Jnside Jason Aaron’s Creative Warpath: Superman, Thundarr, Namor & More

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, everybody, welcome back time again for Word Balloon The
Comic Book Conversation Show. John stuntras here Jason Aaron back
on Word Balloon Man. Absolute Superman is such a delight.
All the Absolute Hero books are just great. You really
don't know what to expect next, and it's really been
a pleasure watching all of these books. Kelly Thompson killing
it on wonder Woman, Scott Snyder on Batman, Dennis Camp

(00:23):
on Marsha Manhunter, Gosh, everybody's just really doing it. Lamir
on Flash and I'm forgetting right now who does Green Lantern?
But you all are screaming it to at me right
now through the podcast. But Jason with Absolute Superman unbelievable stuff,
plus wrapped up his Turtle Run this summer for the
Turtle people that was wonderful and great stuff as well

(00:45):
Bug Wars. He kind of is convincing me maybe I
should check out Bug Wars. We talk about that. His
Name War mini series for Marvel that wrapped up this
summer was really wonderful as well. And am I forgetting anything?
If I am, you'll hear it in the interview. Jason
Aaron on today's Word Balloon word Balloon is brought to
you by Alex Rossart dot com, the home for stunning,

(01:05):
realistic artwork of the legendary painter Alex Ross. Check out
limited edition prints, sketchbooks, and exclusive pieces featuring the world's
greatest heroes. Whether you're a lifelong fan or a new collector,
there's no better place to see the artistry that's defined
modern comics. Visit Alex Rossart dot com and bring the

(01:26):
heroes home and don't forget. If you're in the Chicago area,
you can see Alex Ross's exhibit Heroes and Villains at
the dun Museum in Suburban Chicago in Libertyville, Illinois, through
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(02:11):
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everybody time again for word Balloon, The Comic Book Conversation Show.

(02:32):
John Sutris here, Hey, Jason Aaron.

Speaker 2 (02:34):
Great to see you, man, Hey John, how's going.

Speaker 1 (02:37):
It's going good, good enough for rock and roll. As
I told you earlier, I'm excited to talk to you.
Jason's a lot to talk about, and certainly I'm sure
people are going to line up and have a lot
of questions. You're, as always, very busy with creator own
stuff and stuff for the big too. But I wanted
to because Dynamite's like, hey, Jason's going to be doing

(02:57):
Thunder the Barbarian for us coming up in January. So man,
you're hitting all the bucket list stuff, aren't you. Is
this like, is this like something you've always wanted to do?
If given the chance.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
Yeah, yes, yeah, I would say.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:11):
I mean I think I told I think I told
Nick Berucci that at some point. I mean I've known
Nick for years and he talked to me about different things,
different projects over the years, and I think when he
started doing all those Hannah Barberia books, you know they've
done Johnny Quest and Space Ghost, and I told him,

(03:33):
you know, hey, if you ever get Thunder, give me
a call. And I'll be damned if he didn't do
it and call me like a month later. So, yeah,
we've been been working on it. It's been in the
works for a bit now, and yeah, we're we're getting
getting towards FOC. So this is the beginning of my
Thunder media push.

Speaker 1 (03:54):
I'm excited for you, man, and I and uh, you know,
certainly that was that was probably like one of the
last given on our age difference, like last cartoons that
I'm like, oh, that's cool. And I'm sure even back
in the day someone like let Loose that you know,
Jack Kirby designed all this stuff and it's like, oh,
that's fantastic.

Speaker 2 (04:10):
Man, did you did you watch it?

Speaker 1 (04:12):
Yeah? I did. That's what I'm saying, Man, I think
I think it was because I was too old for
transformers and micro notts and you know, uh uh wats
my call cat g I Joe. Yeah, but but no,
you know, like I said, kind of the I think
it was like twelve or thirteen when I think was
the first time, like late seventies, right, it's.

Speaker 2 (04:32):
Like early eighties.

Speaker 1 (04:34):
It's like it was okay.

Speaker 2 (04:36):
Yeah too these two seats.

Speaker 1 (04:38):
It was thirteen or maybe I was thirteen or fourteen,
something like that. But yeah, oh that's funny, all right,
tune right right off the bank was Jason can't say
I'm familiar with thunders. So when you get to talking
to Superman, Okay, we'll get to Superman. Don't worry about
We'll get get there. We'll get there, I promise. Eric
is all excited. Policky, how you doing? Pilicky? Okla? We ride?

(05:01):
Indeed we used to say arial ride. I don't which
is the proper order.

Speaker 2 (05:10):
I think that's a good question. I mean, in my
my head it's ariel Ukla. Maybe maybe he says it
both ways. I'd have to go back and look watching
all those and making notes. I don't know if I
wrote that part down there.

Speaker 1 (05:26):
In case you did. Conan back in the day, didn't you.

Speaker 2 (05:30):
Yeah, con Conan was like another bucket list thing where I,
you know, I wanted to do. I actually first talked
to dark Horse about doing a Conan story way back
when for Marvel ever got the rights. I've still dark
Horses on the list of companies I've never done anything
for so but yeah, once Marvel got that. When when

(05:52):
Marvel had that license, I was all over it. So yeah,
I did did a few.

Speaker 1 (05:57):
Con Yeah, who drew the Cones for you?

Speaker 2 (06:00):
That would be my mood, as are who's who draws
bug Wars? So that was when I came up with
the idea of let's do our own fantasy book. So
it was me my mood and Matt Wilson.

Speaker 1 (06:12):
And people questions regarding bug Wars. We can certainly talk
about it, and I know you're com you got you
got the one. That's another thing coming up in January few, right,
is a one one shot for bug Wars.

Speaker 2 (06:23):
That's right, you have more bug Wars coming in January.
Bug Wars, the Spider Witch Special, lots of lots of spiders,
lots of creepy witches.

Speaker 1 (06:37):
I well, back to the one image that sticks in
my brain it's been forever since I've watched a thund
Dark cartoon. There was the guy it was, if I
remember correctly, it was a very Fourth World sort of
idea where it was a villain that had like two
different faces or whatever. Yeah, oh, Jemini, all right, that

(06:58):
makes sense.

Speaker 2 (07:00):
I think he is called maybe he is called Janice,
but he's in two episodes. He's the only wizard who
pops up twice. And I think when he comes back
the second time, at first he's under a different name,
and then he's revealed to be Jim and I and yeah,
he's got like a he's got kind of a normal face,
and then his head twists around and he's got an
angry face. Yes, yeah, he's great. Yeah, there's so many guys.

(07:22):
There's so many characters like him that feel like they
stepped right out of Kirby's Thor or the Fourth or
one of the Fourth World books. Like you you see
him in those cartoons, you right away know that's a
Kirby design. I mean, for people who don't know the
Thunder of the Barbary, I think anybody who's around the

(07:43):
you know, the right age at that time in the eighties,
you remember this cartoon. Finally, I think for me, it
was it took all my favorite things. You know, my
favorite movie was Road Warrior. I love the Planet of
the Apes films. This is a post apocalyptic story, but
it's mixed with sword and sorcery stuff. So that that's
everything that I was into in the in the eighties.

(08:05):
That and comics and and Thunder has an incredible pedigree
of comic book creators. It was. It was mostly created
by Steve Gerber, you know, one of the best comic
book writers of the seventies and eighties. The guy gave us,
you know, probably most famous for Howard the Duck, but
I love is his like his Son of Satan stuff

(08:27):
was some of my favorites. Two and then yeah, Alex
Tooth did the original designs of the characters, and then
he kind of stepped away, and then like, who do
we get to replace Alex Tooth? Well, what about Jack Kirby.
That's a pretty good guy to bring in. Kirby. Kirby
did tons of work on the show, and so it's
a very I mean, I loved it because it was again,
it was it was all that it was my favorite

(08:50):
like Peanut Butter and chocolate all mixed together. And it
was a very action driven show, you know, like which
we didn't have a lot of those on on Saturday
morning back in those days. So yeah, but so if
you if you, if you know the show, this, this
this new comic that we're doing, is kind of loaded

(09:12):
with references to the show. It's it's it's not me
trying to do like you know, here's my dark, modern
take on Thunder. If anything, I've felt more precious writing
this than I have with Thor or Wolverine or Superman
or anybody else. I mean, we're still pushing things beyond

(09:32):
just the confines of the show a little bit in
terms of violence, and definitely trying to dig more into,
like you know, some give these characters some emotional weight
and kind of exploring the mythology beyond what the show
gave us. So if you're a fan of the show,
there's lots of i mean, within the opening scene in

(09:53):
my script for that issue one, there's I'm referencing like
seven different episodes, you know, and then we get all
these different the man Apes and the care Ocs and
the the Groundlings, her big rat guys who ride motorcycles
and so there's tons of references in there for fans
of the show. But I think even if you've never

(10:13):
if you weren't there, if you weren't that right age,
if you never watched this show before in your life,
you'll be able to pick up this book and and
and get the gist of it. Like I still everything
I do. I feel like you always have to show
your work, you know, don't just assume everybody comes to
the table invested in these characters. So so yeah, I

(10:34):
think it's it's it's a book for people who love
the show, people who've never heard, never heard of Ariel
and Okla, the mock and Thunder of the Barbarian.

Speaker 1 (10:45):
We have that great band. Uh that's a big nerd
nerd band, one of one art balcons. He loves those
guys and they love Yeah. Absolutely, man, that's the story.

Speaker 2 (10:58):
I don't remember who it was who who came up
with that name, but it was do you know the
origin of the name Ukla. They were they were driving
past U c l A, like in California and it's like,
what about Ukla perfect came from?

Speaker 1 (11:16):
That's like naming the turtles after you know, the the
lions and stuff in front of the Art Institute in
Chicago and everything, all the all the all the all
the great you know, Leonardo and and all and everything. Yeah,
as as I understood it, I gotta, you know, rechect
that with Kevin Eastman and that that's what I had
always heard that that that's how he named all the

(11:36):
four Turtles. But who who did this cover? God, damn,
that's perfect.

Speaker 2 (11:41):
That that would be Michael cho Well there.

Speaker 1 (11:44):
You go, Michael. Great job and and interiors done by
for your for your series.

Speaker 2 (11:51):
Yeah, Kyber, Yeah, I forget how to pronounce his last name?

Speaker 1 (11:56):
Is it b A L B A A m all? Yes,
all right, because again I get short, I got short eyeballs.

Speaker 2 (12:04):
So yeah, you know, yeah, he's doing awesome work. The
book looks really good. The the you know, the so
much of the peel of this of of Thunder of
the show is like the the setting. You know, it's
set two thousand years after this great cataclysm, so it's
a it's a you know, Plan of the Apes kind

(12:25):
of style landscape, but filled filled with mutants and wizards
and so yeah, tons, he's packing tons and tons of
detail into the to the backgrounds and the pages and
the I think doing a great job nailing the likenesses
of the characters from the show and and and channeling
those Kirby design You don't want to throw those Kirby
designs out right, like we're trying to hang on to those,

(12:49):
but again like bringing some bringing a bit more emotion
and darkness to to the characters too.

Speaker 1 (12:56):
Do you know if I mean, I don't know how
much research beyond watching the tune and stuff like, you know,
because again this really is familiar territory for Kirby in
terms of Commandy and you know, all of all of
his post apocalyptic things that he was doing and everything,
and of course fourth world ideas as well. But yeah,
do you know if he really like, was this maybe
pitched originally as a Commandy or as you said, I

(13:18):
guess it was total before me.

Speaker 2 (13:20):
Yeah, Kirk, Yeah, it was a round before Kirby got involved.
That's that was my So it was mostly Gerber was
was the main dude.

Speaker 1 (13:29):
And you know, it's well we'll be talking about your
Superman but as And pointed out, Gerber's Phantom Zone mini
series was possessed. Yeah, and oh god, you know, and
I I even remember reading I think it. I'm sure
in a reprint of that, there's a Phantom Zone, a
former criminal who sentences up and Super managed to release

(13:50):
him in the world. And at first he's a threat
and everything, but then Super kind of you know, takes
care of things and he mind wiped. Somebody gives you
a job at the planet and the guy's having the
disturbing dreams about Crypton and the Phantom Zone and stuff,
and it's great because his Earth name is Charlie and
he's like Superman. So this is my brain's like, don't worry, Charlie,
Everything's fine.

Speaker 2 (14:12):
I like. I like the version of Superman who's not
just gonna beat guys up and lock him in prison,
like he's gonna he's gonna help you out. He's going
to fix what's wrong with you.

Speaker 1 (14:22):
Well, even in your most violent moments in absolute and
again we'll get to it in a second, but that
humanity man, you know, he's he's fighting, you know, every
in and also when a when a world turns its
back on you, super Superman still wants to help. Pretty cool.

Speaker 2 (14:38):
Yeah, I think that's one of the main undercurrents of
the book of of of you know, and and and
kind of reflected in the way this version of the
character is different from the version of Superman. We know.
I mean, I love I love classic Superman, but I
definitely wanted to to push, you know, the story of

(14:59):
this this immigrant to a bit more modern place, and
so it became a much darker story. And I like
the idea of this guy, I mean Superman, like when
an issue one Absolute Superman number one comes out. When
that story starts, he's been here for five years, kind
of as you know, through his teen years, and he's

(15:20):
he's being Superman. He's literally seen more of the planet
than any human alive right by the time we meet him,
speaks several languages, so in some ways he's more human
than anybody else. But still those five years are kind
of hell for him in that he's constantly told, you know,

(15:41):
he doesn't belong here, can't put down roots, can't connect
with anybody, feels like, you know, he's walking around with
three heads, and then just sees like this is a
kind of a meat grinder of a planet. So he
has a lot of reasons to hate us, to hate
this place, to want to get the hell out of here,

(16:02):
but but he doesn't like he sticks around and fights
to help us out. So I like that nothing was
easy for him. You know, he didn't he didn't come
here as a baby as Moses sent down the river.
He wasn't found by the nicest couple in this idealic
setting in Kansas. He had to walk a really dark
and mean path, but still comes out of that wanting

(16:22):
to be Superman. So I think that's I really liked
that that part of the story.

Speaker 1 (16:29):
Yeah, and also just the various obstacles you put in
front of him and stuff. And I love the idea
of Rayshot Ghoul being such a central bad guy currently
and everything. And and also with the help of Brainiac.
You know, that's that great team of interesting, interesting idea
putting these two kinds of characters together.

Speaker 2 (16:48):
Jase way to go, Well, you know it was twofold one.
I mean I wanted to I knew what the story was.
I was trying to tell I need a villain that
fit for that. Could I have used a different you know,
the super rich guy that we know from d C. Sure,
but I think ros al Ghul fit perfectly in terms

(17:08):
of what we know about him and his general motivations
are he was. He was a perfect villain for for
what the story needs. But also I just liked the
idea of with these absolute books. I feel like things
should be unexpected and we should surprise people, and it
shouldn't shouldn't be everybody in the same corner of the
universe that we expect him to be in. I mean,

(17:30):
I've tried to do with every character that we meet,
even the ones we we assume we're going to be
in a Superman book, like Lois and Jimmy.

Speaker 1 (17:38):
And absolutely yeah.

Speaker 2 (17:40):
Like nobody's where they where we expect them to be
or where they quote unquote should be. And and so
I did. I very consciously did not want to start
out another like here's another wild, daring new take on
Superman and it's Superman fighting Lex Luthor and and Lois
Slane working at the Daily Planet. Didn't want to do
any of that. So, you know, Lex is coming, we'll

(18:03):
get we'll get to Lex, but even then it'll be
and it's not the usual Lex. He's not going to
come come to us and in the usual way, And
that part of the story is going to be very
different and surprising too. And I even beyond that, I
want to continue to have characters show up that you
don't expect to see button heads with Superman. You know,

(18:24):
we'll get a couple more of those characters in the
in the next couple of arcs after the current really
the whole, the whole first year. My original outline was
twelve issues. Those twelve issues turned into fourteen issues, so
fourteen issues is kind of, in my mind, really one
big story in some sense that's like you know, Superman

(18:46):
Year one, although it does it takes place over the
course of probably a couple of months, so we're couped
with There's one more I think issue thirteen is out,
so there's one more issue basically to to finish that
first big story, and there's some big stuff that happens
at the end of that that sort of sets the
stage for where Superman goes from there. Stuff we get
to after that. Like I said, there'll be a couple

(19:08):
more new characters showing up. They'll be a bit unexpected.

Speaker 1 (19:14):
Excellent. Tell me about the Cape and it's our you know,
the intelligence behind it and what a weird great idea
reminiscent of Doctor Strange and is cape and uh the
way the Cape kind of acts. I mean, yeah, tell
me a.

Speaker 2 (19:31):
Little bit, yeah, I mean, I yeah, I mean we
did Chris Pachallo and I did a lot of that
stuff with the cape. It had a real life to
it with with Doctor Strange. But I mean this the
Superman's Cape kind of came from, you know, the Raffael
Albuquerque was kind of initially doing designs on the character,
and then he kind of passes on to to Rufa

(19:52):
Sandaval who took over and and so initially it was
just kind of the cape just had this sort of
gradient look to it, which we all really liked. And
then I had the idea of like, oh, like the
cape could be made out of dust, you know, because
I knew as jor L was going to be a miner.
So joor L's you know, mining sunstone crystals is red crystals,

(20:17):
which is a big part of Kryptonian technology is based
on those crystals. So picture's dad coming home from work
every day just like caked and red dust. So I
like the idea of the suits made by his mom
and that cape kind of represents his dad, and then
the being dust. It's also kind of like the last
ashes of Krypton, you know that he's wearing on his back.

(20:39):
And I always kind of knew right away that I
wanted him to have some sort of tech, Kryptonian technology
that comes with him, that the ship would be more
than just a ship. You know, it changes form, and
so that basically that idea of the rocket ship doesn't
just protect him on his earning through space to get

(21:01):
to Earth, but continues to protect him after that as
his cape in his suit. And so yeah, it's got
a syni ins in a personality. It's called soul as
we see Saul just you know, got attacked by Brainiac
in issue thirteen, So he's in trouble right now.

Speaker 1 (21:20):
Yeah, no, it's it's fascinating. Also, I love the mind
games that Brainiac as directed by Rozie Cool. And now
do you say Rose? I used to say Rose too.

Speaker 2 (21:32):
I don't know. I'm I just showed up to DC.
They don't They don't give me a pronunciation. Guy, I
don't know how to pronounce. I'm from Alabama. Pronunciation is
not one of our strengths.

Speaker 1 (21:42):
So stop it. And I know what you mean.

Speaker 2 (21:45):
So yeah, I know, I'm sure, I'm sure I'm pronouncing
it wrong. But I just I just I'm the new guy.
Nobody tells me these things.

Speaker 1 (21:52):
Listen. The animated first of all I thought. Dannie o'nale
used to say rise. The animated series said rose all
of a sudden in the movies it's race, and I'm like,
and all of a sudden, everybody's saying race and I'm like,
all right, man, I don't know. Back in the seventies
we said rise. But okay again because we have the
same problem as kids, you know.

Speaker 2 (22:11):
Did you say, did you say magneto?

Speaker 1 (22:14):
Did you say I said Magneto. I don't know why,
but yeah, that was a big discussion. That's a playground discussion. Absolutely.

Speaker 2 (22:21):
Anymore the Submariner.

Speaker 1 (22:22):
My dad was a big submariner guy. And by the way,
way to go on your your run on naymar this
year and that was fun.

Speaker 2 (22:29):
Oh thanks, Yeah, I love that. Oh look, I'm really
proud of that book, dude.

Speaker 1 (22:34):
Yeah, you know, honestly, and really like you and Catwell.
Catwell did that many series a while ago before you did. No,
I'm always happy to see anymore. He's truly one of
my favorites.

Speaker 2 (22:44):
I love. Yeah, he's you know, he's like Marvel's one
of the oldest, one of their oldest heroes. Yeah. Seeah,
I had a blast. I'm really proud of that book.
You know, it was a similar setup to the Punisher
book I did, where we had a couple of different
artists too in present day and Lashback and it's big, bigger,
thirty page issues. And I'd long wanted to do a

(23:08):
book that kind of explored the underwater landscape, and the
same way I did with with the Wor, where we
I did a war that took us to all the
different realms. I you know, the every time, every time
throughout Marvel history, when a book would go to Atlantis,
it would always it always looks different, right, Like there's

(23:28):
kind of no standard looked that defines Atlantis in the
way that kind of the Kirby version of Asgard came
to be. I mean that's Asgard, right, Yes, Atlantis is
always it looks different. It's kind of it's in different places.
The history of it is confusing as to where it

(23:51):
was when it sank, and even when you go back
and pour over all this stuff. I mean in that
like in those old name Wor books, you know, Atlantis
kind of hops around from the South Pole to the
you know, the different parts of the Atlantic. And so
I wanted to do a book that kind of showed
here's where things are if you come here, here's what
it looks like. Here's where the different factions are. Well,

(24:13):
also telling a story, you know, about how much it
sucks to be naymore about how it's really it's been
a long, corrupting path for him to wear that crown
and to do what he he does. So yeah, I'm
I'm really proud of that book available now and trade
paperback wherever comic books are sold.

Speaker 1 (24:35):
Well done, good commercial. You know I talked to I
talked to speaking of Thor. I I talked to Aaron
Koter last week. I have it here it is, and
he's talked about your one shot and I.

Speaker 2 (24:48):
Was proud of that too.

Speaker 1 (24:50):
Well. And also this cover really says it all. I
just love the scope that even though Thor is a
thunder god, you know, there's Godzilla, and I just love
the scale that, you know, this cover represents in the story.

Speaker 2 (25:03):
Yeah, this killer cover. Aaron's awesome. I've always loved working
with him, and he killed it on that book. I'm
really really happy with that book. If you haven't read it,
I've continued to try not to spoil it because I
think there's cool stuff in there. If you if you
faned all of of what I did on Thor there's

(25:25):
stuff in there that you know would manage to keep
off the cover and out of the solicits. So there's
cool connections to my Thor Run. It's a lot of
big fighting. That was a blast. I mean with you know,
when different when you work on a new licensed property,
you never know, like, how's this one gonna go? Is
this going to be challenging. There's gonna be a lot

(25:46):
of rules. The people from Toho were super, super awesome,
super easy to work with, great and you know, helped us,
helped us tell the story. I think is really really cool.
Proud of that, and it's you know, little account as
a little like epilogue to my to my Thor Run

(26:06):
in some sense.

Speaker 1 (26:08):
Yeah, that's that's great to hear because also, and I
love this kind of odd question that somebody asked, Uh, here,
I gotta find it your question, James Bond, Well, I
kind of in the same way that it's cool that
you know the that too was cool about Godzilla And
I don't know if this character ever really interested you,

(26:28):
but James wants to know. With Doc Savage going into
the public domain in twenty twenty nine. Do you have
any interest or plans for for Doc Savage The Man
of Bronze.

Speaker 2 (26:37):
I don't. I mean I do. I've read some of
those doc DC Doc Savage comics that they were those
from the eighties.

Speaker 1 (26:47):
Yes, I think eighties Danny O'Neil and Tuber.

Speaker 2 (26:52):
Yeah, Adam and yeah, you're right, Yeah, yeah, I remember
reading those and liking them. I really don't. I don't
know too much about Doc Savage. No, I don't. I
mean I I don't have plans to jump on any
character as it goes into the the public domain. I mean,
that's really not on my my radar. I mean, we'll

(27:13):
see how all that plays out. I can't say I'm
I'm excited about any of it. I can't say I'm
maybe they'll maybe we'll get a cool Superman story out
of that, or I mean, I haven't seen anything I've
found particularly cool or interesting about anybody's use of Mickey Mouse,
you know, beyond just like the the shock Factor or

(27:37):
anybody's cool, cool take on Winnie the Pooh, beyond that that,
you know, the horror movie franchise that I that I'm
not particularly interested in, so it would pop ey, Yeah,
so so, as far as I have seen, nothing that

(27:57):
interests me has come from any of these characters being
in the public domain. Will that Will that change at
some point maybe, But I can't say I'm looking to
dive into really any of them.

Speaker 1 (28:09):
It would seem to me that, especially given what you're
doing with the Absolute Superman and the opportunity to write Superman.
You've done it before in those Bursts and everything, as
far as Earth One Superman and everything. But that's the thing.
It would seem to me that you that you almost would,
rather than telling a traditional story, do something new with
the characters with same authora. Even as classic as your

(28:32):
story was, you you did other things with him that
really weren't explored and really put a lot of heavy
metal kind of ideas the magazine heavy metal, not the band,
not the thing. But you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (28:45):
Yeah, I mean, for me, if I'm going to write Superman,
you know, it's it's cool to be able to do
it at the place that has done ninety years worth
of Superman stories. And I'll mean, on the on the
one hand, I'm doing app Absolute Superman, which is its
own universe and its own take on that. But it's
still building off the groundwork of those ninety years worth

(29:06):
of stories by all those different creators, and certainly with
Thor and tons of stuff I was doing, I was
standing on the shoulders of Kirby and Walt Simonson, and
and so if I'm going to work on those characters,
I want to do it there where they live, you know,
as opposed to if I want to do my own
take on Superman or my own take on Thor. I mean,

(29:28):
I could do that already and just call it something else,
but I'm much less interested in doing that as a
creator own book.

Speaker 1 (29:38):
And also, it would seem like, and I don't even
know what the rules are once Superman hits public domain,
but yeah, would you have to keep it in nineteen
thirty eight, I honestly don't know, you know, as far
as the timeframe, and.

Speaker 2 (29:52):
Oh, yeah, it's going to be, Yeah, it's going to be.
It would be Superman from Action Comics number one, which
is there. You know, most of the mythology that you
know of Superman is not is not present at that point.

Speaker 1 (30:05):
So yeah, magic k new member, Thank you man, very kind.
I appreciate that. Let's see here the h my conrade
wants to know, let's say, the real question is when
will we get more of the god damned yes, indeed, Bible.

Speaker 2 (30:20):
Jason, you will, you will the Yeah, I'm not going
to tell you exactly when it's coming, but it's coming. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (30:30):
That's the balance fit, Jason. As far as you know,
doing DC and Marvel stuff and and Creator own are you,
are you satisfied with your balance and making time and
have of course ends are in the mix as well.

Speaker 2 (30:40):
You know, Yeah, I mean it's been good. You know,
these last three years have been a big change for me.
And then I went from being exclusive to Marvel for
so long to being able to kind of take any
phone call that came my way. And then kind of
quickly there's a period there where once I wasn't exclusive anymore,
and I was kind of able to to jump off

(31:00):
that train of doing monthly ongoing comics, which can become
a bit of a grind when you're doing multiple of them.
And I had not traveled anywhere for a few years
because of COVID, so I had that had this sort
of honeymoon period where it's like, well, I'm just going
to travel a lot, and then at some point, after
a few months of that I was like, I guess
I should probably do some work because I don't get

(31:23):
paid much when I don't work. So then I suddenly was,
you know, doing projects at like five or six different
companies at the same time, which turns out is a lot.
Even they're small projects, when it's for that many different people,
becomes a lot. So I had a couple busy years.
But my schedule is in a really good place right now,

(31:44):
and that, you know, Absolute Superman is the only ongoing
commitment I've got in terms of work for higher stuff.
Thunders were moving right along on that, you know, it's
that's half written at the point, and then a couple
couple other things you know on the horizon I haven't

(32:06):
started on yet. But other than that, yeah, working on
creator own stuff, so continue to work on, continuing to
work on more bug Wars. And then I've got another
thing you know that I've I've started writing that. I
don't know when that'll be coming just yet. So, yeah,
my schedule is in a really good place right now.

(32:27):
And you know the other part of that, which is
there's not too much I can say, but beyond what's
been announced, is that you know, there's a Hulu and
Onyx have green greenlight a pilot for a Southern Bastards,
So that'll be getting shot sometime next year, is the plan.

(32:48):
So I've been thanks, been working on that for quite
a while now, and there's really cool group of people involved.
Bill Debuque, who who co created Ozark, wrote the pilot
and Nia da Costa was directing the pilot. And you know,
it's produced by Onyx and then Proximity Media, which is

(33:11):
Ryan Coogler's company. So lots of school people involved and
excited to see that come together.

Speaker 1 (33:19):
Did I mess? What? What were your big Did you
have big announcements in New York?

Speaker 2 (33:25):
No? I wasn't. I was not there.

Speaker 1 (33:26):
You weren't there or anything?

Speaker 2 (33:27):
Okay, my big announcement was that I did not go
to New York. Boy, I was in I was in
Saint Louis that weekend. I went to Galaxy Con in
Saint Louis.

Speaker 1 (33:38):
That's cool, that's cool. We're calling Colin still down there
right in Saint Louis and Brian Hurt.

Speaker 2 (33:44):
No, they were not there. They were probably in New York.

Speaker 1 (33:47):
Well, there you go.

Speaker 2 (33:49):
It was a fun, fun show. I've been I've never
been to Galaxy Con show before this year. But I
did a couple of them. I did that, did Saint Louis,
and I did Des Moines, which I think were both
brand new shows, first time shows. I love des Moines.
Des Moines a good tiki town, so I love to
go there and drink at the tiki bars. But yeah,
I recommend the Galaxy Con shows if you haven't checked

(34:12):
them out.

Speaker 1 (34:13):
Yeah, Mike Brod does a good job with those shows. Absolutely.
I respect what he's been doing and I'm a fan
of you know, I did a show for him years
ago in Orlando, one of his early shows pre Galaxy Con.
But yeah, again, really reconnect with Yeah.

Speaker 2 (34:29):
Really good green room you know for for comic guests.
We have a low bar with with with comic guys
of if you know, usually if we get a room
with like water and maybe some cold coffee in it,
we're happy. But let alone if oh we get to
go in a green room with like food in it,

(34:49):
that's nice. It's nice to be treated like by a convention,
like they actually want you to be there.

Speaker 1 (34:56):
Yeah, now I hear you, man, I I well, again,
that's Mitch terrific. You've experienced terrific on you know, that's
how amazing.

Speaker 2 (35:03):
Yeah, super great group, great show man about so many
comics that that terrific on, but.

Speaker 1 (35:09):
That they do have good dealer tables. Absolutely, I always
find stuff too. Man, Zach says alone, good to see Zach,
Thank you Man for coming in. Jason has an interesting
Absolute Superman question. Given that we've seen the Omega Men,
would he also interact with Legion in a capacity?

Speaker 2 (35:30):
Uh? I could, Yeah, at some point. I mean I
think we we haven't really had any Legion talks. And
in the Absolute Universe, you know, there's there's I think
the Legion stuff you know that they're working on that
Josh Williamson is working on with the main d c U. Right, Look,
it's part of kind of the the Superman stuff and

(35:53):
the ongoing kind of dark dark Side saga that they're
telling over there.

Speaker 1 (35:57):
So I think, is is that you know thirty first
century Legion because I think what obviously I'm assuming what
Magic said is you know eighties Keith Giffen Legion. That
was the building blocks of that, you know, like they
had that, they had their their other brainiac that wasn't original.

(36:19):
So yeah, forgive me. Is that part of Josh's plan
is that kind of Legion.

Speaker 2 (36:23):
I mean, I can't I can't speak as to what
what all Josh's doing. I'm just saying we've kind of
that at over there, and yeah, we haven't had any talk.
I mean, Legion has always been a tough nut to
crack right, and and tons of people have tried to
do so. And I I mean I've always I've ever
been a Legion guy, like you know Jonathan Hickman, huge, huge,

(36:47):
allegiant guy like I know plenty of people are. I
was a teen Titans guy back in those days. So
I read Legion kind of off and on. You know,
I read like that the Great Darkness saga is great,
and I yeah read I'd love Keith Giffen, So yeah,
I'd kind of bounce in and eventually get overwhelmed by

(37:08):
not knowing who all the characters were, and I'd kind
of bounce away. So I I've actually I had this
conversation with Mark Wade, and he was he he bought
me some old Adventures of or issues of Adventure comics
to give me to like help try to turn me
into a Legion thing. And I'm working on I did
read those Mark and they were really good. So I'm

(37:29):
working on being a bigger, a bigger Legion fan.

Speaker 1 (37:33):
I used to tell Jeff John's when I in the
seventies there were two doors. There was an x Men
door and a Legion of Superhero's door. I absolutely went
through the Legion of Superheros door. Oh yeah, I'm so
stupid when it. I mean, I really loved when you
did Wolverine and the X Men for example, and I
remember us talking about it. But yeah, man, when it
comes to Legion, oh no, I was much like people
are with all the X Men and stuff. That's how

(37:54):
I am with the Legion.

Speaker 2 (37:55):
But also great costume so I love those classic you know,
Dave Cockruan costumes.

Speaker 1 (38:00):
Right, yes, and and Grell's designs from the seventies were
so greatly crazy seventies and stuff. Yeah, but but also this, uh,
I'm talking like Legion eighty five, that weird group that
Giffin created aside from the Legion of Superheroes. I don't
know if you remember that group at all.

Speaker 2 (38:20):
I don't know if you know.

Speaker 1 (38:22):
I mean, it was a it really Giffin, it's the
only guy that really I think played with them with
Tanny great effect, and it was this like they were
contemporary with twentieth century Earth heroes and stuff. So there
you go. So, yeah, you there's some for research for
you because it's again it's it is weird little connections.

(38:42):
I mean again, if you're if you're not planning on it,
then then no, we don't want to interrupt with you, know,
your your story. And also got a great idea with
the Peacekeepers Peacemakers Peacemakers.

Speaker 2 (38:52):
Yeah, thanks, you know, I always do that wrong, you know.
I just needed some some evil foot soldiers to to
go with Lazarus Corp. And and that seemed to fit.
It didn't work out for the Christopher Smith version of Peacemaker,
but there may be more to that story to come.

(39:14):
We'll have to wait and see.

Speaker 1 (39:16):
Ang is hoping the blinde we saw as one of
the Kryptonian survivors in this number five might be an
absolute supergirl.

Speaker 2 (39:24):
Well, I mean I knew, I knew when I wrote
Little Girl in the script that that's what people would assume,
so it was not oblivious to that. But I don't know,
I don't I don't want to. I don't want to
say too much or tell you the plans. But I

(39:45):
mean again, I didn't want to do I didn't want
to do Superman versus Lex Luthor right out of the gate.
I didn't want to do Superman versus the Phantom Zone
villains right out of the gate. So I liked the
idea of this guy's the last son of Krypton, you know,
and he doesn't want to be because again, he remembers,

(40:07):
he remembers Krypton, he remembers his culture. He had a
lot of issues with the place, but he also loves it.
It was home. So part of part of that is
I don't want to I don't want to have twenty
five other Kryptonians, you know, show up right away. Well,
will we get to some at some point? Maybe cool?

Speaker 1 (40:29):
And I love the flashbacks in the meantime. I mean,
that's that and really much like what Scott's doing and
Batman Absolute Batman and stuff, you just get this different
take on the hero's relationship with their parents and everything.
And it's right, that's true, and it's a great story
opportunity to really flesh out more time of jor L
and cal On Krypton together and Laara for that matter

(40:51):
as well.

Speaker 2 (40:52):
Yeah, and we'll continue to do those flashbacks too. I
love love writing that Krypton stuff. To the point when
when I got to whatever issue that was, issue five,
I think where the planet blew up, I was really sad.
I thought like, Man, should I have Maybe I should
have stretched this out and I could have done like
a year on Krypton, you know, like, because I loved

(41:13):
I loved writing them, I loved that that setting so much,
but I also felt like, well, I think it's a
good thing that I'm sad that it's blowing up, you know,
because I want readers to be sad that it's blowing up.
I want you to be invested in that part of it.
And we can always go back there because because he
was he was he was old enough to remember his planet,
and he's still guided by what he learned there, you know,

(41:36):
the things he saw on lessons he learned from his parents,
and that'll continue to be the.

Speaker 1 (41:40):
Case, Caesar, if Room wants to know and way to
go on this, Why did you leave the Turtles so early? Great?
Twelve issues? Man, way to go?

Speaker 2 (41:50):
Thanks? I mean that was you know, twelve issues was
always the plan. That was it was a twelve issue
story from the get go, which I mean I hope
is obvious if you've read the whole thing, Like, it's
very clear story with the beginning and middle and end
where I kind of I would leave things on in
a moment where whoever was coming next could hopefully pick

(42:11):
up things and run with it. So yeah, that was
that was always the plan.

Speaker 1 (42:16):
Did you have conversations with Jane, who obviously took over
from from your run and everything?

Speaker 2 (42:22):
No, I have not. I have not, but I mean
we you know, the just through editorial there was some
stuff of just sort of passing notes back and forth
and stuff. He wanted me to kind of help tee
up in the in the last issue, So yeah, we
bet we've never actually met.

Speaker 1 (42:40):
And honestly, great idea in terms of you know, the
DA kind of helping turn the city against the Turtles
and everything, and that's kind of a different challenge for
the Turtles to deal with.

Speaker 2 (42:51):
Yeah, I mean, the whole idea was to do return
to New York, which you know is a classic Turtles
story from back in the day, but just to flip
on its head, so initially it's not the Turtles aren't
even in New York, you know, for six or seven issues,
and it's really about the Foot Clan has come back
to New York in a big way, and through that

(43:13):
new District Attorney, they weaponize the city against the Turtles.
So when they do come home, it's it's very much
not the home they know, you know. And to the
point where they're the ultimate indignity is that they're not
even able to hide out in the sewers of New York.
They have to go to the sewers of Newark, New Jersey.

(43:36):
What could be worse?

Speaker 1 (43:41):
Mike says, he's digging absolute Superman. Also a big fan
of your Punisher run and that he did with of course,
the late great Steve Dillon, and also enjoyed your Age
of Township as well from Moonnight.

Speaker 2 (43:57):
Thanks, Yeah, I love I loved writing that moon Night
story and having him beat up the Avengers. That was fun,
Dick moon Night, And yeah, of course working with Steve was.
It was a huge thrill and honor and I'm really
proud of that. Well, that's your Max book.

Speaker 1 (44:17):
Well and also yeah, first of all, yeah, man, and
it is, isn't it interesting? Uh? It seems like Dan
Penosen and Palmiatti are telling a different story but also
kind of in the same way that you were telling
Senior Citizen Frank kind of you know, had the my
lego and stuff during your Max run And yeah, it
feels like Jimmy's doing that.

Speaker 2 (44:38):
Yeah, I have not read that. That's the Marvel Knights Punisher, right, Yeah.
I also I have I picked up the Ben Percy
Red Band Punisher, but I haven't read that yet either.
But I love Ben stuff.

Speaker 1 (44:52):
God, yes, no, I I I'm with you on well,
and I love Jimmy and what Jimmy's doing, and of
course Dan anytime dancer on something. But is you know
I've asked other creators, is Jesse when you when you
finish with a different character, can you read somebody else's
run or is it like an old girlfriend where you're like, man,
I don't want to see him being messag around.

Speaker 2 (45:13):
I mean sometimes it can be. I mean it's if.
I mean, it depends on I think the level of investment.
Like I wrote Wolverine for six years and I wrote
Thor for six years. So sometimes when it's that to
that degree, it's you maybe have more feels, but not
in a way where you're like, oh man, you're mad,
Oh I can't believe they did did that? This? Or that.

(45:35):
I think it's just sometimes you need a little distance
of like you know, it's it's not the first thing
I'm going to go pick up off the rack to read.
But I mean I have read all that stuff.

Speaker 1 (45:47):
So you've read that Wolverine for example.

Speaker 2 (45:50):
Yeah he's good. Yeah, I love I love being stuff cool.
Yeah I don't. I don't feel like that with Wolverine anymore.
I think it's just initially you just have those But
but I mean I always I don't feel touchy or
sensitive in any way about what the next person is doing,
like well, you know you have to reflect what I

(46:11):
did or or somehow my run as a failure because
it doesn't have lasting ramifications, Like I really don't care
about that in the least. And I've told I mean
I told talked to Ben just a couple of months ago.
I think we were at the airport flying back from
a show and he was told me about what he
was doing on Punisher and I told him, look, I

(46:32):
you know, I'm really proud of that last Punisher book
that I did. I said so much of what I
wanted to say about the character. I said, set it
all on fire. If that's what you need to do
to tell whatever story like you want to tell, Like
it doesn't You're not going to hurt my feelings, Like
you don't need to carry weight for that. Like my

(46:55):
story is done and in print and you can go
pick it up, read it and doesn't matter if the
whatever somebody's doing now doesn't reflect that or it does,
like whatever, Like I'm just tell your story, you know,
Like I felt the same way, like that that Punisher
Max story that I did with with Steve was was

(47:16):
a continuation of of Garth Innis's Punisher Max. And but
also I'm not Garth, and I couldn't do the exact
same kind of story that Garth did. So you just
kind of take what you need to do, tell the
story that you're going to tell that you have to tell,
and then look and don't worry about me. I'll be

(47:38):
all right.

Speaker 1 (47:40):
Was the marching orders from Marvel when you were doing
six one six Frank uh to like, really, let's let's
give him a kind of final story. I mean, obviously
he still had it ending with Frank in the underworld
trying to protect children and stuff, but he was damn
didn't kind of you know, I don't, I.

Speaker 2 (48:02):
Mean, there really weren't any marching orders. I mean, there
were concerns and thoughts about the characters and discussions we
were having, and just kind of in the midst of those,
I stepped forward and said, I this is a story
I want to tell aside from all that, which I
think kind of connects to some of this stuff. But yeah,
there was no there was no you gotta do this,

(48:24):
you got to do.

Speaker 1 (48:25):
That, or even the idea of that. Frank had to
go away for a while, like even that kind of
general thing because of this was for people who don't
remember and they likely do. This was during obviously Black
Lives Matter, and there were a lot of militia and
other people.

Speaker 2 (48:43):
Over that simpol yeah, because people were not really enforceable
trademark wise to keep people from from using it for
whatever calls they wanted to use it for. And also
just concerns about doing a superhero book of a guy,
you know, carying around an ar fifteen, like shooting people.

(49:05):
So I think those are those are valid questions and
concerns to have regarding that character. And to me, that's
one of the things that's interesting about this character is
that when you look at his history over the course
of the decades and how he started as one in
a long list of kind of post Vietnam War cliches
of like the Vietnam vet who who went through such

(49:27):
horror as going to you know, snap and just go
on a killing spree. Like the seventies and eighties movies
and TV are littered with characters like that, and the
character became a lot more than that. He grew beyond that,
and I think he has to continue to grow and
change with the times. I don't think you can ignore

(49:51):
that stuff and just keep doing the same story over
and over and over again. I don't think that's interesting
or that's beneficial to the character's long Jeff So, uh, yeah,
I'm I'm really proud of that Punisher story. But yeah,
I think we the I don't know that it was
necessarily a mandate that we had to put the character

(50:12):
on the shelf at the end of it. I think
it was everybody was okay with kind of tucking him
away for a bit and then to kind of figure
out what was next. I mean, none of these characters,
when you put them on a shelf, they're not going
to stay on the shelf forever. We all know that
they'll come back in some form, sure, at some point

(50:32):
or another. But I think it's a matter of like
figuring out what that is, needing time to figure out
what it is. And I hope the Again, I haven't
read haven't read Ben's new book, but I picked it
up and I haven't even cracked it out of the
poly bag yet, so but I'm excited to read it
and hope it hope it does well, and I'll continue

(50:52):
to keep reading punish her just as a fan.

Speaker 1 (50:56):
Uh tomb Raider as a Superman. Question when it came
to developing Saul as an artificial intelligence, who raised kal El?
Did that ig originate from the Joe l Ai? Wondering
if it was intended because Sau seems very fatherly and
protective in that way to col.

Speaker 2 (51:16):
I mean, no, I don't think Saul is based directly
on Joe l I mean, it's mostly it's mostly Laura
who put the suit together where she kind of already
had it like a prototype of it. She was the
one who dreamed of being a space explorer as a kid.
So and then Joe l they were they you know,

(51:40):
he helped and he was the one mining the Sunstone
that they were using to like build the suit. But no,
I don't think it's it's not modeled directly on either
one of them. Yeah, I mean I want.

Speaker 1 (51:51):
No Superman relationship obviously, Yeah, I said talking about Yeah.

Speaker 2 (51:57):
I mean, you know, Saul kind of walks the lines.
He's not he's not the Vision and he's not like
an android who cries, right, but there seemed to be
some real emotions. He seems to really care for col
L beyond just this guy's my responsibility and he's the last,

(52:19):
you know, the last thing left of Krypton. I have
to do everything I can to keep him alive despite
him stupidly wanting to save these idiot humans.

Speaker 1 (52:33):
You know, I'm glad the previous person mentioned age of
Kanchiu because they're reminded me of all the great turns
during your Avengers run, and I'm man, I just really like,
you know, one of the things that stuck out of
my head was when he had all the various deathlocks
attacking the Avengers and everything. I thought that was really

(52:53):
a neat wrinkle best part of your ongoing story with them.

Speaker 2 (52:57):
Did I do that?

Speaker 1 (52:58):
Didn't you do well? Deathlock? Am? I am? I misremembering
is which I read a few times. I thought, I
thought you put death block in the Avengers. Maybe not
where'd you where'd you have death flat show up? Man?

Speaker 2 (53:11):
Well, he was in my Wolverine run and then he
was in Wolverine and the X Men.

Speaker 1 (53:15):
Maybe that's what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (53:17):
Did I have him in should I don't know. There's
places I've had it. I've been doing this now for
over a little over well twenty years, like full time. Yeah. Man,
My Talent Contest when was in was in two thousand
and one, so my career's longer than twenty five years.
And there's it's been multiple times, just in the last year,

(53:41):
I've been at conventions and I've had somebody come up
and say, oh, this, this, this scene, this panel in
this book that you did you know had this big
effect on me. One of them was like a scene
in ghost Writer and the Sky. It was, you know,
it really wanted to tell me like how important that

(54:02):
those lines of dialogue had been to him and I
I had no idea what he was talking about. I
could not remember, and he showed it to me. I
read it. I was like, oh, yeah, that's I still
agree with that that's that's pretty good. But I had
totally forgotten that I ever wrote that, so because I think,
I just don't. I don't go back and read old

(54:23):
stuff too much sometimes, you know, like when I think
when the omnibus of the Steve Dylon Punisher came out,
I sat and flipped through him some and read a
little bit and just like, well, shit, you know, we
made a good look in comic. But I really don't
go back and read reread old stuff, so a lot
of times I just forget, and I actually, like I

(54:43):
sat and read all sixty issues have scalped. I was
going to bring in the last couple of years because
we did we did the DC did the new omnibus edition,
so I wanted to go back and see correct. Look.
I always remembered there was at least one spelling mistake
in there that we had missed kind of through every
every edition. So I wanted to find that and change

(55:05):
it and just see if there was anything else I
wanted to change. So I sat and reread all those
for the first time, and God, I don't know, maybe
i'd never sat and reread them all. I don't know.
And then again, there's some of it some of it,
I'm like, ehud, you know I would do that differently.
Some of it I was like, I don't, I don't.

(55:25):
It's like this was written by a different person, like
sometimes in a good way of like, you know, some
of I'm sure it's like as a band, if you
go back and listen to your the whatever, your first
album that you recorded in your garage, where you're like, man,
there's a lot like that. This guy hasn't figured out yet.
But the hunger and the enthusiasm is like exploding, like

(55:50):
cause you're so it's just like a primal scream, you know,
where you're desperate to be heard. So I I it's
like I could see a lot of that. But anyways,
but that was a long tangent. But my point was
just there's plenty of times I'm like, shit, I forgot
I wrote.

Speaker 1 (56:06):
That, well bringing up scalped you'll forgive me. But obviously,
in today's Stay in Your Lane Society, was there any
sort of Native American pushback for sport and everything? I mean,
my god, I love that series so much and you
and Gara Chris Mona was it that I forget? Who
else was the colorist one.

Speaker 2 (56:26):
That Julia Brusco colored, okay, and most of those stuff
with Gia.

Speaker 1 (56:31):
Yeah, so gorgeous and really such a great story. And again,
you know, I got the middle aged white guy perspective
on Scalp. But yeah, did you get did did? And Austin?
Do you think you'd be able to do a series
like that today or would there be fear of stay
in your life?

Speaker 2 (56:47):
I mean the baby I mean maybe, I mean I no,
I mean that there was not a whole lot of
pushback as that book was coming out, certainly not from
people in a Native American community. If anything, it was
more of the opposite, where I heard from tons of
people who were were big fans of the book. I mean,

(57:09):
if you were doing the comic today, I don't know.
I couldn't say. I mean, I think in terms of
of the adapting that book, I mean we you know,
there was a pilot shot years ago by W. G
In which which which was okay, like it was, it was, uh,

(57:30):
not really the story from the book. The characters are
the same, but they they kind of changed a lot.
The cast of the show was was incredible, Like it
featured really a who's who of of the best of
Native American actors and wow, including you know, Gil Birmingham
and ZN mclarnin, who who going on to do tons

(57:52):
of stuff, Lily Gladstone, so Dynamite Dynamite cast and and
I went hung out in the set a little bit
and Sterlin Harjoe was there as a producer. Sterlin, of
course has since gone on to do Reservation Dogs, which
is a really incredible show. So I and and he
also did so much over the course of that of

(58:14):
like not just bringing this great cast of like young
Native American actors, but putting him in the director's chair
and getting people jobs working in the crew. And so
I think it's so now I'm like, well, if you
want to make a Native American crime show, maybe go
talk to that guy, you know, Like I don't I

(58:35):
don't know that if I mean, if he ever wanted
to do that. I mean, he was really cool when
I met him. But I don't know that you'd be
looking for my book, you know, to adapt to do
that kind of story.

Speaker 1 (58:50):
What did did that pilot air anywhere? Or they shot
it and they ended up not airing it because I
know that.

Speaker 2 (58:56):
I mean, it was yeah, it was w g N,
which was yeah, they had pretty much announced they were
getting out of the original programming business as the pilot
was being shot. So oh man, this seemed pretty doomed
from the like The Titanic in that sense.

Speaker 1 (59:13):
It's such a shame because really they came up with
some really interesting ideas. I loved their series Manhattan that
was the early days of the Atomic project and everything,
and I thought that was really good. And there was
one other one that right now the title escapes me,
but you know, yeah, it really is a shame. It
was so weird because you know, there was such a
partner with all of DC's and Warner brother stuff and

(59:36):
doing all the CW hero stuff, and then they made
this weird declaration all right, we're breaking away from that.
We're doing our own thing, and it's like, okay, you
had some cool ideas, but you know, it didn't have
I think the affiliate strength to justify the expense is
my assumption.

Speaker 2 (59:50):
Well yeah, I mean I, like I said, the status
part for me was just not getting to see those
that cast play those characters. But I was super thrilled
that DC did those new omnibus editions. I mean that's
literally the first first call I had with Marie Javins.

(01:00:10):
When we were talking about Absolute, she mentioned Scalp, so
I was super thrilled about that. So I'm happy they're
back in print and I love those characters. And in
connect conjunction with that, I will just say I'm super
happy to see Vertigo back, and that I'm not doing
anything with Vertigo. I'm not connected to any of those books.
I just you know, saw the saw the lineup of

(01:00:32):
titles that came out recently, and just man, I'm like,
I'll buy every single one of those so as as
as a proud Vertigo alum, as as somebody who feels like,
you know, I have a career in comics in large
part because of Vertigo, and well we'll kind of always
think of myself as a Vertigo writer. I'm super thrilled

(01:00:58):
to see that that imprint coming back.

Speaker 1 (01:01:01):
And yeah, I absolutely felt like you were in that
wave that followed Azarello and the others, and you were
you were the next you were the next chapter as
far as Vertico.

Speaker 2 (01:01:11):
Yeah, well, so one of those guys that kind of
snuck in the door, you know, before the party got
shut down. I felt like that was kind of one
of the last ones. I mean, me and Scott Snyder
and Jeff Lemir. I think, yeah, last dudes to sort
of sneak in and get a you know, a long
Vertigo run.

Speaker 1 (01:01:29):
Absolutely, man, No, that that was great stuff. And that's
why I know I felt the same way hearing the
announcements and stuff about Vertico. It's like good because they
shouldn't have shuttered it in the first place. I'm glad.
I'm glad that Marie and the Klan realized that, no,
this is this is the right move to bring Vertigo
back and have it be it's this distinctive brand.

Speaker 2 (01:01:47):
Yeah, yeah, I mean, I yes, I mean I think
that that brand was so important to me as a
fan for so many years, as it was to so
many people. And I think you can see the influence
of Vertigo and in so many different companies and create
your own books. But I think I do think there's
a place for it, and I do think we need it,

(01:02:09):
just something that's that feels that a lineup that feels
very tight and curated, especially since with with that lineup
of creators, we're all people who've kind of done other things,
but still people who are newer, new wish to comics.
And I think I'm really excited. I hope all those

(01:02:31):
books do do well.

Speaker 1 (01:02:36):
So yeah, no, no, no, I apologize for stepping on you. Axel. Uh,
you know, obviously was one of the big guys in
Vertigo when you were there, and has he ever approached
you about doing any a w A stuff?

Speaker 2 (01:02:47):
No, Axel was already gone by the time I was Axel,
was that Marvel by the Times?

Speaker 1 (01:02:54):
Was your was your editor? Obviously?

Speaker 2 (01:02:56):
Yeah? Will Will was my guy on on scalped and
and more. Doyle was was there for a huge part
of the time too.

Speaker 1 (01:03:04):
Okay, it had all it all approach you about aw
A at all, even though you know there was a
very association.

Speaker 2 (01:03:12):
The Yeah, they the company reached out to me about
at some point. But there's nothing. Nothing in the works there, gotcha.

Speaker 1 (01:03:20):
Regarding adaptations of your stuff, James has a good question.
He says, Chris Hamsworth took the blame for making thor
Love and Thunder too silly. Mixing Uh the Gore and
Jane Foster's storylines felt like a mistake and would have
been strong in separate movies. I agree with that. Do
you have opinions on Love and Thunder?

Speaker 2 (01:03:42):
I mean, you know, I feel like for the rest
of my life, people will be asking me what I
thought of Love and Thunder like I you know, I
was very happy for the experience like Taika was. Was
the conversations I had with him discussing story where were
super fun. Uh. The whole experience of of seeing those

(01:04:07):
characters come to life and all the toys like you know,
these shelves by here full of Jane Foster and Gore
the God Butcher toys and I've got my my Jane
Foster Happy Meal toy and you know, me and my
me and my son going to Hollywood for the premiere
and all that stuff was cool? Was it? Was it

(01:04:29):
the movie that that I would have made? No, But
they didn't ask me to make it, you know, like
I got, I gave I gave thoughts on it, I
gave notes on it, and they they did involve me
in some capacity. But yeah, there's there's there's parts I
like about it and parts I would have I would
have would have liked to have seen done differently, and

(01:04:51):
and yeah, maybe maybe Jane would need her own story
to do justice to that. But but you know, I
don't know. It's hard for me also to be that
removed from it and as somebody who wrote all that stuff,
because to me, it's Jane's story is it's it's a
you know, it's a saga liked to to to see

(01:05:15):
everything she goes through as as she's being thorer and
the getting that ultimate payoff. I mean that that Death
of the Mighty Thor stuff, I think is some of
the best stuff I've ever written. And and what what
Russell Doubterman and Matt Wilson did on that, I think
is you know, super a level so and I and

(01:05:37):
I'm super you know, proud of the gore of the
god butcher stuff with with that sod. So, yeah, you're
taking two of the things that are like the some
of my favorites and my proudest moments and comics and
and yeah, I think it's hard to maybe do justice
to both of those in one movie. But again it's
it's it's I don't I don't get paid to to

(01:05:59):
write feature film adaptations, so it's hard for me to,
I think, to be too objective about that.

Speaker 1 (01:06:07):
Well, with Southern Bastards, how much involvement have you had
as far as bringing that to.

Speaker 2 (01:06:13):
Screen, Yeah, I've been I've been very involved in that
for for years now, and Bill Debux has been super
awesome to work with. Bill wrote the wrote the pilot. Yeah,
I've been very involved and so far and will be
if things go forward.

Speaker 1 (01:06:31):
Is so is it shooting in the new year or
is it already? Is the pilot already shot?

Speaker 2 (01:06:36):
No, it's not a shot yet. We just got the
green light.

Speaker 1 (01:06:39):
So we're great past thing is just beginning and everything
else obviously.

Speaker 2 (01:06:44):
Yeah. Again, I don't think. I don't want to get
in trouble for saying anymore than I'm supposed to, because
you know, we have we have Disney pr involved now,
so I don't want to step on any toast. But yeah, yeah,
things things will, things are, things are moving forward.

Speaker 1 (01:06:59):
That's great, man, I'm so great to hear. And again
one again one of my favorites of your of your
creator own stuff. So all right, help me out with
bug Bug Wars, because I'll be honest, what do you
want me?

Speaker 2 (01:07:10):
What do you want my help?

Speaker 1 (01:07:11):
They creep me up, give me, give me, give me
the g Well they do, they creep me. I can't
deny it.

Speaker 2 (01:07:17):
Well, you know, I think of this this is the
perfect book for someone who's creeped out by bugs. I
think it's also the perfect book for someone who loves bugs.
I think it goes either way. This is I mean,
it's it's Honny I Shrunk the Kids meets Game of Thrones.
That's the elevator pitch. So it's it's a it's a.

Speaker 1 (01:07:37):
It did you inspired by that great fifties incredible shrinking
man who suddenly finds himself kind of in that kind
of predicament, although not not the Game of Thrones aspect,
but certainly, you know, just a man who law his
lawn suddenly it's like this terrible advice I have.

Speaker 2 (01:07:54):
I haven't seen that movie, but I expired, but inspired
by exactly those kind of stories, which there's a long
list of those kind of like you know, something happens
and I'm shrunk kind of stories. This is just the
you know, the dark fantasy version of that. So it's
kid going to the zone and adventure in his backyard.
And the backyard is full of these kingdoms of tiny

(01:08:17):
people called mites who live among the insects. So there's
different tribes. There's the beetle writers, who are kind of
like the scruffy barbarians of the yard, and then there's
the the Empire of the Ants, who are the ant Imperium,
who are kind of like the Roman Empire, so they're
more the they have actual metal working, so they have

(01:08:39):
you know, actual swords, where the beetle writers are wilding
swords out of like squirrel bone and you know bug carapas,
and and then there's the spider Witches or the mysterious
kind of mystical sorceress okay sect and there's yeah, there's
wallsp Raiders who are like vikings who ride hornets, and

(01:09:03):
and then there's the the b Lords who are the
lords of the honey. They get their kind of the
the barters of the yard, and they control this sort
of overgrown garden. So they're the you know, their nectar
pedlars and and those are the only ones we've seen
so far. Oh there's the roach Knights who they're the
ones who live in the house, so we haven't really

(01:09:25):
seen much of them so far. The others live in
the yard. But yeah, it's a combination of all those.
I loved all the this at the same time I
was watching Thunder the Barbarian, reading Conan first getting in
the comics sort of. The Atom was one of those
comics I first read as a kid. There was I

(01:09:47):
loved those kind of stories of one of the stories
of people who shrink and go and adventure, and then
stories of tiny people, that kind of civilizations of tiny
people living in the shadows. Like The Littles was another
Saturday Morning cartoon that I loved. So it's kind of
taking all that stuff and smashing it together. And then I,

(01:10:10):
you know again, I was falling in love with Conan,
and that was kind of my entry point to sword
and sorcery and fantasy stories. And I've wanted to do
like a pure true fantasy story for a long time.
I scratched that itch some on thor But this is
me diving into the deep, deep into the pool and

(01:10:30):
making all this stuff up myself, and obsessing over names
of characters and places and swords and figuring out what
these different factions eat and you know, how they dress
and all that sort of stuff. So and yeah, it's
it's so, it's it's the setup of it seems like
it could be a kid story, but this is the

(01:10:51):
decidedly non non kid version. It's it's very violent and
quite explicit at times. We're doing with the with the
Spider Witch Special, which the book book one just came
out right here. Book one just came out last month,
So this is the first Yeah, this is the trade

(01:11:13):
of book Bug Wars Book one Lost in the Yard.
So it's first six issues and there'll be more after that.
We're doing it as kind of a series of minis
instead of an ongoing numbering. But in January we get
Bug Wars the Spider Witch Special, which will be kind

(01:11:33):
of Yeah, it'll be stories that sort of take place
between books one and two, some of them flashbacks, some
of it teasing and setting up book two, and and
for that where the one of our variant covers is
we're doing one of those poly bagged like adult variants

(01:11:53):
like triple X not safe for work. I wanted to
call it the bug fucking Crazy very.

Speaker 1 (01:12:00):
Need to say exactly, bug Warts with ladies, And.

Speaker 2 (01:12:04):
So Mama Mamo drew a really awesome cover for that.
You know you're gonna have to You're gonna have to
go out and buy one of those and rip it up.

Speaker 1 (01:12:13):
Seen him forever, I'm doing.

Speaker 2 (01:12:15):
Well, it's great. He's still one of the nicest dudes
in comics, one of the nicest people.

Speaker 1 (01:12:19):
Absolutely no I again forever.

Speaker 2 (01:12:24):
He usually he's usually at New York every year, but
he couldn't make it this year, so maybe next year
he and I will be there with well with bug
Wort's book two. So yeah, trade available now special in
in January, which which also I don't think we're gonna collect.
I don't think we're going to collect that special in

(01:12:44):
the trade for book two. I think what I want
to do some of those different specials focusing on the
different sects. So we'll do a Beatle Writer special and
a and an Imperium special. So so maybe eventually will
collect those together. But if you want, if you want
to read the special, you know, along with book one

(01:13:07):
book two, go buy it in a comic bookstore in January,
and then you know.

Speaker 1 (01:13:15):
For the one shot.

Speaker 2 (01:13:18):
I think it's I think it's next month. Yeah, it's
not not this month, I believe, yeah, because it comes
out comes out on my birthday actually January twenty eighth,
So if you want to wish me a happy birthday,
then please pre order bug Wars the Spider which special
along with Thunder the Barbarian Number one, which will both

(01:13:40):
be coming your way in January, and you will different
between those two books. You will have so much of
my childhood distilled because I I've said this, I say
it in the book like we the right here at
the beginning of the Trades, you get this map of
the yard and the house where this story takes place.

(01:14:01):
This is this is my backyard from when I was
from when I was ten years old. So that's that's
the house I lived in in Piney Woods, Alabama. That's
the backyard. It's a huge, huge front yard full of
pine trees, big backyard and thick, thick woods, you know,

(01:14:25):
around three sides of it. That that's where I spent
my formative years. That's where I was watching Thunder of
the Barbarian. That's where I was reading Conan stories that
I you know, got at the used bookstore. That's where
I was first discovering comic books. That's that's the yard
in the woods where I ran around making up you know,

(01:14:46):
Tarzan and fantasy stories in my head. And I think
kind of became a comic book writer in that yard,
became like somebody who fell in love with storytelling. And
so now here we are forty years later, and so
much of what I'm doing goes back to that kid
in that place, that point in time, and all that

(01:15:09):
sort of stuff I was into, which feels great. I mean,
writing Bug Wars has been incredibly fun. Like it's always
a good sign when it feels that good, just to
write it right. It's not a slog. I'm not banging
my head against the wall. They're sure there's sometimes one

(01:15:31):
bit might be harder to figure out. And I certainly
went back and rewrote dialogue again and again and again
and again and changed names, changed names of characters, some
of them four or five times before I figured out,
you know, because it just felt like it's not quite right,
you know, and I kept pushing it and pushing it

(01:15:52):
someone as that we had the luxury of time that
we were working on it for a while. But none
of that ever felt like a slog or it's like,
oh this this sucks, or you know, it's just I
loved it so much, and I loved falling down those
holes with it, and and you know, reading through insect

(01:16:12):
books and pouring over like what kind of bugs you want?
We want to have in this yard, and the just
the everything about it. I am thoroughly, thoroughly enjoying. And
my mood's been having a blast on it. We have
a great team with with him and Matt Wilson and
and Becca Carrey or a letter who it's my favorite

(01:16:33):
letter in comics. Apologies to all the other letters. I
love y'all two, but Beca's my favorite right now. So
I want to keep doing this book basically for a
long long time because there's so many different stories to
tell within this within this setting, and we have just
just gotten started.

Speaker 1 (01:16:53):
That's great, man, And really the metaphor of the you know,
your backyard becoming this the entire universe based to play
in and everything, and then like you said, you know,
going from when you were a little trip to the
big ideas that you're able to explore with that as
a backdrop. I think that's fantastic. And hey, you know
you've converted me before, Jason. All Right, I'm watching I'm
wanting to music documentaries and things.

Speaker 2 (01:17:16):
Oh great, keep chipping away at you, John, I'll keep
chipping away. Yeah, I did. I mean that that's what
my backyard was like I was a kid. You know,
I've got older siblings, but they're all quite a bit
older than me, and I lived out in the in
the country where you know, there was no walking or
riding my bike to my friend's house. He's like, my

(01:17:37):
friends are all like thirty forty minutes away because we're
all spid out in different parts of the woods. So sure,
so I spent a lot of time by myself running
around that backyard. And it did. That backyard. You know,
there was like a ditch along the side of the road,
and there was a stream going through the woods, and
there was big hills back there, and that became Middle Earth.
That became you know, some area that became like a

(01:18:02):
World War two battle ground. That became whatever I needed
it to be, you know, that was That was my
entire childhood. That and uh rereading comics and playing play
in the Tory games.

Speaker 1 (01:18:17):
Well, Aiden's up, fan, he says, Bug Wars is legit.
You very nice, Jesse the other side, Do you have
the right to take it anywhere and republish it? Have
you ever thought about putting it back in a in
a print if you haven't, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:18:33):
I mean we did. You know, we did a edition
at Image, like a hardcover at Image. But yeah, it's
it's it's out of print right now. You can still
buy it if you go to my own line store,
I kind of I took all the remaining stock that
image had, so I've still got still got a few

(01:18:57):
boxes of copies. So yeah, if you need some, you
neither buy it through my online store, which is just
you know, go to my website. There's a link there.
The store is run by third Icmics. So yeah, so
you can get if you if you need them, basically
you can get them from me.

Speaker 1 (01:19:15):
How about some of the other things. What was that
what was your oh god, now blanket on icon? What
was your icon book.

Speaker 2 (01:19:23):
That has been a Wrath? Yeah, also available, new Wrath
was in there.

Speaker 1 (01:19:26):
Yeah, yeah, yeah go.

Speaker 2 (01:19:27):
On Yeah, available and imaged hardcover. Yep, yes, yeah, I
should be Yeah. That was me and me and Ron Garney.

Speaker 1 (01:19:36):
Yeah yeah, no, I no, I I again, I'm always
up for Jason interaction man, so I appreciate it. And
then again I think we're well, we're in for a
big twenty twenty six from you, more continuation of absolute
Superman and yep, you know, then started more bug Wars.

Speaker 2 (01:19:55):
Right. Like I said, I do have another creator own
thing I've been working on. It'll be a different it'll
be a different genre. It's a genre creator own genre
I've never done before. I'll say that some other work
for higher stuff. I well, the Uncle Scrooge is there.

(01:20:15):
There's one more issue of that to come out from
from Marvel. So that's been a huge thrill for me.
Uncle Scrooge is very very special character to me, so
I'm really proud of that book too.

Speaker 1 (01:20:27):
On me, I didn't know you were doing Uncle Scrooge.
I wasn't paying attention. That's great, shame on me.

Speaker 2 (01:20:32):
Yeah, I think I think issue threes out, So it's
a four issue mini you know, and I did the
I did the Uncle Scrooge and the Infinity Dying, which
came out last year. So this is kind of a bigger,
bigger follow up to that of of it's it's you know,
my love letter, large part of my love letter to
Don Rosa and his story is a huge, huge fan

(01:20:52):
of those stories. And I with you read my son
and I read them all as when he was growing up,
like that was our bedtime reading for for years or
entire library of Uncle screech stories?

Speaker 1 (01:21:04):
Are they on model? Who's drawing? Who's drawing Uncle Scrooge
for you?

Speaker 2 (01:21:08):
This mini series is drawn by a whole ton of people,
like a huge like the The Infinity Dime was drawn
by all Italian artists who work on the character for Panini,
so to with the follow up, it's a mix like
there's there's Italian artists but also tons of tons of

(01:21:28):
Marvel people. So my Mood did some pages, Adam Kubert
did some Uncle Scrooch pages. Nick Bradshaw did some killer stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:21:41):
Cool.

Speaker 2 (01:21:43):
So yeah, it's a it's a really really gorgeous book.

Speaker 1 (01:21:46):
That's hilarious. Well, I'm gonna have to dip through my
Marvel Unlimited and and catch up on that. That's cool.
When is your do you know when you're making your
announcement for your next creator own thing?

Speaker 2 (01:21:56):
No, no, yeah, we're still working. We're still working away
on it. So we want to be you know, far
enough ahead before I.

Speaker 1 (01:22:04):
Want to and you don't. This is the genre you're
playing with it. I want to see it. I want
to see it straight up. Eighteen hundreds Western from you
in nineteenth century Western?

Speaker 2 (01:22:12):
It is not, but I yeah, I would love to
do a Western. I mean I did that Berserker one shot.
I did a Western Berserker. One shot was that last
year it's called it's called a Face Full of Bullets.

Speaker 1 (01:22:27):
I haven't seen them.

Speaker 2 (01:22:30):
No, that's a that's boom, you know, the the counter reeves.

Speaker 1 (01:22:35):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's why I assume it.

Speaker 2 (01:22:39):
Yeah. So that's I mean, that's as close as I've come,
I guess so far to doing a straight Western. It's
set yeah, kind of during the border war between Kansas
and Missouri. So yeah, someday some day and you'll see,
you know. I'm I'm for the bug Wars ash Can
that we put out at New York Comic Con. We

(01:23:00):
I wrote a prose story in that which was exclusive
to that ash Can. We didn't put it in the
We didn't put it in the trade, and actually just
wrote a pros another buckwortht pro story that we'll put
in the special. I finished that just a couple of
weeks ago, So I'm I've enjoyed using that as an
avenue for me to start poking around doing pro like

(01:23:21):
I did. I wrote prose for you know, the first
giant chunk of my life. I mean, most of it
terrible that I hope no one ever reads it.

Speaker 1 (01:23:32):
Prior to the other side.

Speaker 2 (01:23:33):
Correct, Yeah, yeah, I mean I always loved comics and
wanted to write comics, but I had no idea how
you went about doing that. So I I was, I
wrote tons of short stories and lots of terrible novels,
and and then you know, I was finally able to
kind of get my foot in the door with comics
and haven't written, really written any pros at all in

(01:23:54):
a long time. So I've wanted to start getting back
to that, and I Bug was a good excuse and
an easy way to kind of ease back into it.
But I really enjoy doing it and want to keep
playing with that to try to get better at it.
But definitely see me doing more pro stuff, you know,

(01:24:16):
the down the line.

Speaker 1 (01:24:19):
How many pages of pros will be? You know, in
that Bug Wars thing like because I you'll forgive me,
but it almost reminds me of they were. They were
made for different reasons, but those from the Golden Age,
and you know those text pieces, those text stories.

Speaker 2 (01:24:34):
Yeah, this I don't know. I don't know. Becca hasn't
lettered the pro story for the special yet, so I'm
not sure how many pages it'll be. It'll it's similar
to we did back matter in the In in every
issue of Bug Wars, there were pages from the The
main character's dead father was an entomologist, and so their

(01:24:55):
kind of excerpts from his journals talking about the different
kinds of bugs and sure and mites, and so this
is similar to that. It's it's it's excerpts from his journal,
but it's him kind of telling a story of his
adventures in the yard. So I don't know exactly how
many pages it will wind up being the one. The
one was in the Ashcan was maybe four pages, four

(01:25:17):
or five pages. This one might be a little bit
longer than that. The special is pretty The special is
pretty huge. It's like, yeah, the main story is thirty pages,
and then there's a couple of ten page stories and
then there'll be some back matter. So yeah, it's pretty pretty.
It's a big oversized special.

Speaker 1 (01:25:35):
Yeah, kind of an anthology then within the bug War
universe basically.

Speaker 2 (01:25:39):
Yeah. And I you know, I to me, I always
I always remember so fondly those days in the eighties
when annuals were like a cool, big deal, you know,
like those New teen Titans. Annuals were just like big
special issues of the book. And I the Blue Devil
was one of those kind of forgotten eighties books that

(01:26:01):
I talk about all the time that I love so much,
and I remember the Blue Devil Summer Fun Special, So
some of it's me wanting to get back to doing
something like this where it's not this is not just
like a bunch of stories by other creative teams or
stories that have nothing to do with the the rest
of the series. These are kind of important pieces of

(01:26:24):
the puzzle and just us having fun in different ways.
So my mood actually writes one of the stories and
then he's drowing one of the shorter stories that I
wrote that will kind of be a tease of book two.
So there'll be a lot of cool stuff in the special.

Speaker 1 (01:26:41):
That's awesome, man, that's coming out of everybody in January.
And also at that same time again you'll be able
to get the start of Jason's Thunder run. How many
issues for Thunder that's six issues? Cool, excellent, And the
continuing drama of that Absolute Superman which we're enjoying right now,
and the big battles winding up. As far as the

(01:27:04):
second this would be the second arc, right jas. As
far as the Smallville War that we're experiencing right now, well, yeah,
this is the end.

Speaker 2 (01:27:11):
I forget, like how many arcs we've actually had this
is again. In my mind, this has kind of all
been one arc. But this will be the end of
the second trade. Okay, the first first trade was issues
one through six.

Speaker 1 (01:27:23):
When are they trading if they haven't? I know the
first volume obviously is out of your Turtle run. I
don't know if the second one is yet or not.

Speaker 2 (01:27:29):
I don't think the second one is out yet. No, Okay, yeah,
that's in Turtles. I feel like is available in a
lot of different formats. There's trades, there's hardcovers, there's big hardcovers.
There's a big like black and white hardcover. I think
they'll eventually be a hardcover collecting all twelve issues. So

(01:27:51):
you have a plethora of choices for how you would
like to pick up those Turtles issues.

Speaker 1 (01:27:57):
At a boy Jase. Honestly, again, every time every time
I pick up a Jason Aaron book, I'm very happy.
So and I really absolutely superman. It's just been a
pleasure and I'm excited for thunder Ukla Ariel. Thanks and
yeah man, thanks for hanging out when you when you
make the creator own announcement, dope be spreads. If I
don't bug you, we we don't talk enough. Jason I'm

(01:28:19):
sure for you it's plenty.

Speaker 2 (01:28:21):
You know. For me that's always a pleasure.

Speaker 1 (01:28:24):
John, Well, thanks buddy, seriously, you know we've been, you've been.
I feel like I've been on the track with you
since other side, So it's sure.

Speaker 2 (01:28:32):
Has been a long time, and we've always you know,
we see each other shows. I always forget. It's like
everybody I know in comics, like we always see each
other in places where neither neither of us live, right,
they all they all blur together of like where where
was that? What city was that? Or country? I don't remember,
but I always refer well and I always I always

(01:28:52):
see you when I come to Chicago.

Speaker 1 (01:28:54):
Absolutely man, and no when when when when it's when
we are out of town, especially San Diego. Refer to
it as real expensive summer camp because it's nice weather
and all of our friends that we're all out of
town and it's just great to be hanging out and everything,
and you know, it's getting always too short, even even
five days, it seems too short as far as just
the hangtime and everything and the opportunity to see you.

Speaker 2 (01:29:15):
Don't know if that's too short for San Diego Comic Con,
I don't know. That I could do any more of
San Diego con that shows, but.

Speaker 1 (01:29:23):
All of us being together, I mean, you know, don't
get me wrong, Jase, I always say, you know in
radio we had to do the Auto Show, and I
always see when conventions get mundane and ature, like the
Auto Show was for me, that's when you got to step.

Speaker 2 (01:29:38):
Back, for sure. Yeah, but I definitely I'm I don't
want to be the guy who seems like I'm complaining
about Oh, I hate having to do conventions. I love
doing conventions. I love going to places and meeting fans
and yes, hanging out with the rest of us who
work in comics. It's the only time we see each other.
San Diego is just a big, exhausting, busy show. That's
the only and it can't it can't beigger than it

(01:30:00):
is because it's big, big enough. But yeah, I love
doing conventions. That part to me never.

Speaker 1 (01:30:06):
Get Do you have any shows left this year or
plans for next year?

Speaker 2 (01:30:11):
But done? Yeah, I'm done for this year. I kind
of did. Had had a smaller con schedule this year
after last year I went a little crazy and did
a few too mini shows and then kind of decided
to buy a house in the midst of all that,
which thanks so that that was not fun, like doing
that many shows and trying to move. Yeah, so I

(01:30:34):
kind of took it down a notch this year, but
next year I'll be back doing a few more. So
I don't think I've been announced for any yet, but yeah,
there's there's some I've already agreed to. So I like
mixing it up. I don't. I don't do any of
the same shows every year, so so you'll see me
at some next year that I some of them haven't

(01:30:56):
been to in years, and then maybe a couple that
I've never been to.

Speaker 1 (01:31:02):
Sounds good man, beautiful, dude. It's always good hangtime. Thank you,
and uh and we'll we'll hopefully talk sooner than later.
And uh and continued success as always been all these
great books. Thanks Johnson, Thank you, Jason Air and everybody
you know. I screwed up. I thought I was sunging
to Shelley Bond and the American Caper crew including David
Lappin and everybody that Dan Houser has assembled for their

(01:31:24):
cool book. It's tomorrow, so I you know, again, for
some reason, I thought Jason was going to be Thursday
and Shelley and Company on Wednesday, but no, that's tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (01:31:34):
Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you, John.

Speaker 1 (01:31:35):
Not at all, are you kidding?

Speaker 2 (01:31:37):
I was like, please please tell me Shelley and David
and everybody.

Speaker 1 (01:31:40):
I said, hello, I absolutely will and know that I regardless, James,
I was very.

Speaker 2 (01:31:45):
Happy to fact to follow.

Speaker 1 (01:31:48):
Absolutely well, no, you're killed tonight, absolutely, man. But also
uh no, I was really happy with Vincent from Dynamite
say hey, you want to talk to Jason. I'm like, yes,
I want to talk to Jason. I haven't talked to
him since the big Absolute announcement two years ago. It
has been that long. Yeah, and that's fine, Jase, because
we did you know, we covered a lot in that
panel with you and Scott and everything.

Speaker 2 (01:32:07):
That's right. Yeah. So was that that was that terrific?

Speaker 1 (01:32:10):
On was it was terrific? Kind of August twenty four? Yeah, man, Yeah,
I'm like, you know again, I don't want to. I
don't want to, you know, be the nudge stuntress again. Jesus,
find somebody else, man, go bug somebody else.

Speaker 2 (01:32:24):
I'm always happy, always happy to chat.

Speaker 1 (01:32:26):
John means the same, Jess. You know that. So thank
you everybody, for watching and enjoying Jay's hanging out for
a second before we say goodbye to each other privately.
But until next time, everybody, everybody, stay safe, stay happy,
stay healthy.

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