September 8, 2025 • 51 mins
Fresh off the release of Batman 1 , Eisner Award–winning writer Matt Fraction (Iron Man, Hawkeye, Fantastic Four, Godzilla, Sex Criminals) joins Dave to discuss launching a bold new era for the Dark Knight alongside veteran Batman artist Jorge Jimenez.
The conversation covers Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, DC Comics’ creative renaissance, strategies for maintaining mental health, and diving back into the world of comic conventions. Plus: what piece of unreleased Todd McFarlane artwork once made Jim Lee snap? Matt shares the story from San Diego Comic Con
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Could you ever lick a 9 Volt battery?
Yes, once. That's how social media makes me
feel. Yeah, it doesn't matter what it
is. It makes me feel like I'm
licking a 9 Volt battery. It's not health.
I was like, oh, this is not goodfor me.
No. Welcome back to Direct Edition,
(00:25):
a podcast about nothing and everything.
I'm your host Dave, and this is my podcast.
I have a great guest today that is the ultra talented Matt
Fraction. Matt Fraction has left his mark
on books and characters such as Hawkeye, Iron Fist, Fantastic
Four, X-Men, Iron Man He's created or Co created some great
(00:47):
independent books, including oneof my favorite books of all
time, Sex Criminals with Chip Sedarski.
Shout out to Chip for setting this up.
Casanova November. I mean the list goes on and on
and on, but I I wanted to talk to him about two specific
things. His Batman number one with Jorge
Jimenez is out in stores now. September 4th was the release
date and we recorded just beforeit, but you're seeing it after
(01:08):
the fact. You cannot miss this book.
It's going to be everywhere. Every comic store is going to
have plenty of copies and if not, they'll do a second
printing just for you. He is also the Co creator and
the Co showrunner of the Godzilla and Kong universe show
Monarch A Legacy of Monsters. So I wanted to talk to him about
just all of the things that entail those two universes,
Batman and Monarch. But honestly, we had a great
(01:31):
discussion about comics and comic stores and self printing
and and publishing and scenes and all that stuff.
And we talked at length about that as well.
This was a very fun conversation.
We even dip into talking about anxiety and HDAADHD.
And for those of you that are Patreon subscribers, there is a
bonus portion of this interview that will be on Patreon this
(01:54):
week as well. So look forward to that.
I asked Matt some kind of questions tailored to him.
And if you're not part of the Patreon, click the link below. 5
bucks a month will get you at least one episode of Direct
Edition every month that's exclusive.
One episode of West Coast Avengers that's exclusive.
Private sale every two months. And voting on 1/3 video, which
will be a flip through of a comic or rare magazine or book.
(02:17):
So without further ado, why don't we get to my interview
with Matt Fraction. Good morning, good afternoon.
Hello friends. Today's guest has nothing short
of a bibliography that would take me 1/2 hour to go through,
but I do want to run through some of the books that he's
worked. Donna and some of the other
things. Iron Man, Jimmy Olsen,
Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen, Adventure Man, Hawkeye, Sex
(02:39):
Criminals, Co creator, Casanova,November, X-Men, Fantastic Four.
Working with two of the biggest characters right now in the
world and I'm talking size with Godzilla and also Batman.
So we have Mr. Mad Fraction heretoday and I'm going to find out
why he stole Jorge Jimenez and Batman from Chip Zedarski it.
(03:02):
Was not the case. Absolutely not the case.
I was going to say the love of Chip Zedarski's live lives,
lives the loves of his life. Yeah, well, hi.
How's it going? Good, good.
How are you doing today? Good, you know, it's a crazy had
a crazy summer and a crazy day and today's hectic.
(03:27):
The weekend is hectic. Everything is hectic all the
time and like you and comes out on Wednesday.
So like, we're in the shoot, youknow?
Yes, yes, next Wednesday, Batmancomes out kids are back in
school next week. It's, you know, we're.
Getting it's all happening, it'sall happening.
Everything is happening all the time and it just keeps
(03:48):
happening. Well, I mean, you know, there's
the two options, right? We either keep moving or we stop
and. Yes, yes, champagne problems and
caviar nightmares. I wanted to jump into, you know,
you're, it's well documented. You've talked about your first
comic being Batman 316, which is, you know, very big
(04:10):
inspiration in your life. But I wanted to ask you, growing
up in Chicago, what was your first comic store experience?
It was a place. It was after I had left Chicago
for Bloomington. It was a store called Dreams.
That's Dream with a TH at the end.
(04:33):
Like a lisp. Dreams.
The dreams which I found out thelast time I did word balloon
that John Suntress shopped therewhile he was a student.
I think Tim Bradstreet as well. And I it takes a lot to
genuinely shock me. That genuinely shocked me
(04:54):
because because I've I've spent the last 30 years half convinced
that I hallucinated dreams. But like I was always, you know,
it was always at Osco, right? It was 711 and Osco kind of
hiccups and and and then a friend of mine found this store.
He called me and he was like, I just saw.
I went to a store just like it'sa comic book store.
(05:15):
It's like a what it's it. That's all they sell.
And and that and that was that was it.
That was the that was the, yeah,that was it for me.
Did you? I grew up on Long Island, so I
had a comic store literally in every town of Stone's throw too
in my town. Did you become like a for better
(05:37):
lack of a term, or a comic store?
Oh, 1000% yeah, yeah, yeah. Every week that was, that was
like 9. Whenever that was 1984, like
that was every every week since,yeah.
And we moved around a lot. And a lot of times I was in
places that didn't have direct market shops.
So I was able to find like there's a place in Burlington,
IA, called the Book Trader. And they didn't, they weren't
(06:00):
direct market, but they got stuff, you know?
Oh, yeah, absolutely. You know, it's the first, the
first thing I would do when I would get to a new town is go to
the Yellow Pages, you know? Yeah, yeah.
And yeah, we're. Literally every every week since
1984, you know. Oh.
It's amazing. Well, you know, I, there's
something about that being able to do that and, and do it on a
(06:22):
weekly basis it it's a sense of regularity, but it really builds
that love. Oh, yeah, absolutely,
absolutely. And, and I, you know, because I
was buying off of racks at drug stores or, or, or grocery
stores. I wasn't a particular Marvel or
DC kid. I I was really artistic and drew
(06:47):
all the time and I was just attracted to art.
So my first experience at Dreamth was just picking up
books I thought looked cool, without any kind of awareness of
what the what the the culture attached to it was to the
duration, as I recall, of one ofthe clerks, you know.
(07:11):
I get, I get that. And it's my experience too.
I grew up, I'm, I'm 40 years younger than you.
So, you know, I'm, you know, in,in the late 80s, early 90s, I'm
seeing the image guys and they were art forward and that's what
gave me my appreciation of art. Like they weren't, you know, a
lot of those books weren't the best stories or the best.
Character building. Let's be candid, none of them
(07:32):
were. No, that's not why.
That wasn't why you were pickingup Mark Silvestre or Jim Lee.
Exactly, exactly. Todd Todd's art is why I have an
appreciation for art all around is because that's the first
artist I was into. And then you know it's.
Dude, I did. I did a day at San Diego and
(07:54):
part of it was being on a panel with, with, with Jim.
And they move, you know, there'sa whole infrastructure
underneath the Convention Centerand behind it there's secret
walls and doors and ways that, you know, there's a reason why
you don't see Harrison Ford and his handlers wandering through
Hall H or whatever. And so we're taking these kind
(08:16):
of secret access corridors and we get into this like service
elevator. And Todd McFarlane had drawn A
sharpie like the spawn drawing on the wall.
And I could tell it bugged Jim, right?
We do the panel, we go back to the elevator and someone has, in
(08:39):
the time we were on the panel, put a plexiglass frame over it.
And that, like, Jim, like snapped and took out a Sharpie
and on the opposite wall did a drawing of Joker and signed it.
And it's just like, well, First off, this is now the most
expensive elevator. Ever.
(09:01):
But it was just like it was it was a out of body experience.
Like if I could go back and tellkid me, yeah, one day, not only
you're going to see this, you'regoing to be there as it's
happening. And like having just done a
panel with Jim and like, it's just mine, mine melting.
(09:22):
And that was your first convention in a long time,
right? Like pre COVID.
Yeah, and it was, I mean, it was, I was there a day.
So it was barely, you know, I was, I was strategic.
You know, I did a day at I did apanel at New York when Monarch
came out, you know, and that wasbut even that was secret
entrance up through into a room out the secret door into wait,
(09:42):
you know, if there's a you have to take golf carts the whole
thing. But yeah, so I've I've this
coming a week from now, Rose City Comic Con here in beautiful
Portland, OR happens and that will be my first actual proper.
I'm here all day every day for aconvention since like 2019.
Right. And I, I think I should have
(10:03):
this out before then. But if not, I apologize to
anybody that was wondering whereMatt was this past weekend.
And you're also doing an event at Hollywood Theater, right?
Yeah, yeah. So it's a 99 year old movie
palace. It's on the, you know,
Historical Places Registry. It's gorgeous.
It's the biggest 70mm screen on the West Coast.
(10:25):
It is a place by people who lovemovies, for people who love
movies. I just bought tickets to showing
the insider and social network on 35 and two weeks from now.
So I just got tickets for those.And yeah, and I, I love it.
It's a non profit. And had this crazy idea, like
kind of understanding it's Batman #1 there will be some
(10:49):
craziness. I could probably get away with
something. Came up with an idea to raise
some money for the joint. So we made like, I paid for it
out of my own pocket. Steve Lieber and Nate Fairman
donated their time. And it's, you know, it's, it's
got this crazy old movie palace edifice.
And now there's a Hollywood Theater exclusive cover of
(11:09):
Batman on the marquee. Like, like literally standing on
the thing. And yeah.
So they're going to do a screening of Christopher Nolan's
Dark Knight and then 35mm on September 4th.
And if you bought tickets, you'dget a copy of the book.
Me and Steve are gonna be there early and sign it.
So we'll kind of do a little intro thing and then we're gonna
(11:30):
watch a movie together. And then the remaining copies I
will have on hand selling at theshow.
I'm only signing at the Hollywood Theatres booth.
There'll be, I think it's, I think they put me in like the
autograph like hall. Hey, the autograph hall.
I don't quite know where it is yet, but that's the only place
I'm gonna be like selling it by hand.
And we're going to raise a lot of money for this, this, this,
(11:53):
this theater that I love very dearly and and want to do good
things for and and it's cool. It's crazy.
Now we, you know, we we have a little special.
I think it might. I don't, I don't know what the
numbers are, but it's certainly one of the rarest of the Batman
variants. I'm there are.
Have a friend pick up a copy. There are 84.
Oh wow, they sent them to me this week 84.
(12:17):
Well, it's a #1 it's a hot book.Let's I mean.
I genuinely had absolutely. It's like I'm I thought everyone
at DC were well meaning, but super type A and had drank some
kind of Kool-aid and like there was such a veil of secrecy.
(12:42):
Like when they announced me at the retailer thing, like I had
to sit in a like I, it was they were hiding me.
It was like, guys. Really.
But it was sweet. It was sweet, right?
And and you're very kind and generous and, and none of his
militias are harmful. It's just, I thought, I just
thought like, wow, this is really over the top.
And then I did San Diego. I'm like, yeah, no, Nope.
(13:02):
That was I I I I certainly am guilty of underselling things
and being self deprecating, but in this case I'm genuinely
stunned by the scale of this. Well, I mean, the, the thing
about it also is that one of thebiggest testaments to, to what
you're doing is also the fact that you're doing it with Jorge.
(13:25):
And Jorge is a not only a, you know, a specimen of a human
being and a talent, but that hasn't been very.
Handsome. Yeah, very.
But there hasn't been somebody that's done a long run like this
on a single character for especially in the Big Two for
years. Like if we take Kirkman out of
the picture of Invincible and everything like that, Notley on
(13:48):
the Big Two, like nobody does runs anymore like this.
And he's been on it since, sinceJames, right?
Since James Tynan. Yeah.
And yeah, probably Bendis and Bagley or me and Salva are we
had the longest. I had 80 some issues on Iron
Man, you know, it was all of himso.
And that's, you know, that's a decade ago more 15 years ago.
(14:11):
Maybe at this point, yeah. Time is weird time.
Really is it really isn't Got squishy there in the middle.
But yeah, they're doing the blind bag, they're doing
everything. They're pulling out all the
stops. It's incredible.
Look, look at a Frank Millie, right?
A Frank Miller Batman. I know.
I know DC's on a high right now and it's understandable.
(14:32):
Like I'm. I'm they're the pirate.
No, Yeah. They are.
And you know, with the absolute stuff, it's.
Marie, it's Marie Javins. It is the the singular vision
and talent and ability and generosity of spirit of Marie
Javins. She's absolutely transform the
place. The vibe is so great.
Well, and I think also what the public is seeing is from the
(14:56):
movie side of it with James Gunnbeing the figurehead there.
You also have a great person who's who's showing us the way
and the the. I first time I genuinely exhaled
was going to see Superman and seeing like how it was received.
And it's like, OK, people are ready for this because that's
kind of not as funny, but like that's definitely the vibe and
(15:19):
tone that I'm aiming for. Like like it's a superhero
forward take on Batman. It's Marie and Rob the the bat
group editor. When when I pitched, like the
first part of the pitch was like, people will either love
this or hate this and we'll knowreal fast.
So worst case I'm done in a year, you know, because it's
because it's a it's a shift. It's definitely a tone shift,
(15:40):
you know? Have you read them, by the way?
Did they get them to you? I have not.
No, I have not. Yeah, I'll be reading it next
week. You know, going into, going into
Stargazer in Tacoma. And also I, I wanted to say on
top of the Hollywood Theater, you know, Portland, where you've
resided for years now with, withyour wife, Kelly Sue and your
(16:00):
kids and everything. My God, what a comic Mecca.
And the comic store is there. You throw a rock, it'll bounce
off of 1 shop and hit two more and each one is wildly different
than the other. There are like 7 different comic
book ecosystems that are served brilliantly by different stores
across town. It's great.
(16:21):
Yeah, yeah. And shout outs to Excalibur.
Cosmic monkey, Floating world, Cosmic dreams.
Oh. Bridge City, it's great.
It's great. That's it's the town is silly
with with great shops. Yes, and it's silly with
creators. I mean, you know you're 1 of.
You're a little bit like the speed of the Union, like we
can't all fly out on the same flight to conventions or the
Middle East. That's.
Right, That's right. But you know, when we finally
(16:43):
get Cascadia as our own territory, we'll have most of
the great comic creators here. I'm ready.
I'm ready. Cascadia is number 2 Expo.
It'll be weed and comic book writers.
And coffee, That's the best thing.
We don't grow it here though, wejust roast it.
So that's true. That's true.
You gotta go to Brazil. I can honestly tell you if you
(17:06):
ever wanna do a Northwestern comic and, and you know, talk
like about all the good stuff here, I'll, I'll host you again
for that. Great, love it.
I'm in so so with Batman, the one of the biggest, I would
almost say from my point of view, if I was a comic shop
owner or whatever, biggest selling point is you're, you're
(17:28):
doing singular issue stories, which is huge.
Yeah, you know, I mean, they, they, they accrue.
There are longer, you know, but yeah, no, it was, it was part of
my I I just challenge for myselfto keep it interesting.
But it but I, I, I'm so I'm not so far away from the time of my
(17:50):
life where I would root through couch cushions looking for
change. You know, I've been very
fortunate. I've been very lucky and all
that. But but like comics are $5.
I know. That's a quarter a page.
Like I'm I, I I'm so concerned with giving people a full meal
(18:10):
in exchange for their, their, their, their ticket, you know?
Yeah, and and yeah, And it, and it it also, like, it just lets
me hop modes more. Like I'm just impatient.
There's so many, you know, they asked do you have any?
Like literally Chip said, Chip told me he was leaving.
He said, you know, would you be interested and and at least
(18:34):
talking to Robin Murray about it?
And I said yeah. And Robin Murray said, do you
have thoughts about Batman? It turns out, yes, I do.
It turns out I've had thoughts about Batman since I was 3 and
now I've fooled people into paying me for them.
So like keeping things in these kind of singular self-contained,
beginning, middle end issues rather than chapters of longer
stories. Like it, it, it lets me, oh, we
(18:56):
can do this. This is you.
This is you. You know, it's very, it's very
ADHD, but it's also a challenge.They're hard as hell to write,
to write singular, you know, Butyeah.
So it, it also just felt like a,like a, can I take kind of the
formal approach that Dahi Daha and I had on, on Hawkeye and
(19:20):
Annie and everybody else and, and kind of what would that look
like now? What have I learned since then
in that 10 years or whatever that to, to how would it be
different? And what's the, and it's a
challenge, right? Like I wrote, I wrote a whole
first issue, wrote issue 2, wrote issue 3 through issue one
out and rewrote it. Oh, wow.
Like, like top to bottom rewroteit right.
(19:43):
And you know, I've been working on it at this point for 14
months, like I started last lastsummer.
That makes sense. I turned in the first three
issues at the end of June. So, so I had enough time.
I, I have gone back and meddled with them.
Like the further I get, the smarter I get, the more once
(20:04):
Jorge, you know, started to workand I like I've, I've, I've had
this kind of luxury of time to to really dial in.
And, and, and hopefully, you know, try to just just want it
to be a good book. I want it to be the book I want
to read, you know, and, and, andI would, I'm thrilled that
(20:24):
everyone on the team is committed to that as well and
patient with me. Well, and I think you people
have followed your work, you know, since they started seeing
what you were able to do and what you did with Hawkeye.
And you know, you're able to make a character.
And now obviously Hawkeye's not as big as Batman and doesn't
(20:44):
have the the history yet. Yet.
Yet. I mean.
We're gonna get there. The fact that you can take
something that's been around fora while and put a new spin on
it. Jimmy Olsen, another one that's
that's a great example of doing something with a character.
I wanted to ask cuz I just had Kirkman and Finch on and they're
(21:06):
doing their new book Skin Breaker, and Kirkman talked
about how once David's art started coming back it started
to shape the story more and change the story a bit.
Did you find that with Jorge at all?
It's true with everybody. Yeah.
I, I, I, I'm, I like, you know, collaborative, you know, I don't
(21:27):
want employees, I want collaborators.
Sure, you know, and, and I, I myfavorite part of the process is
dewriting, you know, like when Iit's one thing to see thumbs and
kind of understand balloon placement, but but I want to
take as many words as possible out of a script and, you know, I
want to, you know, all that stuff.
(21:48):
And yeah, I know it's a constant.
You know, I've also been lucky that I've I've I've always known
who I was, right, with a very few exceptions.
I mean, less than five times am I not?
Have, you know, have I been writing blind?
And I've always loved to have been writing for and like I just
I'm a fan of comics. I like a lot of people.
(22:10):
So like just my, my approach hasalways been like, what's the
ultimate, what's the Jorge book I want to see?
What's the Terry Dodson book I want to see or whatever.
And just writing into that, you know, and yeah.
And seeing how he he, he sent a page yesterday or the day before
and it was exactly how I saw it in my head.
So I feel like I'm there. I feel like I can speak.
(22:32):
I can speak the language now. Yeah, like I, I just bet.
So I've it it, you know, there'salways a learning process,
right? There's this time of learning
how to how to harmonize with oneanother and like, I feel like
we're there and and yeah, it's it's, it's just a matter of
what's the coolest Jorge issue Iwant to see.
You know, is he, does he work digital or does he work
(22:55):
traditional? I don't know.
I I suspect it's a hybrid of each.
Yeah, yeah. I know he finish is digital but
I but he but he might I'm not sure.
OK, All right, Yeah. Collaborators that you've had
or, you know, something of legend.
(23:15):
My introduction to your writing and is now, you know, one of my
favorite books of all time is, is Sex Criminals.
I mean, there's something about that book.
And I know you've, you know, by the way, it's 11 years old, but
happy 10th anniversary of last year to it.
Thank you. Just such a special book and
man, I, I, I, I have so many like have had questions about it
(23:38):
over the years, but I just want to say how much I love that book
and how much it changed the way I looked at comics.
Thank you. Thank you very much.
Yeah. Yeah, it was, it was, it was a
pretty remarkable experience, end to end.
Yeah, yeah. From, from reading it as it was
coming out, but also hearing stories told about it and, you
(23:59):
know, just the tips, which is right back there.
I've given that book to six or seven people like I that every
time I see it, I buy it and I'm like, somebody's going to
appreciate it and I I send it tothem.
Somebody's having a dirty Christmas, Yeah.
Yeah, exactly. I wanted to did want to go back
and ask you another kind of younger you question about did
(24:21):
you get involved. I know you were involved with
the message boards and that's how you met.
Isn't that how you met your wifeand also how you met Chip?
Did you ever do any fanzine or or Zine self published stuff
when you were younger? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah. I mean, I made comics
compulsively. Do you remember?
You remember dot matrix printer paper?
(24:41):
Yeah, of course. You know the accordion perfs and
then the. But it had the holes in the
side. Yep, I would take that my mom
would bring it home from her joband I would tear off one side of
the strips and separate the sheets, make comics and then
bind the bind them together withyarn through the perforations,
(25:04):
You know, I mean, and I, I made comics in art school.
I, I, I made comics out of art school and, and I've written
hundreds of comics no one will ever see or read, you know, that
I wasn't trying to get published.
I was just trying to learn how to do it.
You know, it's like having a sketchbook or, you know, doing,
(25:24):
doing test paintings or whatever.
You know, it was. Yeah.
No, I've, I've, I've always, I'dbe making them if no one read
them and no one gave a shit. It's just, it's a language that
I speak I think better than English.
So I'm not saying it's good, butit's just, it's a, it's a thing
I'm incredibly comfortable with.And, and yeah, no, I've, I've my
(25:45):
whole life have made comics and then writing about comics and
thinking about comics, all of it.
Like it's just, it's just my shit, you know?
Yeah, I my fascination and exploration of fanzine culture
is what kind of leads this podcast.
Because between comics and music, fan scenes are what grew
both. Fandom is what grew both of
(26:06):
those things. Oh yeah.
Yeah, there's a remarkable archive of it at the University
of Oregon, if you're ever in Eugene.
Specifically Star Trek fandom, which was not only perpetuated
and and and made by fans, but but by women and by a lot of
women who were writing science fiction.
(26:28):
It's incredible to see. I, I did know about that and
it's something I do want to get to.
I'd like to get to the Billy Ireland out in Columbus as well
to say that's. That's astonishing.
Yeah, I've. Heard they have all of Calvin
and Hobbes you. Know.
They have Windsor McKay originals like it's and they're.
Those are big, aren't they, Windsor?
Like they're. Huge.
(26:49):
Yeah, yeah, it's astonishing. The Billy is is incredible.
Yeah, I wish. I mean, I know they're trying to
build something in Portland, right?
They're trying to build a comic and cartoon museum.
Yeah, who knows? Who knows exactly?
It ain't going to be the Billy. No, no.
But the, the, the fandom thing too, especially when you think
about San Diego Comic Con, the whole thing starts from fandom.
(27:11):
And, you know, obviously it's a different thing of what it was
back in the 60s and 70s and even80s, but still the foundations
of it come from people that we're fans of.
Yeah. So it's it's and and women and
like, like, let's just say it again.
Like the more women than men attend conventions.
Like, like, it's, it's, it's, it's, yeah.
(27:34):
Oh, and and you know, that's that's another entire thing that
just needs to be pushed forward is women's, you know, history
and comics. I.
It's somebody like, you know, it's, it's all been, yeah.
Yeah, somebody like Maurice Severin, I think about her as
being one of the most important figures in comics and does not
get the shine that she deserves publicly.
(27:55):
Yeah, she. In, in, in, in, in more ways
than you'll know, you know? Yeah.
So shifting focus because you know you are part of something
else that came out last year andwas really enjoyable was Monarch
your Co creator, showrunner of Monarch Legacy of Monsters,
(28:16):
which is the, I don't know, the in between of the King Kong
Godzilla movies. Is that a best way to call it?
Sure. Yeah, yeah.
Fascinated by how you got involved in that?
Sure. I was working with legendary on
(28:37):
we had the had the development deal and turning my stuff into
shows and and knew that was a thing they had been wrestling
with for a while. And I saw it so clearly in my
head that I asked if I could pitch on it.
And you know, and because they were like, you know, do you want
(28:57):
any of the stuff that we're developing?
Is there anything you're interested in?
And I was like Monarch and they thought it because they, they
like like, that's a poisoned chalice.
Why would you want to drink out of it?
We've been trying to do that forfor 10 years or whatever.
I'm like, I see it, I know it. You got to trust me.
And that started like a five year process, almost door to
door from when that first document got written to being
(29:20):
partnered with Chris Black, who,who developed the show and, and,
and and ran it with me and, and to production was like like
almost five years to the day. But yeah, it just came from
loving the world and seeing whatthe show could be in my head and
just convincing enough people and meeting enough people who
(29:42):
agreed and, and getting lucky, right?
It's hard, hard work and luck and timing I guess.
Yeah, you, you hear TVTV and movies, you know, you're lucky
if you get something made and how long it takes.
So it kind of fascinates me because you hear the word
showrunners more thrown around and use that term maybe in the
last 10 years, 1015 years does everything.
(30:05):
Is it something that's like everything kind of goes through
you like, for instance, casting,I mean, brilliant job NSOI and
then Kurt and Wyatt Russell, come on, that's that's almost
not fair. Yeah, no, it's, it's, you know,
Sharerunner does has all of thatstuff.
I mean, there's, there's still studios and networks, but, but
you're, you're involved with every decision and every level,
(30:29):
you know, from boring budget shit to, you know, stars and,
and you know, any present. I was there for 100 of our 106
shooting days. That's crazy.
And you know, we went to Tokyo and, and all through British
(30:52):
Columbia. I wasn't there for the Hawaii
stuff because I was at the tail end and it was like that it
started before the Vancouver unit had wrapped.
It was one of those things that like, so we wrap on a Friday, I
could get on a plane Saturday, get my ass kicked Sunday and
Monday and then fly back like itwas only been two days in
(31:14):
Hawaii. So, so I missed Hawaii
unfortunately. But but yeah, no, it's, it's,
you know, we, we did a bit wherewe wanted to shoot at an airport
in Tokyo and we just needed Annawalking out of a concourse and,
and hailing a cab. And they told us no, unless we
shot in the concourse itself, which was a brand new
international arrivals terminal.Its construction had been
(31:36):
completed in 2020. So they had this billion dollar
facility that had not had, had not yet opened and they wanted
it. So like we quickly scrambled to
take advantage of this remarkable, you know, that kind
of, you know, like there's, there's this, it's, it's
creative, it's it's executive and producorial.
And, and it's a great challenge for someone with the, you know,
(32:00):
mental obstacles of mind. Like it's a great job for
somebody with ADHD. Like I'll do one thing until I
get stuck, would walk 10 feet and somebody else would be like
red or blue, blue and go over here and what is this?
And it just there's a zillion things all the time.
And then you're looking at cuts and edits and giving notes on
effects and music. It's it's a top down, kind of
like granular sort of thing. And you know, I oh, the airport
(32:27):
question, was it Haneda or Narita or was it different
airport? Haneda, I think.
OK. Yeah, I was through there last
year. So everything about that
country. Yeah, it wasn't.
It wasn't Narita, because that was the one I'd flown into
before. So I'm a bit of an Haneda.
Yeah, OK. Now, obviously you get to play
in the sandbox of Godzilla and Kaijus at like, is that
(32:50):
something that that always spoketo you?
Is it, you know, moving up and through the dog?
Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah.
No, definitely. Yeah.
I, I, you know, I old horror andscience fiction movies were,
were were my bread and butter. You know, I have a, you know,
Godzilla tattoo like I'm, I'm, Yeah.
No, it was, it wasn't. I didn't have to do a lot of
(33:11):
homework for the kid. Sure.
You know. I'd show you my Godzilla tattoo,
but you don't want to see my thigh.
It's not that kind of podcast. Yeah, I know.
So it was, it was, it was born out of a love of the thing and
and seeing a, a way that the show could live and exist in a
way that that that stood next tothe the the films but existed as
(33:36):
television, which I think are two different things in very
specific ways that are important.
Yeah, yeah. And the characters, I mean, you,
you, you got a great cast, like I said.
And you know, Anna Sawai, there's some amazing things with
Shogun, obviously. She's astonishing.
She's gonna be the biggest thingin the world.
Yeah, and. And deserves it. 100% And you
(34:00):
know, I, I enjoyed the interweaving of the characters
and I, I also, it was interesting to me because I, I
moved to Seattle originally and there was some stuff that was
supposed to be in Seattle. I'm like no that's Vancouver but
I love how but. At least Vancouver is in the
Pacific Northwest, like, and we're watching X-Files with my
daughter and it's all Vancouver like.
It's Kentucky Vancouver, it's Arizona Vancouver.
(34:22):
It's it's. You know they were the first
show, right? They were the first show to
really take production to Vancouver, I think.
Maybe so, yeah, yeah, but it's funny watching it.
I can like, oh, we shot there, we shot there.
I blew that building up. But this really, it's very, it's
very, it's very fun to to, it's like, it's like a yeah, we had
some crew, we had some of their crew on our.
Sure, that's cool. That makes sense.
(34:45):
True everything. In I want to go back to comics
because there is something that you you've done in the past that
I appreciate. You've done some playlists for
certain books that you've made and your relationship to music.
Obviously you're a big music nerd.
I'm a big music nerd. Do you are you planning to do
anything like just on the side, maybe some Batman suggestions
(35:07):
for music wise for reading? Or is there anything that you
listen to while you write? No, it's interesting.
It's interesting is is I don't know if it's age or I mean, I
suspect I'm a little bit like a like AI feel like a, like a,
like a locust. Like I have to kind of every
little while I have to kind of tear everything apart and start
over and figure out how I do this in a brand new way all over
(35:30):
again. And it's a very work intensify,
which I wish I could just do something easy.
I wish I could just do it the easy way.
But I it's like the it's like The Simpsons joke.
You know, there's the right way,the wrong way and the Max power
way, which is wrong, but faster as the man fraction ways is
slower and harder. I'm in a place now where I kind
(35:51):
of can't, I, I don't, I'm, I'm, yeah, no, I, I need to just kind
of have whatever document open, have my notebook and A and a
word file open and that's it. Like I can't have, I can't, I
can't even have like ball games going anymore.
(36:12):
Like I can't have Ambien anything.
I just need to be able to focus as much as possible.
See, I've not, my son was actually putting a playlist
together last night and asked mefor a couple of recommendations
and, and I ended up like going through all I used to do like
monthly playlists of, of whatever songs went through my
(36:34):
head, right. I would, I would put down if I
caught myself singing something,it would go on these lists.
And I and I, and I've, I've fallen out of the habit of doing
it, but I just like, oh, like, Oh, yeah, no, it, it, it's, it
is weirdly quiet here these days.
I get. I get that.
Yeah, I just can't. I don't know.
I, it's, it's, and I've never been one of those guys that had
(36:55):
like, I can't, I don't particularly like movie scores.
You know, I don't, I don't listen to movie scores
particularly often or anything like that.
But yeah, no, I I tend to work in as much quiet as I can get.
It's, it's interesting because at least for me, reading wise, I
can take one of any of Trent andTrent Reznor and Atticus Ross's
scores and that's perfect. At least comic reading material.
(37:19):
But yeah, working editing for me, I can't listen to anything.
I have to be. You know, and and you know,
there was a there was a time when I needed thirty different
things happening and describe itto my wife is like I need to
Jingle my car keys at the raccoons.
And so there would be like a baseball game and like the news
(37:42):
with the sound muted and music playing, you know what I mean?
And that chat window and just sort of the raccoons needed this
so I could do this. And now it now it's all of the
raccoons are in the same direction and like we just got
to focus on this thing and crank.
Do you think that's like growingwith ADHD?
(38:02):
You know some of that is is whatthat is is like.
You're 1000% yeah. And I don't know if like I said,
I don't know if it's age. I don't know if it's it's the
medication. I don't know if, if, like I
said, if creatively everything changes for me every, you know,
I don't, I don't know, maybe it'll, it'll, it'll turn around.
But no, I, I, I love music deeply, but it, it, it isn't
(38:26):
compatible with my work style atthe moment.
Yeah, I. And yeah, just looking, looking
at this thing last night, I was like, oh, right.
I missed this. But it's also a thing.
Like, I can't listen to music atnight.
I get too excited and I can't sleep, you know, like, I would
start to play these songs I was gonna send my son.
Like, no, no, no, no, stop, stop.
I'm gonna get to, you know, likeit's right, Right.
(38:49):
Yeah. I I completely I mean I have the
opposite like I have really bad anxiety so like I'm hyper
focused on things and I can pay attention to almost everything
at once to a fault where like I'm paying attention to way too
much at once. Yeah.
And I have a processing thing where I'm not hard of hearing,
(39:12):
but in certain environments at certain decibels, all the noise
flattens and I can hear someone 3 feet away from me just as well
as I can hear someone 10 feet away from me.
Conventions are really hard for me.
Like there's a, there's a there's AI have to focus.
Like I'm taking the SA TS at conventions.
(39:32):
I tend to like favor my ear at people when and it's not because
I can't hear, it's because I need to focus on everything
you're saying on top of all of my social anxiety shit and
anxiousness and all that stuff. Like I got to keep that tamped
down. But also like, you know, and
there are times restaurants are are horrible and it's it sucks.
(39:56):
It, it, it sucks and and I don'tknow, I don't know what I used
to think it was. I'm glad I know what it is now.
I'm glad I recognize that it's not.
Don't even recognize it. Yeah, it's but, but yeah, it's,
it's a, it's a really, yeah. I, I spent most of July and
August actually doing carpentry and that was nice because I
(40:20):
could have music on for that. So I spent a lot of, listened to
a lot of music this summer. But I was because I was using a
saw and a drill and a chisel and.
A pen and paper. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I, I, and I think especially talking about cons like I took,
you know, obviously COVID reallygrounded us off from going to
(40:43):
stuff. But even when I came back and I
went to my first Emerald City, Iwas like, I don't like it as
much as I used. To I, I, I, you know, at first
it was safety and then it was, you know, my, when COVID
started, I had wrapped up a bunch of projects and kind of
(41:05):
tagged out of doing more and waskind of housed at my wife had
things more actively going. And so then there's kind of like
a, a, a primacy of care kind of thing.
And then I realized I am so crippled by anxiety.
They are, they are exhausting and performative.
(41:29):
It is it is like a self induced panic attack sustained that I
that I sustained for for days and I'm and it's it's really
hard as as there's the part of me it's I, I didn't actually
have the the kind of spikiness that I feel when I was at San
(41:50):
Diego. Granted, it was only a day.
So again, it may be things have changed.
Maybe it's age and medication and therapy, but no, they, they
have been I, I was see. I realized I was saying no to
shows because they made me feel bad.
Yeah. I get that.
And and the better they went, the worse I felt, right, because
(42:14):
I was going to fuck it up. And look at all these people who
are so nice and who just want tocome and say hello and who
afford you your lifestyle and you disappointing every single
one of them. And like, it was just a, it was
this, it was, it just made me feel unwell, you know, like I
(42:35):
got off of social media in like 2014.
Did you ever lick a 9 Volt battery?
Yes, once. That's how social media makes me
feel. It.
Doesn't matter what it is, it makes me feel like I'm licking a
9 Volt battery. It's not health.
I was like, oh, this is not goodfor me.
No, no. And I get a lot of moral and
(42:57):
ethical reasons to bail too. But like personally, selfishly,
this feels unhealthy. It feels like I'm drinking
poison. Like I'm not supposed to like
this. I'm just supposed to be looking
at pictures of food and dogs. Like why?
And it makes me think, oh this I'm not meant.
My mind is knows innately I'm not supposed to have a view of
(43:18):
30,000 different windows under 30,000 different lives at the
same time. So it's the same and, and, and
you get this because we're at that age, we watched it grow.
But it's the thing with the 24 hour news cycle.
You're not supposed to know what's going on in the world 24
hours a day, seven days a week. It's not healthy and rarely do
we need to no, because yeah, yeah, I don't know.
(43:41):
So I, but I'd look, I'm, I'm doing shows for the next month
or two in a way that I've not done since probably the height
of Sex Criminals. So we'll see how it goes.
We'll see if I feel different onthe other side of it.
I'm, I'm, I'm wary in advance, I'll tell you that much.
Just because I, I, I'm, I'm going to fuck it up.
I'm going to hurt somebody's feelings.
I'm going to piss somebody off. And I'm not going to mean to.
(44:01):
I'm not going to know it. And then, you know, I'm going to
be someone's terrible experienceat a convention that ruins
comics for them. They'll hate me and they'll
think comics are dumb and it's all because I made it dumb.
You know I don't. Know.
Yeah, yeah. It's never ending and I can't
hear what they're saying anyway.All I can hear voice on my head
screaming you're an asshole. You're fucking it like it's
(44:23):
awful. I mean I.
Just want to write stuff. Just let me write stuff.
For anybody listening, when you see Matt at a convention, just
say hi. I appreciate you.
No, no, don't tell. Don't.
No, don't, don't, don't tell anybody anything.
Let them. No, no, no.
But. Know, know that the entire time
we're talking, my toes are in fists to the point where.
(44:43):
We grant it. You know.
Well, you make a lot of people very happy to read your work,
so. It makes me happy that they read
it and like, and it really, I, Ireally like, I don't charge for
signatures. That's changed.
That's the other thing. Oh, yeah.
That conventions are totally different.
Just in that the, the, the like,I don't charge for signatures.
(45:04):
It literally feels like the least I can do to sign my name a
few times for people who afford me this lifestyle.
Like I, I, I don't know. I don't know, I, I, I, I, I, I
do appreciate it as an exercise in gratitude.
You know, I'd like it makes me feel very, very lucky and very
grateful. And you know, I, I, I there,
there are good parts to it, but I do.
(45:25):
But my brain doesn't let me enjoy them.
I. Brains are bullshit in
conclusion. They are.
They're fucked up machines that you can't do anything to.
Bags of fat and wires. It's a bad way to run a
railroad. Who would build a theater out of
that? And wires.
It's dumb. If I didn't have to deal with
imposter syndrome a lot, my lifewould be a lot better.
(45:48):
But going into this and just like I'm not a journalist, I'm
not John Santress. I'm just a dude that with a
podcast but loves to talk and conversation.
Dude, I'm not even good enough for imposter syndrome.
I think that's a reductorist joke, but it's a good one, so I
I. It's really good.
So damn it, you just kill me with that one.
(46:12):
As this comes out, Batman one will have already come out.
But I, I, I don't think I need to tell people to go by it.
They will. And let's just hope that issue 2
is where they continue. I hope, I hope.
And legacy, it feels like. It's certainly scratching a
Batman edge that has been scratched for a while and people
(46:32):
are responding to it, which is really gratifying.
So hopefully, hopefully everyonedigs it and get to do I will, I
will, I will do this until it stops being fun.
I've been doing it for 14 monthsnow and it is yet to feel like
work so. That's awesome.
I mean that usually when the person creating is having fun
doing it, the people reading it,enjoying it, watching it,
(46:52):
whatever it is, are going to enjoy that.
Yeah, I think, I think you can certainly tell when, when, when
someone types with with one handbecause they're pinching their
nose closed with the other one, so.
Yes, yes. It's the same with music.
You can tell when somebody's just fulfilling a, a contract or
whatever. I want to give a big thank you
to Chip for connecting us and a big thank you to you for taking
(47:14):
time out of your day to come on my podcast.
My pleasure. Thank you for for coming to me.
I'm sorry I got to bounce a little early, but this was this
is great. This is a lot of fun.
Awesome, well hopefully we can do it again in the future.
Best of luck on Batman One next week.
Rose City and the Hollywood Theatre, which is awesome that
you're doing that. September 4th.
Oh, and then if you're in town on the 11th, as part of the
(47:36):
Movie Madness University, I'm doing a class teaching a one
night seminar about cinematic influences on Batman.
Shit, what would be cool to see?So check that out.
You can find out more on moviemadnessithink.com or the
Hollywood website. You can find it.
I'll post links. I'll post links to it in the
description for for people. So Matt, thank you so much.
(47:57):
Have a great day you. Too.
Thanks for watching that interview with Matt Fraction.
It was a delight to talk to him.I had never spoken to him
before. Believe it or not, he's one of
the very few creators that I've never met.
But Chip, I asked Chip to connect us and, you know,
they're great friends. So I knew that I would get along
very well with Matt and we couldhave talked a lot longer.
He had a meeting to go to after,so we'll do it again.
(48:19):
But I I really appreciate Matt honesty and I really am excited
to to read this Batman run. Batman is the character that I
read the most of and have enjoyed the most comics of out
of any of the big two superheroes since I was a kid.
I'm a diehard Batman fan. So you know, it's it, it, it,
I'm excited for it and I definitely, no, I'm not going to
be disappointed by it. And like I said, if you are part
(48:41):
of the Patreon, you're going to get some extra bonus stuff with
Matt. So 5 bucks a month, the links
down below, you got nothing to lose but 5 bucks a month.
I promise I'll make it worth your while.
Look, do I have to do your laundry for you too?
And if you haven't rated or reviewed this podcast, you can
do so on Apple and Spotify, Amazon, just give it a star
rating. You can leave comments or word
reviews on both Spotify and apple.
(49:03):
And if you're watching on YouTube, as most people are just
hit the like button and drop a comment down below.
Hit the bell so you're notified when I drop a new episode
because I'm you know, I, I, I can use the help.
That's it that's all I can use the help.
All right, I'm not asking for anything, just OK.
All right, whatever day you're listening to this to, I hope the
rest of your weekday hour minutes are great.
(49:27):
I'm Dave. This is DIRECT Edition.
Hello friends, it's your pal Dave, and I want to introduce to
you my brand new Patreon, West Coast Avengers and Direct
Edition, all under one umbrella.You can now support me by
joining the Patreon for $5 a month and what you're going to
get is me wearing this shirt andnothing else.
I'm just kidding. You're going to get at least one
(49:47):
bonus episode of West Coast Avengers and one bonus episode
of Direct Edition per month as well.
I'm going to let you vote on thecontent of another West Coast
Avengers video where I flip through a rare book or a rare
magazine or something that you've you've never seen before
and you get to part part. Yeah.
And you get to participate in what book it is as well.
(50:09):
Every two months I'm going to doa private sale right here,
Patreon exclusive. And you're going to have first
access to buying it well before it goes live on West Coast
Wednesday of my comic book claimsale.
So that's a little exclusivity for you.
So plop down 5 bucks a month. It's not that much to ask, is
it? I'm.
I'm waiting. No, it's not.
For five bucks a month, you can help support and grow this
(50:31):
community while we do some greatthings together.
West Coast Avengers and Direct Addition.
Who's fucking hell let me do that?
One more part of rigging. Yeah, yeah, that's right.
Could you ever lick a 9 Volt battery?
Yes, once. That's how social media makes me
feel. Yeah, it doesn't matter what it
is. It makes me feel like I'm
licking a 9 Volt battery. It's not health.
I was like, oh, this is not goodfor me.
No. Welcome back to Direct Edition,
(00:25):
a podcast about nothing and everything.
I'm your host Dave, and this is my podcast.
I have a great guest today that is the ultra talented Matt
Fraction. Matt Fraction has left his mark
on books and characters such as Hawkeye, Iron Fist, Fantastic
Four, X-Men, Iron Man He's created or Co created some great
(00:47):
independent books, including oneof my favorite books of all
time, Sex Criminals with Chip Sedarski.
Shout out to Chip for setting this up.
Casanova November. I mean the list goes on and on
and on, but I I wanted to talk to him about two specific
things. His Batman number one with Jorge
Jimenez is out in stores now. September 4th was the release
date and we recorded just beforeit, but you're seeing it after
(01:08):
the fact. You cannot miss this book.
It's going to be everywhere. Every comic store is going to
have plenty of copies and if not, they'll do a second
printing just for you. He is also the Co creator and
the Co showrunner of the Godzilla and Kong universe show
Monarch A Legacy of Monsters. So I wanted to talk to him about
just all of the things that entail those two universes,
Batman and Monarch. But honestly, we had a great
(01:31):
discussion about comics and comic stores and self printing
and and publishing and scenes and all that stuff.
And we talked at length about that as well.
This was a very fun conversation.
We even dip into talking about anxiety and HDAADHD.
And for those of you that are Patreon subscribers, there is a
bonus portion of this interview that will be on Patreon this
(01:54):
week as well. So look forward to that.
I asked Matt some kind of questions tailored to him.
And if you're not part of the Patreon, click the link below. 5
bucks a month will get you at least one episode of Direct
Edition every month that's exclusive.
One episode of West Coast Avengers that's exclusive.
Private sale every two months. And voting on 1/3 video, which
will be a flip through of a comic or rare magazine or book.
(02:17):
So without further ado, why don't we get to my interview
with Matt Fraction. Good morning, good afternoon.
Hello friends. Today's guest has nothing short
of a bibliography that would take me 1/2 hour to go through,
but I do want to run through some of the books that he's
worked. Donna and some of the other
things. Iron Man, Jimmy Olsen,
Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen, Adventure Man, Hawkeye, Sex
(02:39):
Criminals, Co creator, Casanova,November, X-Men, Fantastic Four.
Working with two of the biggest characters right now in the
world and I'm talking size with Godzilla and also Batman.
So we have Mr. Mad Fraction heretoday and I'm going to find out
why he stole Jorge Jimenez and Batman from Chip Zedarski it.
(03:02):
Was not the case. Absolutely not the case.
I was going to say the love of Chip Zedarski's live lives,
lives the loves of his life. Yeah, well, hi.
How's it going? Good, good.
How are you doing today? Good, you know, it's a crazy had
a crazy summer and a crazy day and today's hectic.
(03:27):
The weekend is hectic. Everything is hectic all the
time and like you and comes out on Wednesday.
So like, we're in the shoot, youknow?
Yes, yes, next Wednesday, Batmancomes out kids are back in
school next week. It's, you know, we're.
Getting it's all happening, it'sall happening.
Everything is happening all the time and it just keeps
(03:48):
happening. Well, I mean, you know, there's
the two options, right? We either keep moving or we stop
and. Yes, yes, champagne problems and
caviar nightmares. I wanted to jump into, you know,
you're, it's well documented. You've talked about your first
comic being Batman 316, which is, you know, very big
(04:10):
inspiration in your life. But I wanted to ask you, growing
up in Chicago, what was your first comic store experience?
It was a place. It was after I had left Chicago
for Bloomington. It was a store called Dreams.
That's Dream with a TH at the end.
(04:33):
Like a lisp. Dreams.
The dreams which I found out thelast time I did word balloon
that John Suntress shopped therewhile he was a student.
I think Tim Bradstreet as well. And I it takes a lot to
genuinely shock me. That genuinely shocked me
(04:54):
because because I've I've spent the last 30 years half convinced
that I hallucinated dreams. But like I was always, you know,
it was always at Osco, right? It was 711 and Osco kind of
hiccups and and and then a friend of mine found this store.
He called me and he was like, I just saw.
I went to a store just like it'sa comic book store.
(05:15):
It's like a what it's it. That's all they sell.
And and that and that was that was it.
That was the that was the, yeah,that was it for me.
Did you? I grew up on Long Island, so I
had a comic store literally in every town of Stone's throw too
in my town. Did you become like a for better
(05:37):
lack of a term, or a comic store?
Oh, 1000% yeah, yeah, yeah. Every week that was, that was
like 9. Whenever that was 1984, like
that was every every week since,yeah.
And we moved around a lot. And a lot of times I was in
places that didn't have direct market shops.
So I was able to find like there's a place in Burlington,
IA, called the Book Trader. And they didn't, they weren't
(06:00):
direct market, but they got stuff, you know?
Oh, yeah, absolutely. You know, it's the first, the
first thing I would do when I would get to a new town is go to
the Yellow Pages, you know? Yeah, yeah.
And yeah, we're. Literally every every week since
1984, you know. Oh.
It's amazing. Well, you know, I, there's
something about that being able to do that and, and do it on a
(06:22):
weekly basis it it's a sense of regularity, but it really builds
that love. Oh, yeah, absolutely,
absolutely. And, and I, you know, because I
was buying off of racks at drug stores or, or, or grocery
stores. I wasn't a particular Marvel or
DC kid. I I was really artistic and drew
(06:47):
all the time and I was just attracted to art.
So my first experience at Dreamth was just picking up
books I thought looked cool, without any kind of awareness of
what the what the the culture attached to it was to the
duration, as I recall, of one ofthe clerks, you know.
(07:11):
I get, I get that. And it's my experience too.
I grew up, I'm, I'm 40 years younger than you.
So, you know, I'm, you know, in,in the late 80s, early 90s, I'm
seeing the image guys and they were art forward and that's what
gave me my appreciation of art. Like they weren't, you know, a
lot of those books weren't the best stories or the best.
Character building. Let's be candid, none of them
(07:32):
were. No, that's not why.
That wasn't why you were pickingup Mark Silvestre or Jim Lee.
Exactly, exactly. Todd Todd's art is why I have an
appreciation for art all around is because that's the first
artist I was into. And then you know it's.
Dude, I did. I did a day at San Diego and
(07:54):
part of it was being on a panel with, with, with Jim.
And they move, you know, there'sa whole infrastructure
underneath the Convention Centerand behind it there's secret
walls and doors and ways that, you know, there's a reason why
you don't see Harrison Ford and his handlers wandering through
Hall H or whatever. And so we're taking these kind
(08:16):
of secret access corridors and we get into this like service
elevator. And Todd McFarlane had drawn A
sharpie like the spawn drawing on the wall.
And I could tell it bugged Jim, right?
We do the panel, we go back to the elevator and someone has, in
(08:39):
the time we were on the panel, put a plexiglass frame over it.
And that, like, Jim, like snapped and took out a Sharpie
and on the opposite wall did a drawing of Joker and signed it.
And it's just like, well, First off, this is now the most
expensive elevator. Ever.
(09:01):
But it was just like it was it was a out of body experience.
Like if I could go back and tellkid me, yeah, one day, not only
you're going to see this, you'regoing to be there as it's
happening. And like having just done a
panel with Jim and like, it's just mine, mine melting.
(09:22):
And that was your first convention in a long time,
right? Like pre COVID.
Yeah, and it was, I mean, it was, I was there a day.
So it was barely, you know, I was, I was strategic.
You know, I did a day at I did apanel at New York when Monarch
came out, you know, and that wasbut even that was secret
entrance up through into a room out the secret door into wait,
(09:42):
you know, if there's a you have to take golf carts the whole
thing. But yeah, so I've I've this
coming a week from now, Rose City Comic Con here in beautiful
Portland, OR happens and that will be my first actual proper.
I'm here all day every day for aconvention since like 2019.
Right. And I, I think I should have
(10:03):
this out before then. But if not, I apologize to
anybody that was wondering whereMatt was this past weekend.
And you're also doing an event at Hollywood Theater, right?
Yeah, yeah. So it's a 99 year old movie
palace. It's on the, you know,
Historical Places Registry. It's gorgeous.
It's the biggest 70mm screen on the West Coast.
(10:25):
It is a place by people who lovemovies, for people who love
movies. I just bought tickets to showing
the insider and social network on 35 and two weeks from now.
So I just got tickets for those.And yeah, and I, I love it.
It's a non profit. And had this crazy idea, like
kind of understanding it's Batman #1 there will be some
(10:49):
craziness. I could probably get away with
something. Came up with an idea to raise
some money for the joint. So we made like, I paid for it
out of my own pocket. Steve Lieber and Nate Fairman
donated their time. And it's, you know, it's, it's
got this crazy old movie palace edifice.
And now there's a Hollywood Theater exclusive cover of
(11:09):
Batman on the marquee. Like, like literally standing on
the thing. And yeah.
So they're going to do a screening of Christopher Nolan's
Dark Knight and then 35mm on September 4th.
And if you bought tickets, you'dget a copy of the book.
Me and Steve are gonna be there early and sign it.
So we'll kind of do a little intro thing and then we're gonna
(11:30):
watch a movie together. And then the remaining copies I
will have on hand selling at theshow.
I'm only signing at the Hollywood Theatres booth.
There'll be, I think it's, I think they put me in like the
autograph like hall. Hey, the autograph hall.
I don't quite know where it is yet, but that's the only place
I'm gonna be like selling it by hand.
And we're going to raise a lot of money for this, this, this,
(11:53):
this theater that I love very dearly and and want to do good
things for and and it's cool. It's crazy.
Now we, you know, we we have a little special.
I think it might. I don't, I don't know what the
numbers are, but it's certainly one of the rarest of the Batman
variants. I'm there are.
Have a friend pick up a copy. There are 84.
Oh wow, they sent them to me this week 84.
(12:17):
Well, it's a #1 it's a hot book.Let's I mean.
I genuinely had absolutely. It's like I'm I thought everyone
at DC were well meaning, but super type A and had drank some
kind of Kool-aid and like there was such a veil of secrecy.
(12:42):
Like when they announced me at the retailer thing, like I had
to sit in a like I, it was they were hiding me.
It was like, guys. Really.
But it was sweet. It was sweet, right?
And and you're very kind and generous and, and none of his
militias are harmful. It's just, I thought, I just
thought like, wow, this is really over the top.
And then I did San Diego. I'm like, yeah, no, Nope.
(13:02):
That was I I I I certainly am guilty of underselling things
and being self deprecating, but in this case I'm genuinely
stunned by the scale of this. Well, I mean, the, the thing
about it also is that one of thebiggest testaments to, to what
you're doing is also the fact that you're doing it with Jorge.
(13:25):
And Jorge is a not only a, you know, a specimen of a human
being and a talent, but that hasn't been very.
Handsome. Yeah, very.
But there hasn't been somebody that's done a long run like this
on a single character for especially in the Big Two for
years. Like if we take Kirkman out of
the picture of Invincible and everything like that, Notley on
(13:48):
the Big Two, like nobody does runs anymore like this.
And he's been on it since, sinceJames, right?
Since James Tynan. Yeah.
And yeah, probably Bendis and Bagley or me and Salva are we
had the longest. I had 80 some issues on Iron
Man, you know, it was all of himso.
And that's, you know, that's a decade ago more 15 years ago.
(14:11):
Maybe at this point, yeah. Time is weird time.
Really is it really isn't Got squishy there in the middle.
But yeah, they're doing the blind bag, they're doing
everything. They're pulling out all the
stops. It's incredible.
Look, look at a Frank Millie, right?
A Frank Miller Batman. I know.
I know DC's on a high right now and it's understandable.
(14:32):
Like I'm. I'm they're the pirate.
No, Yeah. They are.
And you know, with the absolute stuff, it's.
Marie, it's Marie Javins. It is the the singular vision
and talent and ability and generosity of spirit of Marie
Javins. She's absolutely transform the
place. The vibe is so great.
Well, and I think also what the public is seeing is from the
(14:56):
movie side of it with James Gunnbeing the figurehead there.
You also have a great person who's who's showing us the way
and the the. I first time I genuinely exhaled
was going to see Superman and seeing like how it was received.
And it's like, OK, people are ready for this because that's
kind of not as funny, but like that's definitely the vibe and
(15:19):
tone that I'm aiming for. Like like it's a superhero
forward take on Batman. It's Marie and Rob the the bat
group editor. When when I pitched, like the
first part of the pitch was like, people will either love
this or hate this and we'll knowreal fast.
So worst case I'm done in a year, you know, because it's
because it's a it's a shift. It's definitely a tone shift,
(15:40):
you know? Have you read them, by the way?
Did they get them to you? I have not.
No, I have not. Yeah, I'll be reading it next
week. You know, going into, going into
Stargazer in Tacoma. And also I, I wanted to say on
top of the Hollywood Theater, you know, Portland, where you've
resided for years now with, withyour wife, Kelly Sue and your
(16:00):
kids and everything. My God, what a comic Mecca.
And the comic store is there. You throw a rock, it'll bounce
off of 1 shop and hit two more and each one is wildly different
than the other. There are like 7 different comic
book ecosystems that are served brilliantly by different stores
across town. It's great.
(16:21):
Yeah, yeah. And shout outs to Excalibur.
Cosmic monkey, Floating world, Cosmic dreams.
Oh. Bridge City, it's great.
It's great. That's it's the town is silly
with with great shops. Yes, and it's silly with
creators. I mean, you know you're 1 of.
You're a little bit like the speed of the Union, like we
can't all fly out on the same flight to conventions or the
Middle East. That's.
Right, That's right. But you know, when we finally
(16:43):
get Cascadia as our own territory, we'll have most of
the great comic creators here. I'm ready.
I'm ready. Cascadia is number 2 Expo.
It'll be weed and comic book writers.
And coffee, That's the best thing.
We don't grow it here though, wejust roast it.
So that's true. That's true.
You gotta go to Brazil. I can honestly tell you if you
(17:06):
ever wanna do a Northwestern comic and, and you know, talk
like about all the good stuff here, I'll, I'll host you again
for that. Great, love it.
I'm in so so with Batman, the one of the biggest, I would
almost say from my point of view, if I was a comic shop
owner or whatever, biggest selling point is you're, you're
(17:28):
doing singular issue stories, which is huge.
Yeah, you know, I mean, they, they, they accrue.
There are longer, you know, but yeah, no, it was, it was part of
my I I just challenge for myselfto keep it interesting.
But it but I, I, I'm so I'm not so far away from the time of my
(17:50):
life where I would root through couch cushions looking for
change. You know, I've been very
fortunate. I've been very lucky and all
that. But but like comics are $5.
I know. That's a quarter a page.
Like I'm I, I I'm so concerned with giving people a full meal
(18:10):
in exchange for their, their, their, their ticket, you know?
Yeah, and and yeah, And it, and it it also, like, it just lets
me hop modes more. Like I'm just impatient.
There's so many, you know, they asked do you have any?
Like literally Chip said, Chip told me he was leaving.
He said, you know, would you be interested and and at least
(18:34):
talking to Robin Murray about it?
And I said yeah. And Robin Murray said, do you
have thoughts about Batman? It turns out, yes, I do.
It turns out I've had thoughts about Batman since I was 3 and
now I've fooled people into paying me for them.
So like keeping things in these kind of singular self-contained,
beginning, middle end issues rather than chapters of longer
stories. Like it, it, it lets me, oh, we
(18:56):
can do this. This is you.
This is you. You know, it's very, it's very
ADHD, but it's also a challenge.They're hard as hell to write,
to write singular, you know, Butyeah.
So it, it also just felt like a,like a, can I take kind of the
formal approach that Dahi Daha and I had on, on Hawkeye and
(19:20):
Annie and everybody else and, and kind of what would that look
like now? What have I learned since then
in that 10 years or whatever that to, to how would it be
different? And what's the, and it's a
challenge, right? Like I wrote, I wrote a whole
first issue, wrote issue 2, wrote issue 3 through issue one
out and rewrote it. Oh, wow.
Like, like top to bottom rewroteit right.
(19:43):
And you know, I've been working on it at this point for 14
months, like I started last lastsummer.
That makes sense. I turned in the first three
issues at the end of June. So, so I had enough time.
I, I have gone back and meddled with them.
Like the further I get, the smarter I get, the more once
(20:04):
Jorge, you know, started to workand I like I've, I've, I've had
this kind of luxury of time to to really dial in.
And, and, and hopefully, you know, try to just just want it
to be a good book. I want it to be the book I want
to read, you know, and, and, andI would, I'm thrilled that
(20:24):
everyone on the team is committed to that as well and
patient with me. Well, and I think you people
have followed your work, you know, since they started seeing
what you were able to do and what you did with Hawkeye.
And you know, you're able to make a character.
And now obviously Hawkeye's not as big as Batman and doesn't
(20:44):
have the the history yet. Yet.
Yet. I mean.
We're gonna get there. The fact that you can take
something that's been around fora while and put a new spin on
it. Jimmy Olsen, another one that's
that's a great example of doing something with a character.
I wanted to ask cuz I just had Kirkman and Finch on and they're
(21:06):
doing their new book Skin Breaker, and Kirkman talked
about how once David's art started coming back it started
to shape the story more and change the story a bit.
Did you find that with Jorge at all?
It's true with everybody. Yeah.
I, I, I, I'm, I like, you know, collaborative, you know, I don't
(21:27):
want employees, I want collaborators.
Sure, you know, and, and I, I myfavorite part of the process is
dewriting, you know, like when Iit's one thing to see thumbs and
kind of understand balloon placement, but but I want to
take as many words as possible out of a script and, you know, I
want to, you know, all that stuff.
(21:48):
And yeah, I know it's a constant.
You know, I've also been lucky that I've I've I've always known
who I was, right, with a very few exceptions.
I mean, less than five times am I not?
Have, you know, have I been writing blind?
And I've always loved to have been writing for and like I just
I'm a fan of comics. I like a lot of people.
(22:10):
So like just my, my approach hasalways been like, what's the
ultimate, what's the Jorge book I want to see?
What's the Terry Dodson book I want to see or whatever.
And just writing into that, you know, and yeah.
And seeing how he he, he sent a page yesterday or the day before
and it was exactly how I saw it in my head.
So I feel like I'm there. I feel like I can speak.
(22:32):
I can speak the language now. Yeah, like I, I just bet.
So I've it it, you know, there'salways a learning process,
right? There's this time of learning
how to how to harmonize with oneanother and like, I feel like
we're there and and yeah, it's it's, it's just a matter of
what's the coolest Jorge issue Iwant to see.
You know, is he, does he work digital or does he work
(22:55):
traditional? I don't know.
I I suspect it's a hybrid of each.
Yeah, yeah. I know he finish is digital but
I but he but he might I'm not sure.
OK, All right, Yeah. Collaborators that you've had
or, you know, something of legend.
(23:15):
My introduction to your writing and is now, you know, one of my
favorite books of all time is, is Sex Criminals.
I mean, there's something about that book.
And I know you've, you know, by the way, it's 11 years old, but
happy 10th anniversary of last year to it.
Thank you. Just such a special book and
man, I, I, I, I have so many like have had questions about it
(23:38):
over the years, but I just want to say how much I love that book
and how much it changed the way I looked at comics.
Thank you. Thank you very much.
Yeah. Yeah, it was, it was, it was a
pretty remarkable experience, end to end.
Yeah, yeah. From, from reading it as it was
coming out, but also hearing stories told about it and, you
(23:59):
know, just the tips, which is right back there.
I've given that book to six or seven people like I that every
time I see it, I buy it and I'm like, somebody's going to
appreciate it and I I send it tothem.
Somebody's having a dirty Christmas, Yeah.
Yeah, exactly. I wanted to did want to go back
and ask you another kind of younger you question about did
(24:21):
you get involved. I know you were involved with
the message boards and that's how you met.
Isn't that how you met your wifeand also how you met Chip?
Did you ever do any fanzine or or Zine self published stuff
when you were younger? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah. I mean, I made comics
compulsively. Do you remember?
You remember dot matrix printer paper?
(24:41):
Yeah, of course. You know the accordion perfs and
then the. But it had the holes in the
side. Yep, I would take that my mom
would bring it home from her joband I would tear off one side of
the strips and separate the sheets, make comics and then
bind the bind them together withyarn through the perforations,
(25:04):
You know, I mean, and I, I made comics in art school.
I, I, I made comics out of art school and, and I've written
hundreds of comics no one will ever see or read, you know, that
I wasn't trying to get published.
I was just trying to learn how to do it.
You know, it's like having a sketchbook or, you know, doing,
(25:24):
doing test paintings or whatever.
You know, it was. Yeah.
No, I've, I've, I've always, I'dbe making them if no one read
them and no one gave a shit. It's just, it's a language that
I speak I think better than English.
So I'm not saying it's good, butit's just, it's a, it's a thing
I'm incredibly comfortable with.And, and yeah, no, I've, I've my
(25:45):
whole life have made comics and then writing about comics and
thinking about comics, all of it.
Like it's just, it's just my shit, you know?
Yeah, I my fascination and exploration of fanzine culture
is what kind of leads this podcast.
Because between comics and music, fan scenes are what grew
both. Fandom is what grew both of
(26:06):
those things. Oh yeah.
Yeah, there's a remarkable archive of it at the University
of Oregon, if you're ever in Eugene.
Specifically Star Trek fandom, which was not only perpetuated
and and and made by fans, but but by women and by a lot of
women who were writing science fiction.
(26:28):
It's incredible to see. I, I did know about that and
it's something I do want to get to.
I'd like to get to the Billy Ireland out in Columbus as well
to say that's. That's astonishing.
Yeah, I've. Heard they have all of Calvin
and Hobbes you. Know.
They have Windsor McKay originals like it's and they're.
Those are big, aren't they, Windsor?
Like they're. Huge.
(26:49):
Yeah, yeah, it's astonishing. The Billy is is incredible.
Yeah, I wish. I mean, I know they're trying to
build something in Portland, right?
They're trying to build a comic and cartoon museum.
Yeah, who knows? Who knows exactly?
It ain't going to be the Billy. No, no.
But the, the, the fandom thing too, especially when you think
about San Diego Comic Con, the whole thing starts from fandom.
(27:11):
And, you know, obviously it's a different thing of what it was
back in the 60s and 70s and even80s, but still the foundations
of it come from people that we're fans of.
Yeah. So it's it's and and women and
like, like, let's just say it again.
Like the more women than men attend conventions.
Like, like, it's, it's, it's, it's, yeah.
(27:34):
Oh, and and you know, that's that's another entire thing that
just needs to be pushed forward is women's, you know, history
and comics. I.
It's somebody like, you know, it's, it's all been, yeah.
Yeah, somebody like Maurice Severin, I think about her as
being one of the most important figures in comics and does not
get the shine that she deserves publicly.
(27:55):
Yeah, she. In, in, in, in, in more ways
than you'll know, you know? Yeah.
So shifting focus because you know you are part of something
else that came out last year andwas really enjoyable was Monarch
your Co creator, showrunner of Monarch Legacy of Monsters,
(28:16):
which is the, I don't know, the in between of the King Kong
Godzilla movies. Is that a best way to call it?
Sure. Yeah, yeah.
Fascinated by how you got involved in that?
Sure. I was working with legendary on
(28:37):
we had the had the development deal and turning my stuff into
shows and and knew that was a thing they had been wrestling
with for a while. And I saw it so clearly in my
head that I asked if I could pitch on it.
And you know, and because they were like, you know, do you want
(28:57):
any of the stuff that we're developing?
Is there anything you're interested in?
And I was like Monarch and they thought it because they, they
like like, that's a poisoned chalice.
Why would you want to drink out of it?
We've been trying to do that forfor 10 years or whatever.
I'm like, I see it, I know it. You got to trust me.
And that started like a five year process, almost door to
door from when that first document got written to being
(29:20):
partnered with Chris Black, who,who developed the show and, and,
and and ran it with me and, and to production was like like
almost five years to the day. But yeah, it just came from
loving the world and seeing whatthe show could be in my head and
just convincing enough people and meeting enough people who
(29:42):
agreed and, and getting lucky, right?
It's hard, hard work and luck and timing I guess.
Yeah, you, you hear TVTV and movies, you know, you're lucky
if you get something made and how long it takes.
So it kind of fascinates me because you hear the word
showrunners more thrown around and use that term maybe in the
last 10 years, 1015 years does everything.
(30:05):
Is it something that's like everything kind of goes through
you like, for instance, casting,I mean, brilliant job NSOI and
then Kurt and Wyatt Russell, come on, that's that's almost
not fair. Yeah, no, it's, it's, you know,
Sharerunner does has all of thatstuff.
I mean, there's, there's still studios and networks, but, but
you're, you're involved with every decision and every level,
(30:29):
you know, from boring budget shit to, you know, stars and,
and you know, any present. I was there for 100 of our 106
shooting days. That's crazy.
And you know, we went to Tokyo and, and all through British
(30:52):
Columbia. I wasn't there for the Hawaii
stuff because I was at the tail end and it was like that it
started before the Vancouver unit had wrapped.
It was one of those things that like, so we wrap on a Friday, I
could get on a plane Saturday, get my ass kicked Sunday and
Monday and then fly back like itwas only been two days in
(31:14):
Hawaii. So, so I missed Hawaii
unfortunately. But but yeah, no, it's, it's,
you know, we, we did a bit wherewe wanted to shoot at an airport
in Tokyo and we just needed Annawalking out of a concourse and,
and hailing a cab. And they told us no, unless we
shot in the concourse itself, which was a brand new
international arrivals terminal.Its construction had been
(31:36):
completed in 2020. So they had this billion dollar
facility that had not had, had not yet opened and they wanted
it. So like we quickly scrambled to
take advantage of this remarkable, you know, that kind
of, you know, like there's, there's this, it's, it's
creative, it's it's executive and producorial.
And, and it's a great challenge for someone with the, you know,
(32:00):
mental obstacles of mind. Like it's a great job for
somebody with ADHD. Like I'll do one thing until I
get stuck, would walk 10 feet and somebody else would be like
red or blue, blue and go over here and what is this?
And it just there's a zillion things all the time.
And then you're looking at cuts and edits and giving notes on
effects and music. It's it's a top down, kind of
like granular sort of thing. And you know, I oh, the airport
(32:27):
question, was it Haneda or Narita or was it different
airport? Haneda, I think.
OK. Yeah, I was through there last
year. So everything about that
country. Yeah, it wasn't.
It wasn't Narita, because that was the one I'd flown into
before. So I'm a bit of an Haneda.
Yeah, OK. Now, obviously you get to play
in the sandbox of Godzilla and Kaijus at like, is that
(32:50):
something that that always spoketo you?
Is it, you know, moving up and through the dog?
Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah.
No, definitely. Yeah.
I, I, you know, I old horror andscience fiction movies were,
were were my bread and butter. You know, I have a, you know,
Godzilla tattoo like I'm, I'm, Yeah.
No, it was, it wasn't. I didn't have to do a lot of
(33:11):
homework for the kid. Sure.
You know. I'd show you my Godzilla tattoo,
but you don't want to see my thigh.
It's not that kind of podcast. Yeah, I know.
So it was, it was, it was born out of a love of the thing and
and seeing a, a way that the show could live and exist in a
way that that that stood next tothe the the films but existed as
(33:36):
television, which I think are two different things in very
specific ways that are important.
Yeah, yeah. And the characters, I mean, you,
you, you got a great cast, like I said.
And you know, Anna Sawai, there's some amazing things with
Shogun, obviously. She's astonishing.
She's gonna be the biggest thingin the world.
Yeah, and. And deserves it. 100% And you
(34:00):
know, I, I enjoyed the interweaving of the characters
and I, I also, it was interesting to me because I, I
moved to Seattle originally and there was some stuff that was
supposed to be in Seattle. I'm like no that's Vancouver but
I love how but. At least Vancouver is in the
Pacific Northwest, like, and we're watching X-Files with my
daughter and it's all Vancouver like.
It's Kentucky Vancouver, it's Arizona Vancouver.
(34:22):
It's it's. You know they were the first
show, right? They were the first show to
really take production to Vancouver, I think.
Maybe so, yeah, yeah, but it's funny watching it.
I can like, oh, we shot there, we shot there.
I blew that building up. But this really, it's very, it's
very, it's very fun to to, it's like, it's like a yeah, we had
some crew, we had some of their crew on our.
Sure, that's cool. That makes sense.
(34:45):
True everything. In I want to go back to comics
because there is something that you you've done in the past that
I appreciate. You've done some playlists for
certain books that you've made and your relationship to music.
Obviously you're a big music nerd.
I'm a big music nerd. Do you are you planning to do
anything like just on the side, maybe some Batman suggestions
(35:07):
for music wise for reading? Or is there anything that you
listen to while you write? No, it's interesting.
It's interesting is is I don't know if it's age or I mean, I
suspect I'm a little bit like a like AI feel like a, like a,
like a locust. Like I have to kind of every
little while I have to kind of tear everything apart and start
over and figure out how I do this in a brand new way all over
(35:30):
again. And it's a very work intensify,
which I wish I could just do something easy.
I wish I could just do it the easy way.
But I it's like the it's like The Simpsons joke.
You know, there's the right way,the wrong way and the Max power
way, which is wrong, but faster as the man fraction ways is
slower and harder. I'm in a place now where I kind
(35:51):
of can't, I, I don't, I'm, I'm, yeah, no, I, I need to just kind
of have whatever document open, have my notebook and A and a
word file open and that's it. Like I can't have, I can't, I
can't even have like ball games going anymore.
(36:12):
Like I can't have Ambien anything.
I just need to be able to focus as much as possible.
See, I've not, my son was actually putting a playlist
together last night and asked mefor a couple of recommendations
and, and I ended up like going through all I used to do like
monthly playlists of, of whatever songs went through my
(36:34):
head, right. I would, I would put down if I
caught myself singing something,it would go on these lists.
And I and I, and I've, I've fallen out of the habit of doing
it, but I just like, oh, like, Oh, yeah, no, it, it, it's, it
is weirdly quiet here these days.
I get. I get that.
Yeah, I just can't. I don't know.
I, it's, it's, and I've never been one of those guys that had
(36:55):
like, I can't, I don't particularly like movie scores.
You know, I don't, I don't listen to movie scores
particularly often or anything like that.
But yeah, no, I I tend to work in as much quiet as I can get.
It's, it's interesting because at least for me, reading wise, I
can take one of any of Trent andTrent Reznor and Atticus Ross's
scores and that's perfect. At least comic reading material.
(37:19):
But yeah, working editing for me, I can't listen to anything.
I have to be. You know, and and you know,
there was a there was a time when I needed thirty different
things happening and describe itto my wife is like I need to
Jingle my car keys at the raccoons.
And so there would be like a baseball game and like the news
(37:42):
with the sound muted and music playing, you know what I mean?
And that chat window and just sort of the raccoons needed this
so I could do this. And now it now it's all of the
raccoons are in the same direction and like we just got
to focus on this thing and crank.
Do you think that's like growingwith ADHD?
(38:02):
You know some of that is is whatthat is is like.
You're 1000% yeah. And I don't know if like I said,
I don't know if it's age. I don't know if it's it's the
medication. I don't know if, if, like I
said, if creatively everything changes for me every, you know,
I don't, I don't know, maybe it'll, it'll, it'll turn around.
But no, I, I, I love music deeply, but it, it, it isn't
(38:26):
compatible with my work style atthe moment.
Yeah, I. And yeah, just looking, looking
at this thing last night, I was like, oh, right.
I missed this. But it's also a thing.
Like, I can't listen to music atnight.
I get too excited and I can't sleep, you know, like, I would
start to play these songs I was gonna send my son.
Like, no, no, no, no, stop, stop.
I'm gonna get to, you know, likeit's right, Right.
(38:49):
Yeah. I I completely I mean I have the
opposite like I have really bad anxiety so like I'm hyper
focused on things and I can pay attention to almost everything
at once to a fault where like I'm paying attention to way too
much at once. Yeah.
And I have a processing thing where I'm not hard of hearing,
(39:12):
but in certain environments at certain decibels, all the noise
flattens and I can hear someone 3 feet away from me just as well
as I can hear someone 10 feet away from me.
Conventions are really hard for me.
Like there's a, there's a there's AI have to focus.
Like I'm taking the SA TS at conventions.
(39:32):
I tend to like favor my ear at people when and it's not because
I can't hear, it's because I need to focus on everything
you're saying on top of all of my social anxiety shit and
anxiousness and all that stuff. Like I got to keep that tamped
down. But also like, you know, and
there are times restaurants are are horrible and it's it sucks.
(39:56):
It, it, it sucks and and I don'tknow, I don't know what I used
to think it was. I'm glad I know what it is now.
I'm glad I recognize that it's not.
Don't even recognize it. Yeah, it's but, but yeah, it's,
it's a, it's a really, yeah. I, I spent most of July and
August actually doing carpentry and that was nice because I
(40:20):
could have music on for that. So I spent a lot of, listened to
a lot of music this summer. But I was because I was using a
saw and a drill and a chisel and.
A pen and paper. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I, I, and I think especially talking about cons like I took,
you know, obviously COVID reallygrounded us off from going to
(40:43):
stuff. But even when I came back and I
went to my first Emerald City, Iwas like, I don't like it as
much as I used. To I, I, I, you know, at first
it was safety and then it was, you know, my, when COVID
started, I had wrapped up a bunch of projects and kind of
(41:05):
tagged out of doing more and waskind of housed at my wife had
things more actively going. And so then there's kind of like
a, a, a primacy of care kind of thing.
And then I realized I am so crippled by anxiety.
They are, they are exhausting and performative.
(41:29):
It is it is like a self induced panic attack sustained that I
that I sustained for for days and I'm and it's it's really
hard as as there's the part of me it's I, I didn't actually
have the the kind of spikiness that I feel when I was at San
(41:50):
Diego. Granted, it was only a day.
So again, it may be things have changed.
Maybe it's age and medication and therapy, but no, they, they
have been I, I was see. I realized I was saying no to
shows because they made me feel bad.
Yeah. I get that.
And and the better they went, the worse I felt, right, because
(42:14):
I was going to fuck it up. And look at all these people who
are so nice and who just want tocome and say hello and who
afford you your lifestyle and you disappointing every single
one of them. And like, it was just a, it was
this, it was, it just made me feel unwell, you know, like I
(42:35):
got off of social media in like 2014.
Did you ever lick a 9 Volt battery?
Yes, once. That's how social media makes me
feel. It.
Doesn't matter what it is, it makes me feel like I'm licking a
9 Volt battery. It's not health.
I was like, oh, this is not goodfor me.
No, no. And I get a lot of moral and
(42:57):
ethical reasons to bail too. But like personally, selfishly,
this feels unhealthy. It feels like I'm drinking
poison. Like I'm not supposed to like
this. I'm just supposed to be looking
at pictures of food and dogs. Like why?
And it makes me think, oh this I'm not meant.
My mind is knows innately I'm not supposed to have a view of
(43:18):
30,000 different windows under 30,000 different lives at the
same time. So it's the same and, and, and
you get this because we're at that age, we watched it grow.
But it's the thing with the 24 hour news cycle.
You're not supposed to know what's going on in the world 24
hours a day, seven days a week. It's not healthy and rarely do
we need to no, because yeah, yeah, I don't know.
(43:41):
So I, but I'd look, I'm, I'm doing shows for the next month
or two in a way that I've not done since probably the height
of Sex Criminals. So we'll see how it goes.
We'll see if I feel different onthe other side of it.
I'm, I'm, I'm wary in advance, I'll tell you that much.
Just because I, I, I'm, I'm going to fuck it up.
I'm going to hurt somebody's feelings.
I'm going to piss somebody off. And I'm not going to mean to.
(44:01):
I'm not going to know it. And then, you know, I'm going to
be someone's terrible experienceat a convention that ruins
comics for them. They'll hate me and they'll
think comics are dumb and it's all because I made it dumb.
You know I don't. Know.
Yeah, yeah. It's never ending and I can't
hear what they're saying anyway.All I can hear voice on my head
screaming you're an asshole. You're fucking it like it's
(44:23):
awful. I mean I.
Just want to write stuff. Just let me write stuff.
For anybody listening, when you see Matt at a convention, just
say hi. I appreciate you.
No, no, don't tell. Don't.
No, don't, don't, don't tell anybody anything.
Let them. No, no, no.
But. Know, know that the entire time
we're talking, my toes are in fists to the point where.
(44:43):
We grant it. You know.
Well, you make a lot of people very happy to read your work,
so. It makes me happy that they read
it and like, and it really, I, Ireally like, I don't charge for
signatures. That's changed.
That's the other thing. Oh, yeah.
That conventions are totally different.
Just in that the, the, the like,I don't charge for signatures.
(45:04):
It literally feels like the least I can do to sign my name a
few times for people who afford me this lifestyle.
Like I, I, I don't know. I don't know, I, I, I, I, I, I
do appreciate it as an exercise in gratitude.
You know, I'd like it makes me feel very, very lucky and very
grateful. And you know, I, I, I there,
there are good parts to it, but I do.
(45:25):
But my brain doesn't let me enjoy them.
I. Brains are bullshit in
conclusion. They are.
They're fucked up machines that you can't do anything to.
Bags of fat and wires. It's a bad way to run a
railroad. Who would build a theater out of
that? And wires.
It's dumb. If I didn't have to deal with
imposter syndrome a lot, my lifewould be a lot better.
(45:48):
But going into this and just like I'm not a journalist, I'm
not John Santress. I'm just a dude that with a
podcast but loves to talk and conversation.
Dude, I'm not even good enough for imposter syndrome.
I think that's a reductorist joke, but it's a good one, so I
I. It's really good.
So damn it, you just kill me with that one.
(46:12):
As this comes out, Batman one will have already come out.
But I, I, I don't think I need to tell people to go by it.
They will. And let's just hope that issue 2
is where they continue. I hope, I hope.
And legacy, it feels like. It's certainly scratching a
Batman edge that has been scratched for a while and people
(46:32):
are responding to it, which is really gratifying.
So hopefully, hopefully everyonedigs it and get to do I will, I
will, I will do this until it stops being fun.
I've been doing it for 14 monthsnow and it is yet to feel like
work so. That's awesome.
I mean that usually when the person creating is having fun
doing it, the people reading it,enjoying it, watching it,
(46:52):
whatever it is, are going to enjoy that.
Yeah, I think, I think you can certainly tell when, when, when
someone types with with one handbecause they're pinching their
nose closed with the other one, so.
Yes, yes. It's the same with music.
You can tell when somebody's just fulfilling a, a contract or
whatever. I want to give a big thank you
to Chip for connecting us and a big thank you to you for taking
(47:14):
time out of your day to come on my podcast.
My pleasure. Thank you for for coming to me.
I'm sorry I got to bounce a little early, but this was this
is great. This is a lot of fun.
Awesome, well hopefully we can do it again in the future.
Best of luck on Batman One next week.
Rose City and the Hollywood Theatre, which is awesome that
you're doing that. September 4th.
Oh, and then if you're in town on the 11th, as part of the
(47:36):
Movie Madness University, I'm doing a class teaching a one
night seminar about cinematic influences on Batman.
Shit, what would be cool to see?So check that out.
You can find out more on moviemadnessithink.com or the
Hollywood website. You can find it.
I'll post links. I'll post links to it in the
description for for people. So Matt, thank you so much.
(47:57):
Have a great day you. Too.
Thanks for watching that interview with Matt Fraction.
It was a delight to talk to him.I had never spoken to him
before. Believe it or not, he's one of
the very few creators that I've never met.
But Chip, I asked Chip to connect us and, you know,
they're great friends. So I knew that I would get along
very well with Matt and we couldhave talked a lot longer.
He had a meeting to go to after,so we'll do it again.
(48:19):
But I I really appreciate Matt honesty and I really am excited
to to read this Batman run. Batman is the character that I
read the most of and have enjoyed the most comics of out
of any of the big two superheroes since I was a kid.
I'm a diehard Batman fan. So you know, it's it, it, it,
I'm excited for it and I definitely, no, I'm not going to
be disappointed by it. And like I said, if you are part
(48:41):
of the Patreon, you're going to get some extra bonus stuff with
Matt. So 5 bucks a month, the links
down below, you got nothing to lose but 5 bucks a month.
I promise I'll make it worth your while.
Look, do I have to do your laundry for you too?
And if you haven't rated or reviewed this podcast, you can
do so on Apple and Spotify, Amazon, just give it a star
rating. You can leave comments or word
reviews on both Spotify and apple.
(49:03):
And if you're watching on YouTube, as most people are just
hit the like button and drop a comment down below.
Hit the bell so you're notified when I drop a new episode
because I'm you know, I, I, I can use the help.
That's it that's all I can use the help.
All right, I'm not asking for anything, just OK.
All right, whatever day you're listening to this to, I hope the
rest of your weekday hour minutes are great.
(49:27):
I'm Dave. This is DIRECT Edition.
Hello friends, it's your pal Dave, and I want to introduce to
you my brand new Patreon, West Coast Avengers and Direct
Edition, all under one umbrella.You can now support me by
joining the Patreon for $5 a month and what you're going to
get is me wearing this shirt andnothing else.
I'm just kidding. You're going to get at least one
(49:47):
bonus episode of West Coast Avengers and one bonus episode
of Direct Edition per month as well.
I'm going to let you vote on thecontent of another West Coast
Avengers video where I flip through a rare book or a rare
magazine or something that you've you've never seen before
and you get to part part. Yeah.
And you get to participate in what book it is as well.
(50:09):
Every two months I'm going to doa private sale right here,
Patreon exclusive. And you're going to have first
access to buying it well before it goes live on West Coast
Wednesday of my comic book claimsale.
So that's a little exclusivity for you.
So plop down 5 bucks a month. It's not that much to ask, is
it? I'm.
I'm waiting. No, it's not.
For five bucks a month, you can help support and grow this
(50:31):
community while we do some greatthings together.
West Coast Avengers and Direct Addition.
Who's fucking hell let me do that?
One more part of rigging. Yeah, yeah, that's right.
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