June 6, 2025 • 37 mins
Get ready for one of the most jaw-dropping trigger warnings yet — George Orwell’s 1984 has been given a woke reimagining, and the results are as cringe-worthy as they are unbelievable. In this episode of The Hollywood in Toto Podcast, host Christian Toto dives into the latest assault on literary classics by hyper-sensitive academia and cultural gatekeepers. We break down the embarrassing comments made for the book's 75th anniversary and what this means for free speech, satire, and the enduring power of dystopian fiction.
But that’s not all — we’re joined by writer, illustrator, and Babylon Bee alum Ethan Nicolle, who’s launching his most ambitious project yet: a hilarious and action-packed kids’ tome titled This Book Might Explode. Ethan shares the inspiration behind the book, how he's using Kickstarter to bypass gatekeepers, and the uphill battle conservative creators still face in today’s publishing world. From creative freedom to cultural commentary, this conversation is packed with insight, laughs, and a reminder of why storytelling matters — especially for the next generation.
"This Book Might Explode" Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thisbookmightexplode/this-book-might-explode/
Subscribe to HiT's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@HollywoodinToto
Read Hollywood in Toto - https://www.hollywoodintoto.com
Lend a hand: Leave a tip! https://hollywood-in-toto.ck.page/products/hollywood-in-toto-tip-jar
Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HollywoodInToto
Read: "Virtue Bombs: How Hollywood Got Woke and Lost Its Soul" https://www.amazon.com/Virtue-Bombs-Hollywood-Woke-Lost/dp/1637580991
But that’s not all — we’re joined by writer, illustrator, and Babylon Bee alum Ethan Nicolle, who’s launching his most ambitious project yet: a hilarious and action-packed kids’ tome titled This Book Might Explode. Ethan shares the inspiration behind the book, how he's using Kickstarter to bypass gatekeepers, and the uphill battle conservative creators still face in today’s publishing world. From creative freedom to cultural commentary, this conversation is packed with insight, laughs, and a reminder of why storytelling matters — especially for the next generation.
"This Book Might Explode" Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thisbookmightexplode/this-book-might-explode/
Subscribe to HiT's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@HollywoodinToto
Read Hollywood in Toto - https://www.hollywoodintoto.com
Lend a hand: Leave a tip! https://hollywood-in-toto.ck.page/products/hollywood-in-toto-tip-jar
Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HollywoodInToto
Read: "Virtue Bombs: How Hollywood Got Woke and Lost Its Soul" https://www.amazon.com/Virtue-Bombs-Hollywood-Woke-Lost/dp/1637580991
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This week in the Hollywood and Toto Podcast, Yes, we
have reached peak trigger warning and it's not even close.
And we talked to creator Ethan Nicole about his new project.
This book might explode picture everything you loved as a kid,
and like that Prey Go commercial, it's in there. Welcome
(00:23):
to the Hollywood and Toto Podcast. Entertainment news and reviews
without doubt. Look, Hollywood narrative, free speech, free expression.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Now that's entertainment. And here's your host. Oh Lord, winning
film critic Coristian Toto.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
And our cultural stereotypes. They're inconsistent with today's standards of
inclusion and tolerance and may offend some viewers. Oh Man,
saved by the bell. I almost watched one of the
greatest mom movies of all time. Thank you, AMC. You've
just did me a solid. How can I have a
thank you?
Speaker 2 (01:02):
No?
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Oh And by the way, Martin Score says he never
reacted to that trigger warning, nor did Robert de Niro.
You think those two who have a lot of time
with the press get pushed in front of microphones very often.
You think they might weigh in on that particular film
and the trigger warning, But nope, not a bit wouldn't
it be great if these amazing artists actually spoke out
(01:23):
against these woke overreaches, but they rarely do.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Can't you see him busy?
Speaker 1 (01:29):
But just imagine these trigger warnings being applied to other films.
I mean, when you think about it, almost everything could
stand a trigger warning. Remember that movie Mister Mom from
the eighties that Michael Keaton. Mister Mom includes outdated views
on parenting that don't mess with modern times. See where
(01:49):
this is going, You see why this is a problem.
You could pick picture almost any film, dig in a
little bit, find something offensive or different, or if you're
just looking at older films that don't perfectly align with
today's values, with today's customs, with the way we think today,
and whila, trigger warning. There you go.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
I'm offended.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
It's just despicable, and it's also insulting. It's saying to
the viewer that you're not smart enough, wise enough, sure
enough to handle the fact that this movie is twenty thirty,
forty fifty years old and it may not exactly line
up with today's values. That's what it's saying. It feels
like these trigger warnings are on the decline. We haven't
heard any more obnoxious ones lately, Disney Plus took them
(02:33):
away from Dumbo and Peter Pan, two of their beloved films,
which all of a sudden, we're now not exactly appropriate
for modern viewing your right now. So this was a
good thing. And you know, with the decline of woke
in general, I thought, hey, maybe trigger warnings are going
the way of the a tract tape. Wouldn't that be
a wonderful thing? And then I heard about a new one,
(02:55):
and it may be the granddaddy of them all. And
you'll see why in a second.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Now.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
This came to my attention via the America This Week
podcast hosted by Walter Kern and also Matt Taibi. They
talk about culture and politics, journalism, you name it. Two
very smart, interesting fellows, and Walter brought up the fact
that he had recently picked up a seventy fifth edition
of George Orwell's nineteen eighty four classic book Big Brother.
(03:22):
You know, the drill about an oppressive regime, about thought police,
about speech police, about government gone wild. It's a classic book.
It's a cautionary tale, and it's great for all the
reasons why. That's a huge important milestone in the culture
and wohlden't you know it? With the seventy fifth edition,
(03:43):
it comes with two extra bonuses. One is a forward
by Thomas Pinchin, one of the best living authors we
have today. That's good. Another is another forward of sorts,
written by a person who wanted to warn us that
the book we're about to read could be triggering. Really,
George Orwell, nineteen eighty four triggering the lack of self
(04:07):
awareness is off the charts. The author here is Dolan
Perkins Valdez, and this is what she had to say
in the forward about nineteen eighty four. I'm enjoying the
novel in its own terms, not as a classic, but
as a good story. That is, until Winston reveals himself
to be a problematic character. Woo. But there's more. Winston
(04:31):
dislikes nearly all women, and especially the young and pretty ones.
Winston's views on women are at first despicable to the
contemporary reader. He's the kind of character who can make
me put down a book. Well, thank goodness, she didn't
put down the book. She kept on reading, and then
she wrote this amazing, wonderful, necessary trigger warning. I'm being sarcastic,
(04:55):
and she goes on and on. She also insinuates the
book may have some racist elements as well. It is garbage,
It is trash, and what an absolute shame that whoever's
in charge of the Orwell legacy, whoever's in charge of
publishing his books, didn't have the wherewithal to think about, Hey,
maybe putting a trigger warning in front of this book
(05:16):
is absolutely the wrong thing to do, Absolutely a sign
of what this book was trying to warn us about.
You know, when it comes to two specific pop culture institutions,
I thought that they were forever protected against the woke revolution.
The first, of course, is Blazing Saddles. What the wide
wide world of sportsnes.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Are going on here?
Speaker 1 (05:36):
The nineteen seventies comedy is the ultimate. You can't do
that today. You can't say that today, you can't joke
about that today. Mel Brooks has been saying that for
years and years. Nel mel Brooks is politically to the left,
but he's not really a political creature. He's a comic genius.
But he has known for a while that that's the case,
and he's been defending his movie for quite some time,
(05:59):
and I think he's doing it to make sure that
people who might want to tinker with it, get rid
of it, insult it, trash it for all the wrong reasons.
Would say, hey, back off, mel Brooks. I'm a comedy guide.
You're not gonna touch this one. And for the most part,
the woke mom has stayed away from it, which is wonderful.
They realize it. They had that little inkling of self
(06:21):
awareness to see how shameful it would appear if they
attacked that movie. And you know, I thought that nineteen
eighty four felt exactly in that category. I couldn't have
been more wrong and or welling in the adjective, couldn't
be more applicable. Even Nicole has a resume that makes
(06:50):
it sound like he's pushing seventy. The guy has been busy.
Years ago, he created a comic inspired by his little
brother called Axe Cop. It was a web based comic
and it was a smash. It made him a star
in a way. But that's just the tiny part of
his resume. He's also written for VeggieTales, Teen Titans Go,
(07:10):
written multiple books aimed at children. He was the co
host of the Babylon Bee podcast, including being its creative director.
Imagine being the creative director of the Beat that's an
amazing gig. He also was part of the Daily Wire
Kids Revolution. He co created the show Chip Chilla, voiced
in part by Rob Schneider. He has done a lot
(07:33):
of things over the last few years, busy, busy, busy,
But now he's striking out on his own, and his
new project might be the kind of the culmination of
everything he's been doing up to now. The new project
is called This Book Might Explode, and it is shock
full of games and puzzles and jokes and wacky characters
and all sorts of interesting things to spike the imagination
(07:54):
of young readers. And of course there's an interactive elopment,
which we'll get into an amendment minute. We'll also just
talk about what this means and who are some of
the creative forces behind it. So what is this Book
Might Explode? How did it come about? And how does
he find his creative fires burn the brightest? What sparks
his imagination? Well, that one caught me by surprise, but
(08:15):
let's let Ethan explain it himself. Here's my conversation with
Ethan Nicole. You've known him for so many years on
so many different projects, but this might be his best one.
Yet Ethan, thanks for joining the show. You know, you've
got such an eclectic background. You worked on so many
different projects with big companies, going solo, all these different
ways to create. I'm always curious about the creative individual
(08:39):
and the fire in their belly, and I'm just it's
not a way to start an interview, But do you
find that fire still burning as brightly? Is it different today?
Is it has? How has it changed over time? Because
you're still relatively young, man, but you've been at it
for a while and I know, becoming a father and
life and things change along the way. I'm just kind
(09:00):
of curious, kind of a state of the a state
of the union for Heath and the Cole. What's what?
What drives you today that maybe is a little bit
different than in the past.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Man, That's a big question. And it's interesting because I
have you know, I'm at an interesting moment in my
life where I just spent three years working in the
Daily Wire, the most comfortable I've been in my career
a career ever had. I mean, they paid me very
well and it was very it was very nice. You know,
provided a lot for us working at the kids Apartment.
We created their show chip Chilla and some other stuff
(09:31):
with them, but that didn't work out. Uh, So I'm
at that and then in that phase where I'm trying
to ab out what's next, and as I look back
at my life, all the most of the biggest moments
of my life came from moments like this. I created
a comic old Ax cop. It happened when I had
I had been laid off from two jobs in the
(09:51):
same way. I had two full time jobs both happened
to lay me off in the same week. So I
went from and I was living in the solco no
you know, you need money here, and so that moment
of hunger came out of that. I had even both
before that. My first graphic novel that kind of broke
me into the industry was during a time I had
just gotten laid off and I created my first It
was actually my second graphic novel, but it made me
(10:12):
an Eyeser nominated comic book creator and got me in
the door at pitching at Cartoon Network and things like that.
So these moments, you know, and then even when things
ended for me the Babylon b it was kind of
a big moment for me. So I'm kind of in
a moment like that, I know, and I think I'm
driven by the adventure. There were almost the romance of
the danger of you know, it could go wrong, it
(10:34):
could all go could all go bad, but taking the chance.
I it's weird. The weirdest thing is how excited I
am by it, And like, I'm not excited by having
a really steady paycheck. I'm miserable by h when things
are like a little too safe and a little too predictable. Yeah,
it's it's oddly tough for me, which drives my wife
(10:57):
nuts because she loves that.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
That's so interesting. I was reading an older interview with you,
and you said something I thought was interesting and certainly
even more relevant today than it was at the time.
You said something like, there really are no excuses to
hide behind if you're a creator in this landscape, because
there are so many different platforms, so many different ways
to get your vision, your voice, your message out. Can
(11:19):
you expand on that a little bit, because I think
I think what you just said and that old quote
is inspirational, where you know it's within us to do
what we can do and to kind of put our
vision out there and take our lumps or be successful
or fail or you know, it's such a unique place
we're living at right now. We can kind of do
so much and a lot of the barriers are is
(11:40):
fading away, right.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
I mean, you know, we grew up, or at least
I grew up in a time when there were huge
gatekeepers to publishing your book and getting any kind of
video out there. And YouTube and Amazon have changed that.
I mean, there's just you can get your video out,
you can get your book out. You know hard, it's
super saturated market, but like you can do it. And
(12:05):
so I think that's probably the main thing that I
would say. The excuse used to be like, oh they
won't let me in. I have this great stuff. But huh,
now you don't have an excuse anymore. But you got
to be The thing is like having a company that
covers up for you. They they there's a reason they
have a bunch of money going into promotion and marketing
(12:26):
and all the work it goes into strategizing and trying
to stand out, make your products stand out. You have
to take all it on yourself, and that's daunting. Jimmy
in the middle right now for the Kickstarter.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
Gotcha, Well, your new project is this book might explode.
It's so interesting. It feels like it's a grab bag
of these wonderful ideas. But I want to let you
share more about it, because I mean, it's your baby,
So how would you describe it and what part of
it do you find the most exciting as an artist?
Speaker 2 (12:54):
I think for me, this is the culmination of a
lot of Like I mean, I started out on Veggietails
as a you know, as a leader writer on Veggietails
and story slash story editor for dream Works slash Netflix.
For three years, I worked on ax Cop, which is
more of an adult cartoon, but it was created with
my five year old brother. Than going on to being
(13:14):
the Babylon b as a creative director, which really meant
I took on everything besides the articles. I was doing,
the videos and the books, animated shorts, video shorts, started
up the podcast, which culminated in interviewing Elon Musk at
a time when he didn't really do that many interviews.
Was crazy, but just a wild ride. And then at
Daily Wire working on their kids content and just thinking
(13:36):
the whole time, like I really loved building teams, I
love working with I have this amazing roster of creatives,
creatives that are conservatives, that are Christians, that a lot
of them they're working on whatever my little pony reboot
or whatever there is, because that's what this industry offers.
But they all have these great original ideas that they're
pitching all the time when they're not getting made because
(13:56):
everything's reboots and remakes or politically motivate it or whatever.
Like the machine sucks and uhs. I've had this dream
of like I know so many great creative I mean,
I know know Doug Snaplek Creative Earth from Jim. He's
a graphic novelist. He makes amazing graphic novels. Right now,
he's making his living doing YouTube videos about politics, which
(14:17):
I think he's good at that. But it's a tragic
that he can't you know that there's his audience's families.
Like we're a family oriented culture Christians, Conservatives, and for
some reason we can't make this connection that like there's
all these great creators that make content in our own
sort of I don't know, want to say tribe, but
(14:38):
like they're right there, but for some reason, you still
go over to whatever, just go kind of conveniently go
to Barnes and noble, go to target whatever, pick up
whatever books are there, and just and I think my
vision is to have this and I think one of
the hard parts about that is finding individual artists. You know,
you kind of hear, you hear somebody kind of goes, hey,
hear about this guy. He's I think he's on the
(14:58):
he's on the up and up. He's not he's not
a crazy pedophile or whatever. Maybe he's cool. You should read.
Maybe these kids will like that book. So you have
to like kind of word of mouth, word of mouth
that My goal is to bring a bunch of those
people together. And also it's headed up by me and Eric,
I mean our I feel like our careers speaking themselves.
You look at our credits between Babylon Bee and Daily
(15:20):
Wire and Veed details and stuff like that. You know
where we're coming from. Yeah, and this is our project.
We're heading it up. And so the goal is really
to shove if if we could have, if we had
the money to make a Netflix or a full on
streaming service in platform with apps and like everything. I mean,
that's my dream I want to make. I want to
make all kinds of kids content. But to me, the
(15:41):
book is the best it's almost like I came up
in this industry of pitching. Pitching is this huge process
where you make all this amazing artwork and you write
all this stuff, and then finally you go into a
room of like seven mostly diversity hires that are like
in their twenties. I don't know why I'm pitching to
these people like this, this rainbow of people with like
(16:04):
little like their hairs all gelled up in the front
and they had these little glasses, and it's just the
weirdest thing to do all this work on a pitch
and then that's who's getting it. I didn't make it
for them, and made it for kids and anyway, So
my goal is to take that process and just bring
it straight to the family. It's basically like a pitch
book to families instead, So we're getting all kinds of
(16:27):
content in it and interrupt me and I can go
off about this, but well, you.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
Know, I want to drill down into it a little bit,
because you're bemoaning and many people are bemoaning the whole.
It's a reboot society where it's remakes and sequels and
spin offs and reimaginings and even a fake Clint Eastwood
interview teed off on that recently another story for the
other day. But is that as frustrating as it is
(16:54):
and as many of those pitch meetings where you're kind
of talking to these glass eyed suits, So opening up
a lane for you for someone like you who's an
original storyteller, I hope so as a whole team of
original storytellers. I mean, is that the glass half full?
Look at this?
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Yeah? But I think I think that the culture is
ripe for it, like they want they're hungry for new content.
I think it's making the connection. I think that people
are starting to get it. For instance, in meat and
the media or in journalism, people are starting to put
together like, if you don't like the mainstream media, support
independent journalists people you trust to tell you the truth. Well,
(17:31):
we need to apply that to entertainment. And that's the
thing that people still kind of just generally get their
entertainment from the same place. And it's hard because it's hard.
It's hard to find like indie creators and stuff. And
that's one thing I'm trying to make it really easy.
I'm trying to put all these people into one book. Yeah,
and you're getting you're getting all kinds of content and
the really the goal is like this is a book
that any kid will open it up and they're going
(17:53):
to love to go through it because it's got it
just it has everything. It has multiple genres, multiple age
scott everything from picture books, comics, chapter books. It's got
lots of interactive elements to it. Prompts for finishing this
story here, coloring this here, drawing this here, make up
a character here, how to draw stuff? Oliver and I
(18:15):
think that we're going to do which I want to
keep as a value of this because it's not just
a book, it's really a company that we're starting. Every
creator that contributes to the book will be featured in
the book as sort of a member of a cast,
Like we'll have a page on them. So parents, instead
of the the way that the kids in entertainment industry
is now where you really don't know who these people
are making your books or kids content. You know who
(18:38):
everybody is. The kids will know them by their work. Yeah,
you know, we'll do little interviews with them in the
book and you'll find out, you know, what are there
what other values, what are the things that are most
important them in life? And you know, what are their
favorite books or movies to watch with their kids, what
are they like as a dad that kind of things
like that, and really like I want people to because
(18:59):
having worked in this in the kids industry, I know
that there are kind of two kinds of people in
this industry. There are kids that really people that really
like making stuff for kids like that excites them, and
that's actually the more rare type. There's the other people
that just are bitter that they wanted to be, you know,
the next David Lynch or whatever. They got stuck making
care Bears and they despise children and they want to
(19:21):
get their deep there. They're deep messaging out, so it's
just going through their reboot of care Bears or whatever
it is they're working on, rather than yeah, because they
can't get their student film made.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
But here's one question for you. You know, I'm a
film critic and I will occasionally review films like dog Man,
which is not really aimed at me. I'm an right, right, right,
and I enjoyed it and I try my best to
review it, but it's it's really not aimed at me,
and it's hard for me to kind of channel. Okay,
what would a child. Think of this as someone you're
you know, you're younger than me, but you got four kids,
(19:52):
I believe, and you're not twelve anymore. How do you
tap into that inner child? I mean, is it something
you actively do? Is it just something you just have
sort of a a sense of what kids find joy with.
I'm kind of curious. How do you keep in tune
with that audience as you get older?
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Hmmm? I mean part of is being a dad of
I mean, my youngest is seven, so I mean I'm
constantly interacting with him.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
He's your cheat sheet.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Yeah. Yeah, I've definitely used them as cheat sheets. And
I have a book called Brave Olli Possum, which is
my It's probably my proudest work so far. I'm really
excited about what's gonna have with this. My book might explode.
I think it's going to top. But uh, it's really
my ultimate bedtime story. If you like reading bedtime stories
to your kids, to me, it's this. It's a culmination
(20:40):
for me of like everything I realize is good and
I'm reading a good time bedtime story of your kid.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
Anyway, So and when I made that book, I am
I too old? My kids who were older. Now, I
would read it. I'd read it to them until I
got to the point where I noticed they were they
were losing interest, and then I would go back to
the drawing board. So I just use that. But also
so I created a comic called axe Cop about gosh, now,
how long ago is now? It's crazy how long ago?
(21:08):
It was almost fifteen years or seventeen years or something.
Crazy now I was like thirteen thirteen years, because it's
almost as long as my marriage. So I was twenty nine.
My brother was five, and he kept wanting to play
with me. And the whole reason I gone up there
is because I kind of had this value. I was
a single guy that I you know, I had my father,
(21:32):
who we kind of were strange. He left me when
I was like eleven. He just left, but he ended
up having other family and he had kids and I
had siblings, and I just kind of decided, I believe
family is important. I'm going to try to visit as
much as I can and be with my family. And
this is around when I had like lost my jobs
and I was like really going to afford but and
(21:52):
I was kind of disillusioned with I've just lived in
Hollywood for maybe a full year at that point, and
had been not been a great move and it was
not going well. Yeah, so my brother kept saying, oh,
you play Axe Cop with me? What's ax Cop? Max
Cop is? I think it's his idea of what if
you combine a firefighter with a cop. It's like, yeah,
(22:13):
he's a cop, but he used a fireman's act to
fight cry. But finally I agreed to do it. And
his ideas are so hilarious to me, like they just
the things that kind of culminated from me asking him questions,
getting his logic that playtime became. I made a comic
of it, and in my mind, I went, this is
not a sellable comic. I had been working on all
these comics, reading save the Cat, reading the story structure stuff.
(22:35):
How do I make the great next Hollywood thing that
could sell be a movie? Ax CoP's not it, Like,
you know, for a kid's cartoon, you don't want a
guy looks like he's fifty with a mustache with the
chopping heads off. They're never going to go for that. Also,
it doesn't have the story structure of a movie, so like,
it's not sellable. Yeah, And then of course you know,
I think I had put one page up and it
went completely viral. It was crazy. So I ended up
(22:56):
getting a TV show on Fox and multiple we did
like six volumes of graphic novels through Dark Horse Comics.
And but I spent a lot of time and and
and making ax Cop really impacted how I make comics
from that, from that moment on, because I did realize.
One thing I learned is how inherent story structure is
to our souls. Really, Like when I would make stories
(23:18):
with my little brother, he didn't know a thing about structure,
but he kept finding the beats the more we played,
because it's distinctually, it's instinctual. And also, like why we
do this, Like why do we make movies, why do
we make comics? It's because we want to go on
this fun orride. We want to ask ourselves what is
so awesome? Like what's the most awesome thing you could
think of? Like because in this in this medium, and
we can make it happen, you know, So like let's
(23:39):
just think of what's the coolest thing ever and just
do it? Like and and that's ax Cop is just NonStop,
you know.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
Socha you've worked with two pretty major platforms, the Daily
Wire and The Babylon B. And I don't want to.
I don't want you to burn bridges or name names
or anything like that, because I know you've left both organizations.
But what did what did you take away from those experiences?
I mean, imagine you learned, you crew, maybe make connections
that continue to this day. But working with I mean,
(24:05):
I think a lot of people would would would really
love to work with those platforms to kind of get
that experience. What did how did it shape you?
Speaker 2 (24:14):
In very good ways? And there's other ways that I
think I would take and I would do differently. So
I think with the Babylon B it was probably the favorite,
my favorite job I've ever had because I love the
diversity of it. I got to be on a pod,
you know, creator a podcast, got to be on it.
I love running that show. I really loved doing interviews. Uh.
I never thought I'd get to be doing that kind
of stuff. I love doing. You know, we're doing video
(24:34):
skits and sketches and doing animated animated works. I'm doing voices,
I'm animating, and I get to hire a couple of
animators to help out. I'm just you know, we're making books.
We're cranking books out. We had to, you know, I
just got to do so much. But the thing that
frustrated me the most at the Bee, which I think
is a problem for a lot of conservative companies, is
they get very one thing. It's I understand the economics
(24:56):
of it. It gets very narrow and content and wise. Like,
it just got so narrow and it really kind of
became this own the libs. So we're just every every
joke has to be and own the lib joke. And
I really believe The Bee could be something bigger than
purely a right just just a right of center because
I think this is the thing I learned when I
got out of a Bee and got a job of
(25:17):
the Daily Wire. When I would tell people I worked
at the Babylon B, I expected people who weren't on
the right to be like, oh, oh, the Babylon B.
But like they have a reputation of just being a
comedy because I think that the stories that really get
out there, normal people that aren't into politics still see
them and think, oh, that's just a comedy site. They
don't realize because then when I got the job a
Daily Wire, and so I work at Daily Wire, then
(25:38):
I got that like kissing vampire reaction and realize and
realizing that these people didn't realize that, like the Babylon
B and Daily Wire are like, I mean, they're interchangeable
values wise almost. I mean, but the Babylon B has
a brand which I think could expand into real, you know,
(25:59):
national lampoon type of branding. And so I always had
that vision and that always frush fruss to me that
even if you know eighty percent of your stuff could
be own, the lib stuff would just make like a
twenty percent window of like let's try stuff. And I
think that's one thing that the left in Hollywood gets,
like we think you see these movies and things come
out and go, what were they thinking when they made that?
(26:20):
Well they have the spirit of like let's just try
stuff that and see what happens. It's much harder to
get people to do that in the right. I think, Yeah,
So that for that for them. And then I think
of the Daily Wire. There's so much about what they did.
I thought they got so right. I mean one thing,
and I think that really it was just like bless
their hearts, and they put so much money into it.
(26:42):
But like I think it was such a big undertaking.
I think that the only way to really do it
would be to start like what we're doing, and that's
everybody believes in it, but we're all doing it for
free until until it makes money. So this book might explode,
I'm hoping is going to explode into a full on
kids entertainment company. Everybody that's in it just believes in it.
(27:05):
No one's making money till it gets to the point
where it's profitable. And uh, and so that way, I mean,
we're already churning out so much content just in the
books as we prepare to launch. I'm just I'm in
a productive like which I love. I'm like, I'm in
a whirlwind right now of just productivity, which is it's
(27:26):
amazing when you put so many people in different positions
of staff and executives and this and that and that
and all these different salaries and all these different lawyers,
how slow the process becomes, where like you're actually getting
paid to sit and do nothing and you're just waiting
to be told we can finally work again. I do
not want to create that environment.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
Yeah, I mean it's so interesting. I mean sometimes that
it needs to be a labor of love at its origin, Yeah,
blows up into some of that. Maybe he's economically powerful.
You know, I wanted to ask you about the right
of center creative landscape right now, because I mean, you
could argue it barely existed ten years ago, twenty years ago,
and now there are the Bees, the Dali Wires, I mean,
the Blaze. There are all these different platforms that are
(28:06):
creating art in certain areas and certain venues, and yet
you just kind of said, maybe we shouldn't be going
in that ideological direction. It should be more expansive. Can
you do both?
Speaker 2 (28:18):
I mean, it's the hard thing. That's the hard thing
about this because the left doesn't I mean the left
doesn't do that. They do insert their stuff in here
and there, but they don't go, we're the left wing media,
you know, for all your left leaning needs.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
You know.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
It's like and so it drives me crazy because the
hard thing economically is it's almost impossible, like to create
something that if you have a rightling audience to just
say like, well, we're making great content. They don't go, well,
why even though they all consume it, they all spend
tons of money on great content, but they just they
(28:54):
give it to liberal Hollywood. Yeah, it's the hardest thing.
And part is it's just not as simple. It's not
that it's not as and simple. So it's wonder the
reason I'm really trying to I believe, like the homeschool audience,
especially once they see these books, they're gonna go, oh, okay,
like this is fun, Like this book is just everything
because I'm really like every artist we meet with that
we're bringing on and we have some great names, and
(29:16):
I'm not even trying to get all ideologically aligned to people.
I mean, I'm I'm, Me and Eric are the editors,
so we decide what goes in and what doesn't. I
just want stuff that's genuinely good, doesn't cover any of
this political stuff that I don't think kids need to
get in their heads into. You know, if I want
my kids to learn about, like the things that I
really kind of want to, I want there are things
I want to propagandize my kids with, but I want
(29:37):
to do it in a between me and them, and
you know, I don't want to sneak it in some
bad This book. This book is about entertaining and about creative,
like working their creative muscles, getting them to interact creatively.
So we got Doug ten Aple Earth from Jim Mike
Nelson who worked on Mister Science Theeters that he was
the human that I don't remember that show, of course, but
(29:59):
he's going to be writing with stuff with us randomly.
Jack Handy has written a few kind of short stories
for us. It's this great team of all kinds of
people that I've worked with different parts of industry, and
Eric's worked with. So anyway, I got I got lost,
Yeah where I was going.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
Also, the Kickstarter is available right now. People can check
it out. Just just go to this book might explode
and you'll find it there. Where would you like this
to be in five years if you can kind of
you know, dream big? And I think you've kind of
hinted at to use an MCU term a shared universe
where it's not printed book. Yeah, it's expanding. What's your
(30:38):
vision for that?
Speaker 2 (30:39):
Yeah? I mean the book is really like I almost
see it as being sort of like Scholastic for homeschoolers,
or like it's not made to be dedicated to homeschoolers,
but then it's in homes and it's a selection of
stuff and it's going to keep growing. So like you know,
we have different storylines going on in each book right now,
those will finish and then we'll publish those actual books
so that they're this building library. So I don't want
(31:01):
to just be a book company. Yeah, but I think.
I mean, my vision for this company at first was
like a box of like all kinds of Maybe it
comes with like a toy and a big book and
then maybe like a book of bedtime stories or a
joke book, and like some other sticker packs and stuff.
It's just a cool box that's kind of like you
know Mark rober he does the engineering crunch Labs. He
(31:21):
basically sends this box you get like a subscribe to
a box, and he makes kids excited about engineering, so
they bring somebody put out together. I want to do
that for creativity, so like I want to see your
kid gets it and they interact with creating a character, drawing,
trying to draw this, or writing a story or finishing
a comic or whatever, different different types of That's kind
(31:42):
of my vision is just the creative interaction, that it's
not just creators telling your kids what to read, but
like you're getting me to participate, gotcha? And from there,
I really want to get into animated content, video content, movies, everything.
I think that this thing is built to expand. I
mean the way that I came up with this idea,
I started at theme park and went backwards. I went, Okay,
(32:06):
if we could have our own theme park, what's the
first step? And I went all the way back to
this book. So I go, so me, I don't know
if I'll make it there, but that's the road map
I've laid out.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
Yeah, one last question. If you have a your dad,
if you have a son or daughter, maybe they're approaching
eighteen years of age, thinking about their career, their future,
and they have a creative spark within them and they
really want to go in that direction. Any advice you'd
give them as far as one of the best ways
to kind of go about that, It's kind of it's
an open ending question for sure, but I you know,
(32:36):
just given the work you do, your imagination, the fact
that you kind of want to spark at other people. Right,
there's a young Ethan the coll out there. What do
you tell him?
Speaker 2 (32:46):
When I was first ting I figure out how to
make it into the industry, I realized I went, I
went to my very first San Diego Koma Kong way back,
and I brought my portfolio and I stood in all
these long portfolio lines and got rejected. And I realized
as I was that there's two ways into that industry.
There's the you know, Jim Lee way, whether you're an
amazing draftsman and you can draw the perfect Batman against
(33:09):
all the other batman artists in the entire world. You
draw such a good Batman, or you're like Kevinice Fin
and Peter Laired. You created created a They've created Ninja
Turtles like the most original, just a concept and you
know there aren't compared to everyone else in the world.
Wasn't great, but they just made a great concept. Indie
the indie route, and I realized that I was way
(33:30):
more cured to with the indie route. And then I
realized later that indie comics had become webcomics. That's why
I've made Acts Gop a web comic. But I've learned
having been in the position of hiring people and looking
at creatives, and that even if you don't get a
huge viral hit or a huge audience, if you have
a body of work online that shows your work ethic
(33:52):
and your genuine creativity. It shows what you're capable of.
At some point, there's a very good chance that will
serve you well, even if you don't get a huge
because I don't even think of me as having a
big online audience. Like there's a lot of people that
know who I am and know my work, but when
I post a joke or a comic, I'd have a
(34:13):
very small audience that like follows that. You know, it's tough,
it's so competitive, but I have this body of work
that if someone's looking to hire me, they click search
my name up, and so you want that associate with you,
I would say, getting your you know, instead of trying
to get into companies and trying and saving all your
work and trying to show it to the big wigs
(34:34):
and the executives at the desk, they're all looking online
at your portfolio. What's online? Like that's just become the
proving ground, right. I know when I was at Babylon
B people would try to get jobs as writers there
just by sending in an article or whatever. The guys
that always did the best and got the work. Where
guys who already were running their own little satire site
that maybe no one was reading, but to prove they
(34:56):
could do it. They're funny, they just hadn't found their
audience yet. And those are the guys that work the best.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
And also it showed that they were dedicated enough to
kind of create that.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
Body work on their own. Yeah, because that's.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
A starter's pistol or a new new job hire.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
Right right, And that's that's the artist thing to define is
people that ethic with that.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
Yeah, drive that that fire is amazing and I always
appreciate that. But Ethan, thank you for joining the show.
Of course, this Book Might Explode is the new project.
It is on Kickstarter right now. Just go to kickstarter
dot com pune in this Book Might Explode. You'll find
it give support independent artists, especially good one like yourself.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
And there's thirty two pages thirty page preview and that
you can see what's going to be inside because it's great.
One drawback at this is like it's like, yeah, it's
a book of stuff, but like you don't know what
it is. Yeah, yeah, it's in there. You'll see a
bunch of it.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
Great And where could they find you on X What
was the the handle there?
Speaker 2 (35:43):
I want to handle? It's my ax cop Mandle so
it's ax ec op just great ax cop.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
Alrighty, well, thank you so much. I hope we'll talk
and again a couple of years, maybe as this project
expands and and reaches all the different areas and platforms
that you're teasing, because I think it'd be exciting. But yeah,
the best, and I wish you didn't need a job
doom to kind of spark.
Speaker 3 (36:03):
Your greatest efforts, but it is what it is, you're
doing it, so yeah, thanks, thank you.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
Your character actor of the week is JK. Simmons. Well,
let's it for the show this week. Again, thank you
to Radio America for having me as part of their
great podcast lineup. And do check out Hollywoodintoto dot com.
It is my website now and it's eleventh year and
the site, like this show, is the right take and entertainment.
We don't want to scare away our center left friends,
(36:41):
for sure, and like this program, there's plenty of material
that is a political enjoyable for all, but you know,
it is transparently a right of center outlet. We cover
stories that aren't being covered in the mainstream media. If
something's missing in Variety or the Hollywood Reporter, chances are
it's going to be on this podcast or at hollywoodintoto
(37:02):
dot com. Well, I am off to visit my mother,
so I am going to have a spectacular weakner no
matter what. And of course you do the same as well.
Doctor's orders
This week in the Hollywood and Toto Podcast, Yes, we
have reached peak trigger warning and it's not even close.
And we talked to creator Ethan Nicole about his new project.
This book might explode picture everything you loved as a kid,
and like that Prey Go commercial, it's in there. Welcome
(00:23):
to the Hollywood and Toto Podcast. Entertainment news and reviews
without doubt. Look, Hollywood narrative, free speech, free expression.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Now that's entertainment. And here's your host. Oh Lord, winning
film critic Coristian Toto.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
And our cultural stereotypes. They're inconsistent with today's standards of
inclusion and tolerance and may offend some viewers. Oh Man,
saved by the bell. I almost watched one of the
greatest mom movies of all time. Thank you, AMC. You've
just did me a solid. How can I have a
thank you?
Speaker 2 (01:02):
No?
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Oh And by the way, Martin Score says he never
reacted to that trigger warning, nor did Robert de Niro.
You think those two who have a lot of time
with the press get pushed in front of microphones very often.
You think they might weigh in on that particular film
and the trigger warning, But nope, not a bit wouldn't
it be great if these amazing artists actually spoke out
(01:23):
against these woke overreaches, but they rarely do.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Can't you see him busy?
Speaker 1 (01:29):
But just imagine these trigger warnings being applied to other films.
I mean, when you think about it, almost everything could
stand a trigger warning. Remember that movie Mister Mom from
the eighties that Michael Keaton. Mister Mom includes outdated views
on parenting that don't mess with modern times. See where
(01:49):
this is going, You see why this is a problem.
You could pick picture almost any film, dig in a
little bit, find something offensive or different, or if you're
just looking at older films that don't perfectly align with
today's values, with today's customs, with the way we think today,
and whila, trigger warning. There you go.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
I'm offended.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
It's just despicable, and it's also insulting. It's saying to
the viewer that you're not smart enough, wise enough, sure
enough to handle the fact that this movie is twenty thirty,
forty fifty years old and it may not exactly line
up with today's values. That's what it's saying. It feels
like these trigger warnings are on the decline. We haven't
heard any more obnoxious ones lately, Disney Plus took them
(02:33):
away from Dumbo and Peter Pan, two of their beloved films,
which all of a sudden, we're now not exactly appropriate
for modern viewing your right now. So this was a
good thing. And you know, with the decline of woke
in general, I thought, hey, maybe trigger warnings are going
the way of the a tract tape. Wouldn't that be
a wonderful thing? And then I heard about a new one,
(02:55):
and it may be the granddaddy of them all. And
you'll see why in a second.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Now.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
This came to my attention via the America This Week
podcast hosted by Walter Kern and also Matt Taibi. They
talk about culture and politics, journalism, you name it. Two
very smart, interesting fellows, and Walter brought up the fact
that he had recently picked up a seventy fifth edition
of George Orwell's nineteen eighty four classic book Big Brother.
(03:22):
You know, the drill about an oppressive regime, about thought police,
about speech police, about government gone wild. It's a classic book.
It's a cautionary tale, and it's great for all the
reasons why. That's a huge important milestone in the culture
and wohlden't you know it? With the seventy fifth edition,
(03:43):
it comes with two extra bonuses. One is a forward
by Thomas Pinchin, one of the best living authors we
have today. That's good. Another is another forward of sorts,
written by a person who wanted to warn us that
the book we're about to read could be triggering. Really,
George Orwell, nineteen eighty four triggering the lack of self
(04:07):
awareness is off the charts. The author here is Dolan
Perkins Valdez, and this is what she had to say
in the forward about nineteen eighty four. I'm enjoying the
novel in its own terms, not as a classic, but
as a good story. That is, until Winston reveals himself
to be a problematic character. Woo. But there's more. Winston
(04:31):
dislikes nearly all women, and especially the young and pretty ones.
Winston's views on women are at first despicable to the
contemporary reader. He's the kind of character who can make
me put down a book. Well, thank goodness, she didn't
put down the book. She kept on reading, and then
she wrote this amazing, wonderful, necessary trigger warning. I'm being sarcastic,
(04:55):
and she goes on and on. She also insinuates the
book may have some racist elements as well. It is garbage,
It is trash, and what an absolute shame that whoever's
in charge of the Orwell legacy, whoever's in charge of
publishing his books, didn't have the wherewithal to think about, Hey,
maybe putting a trigger warning in front of this book
(05:16):
is absolutely the wrong thing to do, Absolutely a sign
of what this book was trying to warn us about.
You know, when it comes to two specific pop culture institutions,
I thought that they were forever protected against the woke revolution.
The first, of course, is Blazing Saddles. What the wide
wide world of sportsnes.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Are going on here?
Speaker 1 (05:36):
The nineteen seventies comedy is the ultimate. You can't do
that today. You can't say that today, you can't joke
about that today. Mel Brooks has been saying that for
years and years. Nel mel Brooks is politically to the left,
but he's not really a political creature. He's a comic genius.
But he has known for a while that that's the case,
and he's been defending his movie for quite some time,
(05:59):
and I think he's doing it to make sure that
people who might want to tinker with it, get rid
of it, insult it, trash it for all the wrong reasons.
Would say, hey, back off, mel Brooks. I'm a comedy guide.
You're not gonna touch this one. And for the most part,
the woke mom has stayed away from it, which is wonderful.
They realize it. They had that little inkling of self
(06:21):
awareness to see how shameful it would appear if they
attacked that movie. And you know, I thought that nineteen
eighty four felt exactly in that category. I couldn't have
been more wrong and or welling in the adjective, couldn't
be more applicable. Even Nicole has a resume that makes
(06:50):
it sound like he's pushing seventy. The guy has been busy.
Years ago, he created a comic inspired by his little
brother called Axe Cop. It was a web based comic
and it was a smash. It made him a star
in a way. But that's just the tiny part of
his resume. He's also written for VeggieTales, Teen Titans Go,
(07:10):
written multiple books aimed at children. He was the co
host of the Babylon Bee podcast, including being its creative director.
Imagine being the creative director of the Beat that's an
amazing gig. He also was part of the Daily Wire
Kids Revolution. He co created the show Chip Chilla, voiced
in part by Rob Schneider. He has done a lot
(07:33):
of things over the last few years, busy, busy, busy,
But now he's striking out on his own, and his
new project might be the kind of the culmination of
everything he's been doing up to now. The new project
is called This Book Might Explode, and it is shock
full of games and puzzles and jokes and wacky characters
and all sorts of interesting things to spike the imagination
(07:54):
of young readers. And of course there's an interactive elopment,
which we'll get into an amendment minute. We'll also just
talk about what this means and who are some of
the creative forces behind it. So what is this Book
Might Explode? How did it come about? And how does
he find his creative fires burn the brightest? What sparks
his imagination? Well, that one caught me by surprise, but
(08:15):
let's let Ethan explain it himself. Here's my conversation with
Ethan Nicole. You've known him for so many years on
so many different projects, but this might be his best one.
Yet Ethan, thanks for joining the show. You know, you've
got such an eclectic background. You worked on so many
different projects with big companies, going solo, all these different
ways to create. I'm always curious about the creative individual
(08:39):
and the fire in their belly, and I'm just it's
not a way to start an interview, But do you
find that fire still burning as brightly? Is it different today?
Is it has? How has it changed over time? Because
you're still relatively young, man, but you've been at it
for a while and I know, becoming a father and
life and things change along the way. I'm just kind
(09:00):
of curious, kind of a state of the a state
of the union for Heath and the Cole. What's what?
What drives you today that maybe is a little bit
different than in the past.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Man, That's a big question. And it's interesting because I
have you know, I'm at an interesting moment in my
life where I just spent three years working in the
Daily Wire, the most comfortable I've been in my career
a career ever had. I mean, they paid me very
well and it was very it was very nice. You know,
provided a lot for us working at the kids Apartment.
We created their show chip Chilla and some other stuff
(09:31):
with them, but that didn't work out. Uh, So I'm
at that and then in that phase where I'm trying
to ab out what's next, and as I look back
at my life, all the most of the biggest moments
of my life came from moments like this. I created
a comic old Ax cop. It happened when I had
I had been laid off from two jobs in the
(09:51):
same way. I had two full time jobs both happened
to lay me off in the same week. So I
went from and I was living in the solco no
you know, you need money here, and so that moment
of hunger came out of that. I had even both
before that. My first graphic novel that kind of broke
me into the industry was during a time I had
just gotten laid off and I created my first It
was actually my second graphic novel, but it made me
(10:12):
an Eyeser nominated comic book creator and got me in
the door at pitching at Cartoon Network and things like that.
So these moments, you know, and then even when things
ended for me the Babylon b it was kind of
a big moment for me. So I'm kind of in
a moment like that, I know, and I think I'm
driven by the adventure. There were almost the romance of
the danger of you know, it could go wrong, it
(10:34):
could all go could all go bad, but taking the chance.
I it's weird. The weirdest thing is how excited I
am by it, And like, I'm not excited by having
a really steady paycheck. I'm miserable by h when things
are like a little too safe and a little too predictable. Yeah,
it's it's oddly tough for me, which drives my wife
(10:57):
nuts because she loves that.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
That's so interesting. I was reading an older interview with you,
and you said something I thought was interesting and certainly
even more relevant today than it was at the time.
You said something like, there really are no excuses to
hide behind if you're a creator in this landscape, because
there are so many different platforms, so many different ways
to get your vision, your voice, your message out. Can
(11:19):
you expand on that a little bit, because I think
I think what you just said and that old quote
is inspirational, where you know it's within us to do
what we can do and to kind of put our
vision out there and take our lumps or be successful
or fail or you know, it's such a unique place
we're living at right now. We can kind of do
so much and a lot of the barriers are is
(11:40):
fading away, right.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
I mean, you know, we grew up, or at least
I grew up in a time when there were huge
gatekeepers to publishing your book and getting any kind of
video out there. And YouTube and Amazon have changed that.
I mean, there's just you can get your video out,
you can get your book out. You know hard, it's
super saturated market, but like you can do it. And
(12:05):
so I think that's probably the main thing that I
would say. The excuse used to be like, oh they
won't let me in. I have this great stuff. But huh,
now you don't have an excuse anymore. But you got
to be The thing is like having a company that
covers up for you. They they there's a reason they
have a bunch of money going into promotion and marketing
(12:26):
and all the work it goes into strategizing and trying
to stand out, make your products stand out. You have
to take all it on yourself, and that's daunting. Jimmy
in the middle right now for the Kickstarter.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
Gotcha, Well, your new project is this book might explode.
It's so interesting. It feels like it's a grab bag
of these wonderful ideas. But I want to let you
share more about it, because I mean, it's your baby,
So how would you describe it and what part of
it do you find the most exciting as an artist?
Speaker 2 (12:54):
I think for me, this is the culmination of a
lot of Like I mean, I started out on Veggietails
as a you know, as a leader writer on Veggietails
and story slash story editor for dream Works slash Netflix.
For three years, I worked on ax Cop, which is
more of an adult cartoon, but it was created with
my five year old brother. Than going on to being
(13:14):
the Babylon b as a creative director, which really meant
I took on everything besides the articles. I was doing,
the videos and the books, animated shorts, video shorts, started
up the podcast, which culminated in interviewing Elon Musk at
a time when he didn't really do that many interviews.
Was crazy, but just a wild ride. And then at
Daily Wire working on their kids content and just thinking
(13:36):
the whole time, like I really loved building teams, I
love working with I have this amazing roster of creatives,
creatives that are conservatives, that are Christians, that a lot
of them they're working on whatever my little pony reboot
or whatever there is, because that's what this industry offers.
But they all have these great original ideas that they're
pitching all the time when they're not getting made because
(13:56):
everything's reboots and remakes or politically motivate it or whatever.
Like the machine sucks and uhs. I've had this dream
of like I know so many great creative I mean,
I know know Doug Snaplek Creative Earth from Jim. He's
a graphic novelist. He makes amazing graphic novels. Right now,
he's making his living doing YouTube videos about politics, which
(14:17):
I think he's good at that. But it's a tragic
that he can't you know that there's his audience's families.
Like we're a family oriented culture Christians, Conservatives, and for
some reason we can't make this connection that like there's
all these great creators that make content in our own
sort of I don't know, want to say tribe, but
(14:38):
like they're right there, but for some reason, you still
go over to whatever, just go kind of conveniently go
to Barnes and noble, go to target whatever, pick up
whatever books are there, and just and I think my
vision is to have this and I think one of
the hard parts about that is finding individual artists. You know,
you kind of hear, you hear somebody kind of goes, hey,
hear about this guy. He's I think he's on the
(14:58):
he's on the up and up. He's not he's not
a crazy pedophile or whatever. Maybe he's cool. You should read.
Maybe these kids will like that book. So you have
to like kind of word of mouth, word of mouth
that My goal is to bring a bunch of those
people together. And also it's headed up by me and Eric,
I mean our I feel like our careers speaking themselves.
You look at our credits between Babylon Bee and Daily
(15:20):
Wire and Veed details and stuff like that. You know
where we're coming from. Yeah, and this is our project.
We're heading it up. And so the goal is really
to shove if if we could have, if we had
the money to make a Netflix or a full on
streaming service in platform with apps and like everything. I mean,
that's my dream I want to make. I want to
make all kinds of kids content. But to me, the
(15:41):
book is the best it's almost like I came up
in this industry of pitching. Pitching is this huge process
where you make all this amazing artwork and you write
all this stuff, and then finally you go into a
room of like seven mostly diversity hires that are like
in their twenties. I don't know why I'm pitching to
these people like this, this rainbow of people with like
(16:04):
little like their hairs all gelled up in the front
and they had these little glasses, and it's just the
weirdest thing to do all this work on a pitch
and then that's who's getting it. I didn't make it
for them, and made it for kids and anyway, So
my goal is to take that process and just bring
it straight to the family. It's basically like a pitch
book to families instead, So we're getting all kinds of
(16:27):
content in it and interrupt me and I can go
off about this, but well, you.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
Know, I want to drill down into it a little bit,
because you're bemoaning and many people are bemoaning the whole.
It's a reboot society where it's remakes and sequels and
spin offs and reimaginings and even a fake Clint Eastwood
interview teed off on that recently another story for the
other day. But is that as frustrating as it is
(16:54):
and as many of those pitch meetings where you're kind
of talking to these glass eyed suits, So opening up
a lane for you for someone like you who's an
original storyteller, I hope so as a whole team of
original storytellers. I mean, is that the glass half full?
Look at this?
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Yeah? But I think I think that the culture is
ripe for it, like they want they're hungry for new content.
I think it's making the connection. I think that people
are starting to get it. For instance, in meat and
the media or in journalism, people are starting to put
together like, if you don't like the mainstream media, support
independent journalists people you trust to tell you the truth. Well,
(17:31):
we need to apply that to entertainment. And that's the
thing that people still kind of just generally get their
entertainment from the same place. And it's hard because it's hard.
It's hard to find like indie creators and stuff. And
that's one thing I'm trying to make it really easy.
I'm trying to put all these people into one book. Yeah,
and you're getting you're getting all kinds of content and
the really the goal is like this is a book
that any kid will open it up and they're going
(17:53):
to love to go through it because it's got it
just it has everything. It has multiple genres, multiple age
scott everything from picture books, comics, chapter books. It's got
lots of interactive elements to it. Prompts for finishing this
story here, coloring this here, drawing this here, make up
a character here, how to draw stuff? Oliver and I
(18:15):
think that we're going to do which I want to
keep as a value of this because it's not just
a book, it's really a company that we're starting. Every
creator that contributes to the book will be featured in
the book as sort of a member of a cast,
Like we'll have a page on them. So parents, instead
of the the way that the kids in entertainment industry
is now where you really don't know who these people
are making your books or kids content. You know who
(18:38):
everybody is. The kids will know them by their work. Yeah,
you know, we'll do little interviews with them in the
book and you'll find out, you know, what are there
what other values, what are the things that are most
important them in life? And you know, what are their
favorite books or movies to watch with their kids, what
are they like as a dad that kind of things
like that, and really like I want people to because
(18:59):
having worked in this in the kids industry, I know
that there are kind of two kinds of people in
this industry. There are kids that really people that really
like making stuff for kids like that excites them, and
that's actually the more rare type. There's the other people
that just are bitter that they wanted to be, you know,
the next David Lynch or whatever. They got stuck making
care Bears and they despise children and they want to
(19:21):
get their deep there. They're deep messaging out, so it's
just going through their reboot of care Bears or whatever
it is they're working on, rather than yeah, because they
can't get their student film made.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
But here's one question for you. You know, I'm a
film critic and I will occasionally review films like dog Man,
which is not really aimed at me. I'm an right, right, right,
and I enjoyed it and I try my best to
review it, but it's it's really not aimed at me,
and it's hard for me to kind of channel. Okay,
what would a child. Think of this as someone you're
you know, you're younger than me, but you got four kids,
(19:52):
I believe, and you're not twelve anymore. How do you
tap into that inner child? I mean, is it something
you actively do? Is it just something you just have
sort of a a sense of what kids find joy with.
I'm kind of curious. How do you keep in tune
with that audience as you get older?
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Hmmm? I mean part of is being a dad of
I mean, my youngest is seven, so I mean I'm
constantly interacting with him.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
He's your cheat sheet.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Yeah. Yeah, I've definitely used them as cheat sheets. And
I have a book called Brave Olli Possum, which is
my It's probably my proudest work so far. I'm really
excited about what's gonna have with this. My book might explode.
I think it's going to top. But uh, it's really
my ultimate bedtime story. If you like reading bedtime stories
to your kids, to me, it's this. It's a culmination
(20:40):
for me of like everything I realize is good and
I'm reading a good time bedtime story of your kid.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
Anyway, So and when I made that book, I am
I too old? My kids who were older. Now, I
would read it. I'd read it to them until I
got to the point where I noticed they were they
were losing interest, and then I would go back to
the drawing board. So I just use that. But also
so I created a comic called axe Cop about gosh, now,
how long ago is now? It's crazy how long ago?
(21:08):
It was almost fifteen years or seventeen years or something.
Crazy now I was like thirteen thirteen years, because it's
almost as long as my marriage. So I was twenty nine.
My brother was five, and he kept wanting to play
with me. And the whole reason I gone up there
is because I kind of had this value. I was
a single guy that I you know, I had my father,
(21:32):
who we kind of were strange. He left me when
I was like eleven. He just left, but he ended
up having other family and he had kids and I
had siblings, and I just kind of decided, I believe
family is important. I'm going to try to visit as
much as I can and be with my family. And
this is around when I had like lost my jobs
and I was like really going to afford but and
(21:52):
I was kind of disillusioned with I've just lived in
Hollywood for maybe a full year at that point, and
had been not been a great move and it was
not going well. Yeah, so my brother kept saying, oh,
you play Axe Cop with me? What's ax Cop? Max
Cop is? I think it's his idea of what if
you combine a firefighter with a cop. It's like, yeah,
(22:13):
he's a cop, but he used a fireman's act to
fight cry. But finally I agreed to do it. And
his ideas are so hilarious to me, like they just
the things that kind of culminated from me asking him questions,
getting his logic that playtime became. I made a comic
of it, and in my mind, I went, this is
not a sellable comic. I had been working on all
these comics, reading save the Cat, reading the story structure stuff.
(22:35):
How do I make the great next Hollywood thing that
could sell be a movie? Ax CoP's not it, Like,
you know, for a kid's cartoon, you don't want a
guy looks like he's fifty with a mustache with the
chopping heads off. They're never going to go for that. Also,
it doesn't have the story structure of a movie, so like,
it's not sellable. Yeah, And then of course you know,
I think I had put one page up and it
went completely viral. It was crazy. So I ended up
(22:56):
getting a TV show on Fox and multiple we did
like six volumes of graphic novels through Dark Horse Comics.
And but I spent a lot of time and and
and making ax Cop really impacted how I make comics
from that, from that moment on, because I did realize.
One thing I learned is how inherent story structure is
to our souls. Really, Like when I would make stories
(23:18):
with my little brother, he didn't know a thing about structure,
but he kept finding the beats the more we played,
because it's distinctually, it's instinctual. And also, like why we
do this, Like why do we make movies, why do
we make comics? It's because we want to go on
this fun orride. We want to ask ourselves what is
so awesome? Like what's the most awesome thing you could
think of? Like because in this in this medium, and
we can make it happen, you know, So like let's
(23:39):
just think of what's the coolest thing ever and just
do it? Like and and that's ax Cop is just NonStop,
you know.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
Socha you've worked with two pretty major platforms, the Daily
Wire and The Babylon B. And I don't want to.
I don't want you to burn bridges or name names
or anything like that, because I know you've left both organizations.
But what did what did you take away from those experiences?
I mean, imagine you learned, you crew, maybe make connections
that continue to this day. But working with I mean,
(24:05):
I think a lot of people would would would really
love to work with those platforms to kind of get
that experience. What did how did it shape you?
Speaker 2 (24:14):
In very good ways? And there's other ways that I
think I would take and I would do differently. So
I think with the Babylon B it was probably the favorite,
my favorite job I've ever had because I love the
diversity of it. I got to be on a pod,
you know, creator a podcast, got to be on it.
I love running that show. I really loved doing interviews. Uh.
I never thought I'd get to be doing that kind
of stuff. I love doing. You know, we're doing video
(24:34):
skits and sketches and doing animated animated works. I'm doing voices,
I'm animating, and I get to hire a couple of
animators to help out. I'm just you know, we're making books.
We're cranking books out. We had to, you know, I
just got to do so much. But the thing that
frustrated me the most at the Bee, which I think
is a problem for a lot of conservative companies, is
they get very one thing. It's I understand the economics
(24:56):
of it. It gets very narrow and content and wise. Like,
it just got so narrow and it really kind of
became this own the libs. So we're just every every
joke has to be and own the lib joke. And
I really believe The Bee could be something bigger than
purely a right just just a right of center because
I think this is the thing I learned when I
got out of a Bee and got a job of
(25:17):
the Daily Wire. When I would tell people I worked
at the Babylon B, I expected people who weren't on
the right to be like, oh, oh, the Babylon B.
But like they have a reputation of just being a
comedy because I think that the stories that really get
out there, normal people that aren't into politics still see
them and think, oh, that's just a comedy site. They
don't realize because then when I got the job a
Daily Wire, and so I work at Daily Wire, then
(25:38):
I got that like kissing vampire reaction and realize and
realizing that these people didn't realize that, like the Babylon
B and Daily Wire are like, I mean, they're interchangeable
values wise almost. I mean, but the Babylon B has
a brand which I think could expand into real, you know,
(25:59):
national lampoon type of branding. And so I always had
that vision and that always frush fruss to me that
even if you know eighty percent of your stuff could
be own, the lib stuff would just make like a
twenty percent window of like let's try stuff. And I
think that's one thing that the left in Hollywood gets,
like we think you see these movies and things come
out and go, what were they thinking when they made that?
(26:20):
Well they have the spirit of like let's just try
stuff that and see what happens. It's much harder to
get people to do that in the right. I think, Yeah,
So that for that for them. And then I think
of the Daily Wire. There's so much about what they did.
I thought they got so right. I mean one thing,
and I think that really it was just like bless
their hearts, and they put so much money into it.
(26:42):
But like I think it was such a big undertaking.
I think that the only way to really do it
would be to start like what we're doing, and that's
everybody believes in it, but we're all doing it for
free until until it makes money. So this book might explode,
I'm hoping is going to explode into a full on
kids entertainment company. Everybody that's in it just believes in it.
(27:05):
No one's making money till it gets to the point
where it's profitable. And uh, and so that way, I mean,
we're already churning out so much content just in the
books as we prepare to launch. I'm just I'm in
a productive like which I love. I'm like, I'm in
a whirlwind right now of just productivity, which is it's
(27:26):
amazing when you put so many people in different positions
of staff and executives and this and that and that
and all these different salaries and all these different lawyers,
how slow the process becomes, where like you're actually getting
paid to sit and do nothing and you're just waiting
to be told we can finally work again. I do
not want to create that environment.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
Yeah, I mean it's so interesting. I mean sometimes that
it needs to be a labor of love at its origin, Yeah,
blows up into some of that. Maybe he's economically powerful.
You know, I wanted to ask you about the right
of center creative landscape right now, because I mean, you
could argue it barely existed ten years ago, twenty years ago,
and now there are the Bees, the Dali Wires, I mean,
the Blaze. There are all these different platforms that are
(28:06):
creating art in certain areas and certain venues, and yet
you just kind of said, maybe we shouldn't be going
in that ideological direction. It should be more expansive. Can
you do both?
Speaker 2 (28:18):
I mean, it's the hard thing. That's the hard thing
about this because the left doesn't I mean the left
doesn't do that. They do insert their stuff in here
and there, but they don't go, we're the left wing media,
you know, for all your left leaning needs.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
You know.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
It's like and so it drives me crazy because the
hard thing economically is it's almost impossible, like to create
something that if you have a rightling audience to just
say like, well, we're making great content. They don't go, well,
why even though they all consume it, they all spend
tons of money on great content, but they just they
(28:54):
give it to liberal Hollywood. Yeah, it's the hardest thing.
And part is it's just not as simple. It's not
that it's not as and simple. So it's wonder the
reason I'm really trying to I believe, like the homeschool audience,
especially once they see these books, they're gonna go, oh, okay,
like this is fun, Like this book is just everything
because I'm really like every artist we meet with that
we're bringing on and we have some great names, and
(29:16):
I'm not even trying to get all ideologically aligned to people.
I mean, I'm I'm, Me and Eric are the editors,
so we decide what goes in and what doesn't. I
just want stuff that's genuinely good, doesn't cover any of
this political stuff that I don't think kids need to
get in their heads into. You know, if I want
my kids to learn about, like the things that I
really kind of want to, I want there are things
I want to propagandize my kids with, but I want
(29:37):
to do it in a between me and them, and
you know, I don't want to sneak it in some
bad This book. This book is about entertaining and about creative,
like working their creative muscles, getting them to interact creatively.
So we got Doug ten Aple Earth from Jim Mike
Nelson who worked on Mister Science Theeters that he was
the human that I don't remember that show, of course, but
(29:59):
he's going to be writing with stuff with us randomly.
Jack Handy has written a few kind of short stories
for us. It's this great team of all kinds of
people that I've worked with different parts of industry, and
Eric's worked with. So anyway, I got I got lost,
Yeah where I was going.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
Also, the Kickstarter is available right now. People can check
it out. Just just go to this book might explode
and you'll find it there. Where would you like this
to be in five years if you can kind of
you know, dream big? And I think you've kind of
hinted at to use an MCU term a shared universe
where it's not printed book. Yeah, it's expanding. What's your
(30:38):
vision for that?
Speaker 2 (30:39):
Yeah? I mean the book is really like I almost
see it as being sort of like Scholastic for homeschoolers,
or like it's not made to be dedicated to homeschoolers,
but then it's in homes and it's a selection of
stuff and it's going to keep growing. So like you know,
we have different storylines going on in each book right now,
those will finish and then we'll publish those actual books
so that they're this building library. So I don't want
(31:01):
to just be a book company. Yeah, but I think.
I mean, my vision for this company at first was
like a box of like all kinds of Maybe it
comes with like a toy and a big book and
then maybe like a book of bedtime stories or a
joke book, and like some other sticker packs and stuff.
It's just a cool box that's kind of like you
know Mark rober he does the engineering crunch Labs. He
(31:21):
basically sends this box you get like a subscribe to
a box, and he makes kids excited about engineering, so
they bring somebody put out together. I want to do
that for creativity, so like I want to see your
kid gets it and they interact with creating a character, drawing,
trying to draw this, or writing a story or finishing
a comic or whatever, different different types of That's kind
(31:42):
of my vision is just the creative interaction, that it's
not just creators telling your kids what to read, but
like you're getting me to participate, gotcha? And from there,
I really want to get into animated content, video content, movies, everything.
I think that this thing is built to expand. I
mean the way that I came up with this idea,
I started at theme park and went backwards. I went, Okay,
(32:06):
if we could have our own theme park, what's the
first step? And I went all the way back to
this book. So I go, so me, I don't know
if I'll make it there, but that's the road map
I've laid out.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
Yeah, one last question. If you have a your dad,
if you have a son or daughter, maybe they're approaching
eighteen years of age, thinking about their career, their future,
and they have a creative spark within them and they
really want to go in that direction. Any advice you'd
give them as far as one of the best ways
to kind of go about that, It's kind of it's
an open ending question for sure, but I you know,
(32:36):
just given the work you do, your imagination, the fact
that you kind of want to spark at other people. Right,
there's a young Ethan the coll out there. What do
you tell him?
Speaker 2 (32:46):
When I was first ting I figure out how to
make it into the industry, I realized I went, I
went to my very first San Diego Koma Kong way back,
and I brought my portfolio and I stood in all
these long portfolio lines and got rejected. And I realized
as I was that there's two ways into that industry.
There's the you know, Jim Lee way, whether you're an
amazing draftsman and you can draw the perfect Batman against
(33:09):
all the other batman artists in the entire world. You
draw such a good Batman, or you're like Kevinice Fin
and Peter Laired. You created created a They've created Ninja
Turtles like the most original, just a concept and you
know there aren't compared to everyone else in the world.
Wasn't great, but they just made a great concept. Indie
the indie route, and I realized that I was way
(33:30):
more cured to with the indie route. And then I
realized later that indie comics had become webcomics. That's why
I've made Acts Gop a web comic. But I've learned
having been in the position of hiring people and looking
at creatives, and that even if you don't get a
huge viral hit or a huge audience, if you have
a body of work online that shows your work ethic
(33:52):
and your genuine creativity. It shows what you're capable of.
At some point, there's a very good chance that will
serve you well, even if you don't get a huge
because I don't even think of me as having a
big online audience. Like there's a lot of people that
know who I am and know my work, but when
I post a joke or a comic, I'd have a
(34:13):
very small audience that like follows that. You know, it's tough,
it's so competitive, but I have this body of work
that if someone's looking to hire me, they click search
my name up, and so you want that associate with you,
I would say, getting your you know, instead of trying
to get into companies and trying and saving all your
work and trying to show it to the big wigs
(34:34):
and the executives at the desk, they're all looking online
at your portfolio. What's online? Like that's just become the
proving ground, right. I know when I was at Babylon
B people would try to get jobs as writers there
just by sending in an article or whatever. The guys
that always did the best and got the work. Where
guys who already were running their own little satire site
that maybe no one was reading, but to prove they
(34:56):
could do it. They're funny, they just hadn't found their
audience yet. And those are the guys that work the best.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
And also it showed that they were dedicated enough to
kind of create that.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
Body work on their own. Yeah, because that's.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
A starter's pistol or a new new job hire.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
Right right, And that's that's the artist thing to define is
people that ethic with that.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
Yeah, drive that that fire is amazing and I always
appreciate that. But Ethan, thank you for joining the show.
Of course, this Book Might Explode is the new project.
It is on Kickstarter right now. Just go to kickstarter
dot com pune in this Book Might Explode. You'll find
it give support independent artists, especially good one like yourself.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
And there's thirty two pages thirty page preview and that
you can see what's going to be inside because it's great.
One drawback at this is like it's like, yeah, it's
a book of stuff, but like you don't know what
it is. Yeah, yeah, it's in there. You'll see a
bunch of it.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
Great And where could they find you on X What
was the the handle there?
Speaker 2 (35:43):
I want to handle? It's my ax cop Mandle so
it's ax ec op just great ax cop.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
Alrighty, well, thank you so much. I hope we'll talk
and again a couple of years, maybe as this project
expands and and reaches all the different areas and platforms
that you're teasing, because I think it'd be exciting. But yeah,
the best, and I wish you didn't need a job
doom to kind of spark.
Speaker 3 (36:03):
Your greatest efforts, but it is what it is, you're
doing it, so yeah, thanks, thank you.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
Your character actor of the week is JK. Simmons. Well,
let's it for the show this week. Again, thank you
to Radio America for having me as part of their
great podcast lineup. And do check out Hollywoodintoto dot com.
It is my website now and it's eleventh year and
the site, like this show, is the right take and entertainment.
We don't want to scare away our center left friends,
(36:41):
for sure, and like this program, there's plenty of material
that is a political enjoyable for all, but you know,
it is transparently a right of center outlet. We cover
stories that aren't being covered in the mainstream media. If
something's missing in Variety or the Hollywood Reporter, chances are
it's going to be on this podcast or at hollywoodintoto
(37:02):
dot com. Well, I am off to visit my mother,
so I am going to have a spectacular weakner no
matter what. And of course you do the same as well.
Doctor's orders
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