From Gamma to Gotham: PKJ on Hulk, Superman, and The Quiet Man

Acclaimed writer Phillip Kennedy Johnson sits down for a deep-dive conversation covering three major fronts of his powerhouse comics career. We dig into his Hulk run—why he leaned into supernatural horror, what drives his take on Bruce Banner, and how he builds a monster mythology that feels genuinely dangerous.

Then we jump to Superman: House of El, breaking down the world-building, legacy themes, and how he approaches expanding the Superman mythos for a new generation while staying true to its core DNA.

Finally, Johnson teases his newest addition to Gotham: The Quiet Man, a chilling new villain debuting in Batman and Robin. We explore the character’s origin, his psychological angle, and how he’ll challenge Damian and Bruce in ways they haven’t faced before.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, everybody, welcome back Time Forward Balloon to come up
with conversation show. John Centris here, Phil Kennedy Johnson coming
on the show today and representing a really good cause.
This weekend he's going to be at Maine West High
School here in suburban Chicago to teach the kids about writing.
And of course, I man, he is using all of

(00:20):
his talents. He's a renaissance man, as we all know,
because he's going to give a writing course for English students.
And then also we'll be talking to music students about
playing in the band, because of course he was in
the Army's marching band as a trumpeter. And then Saturday
he's going to be at Warrior con at the school

(00:41):
where the proceeds are going to go to after school programs.
And then Sunday he's going to be at Allia Comics.
My dear friends aren't Franco Store in Skochie, Illinois for
a signing. So I'm reallysited to see him. And oh, yeah,
you know, I don't know if you know. He's writing
some amazing books. He's writing Batman and Robin, fantastic book,
The Quiet Man. Very interesting new villain. He's got interesting

(01:04):
villains right now going there, and a wonderful story about
Superman in the future called the House of El And also,
of course the Hulk, I should say incredible, which is
just ending and now irredeemable Hulk, I believe is what
starts next week, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Phillip's got all
the details. We talked to him about them on tonight's

(01:25):
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(02:30):
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welcome back time for word Balloon the Comic Book Conversation Show.

(02:51):
John Sutris Sill, Philip Kennedy Johnson joining me because he's
got some great stuff happening in three of his books,
and also he's coming to UH to Chicago, Chicago Land.
I suppose suburban Chicago doing some really cool stuff with
one of the local high schools. And I'm all about
the after school programs. Phillips, So I'm really glad you're

(03:12):
coming in and helping them out.

Speaker 2 (03:13):
Oh man, me too good to see a professor always.

Speaker 1 (03:18):
Warrior Con is going to be a convention this coming
Saturday at Maine West High School in displays, and but
before that, even on Friday, given your musical background and stuff,
you're gonna hang out with the music students on Friday, right.

Speaker 2 (03:33):
Yeah, man, I got a really cool invitation from a
guy named Bernie Gerstmeyer, who is the band director there
and he also works at a comic shop. And I'm
not sure if he works there, if he's a volunteer,
he's somehow involved, and he's like the he's the POC
for the Warrior Con. And he reached out to me

(03:54):
about doing the show, but also about working with his kids,
because that's if for those who don't know, I'm a
musician as well, I just retired from one of the
military bands in the Capitol, and he asked if I
would come work with his brass students Friday afternoon before
the show. So it's this whole weekend, so it's the
show is just one day, but I'm going to go

(04:16):
there on Friday. They're picking me up. I'm going to
go and actually work with their English students. I'm gonna
go give a thing on writing and on comics during
the school day. Yeah, that's that's really really good.

Speaker 1 (04:28):
Forward to that.

Speaker 2 (04:29):
Apparently there's some aspiring writers and just some comic fans
that want to that want to talk. So I'm going
to go and work with the kids during the school day.
After that, I'll work with the musicians there, and then
the next day I'll do the show and then the
signing on Sunday. So it's this whole It's gonna be
a really awesome weekends. All my all, my creative world's
kind of collide and over the course of three days.

Speaker 1 (04:49):
Anytime you come to town, you know, I'm psyched to
see you. And yes, I love that.

Speaker 2 (04:53):
Town and it's always a pleasure to see you.

Speaker 3 (04:55):
Man.

Speaker 2 (04:55):
I'm looking forward to getting to hang out in person for.

Speaker 1 (04:57):
A change, absolutely, and uh and for people who can't
make it to Warrior Kind, I certainly hope you do,
because again it's only five dollars at the door, and
the proceeds for Warrior Kin go to support Maine West
After School of programs, which is a wonderful cause. But
also on Sunday, Philip is going to be in Skokie,
Illinois at ayat Comics Art in Franco's store, Yeahntown Skukye

(05:20):
and doing a signing there as well. So yeah, great
opportunities for for if you're in the area and stuff
either Warrior Kind on Saturday or the Skuchey Store on Sunday.

Speaker 2 (05:29):
Man, So I love those guys. It's always a pleasure
to see, uh, to see Art and Franco. Yeah, Man,
when they found out I was the new Superman guy,
they were so supportive and really kind. What was that?
And so in San Diego there's like a little there's
kind of a there's a hang that happens every night
with the DC talent. I just want to takeular place,

(05:50):
and Art and Franco were there at one point, and
I heard Art telling the story of him and I'm
meeting O a secondhand like he was. It's the whole place.
It's kind of like split. There's like a little railing
and there's like a lower and an upper part and
over her Art telling the story about how he and
I met for the first time, and it was just
really kind. He's just a really really nice dude, and

(06:10):
I'm glad he remembers that meeting fondly because I do too.
He's a a great guy.

Speaker 1 (06:15):
Again, I think both of you really got a great
handle on Superman and Franco two for that matter, when
he when he co writes with Larady and when he
started solo as well. So no, it's it's great and
we may as well given that we're talking about Arden,
Franco and Superman. Uh do I have a Oh I
didn't bring up a cover, Shame on me. I want
to talk about how Savelle because man, that's a great

(06:37):
mini series. Philip, thanks man. Yeah, for people who haven't
caught up three issues so far, fourth issues coming out?
Is it coming out this December?

Speaker 2 (06:47):
Right?

Speaker 1 (06:47):
Because last week was yes?

Speaker 2 (06:49):
Yeah, yeah, yes, one per month. It's like it's going
to run through August. Yeah, it's it's really fun, man.
It's it's so fun to get to see a like
a future DC universe and just play with the same toys,
but and almost like an like a like it's a
wonderful life kind of set up. We get to see
what what might happen.

Speaker 1 (07:07):
You know. Yeah, Auctionary still be in future.

Speaker 2 (07:10):
Yeah, Yeah, it's really fun. Issue four is really exciting,
like you can't wait for everyone to see what's coming.
Like we I'm actually spinning out a lot of the
threads from Green Lantern War Journal for issues issues four
and five. We're gonna see what happens to John and
Ellie Stewart and with the with the ramifications are for
that that way down the line, how it ties in

(07:30):
with the Other God aspects of Oldren and with the
Superman's house and everything.

Speaker 1 (07:35):
So and you know this is great, phel because truly
you've got three really distinct villains happening in house, Savelle
and Uh and Batman and Robin and of course Halt,
which is about to have a big seismic shift as well.
We'll talk about the issue thirty and what's coming up
in just next week, next Wednesday for the.

Speaker 2 (07:55):
Next that's right, Dave, for Thanksgiving, that's coming out excellent.

Speaker 1 (07:59):
But for a how Savelle, So, what's the name of
the And I know it's a character that you've you've
introduced before, but what's his name? The guy that sent Superman.

Speaker 2 (08:08):
To the future, the Big bad Krill looks say it again,
Kril ooks.

Speaker 1 (08:13):
Krill ooks. Okay, So kl sends sends the Superman to
the future. It seems like everybody's dead. It's a very
different dystopian world. Uh yeah, go ahead, Yeah, I've.

Speaker 2 (08:26):
Been telling everyone. It's it's action comics Meet Samurai Jack. Basically,
I thinks, yeah, he goes into the future and it's
this dysopian world where the bad guy won, and that's it's.

Speaker 1 (08:35):
Their world now.

Speaker 2 (08:36):
And he's been trying to bring together all the aspects
of Algren's that he himself can be reborn as Olgren
and have, you know, have control of all creation, bring
his family back. And so he's he's meant to be
kind of a like a dark mirror kind of version
of Superman in which he he lost his whole world,
similar to how to how Superman did, but instead of

(09:01):
you know, honoring them with his quest for truth and justice,
he'll just do anything to bring him back, even if
the rest of the rest of creation has to pay
the price, you know. And we see the fortress. He
has his own fortress. He has what he has a
Fortress of Desolation that we see that is clearly modeled
after the Fortress of Solitude, his own version of it,

(09:21):
you know. And and I can't wait for people to
see more. I don't know, it's just a really fun
character man, and I but he's also a tragic character.
And I like the idea of Superman trying to to
beat him and to win while also trying to save him,
you know, because that's just a such a Superman move.

Speaker 1 (09:39):
And well also the great thing is we're seeing what
has happened to Metropolis, what has happened to Smallville. Man,
I always love seeing like things like the Fortress or
I remember when Johnson melts that we're doing action and
it was the you know, Batman was experiencing the legion

(09:59):
superhero us and stuff, and they either they mention it
or they go to the bat Cave and you know,
it's a thousand years later. It's like, yeah, we all
know where it is. It's no big deal. That's not
which cracked me up, but also my god, and also
Kyle points it out thankfully, we're not sure exactly how
because it is it how many hundreds of years of
the future is it.

Speaker 2 (10:20):
It's roughly a thousand years.

Speaker 1 (10:21):
All right, So it's a thousand years and Jimmy Olsen
seems to have survived, yeah, sort of. And in fact,
as Kyle points out, an issue too was an issue too.
I thought it was issue three, but Turtle Jimmy, you know.

Speaker 2 (10:34):
I don't remember. I think I think he turtles out
in issue three. I think, Yeah, it was fun. I
I mean, Jimmy has been through so much, you know,
I can to get to to get to bring out
the signal watch and show him like Turtle boying out
because we're kind of asking the question like how did
he live so long? How is he still around? And uh,
turtles live a long time.

Speaker 1 (10:55):
Well that's that's what I have assumed, Bot because honestly, yeah,
it's like, of course Jimmy can still be Turtle Boy
and everything, although now Turtle ancient Turtle Man.

Speaker 2 (11:03):
But yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, so why not. That's fantastic.
That's pretty fun. And that was that was one of
the best pages Scott ever drew. It's just it turned
out so good. When he blows up and he's like,
I'm still Superman's pal and becomes this giant turtle, it's
just so fun.

Speaker 1 (11:22):
It was fantastic, Man. Yeah, it was great. And you know,
so and tell us about Superman's descended as well.

Speaker 2 (11:30):
Sure, Kent, Yeah, so Ronan is one of so we'll
see that twins kind of tend to reappear in Superman's line.
So we'll we'll see if we get to see more
and more of the Book of l in the back
matter and everything. At some point we'll we'll talk about that,
how not Lavery generation, but now and again twins will

(11:52):
pop up again. And Ronan and Rowan Kent are kind
of the standard Bears. And if you for those who've
been reading the back matter, they'll see that at some point,
while their cousin I wrote this shit, I think I
should know this better, either their cousin or their uncle,
Brandon Kent was the Superman of Earth while Ronan and

(12:15):
Rowan were kind of growing up and Brandon was raising them.
And while he was Superman. While Brandon was Superman, Ronan
and Rowan were going by night Wing and Flamebird. And
then at a certain point Brandon dies and then they
kind of the twins kind of split up. Like around
that same time, Rowan got real invested into light Born,

(12:39):
which are That's the thing we'll see the next day show.
I don't spoil too much, but it ties in with
Ellie Stewart from a Green Lantern War journal. So she
leaves Earth on his quest of her own, and Ronan
stays behind to kind of become the Superman of Earth,
but his heart's not in it entirely, and he kind
of does' he's a little more aimless. He didn't really
learn everything he needed to know before Brandon died, and

(13:00):
he's he's doing his best, but he's also being real
careful not to get noticed because you know, brain acts
get everything on lockdown, and it's just you know, he's
doing his best, but he's he's kind of like, what's
an example, like like a Luke Skywalker type if he
never met Obi Wan. You know, like he's kind of
he's trying to be a good guy. In his heart,
he's a hero. He's trying to be a good guy,

(13:20):
but he doesn't he doesn't have the guidance.

Speaker 1 (13:23):
That's good. So that's why it's great that Superman shows up.
Obviously it can help him out, but not only all right,
so not only Brainiac is there, but also I love
the Luther construct.

Speaker 2 (13:35):
Yeah right, well that is Brainiac.

Speaker 1 (13:36):
Yeah, So okay, because it was so Brainiac was speaking
through the Luther that seems in the back matter.

Speaker 2 (13:44):
Yeah, and the back matter talks about so there's always
a Luther in charge in Metropolis or in the and
what becomes Tropolis kind, which is kind of like the
kinds are kind of like prefectures, kind of as like
a little region. And so let's see, I can't remember

(14:05):
how it went down exactly, but Luthor ends up becoming
like a like a like a leader in that area.
And then the next person comes in and takes the
name Luthor, and over time it just sort of becomes
like a like an appointed seat. So it is like
the House of lutheror but not not exactly because it
doesn't necessarily have to be him. But so Brainiac. We

(14:27):
at some point we discovered that brain Ac for the
last several generations that Luthors have actually been brainiac just
pretending to be human. He's just like a like a
puppet government, and he's just kind of running things. And
the whole planet at this point is like his. The
whole planet is his bottle world. You know, he's just
gonna be using it for his own, his own evil
deeds and his own you know, genetic experiments.

Speaker 1 (14:49):
It's it's hilarious, man. And then no, this is twelve issues.
Then you're gonna do You're gonna do a full twelve. Yep,
that's fantastic. Well d Holler is saying that he loves
the book. Oh thanks again. Now this might be something
that we learn as the story progresses. But Chatham says,
speaking of blowing up, how terrifying looking and intimidating does

(15:12):
Krill look now as the Promethean king? How is absorbing
so many of the outrun aspects changed him?

Speaker 2 (15:22):
So actually some of the gods. Okay, So he's talking
about the aspects of Algrens. So the idea is that
Algren was one of the first world gods and kind
of like Chronos in the Greek myths, he is pulled
apart by like when he loses his mind. He's pulled
apart into seven aspects and he so right now he

(15:43):
says at the end of Vision three that four of
them runner his control, but they he has not actually
internalized them into his own body the way that also
he did take that We still take that one into himself,
which is why he's all stone now. And he looks
kind of like dark side sort of, but he is
not internalize all of them like he is. They're under
his control, but he hasn't taken him into himself. Yet

(16:04):
now we will see some you know, we'll see some
changes throughout the series. We'll see how he continues to change.
But for now he is more or less the way
that we saw him at the end of issue one.
But but of course your time's time has passed, so
he looks a little different. But all of his his
big transformations yet to come. Okay, man, I can't I

(16:26):
can't wait for everyone to see it's uh, Scott's doing
amazing work. And uh yeah, I mean Algrin's to the
heart of this whole thing. I really wanted everyone to
see the mythology that we're building. And I'm actually writing
a lot of that back matter now that gets into
the the nitty gritty of that lore and you know
what's to come.

Speaker 1 (16:43):
Well, the other thing, as far as back matter, that
I've really enjoyed or Lois's notes and thanks you know, yeah, man, no, no,
And and really it's funny because then also in the
Hank you got great back matter going on as well.
Think you absolutely well again, you're giving it, you know,
more than just the story, man, that's the thing. You're
really fleshing things out. And I and I always appreciate
a good text piece that just informs, uh, the the

(17:07):
comic story that we're getting as well. But yeah, and
I love that, uh, you know, Jimmy and Jimmy and
lois doing what they can when Superman disappears to uh
to kind of uh and whenever this new change in
the world happens, that they're kind of running the underground
and that their underground newspapers called the Signal Watch, which
is fantastic.

Speaker 2 (17:27):
Yeah. Thanks, And also I think authentically so the signal
Watch becomes the symbol of the thing. But I think
what they call it, they call it what they call
they call it the secondhand.

Speaker 1 (17:38):
I think, oh, that's right, the second hand. Excuse me,
of course, because time still to the word.

Speaker 2 (17:42):
Yeah, there's like there's a couple of different meanings that
we'll get into in the back matter, like this is
going to cap off the whole second omymbus. I'll get
into the double meanings of the secondhand and all that,
but basically it's a it's about the signal Watch.

Speaker 1 (17:53):
And Chatam also says, yeah, regarding uh, can we just
have a trade of just your notes for the whole thing,
starting from War War World absolutely to the all the
way through the book. Of well, I could lead, I
could read that forever. I agree. But also another aspect
of the story that we haven't really seen the reveal
yet but the twins are are missing is well when
when Superman goes missing, the twins go missing, right and

(18:15):
obviously that's something that he's holding, uh, you know, to
let the Superman o, yeah, I got your kids, and.

Speaker 2 (18:22):
Yeah, we'll definitely get into that too. I don't want
to spoil any of that because that's they have a
really important like since since introducing the kids in Action Comics,
they had they had a very important role to play
in all of this, So I don't want to.

Speaker 1 (18:35):
I don't want to spoil where that's going. It's honestly,
it's really a pleasure to read. And also it'll be
fun to see what Alan John are doing. And that's
a great thing too, because you really are teasing Ian
Lois's notes what's coming, and it's like, oh, you know,
I Jimmy and I are I hadn't towards Oa and
Alan John are trying to attack the problem this way,

(18:55):
you know, and and things like that. No, it's yeah,
it's cool, man, it's it's you know, what kind of
reminds me of It reminds me of what Peter David
set up with the Maestro in Future Imperfect in the
Hulk story and everything, and then you know, instead of
old old man Rick Jones, we had old man Jimmy
Wilson obviously trying trying to keep the flame alive and everything.

Speaker 2 (19:16):
Yeah, totally, there's a there's a version of Lewis's notes
that I got shut down. There were all these misspellings
and things crossed out all the way through it. I
wish we'd kept that. That's how Yeah. In fact, and
the final version that I submitted, that like, it got
put in and design and it came back to me
and I I tweaked some things, but the crosshouts were
all still in there. And then at some point somebody

(19:37):
took him out. So I was like, oh man, that
would have been they needed that. I mean, I understand
it looks, you know, to somebody who doesn't know the
Lewis lor. I guess it might have looked like it
was all mistakes like that we were making. Yeah, but
I don't know. To me, it felt worth it, Like
it felt it would have been like a little easter,
like a nod to her character, you know, well, and.

Speaker 1 (19:57):
What they set up with Donner's set up in the
first movie. And you know that great line from Perry,
there's no z a Brazier. Yeah right, that's what I
always think of when Lois has misspelled something and everything.

Speaker 2 (20:08):
Yeah, man, there was. There was a really good Bendis
did a really great gag with the misspellings. I can't
remember how it went, exactly like she was asking Clark
how to spell certain things and he would tell him,
and then she said something else that clearly was not
meant to be a correction, and he corrected her again
just because he was in that zone. I came remember
how he did it. But like, Bendus is just great
with that kind of humor he did. He really nailed

(20:29):
that part of Low's that's great.

Speaker 1 (20:31):
And also I mean, just you know in another story
that this reminds me. And again I'm not saying that
fil knows. I'm not saying this to say that he's
swiping or anything like that, but it kind of reminds
me of Superman Lost, where priests you know, through Superman
at the other end of the galaxy and stuff, and
it was going to take him decades to come back
on his own power, and that he really is, you know,

(20:52):
he's he's going to the Fortress to get a time
machine to send him back. By the way. That's another
great thing. And I forgive me your your artist again
on this story, which Scott good Lusky, Scott Scott did
a great job. I love the fact that Superman's time
Machine essentially is the George Powell time Machine. Uh yeah,

(21:13):
you know. Well again, I'm not looking for copyrighted Fridgmen,
I'm not. I'm not trying to.

Speaker 2 (21:16):
Get that was Those were nods to to Grant's book,
to the Superman the Authority Book, because that that was
in there too.

Speaker 1 (21:24):
I can remember that, Oh, that's fantastic.

Speaker 2 (21:27):
That was in there, and the the supermobile and the
uh the like the night the uh the round table
and what else was in there. There's there's a bunch
of stuff that he included in Superman's Fortress that I
wanted to show, just tie it all in together again,
because like Grant and I, you know, tight our books together,
so I wanted that stuff to be in there too.

Speaker 1 (21:47):
That's great, man, No, it's it's a great read, all right.
So again we've got issue for coming up next month,
and uh and really three issues are out and yeah,
you really need to catch up any And that's that's
the great thing about the other books of Batman and
Superman and stuff. It gives you, guys, this chance to
explore different facets of the character beyond what's happening in

(22:08):
the regular Superman title and the Action title.

Speaker 2 (22:10):
Yeah, that's been one of the real that's been one
of the real joys of the of the Batman and
Robin book two is to get to to get to
dive deeper into their relationship, you know, like really just
take a take a few pages now and again and
just explore what it's like to to have a dad
like that, like where your dad is actually Batman, or
if to try to raise a kid like Damien has

(22:32):
already seen so much and I don't know, they're both
so fascinating and such high achievers but also so busted
and to get to explore all that in the book
is so fun. And with Superman, it's not the legacy,
like the whole thing practically, I mean, almost almost everything
I've done on Superman has been this h this homage
to Superman four hundred and that that idea of Superman

(22:53):
in the future, what his legacy for all of us
is absolutely Yeah.

Speaker 1 (22:58):
No, let's say that.

Speaker 2 (22:58):
I I met Ellie asked Megan at a con talk
to me. He we were I was on a panel.
I can't remember where this was, man, it was the
San Diego maybe I think it might've been San Diego
and it's great. This great moderator was there and she
was talking about who was who was going to be there.
There's great people, and she just kind of was talking

(23:22):
through the country. She was talking through the thing with
me before we started, and she just kind of blew
by the name Elliott. He's like, blah blah, and Elliot's
gonna talk about this. And I was like, wait, wait,
wait Elliott. Elliott who And she's like, Elliott is Megan.
I was like, what he's here, Like, I've never met him,
didn't I didn't know he was around. And then we
did this stuff. It's like that's him right there, and

(23:43):
that's this old guy sitting on the front row that
I'd never seen before. I was like, can I talk
to him? I was like, I guess I was just
I was probably acting kind of weird. I was like,
I I went and you know, basically washed his feet.
I was like, man, I am such a fan of yours,
and like I kind of made a big fuss over
him on the on the panel because you know, I mean,

(24:05):
you know, Mark Wade was you know, doing that kind
of stuff back in the day, and he was kind
of out before he got back in again, and now
Mark is back in it kicking ass, and that totally
could have been Elliott too. Like, Elliott did such important
work on Superman back in the day, and I just
don't think he gets his due.

Speaker 1 (24:25):
I wouldn't agree more men.

Speaker 2 (24:27):
So I anyway, I tried to I just kind of
you know, bang the table for him while he was
there and get everyone to make a fuss with him,
because I just I just think he's amazing and it
was a real honor to get to tell him what
his work meant to me personally, and that basically everything
I did on the character was like a thank you
to him. It was kind of embarrassed I hadn't reached
out to him before then, but I'm really glad we
got to meet.

Speaker 1 (24:48):
He and Carrie Bates were my first two Superman writers
back in the seventies, and it's been It's been such
a pleasure having him on the few times that I
have and talked about you, I mean those novels, you know,
I mean right, just had him on before. I wish
it's so funny. Philip and I were having issues with
microphones before we came on, and I had a great

(25:08):
interview with him about his latest. He wrote, he wrote
a Lex Luther book last year, Citizen Lex, and it's great.
Now my microphone sucks, but he sounds fantastic and but no,
it really it ties right into his last Son of
Krypton and Miracle Monday stuff and everything and you know,
and and not to mention, you know he did. I'm
glad you mentioned way because you know he did the

(25:30):
novel of Kingdom Come. You know, wad obviously graphic novel.
But Elliott did the novel and everything. No, it's yeah,
so important and everything he said him and carry Bates
Man they were, and Marty too, Pasco for that matter.
I'm sorry you never got any Marty.

Speaker 2 (25:44):
Yeah, me too. I need to get the two. I
need to get Mark and Elliott then mister Magan, I
need to get those two together at a table and
just listen to them talk about this stuff because I
had God, I'll just die to be a fly on
the wall.

Speaker 1 (25:57):
I hear you. Well, not only all right? So and
and again I really love this. You're you're really exploring
family in both this and Batman and Robin. And uh,
here a good, good opportunity to transition to Batman and Robin.
Caesar says, I just want to say your last issue
of Babman and Robin was your best yet. Uh thanks, man, well,
a great story. And and we're really dealing with fathers

(26:20):
and sons and and Batman and Robin. And last time
you were on, we we talked about the Quiet Man
and here's issue what is he? Issue twenty six? And
I know you're a comince then, but uh, what a
what a cool character man, because he just he's he's
just this guy who has this massive chip on his

(26:40):
shoulder and we got it we already have to reveal.
I mean, also, this is kind of like mini Hush,
not that not that Tommy's in there, but in terms
of the event where the penguin is in there, you
got two faces in there, and of course the Quiet Man.
Now and of course, so who the Quiet Man is
really after? Yeah, because because he killed his son the Trilloquest, now.

Speaker 2 (27:01):
Right, Yeah, that's That's one of the things that I
love so much about about Hush is the primary thing
is that how many like you just they just managed
to take everything about Batman and boil it in there
and the same you could say the same to a
certain degree of long Halloween. I love how it just yeah,

(27:22):
it's like this murder mystery that goes through the whole
roster almost and and you do the same thing on
an even bigger scale, and Hush with Jim Lee's art,
which at the time was just like a mind blowing concept.
But yeah, I just I don't know, I love that.
I that's I wanted to explore just the the aesthetic

(27:43):
of Gotham through the villains and the way that they
control different parts of Gotham. Everyone that's working on a
Gotham book has a map that we all kind of
established before I guess Matt Fraction was about to come
onto the book. We all kind of had these documents
that were all sharing and like a slack channel we
all jump into and talk about like whenever someone has
a question, and we all kind of battled off of
each other. There was this one time Uh. The artist

(28:05):
for a particular issue drew a certain burrow of Gotham
differently than I imagined, Like there were some trees in it
in a way that I didn't think they belonged, And
rather than get an art patch, I was like, I
wonder if we can get the there's a part of
Gotham looks like this, And I kind of dropped the
page in there and into the slack and ask someone else, Hey,
everyone take a look at this, like is this is
there a part of Gotham this could plausibly be and

(28:28):
we kind of discuss it and figure out how to
how to make jazz out of it, you know. Anyway, Sorry,
getting getting kind off track, but it's uh yeah, getting
to getting to share all the same toys just makes
them all feel like the same stories being told, or
at least that at least that they're all flying in
the same direction, you know, like there's a like we're
all kind of sharing each other's tools as we as

(28:50):
we go.

Speaker 1 (28:50):
Yeah continuity, sure, yeah, no, it makes sense. But yeah
the quiet Man again so deceptively ordinary, which is how
we can slip in and out. But uh can talk
about this phil because truly Batman's rogues are known for
they're flamboyance, and they're they're distinct crazy physical features as well.

(29:10):
And again I'll bring up the second cover of of
the arc, and there he is. Man.

Speaker 2 (29:17):
He's just a guy. Yeah, yeah, just against I my
my direction, my art direction for the for the Quiet Man,
for Cyrus Mercer, was that he should look like Liam Neeson,
like kind of like kind of that age like maybe
not maybe not the present day age, but like the
I had photo reff from a relative couple of relatively
recent movies where he's dressed in a similar sort of way.

(29:40):
And then also I would send some ref of him
back from his next of Ken days. Patrick Swayze remember that, Yep,
like this, this family of rednecks goes into the city
to get revenge. Yeahs is one of them, like right
on top of a train. I don't know, he's just
I wanted that kind of esthetic. So you're right, A
lot of the like the Gotham City villains are known,

(30:00):
or I mean, honestly comic villains generally are known for
their theatrical look. Yeah, and his thing is his particular
church that he belongs to in the mountains. He's got
there's this mountain. I don't know how much time you
spent in like mountain towns, like like really like towns
that are like built into the hills themselves where it's

(30:21):
kind of hard to get in and out, like some
of these old kind of dine out mount like a
dine out mining towns. Sometimes you will see places where
there's just not any kind of there's no chain companies
of any kind, like's if there's a shoe stores, it's
just called like you know, walker shoes or whatever, Like
it's just like some some dude's store, and it can

(30:44):
be really hard to get in there. And because of that,
there's sometimes you'll find places where the culture has been
is just not touched by anything else, so have very
very distinct accents, very distinct ways of talking or doing things.
And I just imagine this guy is in from one
of those kind of communities and who's very shaped by
his faith. Now he's on this mission of revenge, and

(31:06):
so like his signature thing is laying these antique silver
dollars in the eyes of the dead, and the silver
dollars are weirdly valuable. So when Batman finds him, he's
like this fucking thing's worth twenty five thousand dollars. But
it's because like there's these there are these dollars that
kind of circulate in this little town and nowhere else,

(31:26):
and they don't know how valuable they are. So it
becomes a clue as Batman's trying to hunt down who
this dude is. So he's distinct in the in the
gospel that he speaks when he's as he's killing people,
and in his practice of putting dollars in the eyes
of the dead, that kind of thing. But his concept
of what the quiet Man is is basically asking the question,

(31:50):
what if crime Alley happened to just some normal guy,
like somebody who's not who didn't have the all the
resources of a Bruce Wayne, who didn't have Alfred, who
didn't have the Wayne library, or the fortune, or or
just the will and the intellect to do the things
that Batman did. What if he was just a guy
with a truck and a gun and you know what then,

(32:14):
So that's kind of what we're seeing. Like I wanted
to see the Batman legend explored through somebody else's eyes
and for Damien to see it, for Damian to see
the similarities and the differences and to just kind of
question again and question the whole mission that he and
his dad are on.

Speaker 1 (32:32):
And also the choir man. Again, it's just he just
tears through these people. He beats the hell out of
the penguin and all of his guys and every every
and what you know, Damien tries to get out of
him and just swats him away like a little bug,
and also is insulted and he's like, yeah, way to
put your kid in jeopardy, batman. What kind of father
are you? And certainly, you know, the dead son is

(32:55):
certainly in his mind, and you know, he has his
conversations with him, and that's it. I mean, really, you've
got this great thing. And it started with the first
issue where Bruce is like, hey, Damien, you know, let's
do normal father and some things. Let's go to a movie.
Let's let and you know, he's like, what, we're not
gonna patrol. No, we're just gonna be dad and son.

(33:15):
It's important that the rest of your life is as important.
He's like, you're a good ram And it was really great, man,
it was really touching that Bruce is just really like
trying to be you know, the best daddy Ken and
he's a fraction And I talked about this too, where
you know, he's he's a horrible father, but he's trying
and that's the great thing. Man, I mean, Batman should
be perfect at everything, and then this son of adventure

(33:38):
shows up and screws everything up.

Speaker 2 (33:40):
But he's gotten a deal, right, Yeah, exactly. It's it's
a really fun story. I'm very proud of the character
and proud of where it's going. I will say the
the two are like there's a we see the introduction
of the Quiet Man and then the introduction of Scar
like ventriloquist as you said, yes, And originally when I
put these stories together, each of those was going to

(34:01):
be its own arc, Like the Quiet Man was going
to be it was going to be its own thing,
and and the Ventrilcical thing was going to be its
own arc as well. But because of like shared universe
kind of stuff, there was a need for it to
all be like one thing. Okay, So it's been it's
been a challenge to make sure that we're getting the
stories done that we need to in the in the

(34:21):
amount of time that allotted before the next big shift,
you know. But yeah, I'm very proud of that character,
and another another lens through which to see the Batman
Robin relationship, you know, and it's yeah, as you say,
it's he talks about his son and the Quiet Man does.
And you know, anyone who's ever talked, ever heard me
talk about literally anything, knows that I'm very close with

(34:43):
my own kid. And I don't want to say he's
all I care about he's but he's up there and
I think about him a lot. And uh, in the
in the context of a Batman and Robin story, it
just makes sense to see somebody like the Quiet Man
like somebody for him everything went wrong and what you
would do.

Speaker 1 (35:03):
Ken Dogs says he's glad to see the Ventrilos get
some play between what you're doing and also dark patterns.

Speaker 2 (35:10):
Man Dan Waters and I have such similar aesthetics, Like
I love Dan, and I had no idea that he
was going to use Ventriloquist, Like when I came on,
you know who I haven't seen a long time has
vent Triloquist, And I really wanted to use that character
and give him some play. And then I find out
what Dan's doing, I'm like, well, ship, it's too late now.
I guess we're both going to do it.

Speaker 1 (35:31):
Sometimes I think I hear I got I got an
upcoming cover. I think, uh yeah, there we go, and
you're right there, there's there's cool right absolutely? I love
this and yeah, man, so no, that's going to be interesting.
I I this is Is this your first bite of
the apple playing with the Ventriloquist?

Speaker 2 (35:50):
Yeah, yeah it is. I am. I pitched a Ventriloquist
slash Scarface story for like a short story anthology a
long time ago, and elements of it are coming into
play in this story, but it's really nothing like the

(36:11):
thing I had originally pitched. It was going to be
a love story, and it was. It was gonna be
really fun but also super twisted. I think I kind
of impressed the editor. They're like, wow, this is actually crazy.
I can't believe I'm reading this, but I was very
proud of it. It would have been fun to do well anyway.

(36:31):
He just I think it's so beautiful. How crazy is
he's He's as crazy as a Batman villain should be,
and I love that he's he's another victim like Vendrugwust
himself is a victim of Scarface, and he doesn't necessarily
know what Scarface is up to all the time, and
he's probably his his you know, no one's been more
victimized than him by by Scarface, and he just doesn't

(36:54):
he has so little control over that whole thing.

Speaker 1 (36:57):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (36:57):
I just think he's fascinating.

Speaker 1 (36:59):
I agree, and I and I think there's a darker
element to this story that I haven't seen in a while,
because I've always seen more of that innocent victim in
in in the Ventriloquist more so, and like you said,
but but at least at the beginning. And I love
that cover with him, you know, carving the Batman dolls

(37:20):
and stuff, and even when we first see him hunched
over carving a new doll, and it's like, what are
you working on it? I don't know, but I don't
know it has revealed itself to me yet. And I
just kind of like the idea that he's that he's
making the dummies. It's funny. I mean, I should know
that Edgar Bergan certainly did that with Charlie McCarthy and
his his ventriloquist tell me some and stuff. He built
them himself. So yeah, I kind of like that.

Speaker 2 (37:40):
I like that, Yeah, thanks. I'm very proud of it.
I think you'll like what's coming. There's a couple of
really fun beats coming up. I mean when I say fun,
I mean like I disturbing. But he was. He was
one of my favorite parts of the animated series. I
thought it was great. I remember as a kid, as
a kid watching it. I loved how kind of kept
it as an open question whether Scarface was real and

(38:04):
like whether he was actually a living thing. Like it's
did such a beautiful job and making you like, you know,
it must be a doll. But there are these moments
where it seems to make that seem more plausible for
a second, and it just keeps you on the edge
of belief in a way that I just thought was beautiful.

Speaker 1 (38:22):
You ever see that horror movie Magic with Anthony Hopkins
and Margaret where he's the actually, oh my god, the
trailer itself used to scare the ship out of me.

Speaker 2 (38:32):
I'm embarrass I'm gonna have to watch that.

Speaker 1 (38:34):
Oh yeah, right now. Early early early eighties. Yeah, early,
either very late seventies or early eighties. But yeah, it's
very you know, it's young Anthony Hopkins, it's before before
each took took over for him, but yeah, it's kind
of question. Yeah, and Chrystal's Twilight the Twilight Zones with
the Ventriloquistum. He's actually a twist. Did Fantasy Island as

(38:56):
a net Funicello as a ventquist whose dollars making over
and it's it's you know that, thank Fantasy Island got
wonderfully goofy at times, and this is and it was
trying to be serious and very psychological and stuff, and
it was like, Okay, you know, sure, I'm in, but yeah,
you know, magic check it out.

Speaker 2 (39:15):
I will for sure, you know. I just so my
son found oh, I'm thinking of this right now, but
he found this great show on Netflix called Pantheon, okay,
and it's it's about the nature of AI and where

(39:37):
it might go in the future and possibility of like
uploading human intelligence into like digital form and all that
and ways in similar ways to how it was explored
in The Alien Show and The Alien Earth kind of.
But it also kind of got me thinking about Andrews
has never seen the matrix, and that was kind of

(39:59):
and the you know, the matrix and terminator and all
those ideas that eventually led to stuff like Pantheon where
now it's it's like more less visually exciting than something
like Terminator Matrix, but just a more plausible, a more
plausible scary kind of story about you know, humans versus machines,
you know, so it's got has kind of gotten us

(40:20):
going down the rabbit hole of other of other kind
of human versus text sort of stories. And I know
it's just really fun to watch stuff with him that
he's never experienced and also find new stuff for myself
that way too.

Speaker 1 (40:30):
That's cool. You know, I was telling you off there,
Gabe and I, Gabe Harmin and I are going to
do a scene missing tomorrow night. We're discussing what movies
next month we're going to do. And here's another one
for everybody to look up if if you don't know
it Colossus the Four Bid Project, and it's from nineteen
seventy and it's in that period of Omega Man and
the Plane of the Eight movies where Eric Brayden creates

(40:54):
a supercomputer. And this is again nineteen seventy or seventy
one when it came out, So it's back in the
days when the computers were you know, two rooms wide,
and you know the real machine you know on the
as far as memory tape and everything, and it creates
it to help the military secure the country and stuff,
and it takes over the world. Yeah, spoiler and the Colossus,

(41:20):
the Forbidden Project. I'll send you a link.

Speaker 2 (41:23):
Okay, Well I got running it down here.

Speaker 1 (41:25):
Okay, there you go.

Speaker 2 (41:26):
You know, that's that's why, that's why I thought of it, John,
I thought of that. I thought of the matrix stuff because, yeah,
because of the way that my son helped me. You
find something new. You whenever I talk to you, you're
always I'm always new stuff, not well new new old
stuff that I am to you.

Speaker 1 (41:40):
It's all right, yeah, yeah, yeah, man, no, you know,
and that's the thing. Does that mean you know a
lot of people immediately go to Skynet and Terminator too,
and it's like no, no, no, like literally like fifteen
years before. And it was based on they made three
novels of Colossus, and that's what the movie is kind
of based on. And yeah, it's it's it's great, and

(42:00):
I think it's weird. And certainly, again the tech doesn't
hold up as far as you know, the way they're
presenting computer technology, but the idea is very strong and yeah.
So yeah, Colossus, the Forebit project, you look for it.
There you go. Absolutely how many how many issues for
the Quiet Man?

Speaker 2 (42:20):
Six? Okay, we're gonna We're gonna go through February for
that one.

Speaker 1 (42:24):
Yeah, okay, very good, and like you said, through August
for for the House of Yes, yep, excellent, excellent. Well
let's let's move on to the Hulk and man that
you know. First of all, it was great to see
and again I all right, now again I got I
meant to write this down. Uh, you've got you've got

(42:45):
your two big bads, and then give me their names again.

Speaker 2 (42:50):
Eldest, who is the firstborn of the Mother of Horrors.

Speaker 1 (42:54):
Yes, so, now, so it is Eldest that assumes the
abomination in issues of Incredible Hulk.

Speaker 2 (43:02):
Yeah, so, Eldest is a Eldest is not quite as
godlike as she presents, I say, herself, because when we
met her, it's, uh, it's a it's in a female body.
But the Eldest predates the concept of of binary gender.
It's just like a it's a thing that takes other bodies,

(43:23):
you know. And so when we first meet Eldest, she
presents herself as being the firstborn of the Mother of Horrores.
But what we actually learned is that she's the the
oldest one that's still around and also she just she's
a body snatcher basically, and we find that, you know,
thousands of years ago, she for a very brief time,

(43:45):
she took the body of a of a primordial Hulk
to unlock the gate to free the Mother of Horrors
and bring an age of monsters back to the world,
and the green Door opened and burned her out of it,
and you know now, so now she's after a Haulk's
body again again as a key to free her mother
and bring the Agent monsters about. And she's when her

(44:11):
efforts to get Hulk failed in issue nineteen, I believe,
she starts finding other Gamma creatures, just trying to trying
to soup him up enough to be able to do
the same thing. But nothing works. Hulk is the heir
to the the one below all and nothing else will
do but we but she does siphon the Gamma out
of all these other characters and you know, pump it

(44:34):
all into abominations. So we have to see this really
badass abomination fight, which.

Speaker 1 (44:38):
Is fun, fantastic fight with them absolutely.

Speaker 2 (44:41):
Man, Yeah, Nick does such amazing work. Man.

Speaker 1 (44:43):
Next, yeah, decline everybody, absolutely, yeah, No, this is it's
a feast for your eyes. And really it is this
great issue thirty. What's this great knockdown drag out? Well,
we see what happened already, and you know we we
next week now is it? What is the new.

Speaker 2 (44:58):
Title called Infernal Hulk number one?

Speaker 1 (45:02):
There it is.

Speaker 2 (45:03):
Yeah, Infernal Hulk is the beginning of Act two. So yeah,
it's everything that we've done up till now. The first
thirty issues of Incredible Hulk has been act one. And
that's when we establish all the characters who put all
the pieces on the board. We have all these cameos,
some different well established monsters of the Marvel u and yeah,

(45:24):
all the pieces are on the board now and issue
thirty is where it was all going. And now we
get the next the next act, and from this point
on we start to involve the rest of the Marvel
universe a lot more. It's like, up till now, Hulk
has been Banner's monster. Yes, now, now the Infernal Hulk

(45:45):
is basically the Monster of Earth, like what has Incredible
Hulk is to Banner? As Infernal Hulk is to the planet,
you know. So we see he's got after the events
of issue thirty, his powerset has changed. He's got this
crazy corruptive power in his like one side of his
body is like scar tissue and he can he can
like corrupt things with it, and it's got to be wild.

(46:07):
This next issue is the best I think that Nick
has ever drawn, probably of any book, but certainly of
this book. And that's a bold statement. I mean, the
stuff he's done already is already mind blowing. We sell
all these transformations and how incredible they've been. But I'm
telling you, man, this next issue, there is so much
ink on the page. It's just I gave him a

(46:28):
fight scene between him and this gigantic military unit, and
the stuff he does, I can't wait for you to see.

Speaker 1 (46:36):
So now Bruce is even more well. Actually, no, she
separated Bruce and the Hall and she has taken over
as she was trying to do with the other gam
of things. She finally has taken over the Hall and
we'll find out guess where where Banner is.

Speaker 2 (46:53):
So now there's a there's a new Hulk. There's a
new Hulk personality.

Speaker 1 (46:56):
Now, yes, yeah, yes, Alter.

Speaker 2 (47:00):
But this one originated outside of Hulk's body, so it's
it's another altar of Hulk, just like Devil Hulk, Savage Hulk,
the Green Scar, the World Breaker, all these other ones.
Joe fix It, all those things kind of split from
Hulk's mind already. Infernal Hulk is a new one, but
it was one that was created by the introduction of

(47:23):
Eldest into the into Hulk's flesh and then consuming the
Mother of Horrors while in that body, And now it
kind of makes this new thing go ahead.

Speaker 1 (47:35):
I was gonna say, Ken, Doug, and I don't think
this is happening, but you you correct me if I'm wrong.
He's like, I still know. I'm not sure where the
Imperial storyline that Hickman and everyone is doing takes place
in your run.

Speaker 2 (47:47):
No, sometimes I got a question about that. The reason
they don't is because so much like my whole art,
my whole story up till now has been a series
of really short arcs, and often weeks or more will
pass between between issues, Like a story will resolve in
Indiana and then the next time we see them, they're
in Tennessee and we don't know how they got there,

(48:11):
how long it took week to get them there. There's
all all these big windows of time passing in between issues,
and it's really no trouble to assume that the entire
like all the events of Imperial, take place between issues
of Incredible Hulk. So we didn't really overthink it, like
Jonathan I I was in uh, well, actually I was.

(48:31):
I was virtual in the Marvel summit when Jonathan was
there pitching Imperial, and he asked me if there will
be room for, you know, for what he had planned
in Imperial, And I was like, honestly, there's so much
time passing between issues, it's not it's not unusual to
it would not be crazy to imagine this whole thing
happening in between arcs of my book. I don't think
we need to acknowledg. I don't think they need to

(48:52):
acknowledge each other. Really no, and they kind of don't.
And it's been fine because I mean, here's the thing.
It only matters when the book hits shelves in like
a floppy, and then like three months later, no one
ever cares again, and it just exists in trade, and
no one's going to be going through like today, I'm
going to read all the July twenty twenty four books.
It's all just, yeah, I'm reading Imperial, I'm reading Incredible Hulk,

(49:13):
I'm reading Daredevil or whatever. So I didn't feel the
need to kind of muddy the waters between stories, and
Jonathan didn't either.

Speaker 1 (49:21):
I completely agree. And it reminds me of when Brubaker
was still doing his own thing at Daredevil, and really
Daredevil was a part of Civil War, and I remember
Cassada getting the question, It's like, Ed's doing his thing,
this is this is, you know, Civil Wars marks thing
Ed's doing Daredevil. It's fine, And like you said, no,
it's not. It is not going to matter Post news

(49:42):
Stand and that's fine. There's nothing wrong with that. And
it's and again no, no, no disrespect Cam Douc. But
it's just when when people ask that question, it's like,
you know, because well, how could the justice sleep you
doing this when they're out in space.

Speaker 2 (49:55):
It's a different No. I realized I don't at all
blame kem Dog for asking that question or other people too,
because I mean I get questions like that constantly, sure,
and they wanted all to make sense and feel real
and until we get that, and that's great. But it's
people only care like that long. Really, it would not
be if we bothered to answer the question and like
put out a calendar from like the nineteen thirties until now,

(50:17):
but when everything happened, Yeah, we could do that, but
there's just no need, you know.

Speaker 1 (50:24):
No, I agree, man, And that's and that's fine. I
didn't even realize because I'm behind on Imperial I just
had Stephanie Phillipson and she was telling me about Plannet
Shield and she's like, yeah, Bruce is the one that
sends her to her to scar and everything. And I'm like, oh, okay,
I'm like, you know and again and I will and hey,
I'll even confess. I'm like, all right, I don't have
that jibes with phillips story, but I don't care.

Speaker 2 (50:46):
That's cool whatever, you know, I know who's a So
when when Grant and I were kind of sorting out
how Superman the authority and action we're going to tie
together and how how to set up war World saga,
Grant had this idea we were trying to make sense
of how so I mean, it seemed from the beginning
it seemed very clear that grant story was like an
else world's kind of thing. Superman was older, his powers

(51:07):
were coming were yeah, dengrading a little hit, a different
different costume. Light Ray was not the right way light
Ray we'd seen, same for Omac. It seemed like a
different world kind of But this a certain point, I
learned that Grant wanted this whole thing to count and
be part of modern constanuity. And I was like, all right,
let's figure it out. And Grant said that he envisioned

(51:29):
a reveal coming in which we see that the Superman
that we've been following up to that point was like
a Superman had been split into two Superman, but rather
than red and blue like the ones that we've seen,
he was split ideologically. So there's like a libertarian Superman
and like a socialist Superman or something. And it was

(51:56):
such a cool, creative, Grant kind of idea, but I
did not see a way forward in which it would
tie into what I was doing. It would I mean,
we could have, I could have found a way to
make it make sense with war World saga, but it
also would have it would have distracted from the theme
of like human trafficking and slavery, and you know, Superman

(52:19):
being being a creation of the Kents and his blah blah.
I had all these things that I wanted to kind
of address, and that would have been it would have,
as I said before, kind of muddy the waters. And
Grant very kindly left that out. And there were there
were things I left out of my stuff because I
didn't want to. I didn't want to muddy up his story.
It's it's better to let each story kind of be

(52:39):
its own thing. You know who's the continuity nerd above
all all the others is Jeremy Adams.

Speaker 1 (52:44):
Oh that is just that surprise me.

Speaker 2 (52:46):
Go ahead, Yeah, Jeremy has become like one of my
best friends in comics I do. Is so fun to
talk to and so positive, and he gets he gets
the memo. He understands how grateful we're supposed to be
to do this job. And he's telling stories about heroes
as one should the whole boy is he a continuity
nerd And it's hilarious to talk to him about it.
He is like, yeah, but when does this happen? And
what month is blah blah blah. Whenever he gets it

(53:07):
down into the weeds about it, it's it's hilarious because
I just don't care to the degree that he does.
But it's fun to it's fun to remind myself that
people that there are definitely a ton of people that
really wanted it all to work on the timeline.

Speaker 1 (53:19):
I'm so happy for him. He's he's another guy like
like yourself as well, that it's really getting great opportunities
and telling really great stories with those opportunities and everything.

Speaker 2 (53:27):
Jeremy's great. He's that he's definitely the right man for
this job, and he's doing a great job. And it's
nice to have him an animation too. But I like,
I like uh. I always love picking up a comic
that he wrote.

Speaker 1 (53:36):
You know, my buddy Chuck that's always with me when
I travel. You know, he was at terrific On with
me and stuff. Yeah yeah, And and forgive me, Philip,
you were at was it this year at trific co
on or last year?

Speaker 2 (53:47):
My last terrific On was last year?

Speaker 1 (53:48):
I was doing Okay twenty four Yeah, yeah, yeah, all right,
Jeremy was there this year, and you know, and we
were all talking in the lobby at Mohegan Sun and everything,
and Chuck's just hanging out and I don't know how
it happened, but he mentioned that he did the world
Wortal Kombat animated movies, and Chuck who is like, you know,
my silent Bob. Basically he's a great guy, but he
doesn't have much to say. He's a very sweet guy.

(54:10):
Though he immediately got he say it's like, wait a minute,
I have all those Mortal Combat animated movies. You you
you did those, And all of a sudden they have
their own conversation for like ten minutes, and it was, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (54:22):
He's legitius fucking animation. He's done a lot of real
stuff he's done, like the Lego stuff and some of
the VC things, and also he made his bones and
animation more so than comics.

Speaker 1 (54:31):
Well and even Supernatural, and of course, you know he
co wrote that great episode of Supernatural where they're in
the Scooby Doo episode and everything right terrific.

Speaker 2 (54:39):
But no, it was it was It's funny, like I was.
I had more credits than him in comics when he
started doing comics, and he has animation experience in which
I am interested in, and sometimes we kind of compare
notes on how various things work, and it's just it's
always really fun. I met Mark Guggenheim through him, and
now Mark and I are friends, so whenever we get
to compare different media in that, it's always, Yeah, it's

(55:02):
really fun talking to those guys.

Speaker 1 (55:03):
Absolutely, absolutely, But yeah it was so funny because truly, like,
so I really like that Jeremy guy. I'm like, well,
you certainly. I'm like, clearly he loves you too, And yeah,
like Jeremy, you certainly made an impression on Chuck and
I go. You know, Chuck, Chuck loves hanging out and
going to the convention stuff and he loves meeting all
you guys. But he was really excited about Jeremy. I'm like,
all right, I guess I gotta watch the Mortal Combat

(55:23):
animated movies. You know what I'm talking about with Jeremy
when it came to that stuff. So now, okay, now,
I guess Magic came in up be reading how Savelle
because he asks if we ever wanted to tackle a
brainiac story.

Speaker 2 (55:37):
Oh yeah, I mean there's some brain nec stuff in there.
I mean I would have loved to have done like
a truly brainy, eccentric arc of action comics. I mean,
the thing that we're doing now on Book of l
is more of a it's almost like the Twelve Labors
of Superman thing that the Grant tackled an all star

(55:58):
where it's kind of going through like just the big
important parts of Superman's mythology and seeing where they all lead.
So Brainiac is getting some some love in here, and
actually there's gonna be more. I should probably shut up.
You gotta see some Brainiac in this story.

Speaker 1 (56:13):
I figured, Yeah, I mean yeah, like even though he's
an agent of however, he.

Speaker 3 (56:18):
Says nan uh okay, looks yeah, you know, yeah, he's
I mean, he's he's the main bad and issues two
and three, but he's not his role is not quite done.

Speaker 1 (56:28):
So you see some of that in Book of.

Speaker 2 (56:30):
El so check that out. Yeah, I mean I was
as far as my time on Action, josh had those
plans for the Brainiac queen stuff, so there wasn't really
I would have been stepping on Joshua so as if
I'd used him then. But again, like I'm not not
dead yet, we'll.

Speaker 1 (56:44):
See at a boy. No, I'm I'm really excited with
everything he had coming up. Phillip these stories.

Speaker 2 (56:50):
Too, and so for those who are listening next week,
I'm gonna come back on John's show, and there's a
I got a big announcement to talk about with John
and I John was, John, You're my first ask I
want to make I want to make sure I talk
to you about this.

Speaker 1 (57:04):
It means a lot of Philip, truly, your friendship has
mental line ever since we really started done clicking and everything.
And yeah, he's gotta get going, He's got to go.
But I really wanted Philip to come on tonight, even
briefly to mention Warrior Con, which is happening at Maine
West in Display's, Illinois. That's happening this coming Saturday, So
if you're near the Chicago area, it's worth it. It's
only five dollars. A lot of other comic people are

(57:27):
going to be there, including Art Baltazar and my buddy
Scoot McMahon, so we'll all be our buddy Dave Schid'll
be there as well. But I'm pretty certain Sealy's gonna
be there. I'm pretty certain Oran's going to be there.
But so Phillip's gonna be at Warrior kind of Maine
West on Saturday, and then on Sunday he'll be at
Art and Franco Store. Oh yeah, comics in Skokie, Illinois.

(57:49):
So it's a big Chicago weekend for Philip and then yeah,
we'll be back next week before Thanksgiving.

Speaker 2 (57:54):
And back in the day when I was in college,
I always assumed I would end up in Chicago. Something
about Chicago just drew me in. I just love that town.
It didn't work out that way, but I still I
still love that town.

Speaker 1 (58:03):
Man.

Speaker 2 (58:03):
Well, it'll be fun to get back there.

Speaker 1 (58:05):
I'm glad you hang out as much as you do
when you come to town. And then absolutely, man, looking
forward to seeing you this weekend. And yeah, we'll talk
next week. So everyone who we didn't get to as
far as questions and stuff, don'torry. We'll come back next
week and Philp's got a big announcement that he will
share with all of us, and we'll look forward to that.
So thanks for playing tonight, and we'll have a nice
pre Thanksgiving conversation with ol Kennedy Johnson next week. Good

(58:28):
to talk to you, dude, You to your brother, everybody,
thanks a lot for watching tomorrow night. The Strange Love
of Martha Ivers is a fantastic nor movie that I'll
be discussing with Gabe Hartman on scene missing, and then
on Thursday, Lancing and Kelly are back because they're killing
it on Star Trek. Hey, John's going to talk about
Star Trek. There's something new, the last startshup from IDW,

(58:51):
great story. Kirk is back. They resurrect Kirk. Why we'll
discuss more with Lancing and Kelly. That'll be Thursday. So
a nice week here on Word Balloon Live. Join us
then next time, stay safe, stay happy, stay out. M

(59:18):
hmm