA twenty
five is coming out on Wednesday. In the meantime, though,

(00:44):
great conversation with Chip. We talk about, of course, as
Captain America run, repositioning the origin and modernizing it up
in a very interesting way. Cap thought out after nine
to eleven. What could that mean? Well, among the things
that it means is that Wildcap was in the ice
low these many eighty years or at that time, you

(01:05):
pick a number. The government created another Captain of America
with the super Soldier formula and a guy that was
traumatized by nine to eleven. As Chip says, this guy
believes in the cause, believes in America. But if you
really know the deep history of America, unfortunately we've been
in a few skirmishes that really weren't on the books,

(01:27):
things like the activity in South America, certain things that
happened during the Vietnam War in places beyond Vietnam. This
is all true, and it's sad, but it is part
of our history, and I think Chip is the right
guy to go into that, and especially once Captain America
has thawn out and decides to rejoin the army. Really,

(01:47):
he never left, it wasn't his fault, and isn't sure
about the America that he has come back to. It's
a lot less political than maybe what my description is
making it sound like. But it's a fantastic story and
I really am enjoying it. We also talk about chips
excellent run on Batman. We get into some Daredevil stuff
as well, and a few creator own things. He also

(02:08):
teases us with the fact that he's got some new
Marvel projects coming up. They haven't been announced yet. But
look to the skuies for those headlines once we find
out Chip Snarski talking about Daredevil, Captain America, Batman, and
so much more on today's word Balloon. Word Balloon is
brought to you by Alex Rossart dot com, the official

(02:30):
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At alex Ross dot com you'll find beautifully crafted prints, posters,
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(02:53):
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(03:15):
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(03:39):
com slash word Balloon. Good to see Chip Sadarski again.
Welcome back to word Balloon, my man. Always a pleasure.

Speaker 2 (03:47):
Thanks for having me aw some things here.

Speaker 1 (03:52):
Well, I'm excited, Chip, I've been excited ever since I
read the first issue of Captain America. And I mean that, well,
we can get into your Batman run as well, because
that was certainly epic, you know. But but yeah, you know,
so the decision to switch to or to retell Camp's
story and really take us back to him getting thought

(04:16):
out of the ice in today's modern world, tell me
about that.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
Yeah, Well, I started to think about the kind of
cap stories I wanted to tell, and that the one
interesting thing about the sliding timeline of the Marvel universe
is that when we originally came out of the ice
was like fifteen years right, Like there wasn't that big
of a period between him going in the ice and

(04:40):
him coming out, So that was more of a story
about a man who just like wakes up and all
of his loved ones are a little bit older, you know,
whereas doing it now with the timeline, it's kind of
becomes a sci fi story in a weird way to
wake up like, you know, sixty seventy whatever years after

(05:00):
everyone you know was gone and technology has advanced so much,
like it becomes becomes a different kind of story. So
it felt like it was a time to update that.
And when I just started to kind of pull it
that thread a little bit, I realized, well, like he
would come out of the ice after September eleventh, like

(05:21):
based on that kind of that ten year rule that
Marvel has. So it seemed like the time to kind
of update that and just kind of give everyone kind
of a fresh look at Cap. The way Cap has
his fresh look at the Marvel universe.

Speaker 1 (05:37):
I love it, and honestly, I think it does open
a lot of story possibilities and also your new character, David.
I mean, we've seen other people take up the mantle
of Captain America, but as you said, Steve was in
the ice when nine to eleven hit. David was very
much traumatized by the events of nine to eleven. Talk

(05:58):
about David.

Speaker 2 (05:59):
Yeah, yeah, I mean, you know, they've had other Captain
Americas before, but it felt like kind of a missed
opportunity to explore a Captain America for that post nine
to eleven period. Like I think I feel like if
Stanley was writing the comic, like he would have done
the exact same thing, you know. So yeah, So it

(06:22):
it felt important to kind of, if we were shipping
the timeline to look at that period and be like, well,
there was so much patriotism in the air post nine
to eleven, of the country coming together, So a Captain
America kind of just made sense. Yeah, And like you know,
when I got when I got the gig, you know,

(06:44):
I'm a Canadian, and so I started to read a
lot of kind of American history books and books about
America war kind of well known wars, less well known wars,
American imperialism. And I read The Forever War, which is

(07:05):
kind of about the period at Post nine to eleven,
written by this New York Times journalist, you know, boots
on the ground kind of stuff. But it was just, yeah,
it was It was a fascinating read, and I was
just like, oh, like, what would it be like for
a Steve Roger style character or a Captain American character
to be there in this conflict? And yeah, so the
David Culton character kind of sprung from that. It felt

(07:27):
like a felt like a good way to introduce Cap
to the modern world.

Speaker 1 (07:32):
Yeah, and again because he's been replaced and with no
thought of well, eventually he'll be you know, nobody knew
that he was in the ice and everything, so yeah,
that made a lot of sense. And also, you know,
I remember during nine to eleven, for a very brief moment,
we had access to a twenty four hour news channel
from Canada, I want to say NWI or something like that.

(07:54):
I could be getting the letters wrong, but it was
great to get a North amer American view of nine
to eleven that was not jingoistic and kind of a
wait a minute, what's really happening here? And I can
appreciate especially three issues in the conflicts that that Steve
is going through, and we'll get we'll get into the

(08:16):
three issues you've done so far. But I I really
this is a great story opportunity, and uh, I mean,
I love his instinct and let's talk about it. To
initially go back to the military, you know.

Speaker 2 (08:29):
That was that was the other big point. That was
the other big point that I kind of set to Marvel.
I'm just like, you know, some people have explored this
kind of period before. Mark Wade did it in in
a mini series. But uh, but I feel like if
somebody was a soldier in the Midvil War and then
they go to sleep and then they wake up like

(08:51):
like a moment later in terms of yes, their physical
health and their mental health, the first thing they would
do is go back to base, Like you've got to
go back to base and get a sit rep. You know,
they got to figure out what's happened, who won the war, Like,
what's what's the state of the world in America. So yeah,

(09:11):
so I think I think Steve Rogers, that would be
his first instinct, you know, in the in the original
comics in the sixties, you know, he just kind of
he's woking up by the Avengers, joined them on an adventure,
and then joins up, which is fun and fine, but
I was like, there, I felt like there should be
something kind of in between waking up and fully joining
the Avengers. So yeah, again just kind of like a

(09:36):
little bit, it's just kind of problem solving. You're just like, Okay, well,
what would happen if this actually happened, like based on
what we know of the character and the modern period,
and so yeah, going back to base.

Speaker 1 (09:49):
Again, he doesn't know any of these people, so yeah,
it would seem like the one familiar thing he does
have is the Army code in the Army system. But
I do love that he immediately goes to Thunderbolt raw yes,
and you know that that's again interesting opportunity.

Speaker 2 (10:06):
Yeah, yeah, like especially since like we play with a
lot of kind of Red Hulk stuff kind of later on. Okay,
and uh so, so I mean, you know, there's a
method to the madness of setting our first story in
the past. You know, it might not be the smartest
move in terms of like read just want to know
what's happening right now in the Marvel universe. I'm like, oh,

(10:26):
let's take a step back and take a look at
this period. But it all feeds into what we're gonna
be doing with the modern cap stories kind of later on.
Uh and and and how he feels about and how
Ross feels about him. So yeah, so it's it's fun
to kind of lay the groundworks in the past.

Speaker 1 (10:43):
Well and also, my God, to wake up and all right,
you got to go after this dictator named Victor von
Doom and he gets there, and man, issue three was
just so great of I'm a big fan of yours.
And then I really you know, and and really I mean,
my god, to the point of literally he's got you know,
an exhibit of Steven Bucky and stuff in Castle Doom.

Speaker 2 (11:04):
Yeah, Doom hates Nazis. That's his fact. He's you know,
of Romanic heritage, and like, uh, you know, he really
did not care for the red skull and all the
all the Nazism. Yes, I mean that's it. Bringing in
Doom also just felt like a natural extension of Steve

(11:27):
waking up, because he wakes up, he goes back to
work and what's new. Well, what's new is there's a
guy who's been attacking America, this dictator in Europe. I
was like, oh, that feels familiar. It's just like, maybe
I should do something about this. Without fully knowing the

(11:49):
world he stepped into. So yeah, yeah, it's I love
when you kind of work on a story like this,
and the pieces just kind of fall together. It's like, oh,
if this happens, and this happens, and that character means this,
and so were caps in a Joy for that reason alone,
Like everything just kind of balls together, like I'm I
sent in the script ISSU thirteen just like, oh, this

(12:09):
feels like one big story. Like thirteen picks up elements
of Issue one, like there's a lot there's a lot happening.

Speaker 1 (12:17):
Well, there's a lot happening in the current world right
now too. Was Marvel at all concerned about a dry
I mean, certainly doom Is is constant and there's always
problems in Latvaria and everything, but any any sort of
allusions to world politics today. Were they concerned at all?

Speaker 2 (12:36):
No, I mean, that's kind of part of the It
was kind of part of the beauty. Also setting this
in the past. You know, I'm not necessarily talking about
America in its current incarnation, but I'm talking about America's
past and especially that period between World War two and
present day. A lot of the stuff that we kind
of we see in Latviia and even just kind of

(12:57):
going into lat Aia the way they have, like there
are a lot of elements of that kind of picked
up from American military history, right So, you know, that's
why I called that's why I called the art our
Secret Wars, because that's been the case for a lot
of kind of America's involvement on the global stage, you know,

(13:19):
since World War Two, you know, excluding the big you know,
the big pieces like you know, Vietnam and Rock War
and things like that, but like skirmishes, ye yes, skirmishes
and like kind of overthrowing governments and you know, taking
on United taking on the enemies of United Fruit. You know,
so many weird things that you kind of you learn about.

(13:44):
You're like, oh, okay, you know, I I have a
thing right now, and you know, I talk to my
friends a lot about it, Like we're all kind of
caught up in what's happening right now, you know, for
good reason. But I keep saying to my friends, I'm like,
I've learned more about modern America reading history books of
America than I do reading someone's tweet about what's happening today.

(14:05):
Oh yeah, in this moment, you kind of need to
like look at it through the lens of some time
before you actually kind of know exactly what wrong, what happened?
You need a proper analysis with a little bit of distance,
whereas about our twenty four hour news cycle doesn't really

(14:28):
doesn't really cutting today.

Speaker 1 (14:29):
You know, I'm with you, man, No, absolutely, and I'm
glad you because literally my brain went right to United
Fruit and the CIA's skirmishes in South America things like that,
and yeah, people don't know. I always give it up
to Shakin for his American Century books that he did
and everything back in the early two thousands, and yeah,
that is that period and everything, and it does it

(14:51):
puts America in a different light, and we should own
up to it, just like we expect Germans to own
up to World War Two and they do it. It's like, no,
we really and how man, we didn't even know about
the massacres in the twenties and now I'm blanking Memphis, right,
was in a Memphis where they were burning out black
businesses and stuff. Yeah, I mean it's like, hey, that's

(15:13):
part of American history. We need to own up to it.
And again that's why I appreciate the analogy of what
you're doing.

Speaker 2 (15:19):
So yeah, like you, Yeah, a lot of the stories
about like American occupation of the Philippines, like there's so much. Yeah,
just like oh my god. Yeah. But but I mean
every country has it, of course a thing. Canada has it, Like.

Speaker 1 (15:33):
Really, who did who did Canada hassle talk to me?

Speaker 2 (15:36):
Well, let's just talk about it, of course.

Speaker 1 (15:39):
Yeah, the indigenous people. Shame on me, of course, shame
on sorry, buddy.

Speaker 2 (15:43):
Yeah yeah, a lot of yeah, a lot of our history. Yeah, yeah,
there's not something to be proud of. Has been able
to just kind of like, you know, coast a little
bit because of our closet alliance with America. You know,
we may not have done a lot of kind of
shady ship, but we didn't have to do the shady

(16:04):
shick ausone was doing it for us.

Speaker 1 (16:05):
Yeah, your big brother was doing it. The expression you
know you're fat, You're fat, brothers, I was. I told
Dave Foley that great line from Kids in the Hall
when he was in a job interviewed from Canada. Canada. Yeah,
it's like America without the gut, and it's like, yeah,
that's that's exactly what Canada is compared to the US. Absolutely, man,

(16:25):
So here we are.

Speaker 2 (16:26):
But it's uh yeah, yeah, so there's something, there's something.
There's something about like kind of looking at things through
the lens of history instead of looking at things tough
the lens of current day, because so you can get
blindsided a little bit with current day stuff.

Speaker 1 (16:42):
So again without and I don't want you to spoil,
but how many issues are we going to spend in
this period before you get to modern day? Steve?

Speaker 2 (16:50):
It's just the first arc? So okay, whatever that is?
Five six issues? Yeah, okay, yeah, then and then we
got we go straight into uh. Our second arc basically
takes place right after One World under Doom wraps up,
so there is some doom connection there. Sure you know
we've teased out some promo stuff of doom, so yeah,

(17:13):
so it definitely it picks up thematically, very heavily from
the first Dark Understood.

Speaker 1 (17:19):
Yeah. I was wondering just because obviously he's missing Bucky
in this first arc, and I love that his inner
monologue also is just kind of lean on Bucky's you know, God, Buck,
what did I do? Did I do this right? Or whatever?
And I think again, I think that just informs Steve.
And again, as close as Ally isn't there for me,
he really is alone in this vision despite being surrounded
by the Howlers and everything.

Speaker 2 (17:40):
Yeah, yeah, but they're new. I mean that's the thing. Yeah,
howlers are not people eating that something nosed or should
trust you.

Speaker 1 (17:46):
Know, right, tell me about the new howlers that you created, absolutely, man.

Speaker 2 (17:51):
Yeah, children slate, Like, I just I needed howlers basically,
and I was like, well, what kind of characters can
I kind of but can I flank Steve with? And
and yeah, just like real kind of precision type characters
who are clearly very good at going into countries and

(18:11):
doing quick hits on people and things. So that's that's
been fun, just kind of like balancing them off Steve
and David.

Speaker 1 (18:21):
Okay, I saw a tease of the cover. I want
to say, it's the December cover where it's a photo
of the Avengers and everything. By that point, are we
in modern day or is that still a flashback.

Speaker 2 (18:34):
That's still that's still in the past. Yeah, okay, that's
just kind of like on the other end of it,
it's kind of you know, I mean I can't really
spoil things. Yeah, yes happened, but like you know, we
kind of bring you up to speed before he joins
the Avengers.

Speaker 1 (18:48):
Okay, all right, that's cool. Again, I just think David
is really a great opportunity in a way that other
caps have not been, you know, So yeah, yeah, talk
more David.

Speaker 2 (19:00):
For me, he's fun to write because he's like he
believes in the mission. Like there's there's some similarities to
like John Walker's character because you know, I grew up
reading Greenwald stuff. Sure, and those those issues of you know,
Cap No More and John Walker becoming Captain in America.
Those hit really hard. There's some like really big cool

(19:23):
things in those issues, which are also just hated at
the time. I love reading the letters pages of those
old issues, Like ninety eight percent of people were just
like I hate everything that's happening right now. Sure, you know,
like anything, you have to get the Buller story before
you recognize what Marvel was doing. But yeah, I wanted
this character to kind of like feel like John Walker

(19:47):
without the kind of the kind of not madness, but
that kind of like extreme anger that kind of alurked
in John Walker. Like David doesn't have that necessarily. He
can be placed in situations where, you know, lose his control,
but like he believes so strongly and like that he's

(20:07):
helping people. I think I think that's super important for
that character, Like he's got to like in his heart
be like what are we doing to help people? And
for him, it's democracy, it's freedom, and it's it's an
easy thing to say when you live in a country
that has had it almost from its inception, and it's

(20:29):
a much harder thing to make happen in a place
with a vastly different culture and different way of doing things,
which is another thing I really picked up reading kind
of a lot of these history books, just like the
attempts to bring kind of full democracy to to say
Iraq was like or Afghanistan is like hard, so hard,
and like there's so much resistance on every level, and

(20:52):
just just yeah, people wouldn't that would push for it,
and then people that wouldn't grasp it, and people that
would want the other ways, And yeah, yeah, it's it's hard,
it's harder to accomplish. And you think, coming from a
country that has democracy, right.

Speaker 1 (21:11):
Sure, have you seen any feedback? I mean again, we're
in a really weird position right now as you look
down on us from Canada, uh and and where the
country is and everything, but uh yeah, I mean and
and because it's I wouldn't call it pression again, I guess,
given that you're aware of the real you know, kind
of kind of the deep cuts of American history and stuff.

(21:31):
You know, I don't know how it's resonating. Have you
Have you heard from the audience how it's resonating so far?

Speaker 2 (21:37):
No? Uh, you know, I kind of I kind of
set it up that way really, like I don't I
don't exist online the way I used to. Okay, you know, yeah,
I kind of like just project things out from my
newsletter and that's it, right, Like I'll run into people
that'll tell me they're enjoying it. That's nice. But also

(21:59):
I can't let it as I get into my head.
I think I'm at the stage now my life. I'm
just like, Okay, if I got a story of telling
them to tell the story, and I'm using this company's
characters to do it, and and that's my job and
it's fun and it's great. And if I'm fucking up,

(22:19):
Marvel will tell me or the sales will tell me
via Marvel. Right, And so far, all I'm getting is
positive news from Marvel on on all the front. So
so they're happy with it. People there who are are
reading it are just saying nice things to me, and

(22:42):
I'm just I'm just generally happy with it. Like so
you know, I hate to be like I'm just running
it for me, but I kind of am. Like I'm
writing the cop story I want to read, and some
people want to read it, some people won't, some people
like it, some people won't. And if you don't like it,
then take a little pause on cap and like go

(23:03):
pick it up. When I'm fired a new guy.

Speaker 1 (23:09):
Everybody's run ends, so yeah, yeah, no, I get it,
but yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (23:14):
I mean i've kind of periods. Yeah, yeah, no, I've
been reading you and I have been reading these books
long enough that we know that, like if we don't
like a run of a character or a particular writer
or artist, even all right, I'll go read something else
for a bit and you know it changes and I
like the new guy. I'll read that. That's fine.

Speaker 1 (23:37):
Have you have you really had any pushback where you've
you know, when you were more so you know, social
media where and also even at cons, because truly, I'm
so glad ship that you are getting these opportunities to
write the frontline heroes and stuff. I mean, I've always
enjoyed your stuff and I've enjoyed your humor, I've enjoyed
your art, but now you really are getting to play
with with the toy box and everything, and you know

(23:59):
we'll get to Batman. But yeah, have you had any
sort of like I don't like this and I don't
like you, you know, to any degree?

Speaker 2 (24:06):
No? No, Like that's the thing, is it? At conventions
or signings, people are lovely. Like, you know, you don't
really stand in line for a couple hours to meet
a guy to say you hate him. And if you do,
all right, you've got something going on there. Like the
closest I would come there was like one guy at

(24:28):
one convention who just really needs specific answers for things,
and I was like, oh man, this is like the
Internet come to life in front of me. But also
like he was there with his dad, and I could
tell that he was like on the spectrum and he
was having a lot of big feelings about things, and
I'm like, oh yeah, Like usually the guys that are

(24:49):
kind of like really kind of digging in online about stuff,
they got other things going on. You don't really recognize
that when you just read words on a website, but
when you see them in real life, they're like, oh, okay,
this character means a and you you've got kind of
some neurodivergent things happening, and like I just got to
be kind of common patient with you and help the
line up behind you understands that it's been a bit

(25:10):
of extra time just to like help help you through this. Sure,
and that's it. Like that's the only time I've actually
kind of had kind of a like a oh okay moment.
But like, I don't know, like I've I've I've done
a fair amount of shows and Sonny in the past
couple of years, and like they've all just been great,
like you know, uh, and and I don't I don't

(25:31):
really again, I don't really go online. Like I'm sure
that people that don't like it, but it doesn't matter
really like people people don't like anything, like well, yeah,
yeah from from the first I mean, we got bad
letters to sex criminals when we started, for sure. Sure,
and you know Howard the Duck or Star Loard or whatever,
like you always you'll you'll always have.

Speaker 1 (25:52):
That, but like so what, Yeah, No, I'm with you.

Speaker 2 (25:56):
Man, If I create something that everybody loved, then it's
probably really bland. Probably something wrong with it, like ye,
you know, it's just that's just the way it is
with art.

Speaker 1 (26:07):
Well, I missed, I miss you, I miss you playing
on social media, and in fact, was telling a good
friend of mine today how you would go to the
Twitter accounts of products and uh and I forget what
cleaner product you went to, and hey, tell us your
stories about and I'm just gonna throw a product there comment,

(26:27):
you know, and you're like, our sex dungeon has never
been cleaner thanks to comment. And you know, it reminded
us of me and my friend because he was aware
of when Don Novello, the old Sartain Night Live performer
and writer the Laslow Letters, and he would write these crank,
fake crank letters to companies and stuff and then publish
their responses. So, yeah, I missed that.

Speaker 2 (26:49):
I had a real good run on social media. But
all good things come to an end eventually get too old,
and you're just like, why am I wasting all my time?
That is the lot of things, like my productivity doubled
once I quit Twitter, Instagram and all that jazz it
yoh okay, when you actually don't have this dopamine beating

(27:10):
machine on a holiday, like actually get your tongue.

Speaker 1 (27:14):
No, you're right about that, man, if I truly, I mean,
I'm doing it to promote word balloon and I'm still
Johnny Appleseed getting one listener at a time. So it's
kind of a necessary evil for the stuff I put
out there. But I absolutely respect and I think it
is the healthiest choice, both for average people and for
creative people to be like, hey, man, I'm singing my song.
If you don't like my song, no problem, there are

(27:36):
other singers, go right ahead and find them.

Speaker 2 (27:38):
Yeah, yeah, Like you know, social media is good for
getting an audience. Sure, and you just spend your whole
life on there, that's when it kind of falls apart,
like you just really need your guardrails. And also, you know,
I put it out to somebody's of mind. I'm just like,
there are comic creators on Twitter that I will never
work with them because of the stuff they say and

(28:00):
they do on Twitter, Like I just won't. I'm just like, oh, okay,
you're an asshole, Like I don't want to work with you.
Like there's yeah, so many and they think they think
they're on there, like increasing their chances of getting more
gigs and blah. Blah blah, And I'm like, oh, no,
you're actually telling editors that you are just an unfiltered
piece of garbage who also probably doesn't draw your pages

(28:22):
on time because you're on Twitter all the time or
write your scripts on time. Like it can backfire, is
what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (28:30):
No, I hear you, man. Are you still doing the
newsletter that you were doing that that was shown up
in comics stores.

Speaker 2 (28:38):
Yeah, yeah, it's Darcy Comic News.

Speaker 1 (28:40):
There you go.

Speaker 2 (28:40):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm I'm working on an issue seventeen
right now, but that's wrapping up too. I'm wrapping that up, okay,
just because uh uh it takes up a lot of time.

Speaker 1 (28:56):
Go ahead, excu's men to step down your answer. You said, no, no, no,
harder up with Yeah.

Speaker 2 (29:01):
Yeah, harder to come up with like kind of cover
lines and new gags and things like that. And yeah,
it's just it's a lot of work, and I like it.
But also when I look at my schedule, I'm just like,
if I'm devoting a week of my month to this,
like that's twenty five percent of my working time on

(29:26):
a thing that's like, you know, fun, but you know,
it isn't necessarily paying the big bucks and yeah, so
time time to wrap that up.

Speaker 1 (29:37):
What kind of distribution did you get in the stores,
you know? And how did you go about getting distribution
in the stores.

Speaker 2 (29:44):
I mean, initially it was Diamond like and the reason
I went with Diamond was because, like, my initial idea
for this was to promote my distillery book It waits yes,
and so they were they went exclusive with Diamonds. I'm
just like, well, I'll just I'll do with Diamond, and
I printed up fifty thousand of issue one, did a

(30:04):
Beyonce drop where it just got spread to all these stores,
confused the fuck out of them, and then and then
then then they could order after that issue two, issue three, Sure,
and by issue two to three we had Lunar on
board as a distributor. They've been great. And then obviously
Diamond went Couple's Yeah, I lost a bit of money
on that end, and then it's been just with Lunar

(30:28):
since then and they've been great. And like the orders
of Steady and going up, like you know, I brought
in a partner partner, Adam Freeman, to handle all the
distribution and advertising stuff because that one was too much
for me. Sure, and he's been great, and uh yeah,
it's been a it's been a joy, and I wish
I had the energy to keep doing it.

Speaker 1 (30:49):
Well, I understand, and again everything doesn't have to go forever,
you know, so I respect.

Speaker 2 (30:53):
Yeah, like eighteen issues of a of a free publication
and comic shops is like a feel like it's a
pretty good run everything on it.

Speaker 1 (31:03):
Yeah, I completely agree with you not to mention your
substat too.

Speaker 2 (31:07):
Yeah. And also, I mean, the one nice thing about
Starzy Comic News is it proves there's an appetite for it.
And my hope is that other creators, people whatever takes
that ball and go, okay, yeah, if there's moron chip
can do it, we can do it. And because I
genuinely think that, you know, having your advertising and something

(31:31):
fun in comic shops to get people interested in comics,
having it visibly be in comic shops is far greater
then shouting into the void on Twitter, because that's the
place where people buy comics. And yeah, I'm hoping I'm
hoping people pick up the ball after I walk away
and and kind of make their own thing because it's

(31:53):
it's doable and it's financially viable. Like, I don't lose
money on it. I make money.

Speaker 1 (31:59):
Yeah, yeah, that's great and I and I understand, you know,
I printed. I mean, I'm offering an e magazine for
a lot of my transcribed interviews. And I knew I
was doing a convention, and just as a proof of concept,
I made hard copies of my Jim Shooter interview and
sold the couple. And honestly, I'm going to the local
comic shops with the ones that are left, and so

(32:21):
far everybody has said, yeah, well, you know, we'll buy
it from you and put it in the store. And
eventually the word balloon book will happen. There may be
a Chipsidarski chapter in book one. Yeah, I know we'll talk. Well,
I know we'll talk exactly, but no, but it's it is.
It's nice to see. And I've seen more, both free papers,
but also more, you know, like when we grew up

(32:44):
and it was Wizard and Comics Journal and the like
and everything.

Speaker 2 (32:48):
Honest, there's huns. Yeah, like Marble Age. I love Marble Age. Sure,
you know, Amazing heroes.

Speaker 1 (32:54):
Loved Amazing heroes. My favorite comics interview, David Anthony Kraft
I was interview.

Speaker 2 (32:58):
Yeah, I got some of those picking around like it's sure,
there's yeah, it was a it was a joyous feeling
going into a comic shop and getting those and like
finding out what's coming up and seeing these interviews. Yeah yeah,
I think I think it's time to kind of get
back to that.

Speaker 1 (33:13):
Still time for the podcast as well for your podcasting.
Yeah yeah, though, well yeah, you and David Brothers. That's right.
Shame on me because yeah, I was thinking more like, uh,
Matt Rosenberg's thing, but no, it's you guys do in manga, right,
you and David Brothers.

Speaker 2 (33:27):
Yeah, yeah, me, David Brothers, Wi ok and Chris Butcher
and Okay, yeah, I mean we've it's been a while
aince that we've done one, just because summer everyone's just
kind of like, oh I got San Diego or I'm
Tokyo and summer vacations and stuff. Oh yeah, we haven't
recorded one in a while, but yeah, when we do,
it's always fun. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (33:46):
Yeah, I do like to that's cool. That's cool. No,
and again, hey man, one man band. That's why I'm
able to do the amount that I do. So you know,
well let's not Batman because you know, we really it's
been a while since we've talked Batman and when do
you go, Chip, you know what you're seriously, I'm so
glad that DC stuck with you and the reader stuck
with you, and that's a hell of a body of work.

(34:07):
And now that you're done with it and everything.

Speaker 2 (34:09):
I know, it's funny like they announced the omnibus and
I was like, oh, did I do enough for an omnibus?
And I looked I'm like, oh my god, did I ever?
Batman guy's really eating up a lot of my life. Yeah,
I no, it's cool like kind of seeing it all
laid out like that, I'm just like, wow, that's a lot,
Like I'm uh yeah, total joy. Like it was just

(34:31):
like it was such a machine, like especially working with Jorge,
like because he's so fast and so good and and
all the other artists that came in and helped out,
like sure, like we were always so far ahead on
that book, Like it was great, Like just like never
I never felt distress of being on Batman because like
there's so many resources put towards that book that uh,

(34:56):
that is kind of easy to do because it's like, oh, okay,
like we're ahead. People kind have to follow Batmanman in
a sense like whatever you do in that book, like
people have to kind of pick up those strands, so
we stay far ahead to ensure that, you know, people
weren't surprised by things, especially with a lot of the planning.
And so yeah, it was just a joy like right
from the beginning, like it's like a childhood dream and

(35:16):
just like do whatever you want kind of big, fun,
crazy stories and running around and yeah, I liked it.
Batman turns out.

Speaker 1 (35:25):
Yeah, who knew? It must have been satisfying to know
that fails safe. The Batman ai that he constructed not
only took off in your book, but became such an
important part of Absolute Power and the big events that
were happening that year of DC and stuff. So yeah,

(35:45):
how did that happen within the company and everything? For
what you cause? Again, I assume you were just telling
a Batman story and then all of a sudden the
big boys like, wait a minute, I think we got
stuff in there. Let's play with it even more.

Speaker 2 (35:58):
It kind of it was a very natural process, which
is nice, like because at some point I was working
on the title, and you know, from from on high
d he was like, oh, we want to work towards
an event, blah blah blah, and uh, there's a brief
period where because they were looking around because it was like,

(36:19):
you know, it was Tom King and Josh Williamson and
me doing Batmansck My Wonder Woman, and it was like,
we need an event, and like Tom's like, I'm not
writing another event, and Josh just like I writn't way
too many. I can't do another event. So they kind
of looked to me for it. So there's a brief
period where I was going to write it. But but
but all three of us kind of realize like, oh,
we're all building towards something in our books and those things.

(36:44):
Once they touch it becomes an event, like you can
kind of see it coming and so and so it
was like it was really nice in that sense, like
it kind of happened naturally. And then we got Mark
Wade on board because we were just like at one point,
I think was my editor, who's just like, who hasn't
done an event? Mark Wade, Like that's weird, right, like

(37:07):
not a proper thing. Like he's the guy who knows
the most about DC, who's been around the longest, who's
had all these hits and it's like he's never done
in an event. So so Mark, you know, graciously kind
of came on board to kind of handle the event,
which was which was awesome. Yeah yeah, like this past
this past week MC problem toys and now it's like
a fail Safe action figure and was like, oh, that's fun.

(37:29):
Like it so cool to like create a thing with
a buddy and then they start making toys out of it. Uh. Yeah,
it's a it's a it's cool. It's a cool feeling.

Speaker 1 (37:39):
Well, I imagine we're going to get a Captain America statue
and figure of his current costume. Well I should say
his past costume in your current run as well. But yeah,
it is. It is funny and so so you'll forgive me, honestly, Chip,
because I know a lot of the guys, uh and
women are very conscious of I'm gonna make something. And

(38:01):
and my favorite phrase of the last twenty five years
a toy etic idea that oh, you know, we could
we could you know, be on the comics, you know,
so yeah, tell you know, so that must have been nice.
I'm sure that wasn't in your mind when you created
fail Safe.

Speaker 2 (38:15):
No, the first time I ever heard The first time
I ever heard the word toyatic was from Dan Slot.
I'm pretty sure he's always taking to that. I think
he had in his contract that he gets every action
figure from any kind of creation he does at Marvel.
I'm like, oh, okay, you hear that guy all right,
But personally I don't collect toys. Sure, Like the only

(38:36):
thing I had that comes closer in action figure is
right up there, and it's a three D statue of
Matt Fracton showing off a belly. I got sa action
figure as I get.

Speaker 1 (38:48):
Is that from your sex criminal design of Matt and everything?
Or you know? I mean, I always assume.

Speaker 2 (38:54):
He gives me a three D just just one second,
give me one second.

Speaker 1 (38:57):
Yeah, bring it over because I can't zoom in. Excellent,
This is hilarious. I'm so glad you're doing this, Chip Wow,
And I like that it's the back of home so
little little Plumbers bought action on Mad Fraction.

Speaker 2 (39:15):
Yeah, he broke his hands off accidentally. He was holding
up like a he was holding up a blank sign,
and he mailed me all the little sayings I could
put on it, like keep it up, chum kind of stuff.
Three D, it's you know, Marvels of Technology.

Speaker 1 (39:31):
It does look like Matt. That is kind of frightening.

Speaker 2 (39:33):
Get that little bit.

Speaker 1 (39:34):
Yeah, they're very nice. Jesus. You got to send it
to Ibrahim. Send it to Ibrahim with staffa who makes
custom custom figures.

Speaker 2 (39:44):
Oh wow, they're wow nice. Yeah, that's awesome because that's
that's that's an action figure for you captured his bulge.

Speaker 1 (39:54):
That's hilarious, you know.

Speaker 2 (39:56):
Oh yeah, So I I never I never. I never
think about ways, like especially when I'm writing, and the
first time something got made was uh I think it
was like the Daredevil electric costume figure of that sure,
and and then that that King Daredevil costume. Yes, and
so you know, just seeing those out in the wild

(40:18):
and like getting to sign those, I'm like, oh, that's
really cool. I still don't have either of those. Like
I'm just not really I debated. I was like at
a convention they were there on sale, was like, am
I gonna spend twenty bucks on this thing? Nah? Like
I'm just it's just a it's such a foreign world
to me that that kind of stuff. So yeah, I don't.

(40:38):
I don't think about the toy side of things. You
want it to look cool, obviously, and a you know,
designing failsafe, like I knew it was going to look
awesome and you know that. And David Colton's cap costume
was kind of me and Larry working together. I kind
of did like a rough design, sent it to Valario
and he made it like ten times better. So yeah,
I like. I like that side of things.

Speaker 1 (41:01):
The by the way, everybody, if you haven't gone to
Marvel dot com or looked in whatever catalog exists these days, uh,
issue four is David in the cap battle suit.

Speaker 2 (41:12):
Right, yeah, yeah, and.

Speaker 1 (41:14):
That looks great now, that's that's fantastic.

Speaker 2 (41:17):
Yeah, Marvel let me do variants with the first five
issues too, so I got to I got to do
a fun, a fun variant Preston four as well of
David Colton, which is cool, too cool to get to do.

Speaker 1 (41:29):
Oh man, Yeah, I haven't seen your variants yet. You'll
forgive me, you know. I stick to the press PDFs
and the uh you know, Marvel Unlimited and everything, so
that's where yeah, yeah, you know, but I that's that's wonderful. Also,
and I'm glad you brought up the air Devel, because
again we talked a bit about your daryelevel run. But
I love that they continued with electric air. Devel and

(41:51):
Erica Schultz took over and that was really nice.

Speaker 2 (41:54):
Yeah, yeah, no, it's awesome and like you know, everyone's while,
you know, I'll talk to him Marvel. There would be rumbling, oh,
maybe she should go back to our electric costume, but
then they kind of just realized, oh no, it's actually
really cool because Marco designed just awesome to try some
caution for Yeah, and uh and it really stands the
test of time, I think. So. Yeah, I still get

(42:16):
like a little thrill every time I pick up a
comic and I'm like, I see her in that costume, Like,
oh yeah, that's from our run. That's fun. That's fun
to see if think continue long after you're gone.

Speaker 1 (42:26):
Absolutely, Chip, am I wrong? Because first of all, I'm
glad that you introduced Vandal Savage to Batman. I don't
know if that's ever really been done in any long
term way. It reminded me of during No Man's Land,
when Luther really came, you know, center stage, and was like,
oh no, that's a great Batman villain, and I would

(42:47):
say the same about Vandal. Tell me about that decision
of bringing Vandal Savage to Gotham.

Speaker 2 (42:53):
Yeah, I mean forget the actual origins of it, because
like a lot of me talking to us, the editors
and the teeny who was writing a Catwoman at the time,
we were kind of building up towards the crossover and
and the fact that you know, Vandal the Meteor, the
creative Vandals, also the stuff that created Razah Ghul, and

(43:16):
like there there is that kind of weird Batmany connection,
and there's that great Grant Morrison thing of Batman kind
of in the Caveman days as well. Yeah, so there
was all that, But but like the real driving thing,
and as stupid as it sounds, is Vandals Savage is
an aristocrat caveman. The perfect place on the planet for

(43:38):
him is Wayne manor Aristocrat cave. Like it's just I
thought about it was like, oh my god, I just
got to find some way to get Vandal Savage in
that in that house, in that cave, like the aristocratic
caveman in Wayne manner with the bat Cave just made
so much sense. And he's a fun character to too,

(44:01):
just this kind of brutish man and having you know,
Court of Owels kind of you know work their magic
to making police commissioner. Uh, it's just it's just the
kind of police commissioner we haven't seen before, right, Yeah,
this is this brutal kind of like yeah, he's a
cave man exactly, like it's been. It's been so fun

(44:21):
also seeing Matt take up those threads and run with it,
like you know, we text obviously like every day. Sure,
And at what point is it's like, oh, Vandal Savage
is such a treat And it's true like when you
when you're when you're writing them and you see Jorge
draw too, especially just like oh yeah, no, that's a
that's a fun Batman villain, you know, just to mix

(44:44):
things up, right.

Speaker 1 (44:45):
My god? Yes, and the truly you read my mind
because honestly, I talked to Matt a couple of weeks
ago about his Batman and I'm like, oh, I'm so
glad you're sticking with the Vandal and everything, and he's like, yeah, man, absolutely,
my god. And again it's a it's a great, great idea.
And also yeah, Jim Jim Gordon being a beat cop again,
you know, I mean that's that's kind of crazy.

Speaker 2 (45:06):
Yeah, I really I really liked that idea. I think
you know, because when Matt was coming on board, I
think he had some different ideas for Jim, and I
kind of ran the idea of be caught by him
because I feel like I want him to start from
the bottom again, kind of make it his way back up,
because there's something kind of really fun about that, like
having to be within the system to keep an eye

(45:27):
and vandal, but also being totally under his thumb. And yeah,
and then Matt, Matt was like, Okay, that works, and
and again he's run with it and in cool fun ways.

Speaker 1 (45:37):
So yeah, yeah, no, I love it.

Speaker 2 (45:40):
And this has been I mean, this has been of
a really fun process of just like handing the book
over to my best friend, you know, like we did
like a tic joke book for like ten years now
both of us have written Batman. It's very weird, but yeah,
it's been a light Like there's this weird thing where like,

(46:03):
you know, talking to people who have left books, uh,
they can't read them after they leave the books because
it's like, well I've heard this more than once.

Speaker 1 (46:15):
My analogy always was it's like you've been dating, you've
had a long term relationship with a girl, and it's
like I don't want to see anybody else dating them
or marry him or anything like that.

Speaker 2 (46:24):
So yeah, this is exactly what everyone would say to
me that it's just like it feels like you're watching
like an AX with somebody new. And maybe it's because
I'm a pervert, but like I kind of like watching
my AX with Matt. I kind of really like it.
I like just sitting in the corner and watch him.

(46:45):
I don't know, I got no problem with it at all.

Speaker 1 (46:49):
That's that's uh, surprisingly appropriate. So I respect that absolutely.

Speaker 2 (46:54):
I think I like it more than writing it.

Speaker 1 (46:56):
Well that's and well that's great too, but also honestly
that you've got enough of self confidence in ego that
you're like, yeah, great, it's gonna happen. It happens all
the time. Who cares.

Speaker 2 (47:07):
That's not even I think it's the opposite of that.
I think it's the fast off. I've got no ego.

Speaker 1 (47:12):
Well, that's what I mean. You forgive me, that's what
I mean.

Speaker 2 (47:14):
Yes, no, no, no, yeah, Like you're confident.

Speaker 1 (47:17):
Enough in your own self that yeah, it's like, hey,
I should be doing that. Well you did it, you
did it for a long time.

Speaker 2 (47:25):
It's not even confident enough in my own self because
like I did a fine job, but it was fine,
Like I don't know, like everything I do. I'm just
like I've did a fine job, Like, Okay, I did
well enough job to get the next gig, sure, and
that's really what matters. I am not the best compic

(47:46):
writer out there. I am far from it. I know
that that's fine. Yeah, I don't know. In a lot
of ways, I think I'm broken inside because I don't
really have jealous feelings about uh career, your moves or
books or people. I just, uh, I just kind of
do what I like to do, and these companies pay

(48:08):
me to do it, and these artists, amazing artists, draw
these books and then they send them to me. I'm
just like, this is great, What a great way to
make money. I'm just having a blast, you know. Then
and then I wrap it up. I'm like Batman, I
was like, all right, I feel like I'm done. And
that was that. And then math docause with horor Ham

(48:28):
like this is amazing. I love he gets to work
with war hate too. I'm just like, yeah, so good.

Speaker 1 (48:37):
No, I'm with you, man, no no, And just like
you were saying about Chichetto, on Daredevil with you. Uh no,
they I'm glad these these people are getting that opportunity
and really showing their best stuff when they're working with
you and Matt and everybody.

Speaker 2 (48:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (48:49):
The I also appreciate and I forgive me because it
was your comic Sology book with Jason leu Night what
was it called the Vampires.

Speaker 2 (49:02):
Done a couple of them. I was thinking, oh, the
All Nighter, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (49:06):
The All Nighter. Excuse me, all right, That's what I
was thinking of. But I kind of like in the
same way that Matt Well, first of all, I could
do the chain that you know, brew Baker brought Matt in,
and then Matt helped you know, rememder and and people
like yourself get to Marvel and kind of get their
feed wet and everything. And it seems like you did
it with Jason as well.

Speaker 2 (49:26):
I mean yeah, but I mean Jason got into Marble
all on his own, did he? Like? Okay, yeah, I
mean like obviously they they knew of him because of
him doing stuff with me, because we did a couple
of books Comixology. I helped him out with a Star
Wars gig two at w okay, trying to think what

(49:48):
the first thing he did.

Speaker 1 (49:50):
He didn't do public domain with him, did you? It
was different? That was different, right, It wasn't public domain
that you did with him or what you forgive me.
Isn't that name of your other one of your other
creator owns?

Speaker 2 (50:00):
No, No, I did all the Yeah, public domain is
just me and then just domain was Rachel Stott.

Speaker 1 (50:08):
Gotcha.

Speaker 2 (50:09):
But yeah, I'm trying to remember Jason's first thing at
Marvel and how that happened. Yeah, I don't. I don't recall,
but but it's been great seeing him kind of yeah,
rise through Marvel and tackle these cool books and like
the horror stuff and all the infinite comics. Like he's
he's a he's a huge talent who can do it all,

(50:30):
which is you know, very rare.

Speaker 1 (50:33):
Are there still? Are there characters that you've played with
already that you've left I mean again, you really it
feels like to me you left everything you wanted to
say about Batman out on the field. But you know
you had your moments with like you know, the Thing
and and the Human Torch and Spider Man and things
like that. Are there are there characters that you've had
a moment with? You're like yeah, I wouldn't I get
back to him and doing a longer run.

Speaker 2 (50:57):
Nope, No, I mean it's one of those things where
I genuinely don't think about the characters unless somebody asked
me do I want to write them? And that's when
I start to think about it. Like all my energy
is always focused on the thing I'm doing at the time,
Like I've got Marvel gigs right now that I'm just like,

(51:19):
all right, I wake up in the morning, I sit down,
I start working. At the end of the day, I
just turned it off, and I go with friends and
hang out with my wife and cook dinner or whatever.
I just don't even think about it. So yeah, Like
if an editor approaches me and says, hey, are you
interested in writing a poorbish Man series, then I go,

(51:42):
let me go and think about it. And I go
and I think about it, and if I have a story,
I say yes. If I don't, I say no. Like
I've had instances in the past where companies have approached
me with big characters and said, do you want to
do this? And I go, let me think about it.
I go, I think about it, and I don't come
up with anything that I'm really happy with and so

(52:02):
I say no, I could rather just like wait and
you know, have the idea and get excited about it
and do it. There are a few writers out there
who they have ideas from when they were kids that
they're holding on to do, or from when they first
started in comics, and they hold onto those ideas so
hard that when it comes time to actually do them,

(52:24):
they've lost all critical faculties about that idea and they
can't tell if it's a good idea or a bad
idea anymore. And then it lands with a thud and
it's just like, well, yeah, because it wasn't necessarily a
good idea. Just because you've had the idea for thirty
forty years and you know, been holding it like some
silver coin doesn't mean it's going to work when you

(52:48):
actually sit down to write it, because it might be dated.
You might have a dated idea. So it's good to
just really kind of focus on the moment in time
when you're asked to write something, to see if you
have something that suits it.

Speaker 1 (53:06):
I find anyways, when you were writing, and I remind
me it was Marvel two in one when you had
the human torch and the thing correct, Yes, I want
to make sure it was a Marvel team up, but yeah,
it was two on one because of course that was
the Thing's original book back in the seventies. That was
a weird time because obviously the people on top were like, well,

(53:27):
we don't have rights to the Fantastic Four from a
movie standpoint, so therefore no Fantastic Four. So were there
any other guardrails put up for you while you were
writing The Thing in the Human Torch like that? Was there? No,
you know, don't put Sue in, don't put Johnny in,
or don't put Read in or whatever or anything weird.

Speaker 2 (53:48):
No, I mean, ultimately, they didn't want it to become
a Fantastic Four book, so I couldn't really bring Read
and Sue back and just call it Marvel two and one. Sure,
but they also did stop me from showing them or
including them because they at some point they do kind
of pop up and flashbacks and in present And then

(54:11):
by the time we wrapped up, Fantastic Four was back
because Dan Slot was writing the main series, and so
I was able to have a couple of issues with
everyone in it kind of kind of a modern day
kind of wrapping up with the story and they wanted
me to continue Marvel two and one, and I just
said to them, I'm like, like, don't push your Fantastic

(54:33):
four luck here, Like you've got you're bringing back Fantastic Four,
have the focus beyond that, Like, don't have a second
Fantastic Four thing happening over here. Like it's just not
gonna it's not gonna help you, it's not going to
make any sense. And also I kind of told the
stories I could wrap it up and let Dan kind
of have the spotlight that he deserved to, you know,

(54:53):
properly launch that book. So yeah, yeah, that's how that
went down.

Speaker 1 (54:58):
Did you see the movie?

Speaker 2 (55:01):
Yeah? No, I went to the premier.

Speaker 1 (55:03):
How was that? What was that experience?

Speaker 2 (55:05):
Like?

Speaker 1 (55:05):
Is that your first Marvel premiere?

Speaker 2 (55:09):
Second, I went to The Daredevil Born okay a few
months before that because they had one of my characters
in it, And the Fantastic Four one was because they
brought us out for a set visit. I went with
Fraction actually to visit the set seven months ago or whatever,
and that was such a great experience. And I think

(55:31):
because we were at the set, they were like, oh,
they should probably come to the premiere. So I got
you know, get all gussied up, brought my wife, who
doesn't give a shit about any of this. It was
very funny. I'm like, look, we can both go watch
the trailer. Tell me if you want to go. And
she watched the trailer. She's like, it looks like there's
a story there I can follow. I will go. Like

(55:55):
what more can we hope for? So yeah, we went
and hung out with like cool people and wore fancy
outfits and saw the movie and yeah, it was delightful.

Speaker 1 (56:05):
For the set. For the set visit, like did you
see the house? Did you see all the retro and
I fan everything that was in there, all the turntables
and old fashion TV and everything talked to me. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (56:18):
One of the beautiful things about visiting that set was
there were no blue or green screens anywhere, Like they
built so much of that. Like the only kind of
time they had a blue screen was kind of outside
the Baxter Buildings window so they could show you know,
the city, but like two lores of the Baxter Building
and we were just like going into every nook and
cranny like they had they had like kind of teen

(56:39):
beat style magazines, kind of laying out with Johnny storm
kind of features on it. I'm just like, this is wild.
Like every little detail was just amazing, such a cool style,
the aesthetic of it all and the fact that it
was all physical just awesome. And then they take us
to the next thing and it was like, this is cool.
They rebuilt times where I'm just like, that's nuts. And

(57:02):
you go around the corner and heard me the robot
is rolling towards you. I'm like, this is wild. It was.
It was they put on such a good show for us.
I'm a very cynical man, and I was delighted. I
was cackling with delight almost every moment of that set visit.
And then you know, meeting the cast and the director,
just like this is this is cool. I get used
to this.

Speaker 1 (57:22):
Tell me about Born Again? Tell me I was born again?
And uh, forgive me, which which character again did was
of yours? Did they use.

Speaker 2 (57:32):
Detective Cole North? Yes, okay, an actor named Jeremy Earl
and uh and so uh that was super fun. You know.
I kind of found out at New York Comic Con
just because like CB Sebolski just kind of introduced me
to Jeremy and he's like, Hey, this guy's playing Cole North.

(57:53):
I'm like, what, Like, I didn't know about any of this,
and so that was awesome because Marco was also in town,
so we got to do like a photo of all
of us. Anyone knew who this guy was sure, And
then and then, you know, before it came out, I
was kind of told, you know what Cole's kind of
arc would be, which is he's a cop who goes

(58:16):
was really bad, kills a guy and gets blown up.
I'm like, that is different than what I did Arco.
But you know, but then I'm like, I don't know
about this. But then the check clear and I'm like,
I guess it's okay. Again, it's fun, like, you know,
we got to go to the we get to go

(58:36):
to the premiere and again get all dressed up and
hang out with Charlie Cox and and drink fun drinks
at the party and watch the first two episodes and yeah,
and and and also just a guy who played Cole Jeremy.
He's just like a great guy. Like I'm just hanging
out with a guy who looks like the character that
Mark Co drew. And you know, he had this awesome

(59:00):
gig on a Marble show I'm just like, hey, this
is fun. This is so fun. Like it like it
really didn't represent, you know, what we did in the comics,
but like, I don't know, this guy got a job acting,
you know, to support his family, and he's cool dude,
and we got to fly out there and hang out
with people. I'm like, I don't know, I'm just delighted

(59:20):
by all of it.

Speaker 1 (59:23):
Outstanding and I and yeah, I was. I was relieved
that the show was as good as it was because
I was a little concerned that, unlike the Netflix show,
that it might get tamped down as far as the
violence or whatever. And certainly it was not tamped down.
It was very appropriate as a Daredevil.

Speaker 2 (59:39):
Street store MPEd up.

Speaker 1 (59:40):
Really yeah, yeah, no, I loved it, and.

Speaker 2 (59:44):
Sure, I I really loved I loved it.

Speaker 1 (59:47):
I'm excited to see what they do with the season two.

Speaker 2 (59:50):
Yeah you know, yeah, same, yeah.

Speaker 1 (59:54):
Absolutely, yeah. What else can I well a creator on side?
What's happening for you?

Speaker 2 (01:00:03):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (01:00:04):
Do you have time?

Speaker 2 (01:00:05):
We have a book coming out right now. I don't
have time, but I have a book coming out from
Distillery because I signed up to do a few books
with them, and time Weights came out with I co
wrote with David Brothers and Marcus Toad drew it. Matt
Wilson colored it. It was amazing and that was super fun.
I love the format, and so we did another one

(01:00:26):
called White House Robot Romance.

Speaker 1 (01:00:28):
Yes I did see it, Yes, yes, so yeah, and
that's out right now.

Speaker 2 (01:00:33):
Ye, that's super yeah. Issue one is out, Issue Who
is coming out soon standard distillery format, forty five pages, oversize,
doing three issues. Complete story. Yeah, scorgeous and it's fun
and it's light but serious and you know, a little prescient.
It was kind of about a war between US and Canada,

(01:00:55):
which I wrote before things kind of start to sour
between our country.

Speaker 1 (01:00:59):
Yes, sorry, so yeah, whoops, well and give people the cat.

Speaker 2 (01:01:05):
It's a funnel. It's about I think. I think a
lot of it just kind of like, yeah, a lot
of it kind of stemmed from the manga podcast that
I do. I think, just to kind of have this
really kind of fun, weird, wacky premise with a bit
of a romance to it. It's about two robots that

(01:01:27):
work at the White House, one secret service, one's the
personal chef. It's in about their relationship and them kind
of falling in love on the job and then running
away with state secrets. So it's like it's like side
by romance action, some some humorous bits, uh, and yeah
commentary on AI and robotics and yeah, yeah it's Uh.

(01:01:49):
I really enjoy working in that format. It's a it's
a hard one to kind of get people into, just
because it doesn't fit in your comic boxes. But but
it's so beautiful. I love those kind of like the
square shaped books.

Speaker 1 (01:02:03):
Oh yeah, no, I agree. I think the format is great.
And again to Distillery's credit, they keep getting great talented
people to write and draw and everything. So I mean,
I've talked to Azarello about his book. I'll be talking
to Joe Henderson and everything about his book. And I
know the trade is coming out. No, I'm glad, dude,
And I'm glad that you're having fun with that and
now also making time still to do the creative the

(01:02:26):
creator itch and everything.

Speaker 2 (01:02:30):
It is hard. It'll probably be my last one for
a while. I've got one more book, but like a
mini but okay, but yeah, like I'm I'm ramping up
a lot with Marvel stuff right now, and that's going
to eat up a lot of time.

Speaker 1 (01:02:43):
So have they announced the other beyond cap. But have
they announced whatever new books you're doing for Marvel? Not yet.

Speaker 2 (01:02:52):
No, they announced like a one shot that I wrote
about Doom. But but they've got a lot coming up
from Marvel. Like I was just kind of looking at my,
you know, my schedule, like I think you know CAP
three came out, Yes, and I've written up to TU thirteen.
They've written three issues of Another Thing, one more issue

(01:03:13):
of Another Thing. Yeah, there's a lot, a lot that
has been written that's being drawn that hopefully they announced soon.

Speaker 1 (01:03:24):
Tell me about the Doom one shot? Is that tied
to One World Under or is it post? What's what
can you tell us about that one shot? If anything?

Speaker 2 (01:03:32):
It? Yeah, it's it's post. It's post One World Under Doom.
And I think it's called the Will of Doom and
it's about his will ah And you know, I can't
spoil one One World Under Doom, but the fact it's
called the Will of Doom, maybe there's some you know,
sneaky hints there, so what happens or maybe doesn't happen.

(01:03:54):
But yeah, it's being drawn by Cafu, who I worked
with before. Sure, he's fantastic and and it was a
way to kind of tie in and like kind of
a lot of stuff from Cap and Ryan's Fantastic four
run uh with Doom and some of the Red Hulk
stuff and kind of set the stage for the next
kind of big, kind of Marvel story. So yeah, it's

(01:04:17):
it's a good one.

Speaker 1 (01:04:19):
Chip. The last time we talked, I believe you did
that future Avengers story and forget me, I'm forgetting the
title right now. Yeah, give me the title again. Yeah,
venger sty dude, that was amazing. I really really enjoyed that.
And again, I well, and it's great to do a
future story, I would imagine because all bets are off.
You can, you know, set these people up as you did,

(01:04:40):
and you know, Tony's Tony son and also again Cap
Cap coming out of retirement and dealing with the new
generation and stuff. No, so yeah, you know, yeah, talk
about that story. I just I really appreciated everything did
And forgive me, did cat Food draw that or did
was there another the other one? Daniel of course, Daniel
who another great artist and everything, and I always love

(01:05:03):
his stuff, so yeah, please.

Speaker 2 (01:05:06):
Yeah, Daniel was fantastic. I mean he like kind of
he did everything on it, like all the colors as well,
so it took him a long time. It was definitely
a long, just hating project. But it started because Tom
Breeboard approached me. It was just like, hey, I've always
wanted to do like a kind of a future Avenger story.
You have any any desire and tacting something. I'm like, oh,

(01:05:28):
oh yeah, no, like this. The idea started coming immediately.
I was like, yeah, this could be cool. It's funny
you're saying, you know, kind of the all bets are
off nature of those stories. Like even as I was writing,
I said in scripts and Tom would write back and
be like, you know, you can do whatever you want, right,
like don't pull your punches. I'm like, oh yeah, okay.
Like I kept having to be reminded like almost pick

(01:05:49):
him this up after I leave the title, like I'm
just doing this all myself. So yeah, it was It's
very satisfying. I really liked doing those kind of prestige minis,
you know, because each issue was three pages, which is
nice and meaty, and it's a really solid collection and
it's its own story and it's definitely will Those books
were like, if you haven't read an Avengers book or

(01:06:11):
a Captain America book or whatever. You can pick it up,
and you can you can you can get it right
away and you get a full story. As a reader.
That's what I really like. You know, there's something wonderful
about you know, amazing Spider Man number eight ninety four
whatever in this long running continuity. But there's something really
satisfying about like a just a done in one kind

(01:06:33):
of like here you go, here's the full story.

Speaker 1 (01:06:36):
Yeah, I'm with it, absolutely did, because again it's a
different period in CAP's life in that story, but in
a lot was that in any way address rehearsal for
what you wanted to bring a cap with what you're
doing now?

Speaker 2 (01:06:53):
Yeah, I mean the Captain Mercay gig was not on
my radar when I was working on Avengers Twilight, but
it made me love the to more like I wrote
him in Invaders. Yes, so I got the right modern
day cap and then I got the right kind of
future cap and Avengers Twilight, and so I think that's
also why I kind of I wanted to pick up
kind of Cap in the past a little bit in

(01:07:15):
this new Captain America. Yeah, I've been circling around Cap
for years and actually get to write the full series.
Was it was an opportunity I couldn't pass up.

Speaker 1 (01:07:24):
Oh, Chip Aroun, I'm so glad you brought up that
Invaders arc because I really I loved that so much,
and I really there is something about the three Golden
Age original Marvel characters Human Torch, Jim Hammond, Steve Rogers,
and Naymore and they are war buddies, and it really
does seem like, you know, they just have this connection

(01:07:46):
and that even even Name or at his most obnoxious,
it's like, at the end of the day, he trusts
Jim and he trusts Steve.

Speaker 2 (01:07:55):
It seems to me, Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean Name
is one of my favorite characters to write, and I
think he's almost every writer at Marvel. He's he's he's
up there for everyone to write, like he's just got
such a distinct voice, and yeah, that kind of that
deep kind of no matter what happens, he still had

(01:08:17):
that deep trust of Steve because of their time in
the war. Yeah. I love that dynamic. I read I
wrote some dialogue between those two just the other day,
and like my editor pointed out and he was just like, oh, man,
Like I love that relationship. I'm like, yeah, me too.
Like every time I just put them in the scene together,
like oh yeah, that works well.

Speaker 1 (01:08:38):
And then your Invaders story, you know, Namer's out of
control and it's like, all right, if there's anybody in
the universe, well, there's three people. And it was great
too because I brought it up to you in the conversation.
I'm like Steve, Jim Hammond and Sue Storm and they're
the only people that might be able to get through
nayme War's madness or whatever anger he might be going
through and everything to go, Hey, wait a minute, are

(01:09:00):
you doing? So? I love that, man, and I'm psyched.
So that's new, new, new, new conversation with nymore coming
up in the cap.

Speaker 2 (01:09:10):
Yeah yeah, eventually maybe cap. I can't say, all right,
somewhere enough.

Speaker 1 (01:09:16):
That's great man. Well I'm excited for the announcements that
may be coming.

Speaker 2 (01:09:20):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:09:21):
You and I were talking off the air. You're not
going to be You're not going to be in New York,
but that's okay. Any American are you gonna do any
American shows coming up? Or were you in San Diego?

Speaker 2 (01:09:32):
I mean I wasn't. I was in La for the
Fantastic War premiere in San Diego was like the week after.
But oh I didn't plan it out well enough and
I was on vacation, so I was like, I'm just
going to go back to my vacation. Yeah, I don't
have anything lined up. I did a signing a Third
Eye in Annapolis, uh in the spring, but uh no,

(01:09:55):
I got like a European tour kind of at the
end of October, Like I'm doing MC from London and
then I'm going to a shop in Berlin to do
a signing and then I'm going to uh Luca, Italy
to do that show. So I think that's gonna be
my fall plan for shows. But yeah, yeah, I'll have

(01:10:16):
to figure out American shows for next year.

Speaker 1 (01:10:20):
You know, my friend Mitch Hallick has terrific on in
Connecticut and he literally is one of the biggest Captain
America fans out there. Forgive me, Chip, did you do
the show before? I can't remember I had.

Speaker 2 (01:10:32):
I have not. I always I've been invited before, and
I always have something else going on. They invited me
this year and I couldn't do it, and they seem
very genuinely excited, and every creator I know that has
done it loves the show, so I definitely should I
should do it next.

Speaker 1 (01:10:53):
Well, it's it's kind of become my one of my
home shows, even though I'm here in Chicago, and yeah,
I've I'm pleased with the creator as I'm convinced to
go and everything and yeah, so uh and and again
with you in the midst of cap and everything. It
might be if if the schedule I was obviously you know, so.

Speaker 2 (01:11:10):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, again, there's always schedule stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:11:12):
Yeah, sure, no, I respect that, Chipper as always, buddy,
I'll I'll wrap up here because I know it's a
little later your time and everything. And I'm sorry that
we couldn't involve the audience, but Streamyard has been very
very uh CLICKI well, we we can certainly talk enough
to fill an hour, as we always do. But seriously, man,

(01:11:34):
it has always it's truly been the ten plus years
that we've known each other, it's been such a pleasure
to get to know you at this level. I wish
I wish we were neighbors. You might you might get
sick of me if we live closer, so maybe familiarity breathe,
God bless your son. You're that's the right answer, that's no, truly,
then we we've had we've had some good times that

(01:11:55):
shows and and certainly talking and everything. And it always
means a lot that you come back and talk to me,
because really I'm just druggled with everything that's happening with
you and continued success. And now once those Marvel announcements
are made and work closer to some of these other
books and stuff, we'll have another discussion if you'll allow.

Speaker 2 (01:12:13):
Yeah, of course, yeah, thanks man. Always a pleasure