Chip Zdarsky Is Great, Again!

Chip Zdarsky returns to the podcast to talk about writing Marvel’s new Captain America series, and to try and make sense of how Zdarsky Comic News (ZCN) landed a 2025 Eisner Award nomination. The two talk manga, Japan, the current state of the comics industry, Tom Waits, and Zdarsky’s surprising new best friend, Pedro Pascal.

Check Out Chip's Substack - https://zdarsky.substack.com/

https://www.westcoastdavengers.com/direct-edition-podcast

Episode Transcript

(00:12):
Hey, everybody. Welcome back to Direct Edition,
a podcast about nothing and everything.
I'm your host, Dave. Yeah, me today.
My guest is returning. If you remember, I posted the
interview with Chips at our ski kind of at the beginning of this
podcast. I had him on over on my other

(00:32):
channel, West Coast Avengers, and he returns and he returns to
talk about his new run on Captain America.
He's starting with the Italian artist Valerio Skidi Shidi.
We discussed how to try to say his name in the podcast.
And we also get to talk about his now Eisner nominated monthly

(00:55):
free newsletter or her Zine called Zadarski Comic News,
which about a year ago comic shop started carrying.
And I, I really get to dive intokind of his process behind that
and the work he puts into it andwhat he wants it to do and the
things that he hopes for it in the future, as well as kind of

(01:17):
connecting the dots through fanzines in comics from, you
know, all the way back when to now, which is why I invited him
on again. I mean, I also invited him on
because he's just a nice Canadian fellow.
We also have some, we share somegood jokes and talk about the
state of comics. And it's a very engaging,

(01:38):
flowing conversation. Somebody who deals with writing
words all the time. He also likes talking.
And I really appreciate the timethat Chip gave me.
And I hope you enjoy listening to this.
And you can take that to the bank by going to pick up his new
Captain America book, which is in stores now.
The first issue came out of thispast Wednesday, so you can go

(02:02):
visit your LCS and you can also ask them to order Zidarski Comic
News. And if you're in the Vancouver
area, July 12th, Chip will be atGolden Age Collectibles doing a
signing and you can say, hey, I really enjoyed listening to you
talk with Dave and he'll be likewho?
Be like the Dave Enderguy and he'll be like who anyway.
And if you're coming over from the West Coast Avengers because

(02:23):
I posted a preview of this interview about a 17 minute
snippet, well, thank you for being here.
You're getting the whole thing. So sit back and relax and listen
to me talking to the man who's going to make America great
again. Captain America chips at our
ski. Take it away.

(02:46):
Today I have a returning guest and I have to apologize.
The last time he was here, my producer gave me a note calling
him a sex criminal and I had to fire Jerry.
So I did hire a new producer. New producer.
Thank you so much, Gary. But the note that he gave me is
that my guest today, Chip Siddarsky, is going to make

(03:09):
America great again, which I don't really agree with this,
but Gary, it's he's going to make Captain America great
again. That's what this is all about.
First of all, how can you make the greatest country in the
world great again? It's already the greatest huge,

(03:33):
huge flaw on that plan. Well, I mean, I guess if
anybody's going to make America great again, it's Canada.
But we're talking about Captain America as well as your awesome
Zine Zdarsky. Comic News.
I'm talking to award-winning cartoonist, all around good guy
and the person who says hey JackKirby, hold my fucking beer,

(03:54):
Chip Zdarsky. I don't like any of what you
said. Well, I got to live with it.
Yeah. I did pay you to be here today.
So this is this is called Comic Cameo, except it's a full length
interview. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Because we we need the money, man.

(04:16):
No, but for real, Chip, how are you doing?
And Congrats on all of the success you've had recently, but
especially the Eisner Nam for Sadarsky Comic News.
Yeah, that's a weird one. Very unexpected.
I thought you had to submit like, like I thought, I suppose
you had to submit your book to have it or your publisher had
to. So I did not do that because why

(04:39):
would I? And then that announcement came
out. I was like, oh, that's a huge
mistake. I mean, you are self-publishing
it. So it is pretty amazing to see
that it it's getting nominated. Like, I guess we could start off
with that and then we'll get into Captain America because
right after, it was maybe like amonth after I interviewed you

(05:00):
last, the first issue of ZdarskyComic News came out, which is
like you're kind of an ode to multiple things, fanzines and
also like comic buyer's guide and comic buyer news that we
used to get in shops when we were young for free.
Yeah. And Wizard and wizard.
Wizard. Some of that feel.
Yeah. I mean, it started off as a
joke, like most things that kindof spiraled out of control.

(05:25):
Yeah. Because that first issue was
like, like, I had 4 pages and itwas just all about me.
And, you know, that's the joke, right?
Like, screw the Internet, just gonna put this in comics house.
Yeah. And then I just enjoyed doing
it. And so now it's like 16 pages
and just talking to a bunch of creators and doing fun stuff.
And yeah, there you go. All about manga.
You know, it's still a focus on me, obviously based on that

(05:48):
cover, but yeah, yeah. It's weird how it just kind of
just kind of kept going and we got like people helping me with
it and. Yeah, you you have an advertiser
that's interviewing you right now.
Yeah, that's true. Yeah.
Thank you very much for your support.
But I actually have a guy now who, like, handles all the ads
for me, Adam Freeman, who's beenkicking around the industry for

(06:09):
a while, smart guy. And yeah, he handles all the
distribution and printing and ADstuff 'cause that was killing
me. Like by issue 7, I was like, oh,
I got to keep track of all of this.
Like it was just too much. It was too much.
Like I, it actually hit a point where, yeah, it was issue 7, it
was the Scott Snyder issue wherebefore that I, I started taking
ads and that was great. I got, I love, I love convincing

(06:33):
people to advertise with me. But the, but the follow up was
horrendous. Like having to send out
contracts and like chase people for payments and chase people
for their ads. I'm just like, oh man, this is
like this is a whole other job. And by issue 7, I was getting
ready to kind of like finish it and I was like, oh, I forgot to
get ads. It was like the one issue where
I was like, I just forgot. I was just like, I was so busy

(06:55):
with everything else I forgot that to get out.
So that that was another 4 pager.
And I was like, OK, I got to change something.
And so by issue 8 I brought on Adam and bumped up to 16 pages
and we've been there ever since.No.
And, and, and it's great to to see the growth of it.
I mean, it's something that I think not just, you know, the
comics industry, if we want to call it that, but comic shops

(07:18):
have been missing. It's, you know, especially with
Diamond, you know, plunging intothe depths of nothingness,
you're going to lose a lot of those free, you know, pamphlets
and catalogues and stuff. But to have something that's
focused on not just you, but youdon't like all the things you
do, but also including other creators.

(07:39):
And I bring it back to fanzines because of that, because you're
interviewing people. Except you know this most recent
one where you interview a guy with their same name, which is
you. Yeah, sure.
Yeah. And, like, I think it's
important to have something in comic shops that is

(08:00):
entertaining, that also convinces people to buy stuff
while they're in the shop. Yeah.
Because it's weird. You know, I get some pushback
from some retailers, like, oh, you know, because we went from
10 packs of 10 to packs of 25 because it just made economic
sense and just gets more copies out there and, you know, cut
back on the price for the retailer per issue.

(08:23):
But, you know, I had some peoplecomplaining, like, I can't stock
this now. I'm like, it's like 3 bucks for
you knock it and you get 25 of these and you can, if you can
convert 1 person to buy something on your shelf, it's so
worth it. So yeah, it's a, it's a, it's a
weird one. Like some people have jumped
fully on board. You know, we've got some

(08:43):
retailers that are ordering likethousands of copies of these
things. And so we got retailers that
like aren't, you know, I understand times are tough, but
it's also like everyone's takingthe risk here.
Everyone's trying to get people in stores and they don't think
it's worth it. Obviously don't order it, but
like I think it's worth it obviously.
I think while in general, obviously no business, you have

(09:03):
to taste, take risks, but the fact that it is not just an ad,
you know, an advertisement scene, it is it's got
personality and it's possibly the funniest thing that is on
the shelves every week. I'd I'd love to just read just a
tiny little bit. So you write the soul editorial
lights Cameron Slab and you you,you definitely poke a little fun

(09:24):
at the spec market, which is something that I poke at all the
time. But you talk about CGC grade and
you talk. What's the next move with
pristine movie tickets? Collectors will go crazy once
they realize that the ticket process can have value.
Sure, a three DX Toledo afternoon screening of Thor 1
Volume 3 is worth 30 when gradedat a nine 7.

(09:45):
But an opening night London ticket IMAX 98?
Baby, you got to slap that. I mean slap it.
Hilarious. Yeah, it's, it's funny, like,
yeah, every issue it's like I got to send it to press.
I'm like, oh, what am I going towrite about this month?
God, I don't know. Jesus.
Yeah, no, it's super fun. And next issue, Ryan Stegman

(10:07):
takes over. Oh Christ.
Yeah, I know, I know It's a bit of a problem.
We'll see. Yeah, he's already.
He's already. I mean, between you and me, he's
fucked up already, like so many times on this thing.
Like if it actually comes out I'll be surprised.
Have you figured out how to finally kind of just get rid of
him after this? Like do you have a plan to get

(10:28):
rid of Stegman? Well, that's what this is like.
I think he's just. I'm giving him enough rope to
hang himself. Like the stuff he's writing
about. I'm just like, oh, sure, yeah.
You want to. You want to be cancelled?
That's fine by me. Yeah.
You want to never work in this industry again?
Sure. Yeah.
You can print that. Well, let's.
Wipe my hands of it. And that that that's like your

(10:49):
master plan with ZCN is to end statement.
Yeah, yeah. That's all along.
All along. It's Chip all along.
That's the new Marvel series. I I do think that there is
definitely some, you know, just thinking about, you know, like
the editorial about the collector market.
There's definitely something about this that I'm enjoying

(11:10):
collecting it. Like I get a, you know, from
your sub stack digitally, but I'm actually missing the chip
making out with Batman issue. Like a lot of people may have
not stopped that for whatever reasons they may find but.
Oh, God, I like, I like having the physical copies.

(11:31):
Like, you know, I don't, I don'treally have extras at home, but
you know, I get, I get one for every issue so I can make sure
it printed. And, you know, I kind of got
them together with a bulldog clip and like, oh, that's
pretty. That's pretty cool to have this
hefty thing after you're doing it, like, yeah.
It is, it is and it it takes me back to I.
I talk a lot on podcast Direct Edition about fancying and fancy

(11:52):
culture. And, you know, this is one of
those things where there's got to be somebody picking this up,
you know, every month. Not, you know, maybe being
introduced to a creator like Cody Ziegler or, you know, or
who else do we got on there? We got James Tynion and well, if
you don't know who he is, I think you you haven't figured

(12:13):
out what comics are doing in thelast 10 years.
Yeah, it's the Dennis Camp and Eviewing.
Those were fun interviews. Yeah.
I've got Ryan North and Jeff Lemire in the next one.
Like it's, yeah, it's fun. It's fun kind of talking to my
contemporaries. Does it help you flex your old
kind of journalistic muscles? You know, back back when you

(12:34):
were working for the paper. Yeah, for sure, 100%.
This is a kind of everything I've learned over the past like
20 years. It's going to be distilled into
this weird Zine because, you know, I mostly did design and
illustration and graphics at thenewspaper, but once in a while I
would interview people and do actual reporting.
So yeah, it's it's kind of everything, all of it in there.

(12:56):
Like that, the page you held up with the lights, camera slab or
whatever. Like at the bottom, it's like a
it's a graph. It's a graphic about ultimate
universe and absolute titles. And like I did research like I
just went through and I checked every month and count the number
of titles just because I personally wanted to see it kind
of laid out that way. And I just love doing stuff like

(13:17):
that, yeah. Yeah, and it probably add.
Niche I haven't scratched in so long.
You know, once in a while I get to do something like when X-Men
were doing data pages, I got to do data pages for like my
Fantastic Four X-Men series. I'm like, oh man, I miss this.
I miss doing maps and charts andgraphs and kind of just
visualizing data is like, it's it's my passion.

(13:38):
Sure, this is a weird thing to say, but yeah, yeah.
Any opportunity I can do it in ZCMI do it.
That I, I completely understand that in a different a little bit
of different way I can relate toit is I enjoy editing.
I enjoy editing video. I, I really do.
And it satisfies a piece of my brain that doesn't get satisfied
doing anything else. It's yeah, it's weird.

(14:00):
Like, I don't know, I wish I hadlike more lifetimes.
I love editing video as well. Like I do double YouTube videos
once in a while. And yeah, man, I just wish I had
time to do all of it. Yeah.
Being the being the Jack of all trades, master of none is like
is an unfortunate thing for the psyche because you're just like,

(14:21):
all you want to do is a bunch ofstuff.
Whereas if you're just master one thing, you just focus and
go. I am a writer and I do this.
Right. Great, great.
Kind of wish that was how my brain worked.
Yeah, I, I, I feel a very kindred spiritedness to that
because yeah, it's, it's it's I love interviewing, I love
editing, but I also love readingand I love collecting comics and
talking about them. And it's like, yeah, you're

(14:43):
trying to do all these things. It's a very I'm going to make
that into a reel. There you go.
Have you had, have you seen effects of your books maybe like
you know numbers of sales risingsince this, like have you been
able to chart that at all? It's a weird thing because like
I've been doing this during a period where I haven't had much

(15:06):
coming out, you know, because Batman was kind of winding down
and Batman never needs a sales bump really.
Like I don't think Batman's going to get a big ZCM bump.
And like, create our own stuff has all been kind of not pushed
back. But like, I don't know, Time
waits did OK with distillery, sothere's probably an effect

(15:28):
there, but I don't have anythingto compare it to.
And, you know, I've got distillery stuff that, you know,
hasn't come out yet, so it's hard to say.
Yeah, maybe in a. Year you'll have better numbers.
Maybe, but even still, you have to compare it to the rest of the
industry. And then I don't know.
I don't know what individual titles are doing.
So like if my went up, maybe it's because the industry is

(15:48):
going up or maybe because, you know, people like me or
something like that. But yeah, no, it's, it's it's
such a hard thing. It's a vibe, right?
Like it's like, yeah, at at. I mean, I will say at comic
conventions, people are bringingZCM to get signed and they're
saying, oh, I found out about this in here.
Like, oh, even if it's not mine,it's like, oh, that's awesome.
Like people actually finding outabout books.

(16:09):
And we're doing this retailer thing too.
Steve Anderson of Third Eye is doing like his kind of Hot Hot 5
list at the back. And so are you.
And see, so am I. Yeah, Yeah, weirdly, it's all my
Howard the Duck issues. But, but I love that too.
Like, 'cause there there is a different market of like people
who just want what's cool, whether it's the speculator side

(16:33):
or just wants to know what's cool to read, what's cool.
And Steve's really good at kind of kind of handling that side of
things. That's been fun too.
Yeah, and they're one of the biggest stores in the country.
If maybe they are the biggest store in the.
Country, it's the best comic shop in the world.
Like, I went and did a signing there, you know, a couple of
months ago and, you know, Steve took me on the tour of, like,

(16:55):
every time I go, like, his empires expanded and he took me
out of 200 facilities. I'm just like, this is insane.
Like, it's just like, there's somuch passion put into this.
And he gets his readers just so amped up about stuff.
Like, I wish I could just kick open the door of every comic
shop and be like, you fucking got to clone Steve and get you
him in here to show you that you're trying to sell stuff.
And not just sitting here just like, put the comics on the

(17:16):
shelf, sit back complaining about what's on the shelf.
Like, yeah, I've been caping toomany bad retailers.
Well, it's something I I mean, II did a retailer roundtable
twice in the last year and I don't know if you've ever heard
of comic comics place up in Bellingham, but you're actually
not too far from them. I would put them as the best
comic store on the West Coast. Like they are passionate about

(17:39):
what they do. They send a newsletter.
They invented apos system for other comic stores to to adopt
and like. Yeah.
You know, they're a store that champions comics and gets people
to read what they what they love.
Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's so important.
That's an important part of the process.

(18:01):
Yeah, I love. I mean, I've encountered more
good jobs and bad, which is nice, though.
Everyone can learn. I mean, every, every creator can
learn to better create and sell comics.
But yeah, it's inspiring when you find the good ones.
One of the things you said when we talked last that really stuck
with me, like I probably quoted you, you know, paraphrased you

(18:23):
for the last year a whole bunch of times about is how you said
to me, you know, with the comic industry and like how you do all
these interviews, it's not because you really want to spend
your day doing interviews, but it's like, how else are you
going to get the word out there?Because there is no industry
standard anymore. And with Sadowski Comic News,

(18:43):
like I see what you said, you put it into print form and and
it's such a great marketing tool, not just for you, but for
everybody that you're talking about or talking to and.
It's the kind of thing, I mean, you know, I think every creator
kind of hits the point where just like, I just don't want to
like, talk about the work anymore.
I just want to put the work out and just be a recluse or
whatever, you know? Yeah, I mean, Hickman's a little

(19:06):
bit like that. Like, it's very rare that he
doesn't interview. He can just sell kind of on the
strength of his name, which is great, but even he will do once,
once in a while. But I remember just seeing
Margaret Atwood at San Diego Comic Con, like shaking hands
and kissing babies, selling Angel Catbird.
And it's like, oh, yeah, no, it doesn't matter what level you're
at. Like, like Margaret Atwood, even

(19:28):
if, you know, you can see interviews where she's a little
bit bristly or whatever. Like I've interviewed her before
and you know, it's very tempting, but she pounds the
payment. She sells the work like they all
do. Like, no matter how like, you
know, off putting a personality and author might be, I can think
of a few novelists who are just like, you know, they put a novel

(19:48):
every 10 years and they're grumpy and all their interviews,
but they're doing the interviewslike you're getting press
because they know that's such a huge part of it, the book tours
and the readings and things likethat.
And sometimes you lose sight of it in comics because you think,
you know, the name of the character is going to sell the
book alone, which sometimes it does.
But yeah, you still got to stillgot to do it.
You have to remind people that those books are still coming out

(20:10):
too. I mean, there are people that
have no clue. And then when, you know, with
creator on stuff, it's extremelyimportant to get out there
because, yeah, you know, I mean,even a guy you mentioned
authors. I was thinking about how, like,
maybe in the last 20 years, I think we've seen more Stephen
King out there, like interviews and having columns and op eds
and all this stuff. And it's like, yeah, he doesn't

(20:31):
want you to ever forget who he is.
No, no, no, no. I think it's always been the
case, Like, yeah, yeah, it's it's obviously a very important
part, especially now with socialmedia being so fractured and
horrible. And.
It's it's definitely more difficult for people to kind of
get out there and spread the word.
And sometimes you just feel too old to do it.
Like I'm not on TikTok. I can't do TikTok, you know, and

(20:54):
I know I'd sell more. I know I'd sell more if I did
certain things. And it's a weird balancing act
between like, how much of myselfdo I want to give over time and
your, your soul versus what you're going to get back.
And I'm, I'm, I find I'm happiermaking less money, selling less
books and not being on social media and just kind of doing the

(21:16):
things I want to do, like an interview like this or ZCN, you
know, that's kind of my trade off.
And I think conversation is, I mean, it's important for so many
reasons, but the reason why I doit is because I think it just,
we're not going to go to personal, right?
I'm not going to ask you about, you know, last, you know, bowel
movement you had, but I think there's.
I mean it was great. It was like 2 hours ago.

(21:40):
But but it connects people to the person that's writing the
thing that they're really enjoying.
And you know, we talked a lot about Sex Criminals last time.
And I think, you know, like whenpeople read that, they feel like
they know you 2 in a different way even though they they don't.
Yeah, there's a lot of us in it.Obviously there's a public

(22:00):
persona and then there's the private persona.
Like, you know, I've got a real name and I've got a fake name
and there's a reason for that. Yeah, it's, it's so funny.
Like, sometimes, and I've had this conversation with like,
writers and artists before, like, or I'll say that there are
artists on Twitter who post a lot on Twitter, and I will never
work with them because of their posts on Twitter.

(22:24):
That's a big, not just the content of them, which I for the
most part find abhorrent, just the rank stupidity of people
when they just feel like they should say whatever they want
and they spend all their time onTwitter.
So I'm not going to see pages from them.
So like there's there's a bunch of stuff there.
Like, I already know you're probably unprofessional, like

(22:45):
based on the things you're saying about other creators or,
you know, hot button topics. I'm just like, they don't
realize they're damaging themselves.
They think they're promoting themselves, but really they're
just addicted to this machine. And then they're just like
screwing themselves over eventually because editors are
seeing it like, oh, OK, they took a swipe with this person
for no reason. I don't why would I want to work

(23:06):
with them. Yeah, or they said this
abhorrently like misogynistic orracist thing, and they think
that it's OK because it's on social media.
It's like, well, that's you get to still in that, still in that.
Yeah, on both sides too, even left or right.
Like I can just sure, Oh my God,like just shut the fuck up.
Like what are you doing? Just get to work.

(23:27):
Just do something with your life.
Like you're not doing anything on.
You're not changing anything. No, you're not going to change
people's minds. Help with the local homeless
shelter like I'd do something anyways yeah we like to kick
ourselves into thinking we're actually affecting change using
these machines that are designedto outrage people so they can
get ad revenue I'm. I sound like a crazy person I

(23:47):
know, but like. No, you know, look at the world.
Look at the world. I have to push back against it
too, because, like, as somebody that posts on YouTube and you
know, Spotify and and these things with with podcast, I have
to figure out the balance between like, how do I get
people to watch this but also not sound like a complete
fucking asshole in the thumbnailor the title.

(24:08):
You know, like to to to get metawith it.
If if I didn't actually care about you as a person, the title
of this thumbnail would say ChipZdarsky is making America great
again. And then maybe in little letters
captain, but I like but that's going to get, you know, that'll
that'll get people looking at it.
But really, you know, do you justice.

(24:30):
But anyway, getting back to ZCN,anybody that you like if you
living obviously, but anybody that you would love to have on
the cover as an interview that you know like maybe is like a
bucket list type thing for you going forward.

(24:51):
Yeah, I don't know, not really the I'd love to talk to Bendis.
You know, I've been kind of likepoking around to see if I could
do something with him. Yeah, I keep thinking Hickman,
but like, he probably won't do it.
So I'll just get AI to write a Hickman tube for me.

(25:12):
I think you'd appreciate that. I think that'll be my plan.
Yeah. No, that's that's hard to say.
Like, you know, there's some like, you know, big names from
the past while Simonson and Asante Frank Miller.
But I also want to be able to tie it into something that
they're putting out. Sure, because that's that's kind
of my big thing. I want, I want people to people
to read it, read an interview and be able to turn to their

(25:34):
comic store employee manager andbe like, oh, I want this book
and be able to get it or like it's going to be out next week
or yeah, something very close topurchase.
You do a good job with it. I mean, I didn't know Cody at
all. I mean, I knew the name, but I
didn't know Cody. And I read that and I was like,
all right, I'm excited to read some of his work now.
Yeah, Cody's great. Yeah, met him in the Marvel

(25:56):
Room, like we the big kind of writers room with editors like
Cody's. Been there the past few times.
Great. Super smart, great ideas.
Yeah, yeah, I like, I like coding a lot.
And then I did want to ask aboutfanzines in general because we
talked about message boards lasttime and how you got your start.
Did you do any fancying or you know, participate in any fanzine

(26:18):
stuff when you were younger in Canada?
In high school, I made a fanzinecalled Sassy in which I
basically just told all my friends, like, submit something,
I'll print it, like I'll design it, I'll print it like whatever.
And so I did, you know, and a lot of it was maybe not suitable
content to be in public. And so I did like 3 issues of

(26:44):
that. And my parents were really
supportive. My dad worked at a place with a
photocopier, so he photocopied it all and they'd help me like
put it together and put it out there.
And then, yeah, there was a teacher that found it and took
issue with it. And it started a whole thing
where just a whole bunch of us were called into the principal's
office. And I took the fall for it all

(27:05):
because they basically asked me.So you you print this.
I'm like, yeah, I was like, who's who, who writes for it?
I'm like, it's all me. I I do everything in it.
Like every article. It's.
Really cool that you did that. And they're like, so even this
thing, this kind of feminist screed about nipples, this is
you. I'm like, yeah, yeah, that's me.
You know, just trying on a persona.

(27:25):
It just made. They knew I was lying.
Yeah. OK, so I took the fall for it
and then I got suspended for three days and my parents
couldn't say anything about it because they fucking helped me
put it together. Sure, sure.
Basically had three days off where I just hung out at home,
watched TV and I was like a heroat my school for a brief,

(27:47):
shining moment. Yeah, it was awesome.
That was awesome. I guess it must have given me a
taste for, you know, zines and, you know, being a public figure
and. And, and, and putting your sense
of humor there on the line and everybody else's sense of humor
there on the line. Yeah.
Well, if if anybody has a copy of Sassy, please send it.

(28:09):
I'll I'll you can message me andI'll give you my post, my PO
Box. God, I wish I had a copy.
Or maybe I don't. Like definitely some stuff that
was, you know, beyond the pale, as they would say.
Yeah. But you'd probably cringe, read
it and then like burn it and youknow, in effigy.
I think one of one of my friendsput in a recipe for laughing

(28:31):
gas. I guess it's dangerous.
Actually a dangerous publication.
It's It's The Anarchist Cookbook.
Canadian Edition. Yeah, yeah.
I do love talking about fanzine song going back.
I, I interviewed Stan Zakai a couple weeks ago when we talked
about, you know, his participation in fanzines in
the, you know, late 70s where hewas, you know, drawing

(28:54):
characters and doing stuff that he would, you know, never touch
again. But such an important part of
the growth of comics. And one of the biggest things is
San Diego Comic Con doesn't exist without fanzines.
No, that's true. Yeah.
And it's one of the things that I think, and maybe you'll agree

(29:15):
with me, being somebody that's really in the know of, you know,
fandom and stuff like that. I think fandom has gotten a bad,
bad rap in the last like 10 years versus what it was when we
were younger. And I want to try and take that
back. And that's the idea of me as a
fan interviewing people I want to talk to, but not being like
we Who do you think would win ina fight, Captain America or

(29:38):
Batman, you know? Yeah, I mean, I remember seeing
remember the red Revenge of the Nerds series of movies.
The I remember seeing a photo ofthe main actor from that, the
main nerd and what he looks likenow.
And he looks like like Steve Jobs.
I was just like, oh, yeah, of course.

(29:59):
Like what? We should pitch a Revenge of the
Nerds movie where the nerds havewon and it's the jocks that are
the underdogs and they have to like, unseat these guys from
their insane powers. Like nerds took over.
That's the thing, like fandom and nerds basically run it all
and are in charge of entertainment and and yeah,

(30:20):
hasn't necessarily worked out that well, I don't think.
No. So certain aspects it has and
certain aspects it definitely hasn't.
Yeah, yeah. So yeah, it would be, yeah.
I think it's a lot like a lot tounpack on that.
Yeah, I think a guy like a perfect example is the nerds
have won it and it's good, is James Gunn.

(30:41):
I think he is a shining example of somebody who's, like,
respects the medium that all of the stuff he's making movies
about came from and wants to like, appeal to both the normal
people who are just moviegoers and the people like us who have
been reading comics since we were kids.
Yeah, yeah, exactly. But like, even like the cult of
personalities that kind of rise around him, like online fans

(31:05):
trying to tear him down and stuff, or even to prop them up,
like there's assholes everywhere.
Like you just can't get around it.
And they're all nerds. They're all like fans, fans.
But if they're coming in being like, you know, Snyder Cut rules
or whatever, and, you know, doing weird hate campaigns and
stuff like that, like, yeah, it's, it's unavoidable.

(31:27):
Yeah, unavoidable today. I mean, we all have a voice now,
for good or I'll. It's true, that's true.
And I, I know you battle with that, you know, like it's
actually one of the questions I wanted to ask you is, and I, I
mean this at like the core levelbecause I joke around about
myself 98% of the time that I'm breathing.
Do you ever find that you're like getting tired of the

(31:53):
character that you're writing about in the ZCN?
You know, you obviously being. That character.
No, no, but it's harder. It's it's harder to write the
character Chip Sidarsky from a place of success.
Yeah, I realized that a few years ago.
This is well before I was working on Batman.

(32:14):
I was doing Daredevil and I forget, like I think Reed
conventions asked me if I wantedto do a panel and like create my
own panel. I'm like, oh, it'd be funny if I
did a panel where I was just like me trying to convince
everyone that I should write Batman in which I was going to
do a PowerPoint presentation. I'd bring like Scott Snyder on

(32:36):
stage and he'd just be like, no,we can't have you do this.
And like basically all these famous Batman related people
coming on stage and just shooting down all my ideas and
like, it would be funny. It would be fun, but also just
like I'm like, but it's it's notas funny because it was
possible, like I'd already written Spider Man and Daredel
and all these books like like, like there was a possibility

(33:00):
that I would write Batman one day.
So like I can't pretend to be the loser anymore.
That wouldn't get those opportunities.
And sure enough, I end up writing Batman like so.
So it was probably a good idea. I didn't do that.
So it, it gets harder in that sense, like to kind of, you
know, to play up my kind of loser rich qualities, fictional

(33:23):
or real, because nobody likes someone who is successful
pretending that they're not. Yeah, yeah.
And, you know, for good or I'll,I'm successful like I'm, I'm
doing the job and you know, I rarely get fired and you know, I
can pay my mortgage and my bills.
And you know, anybody at a certain level in comics is

(33:43):
successful. And you know, fellow comic
creators and you know, the stegmons and stuff like we can
have a little back and forth where you know, I'm a loser, but
ultimately, you know, I'm, I'm doing the job.
So it's, it's hard to kind of it's hard to hard to keep
writing myself as an absolute tool.

(34:06):
You know I'm a tool in other ways, but you know I'm not a
loser tool, I guess. You know, you tell us that you
frolic naked in the woods, you know, the week that Captain
America comes out. I mean, like I, you know, I find
it funny because you don't overdo it.
And, and that's one of the things that I really love about
ZCN also is what I said about text criminals.

(34:27):
You fill up every page and whether it's with something that
you're doing, like a advertisement or a interview, or
just that bunch of jokes just scattered throughout on the
jokes, Yeah, yeah, yeah. I absolutely love it.
I am running out of them for sure.
Like it gets harder to write thecover tag lines every issue.

(34:49):
Like it's like the long. It takes me longer to write
those than it does to illustratethe covers.
Sure, OK. Illustrate the cover.
No problem. It's very automatic for me.
And then I sit there and like, OK, what I have to say about
comics this month, I don't know.What Joke.
Yeah, tricky. I love that.
Before we start talking about CAP, I did find it a little

(35:12):
weird that, you know, you talk about this series that you had
with distillery that came out this year.
But on the first issue of ZCN it, you know, it says Tom Waits.
And so I was just I was just trying to figure out like, what
is it with your obsession with Tom Waits?
He wrote a book about him with David Brothers All.
Right. Listen, I'm sorry.

(35:33):
I did. I did promise Deborah I wouldn't
do it, but I had to. Oh God, now she's fired too.
Everyone's fired. I did love that series and I
really enjoyed and I did not realize because I haven't dove
down the path of manga splaining, which is the podcast
that you do with David and a fewother.

(35:54):
Hosts. And but the cool connection is
also you getting a thank you in Search and destroy with the rest
of the manga splaining crew and somebody that I'm friends with
Aki Anagi. OK, nice.
Yeah. Yeah, and before we talk or
after we talked last year, I ended up going to Japan for the

(36:15):
first time and Aki was such a gracious host.
So with manga splaining and all that like, can you break it down
for everybody that doesn't know what I'm talking about?
Yeah. So the kind of early pandemic
project was well, just before the pandemic, I went to Tokyo
with some friends. I was gonna, I was a guest at

(36:35):
Tokyo Comic Con and a bunch of my kind of manga loving friends
were planning a trip. So we all did it together and we
were kind of touring around and there was bringing to all these
kind of like manga hotspots, like galleries and museums and
stores and and I was just hopelessly confused by all of

(36:58):
it. Like I knew a little bit about
manga, but like not really enough to appreciate what we
were seeing. Like, you know, we went to a
whole building of museum dedicated to a bug who rides a
motorcycle like Comet rider. I'm like, this is insane.
Every time I walk around the corner, there's another like
snippet of or a statue of this bug on a motorcycle.
How is this a thing? So at some point on that trip, I

(37:21):
made a joke that, like, all my manga expert friends should
teach me about manga, and we'll call it manga fighting.
And we all laughed. Oh, yeah, maybe.
And then the pandemic hit. It was like, what?
Perfect time? Like, we're all locked indoors,
so let's do this. And so we've done 100 plus
episodes, basically 100 plus manga series, at least a volume

(37:42):
of each. And I'm no longer the newbie.
Like, I know enough about it. I can hold a conversation for
the most part. But yeah, out of that like
Sprung manga splaining extra, which is the the imprint of the
the book you just held up, whichkind of publishes with other
publishers like fan of graphics and Udon and Chris, one of the

(38:06):
hosts and his husband Andrew, They they run that and Deb helps
with that. And it's so cool to just see the
kind of the the ramifications ofthe podcast out in the world and
the fact that they're being ableto translate some really cool
material as a result of it all. What a fantastic book.
Search and destroy. I don't see a dime.
I don't see a dime from it. There is that problem.

(38:28):
But you know, besides that I'm fine.
Comics will break your heart. He he said it.
Yeah, break your wallet. Yeah, your wallet and and
bankrupt you, but it is you knowI I was learning a lot over the
last year and a half. I have a friend, he you may know
who he is. His name's Shawnee goes by Japan

(38:48):
Book Hunter is a YouTube channel.
But he, he is an American that'sbeen living in Japan for 20 plus
years. And he does what I do.
He hunts rare books and and sells them.
And he's taught me so much. And yeah, I was there for three
weeks last year. I mean, I was in Amanda Raka
every day I was going, you know,to bookstores.

(39:10):
It's something that I've said bunch of times, different people
when I talk about Japan. If our if, if North America,
let's just say North America, ifthey adopted the love for the
comics culture, just 1% of what Japan does, it would lift the
entire industry so much. Yeah.

(39:33):
Yeah. I mean, there are a lot of
differences and a lot of obstacles overcome for that to
happen. Just based on my kind of
observations, like the speed which they put out these manga
series. Because there's, there's more of
a culture of kind of a studio culture, assistance culture.

(39:58):
I think because there's less egoinvolved.
Maybe I think North American creators, there's a lot of ego.
So the idea of like being, you know, background artist #3 on
something like that doesn't appeal to anyone.
Whereas there it's like, Oh no, this is part of the process, you
know? And then maybe one day I do my
own thing. So the output is far greater and
then just the, the genres available are so much wider.

(40:23):
Like that was, that was a big discovery I had reading all this
manga was like, Oh my God. Like if someone's interested in
ping pong, they do a manga on ping pong.
They're just in like disc jockeys.
They do a manga, but disc jockeys, you know, it's like, or
rice, you know, I read a whole volume of the thing about rice,
like res in North America. You know, I'd I'd say kind of

(40:47):
the image model. Most books are just like, what
if this met this? What if it's superheroes meets
zombies? What if it's, you know, aliens
meets Cowboys or whatever. Like we're kind of mashing up
genres instead of just kind of telling the stories that we want
to tell or just that spring out of our interests.
Which is why I started doing public domain because that was

(41:09):
kind of my thing. I'm like, oh, I'm actually
interested in comics and comic history and the people behind
the comic. So yeah, that's a direct result
of manga explaining. And what public domain is such a
great book? Is it?
Is it coming back? Yeah, yeah, I've been working on
it. It's been a little tricky just
because I'm writing a lot right now for a variety of people and

(41:32):
hope Domain takes up a lot of time and makes me little money.
So it's a little, it's a little tricky, but yeah, every kind of
spare moment I just keep, I keepplugging away at it.
I just want to get it all done before I start soliciting it.
So it's going to be a while. Yeah, I, I finished through, you
know, the two traits right here and, you know, it's, it's
different for you and, and that's why I really like it.

(41:53):
It's it's, it feels a little more personal without being
about you. Yeah, yeah, I wanted, I want.
I mean, almost all the fiction Iconsume, it's just about people.
Like there's there's no sci-fi or fantasy element or superhero
element to it. Like, you know, I often tell my
friends that my favorite genre of novel is New York couple

(42:13):
getting divorced. I don't know, they're all just
like they're all kind of real life, kind of slice of life
stories. And so I wanted to kind of do
that in this just tell a story about kind of just genuine, real
people. Yeah.
Yeah, it's been fun, but yeah, it's a lot of work.
Well, I I recommend I mean my back wall right here is is

(42:34):
recommends and I. Yeah, look at that.
This is the yeah, I just sit here all day and I just stare.
I'm like turn. Around.
Look at the wall, yeah. Yeah.
So getting into making Captain America great again.
So you are taking on the mantle of Captain America, which is
pretty interesting because you just, you know, a year away from

(42:55):
Avengers Twilight, which was a fantastic story, and you got the
final Cap story. But we're going back to the
beginning. So the arts done by Valerio, is
it Chiti? Who guess is as good as mine?
I I keep saying it's Chiti, but I might be mispronouncing it.
I mean, I worked with Marco for years on Daredevil.
I couldn't tell you how to pronounce his last name.

(43:17):
Chicheto. Chicheto or Kiketo?
I don't know. I don't know.
Keto is she the I think. I know I kind of lean into the
hard sound just because I like Michael Kiketo, but I don't
know. I don't know.
Was was cap on your, your list of like, you know, books that

(43:37):
you've wanted to write for a long time?
Yeah, when when CB Savolsky cameon board at Marvel, I think he
he messaged every kind of writerthat was like on contract with
Marvel at the time just to get their their top three list.
Like if these titles became available, you, you, this is
what you'd want. And I had.

(43:57):
So I gave him my three titles. One was Daredevil and the other
was Captain America. And then the third one I won't
say because I haven't done it yet.
So yeah, those are the I had a top three and Cap was on it.
So yeah, yeah, it's definitely athrill.
And it's been a while because I I went back and listened to our

(44:17):
last interview and you had dropped a little hint.
You rereading the Mark Grunwald Capron doing research and at the
time I had no clue. I just didn't think about what
you said, but is and I know you're a big fan of his writing
in that run. Is it something that you're
really like leaned on for your run to try and just do your own

(44:39):
story, but kind of Grunwald it? Yeah, yeah.
I mean, it's definitely, definitely my touchstone because
it's the comic that I grew up with, the run I grew up with.
You know, I kind of, I noped outa little bit when Cap Wolf
happened, but a part of just also just me kind of moving on
to other things. I came back in pretty full force

(45:01):
with the Brubaker run and then Wade and Sammy or Wade and
Garney. I mean, yeah, yeah.
But the Grunwald one, like, really hit me hard.
Like just that kind of questioning hero, you know, Cap
kind of on the road, growing a beard.
Like feeling like I'm not Captain America.
Who am I, you know? Yeah.

(45:23):
I really, really dug that stuff and I thought that John Walker
stuff was amazing. Sure.
One of my favorite part is aboutrereading, and I probably
mentioned it last time was just the letters pages.
Yep, you did mention that. Yeah, just vicious I.
Mean. It's something that I I
typically look at too. On old books is the letters

(45:44):
column. Yeah, yeah.
It's, it's a real insight into like, what stands the test of
time too. Because like, you know, that
that John Walker story is like, you know, they made a whole TV
show out of it. And people look back and go, oh,
that's like in the top three or four kind of best cap
storylines. And at the time it was like 95%
hatred. Like, you just can't, yeah, you

(46:05):
can't kowtow to, you know, the reader's demands in the moment
because they just don't see the full story.
So I know that we're not going to talk spoilers on cap.
It comes out. It's it's already out first the
shoes out as this comes out. But I know it's a story of like

(46:28):
right when he comes out of the ice and and there's doom.
Is that what I that what I've heard you say?
Yeah, I mean, it's in the solicits and stuff.
So I kind of, I stopped kind of dancing around it.
But yeah, it's about their firstencounter with him out of the
ice. Because, you know, my kind of my

(46:48):
kind of idea was that, you know,when Steve Rogers went in the
ice and then woke up, you know, no time had passed.
Like he basically fell asleep and then woke up.
So. So he's still a soldier.
Like he was a soldier two hours ago.
He's still a soldier. So he goes back to base.
He goes back to the US Army before he joins The Avengers and

(47:13):
and Yeah. And the the army has a mission
for him. And it's this new upstart
dictator in Liberia named Viktorvon Doom.
And that that becomes his first mission.
So it's like, you know, he went to sleep fighting Hitler.
And now there's this seemingly new Hitler on the scene, you
know, a guy in Europe who has been doing some nasty things and

(47:37):
they've been popping over to America to beat up the Fantastic
Four. So yeah, maybe it's time to take
him out. It's a good way to approach it.
I mean, like when you think about it, you're not retelling
anything. You're just telling something in
between the lines, you know, stuff that and then I know going
forward, I know it's going to, Iassume it's going to be set in
present time, but we'll, we'll wait until that actually comes

(47:59):
out to find out. Yeah.
I mean, I can, I can say for forcertain that like, you know, the
first arc is set in this period and the second arc is set in
modern day. Yeah.
And but they they connect. So it's not like it's this is
just a one off story and then wedo a modern story.
Like it's right. This leads into that.
So. Yeah.
Cool. And so we talked about Valerio

(48:20):
as the artist, but you did a variant cover for the first one,
then another great chip design. I just wanted to show that off
real quick because I think people really enjoy seeing it.
Oh, sorry, wrong one, wrong one.That's the one that's.
There you go, those safer portions if you turn to the
side. Yeah, if you turn to the side,
he's he's got this going on. But are you going to be doing

(48:45):
just going forward? Are you doing covers for each
issue? I did covers for the 1st 5A
while yeah, yeah, I, I really wanted to kind of like, you
know, take my stab at it. And so yeah, yeah, the first
five, we haven't talked about doing anything beyond that.
I, I might, but I feel very satisfied with the ones that I

(49:06):
did. The issue 4 cover should be
coming out soon and it's one of my favourites.
It was a lot of fun. Yeah, I know you, we talked last
time about your, your, you know,obviously being design oriented,
but also like your itch to do something to satisfy that.
I did want to add. I wanted to mention and then

(49:29):
also ask lead into this. So you're the first Canadian to
write cap? Only the third non American And
it was Gibbons or no? Gibbons didn't write at Gibbons.
Gibbons did, Gibbons wrote. Oh, he did.
Yeah, he wrote a couple of issues.
And who was the other one? It was man, I can't remember.
The other one I didn't. Know the upcoming?

(49:52):
Yes, I know you did and that's where I'm reading it off of but.
You you know I've forgotten PaulJenkins.
James. Robinson, James Robinson.
That's it. Yeah.
James Robinson But given the current times that we're living
in and and. Oh, something happening.
Yeah, exactly, exactly. And you being a neighbor to the

(50:14):
north, do you think there's any,do you think that you're
bringing a perspective that might be viewed as, you know,
not not what am I looking to say?
Do you think your perspective isgoing to bring a unique take to
to CAP, being a Canadian, being 2025, going through all the
things, or you think you're justright in a great CAP story?

(50:35):
I mean, yeah, I think I think nomatter where you're coming from,
you have a unique perspective. Like if I was American, but I
grew up in the South, would be different than, you know, if I
grew up in California or, you know, New York City or somewhere
like that. Like, I consumed so much kind of
American culture living across the border growing up and like,

(50:57):
again, like a fan of the CaptainAmerica comic as a Canadian.
Yeah, I definitely have like, kind of big grand ideas about
what America stands for and kindof getting to getting to tackle
that. And this has been a lot of fun.
But also I've been doing a lot of research too, like, because,
you know, even though, you know,I took in a lot of American

(51:17):
culture, it wasn't necessarily taught to me in school.
And so been reading some kind ofnon fiction books about America
and various things I got up to over the past few 100 years,
couple 100 years here and there.Yeah, Yeah.
So I've been kind of learning asI've been going and and
preparing for this. And yeah, yeah, it is obviously

(51:40):
a weird time to be writing Captain America.
I think there's a comic writer who is just like, he's like, it
makes sense. You're doing it like right now.
I don't know if an American can write this.
Sure. Like, because it's just so kind
of fractured right now. And everyone would be.
Volatile. Yeah, maybe, maybe kind of shell
shocked to, to, to write the character, but yeah, I, I see it

(52:04):
as an opportunity and it's been a lot of fun so far, yeah.
What I love to remind people andyou know, my, my audience is
very much on the same level as me.
You know, they see me wearing a shirt like this and and you
know, they're happy to see that.One of the things that I love
about Cap it truly he was created as a propaganda tool,

(52:28):
but in the good sense, like it was one of those rare instances
where propaganda was used to give World War 2 American
soldiers of World War 2 something to hope for.
And I I hope that we all keep that in mind.
It's one of the things that I really do harp upon is comics
comes from a place of people that were escaping persecution,

(52:53):
fighting in wars. All of the above, you know, and,
and I, you know, I don't assume that you're going to do that,
but you know, it's just something that I always kind of,
you know, we have to keep reminding ourselves about.
The cap was used in this way in the darkest time in the last 150
years of history. Yeah, it's interesting.

(53:14):
Interesting to write him with the sliding timeline of it all,
because there's a difference. Because like when he woke up in
The Avengers Issue 4, like what?15 years have passed?
Sounds about right. Yeah, like not a lot of time and
he's still like a a man out of time.

(53:35):
But it's a different feeling to wake up 15 years later and find
out Bucky died. You know, in that moment where
Bucky could be alive, then he could have to be a father with
some kids, with a wife in the suburbs, living that kind of
1950s Nineteen 60s dream. But to wake up in like 2010 or
whatever, like everyone he knowsis dead, like it's just, it's

(53:58):
just like a totally different place to wake up and a totally
different kind of feeling and a lot more sci-fi kind of aspect
to it. So that's been interesting.
Just like kind of thinking aboutthat setting.
Setting the first story in that period is like very different
than setting it in 1963 or 4 or whatever, you know, setting it
in again, like 2010 or something.

(54:21):
Yeah, yeah, that's been, that's been a while.
Yeah, yeah, I know. You know, I know a lot of
people, including myself, are really looking forward to it.
How are you dealing with the fact that Matt Fraction stole
Batman? You know, one of your best
friends. You said you weren't going to

(54:41):
ask about this. Look genuinely like I'm so
fucking excited, like, you know,because there were there were
some names kind of bandied aboutand when when Matt's name came
up, I was just like, Oh my God, yes.
Like it's it's perfect because like I, I wanted him to do more

(55:05):
kind of more comics. You know, he's never fully left
comics, but he's definitely obviously taking a kind of a big
break doing like TV stuff and tocome back and do Batman.
It's just like, it's awesome. And I've read like issue 1 is
complete and I've read it and it's amazing.
Definitely better than anything bullshit I was doing beyond

(55:27):
that. I've read like the first 3 or 4
scripts and they're great. Like it's kind of, it's a book
that like issue 1 is amazing, but it kind of keeps getting
better. And like, you know, we talk a
lot about his plans and they're yeah, they're super solid and
he's got a good take on the character in Gotham.
So it it's, it's fantastic. Like I hope he can just like
turn off all the noise and just kind of enjoy this and enjoy

(55:50):
working with Jorge, which is self a treat.
Like, you know, you know, if they brought him back to just do
like Hawkman or something like that and Jorge was trying it, it
would still be amazing. Yeah, there's something to be
said about, you know, obviously they're they're doing the hush
two thing. But besides that, you know,
Jorge is just, it's a long run which you don't see anymore, I

(56:14):
mean. No, there's no, I don't think
there's such a thing as a run where it's artist driven.
Like, yeah, it's usually a writer and then they kind of
cycle through a bunch of artists.
But to have an artist who was like, he was with James, he was
with me and he's with Matt, like, like that's that's kind of
unheard of. I I it is another time where
it's just a constant artist. No, no.

(56:37):
And he's, and he adapts too, with each artist or each writer,
like, you know, he changed his style slightly for me and he's
changing his style slightly again for Matt.
Like he's, he's working with thetone of the book.
And yeah, Jorge is unstoppable. And together it's it's amazing.
Yeah, and it's his good looks that kind of keeps him
unstoppable, I think. Yeah, he's total package.

(57:01):
Total package. I wanted to ask you, you have
another book coming out with distillery soon, correct?
Can you give us a little bit about that?
Yeah, I know it's called White House Robot Romance and you can
definitely talk about reading too much manga.
Yeah, I know. It's with Rachel Stott and
Tamara Bond villain, and it's about two of robots that work

(57:26):
for the White House. 1's the theprivate chef for the president
and the other is on Secret Service duty.
And it's basically a love story between those robots and kind of
the fallout from that. So yeah, it's, I mean, it's it's
charming as hell because of the art.
Like Rachel kills it. Even robots with no faces have
just an amazing expression. Yeah.

(57:48):
And I just, I like the format, like distillery, like the 45
pages to tell an issue is like, so ideal.
And then, you know, three of those, you got a nice
collection. You got a nice story at the
beginning, middle and end. So, yeah, it's been a lot of
fun. I think it's out in September.
I know because of Diamond shuttering its doors, they've

(58:08):
had a bit of trouble with distribution, so they got bumped
to September. But yeah, yeah, it looks
beautiful. Overall, as somebody that has
their hands in a lot of things and is working.
They've never proven that. You have so many hands,
actually, you're hiding three ofthem behind your back right now.

(58:30):
Have you? What do you feel about the comic
industry right now? What do you feel about overall?
Like are you feeling good about it?
You feeling a little cautious about it with with Diamond and
all this stuff happening with the distribution shake up?
I don't know if I even have enough knowledge to answer that.

(58:51):
Like, you know, I got caught up in the Diamond thing because ZCN
was distributed through them as well.
So, you know, they, I am owed some money.
I mean, the one thing about comics is it always seems to
find a way. Like people were always scared
about Diamond going under. But like, it's happened and
comics are still going into shops every week.

(59:14):
You know, there's obviously obstacles like printing costs
going up and, you know, tariffs and, you know, fractured
distribution. So it's harder it, it is getting
harder and harder to make money on comics.
Like I've definitely seen that. I've seen creators like doing
image books where it's just likethe numbers they're selling are

(59:35):
pulling in less dollars versus the numbers they were selling,
which is the same pulling in more money a few years ago.
That's, that's a little scary 'cause there's a definitely a
tipping point where it's like, oh, no one can make a living at
this. We'll, we'll be putting it out
because, you know, we have the passion to put these books out.
But like, wasn't hit the point where you can't put out a
creator own book that's relatively successful and make a

(59:59):
living at it. Like that's that's going to be
rough. And I think we're we're kind of
we're moving towards that right now, unfortunately.
So yeah, we'll, we'll see. Like I'm, I'm happy Distillery's
publishing this book. I hope it does well.
But yeah, it, it, it definitely a lot of the stuff I'm seeing, a

(01:00:21):
lot of the stuff I'm hearing is giving me pause.
Doing kind of big creator on pushes right now.
Like I've got a lot going on at Marvel, you know, among the box
with DC and other companies too.So I'm, I'm still producing, but
it's, it's harder to justify doing a creator on stuff because
I don't want to do it and not pay an artist a living wage if

(01:00:44):
I'm writing it. So what that usually means is I
go into debt, like I'm in debt on a bunch of projects because I
want to make sure that that everyone gets paid well and
they're not taking that kind of risk because I know what it's
like for an artist to take a risk.
It's different than a writer because a writer can write a
bunch of other stuff, but an artist, they're just focusing on

(01:01:04):
one thing. So you can't be like, oh, hey,
we're splitting this, you know, 5050.
If it works, it works. You can't do that, I don't
think, especially not right now,which means I have to justify
it. Every time I do a crater on, I'm
like, OK, this will make me negative $20,000.
So unless I sell the rights to Netflix or something like that,

(01:01:26):
which you know, can happen, I'm in the hole.
And you know, I can afford to take the risk because Marvel
pays me, pays me well to do the stuff I'm doing there.
And my back catalog pays me wellacross all the publishers,
including Ivitch. But yeah, it's there's a
calculus there as to whether or not you can take on a new

(01:01:48):
project. Do you ever encourage, I mean, I
don't, you know, like you've worked with a varied amount of
artists and written for them. Do you encourage them to do
traditional so that they have the artwork to sell?
No, I mean like because the trade off is and they can't do
it fast enough. Right, right.
I. Know that was my thing on Sex

(01:02:09):
Criminals. Like I did it all digitally
because it turned out to be 3 times faster than me doing it in
my traditional way. Sure.
Could I have sold all those pages for a lot of money?
Yes. With the book have come out
anywhere near on time? No, so we would have lost a lot
more money I think by if I did it traditionally.
That's such a conundrum. It is it is.

(01:02:30):
And like I look look, you can put out like thousands and
thousands of original art pages and still not sell them.
Like just because you have the pages doesn't mean they're going
to sell or sell at a a high price.
There's only specific artists orspecific projects where that's
the case, right? You really have to have a hit

(01:02:51):
with a solid artist for that to kind of benefit you with the
with the original artist. So like, I know some original
artists that like are like a comic artist who like have
really long runs on stuff. And then you look at the price
of your pages, like 50 bucks, 70bucks, like because they produce
so much of it and a little feature Batman.
So I was like, OK, you know, there's some extra reason there,

(01:03:13):
but like, how many people are buying?
Yeah. I mean, yeah, for every one of
me that is buying, there's 100 people that are reading and not
buying, you know? Yeah, and like everyone sees the
story of like, you know, that jock Batman cover?
Oh my God, 29,000 or whatever itwas. 280,000.

(01:03:35):
What's the? Tablet or 230,000?
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, that's how out of
touch I am. Yeah.
What's the difference? But but that's so rare, right?
And it has to be an iconic piece.
That's an iconic cover. You know how many how how much
money is Jock getting for pages from gone or even witches?

(01:03:57):
Like, you know, it's true. It's a different kind of
collector. Yeah.
So that's that's that's hard. Like I think if I mean after
public domain, anything I do after that I'll probably do
traditionally just because I miss doing it.
I. Miss the feeling.
And I think at that point I'll be kind of retired a little bit

(01:04:18):
so I can actually just take the time.
I know. But like, you know, I'm, I ain't
young. I ain't young.
My, my view of retirement is different than maybe other
people. Like retirement means I'm not
doing like 12 books a month. I'm doing like maybe I'm writing
a thing for DC or Marvel and maybe I'm just like noodling
away. I'm like I spend a week on a
page for a graphic novel that will let you come out.

(01:04:42):
Well, and yeah, when somebody's a writer and an artist or both
or one or the other, it's like, yeah, you can only work yourself
so much. But I, I talked to so many
people and try, you know, there is no one single solution.
There isn't there's, you know, have you thought about maybe
even doing? I mean, I know you're a lot of

(01:05:03):
your friends have done crowd, you know, crowdfunded projects,
Kickstarters and stuff like Ramon, you know, Ramon Perez has
done a whole bunch. And is that something you would
you would look at for future? No, it's just it's kind of the
same issue as Starcy Comic News.There's like a whole side of it
that I just don't want to do. Yeah.

(01:05:25):
That I might be good at, but I just don't want to do it.
I think it just takes away from me creating stuff and I think
the pressure of it and the anxiety of watching that number
over a month, I just, I don't think I could handle it.
And especially just not being onany social media, I'd, I'd feel
like I'd have to at that point because it's an online thing
where you kind of have to like really push people to go check

(01:05:48):
out your LinkedIn, come up with all these freaking stretch
goals. And like, yeah, I, I respect the
hell of everyone that does it. Like, I think it's, it's a
monumental undertaking every time I, I just don't have the,
the youth or the vigor to do it.Like it's a lot of work.
Yeah, I think it would kill me. And ultimately I probably

(01:06:09):
wouldn't make that much money onit because you kind of, you kind
of see it a little bit like there've been, you know,
there've been some high profile creators doing Kickstarters that
normally don't do them. And you see the numbers on it.
You're like, OK, like you're notjust because you, you know, were
big 10 years ago or, you know, wrote these characters doesn't
necessarily translate to like $1,000,000 on a Kickstarter.

(01:06:34):
Some people are geared more towards comic shops in that
experience. And I think maybe I'm one of
those. Yeah.
So there's that, there's that element as well.
Like I would, the chances are high I would fail publicly the
Kickstarter. I know people tell me like other
people do Kickstarter, like, Oh no, you do fine.
But I'm like, there's no guarantee and it's always a

(01:06:55):
surprise and someone doesn't do that well.
And it was like, oh, OK, it's a different, different
environment. Sure, I think the one thing that
you're extremely good at that I don't think you will say it out
loud, but I am happy to say it is like you are extremely good
at marketing and promoting and like you make a video on you put

(01:07:15):
it on YouTube and you know you're you're you're ridiculous.
Trailer reactions have gotten 22and like 18,000 and you know
views and it's like. Yeah, but I mean, again, I'm not
on social media and so fractured.
I just don't think it's the caseanymore.
I think I was good at it. I think definitely from Sex

(01:07:36):
Criminals up until a couple of years ago I was, I was pretty
good at like marketing. But now I'm just kind of siloed
off. I'm just like I do my sub stack
and you know I'll post a video once in a while but like I don't
think it has the reach as it once did.
Maybe not. And like, I like doing ZCN, like
that's kind of my marketing now.And even that still it's great.

(01:07:57):
You know, we put out 15 to 20,000 copies of that a month.
And you know, hopefully a bunch of those end up in the hands of
people that enjoy it. But I don't know, I just, I'm
not set for for broad marketing anymore.
It's just kind of very targeted towards kind of a small section
of readers, which is fine, whichis fine.

(01:08:18):
But I mean, we'll see, you know,maybe Cap, Cap will come out and
it'll do really well. And I'll be like, oh, OK,
actually, you know, things are fine.
Or maybe it won't do well. I'll be like, oh, OK, yeah,
maybe I don't know what I'm doing anymore.
I I understand that and I understand those feelings and
they are extremely valid. So you know, I'm not going to
take away from that, but I will say.
And it's not even, it's not evena woe is me thing.

(01:08:39):
Like, no, I know feelings about any of them.
Just like, OK, I'm just kind of looking at it from outside
myself and being like, OK, yeah,this is what it could be and
this is what it probably is. And we all think no matter what
we're doing, we all want our outputs to be successful.
But you know, the voice in the back of your head tells you, you
know, that's what you know. No.

(01:09:01):
Or, you know, it's it's it's imposter.
Some things are just out of yourhand.
It's not even an imposter syndrome for me.
It's just like, I don't know what the market is going to
support me doing. You know, this kind of book or
that kind of book. Yeah.
I'm not the hot young thing. I don't know.
Who knows? And it's not even like a again,
it's not a woe is me thing. She's like, OK, like very much

(01:09:23):
like this is the period of my career and yeah, we'll get
people are along for the ride If, you know, there's some
goodwill from the things I've done in the past.
And yeah. Well, my, my point of view when
looking at your work, to me, it's like you're still in the
prime. So I, you know, like when I talk
about my favorite current writers, you're in that
conversation and I share that with a lot of my viewers and
friends. So, you know, Speaking of comic

(01:09:46):
stores, I did want to plug this.You're going to be at Golden Age
Collectibles. Yes.
Is it is it next week or is it the week after the 12th?
I think it's the week after the 12th, yeah.
Yeah, great. Shop up in Vancouver.
Yeah, yeah, I've, I've signed there before.
It's fantastic. I just found myself in Vancouver
that day. I'm just like, why don't I do a
signing? So yeah, I'm doing it.

(01:10:07):
So yeah, come on up. Golden Age.
Yeah, 11 hell of a shop. And if it was just a tiny bit
closer, I'm not saying that I'm not going to make the drive, but
also Fantagraphics hot off the presses that weekend and that's
a lot closer to me than than driving up.
Across the border because. Who knows?
I mean, the one thing is if I godrive up to Canada and they

(01:10:30):
don't let me back in, OK, I'll take the social healthcare
there. You.
Go perfect. Perfect plan.
So yeah, you got that coming up.Cap comes out.
It's it's already out as this podcast.
Yeah. So go grab your copy and then
put it on your pull list. Tell your store America.

(01:10:51):
Fuck yeah by the Canadian. Exactly.
Any convention appearances coming up this summer?
You're going to be at San Diego or anything like that.
No, I'm in the woods and I'm happy to be in the woods.
I got nothing kind of planned. I think there might be some
European ones coming up in the fall, but I don't have anything
locked down yet, but yeah. Maybe you mean told you a Comic

(01:11:13):
Con? There was some talk of that, but
I don't know, like, like I said,I did a couple years ago, so it
might be too soon for me to do it again.
But yeah, maybe. Maybe.
Maybe. The last time I did it I was
like like on the on the the promo on the guest list, I was
right underneath the bus from speed.

(01:11:34):
It was there again last year. Was it there again last year?
Yeah, it was. Must live in Tokyo.
Must have retired to Tokyo. That makes.
Sense it was too much for it. But it was very funny to be
like, oh, that's where I'm at inmy career.
I'm just below the bus from Speed for autographs and photos.
Well, I mean, like the top of that list for comic creators is
going to be Peach. So yeah, you've got, you've got

(01:11:56):
some gap. Peach Bus from speed me fine.
Anything else to promote that wewe we didn't touch on?
No, nothing I can talk about. That's the thing.
I've got like a lot of big things kind of going on behind
the scenes, but I can't talk about any of it.
It's very frustrating. Can you talk about your cameo in

(01:12:16):
Fantastic Four? I wish.
I wish. Visiting the set was definitely
a highlight of the year. It was.
That was a lot of fun. And Pedro's.
Pedro's magnificent. He's my best friend, Yeah.
Well, that's cool. Yeah, yeah, no, it was, yeah, it
was cool to meet him and meet the the cast and the crew and
get the tour. Yeah.

(01:12:37):
And it's been so hard just holding all the secrets in too.
Like, you know, they, you know, there's a physical Herbie robot
and it came out and greeted us and like, what the fuck?
Like, it's like 10 people to operate this thing, but it's
very cool. The fantastic car was awesome.
Baxter Building was amazing. It's all physical sets.
Like it's just, it's really spectacular.

(01:12:57):
Yeah. Yeah.
The amount of care they put intoall of this.
I'm looking forward to seeing you on screen get stepped on by
Galactus in the first, you know.I wish, I wish.
No, they didn't even didn't evenask me to do anything.
And you heard it here first, that Chip's going to get Pedro
on my podcast. So that's great, just like.
That you text him. Yeah, yeah.

(01:13:17):
He's just feel like there's thisguy, here's his number, talk to
him. It has been my name drop over
the past year for sure. Like I was just at, we were at
friends house the other night playing like a board game and
someone's like, have you ever heard of Pedro Pascal?
They're going on the Pedro Pascal.
Yeah. You know, I, I met him, you
know, no big deal. It's like.
My big drop. You show a photo of you and him

(01:13:40):
and he's just like, kind of like, no.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well.
I came this close to showing himmy my audition for Fantastic
Four. The dumb video I did.
Yes. It's something you're getting
more fucking rocket. But I I decided to not do that,
waste his time. I could have been, could have
been that real glue that kept the friendship together for

(01:14:03):
decades. I know, I know.
He could have been like, you should be my best friend.
Like OK. It's like, what's your name
again? Well, I, I definitely want to
give a plug to any stores that are watching this or anybody
that you know, go to your local store and ask them to order
Zdarsky Comic news. I mean, it's not just a funny
thing and it is giving you real news and what's coming out.

(01:14:27):
I really appreciate that you putthis out Chip, because I grew up
reading Wizard and being told the Hot books and this makes me
feel like I'm being told the Hotbooks but that I'm in on the
joke. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Perfect. So and, and so thank you so much

(01:14:49):
and hopefully you'll have a, maybe we can do this every year.
We can just do a a chip catch up.
Yeah, a little standing date. I love it.
Thanks for listening to that interview with me and Chip I, I
really enjoy chatting with him. He, he's very easy to talk to.
He doesn't really pull too many punches.

(01:15:11):
And you know, I, I think his honesty gives a real insight
into what it's like being a comic creator for, you know,
trying to make a living And, andhe's been successful for the
last 15 or so years. I mean, he's got his creator
owned award-winning, you know, series with man fraction sex

(01:15:31):
criminals. He did a great run on Daredevil
and Batman and now Captain America plus other created
create her own books like Stillwater and New Bern.
And currently he's doing public domain and you know I could sit
here and name them all but I wouldn't be doing justice
because I probably forget a few.If you want to ask me how I

(01:15:53):
would start with reading his bibliography, I would start with
Sex Criminals or Howard the Duck.
Sex Criminals obviously is a little bit more for mature
audiences, but Howard the Duck is definitely for everybody.
But they're both just well written, well thought out and
extremely funny. And pick up the Captain America,

(01:16:13):
like I said, Spider Man life stories, one of my favorites as
well. So you can start there too.
I hope that you really can dig into his work because he's
definitely one of those people that I will follow on whatever
book he goes on. So before we get going, if
you're not subscribed to my podcast, come on, what are you
doing? I just gave you chips at our ski

(01:16:33):
for free and it's available on Spotify.
It's available on Apple, Amazon,YouTube.
So follow wherever you love yourpodcast.
If you could rate it, review it,drop comments, do whatever, help
me grow it, bring more interviews to my audience next
week. Also, I hope you had a safe
holiday weekend and this is a way to kick your week back off

(01:16:54):
into work because nobody really wants to go to work, not even
Jar Jar Binks. So next week I'm bringing you an
episode of Just Me. So enjoy that and enjoy this and
enjoy all the things. Just enjoy life.
All right, listen, we ain't got a lot of time here on this
planet. And if you're spending your time
listening to me, then I appreciate you and I'll try and

(01:17:14):
give you back. See ya.