November 6, 2025 • 60 mins
Today, we’re heading off-world — straight into the events of Marvel’s massive Imperial Cosmic Epic, as the Green Goliath of Law gets a brand-new chapter in Planet She-Hulk. Writer Stephanie Phillips and artist Aaron Kuder join me to break down how Jennifer Walters finds herself at the heart of an intergalactic power struggle — torn between the laws of a reformed empire and the raw fury that made her a legend. We’ll talk about the tone of this new book — part political sci-fi, part space opera — how it connects to Hickman’s larger cosmic tapestry, and what fans can expect from Kuder’s out-of-this-world visual design and Phillips’ signature balance of empathy and grit. Whether you’ve followed She-Hulk since the Byrne and Slott days, or you’re jumping on now, this is the perfect gateway into Marvel’s next great cosmic saga.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back everybody time again for Word Balloon the Comic
Book Conversation Show. John centrists here Man. Great to talk
to Stephanie Phillips and Aaron Kuder last night all about
their run on Planet she Hulk that has just begun,
and it's excellent. It is great. Who would have thought
Jennifer Walter's in charge of a savage planet? I think
(00:25):
lawyer turned conan, the barbarian. That's kind of what we're
getting here in the best way. I think it's fantastic.
Aaron draws the hell out of it, Steph writes the
hell out of it, and we talk about it. It's
tie into Imperial I believe it's called Imperial, the Jonathan
Nickman Interplanetary epic that is underway. But this is a
(00:45):
great series all on to itself, and you don't need
to read the rest to understand what the hell is
going on. And you got me to explain the things
that I didn't understand. But a lot of greatest hits
from Aaron Couter. We talk about his run on Superman,
the New Superman of the New fifty two, following in
the footsteps of Rags Morales and Graham Morrison in their run,
(01:07):
Greg Pock and Aaron followed up with them and did
a good, healthy run on Action Comics, and also we
talk about his run with Dan Slott on The Fantastic
Four and a fun one shot that he did with
Jason Aaron Godzilla Versus Thor, and steph has gotten now
only things going on with She Hulk, but also with
(01:28):
gwyn Stacy, who she's been writing the hell out of.
I didn't realize. I thought her run had ended with fifteen.
But of course Marvel new number one, same creative team,
same people. Okay, Marvel fine whatever, some behind, but she
catches me up. And also some other great stuff, including
a great distillery book she's doing with my buddy Mark
(01:48):
Lemming and that's Endeavor, very interesting book, lots more fun
with Stephanie Phillips and Aaron Couter. That's all coming up
on today's word Balloon. Word Balloon is brought to you
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(02:11):
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(02:35):
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(02:55):
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Patreon dot com slash word Balloon. Welcome back everybody time
(03:19):
again for Word Balloon the Comic Book Conversation show John
Cutris with you. Always happy to welcome Stephanie Phillips back,
but I think this is the first down I van
Aaron Kouter on Word Balloon. Nice to see erin. Nice
to meet you, absolutely, man, You've worked with many of
my friends and we'll be talking about that during the conversation. Steph,
Sorry I'm bugging you again, you know it is.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Thanks for having me back.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
As always, Man, No, my pleasure. Well, honestly, you both
were kind enough to send me the first issue of
a Planet she Hulk and pretty hilarious. I hope I'm
the first to coin the phrase it's the lawyer Warrior
book that we didn't know we needed, but we do.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
It.
Speaker 4 (04:04):
I don't know that I could say it though, especially
like more than once in a row lawyer war Lawyer
Warrior bet.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
I wasn't sure which can first? I hear you, No,
I understand, hilarious and great. And Aaron, is this is
this your first time doing a Warrior Broker? Have you
done Conan or anything like that in the past.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
I've done so many things that you have.
Speaker 5 (04:30):
This is the first time that I think i've kind
of been in that uh sort of yeah, conan uh
dystopian Keyman sort of universe sort of look.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
As far as I can remember anyway, Yeah, yeah, Steph,
how about you?
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Yeah, I mean I think other than Tarna.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Well, of course, yes, shame on me.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
I mean she she had a giant sword, so that's
kind of what I'm basing.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
But I guess similar with the sword. But yeah, that's
about it.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Well, I'm always a big fan of genre splicing, and
I do like the idea that Wyse ask Jennifer suddenly
finds herself on Scar and has to do this stuff?
When did you know? Because I'm used to Again, sometimes
I don't pay attention to what's happening in six one six.
I've been reading Phillips Hulk Run. Yeah, and I know
that the things leading up to this weren't happening in
(05:32):
Phillips book. So how do we get here with Jennifer
having new and also the fact that it's the planet
is now called Scar because that was always the kid's
name for a long time, right.
Speaker 4 (05:46):
Yeah, So he had a son named Scar and the
planet was Cicar, and then New Cicar, which, like the
Cicar was, is gone. So now New Sicar. I think
in a lot of cases we're kind of just referring
to it as Ciicar, like we do establish that it's
it is a different planet technically, but a lot of
(06:11):
some familiar flip faces from the original planet Ciicar and
a lot of new ones as well.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Is this coming out of an event? Is this a
mini series or is this a new ongoing?
Speaker 4 (06:23):
Ours is a new ongoing and it's coming out of
Jonathan Hickman's Imperial run so or I think it was
like a four issue mini So in Imperial Hulk, there
there's kind of a big almost like a galactic murder
mystery that starts off and you start off on Nusicar
with the death of Hulk's sun hero Kala, who was
(06:44):
ruling over Newsicar. And now there's a power vacuum, so
essentially a lot of people now have like eyes for
the throne of Newsicar.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
And he asks she.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
Holds to kind of stay and try to like broke
your piece for a few days, promises will be back
in five days, and then as you see it, like
the very beginning of our our series, he is not
back in five days. So that's kind of where we
start off there.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
That's cool. Is this is just fun for you, Aaron
in terms of drawing creatures and things like this.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (07:16):
Absolutely, Like I was thinking about this earlier, that this
sort of.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
Alien world is.
Speaker 5 (07:27):
Probably the closest thing to in my comfort wheel house
that I've drawn in.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
A very long time. I love I love the I
mean I grew.
Speaker 5 (07:37):
Up on like the he Man's the Thundars. You know
that that age of stone stone and sorcery of you know,
dungeons and dragons and like this this universe where you know, lightsabers.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
And stuff like that were commonplace.
Speaker 5 (07:57):
So you know, yeah, I'm looking forward to drawing some
like energy, uh, crossbows or something like that, and then
really just hokey.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
Yeah, that's awesome, I would imagine. I know, you had
a nice run with Zadarsky on on Daredevil and stuff.
Although you did you did do And I want to
ask about this later. You're you're one shot of Godzilla
and Thor earlier this year, so there's a big job.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (08:23):
Yeah, well, well my Daredevil was wash with Saladin Zadarski.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
I came on after Zadarski nors Nors.
Speaker 5 (08:36):
Uh but yeah, no, uh yeah, god Zilla versus Thor,
who was a blast.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
It was absolutely blast.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Andrew's reminding me that I guess you did some great
Kaiju Dungeons and Dragon Superman stories with Greg back.
Speaker 5 (08:51):
Yeah, yeah, that was that was that was probably the
closest to this whole There was an underground universe world
in the story is that also had a similar like
story ancestory sort of vibe. But I was thinking, yeah,
that's that's the closest thing I think I've drawn since
(09:13):
to that.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
But yeah, that's cool, that's cool. And yes, I mean
you're you're you know again, like you said, and I'd forgotten.
Of course you did Tarna for heavy Metal and that
was a lot of fun, is uh. But also this
has got to be great because it's kind of Jennifer
is approaching this pretty much using her law skills in
terms of trying to mediate the politics of the planet
(09:36):
along with every now and then, all right, I got
to pick up the sword and kick some mess obviously, right.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
Yeah, I mean I think it's like a real clash
for her, like bringing logic and reason to a planet
that is really kind of working with a lot of chaos,
and that's that's definitely gonna mess with her and give
her a bit of a rough time because she's really
trying to do things the way you would on Earth
(10:02):
and especially as an attorney, and she's going to have
to try to adjust her expectations as we go forward.
Speaker 5 (10:09):
No parallels between our current reality of trying to figure
out what world we're living in and dealing with it
in a logical manner.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
Yeah, it will not surprise me if the debating parties
do pick up swords soon. Having Thunderdome sort of debates.
We're not that far.
Speaker 4 (10:32):
Right, Yeah, I mean I don't like spoil I think
it's in the next issue. A character that I like
quite a bit, says, you know, because Jen is kind
of complaining like it's chaos and we're missing the logic
and things like that, and she's like, oh, yeah, this
is so different from Earth. Like I kind of like
that moment, geting to kind of throw that back in
(10:53):
Jen a little bit, like, yes, you might operate this way,
but like you might think in a perfect world the
system gets to work this way, but.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Might not always.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Stanley wants to know, what, Steph, do you like breaking
the third wall having Jennifer talk directly to us, I
do fourth I.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Suppose, right, Yeah, I think it's a lot of fun.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
I really enjoyed it from you know, some of the
original burned material.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
I loved getting to bring that back.
Speaker 4 (11:21):
It was really early on too, when I was in
the Marvel offices talking about potentially doing this book, and
I think I even said something like it's cool if
I'm doing the fourth wall breaking though, right, because that
wasn't in maybe the last couple of runs for Sieholds.
So I was like, I don't know if this is
some thing that Marvel Offices don't want, and everybody collectively
(11:42):
was like, let's give it a shot, let's go for it.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
And Hickman was a big supporter of that as well.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
So that was good because it kind of, you know,
kicking things out of his Imperial storyline. I didn't want to,
like go in a direction everybody was unhappy with, but
he was like, nope, that's per effects.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
That story is a bit serious.
Speaker 4 (12:02):
And jen doing the fourth wall breaking, I was like,
maybe it's a tonal problem, but everybody was cool with it,
so I was excited.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Aaron, are you prepping some prints? Is this your cover,
by the.
Speaker 5 (12:14):
Way, Yeah, Yeah, amazing Amazing Colors.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
Amazing Colors by sonya O back O bak Uh, Yeah,
I don't.
Speaker 5 (12:29):
I don't really like kind of deal with prince right
unless I'm going to a show or something like that. Generally,
I kinda I kind of just try to stay in
my in my lane, as it were. And I you know,
everything I draw is ninety nine percent on paper. So
(12:53):
as far as like trying to make a supplementary income,
which you know a lot of people make prints for.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
I'm allowed to. You know, I've got the original.
Speaker 5 (13:05):
Arts to sell, so that that really takes care of
that need.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
How quickly did the two of you working together, Jel,
as far as you know, was there any kind of
feeling out or well, you know, when you were when
you kind of planned the book, what kind of what
kind of talk did you guys have.
Speaker 5 (13:21):
Right away?
Speaker 3 (13:22):
For me?
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Same?
Speaker 4 (13:23):
Yeah, we got on pretty immediately, I think, yeah, like.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Yeah, did they put you together or or okay.
Speaker 4 (13:32):
Yeah, yeah, I mean and then we pretty quickly were
like let's kind of get on the phone and asking
each other like, well, do you is this okay with you?
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Do you like working this way?
Speaker 4 (13:43):
And it was just a lot of like, oh, I
totally agree with what you're saying. I like what you're saying.
This sounds great. I can do this, this sounds this
sounds perfect for me. So and that's kind of the
way it's continued. Yeah, paying to agree with me, by
the way, he's secretly over.
Speaker 6 (13:59):
There like.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
She has my veno.
Speaker 5 (14:05):
No.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
That's one of the things is that, like, one of
the things.
Speaker 5 (14:09):
That I really have been gelling with this series with
is that Stephanie's character concepts and plot ideas are very
well formed, and that can lead to with another writer,
(14:32):
that can that could be very stagnant and make you
feel like you have to draw it just.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
What's what's on the page.
Speaker 5 (14:39):
But she's been extremely flexible but well developed with her
story concepts.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
It's it's been it's been a blast.
Speaker 5 (14:46):
It's really been the the most fun I've had drawing
the book in a very long time.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Oh that's awesome.
Speaker 4 (14:54):
Yeah, it's I think it makes the whole process really
cool when you get to click with the team. And
at some point in my career I think, I mean,
I still haven't been around a super long time, but
I'm at a point to where I've learned. One of
the best things about comics is the people you get
to make it with. And so when you have a team,
like working with Aaron and we did a signing at
(15:15):
the Marble Booth that was a lot of fun recently
during New York Comic Con as well. Yeah, so when
you get to work with people where you're like, you
click personally, you click in the story that you're getting
to tell together, Like, I think it makes it a
lot better, just not even from the process, but what
you actually get to read in the book. I think
I'm hearing a lot of people saying they're having a
lot of fun with the story, and it's like, yeah,
so were we. So I'm glad that that's cool.
Speaker 5 (15:39):
Yeah, it's it's hard for it not to show up
if we're feeling it.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
You know.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Who's who's your editor?
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Jordan White?
Speaker 3 (15:48):
Jordan White, Oh, sure of course Guardians of the Galaxy too.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Oh that's cool. Yeah, man, you guys are in a
big mustache competition. That would have made engineering correct.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
He wins. He's got the handlebars sometimes.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Absolutely, No, that's great. I'm always it figures because I
usually gravitate to books that he edits and stuff, and
I appreciate his taste so it's cool that he put
you guys together, and I think that's that's really cool.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
He's really one of those people that.
Speaker 5 (16:26):
Has it has just such a nice well he's a
very lovely person like great personality, very warm hearted, but
he also is able to balance that with creating or
cultivating these books that appeal to people with with given
(16:51):
his own personal tastes and stuff. Yeah, he's really a
treasure to work with.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Very cool. Stanley's doing my job for me. He wants
to know, Steph, are you writing for the trade or
single issues? In this case, it's.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
A good question. I guess both. I mean, I don't
necessarily think.
Speaker 4 (17:11):
I mean, I know five issues get collected into the trade,
so like I think I have a road map that's
like thinking about arcs as five issues, so I have
like goals for an arc. But then within that I'm
thinking also about the single issue, Like if I've got
twenty pages, I want there to be twenty pages that
(17:31):
are really giving you information and how can we progress
this character in this way and where do they get
to go in this issue that's going to leave the
reader saying like, well, I can't wait to see them again.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
In the next issue.
Speaker 4 (17:45):
And so this one was kind of fun because initially,
in one of my earliest planning documents, I actually wrote
what every cliffhanger was going to be for the five
first five issues. I haven't written that way so specifically before,
but I think this is like maybe the most detailed
(18:06):
planning we've done in a while, or maybe because it
was linked to Imperial and I really did. I wrote
out all the cliffhangers, and a couple got shifted a
little bit, but it's all of those things. We've hit
all of those beats, and uh, the first five issues
are are all written, so it's I think it's a
really exciting arc.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
And and are you uh you said it's technically gonna
it's potentially going to be an ongoing I know sales
obviously dictates what's happened. Obviously you've had that experience with
Spider Gwen recently. Steph, I know that ended, you know,
this summer, and I want to talk to you about that,
But are you and Aaron? I don't I don't want
to believe me. I'm not your editor and I'm not
(18:47):
your deadline guy or anything like that. But have you
no at all. I'm just curious really in terms of
beyond the imperial issues, have you I've had a chance
to go to issue six potentially.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
Yeah, we are going to Yeah we are.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
That's already I'm currently working on five, so I'm sure.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Okay, but I've got you guys. You know that's part
of the plan, I guess, is to do six at least,
and that hopefully cool.
Speaker 5 (19:18):
I I honestly, I've got such a good vibe from
this book. Yeah, I don't. I don't see them backing
out like it's It's something that I think people will
buy as an individual issue and as a trade like it.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
It's just a fun read, you know.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
I do and I and guys, honestly, I'm not being nice.
It's a great idea. I don't know if they've ever
done this with Jen before, and I think it's a
tremendous idea too. Really. I mean, she's she's always great
and and I've really enjoyed the various people that have
written her before. But this is such a great fishot
(20:00):
of water idea that I would imagine the stories are
endless for you guys.
Speaker 4 (20:06):
Yeah, And I mean knowing where like Aaron knows what
it is too, like knowing what the last page of
issue five is, and then like, I know what the
opening of issue six is, Like there's a couple of
things we've we kind of tease out for five issues
that then like, I mean, the issue five just kind
of I think, turns it all on its head. And
(20:26):
then we get to say Issue six gets to be
something that's going to feel really cool from page It's like,
I'm very excited that page one is is very fun.
So I can't I know, it's all hard to talk
about it and be like I don't even know this.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
I can't. I can't give it away.
Speaker 4 (20:42):
But I'm the worst because I'm the person that will
like buy you a birthday gift three months early and
be like you want to know what it is?
Speaker 2 (20:48):
You want to open it now, Like.
Speaker 4 (20:51):
I can't believe I got to wait like another four
months for you to know what issue five is.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
That's awful. It's horrible.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
We guys sell Like again, I'm glad you guys were
in New York together and made the announcement stuff and
tabling together a great picture. By the way, I was
really glad that Steph shared it with me. I can
put it on the lobby card, but like, did you
have anything to sign of Hulk of she Hulk or
you know at that moment or I mean, I know
the book came out today, but yeah, they made.
Speaker 5 (21:21):
An exclusive print poster size for it. It's beautiful. I
grabbed a couple of copius myself.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
Yeah, is that of the cover Aaron?
Speaker 5 (21:31):
Yeah, yeah, that's cool.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
All right, good deal. Yeah, I get So what's what
was the feedback like from from the audience.
Speaker 3 (21:41):
I haven't I haven't really checked it out.
Speaker 5 (21:43):
I mean, I've seen a couple of posts of people being,
uh positive, but I generally don't listen.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Do your own thing. Absolutely, no, no, no, oh, I
get that.
Speaker 5 (22:01):
Yeah, it's not that I don't appreciate it. It's just
I don't want it to affect my mindset for moving
forward and staying productive.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
No, I just I really was wondering regarding New York
and the New York people, the convention people, how they
responded and if they said anything like oh, great idea
or whatever.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
You know they love the poster.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
Yeah, great, that's true. Well, yeah, there's no such thing
as a bad free poster. I can't.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
Yeah. I felt like there was a lot of excitement
around the book, which is a cool feeling like we've
been excited, feeling everybody else be excited. It's like I
kept saying on like a podcast we did earlier this week,
that everything kind of felt like it was clicking from
the way the team came together, the way we worked together,
being able to put together a story we're all really
(22:52):
excited about, like it really has continued, Like everybody at
New York felt very excited.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Like Aaron, I.
Speaker 4 (23:00):
Kind of block out good or bad, I just for
the same reason. Both have the potential to impact how
I how I think about things, and I have like plans,
I have ideas, and I like sticking to my own.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
Gut better than like letting something sway me.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
I've been sent some things and you know, people comment
on stuff I've posted, and it seems largely happy and
that's good. I'm excited about that.
Speaker 5 (23:28):
So one of one of the one of the neat
things about the way that this team came together is
that I think we were all well at least Stephanie
and I myself were kind of reluctant to start to
take on Shee Hulk. My my hiccup with it was
that I didn't want to be on a book that
(23:50):
was a spin off of a larger series. I just
have a hard time with seeing how those connect with
the character and uh and and have and add to
the evolution of the meat thoughs. And yeah, Jordan actually
pitched it to me twice, and it was the second
(24:14):
time that I was like, Okay, we'll give this a go.
And I'm so glad we did. I did because it
would have been one of the worst decisions I've.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Paid from a story standpoint, stuph did you have a place?
And I'm and I love the idea that in five
you're gonna have a twist that'll lead to six, But
did did Hickman give you all right, Jen needs to
be here? And and did you have that or any
(24:42):
any sort of plotting edict to to support uh, you know,
the the mini series or the main series?
Speaker 4 (24:50):
Not really, which is part of the reason why I
then did I think I could take this on? For
for the same reason I I was reluctant. And when
I was with Hickman in the offices, he had kind
of laid out a couple of things he thought were
going to be the spinoff books, and I was kind
of like, in my head, if I was going to
(25:11):
do one. There was a different one that I thought.
I was like a lot of what he was doing
sounded very tied to Hulk and Nusakar, and I want
I was, I'm very much like, let me go beyond
literally like my own planet and build the story.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
And then I think I was in the offices for
like three days.
Speaker 4 (25:30):
It was a maybe the second or third day, I
came in and I had pulled somebody else aside, and
I was like, I was wrong. I do think She
Hulk is the right book for me. I was like,
I've given this a lot more thought, and the more
I think about those books, the She Hulk one just
keeps like coming up. All I was given was like,
there's a page from the from the I think it's
(25:51):
Imperial Issue one where Hulk kind of says like, will
you stay on the planet. And as I started writing, like,
there's a there's a kind of one shot prequel that
comes first that came out maybe a couple of months ago.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
You don't have to read it going into it.
Speaker 4 (26:04):
But as I was working on Issue one, I think
I got a call from I think it was Jordan.
That's like, by the way, Hero Colla had five wives
it like, so that was a fun that was a
fun wrench and I was like, okay, well have they
been drawn? Like who are they? And and Hickman was
(26:25):
really cool about saying like you can totally you can
make them up, use them how you want or not
or whatever you need to do with them, which I appreciated.
But that was a fun that was the only thing
that came up. I have no problem with it. It
was just a very funny phone call to get to say, like,
by the way, five wives, And I was like, okay,
So when Jen kind of like harks on the like
(26:47):
really five wives, it's it's a bit of a joke,
Like internally it's really Hickman like five lives.
Speaker 3 (26:57):
So now we know that you like to write for yourself.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
And so you're putting important you're putting yourself kind of
in stepped shoes in a lot of ways. I think
from this first person narration, excuse me, jensa shoes excuse me.
Speaker 4 (27:17):
Yeah, I feel like the one of the other things
that clicked really well was her voice. Sometimes there's like
some runway with the character that I feel like I
need a couple issues to be like all right now.
I really know how this character sounds as me. Jen
I felt like was maybe the fastest fit of any character.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
I love writing her so much, like.
Speaker 4 (27:40):
Her monologue, her fourth wall breaking, the snarky sarcasm. Just
I don't know, I really I enjoy her a lot,
and we clicked very fast.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
Yeah, same with drelling her.
Speaker 5 (27:54):
Yeah, I was surprised, Yeah, drawing a character. You know,
there's a lot of guys out there, a lot of
a lot of guy characters that I've drawn, and this
is the first time I've taken on a female lead,
and I was very, very hesitant to do that.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
But yeah, no, similar feeling exactly. It's like it just clicked.
It just it just feels right. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
Did you look to other artists who had drawn Jennifer
in the past as as kind of a templater.
Speaker 7 (28:34):
No, I mean there's always there's always an homage to
the people that have influenced me.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
I definitely. You know, one of my one of my
favorite Marvel Trading cards is Art Adams She Hulk.
Speaker 5 (28:57):
You know, call back to the nineties, right Adams, Like,
you know, the way he renders women is always powerful.
There's also enjoyed Walt Simonson's she Hulk in Fantastic Four. Yeah,
(29:21):
it's more so about capturing her character in my lines.
Like if I focus too much on other people's renditions
or interpretations, then that will influence the way that I
draw them. So I don't want to do that too much.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
Be Things, Man, the system works. As I like to
say here on word Balloon, b Things says, she Hulk
is one of my favorites. I just bought this new
issue while I'm listening to this broadcast. I'm excited to
read it. You will not be disappointed Be Things. I'm
glad to or that. And Ange was wondering if if
you're writing Harley, Steph, you know, was that a part
(30:09):
of an appeal to then write Jen.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
Yeah, that's interesting.
Speaker 4 (30:14):
I mean Harley is I think a little bit more
detached from reality, Like there's I think a similar sarcasm.
But the interesting thing is, I think Wall Harley really
cultivates chaos. Jen thrives on order. So like having a
similar sense of humor, I can definitely see elements of that,
(30:35):
like Crossing, but Jen is just so much more like
I mean, the lack of order and the chaos is
just like nails on a chalkboard to her, and you
can tell she's she's really not happy with her predicament
at first. I mean, she jokes about it, and maybe
I think that's where some of the crossing comes in,
(30:58):
where I think both Harley and Jen use the sense
of humor to kind of mask the actual emotion and bias.
You five, I think you'll get a little bit more
realistic about that as well. Like I've been saying these
things but being a bit snarky, but here's like the truth.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
Of the situation that we find ourselves in.
Speaker 4 (31:17):
And sometimes that drops for Harley too, where like her
humor is like totally a mask for a lot of pain.
I don't think Jen is so much in the like
Emo camp, but both highly educated.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
So yeah, I definitely see some crossovers there.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
That's interesting. I understand, Aaron. I want to acknowledge your
Superman run. Do I have the picture?
Speaker 3 (31:43):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (31:43):
I do. This is an interior shot, but both not
my work. But oh god, damn it. I hate that.
I hate when I find something and it's not the person.
I apologize to.
Speaker 5 (31:54):
Eric, it is it is my design of the character.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
Oh okay, Well, I wondered about that because again, you
and Greg came off of both and now I'm blanking
rags Moraleson and and Grant initially doing you know, New
fifty two, Superman, Year one, Superman and everything. So did
you see that as a as an opportunity to draw
(32:19):
a different kind of Superman when you were doing it?
Speaker 5 (32:23):
Well, yeah, that was like my first major book in
a lot of ways, So there was a whole lot
more that I was thinking about than who came before
and and and how it influenced me. I just I
just wanted to make sure I could do it. It's
(32:46):
been so long to think about, but yeah, it has
you know, it's it's a huge feather in my hat
of of having that legacy of working on action and
we're working.
Speaker 3 (33:02):
At a time where we were a little bit freer.
Speaker 5 (33:08):
To delve with Superman's personalities and Superman's sort of take.
Speaker 3 (33:15):
On the world.
Speaker 5 (33:15):
It was a little bit more of a wild time
of trying to find that balance of the classic fans
and the classic love of Superman and trying to build
something new.
Speaker 3 (33:36):
I'm sure James Gunn is feeling the same right now.
Speaker 1 (33:39):
Oh, I have no doubt. What do you think of
the movie?
Speaker 3 (33:42):
I loved it.
Speaker 5 (33:43):
I don't generally think of comic book movies in comparison
to comics. They're their own media, they're their own genre.
It's like novelizations of characters.
Speaker 3 (33:56):
They don't they have it, they.
Speaker 5 (33:58):
Have a different nuance. But no, I absolutely loved it.
It was very fun, excellent.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
I'm going to ping pong back and forth now with
questions because people from the audience are asking good things,
and also I do want to look now with some
of the other books that Steph has done currently and
also aerin as well. But here Alex wants to know
I was a big fan of she helped. He's curious
to know, Steph, whether your depiction or where your depiction
of Jennifer changes compared to more classic runs like john Burn.
Speaker 4 (34:30):
Yeah. I mean, I think she's just in an evolving
character that's been through a lot of different runs and experiences.
The Rainbow Rowel run that wrapped up not that long ago,
that was a lot of fun, and seeing her really
kind of giving a bit of a softer side with
her relationship with Jack of Hearts, You're getting just a
(34:51):
lot a lot more pieces of jen are kind of
coming through with these other stories, so I think all
of those things are still in our version of Jen,
and we're going to just continue them. We're going to
like see how they now evolve in a completely new setting.
I know her and Jack went to space, and there's
(35:11):
been some other space stuff a little bit here and
there with her, but this is a really like stranded
on this planet with systems in place that she can't
quite grasp and understand and really doesn't want to, at
least from what we're seeing right now. So how do
we see those things that we're established, I mean, starting
with Berne and all the way to the Rainbow Run,
(35:32):
how do we see those things? You know what Dan
Slott did, Charles Soul. You get this really cool character
now that has been very developed, and now you get
to take all those features and test her in a
very new arena which is also kind of a gladiator
pun so that fits.
Speaker 2 (35:50):
Yeah, it's been a lot of fun.
Speaker 4 (35:51):
I mean, I like who she is as a person,
as a character, and yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
Now we get to just watch more evolution with her outstanding.
Uh So, Aaron again, now I'm making sure obviously this
is this is this is one I got right. Uh No,
tell me about god Zilla and Thor and Jason Aaron
wrote that, right, yep.
Speaker 3 (36:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (36:15):
One of my favorite things about working with Jason Aaron
is that every cover that we have with both of
our names, it just reads Aaron Cooter. But he's he's
truly a wonderful guy.
Speaker 3 (36:30):
And uh, we've.
Speaker 5 (36:32):
Yeah, we've become friends over over the last we did
Avengers Forever together, yes, and uh yeah, No. He has
a great mind for these kind of like just over
the top sort of hero moments that But at the
(36:55):
same time, one of the things that can be lost
in giant over the top god's versus the sort of
things is the feeling of it connecting to the heart
of a character, the the detriment of society, you know.
Speaker 3 (37:12):
And he has a really beautiful.
Speaker 5 (37:14):
Way of finding the heart of the story. Yeah. He
and I were talking early on when we first got
signed onto that book, and he is.
Speaker 3 (37:28):
A huge god Zella Fan. I was not as much
of one.
Speaker 5 (37:33):
Going in, but I mean that's like comparing Scrooge McDuck
to Daffy like one.
Speaker 3 (37:40):
Has a lot of money, one doesn't, you know.
Speaker 5 (37:44):
And he just he is he is a huge god Zillifan.
And so when we were talking, he was like, you know,
my my head's spinning, like there's so many things that
I'm thinking of, and.
Speaker 3 (38:00):
I'm paraphrasing, of course, but.
Speaker 5 (38:04):
I was like, oh, yeah, no, you know, if this
is if this was my bag, I just you know,
find a way for Thor to get a hold of
some PEM particles and battle them like that. And then
he just kind of went silent, and he came up
with this beautiful story that had no PEM particles at all.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
I love the scale of you know, because people play
you know, and certainly you go by the movies. Godzilla
sometimes is twelve feet tall, sometimes this kind of scale,
and I just love the idea. As again, audio audience
is why you gotta watch word Balloon as much as
listen to it. But if or pick up the issue
that we're talking about Godzilla versus Thor. But despite the
(38:51):
fact that this is the thunder God, the god of Thunder,
and he's a tiny little speck next to gigantic, did
you guys discuss scale at all in terms of like
where you where they wanted it to be.
Speaker 4 (39:03):
No.
Speaker 5 (39:03):
I uh so when it comes to like the juxtaposition
of characters, like I kind of come up with a
kind of a rule for myself of like finding something
on the larger character that is person sized. So for
me it was it was one of the it was
(39:25):
bottom tooth that thor was the size of one of
Godzilla's bottom teeth, and I just used that to play off,
you know, when I did when I was working on
Fantastic I worked on Fantastic four with Dan Slott too,
and he had the the brilliant idea of having Galactus
(39:45):
versus Doom Parry doctor Doom, and again it was just
a matter of juxtaposition.
Speaker 3 (39:51):
You know. It is a really difficult.
Speaker 5 (39:54):
Thing, probably the most difficult thing in drawing comics for
for me and many others is having a character that
is several stories tall or you know, planet sized and
having them interact with tiny little rights people.
Speaker 3 (40:14):
And have it connect you know, in a in a
you know.
Speaker 5 (40:20):
Eleven by seventeen composition on a page that has ten
other panels.
Speaker 3 (40:25):
You know, it's it's always a visual challenge always.
Speaker 1 (40:31):
You know, Well, you succeeded, And honestly I enjoyed book
Runts so absolutely, man steph. Honestly, I loved how meta
to wrap up to Spider Gwen and goes Spider was,
and I really loved that conversation in her mind with
the fastets of her character. Absolutely, so yeah, when I
(40:52):
mean how much how much advance did you get in
terms of the cancelation And obviously they were cool with
you because that's that's a great place to end your story,
but obviously leave things open for whatever is next INA's life.
Speaker 4 (41:07):
Whatever's next has already happened. I'm still writing, yes, so
Gwen has continued, and so essentially the first fifteen issues
were Marvel kind of approached me and they were like,
we really want her to go to Earth six one
six because she's a multiverse character, so they wanted her
the main feature and they were like, can you kind
(41:28):
of figure out what that would look like? And I
had come up with this low key story, the kind
of mystery of it and kind of like this witness
protection idea with her in the time variance authority and
they and I was like they might be okay with everything,
but the Loki element. I was like, Loki is going
(41:49):
to be like a hard get. I'm sure Loki's like
tied up in a story or something, and they were
just like, okay, go write it. And I was like, wait,
I can use Loki.
Speaker 2 (41:57):
Are you sure? Like you read the low Kei part right,
it was all good. I was like, yeah, you can
use Loki tell the story.
Speaker 4 (42:04):
And then as we started to kind of near issue fifteen,
what they said they wanted to do was like a
reboot at issue one, saying like, now she's in Earth
six one six and this is like we told the
story of how she got there, and now we're saying
this is status quo. So there's all new Spider gen
but it's the same team. It's also myself in Palo
(42:27):
Villainelli drawing it with von Randall who does some fill
in issues, and Matt Miller on colors, and I think
we are Issue three came out last week, I think,
and I just finished writing issue eight today, so there's
gonna be a lot of Spider One. Yeah, it's been
(42:47):
a lot of fun. Some classic villains coming up. We're
kind of telling the story of her own symbiote that
she's dealing with right now that she kind of helped create.
His name's Tantrum, which is great because she's very quick
to anger, and the Cymbia learned from her and often
throws tantrums and it feeds off of anger.
Speaker 2 (43:08):
It like wants to.
Speaker 4 (43:10):
Take over as a host, like the angriest people that
can find. So of course he heads to Riker's prison
and starts kind of infecting the inmates there. And yeah,
so we have like a tantrum storyline going on right now,
and then we will be getting into Gwen has been
forming a new band in Earth six one six, and
(43:31):
then we have a very classic Spidey villain who will
be coming back starting an issue seven that I'm very
excited about.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
So yeah, all right, and shame on me again, but
I saw a Gwen Pool and thought, oh, they'd wrapped
up you know, your storyline and then went to Gwen Pool,
which obviously a different writer and different creative team. Okay,
And again I always I'm always catching up with my
DC and Marvel for that matter. So is he Peter
(44:01):
had you know, contact with her now that she's back
in the six one six in your in your run.
Speaker 2 (44:07):
Yes, Yeah, they've had some contact early on in our series.
Speaker 4 (44:13):
And also Gwen I believe was just in Joe Kelly
and Pepe Loraz's Spider Man. I think last month, last
two months, maybe she was kind of making some appearances
in The Spidey Amazing Spider Man. So yes, they've they've
definitely had some contact. She's had contact with Miles Miles
in our story as well, and Cindy Moon Silk is.
Speaker 2 (44:35):
A recurring character.
Speaker 4 (44:37):
Her and Gwen have gotten to be friends, and Cindy
is currently learning to play bass off of YouTube video
so that.
Speaker 2 (44:44):
She can join Gwen's band.
Speaker 4 (44:45):
She heard of it very badly, so yes, she's decided
they are friends.
Speaker 1 (44:53):
I like it. That's fantastic. Aeron, give me give me
the guy's name again that you did Darede.
Speaker 3 (45:00):
With Saladin Amid.
Speaker 1 (45:03):
No, I haven't really, I'll be honest. I haven't read
his run as much yet. How how how was the
work with Saladin?
Speaker 3 (45:10):
It was good?
Speaker 5 (45:13):
It Uh. It's probably a pretty prime example of something
outside of my wheelhouse, uh street level.
Speaker 3 (45:23):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (45:25):
Somebody that that is a vigilante. Those are not characters.
I was drawn to growing up reading.
Speaker 3 (45:34):
Comics, so.
Speaker 5 (45:39):
Having having that book was a bit of a challenge,
you know, artistically, trying to find ways to not only
make me so JAREDEVI was one of those books that
it's almost like just a classic classic comic book, you know,
(45:59):
it as a very usually has is a very clean,
organized way of telling the story.
Speaker 3 (46:09):
And uh.
Speaker 5 (46:13):
That working in that that confinement, it was was a.
Speaker 3 (46:19):
Little a little bit more of a challenge that I
thought it would be, but uh, you know, it worked out.
We finished. So cool.
Speaker 1 (46:31):
Cool, Yeah, I understand, Uh, Steph Distillery, You're doing Endeavor
and working with another buddy of mine, Mark Laiming. Yeah,
which is great. Tell us tell us about this story.
First of all, I I really appreciate the Distillery oversized
uh format, and so from an art standpoint, I think
(46:53):
that's wonderful. But yeah, so you got you got, you know,
obviously along with the modern story, you got the framing
of Captain Cook and his plight. People. If you don't
remember Captain Cook, maybe on the Bounty everybody, if you
know your classics. But yeah, tell us about Endeavor. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (47:10):
So Endeavor is a survivalist horror story set on a
recreation of Captain cook ship, the Endeavor. So it's a
bunch of really really rich families that paid for this
experience to try to recreate Captain Cook's journey and along
the way, in issue one, something goes very wrong and
the children end up on the ship alone. So it
(47:33):
is six children on the ship. There is no modern
technology on the ship. What there is of it is
not really anything that the children can use, so they
have to kind of deal with each other being on
the ship, coming from very different backgrounds all over the world.
And yeah, so that's kind of the setting and working
(47:57):
with Mark Laming, I mean his detail on it said.
The books are oversized, so you just have these like
double page spreads of like the ship that Mark has
put together and all the work that went into him,
like studying the ship and getting plans for the ship.
And just like my every once in a while I
tell Aaron, like put it on my tab. It's like, yeah,
I've got like if there's something I'm making you draw that,
(48:19):
it's like, I put it on my tab. Mark's tab
is large. When I see him in next week, there's
gonna be quite a few beers going in his direction
because a ship is Yeah, and I mean he but
his attention to details, like he wants to draw all
the rigging and he wants to get it right, and
it is it's all accurate to what.
Speaker 2 (48:40):
The ship would be, which is just wildly impressive to
see on the page.
Speaker 4 (48:45):
And you know, thankfully the Stillery does have the oversized format,
so you get like this really it's like ominous, and
also just the sense of scale of it, because the
ship is so large and then you have these like
small children on it. One of them is six years old,
and so it's like this is I think it adds
to something very horrific about the experience that they're having.
Speaker 1 (49:09):
I'm a big I'm a big fan of Marx and
I've known him for almost as long as I've been
doing word Balloon, and I would imagine, are you guys
going to be at a con together or a signing
next week? Is what's happening?
Speaker 2 (49:19):
Yes, yeah, thought bubble.
Speaker 1 (49:21):
Oh sure of course that's cool. Well yeah, no. Once
once I saw who you were doing Endeavor with and stuff,
I'm like, I got a bug, Mark, So expect another
Endeavor talk everybody with Mark in the weeks ahead. Absolutely.
How many issues for Endeavor?
Speaker 4 (49:35):
It is three Distillery issues, but each issue is forty
four pages, so it's.
Speaker 2 (49:41):
Yeah, forty four pages, which is like what six issues?
Traditional issue?
Speaker 1 (49:45):
Yes, graphic novel size. When you're done, absolutely, yeah, that's excellent.
And this is this is your Is this your second
Distillery book or am I right, yep.
Speaker 4 (49:56):
The first one was Life that I did with Brian Azarello,
Daniel Gagelle and We low Ridge that I think just
wrapped up. That one was six distillery sized issues. It's
a flip book, so like Brian wrote one part, I
wrote one part and they meet in the middle of
every issue, which has made planning out the trade, which
I'm currently doing like like a serial killer puzzle, Like
(50:18):
I feel like my wall. I'm like making sticky notes
of like this issue should go here in this because
you can't really flip everything, like asking somebody to flip
the three hundred page trade, Like I really love the
experience of asking somebody to engage with the piece of
media that they're wholed. Like, yes, you can get it digitally,
(50:39):
but there's something I think very cool about using the
format that you don't get in other types of media.
So we really wanted to do that and play with it.
Distillery let us do that. Like Brian and I think
went to dinner with some of the Distillery guys and
we were like, hear us out, like you're gonna want
to say no, but just hear us out, And they
didn't want to say no.
Speaker 2 (50:59):
So we were like, okay, cool, cool.
Speaker 4 (51:02):
So we got away with something kind of unique and fun,
and then we got to the trade and you know
that's where we're currently at.
Speaker 2 (51:12):
Figure it out.
Speaker 1 (51:13):
That's great. No, you know, Rob v has told me
about similar things that he's trying to play with with
the with the comic book format and the fact that
we can do things like that. I mean, that's that's excellent.
I Aaron, You're right. I'm so glad you mentioned Dan
and you're working on Fantastic four because that was a
great run. I really enjoyed it. Absolute.
Speaker 3 (51:38):
Yeah. I was as as Stephanie was talking.
Speaker 5 (51:41):
There, I was thinking about how, yeah, really blessed career
in that sense, you know, Action Comics. Fantastic four, we
got to got to draw Ben Ben Grimm's wedding Darren Nels.
Yeah yeah, really really really lucky like you do here.
Speaker 1 (52:03):
That's cool. Was there also was that it was it
a Ben's wedding where uh it turned out Johnny slept
or was it Doom's wedding where Johnny slept with the
bride or whatever?
Speaker 5 (52:13):
I forget which, uh, well Johnny had been in a
relationship with.
Speaker 3 (52:22):
Alicia.
Speaker 5 (52:25):
Yeah, that was a scroll I think when.
Speaker 1 (52:29):
Oh, yeah, I didn't. I didn't know that. I think
that's hilarious.
Speaker 5 (52:36):
Red cons Yeah, you know, it's it's been a minute, so.
Speaker 1 (52:42):
Okay, and I'm thinking and maybe you didn't drop, but
I was thinking of dance story where I think Doom
got married again dance Victorious, Yes, yeah, and that and
then Johnny slept with Victorious as well, and it was.
Speaker 5 (52:56):
Like, I didn't draw that myself, that I those those building. Yeah.
That's one of the great things about working.
Speaker 3 (53:07):
With Dan is that he he cannot keep a secret.
Speaker 5 (53:13):
He will he will, he will talk about all of
his ideas like it's it could be very difficult for
the artists to get the writer to.
Speaker 3 (53:22):
Really elaborate on where they're going and what they want
to do. And that is not dance problem at all.
Speaker 5 (53:30):
He uh pretty much laid out in the first phone
call conversation with him, laid out everything that he was
he had planned, and uh, it was a blast. It's
it's yeah, he's a great guy.
Speaker 1 (53:42):
Here another another Cougar moment, uh, and says really first
sciences work on Legion Lost, Legion of Superheroes.
Speaker 5 (53:53):
Well, Legion Lost was just a handful of them on Earth.
I think it was my first DC gig and uh
so it was just a core team of six or
seven characters.
Speaker 3 (54:08):
So I didn't have to draw Legion, right.
Speaker 5 (54:13):
I think. I think that there's there's the artists that
can do that and not just lose their minds Uh,
I'm not.
Speaker 3 (54:23):
One of them.
Speaker 5 (54:26):
It's a ton of characters and a ton of unique
personalities that Yeah, so I was very glad that it
was a scaled down book.
Speaker 1 (54:36):
Yeah, I guess. And just letting us know, you that
he appreciated Dawn Star in your book and Timberwealth and Tyrock.
I love Tyro. Tyrock never gets enough love. Did you
draw them in the in the crazy onesie that I
remember from the seventies that Microw used to put them
in or did you give him pants?
Speaker 3 (54:58):
This was uh, I.
Speaker 5 (55:00):
Know, long ago, fifteen fifteen years ago now, I sorry,
but yeah, yeah, almost almost sixteen years ago.
Speaker 1 (55:07):
So I'm just scratch you were drawing it or not always?
Speaker 3 (55:14):
I'm actually very talented. I can do that.
Speaker 7 (55:16):
I'm doing that right now. So you can't even tell,
can you? Fantastic? Yes, sir?
Speaker 1 (55:26):
Absolutely well, all right, I can look it up, that's
all right. But again, I love I love tyrock and
I you know, I got to ask Mike rel someday
about I'm pretty.
Speaker 5 (55:35):
Sure that those outfits, the outfits that I drew were
all designed by Pete Woods. Okay, sure, because he was
he was the main artist on the book. I was
just doing a couple issue filling or an issue.
Speaker 3 (55:49):
Filling and uh so, yeah, No, I wasn't.
Speaker 5 (55:57):
I wasn't like the main artist on that that book
at all. I just had it a firm a one shot.
Speaker 1 (56:03):
Very cool. That's awesome, Steph. You're you're involved in the
X Men event right now, that's happening. Yes, yep, me
about that story what you're doing for I just talked
to Tony Felice about his satellite book and everything, So yeah,
tell me about your status quote me or what the
status quo is in your book.
Speaker 4 (56:22):
Yeah, I'm doing like a like Stephen King under the Dome,
but I'm doing it with Captain Marvel Binary. So Binary,
she's readopted the name Binary because she has the Phoenix
Force and she's trapped in her hometown of Beverly, Massachusetts,
keeping the virus out, So it is literally her in
(56:45):
the townspeople under a psychic dome. She's created for everybody.
I would say it's it's very political. They have reached
the point ten years in where they believe that the
virus no longer exists.
Speaker 2 (57:00):
Of the townspeople think that like.
Speaker 4 (57:02):
Maybe the virus never did exist. Maybe Carol Danvers is
tricking them, and if there was a virus, for sure
it's cured by now and she needs to let them
out of the psychic bubble. So it has become a
story of kind of like Carol is trying to be
the hero even when nobody else wants her to be
the hero, and it is It's caused an interesting kind
(57:26):
of like mental game for her to play within the town.
Speaker 1 (57:32):
Who's trying it.
Speaker 4 (57:34):
It is a giata and I'm very sorry I can't
pronounce I'm not entirely sure of her last name, but
she has been fantastic to work with. I think I
just reposted some of her pages today as well. Like
she does this really cool cosmic stuff with the phoenix
that is very pretty. It is like one of the
prettiest iterations of the flaming fiery phoenix bird that I've
(57:58):
ever seen. Like it's just like, wow, that's a gorgeous
fiery bird.
Speaker 2 (58:03):
It's very cool.
Speaker 4 (58:05):
So working with her has been a lot of fun
seeing her also developed the townspeople, because you know, for
a three issue event, she's got a bit of a
cast that she had to kind of help put together
and design, and I think they all look great. Really,
a lot of fun working with her and kind of
coming up with this this kind of weird story.
Speaker 1 (58:25):
As far as a citizen, like an ordinary citizen cast
is that we mean cool?
Speaker 4 (58:29):
Yeah, exactly, Yeah, and kind of watching them interact with Carol.
Speaker 2 (58:36):
Yeah, that's been that's been a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (58:38):
It's been fun seeing honestly, Stephan. I mean, even going
back before you started getting gigs in Marvel, I've always
appreciated your real people kind of stories. And again that's
why I'm really thrilled that you're doing Endeavor with Mark.
But that said, I am also thrilled that the Adventures
of Spider Gwinn continues now in the six one, sixth
(58:59):
and regardless, you two really blew me away with Plannet Cheahawk.
Excellent first issue. I'm very excited to read more. Congratulations
at least done again. I have faith on the on
the rest of the issues coming. But great to talk
to you guys about what you're doing right now. And yeah,
thanks for playing tonight. As always, it's good to talk
(59:20):
to you. Steph and Aaron. Please come back. I'll do
better with my research and that tribute Non well, you're
a good man for stand that. So thank you, Thanks,
thank you everybody for watching and listening. And let's see
do I have Oh, you know it's gonna be great
for me. Steph knows I'm a massive Star Trek nerd.
I can't help it. Eric, I just am.
Speaker 6 (59:42):
And well, of course I did. Absolutely I did back
in the day start again fifteen years ago. But very
excited to be talking to David Mack, who's written a
lot of great Star Trek novels over the years, but
he co wrote the It just wrapped up the Star
Trek Con podcast drama that was nine episodes. It was
(01:00:02):
a great story and I've got a lot of questions.
But we'll also talk about the fact.
Speaker 1 (01:00:06):
That David has a new Star Trek Strange New Worlds
Captain Pike and the Crew novel that just was released
back in October. So that's coming up tomorrow on Word Balloon.
I'll be recording that, but I'll be releasing it all
Thursday nights, so I hope everyone will join us to
listen to that until next time, Thanks a lot for
watching and listening everybody. Stay safe, stay happy, stay healthy,
Welcome back everybody time again for Word Balloon the Comic
Book Conversation Show. John centrists here Man. Great to talk
to Stephanie Phillips and Aaron Kuder last night all about
their run on Planet she Hulk that has just begun,
and it's excellent. It is great. Who would have thought
Jennifer Walter's in charge of a savage planet? I think
(00:25):
lawyer turned conan, the barbarian. That's kind of what we're
getting here in the best way. I think it's fantastic.
Aaron draws the hell out of it, Steph writes the
hell out of it, and we talk about it. It's
tie into Imperial I believe it's called Imperial, the Jonathan
Nickman Interplanetary epic that is underway. But this is a
(00:45):
great series all on to itself, and you don't need
to read the rest to understand what the hell is
going on. And you got me to explain the things
that I didn't understand. But a lot of greatest hits
from Aaron Couter. We talk about his run on Superman,
the New Superman of the New fifty two, following in
the footsteps of Rags Morales and Graham Morrison in their run,
(01:07):
Greg Pock and Aaron followed up with them and did
a good, healthy run on Action Comics, and also we
talk about his run with Dan Slott on The Fantastic
Four and a fun one shot that he did with
Jason Aaron Godzilla Versus Thor, and steph has gotten now
only things going on with She Hulk, but also with
(01:28):
gwyn Stacy, who she's been writing the hell out of.
I didn't realize. I thought her run had ended with fifteen.
But of course Marvel new number one, same creative team,
same people. Okay, Marvel fine whatever, some behind, but she
catches me up. And also some other great stuff, including
a great distillery book she's doing with my buddy Mark
(01:48):
Lemming and that's Endeavor, very interesting book, lots more fun
with Stephanie Phillips and Aaron Couter. That's all coming up
on today's word Balloon. Word Balloon is brought to you
by Alex Ross Art dot Com, the home for stunning,
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(02:11):
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(02:35):
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(02:55):
Plus you'll be part of the Word Balloon Book Club,
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League of Word Balloon Listeners. Check it out today at
Patreon dot com slash word Balloon. Welcome back everybody time
(03:19):
again for Word Balloon the Comic Book Conversation show John
Cutris with you. Always happy to welcome Stephanie Phillips back,
but I think this is the first down I van
Aaron Kouter on Word Balloon. Nice to see erin. Nice
to meet you, absolutely, man, You've worked with many of
my friends and we'll be talking about that during the conversation. Steph,
Sorry I'm bugging you again, you know it is.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Thanks for having me back.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
As always, Man, No, my pleasure. Well, honestly, you both
were kind enough to send me the first issue of
a Planet she Hulk and pretty hilarious. I hope I'm
the first to coin the phrase it's the lawyer Warrior
book that we didn't know we needed, but we do.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
It.
Speaker 4 (04:04):
I don't know that I could say it though, especially
like more than once in a row lawyer war Lawyer
Warrior bet.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
I wasn't sure which can first? I hear you, No,
I understand, hilarious and great. And Aaron, is this is
this your first time doing a Warrior Broker? Have you
done Conan or anything like that in the past.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
I've done so many things that you have.
Speaker 5 (04:30):
This is the first time that I think i've kind
of been in that uh sort of yeah, conan uh
dystopian Keyman sort of universe sort of look.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
As far as I can remember anyway, Yeah, yeah, Steph,
how about you?
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Yeah, I mean I think other than Tarna.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Well, of course, yes, shame on me.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
I mean she she had a giant sword, so that's
kind of what I'm basing.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
But I guess similar with the sword. But yeah, that's
about it.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Well, I'm always a big fan of genre splicing, and
I do like the idea that Wyse ask Jennifer suddenly
finds herself on Scar and has to do this stuff?
When did you know? Because I'm used to Again, sometimes
I don't pay attention to what's happening in six one six.
I've been reading Phillips Hulk Run. Yeah, and I know
that the things leading up to this weren't happening in
(05:32):
Phillips book. So how do we get here with Jennifer
having new and also the fact that it's the planet
is now called Scar because that was always the kid's
name for a long time, right.
Speaker 4 (05:46):
Yeah, So he had a son named Scar and the
planet was Cicar, and then New Cicar, which, like the
Cicar was, is gone. So now New Sicar. I think
in a lot of cases we're kind of just referring
to it as Ciicar, like we do establish that it's
it is a different planet technically, but a lot of
(06:11):
some familiar flip faces from the original planet Ciicar and
a lot of new ones as well.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Is this coming out of an event? Is this a
mini series or is this a new ongoing?
Speaker 4 (06:23):
Ours is a new ongoing and it's coming out of
Jonathan Hickman's Imperial run so or I think it was
like a four issue mini So in Imperial Hulk, there
there's kind of a big almost like a galactic murder
mystery that starts off and you start off on Nusicar
with the death of Hulk's sun hero Kala, who was
(06:44):
ruling over Newsicar. And now there's a power vacuum, so
essentially a lot of people now have like eyes for
the throne of Newsicar.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
And he asks she.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
Holds to kind of stay and try to like broke
your piece for a few days, promises will be back
in five days, and then as you see it, like
the very beginning of our our series, he is not
back in five days. So that's kind of where we
start off there.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
That's cool. Is this is just fun for you, Aaron
in terms of drawing creatures and things like this.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (07:16):
Absolutely, Like I was thinking about this earlier, that this
sort of.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
Alien world is.
Speaker 5 (07:27):
Probably the closest thing to in my comfort wheel house
that I've drawn in.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
A very long time. I love I love the I
mean I grew.
Speaker 5 (07:37):
Up on like the he Man's the Thundars. You know
that that age of stone stone and sorcery of you know,
dungeons and dragons and like this this universe where you know, lightsabers.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
And stuff like that were commonplace.
Speaker 5 (07:57):
So you know, yeah, I'm looking forward to drawing some
like energy, uh, crossbows or something like that, and then
really just hokey.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
Yeah, that's awesome, I would imagine. I know, you had
a nice run with Zadarsky on on Daredevil and stuff.
Although you did you did do And I want to
ask about this later. You're you're one shot of Godzilla
and Thor earlier this year, so there's a big job.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (08:23):
Yeah, well, well my Daredevil was wash with Saladin Zadarski.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
I came on after Zadarski nors Nors.
Speaker 5 (08:36):
Uh but yeah, no, uh yeah, god Zilla versus Thor,
who was a blast.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
It was absolutely blast.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Andrew's reminding me that I guess you did some great
Kaiju Dungeons and Dragon Superman stories with Greg back.
Speaker 5 (08:51):
Yeah, yeah, that was that was that was probably the
closest to this whole There was an underground universe world
in the story is that also had a similar like
story ancestory sort of vibe. But I was thinking, yeah,
that's that's the closest thing I think I've drawn since
(09:13):
to that.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
But yeah, that's cool, that's cool. And yes, I mean
you're you're you know again, like you said, and I'd forgotten.
Of course you did Tarna for heavy Metal and that
was a lot of fun, is uh. But also this
has got to be great because it's kind of Jennifer
is approaching this pretty much using her law skills in
terms of trying to mediate the politics of the planet
(09:36):
along with every now and then, all right, I got
to pick up the sword and kick some mess obviously, right.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
Yeah, I mean I think it's like a real clash
for her, like bringing logic and reason to a planet
that is really kind of working with a lot of chaos,
and that's that's definitely gonna mess with her and give
her a bit of a rough time because she's really
trying to do things the way you would on Earth
(10:02):
and especially as an attorney, and she's going to have
to try to adjust her expectations as we go forward.
Speaker 5 (10:09):
No parallels between our current reality of trying to figure
out what world we're living in and dealing with it
in a logical manner.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
Yeah, it will not surprise me if the debating parties
do pick up swords soon. Having Thunderdome sort of debates.
We're not that far.
Speaker 4 (10:32):
Right, Yeah, I mean I don't like spoil I think
it's in the next issue. A character that I like
quite a bit, says, you know, because Jen is kind
of complaining like it's chaos and we're missing the logic
and things like that, and she's like, oh, yeah, this
is so different from Earth. Like I kind of like
that moment, geting to kind of throw that back in
(10:53):
Jen a little bit, like, yes, you might operate this way,
but like you might think in a perfect world the
system gets to work this way, but.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Might not always.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Stanley wants to know, what, Steph, do you like breaking
the third wall having Jennifer talk directly to us, I
do fourth I.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Suppose, right, Yeah, I think it's a lot of fun.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
I really enjoyed it from you know, some of the
original burned material.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
I loved getting to bring that back.
Speaker 4 (11:21):
It was really early on too, when I was in
the Marvel offices talking about potentially doing this book, and
I think I even said something like it's cool if
I'm doing the fourth wall breaking though, right, because that
wasn't in maybe the last couple of runs for Sieholds.
So I was like, I don't know if this is
some thing that Marvel Offices don't want, and everybody collectively
(11:42):
was like, let's give it a shot, let's go for it.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
And Hickman was a big supporter of that as well.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
So that was good because it kind of, you know,
kicking things out of his Imperial storyline. I didn't want to,
like go in a direction everybody was unhappy with, but
he was like, nope, that's per effects.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
That story is a bit serious.
Speaker 4 (12:02):
And jen doing the fourth wall breaking, I was like,
maybe it's a tonal problem, but everybody was cool with it,
so I was excited.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Aaron, are you prepping some prints? Is this your cover,
by the.
Speaker 5 (12:14):
Way, Yeah, Yeah, amazing Amazing Colors.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
Amazing Colors by sonya O back O bak Uh, Yeah,
I don't.
Speaker 5 (12:29):
I don't really like kind of deal with prince right
unless I'm going to a show or something like that. Generally,
I kinda I kind of just try to stay in
my in my lane, as it were. And I you know,
everything I draw is ninety nine percent on paper. So
(12:53):
as far as like trying to make a supplementary income,
which you know a lot of people make prints for.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
I'm allowed to. You know, I've got the original.
Speaker 5 (13:05):
Arts to sell, so that that really takes care of
that need.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
How quickly did the two of you working together, Jel,
as far as you know, was there any kind of
feeling out or well, you know, when you were when
you kind of planned the book, what kind of what
kind of talk did you guys have.
Speaker 5 (13:21):
Right away?
Speaker 3 (13:22):
For me?
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Same?
Speaker 4 (13:23):
Yeah, we got on pretty immediately, I think, yeah, like.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Yeah, did they put you together or or okay.
Speaker 4 (13:32):
Yeah, yeah, I mean and then we pretty quickly were
like let's kind of get on the phone and asking
each other like, well, do you is this okay with you?
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Do you like working this way?
Speaker 4 (13:43):
And it was just a lot of like, oh, I
totally agree with what you're saying. I like what you're saying.
This sounds great. I can do this, this sounds this
sounds perfect for me. So and that's kind of the
way it's continued. Yeah, paying to agree with me, by
the way, he's secretly over.
Speaker 6 (13:59):
There like.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
She has my veno.
Speaker 5 (14:05):
No.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
That's one of the things is that, like, one of
the things.
Speaker 5 (14:09):
That I really have been gelling with this series with
is that Stephanie's character concepts and plot ideas are very
well formed, and that can lead to with another writer,
(14:32):
that can that could be very stagnant and make you
feel like you have to draw it just.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
What's what's on the page.
Speaker 5 (14:39):
But she's been extremely flexible but well developed with her
story concepts.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
It's it's been it's been a blast.
Speaker 5 (14:46):
It's really been the the most fun I've had drawing
the book in a very long time.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Oh that's awesome.
Speaker 4 (14:54):
Yeah, it's I think it makes the whole process really
cool when you get to click with the team. And
at some point in my career I think, I mean,
I still haven't been around a super long time, but
I'm at a point to where I've learned. One of
the best things about comics is the people you get
to make it with. And so when you have a team,
like working with Aaron and we did a signing at
(15:15):
the Marble Booth that was a lot of fun recently
during New York Comic Con as well. Yeah, so when
you get to work with people where you're like, you
click personally, you click in the story that you're getting
to tell together, Like, I think it makes it a
lot better, just not even from the process, but what
you actually get to read in the book. I think
I'm hearing a lot of people saying they're having a
lot of fun with the story, and it's like, yeah,
so were we. So I'm glad that that's cool.
Speaker 5 (15:39):
Yeah, it's it's hard for it not to show up
if we're feeling it.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
You know.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Who's who's your editor?
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Jordan White?
Speaker 3 (15:48):
Jordan White, Oh, sure of course Guardians of the Galaxy too.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Oh that's cool. Yeah, man, you guys are in a
big mustache competition. That would have made engineering correct.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
He wins. He's got the handlebars sometimes.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Absolutely, No, that's great. I'm always it figures because I
usually gravitate to books that he edits and stuff, and
I appreciate his taste so it's cool that he put
you guys together, and I think that's that's really cool.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
He's really one of those people that.
Speaker 5 (16:26):
Has it has just such a nice well he's a
very lovely person like great personality, very warm hearted, but
he also is able to balance that with creating or
cultivating these books that appeal to people with with given
(16:51):
his own personal tastes and stuff. Yeah, he's really a
treasure to work with.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Very cool. Stanley's doing my job for me. He wants
to know, Steph, are you writing for the trade or
single issues? In this case, it's.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
A good question. I guess both. I mean, I don't
necessarily think.
Speaker 4 (17:11):
I mean, I know five issues get collected into the trade,
so like I think I have a road map that's
like thinking about arcs as five issues, so I have
like goals for an arc. But then within that I'm
thinking also about the single issue, Like if I've got
twenty pages, I want there to be twenty pages that
(17:31):
are really giving you information and how can we progress
this character in this way and where do they get
to go in this issue that's going to leave the
reader saying like, well, I can't wait to see them again.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
In the next issue.
Speaker 4 (17:45):
And so this one was kind of fun because initially,
in one of my earliest planning documents, I actually wrote
what every cliffhanger was going to be for the five
first five issues. I haven't written that way so specifically before,
but I think this is like maybe the most detailed
(18:06):
planning we've done in a while, or maybe because it
was linked to Imperial and I really did. I wrote
out all the cliffhangers, and a couple got shifted a
little bit, but it's all of those things. We've hit
all of those beats, and uh, the first five issues
are are all written, so it's I think it's a
really exciting arc.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
And and are you uh you said it's technically gonna
it's potentially going to be an ongoing I know sales
obviously dictates what's happened. Obviously you've had that experience with
Spider Gwen recently. Steph, I know that ended, you know,
this summer, and I want to talk to you about that,
But are you and Aaron? I don't I don't want
to believe me. I'm not your editor and I'm not
(18:47):
your deadline guy or anything like that. But have you
no at all. I'm just curious really in terms of
beyond the imperial issues, have you I've had a chance
to go to issue six potentially.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
Yeah, we are going to Yeah we are.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
That's already I'm currently working on five, so I'm sure.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Okay, but I've got you guys. You know that's part
of the plan, I guess, is to do six at least,
and that hopefully cool.
Speaker 5 (19:18):
I I honestly, I've got such a good vibe from
this book. Yeah, I don't. I don't see them backing
out like it's It's something that I think people will
buy as an individual issue and as a trade like it.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
It's just a fun read, you know.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
I do and I and guys, honestly, I'm not being nice.
It's a great idea. I don't know if they've ever
done this with Jen before, and I think it's a
tremendous idea too. Really. I mean, she's she's always great
and and I've really enjoyed the various people that have
written her before. But this is such a great fishot
(20:00):
of water idea that I would imagine the stories are
endless for you guys.
Speaker 4 (20:06):
Yeah, And I mean knowing where like Aaron knows what
it is too, like knowing what the last page of
issue five is, and then like, I know what the
opening of issue six is, Like there's a couple of
things we've we kind of tease out for five issues
that then like, I mean, the issue five just kind
of I think, turns it all on its head. And
(20:26):
then we get to say Issue six gets to be
something that's going to feel really cool from page It's like,
I'm very excited that page one is is very fun.
So I can't I know, it's all hard to talk
about it and be like I don't even know this.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
I can't. I can't give it away.
Speaker 4 (20:42):
But I'm the worst because I'm the person that will
like buy you a birthday gift three months early and
be like you want to know what it is?
Speaker 2 (20:48):
You want to open it now, Like.
Speaker 4 (20:51):
I can't believe I got to wait like another four
months for you to know what issue five is.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
That's awful. It's horrible.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
We guys sell Like again, I'm glad you guys were
in New York together and made the announcement stuff and
tabling together a great picture. By the way, I was
really glad that Steph shared it with me. I can
put it on the lobby card, but like, did you
have anything to sign of Hulk of she Hulk or
you know at that moment or I mean, I know
the book came out today, but yeah, they made.
Speaker 5 (21:21):
An exclusive print poster size for it. It's beautiful. I
grabbed a couple of copius myself.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
Yeah, is that of the cover Aaron?
Speaker 5 (21:31):
Yeah, yeah, that's cool.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
All right, good deal. Yeah, I get So what's what
was the feedback like from from the audience.
Speaker 3 (21:41):
I haven't I haven't really checked it out.
Speaker 5 (21:43):
I mean, I've seen a couple of posts of people being,
uh positive, but I generally don't listen.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Do your own thing. Absolutely, no, no, no, oh, I
get that.
Speaker 5 (22:01):
Yeah, it's not that I don't appreciate it. It's just
I don't want it to affect my mindset for moving
forward and staying productive.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
No, I just I really was wondering regarding New York
and the New York people, the convention people, how they
responded and if they said anything like oh, great idea
or whatever.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
You know they love the poster.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
Yeah, great, that's true. Well, yeah, there's no such thing
as a bad free poster. I can't.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
Yeah. I felt like there was a lot of excitement
around the book, which is a cool feeling like we've
been excited, feeling everybody else be excited. It's like I
kept saying on like a podcast we did earlier this week,
that everything kind of felt like it was clicking from
the way the team came together, the way we worked together,
being able to put together a story we're all really
(22:52):
excited about, like it really has continued, Like everybody at
New York felt very excited.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Like Aaron, I.
Speaker 4 (23:00):
Kind of block out good or bad, I just for
the same reason. Both have the potential to impact how
I how I think about things, and I have like plans,
I have ideas, and I like sticking to my own.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
Gut better than like letting something sway me.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
I've been sent some things and you know, people comment
on stuff I've posted, and it seems largely happy and
that's good. I'm excited about that.
Speaker 5 (23:28):
So one of one of the one of the neat
things about the way that this team came together is
that I think we were all well at least Stephanie
and I myself were kind of reluctant to start to
take on Shee Hulk. My my hiccup with it was
that I didn't want to be on a book that
(23:50):
was a spin off of a larger series. I just
have a hard time with seeing how those connect with
the character and uh and and have and add to
the evolution of the meat thoughs. And yeah, Jordan actually
pitched it to me twice, and it was the second
(24:14):
time that I was like, Okay, we'll give this a go.
And I'm so glad we did. I did because it
would have been one of the worst decisions I've.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Paid from a story standpoint, stuph did you have a place?
And I'm and I love the idea that in five
you're gonna have a twist that'll lead to six, But
did did Hickman give you all right, Jen needs to
be here? And and did you have that or any
(24:42):
any sort of plotting edict to to support uh, you know,
the the mini series or the main series?
Speaker 4 (24:50):
Not really, which is part of the reason why I
then did I think I could take this on? For
for the same reason I I was reluctant. And when
I was with Hickman in the offices, he had kind
of laid out a couple of things he thought were
going to be the spinoff books, and I was kind
of like, in my head, if I was going to
(25:11):
do one. There was a different one that I thought.
I was like a lot of what he was doing
sounded very tied to Hulk and Nusakar, and I want
I was, I'm very much like, let me go beyond
literally like my own planet and build the story.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
And then I think I was in the offices for
like three days.
Speaker 4 (25:30):
It was a maybe the second or third day, I
came in and I had pulled somebody else aside, and
I was like, I was wrong. I do think She
Hulk is the right book for me. I was like,
I've given this a lot more thought, and the more
I think about those books, the She Hulk one just
keeps like coming up. All I was given was like,
there's a page from the from the I think it's
(25:51):
Imperial Issue one where Hulk kind of says like, will
you stay on the planet. And as I started writing, like,
there's a there's a kind of one shot prequel that
comes first that came out maybe a couple of months ago.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
You don't have to read it going into it.
Speaker 4 (26:04):
But as I was working on Issue one, I think
I got a call from I think it was Jordan.
That's like, by the way, Hero Colla had five wives
it like, so that was a fun that was a
fun wrench and I was like, okay, well have they
been drawn? Like who are they? And and Hickman was
(26:25):
really cool about saying like you can totally you can
make them up, use them how you want or not
or whatever you need to do with them, which I appreciated.
But that was a fun that was the only thing
that came up. I have no problem with it. It
was just a very funny phone call to get to say, like,
by the way, five wives, And I was like, okay,
So when Jen kind of like harks on the like
(26:47):
really five wives, it's it's a bit of a joke,
Like internally it's really Hickman like five lives.
Speaker 3 (26:57):
So now we know that you like to write for yourself.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
And so you're putting important you're putting yourself kind of
in stepped shoes in a lot of ways. I think
from this first person narration, excuse me, jensa shoes excuse me.
Speaker 4 (27:17):
Yeah, I feel like the one of the other things
that clicked really well was her voice. Sometimes there's like
some runway with the character that I feel like I
need a couple issues to be like all right now.
I really know how this character sounds as me. Jen
I felt like was maybe the fastest fit of any character.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
I love writing her so much, like.
Speaker 4 (27:40):
Her monologue, her fourth wall breaking, the snarky sarcasm. Just
I don't know, I really I enjoy her a lot,
and we clicked very fast.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
Yeah, same with drelling her.
Speaker 5 (27:54):
Yeah, I was surprised, Yeah, drawing a character. You know,
there's a lot of guys out there, a lot of
a lot of guy characters that I've drawn, and this
is the first time I've taken on a female lead,
and I was very, very hesitant to do that.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
But yeah, no, similar feeling exactly. It's like it just clicked.
It just it just feels right. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
Did you look to other artists who had drawn Jennifer
in the past as as kind of a templater.
Speaker 7 (28:34):
No, I mean there's always there's always an homage to
the people that have influenced me.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
I definitely. You know, one of my one of my
favorite Marvel Trading cards is Art Adams She Hulk.
Speaker 5 (28:57):
You know, call back to the nineties, right Adams, Like,
you know, the way he renders women is always powerful.
There's also enjoyed Walt Simonson's she Hulk in Fantastic Four. Yeah,
(29:21):
it's more so about capturing her character in my lines.
Like if I focus too much on other people's renditions
or interpretations, then that will influence the way that I
draw them. So I don't want to do that too much.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
Be Things, Man, the system works. As I like to
say here on word Balloon, b Things says, she Hulk
is one of my favorites. I just bought this new
issue while I'm listening to this broadcast. I'm excited to
read it. You will not be disappointed Be Things. I'm
glad to or that. And Ange was wondering if if
you're writing Harley, Steph, you know, was that a part
(30:09):
of an appeal to then write Jen.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
Yeah, that's interesting.
Speaker 4 (30:14):
I mean Harley is I think a little bit more
detached from reality, Like there's I think a similar sarcasm.
But the interesting thing is, I think Wall Harley really
cultivates chaos. Jen thrives on order. So like having a
similar sense of humor, I can definitely see elements of that,
(30:35):
like Crossing, but Jen is just so much more like
I mean, the lack of order and the chaos is
just like nails on a chalkboard to her, and you
can tell she's she's really not happy with her predicament
at first. I mean, she jokes about it, and maybe
I think that's where some of the crossing comes in,
(30:58):
where I think both Harley and Jen use the sense
of humor to kind of mask the actual emotion and bias.
You five, I think you'll get a little bit more
realistic about that as well. Like I've been saying these
things but being a bit snarky, but here's like the truth.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
Of the situation that we find ourselves in.
Speaker 4 (31:17):
And sometimes that drops for Harley too, where like her
humor is like totally a mask for a lot of pain.
I don't think Jen is so much in the like
Emo camp, but both highly educated.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
So yeah, I definitely see some crossovers there.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
That's interesting. I understand, Aaron. I want to acknowledge your
Superman run. Do I have the picture?
Speaker 3 (31:43):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (31:43):
I do. This is an interior shot, but both not
my work. But oh god, damn it. I hate that.
I hate when I find something and it's not the person.
I apologize to.
Speaker 5 (31:54):
Eric, it is it is my design of the character.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
Oh okay, Well, I wondered about that because again, you
and Greg came off of both and now I'm blanking
rags Moraleson and and Grant initially doing you know, New
fifty two, Superman, Year one, Superman and everything. So did
you see that as a as an opportunity to draw
(32:19):
a different kind of Superman when you were doing it?
Speaker 5 (32:23):
Well, yeah, that was like my first major book in
a lot of ways, So there was a whole lot
more that I was thinking about than who came before
and and and how it influenced me. I just I
just wanted to make sure I could do it. It's
(32:46):
been so long to think about, but yeah, it has
you know, it's it's a huge feather in my hat
of of having that legacy of working on action and
we're working.
Speaker 3 (33:02):
At a time where we were a little bit freer.
Speaker 5 (33:08):
To delve with Superman's personalities and Superman's sort of take.
Speaker 3 (33:15):
On the world.
Speaker 5 (33:15):
It was a little bit more of a wild time
of trying to find that balance of the classic fans
and the classic love of Superman and trying to build
something new.
Speaker 3 (33:36):
I'm sure James Gunn is feeling the same right now.
Speaker 1 (33:39):
Oh, I have no doubt. What do you think of
the movie?
Speaker 3 (33:42):
I loved it.
Speaker 5 (33:43):
I don't generally think of comic book movies in comparison
to comics. They're their own media, they're their own genre.
It's like novelizations of characters.
Speaker 3 (33:56):
They don't they have it, they.
Speaker 5 (33:58):
Have a different nuance. But no, I absolutely loved it.
It was very fun, excellent.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
I'm going to ping pong back and forth now with
questions because people from the audience are asking good things,
and also I do want to look now with some
of the other books that Steph has done currently and
also aerin as well. But here Alex wants to know
I was a big fan of she helped. He's curious
to know, Steph, whether your depiction or where your depiction
of Jennifer changes compared to more classic runs like john Burn.
Speaker 4 (34:30):
Yeah. I mean, I think she's just in an evolving
character that's been through a lot of different runs and experiences.
The Rainbow Rowel run that wrapped up not that long ago,
that was a lot of fun, and seeing her really
kind of giving a bit of a softer side with
her relationship with Jack of Hearts, You're getting just a
(34:51):
lot a lot more pieces of jen are kind of
coming through with these other stories, so I think all
of those things are still in our version of Jen,
and we're going to just continue them. We're going to
like see how they now evolve in a completely new setting.
I know her and Jack went to space, and there's
(35:11):
been some other space stuff a little bit here and
there with her, but this is a really like stranded
on this planet with systems in place that she can't
quite grasp and understand and really doesn't want to, at
least from what we're seeing right now. So how do
we see those things that we're established, I mean, starting
with Berne and all the way to the Rainbow Run,
(35:32):
how do we see those things? You know what Dan
Slott did, Charles Soul. You get this really cool character
now that has been very developed, and now you get
to take all those features and test her in a
very new arena which is also kind of a gladiator
pun so that fits.
Speaker 2 (35:50):
Yeah, it's been a lot of fun.
Speaker 4 (35:51):
I mean, I like who she is as a person,
as a character, and yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
Now we get to just watch more evolution with her outstanding.
Uh So, Aaron again, now I'm making sure obviously this
is this is this is one I got right. Uh No,
tell me about god Zilla and Thor and Jason Aaron
wrote that, right, yep.
Speaker 3 (36:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (36:15):
One of my favorite things about working with Jason Aaron
is that every cover that we have with both of
our names, it just reads Aaron Cooter. But he's he's
truly a wonderful guy.
Speaker 3 (36:30):
And uh, we've.
Speaker 5 (36:32):
Yeah, we've become friends over over the last we did
Avengers Forever together, yes, and uh yeah, No. He has
a great mind for these kind of like just over
the top sort of hero moments that But at the
(36:55):
same time, one of the things that can be lost
in giant over the top god's versus the sort of
things is the feeling of it connecting to the heart
of a character, the the detriment of society, you know.
Speaker 3 (37:12):
And he has a really beautiful.
Speaker 5 (37:14):
Way of finding the heart of the story. Yeah. He
and I were talking early on when we first got
signed onto that book, and he is.
Speaker 3 (37:28):
A huge god Zella Fan. I was not as much
of one.
Speaker 5 (37:33):
Going in, but I mean that's like comparing Scrooge McDuck
to Daffy like one.
Speaker 3 (37:40):
Has a lot of money, one doesn't, you know.
Speaker 5 (37:44):
And he just he is he is a huge god Zillifan.
And so when we were talking, he was like, you know,
my my head's spinning, like there's so many things that
I'm thinking of, and.
Speaker 3 (38:00):
I'm paraphrasing, of course, but.
Speaker 5 (38:04):
I was like, oh, yeah, no, you know, if this
is if this was my bag, I just you know,
find a way for Thor to get a hold of
some PEM particles and battle them like that. And then
he just kind of went silent, and he came up
with this beautiful story that had no PEM particles at all.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
I love the scale of you know, because people play
you know, and certainly you go by the movies. Godzilla
sometimes is twelve feet tall, sometimes this kind of scale,
and I just love the idea. As again, audio audience
is why you gotta watch word Balloon as much as
listen to it. But if or pick up the issue
that we're talking about Godzilla versus Thor. But despite the
(38:51):
fact that this is the thunder God, the god of Thunder,
and he's a tiny little speck next to gigantic, did
you guys discuss scale at all in terms of like
where you where they wanted it to be.
Speaker 4 (39:03):
No.
Speaker 5 (39:03):
I uh so when it comes to like the juxtaposition
of characters, like I kind of come up with a
kind of a rule for myself of like finding something
on the larger character that is person sized. So for
me it was it was one of the it was
(39:25):
bottom tooth that thor was the size of one of
Godzilla's bottom teeth, and I just used that to play off,
you know, when I did when I was working on
Fantastic I worked on Fantastic four with Dan Slott too,
and he had the the brilliant idea of having Galactus
(39:45):
versus Doom Parry doctor Doom, and again it was just
a matter of juxtaposition.
Speaker 3 (39:51):
You know. It is a really difficult.
Speaker 5 (39:54):
Thing, probably the most difficult thing in drawing comics for
for me and many others is having a character that
is several stories tall or you know, planet sized and
having them interact with tiny little rights people.
Speaker 3 (40:14):
And have it connect you know, in a in a
you know.
Speaker 5 (40:20):
Eleven by seventeen composition on a page that has ten
other panels.
Speaker 3 (40:25):
You know, it's it's always a visual challenge always.
Speaker 1 (40:31):
You know, Well, you succeeded, And honestly I enjoyed book
Runts so absolutely, man steph. Honestly, I loved how meta
to wrap up to Spider Gwen and goes Spider was,
and I really loved that conversation in her mind with
the fastets of her character. Absolutely, so yeah, when I
(40:52):
mean how much how much advance did you get in
terms of the cancelation And obviously they were cool with
you because that's that's a great place to end your story,
but obviously leave things open for whatever is next INA's life.
Speaker 4 (41:07):
Whatever's next has already happened. I'm still writing, yes, so
Gwen has continued, and so essentially the first fifteen issues
were Marvel kind of approached me and they were like,
we really want her to go to Earth six one
six because she's a multiverse character, so they wanted her
the main feature and they were like, can you kind
(41:28):
of figure out what that would look like? And I
had come up with this low key story, the kind
of mystery of it and kind of like this witness
protection idea with her in the time variance authority and
they and I was like they might be okay with everything,
but the Loki element. I was like, Loki is going
(41:49):
to be like a hard get. I'm sure Loki's like
tied up in a story or something, and they were
just like, okay, go write it. And I was like, wait,
I can use Loki.
Speaker 2 (41:57):
Are you sure? Like you read the low Kei part right,
it was all good. I was like, yeah, you can
use Loki tell the story.
Speaker 4 (42:04):
And then as we started to kind of near issue fifteen,
what they said they wanted to do was like a
reboot at issue one, saying like, now she's in Earth
six one six and this is like we told the
story of how she got there, and now we're saying
this is status quo. So there's all new Spider gen
but it's the same team. It's also myself in Palo
(42:27):
Villainelli drawing it with von Randall who does some fill
in issues, and Matt Miller on colors, and I think
we are Issue three came out last week, I think,
and I just finished writing issue eight today, so there's
gonna be a lot of Spider One. Yeah, it's been
(42:47):
a lot of fun. Some classic villains coming up. We're
kind of telling the story of her own symbiote that
she's dealing with right now that she kind of helped create.
His name's Tantrum, which is great because she's very quick
to anger, and the Cymbia learned from her and often
throws tantrums and it feeds off of anger.
Speaker 2 (43:08):
It like wants to.
Speaker 4 (43:10):
Take over as a host, like the angriest people that
can find. So of course he heads to Riker's prison
and starts kind of infecting the inmates there. And yeah,
so we have like a tantrum storyline going on right now,
and then we will be getting into Gwen has been
forming a new band in Earth six one six, and
(43:31):
then we have a very classic Spidey villain who will
be coming back starting an issue seven that I'm very
excited about.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
So yeah, all right, and shame on me again, but
I saw a Gwen Pool and thought, oh, they'd wrapped
up you know, your storyline and then went to Gwen Pool,
which obviously a different writer and different creative team. Okay,
And again I always I'm always catching up with my
DC and Marvel for that matter. So is he Peter
(44:01):
had you know, contact with her now that she's back
in the six one six in your in your run.
Speaker 2 (44:07):
Yes, Yeah, they've had some contact early on in our series.
Speaker 4 (44:13):
And also Gwen I believe was just in Joe Kelly
and Pepe Loraz's Spider Man. I think last month, last
two months, maybe she was kind of making some appearances
in The Spidey Amazing Spider Man. So yes, they've they've
definitely had some contact. She's had contact with Miles Miles
in our story as well, and Cindy Moon Silk is.
Speaker 2 (44:35):
A recurring character.
Speaker 4 (44:37):
Her and Gwen have gotten to be friends, and Cindy
is currently learning to play bass off of YouTube video
so that.
Speaker 2 (44:44):
She can join Gwen's band.
Speaker 4 (44:45):
She heard of it very badly, so yes, she's decided
they are friends.
Speaker 1 (44:53):
I like it. That's fantastic. Aeron, give me give me
the guy's name again that you did Darede.
Speaker 3 (45:00):
With Saladin Amid.
Speaker 1 (45:03):
No, I haven't really, I'll be honest. I haven't read
his run as much yet. How how how was the
work with Saladin?
Speaker 3 (45:10):
It was good?
Speaker 5 (45:13):
It Uh. It's probably a pretty prime example of something
outside of my wheelhouse, uh street level.
Speaker 3 (45:23):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (45:25):
Somebody that that is a vigilante. Those are not characters.
I was drawn to growing up reading.
Speaker 3 (45:34):
Comics, so.
Speaker 5 (45:39):
Having having that book was a bit of a challenge,
you know, artistically, trying to find ways to not only
make me so JAREDEVI was one of those books that
it's almost like just a classic classic comic book, you know,
(45:59):
it as a very usually has is a very clean,
organized way of telling the story.
Speaker 3 (46:09):
And uh.
Speaker 5 (46:13):
That working in that that confinement, it was was a.
Speaker 3 (46:19):
Little a little bit more of a challenge that I
thought it would be, but uh, you know, it worked out.
We finished. So cool.
Speaker 1 (46:31):
Cool, Yeah, I understand, Uh, Steph Distillery, You're doing Endeavor
and working with another buddy of mine, Mark Laiming. Yeah,
which is great. Tell us tell us about this story.
First of all, I I really appreciate the Distillery oversized
uh format, and so from an art standpoint, I think
(46:53):
that's wonderful. But yeah, so you got you got, you know,
obviously along with the modern story, you got the framing
of Captain Cook and his plight. People. If you don't
remember Captain Cook, maybe on the Bounty everybody, if you
know your classics. But yeah, tell us about Endeavor. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (47:10):
So Endeavor is a survivalist horror story set on a
recreation of Captain cook ship, the Endeavor. So it's a
bunch of really really rich families that paid for this
experience to try to recreate Captain Cook's journey and along
the way, in issue one, something goes very wrong and
the children end up on the ship alone. So it
(47:33):
is six children on the ship. There is no modern
technology on the ship. What there is of it is
not really anything that the children can use, so they
have to kind of deal with each other being on
the ship, coming from very different backgrounds all over the world.
And yeah, so that's kind of the setting and working
(47:57):
with Mark Laming, I mean his detail on it said.
The books are oversized, so you just have these like
double page spreads of like the ship that Mark has
put together and all the work that went into him,
like studying the ship and getting plans for the ship.
And just like my every once in a while I
tell Aaron, like put it on my tab. It's like, yeah,
I've got like if there's something I'm making you draw that,
(48:19):
it's like, I put it on my tab. Mark's tab
is large. When I see him in next week, there's
gonna be quite a few beers going in his direction
because a ship is Yeah, and I mean he but
his attention to details, like he wants to draw all
the rigging and he wants to get it right, and
it is it's all accurate to what.
Speaker 2 (48:40):
The ship would be, which is just wildly impressive to
see on the page.
Speaker 4 (48:45):
And you know, thankfully the Stillery does have the oversized format,
so you get like this really it's like ominous, and
also just the sense of scale of it, because the
ship is so large and then you have these like
small children on it. One of them is six years old,
and so it's like this is I think it adds
to something very horrific about the experience that they're having.
Speaker 1 (49:09):
I'm a big I'm a big fan of Marx and
I've known him for almost as long as I've been
doing word Balloon, and I would imagine, are you guys
going to be at a con together or a signing
next week? Is what's happening?
Speaker 2 (49:19):
Yes, yeah, thought bubble.
Speaker 1 (49:21):
Oh sure of course that's cool. Well yeah, no. Once
once I saw who you were doing Endeavor with and stuff,
I'm like, I got a bug, Mark, So expect another
Endeavor talk everybody with Mark in the weeks ahead. Absolutely.
How many issues for Endeavor?
Speaker 4 (49:35):
It is three Distillery issues, but each issue is forty
four pages, so it's.
Speaker 2 (49:41):
Yeah, forty four pages, which is like what six issues?
Traditional issue?
Speaker 1 (49:45):
Yes, graphic novel size. When you're done, absolutely, yeah, that's excellent.
And this is this is your Is this your second
Distillery book or am I right, yep.
Speaker 4 (49:56):
The first one was Life that I did with Brian Azarello,
Daniel Gagelle and We low Ridge that I think just
wrapped up. That one was six distillery sized issues. It's
a flip book, so like Brian wrote one part, I
wrote one part and they meet in the middle of
every issue, which has made planning out the trade, which
I'm currently doing like like a serial killer puzzle, Like
(50:18):
I feel like my wall. I'm like making sticky notes
of like this issue should go here in this because
you can't really flip everything, like asking somebody to flip
the three hundred page trade, Like I really love the
experience of asking somebody to engage with the piece of
media that they're wholed. Like, yes, you can get it digitally,
(50:39):
but there's something I think very cool about using the
format that you don't get in other types of media.
So we really wanted to do that and play with it.
Distillery let us do that. Like Brian and I think
went to dinner with some of the Distillery guys and
we were like, hear us out, like you're gonna want
to say no, but just hear us out, And they
didn't want to say no.
Speaker 2 (50:59):
So we were like, okay, cool, cool.
Speaker 4 (51:02):
So we got away with something kind of unique and fun,
and then we got to the trade and you know
that's where we're currently at.
Speaker 2 (51:12):
Figure it out.
Speaker 1 (51:13):
That's great. No, you know, Rob v has told me
about similar things that he's trying to play with with
the with the comic book format and the fact that
we can do things like that. I mean, that's that's excellent.
I Aaron, You're right. I'm so glad you mentioned Dan
and you're working on Fantastic four because that was a
great run. I really enjoyed it. Absolute.
Speaker 3 (51:38):
Yeah. I was as as Stephanie was talking.
Speaker 5 (51:41):
There, I was thinking about how, yeah, really blessed career
in that sense, you know, Action Comics. Fantastic four, we
got to got to draw Ben Ben Grimm's wedding Darren Nels.
Yeah yeah, really really really lucky like you do here.
Speaker 1 (52:03):
That's cool. Was there also was that it was it
a Ben's wedding where uh it turned out Johnny slept
or was it Doom's wedding where Johnny slept with the
bride or whatever?
Speaker 5 (52:13):
I forget which, uh, well Johnny had been in a
relationship with.
Speaker 3 (52:22):
Alicia.
Speaker 5 (52:25):
Yeah, that was a scroll I think when.
Speaker 1 (52:29):
Oh, yeah, I didn't. I didn't know that. I think
that's hilarious.
Speaker 5 (52:36):
Red cons Yeah, you know, it's it's been a minute, so.
Speaker 1 (52:42):
Okay, and I'm thinking and maybe you didn't drop, but
I was thinking of dance story where I think Doom
got married again dance Victorious, Yes, yeah, and that and
then Johnny slept with Victorious as well, and it was.
Speaker 5 (52:56):
Like, I didn't draw that myself, that I those those building. Yeah.
That's one of the great things about working.
Speaker 3 (53:07):
With Dan is that he he cannot keep a secret.
Speaker 5 (53:13):
He will he will, he will talk about all of
his ideas like it's it could be very difficult for
the artists to get the writer to.
Speaker 3 (53:22):
Really elaborate on where they're going and what they want
to do. And that is not dance problem at all.
Speaker 5 (53:30):
He uh pretty much laid out in the first phone
call conversation with him, laid out everything that he was
he had planned, and uh, it was a blast. It's
it's yeah, he's a great guy.
Speaker 1 (53:42):
Here another another Cougar moment, uh, and says really first
sciences work on Legion Lost, Legion of Superheroes.
Speaker 5 (53:53):
Well, Legion Lost was just a handful of them on Earth.
I think it was my first DC gig and uh
so it was just a core team of six or
seven characters.
Speaker 3 (54:08):
So I didn't have to draw Legion, right.
Speaker 5 (54:13):
I think. I think that there's there's the artists that
can do that and not just lose their minds Uh,
I'm not.
Speaker 3 (54:23):
One of them.
Speaker 5 (54:26):
It's a ton of characters and a ton of unique
personalities that Yeah, so I was very glad that it
was a scaled down book.
Speaker 1 (54:36):
Yeah, I guess. And just letting us know, you that
he appreciated Dawn Star in your book and Timberwealth and Tyrock.
I love Tyro. Tyrock never gets enough love. Did you
draw them in the in the crazy onesie that I
remember from the seventies that Microw used to put them
in or did you give him pants?
Speaker 3 (54:58):
This was uh, I.
Speaker 5 (55:00):
Know, long ago, fifteen fifteen years ago now, I sorry,
but yeah, yeah, almost almost sixteen years ago.
Speaker 1 (55:07):
So I'm just scratch you were drawing it or not always?
Speaker 3 (55:14):
I'm actually very talented. I can do that.
Speaker 7 (55:16):
I'm doing that right now. So you can't even tell,
can you? Fantastic? Yes, sir?
Speaker 1 (55:26):
Absolutely well, all right, I can look it up, that's
all right. But again, I love I love tyrock and
I you know, I got to ask Mike rel someday
about I'm pretty.
Speaker 5 (55:35):
Sure that those outfits, the outfits that I drew were
all designed by Pete Woods. Okay, sure, because he was
he was the main artist on the book. I was
just doing a couple issue filling or an issue.
Speaker 3 (55:49):
Filling and uh so, yeah, No, I wasn't.
Speaker 5 (55:57):
I wasn't like the main artist on that that book
at all. I just had it a firm a one shot.
Speaker 1 (56:03):
Very cool. That's awesome, Steph. You're you're involved in the
X Men event right now, that's happening. Yes, yep, me
about that story what you're doing for I just talked
to Tony Felice about his satellite book and everything, So yeah,
tell me about your status quote me or what the
status quo is in your book.
Speaker 4 (56:22):
Yeah, I'm doing like a like Stephen King under the Dome,
but I'm doing it with Captain Marvel Binary. So Binary,
she's readopted the name Binary because she has the Phoenix
Force and she's trapped in her hometown of Beverly, Massachusetts,
keeping the virus out, So it is literally her in
(56:45):
the townspeople under a psychic dome. She's created for everybody.
I would say it's it's very political. They have reached
the point ten years in where they believe that the
virus no longer exists.
Speaker 2 (57:00):
Of the townspeople think that like.
Speaker 4 (57:02):
Maybe the virus never did exist. Maybe Carol Danvers is
tricking them, and if there was a virus, for sure
it's cured by now and she needs to let them
out of the psychic bubble. So it has become a
story of kind of like Carol is trying to be
the hero even when nobody else wants her to be
the hero, and it is It's caused an interesting kind
(57:26):
of like mental game for her to play within the town.
Speaker 1 (57:32):
Who's trying it.
Speaker 4 (57:34):
It is a giata and I'm very sorry I can't
pronounce I'm not entirely sure of her last name, but
she has been fantastic to work with. I think I
just reposted some of her pages today as well. Like
she does this really cool cosmic stuff with the phoenix
that is very pretty. It is like one of the
prettiest iterations of the flaming fiery phoenix bird that I've
(57:58):
ever seen. Like it's just like, wow, that's a gorgeous
fiery bird.
Speaker 2 (58:03):
It's very cool.
Speaker 4 (58:05):
So working with her has been a lot of fun
seeing her also developed the townspeople, because you know, for
a three issue event, she's got a bit of a
cast that she had to kind of help put together
and design, and I think they all look great. Really,
a lot of fun working with her and kind of
coming up with this this kind of weird story.
Speaker 1 (58:25):
As far as a citizen, like an ordinary citizen cast
is that we mean cool?
Speaker 4 (58:29):
Yeah, exactly, Yeah, and kind of watching them interact with Carol.
Speaker 2 (58:36):
Yeah, that's been that's been a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (58:38):
It's been fun seeing honestly, Stephan. I mean, even going
back before you started getting gigs in Marvel, I've always
appreciated your real people kind of stories. And again that's
why I'm really thrilled that you're doing Endeavor with Mark.
But that said, I am also thrilled that the Adventures
of Spider Gwinn continues now in the six one, sixth
(58:59):
and regardless, you two really blew me away with Plannet Cheahawk.
Excellent first issue. I'm very excited to read more. Congratulations
at least done again. I have faith on the on
the rest of the issues coming. But great to talk
to you guys about what you're doing right now. And yeah,
thanks for playing tonight. As always, it's good to talk
(59:20):
to you. Steph and Aaron. Please come back. I'll do
better with my research and that tribute Non well, you're
a good man for stand that. So thank you, Thanks,
thank you everybody for watching and listening. And let's see
do I have Oh, you know it's gonna be great
for me. Steph knows I'm a massive Star Trek nerd.
I can't help it. Eric, I just am.
Speaker 6 (59:42):
And well, of course I did. Absolutely I did back
in the day start again fifteen years ago. But very
excited to be talking to David Mack, who's written a
lot of great Star Trek novels over the years, but
he co wrote the It just wrapped up the Star
Trek Con podcast drama that was nine episodes. It was
(01:00:02):
a great story and I've got a lot of questions.
But we'll also talk about the fact.
Speaker 1 (01:00:06):
That David has a new Star Trek Strange New Worlds
Captain Pike and the Crew novel that just was released
back in October. So that's coming up tomorrow on Word Balloon.
I'll be recording that, but I'll be releasing it all
Thursday nights, so I hope everyone will join us to
listen to that until next time, Thanks a lot for
watching and listening everybody. Stay safe, stay happy, stay healthy,
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