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[SPEAKER_02]: Hey there folks, my name's Ian Weatherstein, and welcome to episode 279 of Comic Timing.
[SPEAKER_02]: And it is my behind-the-curtains second recording in two days, which is not something that I do very often, but under special circumstances, it is a thing that can occur.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'll introduce the person who's here more regularly first.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's Raff Suhu.
[SPEAKER_02]: What's going on, Raff?
[SPEAKER_01]: Hello.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hello Ian.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hello for the first time.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_02]: Ever.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, but not this the first time this week.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, that's true.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, that's true.
[SPEAKER_02]: I get you were mentioned by name I did say before we started recording because yeah, Barthay, that's what bring you up And joining us on this very episode a man whose beard is more beardy than mine and a man who wants upon a time
[SPEAKER_02]: share the table with me at the long forgotten podcast arena in New York Comic Con.
[SPEAKER_02]: The one, the only Nick Marino, welcome to Comic Timing Nick.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for having me here, guys.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's nice to be catching up.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, absolutely.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's been way too freaking long.
[SPEAKER_02]: Probably not too long after we shared a table, which was at least 10, 13, 14 years ago now, Holy crap, time flies,
[SPEAKER_01]: 2000.
[SPEAKER_01]: If it was 2000, it was the first one.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was almost 20 years ago.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was definitely wasn't the first one because the second or third one.
[SPEAKER_02]: Ah, second or third, something like that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, the 17 or 18 years ago.
[SPEAKER_01]: Our tables are going to college, dear Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yep.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you, thank you, thank you very much for once again reminding me of how time flies by, whether I want it to or not.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was it was 2014.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm looking at it now.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, in my time.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's 12.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's in the middle.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, no, no, it had to be earlier.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: How many?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: I moved here in 2013.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think 11 or 12.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, that's it.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, you know what it was?
[SPEAKER_02]: I went into my archives.
[SPEAKER_02]: I remember you were at New York Comic Con in 2014 and I reviewed you about, at the time, Holy fuck.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, wow, yeah, that was a while ago.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yep, so before then, yeah, it was quite a long time before them, but yeah, either way, welcome back, man, and yeah, so Godzilla, huh?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, he's no it's sorry, not he it's there go there go.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's got a great monster.
[SPEAKER_02]: Mm-hmm.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_02]: It is One that you have the pleasure of now working on so yeah before before we get into the nuts and bolts of that as it has been many many years Since you were last on the show If you want to kind of give your like comic origins How you first you know got the bug
[SPEAKER_02]: And honestly, what got you in the writing as well, was it was a childhood thing, or did it just like, certainly just like materialize after podcasting about comics for a decent amount of time?
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, give us a little bit of the, uh, but behind the scenes of what makes Nick tick.
[SPEAKER_00]: That was nice.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_00]: That was really nice, yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: I, uh, my, I don't have like a comic book origin because my memories don't go back enough, like,
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, it was just, you know how it was back in the day.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was different.
[SPEAKER_00]: They were accessible from everywhere.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that was just kind of our pop culture.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I think the way that kids use, you know, like mobile games and stuff like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was that kind of accessibility.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's always been a part of my life.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was a cartoonist, a childhood cartoonist.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, you know, you know, you have like the artist in your class.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was that guy.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I did that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I decided I was sick of drawing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I was like, I'm going to do other stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: and I still wanted to be making comics.
[SPEAKER_00]: And as I added up the things to, uh, I don't know my, I don't know which, as I started doing all this stuff, like, portfolio, repertoire.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, thank you.
[SPEAKER_00]: My portfolio.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: As I added stuff to my portfolio of life, one of them became podcasting, which is how you and I got to know each other.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yep.
[SPEAKER_00]: And around that time, I already started writing comics, but I was self-publishing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then, this was a great memory.
[SPEAKER_00]: We spoke at New York Comic Con 2014, and by that point, I announced my first publish work, which was a comic called Holy Fuck.
[SPEAKER_00]: which was a wonderful experience creatively, terrible experience business finds, but that happens, you know, and did a couple of those, a couple of volumes at that, did another book with that same publisher that was kind of in a similar vein and other mature readers.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like action comedy and since then I've just been making web comics and slowly getting into the license books Which is a it's a challenge to get into the license stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you don't you know if you're not a NEPO or You're not coming from a fancier business So yeah, it's been a slow grind, but you know I've been doing bits and pieces here I started off my license stuff with some transformers work and then I did some guns
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, that was going on the entire time.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was working on my beautiful, almost four-year-old child, Sonic Godzilla.
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't pronounce the X.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, my family's style.
[SPEAKER_00]: Got it.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm not liking it.
[SPEAKER_02]: I like it.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: But you can say the X. I just, I'm trying to be, uh,
[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like that would be the accepted way of referring to it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's authentic.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's authentic.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, thank you.
[SPEAKER_02]: I do like best not to say the X and spy family also.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's just like, all these years of being forced to say, like AVX and stuff like that, like my brain goes X men on X and it's always there, but like it's not just a punctuation.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like it should be, you know, it is just a punctuation in the form of this.
[SPEAKER_02]: So yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Wait, okay, 100 seconds.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, no, see 100, exactly.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, but I got to I got a question.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Is that explicitly like times.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think, um, or, or, or it's a cross.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think, cross, okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, like taking cross street fighter or street cross deck and yeah, that's when I first learned cross would be cool if we said that right.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: In fact, you know what?
[SPEAKER_02]: Screw it.
[SPEAKER_02]: Sonic Cross Godzilla.
[SPEAKER_02]: There you go.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's that's that is now the official way that we're going to wind up saying this this because it is a little cross over so that that just makes even more sense.
[SPEAKER_02]: There you go.
[SPEAKER_02]: Damn.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yep.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thanks, Ralph.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Of course.
[SPEAKER_02]: you know, there's a reason why I keep inviting him on here.
[SPEAKER_02]: I forgot what it was and then he just reminded me.
[SPEAKER_02]: 20 years.
[SPEAKER_02]: 20 years, baby.
[SPEAKER_02]: 20 years.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh my god.
[SPEAKER_02]: So well, you, I mean, you mentioned license as I choke and die.
[SPEAKER_02]: Um,
[SPEAKER_02]: You mentioned, you know, how licensing can be a bit of a challenge, and I mean, I always kind of ask this question to people who are working on licensed works, like just how much input is there by by the licensee when you're putting something like this together, where they're two very, very different licenses.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're part of me is like you're trying to get me in trouble and part of me is like, sorry, sorry, let me tell you every not.
[SPEAKER_02]: Hey, hey, hey, trust me.
[SPEAKER_02]: We are not trying to gacha here in any way, shape or form.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_02]: All right.
[SPEAKER_02]: You tell me what you can tell me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let me just outline all the controversial mandates that we have.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, of course, air those publicly.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, it's really, I think the thing is a lot of its case by case, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: So you don't often know what the restrictions are rules are going to be or even what the input's going to be.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: until they have it for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the thing that I think, so I haven't worked on anything quite this high profile before, and when we announced it about a month ago, it was really there was a quick like a couple day learning curve for me where I had to come to realize that people have a lot of assumptions about how the stuff gets done.
[SPEAKER_00]: And a few people kind of understand it, but a lot of it has like a mystique to it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think, especially outside of the superhero world, they talk a little bit more about their nuts and bolts.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think then maybe some of the other lessons comics do, traditional, and the thing that people were thinking that I didn't necessarily anticipate them to assume was that we,
[SPEAKER_00]: had some kind of, like, I'd been given some kind of roll block or something, you know, right, right, which just isn't the case.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I will say, in the case of one character who shall not be named, I was given a sheet about this character's rules, but this is only because the editors have traditionally had a hard time with this particular character, right, making sure that it meets guidelines, but I'm never going to say who that is because that rule sheet was outrageous and I got a lot of joy for me, but I can't, I can't share it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I know being the resident Godzilla fan that Godzilla had, like, even at the beginning of the episode, you mentioned Godzilla has no gender, correct?
[SPEAKER_01]: He or she, and but Godzilla is a parent because, correct, you know, because of meania or baby or Godzilla Junior, whichever one you want to pick.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, all of them are really bad, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Exactly, it's like they're all, like they're all, and they're like slightly different, but like, kind of, but like, you know,
[SPEAKER_01]: which I actually wanted to ask you about.
[SPEAKER_01]: So like, what is your experience before writing Godzilla?
[SPEAKER_01]: Cause we talked about your, yeah, we've talked about your comic book origin again.
[SPEAKER_01]: What's your Godzilla, like sort of history then?
[SPEAKER_00]: My Godzilla history is that I did not have a lot of exposure to Godzilla before the 21st century where I lived in Chicago area, Western New York.
[SPEAKER_00]: It wasn't something that crossed my path much.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I think that the 98 Godzilla film was really,
[SPEAKER_00]: really the the American woman's like the first thing that was really like in front of me then I knew about I liked the animated series that came out after that.
[SPEAKER_02]: Matt, you brought a Rick and Albert G's baby.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's exactly what it is.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yep.
[SPEAKER_00]: And like I have a fondness for all that stuff previous to take it on these assignments professionally.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I would say that it wasn't until
[SPEAKER_00]: My wife Rosie, who was a huge kid you fan, really brought me into the fandom within the past decade of our relationship and sort of introduced me to the wider world of Godzilla from the things that I picked up just in pop culture, you know, like I knew whom offer was, oh, okay, because of MF Doom, I knew about King Adora.
[SPEAKER_00]: or Gitarah, as they say on Monster Island's orders, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like that was probably my biggest cod you found on previous, we previously was the Monster Island's our stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, so, you know, in the past decade, I've gotten to know that stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then a friend of ours became the Godzilla editor, and IDW at some point with a lot of encouragement from us being like, take the job, take the job.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then once I was on these assignments, oh man, the things I've learned, the wonders I've seen.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've had to dive really deep into some things.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've gone very, I've gotten really specific.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I think that that's that's one of the benefits in a way for you doing like these, you know, Godzilla, if you want to quote unquote, say side projects, is that like you could basically learn as you're going.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's true, you know, because like because there's there's there's there's a lot to learn there, but also,
[SPEAKER_02]: I wouldn't quite say that there's less pressure, but it's not like, oh, I'm on the main Godzilla book, and there's all this history behind it, and I gotta remember all of it right now, because we're continuing on a previous arc or something like that, with a one shot, there's a lot more way and with a mini series, there's a lot more way, because you are the one in the driver's seat for that type of scenario, I would imagine.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, no, it was a really good learning experience.
[SPEAKER_00]: The two previous projects I did, I wrote one, because they were rivals by Lontévers's Destroyer.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I was an assistant colorist on a OGM, my wife wrote in our friend Oliver Drew.
[SPEAKER_00]: Nice.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was basically like his flatter and a little bit more.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, you know, because we were trying to cut down the time that you would have to spend on the pages.
[SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, you learn a lot when you do those kind of things.
[SPEAKER_00]: A lot of interesting weird specifics, and you end up with a lot of questions that have to be answered at some point.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, between those two things, yeah, I definitely prepared me for this.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was very fortunate in that sense because once this book really started moving forward about two years ago,
[SPEAKER_00]: It was, it's run, it is as it currently is, which is run out of the sonic editorial office.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they liais with the Godzilla office and with Topo.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I'm lucky because I knew a lot of the little, I knew a lot of what I couldn't could not do by that point with Godzilla.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it worked to my benefit because I couldn't say my own editor, but I was maybe my own, I didn't need to go to the Godzilla editor or questions, let's say, which was fortunate.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, Sonic on the other hand, that was a very interesting learning experience.
[SPEAKER_00]: But also Sega is very, very particular about how they do things.
[SPEAKER_00]: They only allow certain approved visuals for the character, and they have certain constants, let's say, for the way that the world operates within the IDW continuity.
[SPEAKER_00]: And yeah, it was cool get into that stuff, because I was like most people in the world,
[SPEAKER_00]: a really casual Sonic fan.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I played the games growing up.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know who Sonic is.
[SPEAKER_00]: I saw movies, but no in the ins and outs of all the little things you can't do with him, you know, is water.
[SPEAKER_00]: That was a really big learning curve for me.
[SPEAKER_00]: What Sonic can and can't do around water.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that changed our story a lot because, yeah, because there's a lot of water in our story.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, yeah, I was just gonna say I remember the two cartoons during the 90s.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I'd still remember one of the theme songs, but I wanted to say it right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look fast.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's going by Sonic the Headtop to fast for the naked eye.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sonic the Headtop, Sonic.
[SPEAKER_02]: you can really move that's about as much as much as we can get before we get dinged on on YouTube also sorry, no no, I know, yeah, we should do that.
[SPEAKER_01]: The other thing is, um,
[SPEAKER_01]: I, when I worked at Midtown, Midtown comics, one of my co-workers was a sonic fan.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they have a very small, but very, very dedicated fan base.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, my God.
[SPEAKER_00]: I gotta say.
[SPEAKER_00]: So unique.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's maybe the most, yeah, sure, the input from the, you know, licensed holder, not licensed holders, licenseders, I don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: I get confused about the language.
[SPEAKER_00]: Stay colders as I was recently taught by a different publisher.
[SPEAKER_00]: The input from the stakeholders, yeah, sure.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's important and that's significant.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, nothing can compete with the intensity of a fan base.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's been the most fascinating thing about going on a few different licenses, Transformers fan base.
[SPEAKER_00]: They've been hurt so many times that their sense of humor is unparalleled, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Godzilla fan base, a very optimistic lot of, and I think that has to do with the situation we're in right now to great time to be a Godzilla fan.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so much good stuff happening.
[SPEAKER_00]: But also I think that there's always a hope that your deep cut fav is going to show up because I think that it's like Decide you sometimes get used a little bit more like Hulk right you're always waiting for the moment when he transforms Right you're always waiting for the moment when the kid you show up and like you never know who's going to show up and that I think is it keeps the fans really excited
[SPEAKER_00]: Our Rangers, that was interesting because they're much more laid back than either the Godzilla or Transformers fan bases, but they're so more specific because there's got so many iterations.
[SPEAKER_02]: I just literally just got, you know, done podcasting with Marthes Wade yesterday who's like, one of the most
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, major power Rangers sent high fans that I know and coming off of that and being like, yeah, man, the fact that we're power Rangers list right now outside outside of the comics, it's like, it's like, we need, we need our hit, man.
[SPEAKER_02]: We need our buzz, like one way or the other.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a weird time, man.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm one of my favorite quotes from that toys who made us specials that they did.
[SPEAKER_00]: What's when they had?
[SPEAKER_00]: Is it some ban?
[SPEAKER_00]: Is that how he says this
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's a long.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_00]: When he's talking about how he said, yeah, I sold him the Disney.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then I bought him back from Disney and then I sold him the Hasbro and maybe buying back from Hasbro.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's like, and maybe that's what he's waiting for, you know?
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe he has, was like, I don't know what they're doing over there, but yeah, it's, all these things are great.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's so much fun to be a fan and it's so much fun to meet people that are passionate about these things, but you say the wrong thing or you do something a little bit off.
[SPEAKER_00]: You will experience the fan wrath, which I don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't necessarily mind, that's like,
[SPEAKER_00]: nothing can compete to the rejection from publishers.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's like that's 20 times bigger than any kind of fan wrap you're going to get but yeah but it is it's interesting.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well and plus like I mean you talk about the Sonic fandom and stuff like that Godzilla there are
[SPEAKER_02]: you know, we do a previous episode every single month and there are like five different publishers all putting out Godzilla comics in one form or another with different iterations of Godzilla that they have access to the license of at that particular time, you know, like the fact that Marvel
[SPEAKER_02]: and DC are both putting out crossover Godzilla comics at the same time where they're facing you to the Avengers or you know the Justice League while IDW is doing their thing and then there's like some other random publishers that'll throw out their own Godzilla books along with it.
[SPEAKER_02]: It is one of the most potent IPs in the entire world.
[SPEAKER_02]: But at the same time, parameters and which version of Godzilla do you get to play with, I'm sure very much plays into what you have access to.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, it really doesn't, you know, there's all the monster-verse stuff legendary because they produce the films that's what they publish, and that's really interesting and really it's own pocket thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then the Toho material is open to anybody who manages to get a yes to make there.
[SPEAKER_00]: How would you say it make their crossover, you know, and I do W's case to hold the license for that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, but yeah, it's it's it's ripped.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's been a Godzilla explosion.
[SPEAKER_00]: When I started working on a stuff in 2021, 2022, yeah, it was maybe late, 2021.
[SPEAKER_00]: It there was not a whole lot going.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, we had the movies, don't get me wrong.
[SPEAKER_00]: But publishing-wise, I think the only thing they've managed to swing outside of the couple of books they were doing at IDW at the time was the Power Rangers Godzilla crossover.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, which is really cool.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Corridors are pretty Williams II.
[SPEAKER_00]: Of course.
[SPEAKER_01]: Under the show.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yep.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's his work is gorgeous and that's super cool.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so when I was pushing this thing forward in 2022, we hadn't had all these crazy crossovers.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, held the the movie Godzilla Cross Kong hadn't even had that name.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was like, oh, we're going to do something novel here.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's got a lot of big.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're in the middle of this in the same.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't even know what you would call it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not a glut because it's actually a lot of these crossovers are really spectacular.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a surplus across over is right now.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, we'll just go ahead and call it the Godzilla Sons.
[SPEAKER_02]: We are currently in the middle of a Godzilla Sons.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: As the, as the resident Godzilla fan, I can tell you that it's because Toho wants to aggressively expand the fandom.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is very true.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this part of it is American and another part of its Southeast Asia, they have a dedicated Southeast Asia brand.
[SPEAKER_01]: They did a special trailer for their Southeast Asia content.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think the my hero academia looking anime is for that audience with the kid who has the power of Scott of Godzilla.
[SPEAKER_01]: And yeah, I know that they because the Japanese fan base is getting older.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they're not really like as men and then with this international success of mine just one they're like, oh, you want up you want you like American guys are like and Japanese got to yes, we like we want more Japanese to give give give give give give me give me now what what what what what's that apple you want to make a show with both Russells in them like a like a show.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love that show.
[SPEAKER_01]: I see season two is on right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's been so good so far.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I got a catch up on it.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's definitely on my list of things to watch, but just the fact, I mean, again, you got why it Russell playing a young Kurt Russell, like, come on, come on, you can't get better than that.
[SPEAKER_02]: You really can, but but also at the same time, you know, as as Ralph just mentioned with mightest one.
[SPEAKER_02]: not just getting you know fan acclaim but critical acclaim um that's something that I feel like had been lacking at least a little bit with the Godzilla franchise in America for a little while um you know there there were there were some that you know Japanese movies that made a that made success here but minus one really
[SPEAKER_02]: I feel like put Godzilla back on the map in an entirely separate way than we are going to put this giant monster and this giant monster together in a movie and they're going to fight.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like it really put like the art back into Godzilla that may have been lacking at least in America for a little while, even though, yes, obviously it's not in America movie, but still like the the pastiche of it all, I feel like is back a little bit after all these years.
[SPEAKER_01]: Academy Award winning.
[SPEAKER_00]: Correct.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I think both of you make a really great point.
[SPEAKER_00]: Togo is being more aggressive with what they're doing there.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even on just in general in business.
[SPEAKER_00]: They bought G kids last year.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, or at least acquired a majority stake.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know which one it is exactly, but they're they're trying to expand what they do just generally speaking and and I think they want you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I've seen that in the way that they, in the way things have changed even just on our end in terms of how our approvals get done and stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're so open to things right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: It used to be much more tightly-wrained in and this was the vision.
[SPEAKER_00]: And aside from a few requests, like, you know, they want us to use the show of version of Mekagazilla.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, it's like they excuse me other way around.
[SPEAKER_00]: They want us to use Hasey version of Mekagazilla and I show it.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, they're generally like, yeah, sure, do it.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I think a long time ago, well before the project, even had the green light, they were like, yeah, sure, you can draw Godzilla in the Sonic style.
[SPEAKER_00]: That sounds good.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: They were like, you know, that works for us.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're fine with it as long as it's out there.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think that Godzilla minus one has definitely, if you were already a fan, it's like they just gave you the most scrumptious meal you've ever had.
[SPEAKER_00]: And maybe if you weren't a fan before, you're looking at it a little differently.
[SPEAKER_00]: You might have thought to yourself, at least we're being movies.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, wait, no, that's not the case.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not saying they were.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just saying I think that for a lot of people who only know about it from the most basic level of pop culture, I think they were perceived as being that way for a long time.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then Shin Godzilla sort of inched it a little closer to something that was like,
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, they're trying to get a little bit more intense with the, you know, the intrigue in the film, you know, the human element of that part.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then yeah, Godzilla minus one, that just ripped the door off.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it's what a film.
[SPEAKER_02]: It really is.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, Ralph, you know, you know better than anybody the man, like, I mean, yeah, the B has definitely become the A. Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, like, it's just the, so like, there's, that's the thing with Godzilla is the he can fit in as so many movies.
[SPEAKER_01]: And like, I think for a lot of people, I mean, like, okay, for, the
[SPEAKER_01]: There's basically two camps, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: You either, there's a slider.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can either go super intense human drama with the Godzilla as this nuclear death lizard threat that conceit threatens everything and makes you feel unsafe.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then you got the slider over here and this giant monster's fighting and really goofy plots.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I don't know Godzilla teaches his kid just to fight back against his bully.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, and it's actually in the, it's actually the day dream of a, of a 1970s Japanese kid who's the latch key kid because his parents are working all the time.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the, the bully is a metaphor for these robbers who are, who are trying to get this, this, this 14 days stole that they hid in the name in the neighbor of the kids car.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, like that, that's a movie.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is that's all monsters attacked by the way.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, add some crazy stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: They do.
[SPEAKER_01]: They do.
[SPEAKER_01]: Speaking of crazy, you just going back to I.D.W.
[SPEAKER_01]: Quick.
[SPEAKER_01]: Godzilla monster piece theater.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, my God, yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: What a, what a, what a, I know you didn't work on it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then what, what an insane perfect.
[SPEAKER_00]: I had an interesting work on it, but you know, I'm, but Thomas, a friend of mine for one.
[SPEAKER_00]: I lived in Pittsburgh a long time ago.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm so happy for the success he had with that book.
[SPEAKER_00]: And,
[SPEAKER_00]: I did have a, I think maybe it's an overstatement to say I had something to do with them extending or expanding it now.
[SPEAKER_00]: But let's say I had a pitch kicking around with the editor Jake Williams and I kept a win let it go as a command man.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to do this story.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to do the story with them.
[SPEAKER_00]: A buddy of mine who is a classic superhero artist, and but he he's never had the chance to do that Zilla I met him at a convention a few years ago and he said he wanted to and I was like well let me see what I can do So I designed a story forum and I brought it to Jake and I was like come on man let's do this let's do this
[SPEAKER_00]: And Jake was patient with me but not really that interested but he did come back to me and he was like What if we tried to make it like fit with monster piece theater and what if we did like a new series and like you guys could do something that's hiding in monster piece And I was like okay, I'll give it a shot, you know, and then I didn't really hear anything about it after I tried my version of it And then they just announced the thing like
[SPEAKER_00]: what was it maybe like a few weeks ago that they're doing more monster people listed room you and Juliet and then right just announced Odyssey literally like think yesterday it's a nice yes jacum still waiting for that call man come on jacum baby well and and and and all while this is happening i mean there's stuff like like godzilla versus america
[SPEAKER_02]: which brings an entire other layer to it as, you know, each stop on the tour, you get these different writers and artists together to basically write their city being attacked by Godzilla.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, it's such a smart way to do an anthology and include as many creators as humanly possible in the process of it all.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, it's really smart.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's great how many people they got involved.
[SPEAKER_00]: I also want to take like non-credit for that.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what my godzilla rival story was.
[SPEAKER_00]: Uh-huh.
[SPEAKER_00]: Zillicated a pit spur.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yep.
[SPEAKER_00]: Zilleterraized, but you know, but that's really, that's ultimately that was, you know, uh, uh, let's say I had no participation in that whatsoever.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hopefully they saw the promise of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hopefully.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know what?
[SPEAKER_02]: Just because you're on we're just gonna say that Nick Moreno was the entire inspiration behind all of this like literally all of this We could thank you.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's one.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, yeah, my real life Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, mine is zero just go read my autobiography.
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't know where the movie goes next
[SPEAKER_02]: You don't want it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want it.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, exactly.
[SPEAKER_02]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Wait till after it's out, then go read the autobiography.
[SPEAKER_02]: Right.
[SPEAKER_02]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's the way.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's been a, I think the thing the IDW's done that I really appreciate the most is they're letting, before they had a more focused version, let's say, and I wouldn't call what they're doing on focus now.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'd say what they're doing is they're letting so many different versions of Godzilla, co-exist simultaneously.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that doesn't even include the DCM Marvel stuff, which I believe are done entirely independently.
[SPEAKER_00]: They are.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what the DC stuff legendary does collaborate?
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, because that's the monster verse first.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
[SPEAKER_00]: But Marvel, I believe, is done independently with Marvel.
[SPEAKER_00]: And yeah, I mean, it's like, it's just letting people go out there and just put some cool takes out there.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think it's really good.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hopefully, that's just what we're going to keep getting.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, it's basically just when all of that.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, I highly doubt that's going to happen, but the Marvel version is basically just reviving the Marvel version of Godzilla back when they had the license back in a day.
[SPEAKER_02]: It is that version of Godzilla that that the Avengers and Hulk and Wolverine.
[SPEAKER_02]: and going into space and all that crazy shit like you know that's that's all that's all the same Godzilla that that was there before um which is also why they they've they've reissued the uh the older you know Godzilla uh licensed stuff that Marvel was working on for that exact reason it's like a fluke he's back of course you have the foil cover man the foil cover to everything like
[SPEAKER_01]: that they, I'm so ease, I'm a 90s kid, okay, I'm the most 90s kid.
[SPEAKER_02]: We were talking about this the other day, Nick, like, you know, when they put enough aximly additions of like the older, you know, like, like big, big books at DC, like action comics number one, like, oh, yeah, no, it's great that you got that, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: What, what do you got?
[SPEAKER_02]: The Hawelfoil version, like they didn't have Hawelfoil back in the back in the day.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, uh,
[SPEAKER_02]: Of course I did.
[SPEAKER_00]: What do we talk about?
[SPEAKER_00]: I have the most 90s kid.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know it should talk about I have a small comic shop nowadays.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's only open on the weekends Friday to Sunday and it's fascinating to see the way that 90s kids react to any shiny cover.
[SPEAKER_00]: Of course I got it.
[SPEAKER_00]: when they, and I can almost like, I look, it's gotten to the point now where I'm so used to it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I kind of look at them and I'm like, oh, that guy's going to want that shiny issue.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, he definitely wants it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, and you can see like, and you can tell like, there's an age bracket definitely.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like mid 40s to like early 30.
[SPEAKER_00]: You let them see a shiny cover.
[SPEAKER_00]: All baby they're sold.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, you know, it's like, anything.
[SPEAKER_00]: Literally anything shiny.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're like, oh my god, this must be really special.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know what kind of is it.
[SPEAKER_02]: I tell the story of this or heroin.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, well, yeah, sure.
[SPEAKER_02]: Right.
[SPEAKER_02]: Although I I've heard they've started putting a heroin in Hallfield covers.
[SPEAKER_02]: Anyway, um, yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, I'll tell you where those come from.
[SPEAKER_00]: Those lenticulars.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, those things shed.
[SPEAKER_00]: They gave us.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, they do, especially like those like extinction agenda covers from from from back in a day, which I I remember I think it might have been Chris that told this story about how I think it would have been her brother again I might have been her might have been somebody else thought that it was a sticker and they peeled it off.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then realized, oh, no, that was just the lenticular.
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's the end of value on that one.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's the end of value on that one.
[SPEAKER_00]: But no, when are we going to bring back remember four swirks number one?
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it had that, the world's most insane fold out that never really worked.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, my God.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was always like, it was like stuck to all different parts.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if you did get it unfolded, what even shape was it?
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was like a weird trapezoid from hell.
[SPEAKER_00]: But what a cool idea.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm looking, let's see if I can find the, the online image of that, what that entire thing looked like, what it was unfolded.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh my god.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, but I, I consider, I consider uncanny X-Men number 300 to be my first ever comic.
[SPEAKER_02]: So it's a good one.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and of course, Alphalo, baby, like that's it.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like I'm sure I picked up random other comics like Ninja Turtles and stuff like that beforehand, but like the one that I have the most focused memory of is waiting in wine at the King's way movie theater in Brooklyn with my mom, uh, there's a long line.
[SPEAKER_02]: I jump into the the triple A comics and cards, which was right on the corner of Kodi Island Avenue and Kings Highway at the time.
[SPEAKER_02]: I go in, I buy my first comic, and then that's basically what got me into the world of comics from there.
[SPEAKER_02]: So yeah, I am a Hall of FOIA baby as well.
[SPEAKER_02]: I fully understand that it's just, you know,
[SPEAKER_02]: It has its time and it has its place to me.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, wait, wait, wait.
[SPEAKER_01]: Every single cover that's solicited.
[SPEAKER_01]: God, no, exactly, I won.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's okay, place, yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, no, I don't buy every single hollow foil cover.
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't get me wrong.
[SPEAKER_01]: But what do you do?
[SPEAKER_01]: Hollow foil cover for the book I want.
[SPEAKER_01]: I will const, I didn't even, this month's orders.
[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't get the hollow foil for the action comics, because I got the AAPI month's cover.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, good for you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, okay, so there you go.
[SPEAKER_01]: Good for you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Wait, no, no, actually it's funny because like my first comic was way before that and it was It was official handbook of the Marvel Universe book of the dead.
[SPEAKER_01]: Number one, I think.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah You brought that up with murder a couple weeks ago.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yes Your first book was an official handbook.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was five years old and here's the thing I was sick and my mom was gonna have to take me to doctors on the way to work
[SPEAKER_01]: And she knew I was six, so she wanted to cheer me up.
[SPEAKER_01]: So she went with me to the newsstand by the train station.
[SPEAKER_01]: And she went, she kind of flipped through all the books, comics, and she sold them with the most words.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like, oh, I'm going to get him to read.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's like, here's a comic book.
[SPEAKER_01]: You wanted this, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: And I was like, yeah, Mom, and I opened them like, oh, I'm five.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know what I don't know what this east is.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know what not applicable is.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know that's the worst word.
[SPEAKER_02]: But okay, Mom, well, that's how you weren't
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, that's clearly it's clearly me that's why I never knew how to say that I never read the handbook.
[SPEAKER_00]: I went my eyes with glaze over.
[SPEAKER_02]: I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, but look, but they haven't properly unfolded this.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, they haven't.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not at all, which is very dissonable.
[SPEAKER_00]: You need to find somebody who went in there and like did a mangled it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because that was the only way to get it undone.
[SPEAKER_00]: I guess I must have been a fold out kid.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you know, I started a little bit before to holophore and stuff kicked in.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in my mind, on Kayney 275, I was like, oh my god, it folds out.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, like this is unbelievable.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, like that was magical to me.
[SPEAKER_02]: I do fully admit that I did buy crunch and munch entirely because it was advertised on the back of Marvel.
[SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely.
[SPEAKER_01]: Me too.
[SPEAKER_01]: I forced my mom to buy these.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I still, I, I, I, oh my god, yes, definitely.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, man.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's like it wasn't anywhere ever as good as Cracker Jack, but they they they bought they got 20 of people to buy it for for that exact reason because they were back of them There was like a little butter scotchy vibe there.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know what I have a little different you know Like my question.
[SPEAKER_01]: I still like have fond memories of punch and munch.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, does it exist?
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you think it's dead?
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, no, that's a good question actually Let me see crunch.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what I would say that on the fact that they got like Sam Keith to do like a
[SPEAKER_00]: a Charleston shoe like tie-in cover that Molly kept me in the Charleston shoe game for an extra decade.
[SPEAKER_02]: Hey, man, those pizza hut, uh, X-mail comics.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, don't get that.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is a masterpiece.
[SPEAKER_00]: That place match should be hanging.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yep.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the roof.
[SPEAKER_00]: I, I don't think
[SPEAKER_01]: the Burger King deal with the X-Men on a VHS cartoon.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Crunch and Munch still exists according to Wikipedia.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I had forgotten this and wrapped you're going to laugh.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_02]: So in 2004, the Yankees replaced Cracker Jack with Crunch and Munch at home games.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the clubs switch back to Cracker Jack almost immediately due to public eye cry.
[SPEAKER_00]: you can't switch it.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have to where they sing in the 7th inning stretch differently.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, they worried.
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's just it.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, like buy me some peanuts and crunch and lunch.
[SPEAKER_02]: It just doesn't work.
[SPEAKER_00]: Actually, it kind of works when you say.
[SPEAKER_02]: I guess, but still, it just sounds like a non you need a equivalent, you know.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, you know what I missed the most from baseball games next.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and this is this was a elementary school thing too.
[SPEAKER_00]: Remember, it was little cups of multi chocolate ice cream.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, yeah, I missed those things.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, they're still making a chocolate more ice cream.
[SPEAKER_00]: No one
[SPEAKER_02]: Or my favorite were the Neapolitan with the, uh, with the wood spoon that like you remember the taste of wood more than you remember the taste of the ice cream because the ice cream was Yeah, exactly exactly Like it was so natural experience.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was so crystallized and icy that like all you were tasting was the wood
[SPEAKER_02]: the plywood.
[SPEAKER_02]: So to bring it back to a initial conversation, this is going to happen through more times and I'm okay with that.
[SPEAKER_02]: But so you mentioned, you know, drawing Godzilla in a sonic style.
[SPEAKER_00]: And yes, and as what my incredible collaborator, thank you for teaming up there.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Shack Lawrence is doing and are incredible colorist.
[SPEAKER_00]: Regigrame is bringing those sonic colors to it as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it really does look.
[SPEAKER_00]: We've only, people have only seen the one cover they did, which was the A cover that you had up on the screen previously.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yep.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I'm telling you, the interiors of this book, those two are such an incredible artistic team.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I feel so lucky.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, I mean, honestly, it really does work, especially color-wise because that's something very difficult to capture with two characters that are that so distinctly unique and different is that if you're going to bring one of the the world of the other, it should have a similar color palette and personality and feel if you're going to wind up doing that and, you know, that seems to have been achieved here.
[SPEAKER_02]: Not to give too way too much of a way about the plot because obviously, yeah, can't.
[SPEAKER_02]: But, like, is this a, they exist in the same world scenario, is this a, you know, a portal pops them in type of situation, and obviously, if you can't reveal it by all means, but, you know, whatever you can give us as a little gum trail, then please by all means.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can talk about it a little bit within the parameters of what I believe they've already revealed to a degree.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've seen some coverage out there that includes more details than I knew we're out.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I know it's out there.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they do not exist in the same world.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: Godzilla will be coming to Sonic's world, which by the way, it's just called Sonic's world.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yep.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the IDW books.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: As far as I know, I don't know that there's any that I always have to profit.
[SPEAKER_00]: I always have to add that as a... Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: fall that up with as far as I know.
[SPEAKER_00]: In my circumstance, I've not been allowed to call it anything other than Sonic's world.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's fair.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I do believe there are some details about alluded to within the solicit about how they get there.
[SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, there's a, there's a, um,
[SPEAKER_00]: reality is compromised, they're able to cross over.
[SPEAKER_00]: And everything that you see, well, not everything, but most of what you see, almost, I would say 99 point, you know, out of our 101 pages, you know, the vast majority, the 99% of those are, you're going to be in Sonic's world.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's, the mechanic is left.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, how do I say this was one of the more controversial things to get everybody to agree on and the process of this because, uh, Sega knew what they were willing to go easy on and Touhou, I knew what they couldn't could not do in terms of that, um, the thing with Touhou that's really tricky is you can't.
[SPEAKER_00]: bring in characters other than the Kaiju.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can't like I can't like pull in like Dr. Sarah Zawa or something like that, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like that's anything that's in the movies that's not a Kaiju.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're really not bringing over.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you look closely in my Godzilla rivals issue,
[SPEAKER_00]: a scientist pulls a bottle off of shelf that doesn't say oxygen destroyer.
[SPEAKER_00]: It says oxygen annihilator.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because they said, sorry, we can't, that's not in our purview of what we can bring over.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sure.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just the monsters.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you know what?
[SPEAKER_00]: We got just the monsters and they're coming over to Sonic's world.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if we're starting with the greatest hits, roster,
[SPEAKER_00]: And if we get the kind of reception that I feel like we're going to get, that it looks like we're already starting to get with this, from people who are already in these fan bases, the Sonic and Godzilla, hopefully we'll be able to do more and bring over or let's say introduce more of those Kaiju into this great mashup.
[SPEAKER_02]: And and same could be said for sonic characters at that, you know, because I mean shock of shock.
[SPEAKER_02]: There are a lot of them.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean it is more more than just the Amy sitting on your shelf over there, you know, like I mean, there's there's there's the most important, but yes, there are others.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, definitely like it's it's it's a rich roster of hedgehogs and otherwise that that are that are making up Sonic's world and and have been introduced over the years.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, yeah, I want to give you the Chicago dog version of this crossover, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: But before I can do that, you got to see if I can just make a good hot dog.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, like, you're like, is he is he getting you know, he's putting on a grill is he toasting it up right or we go with the condiments, you know, we're going to be doing low relish a little mustard and then hopefully on the next one, we're going to go nuts.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm down with that, yeah, because I mean, we talk about the rich world and robust history of Godzilla.
[SPEAKER_02]: Sonic itself is having a bit of a revolution right now, both in the world of comics.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, IDW's had the way since this 2017 now, 2016, technically, I think.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then, sorry, 2017, they announced it 2018 is one of the comics.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, correct.
[SPEAKER_02]: Correct.
[SPEAKER_00]: very, very unique situation that led them to that, but they've been going strong since 2018, and it's really become a lore unto itself now.
[SPEAKER_02]: Absolutely.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and I mean, you know, there have been sonic comics, you know, since since we were all kids in one form or another, but IDW has done a really good job of
[SPEAKER_02]: making it a little bit more game or with their comics than then what came before like Archie's comics were a whole their own thing like they were basically like it was it was like Sonic Earth 2 if you want to put it that way you know and I think in the world of comics and and this is a little bit closer to you know more game or Sonic that you know those of you who have been following the games over the years
[SPEAKER_02]: They're been a lot and they're been good and they're been
[SPEAKER_02]: But, you know, we're back in a place now where I feel like game-wise and content-wise, we come on, just freaking Jim Carrey out there as Robotnik.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, there's been a lot of more Sonic in the public eye over the past couple of years, and there have been before then, and there's a reason why he's as a character as he is.
[SPEAKER_02]: He's everywhere, you know?
[SPEAKER_00]: Both of these franchises, worlds.
[SPEAKER_00]: character libraries.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know what the right terminology is for us.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: They've done an amazing job in some of its organic and some of it is by choice from the companies, the choices they made and the things they chose in a pursuit.
[SPEAKER_00]: They've done an amazing job finding ways to keep their existing fanbase to feel like they're eaten and hungry for more.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm learning about this as I have opportunity to go to conventions, run a country, or signings, different opportunities and stuff, both of these worlds for lack of a better terminology.
[SPEAKER_00]: They have just young people love them.
[SPEAKER_00]: and it's amazing to see how much they love them.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you got a toddler in your life, they've probably already started watching Godzilla Evolution videos on YouTube, which I think is a main gateway for people to get into the Toko Kaju at this point.
[SPEAKER_00]: and then it's unbelievable to see how their interests evolve and how they express their personalities through the way that they find their fandom.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the same can be said for the Sonic stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you can be a fan of just the animation, just the games, just the comics, a weird combination of them.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, headcan and I think is sort of rain supreme in the Sonic fandom.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't know if there's any one person that has the same headcan.
[SPEAKER_00]: it's quite distinct and yeah it's really cool like both of these things or I feel very fortunate to be able to take them on at this time where we're just going to have a lot of people picking them up because they just love these characters and they love these stories.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, absolutely.
[SPEAKER_02]: That much, that much history involved with anything, like, I mean, again, you get to pick and choose what's going to work for your story with improper parameters and make the magic happen as such.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then everyone else can fill in the gaps accordingly.
[SPEAKER_02]: So that's something that can definitely live there.
[SPEAKER_00]: In a weird way, I get to use no history because we are, um, how do I say, what's the best way to say this continuity agnostic?
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: And a comment, which is not to say that I do think if you've been reading Sonic IDW, the goal is to make it feel like you know these versions of the character.
[SPEAKER_05]: Sure.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: But you know, I think both of the companies wanted us to make something that was like, let's focus on the iconography of these characters really being the thing that we're working with.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the one thing I was really given to play with by SEGA,
[SPEAKER_00]: was specifically from the game Sonic, what first seen in the game Sonic Adventure, which is Station Square, which is a city that hasn't been in the IDW comics before, and that has been really interesting.
[SPEAKER_00]: But otherwise, I would say other than that, we're keeping this pretty, we're keeping this no.
[SPEAKER_00]: As somebody told, you know, I interviewed the guy, the showrunner from Wonderman, and he had a really great line, which I'm sure a few of these Marvel guys have said this before.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is a no-home work comic.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think, as much like that's what he said about that show.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think that's very true.
[SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you know what, we want you to pick this up and feel like this reminds you of your favorite bits, the Sonic and your favorite bits of Godzilla.
[SPEAKER_00]: But you don't have to know anything going into this.
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't have to worry about the history or anything.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you know what station square is hopefully you feel like we've done it just this for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: But you know, this is just, this is about the fun.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, come with a 90's comics background myself.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love a good crossover.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know that feels like a summer event.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's what we're trying to do here.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, well, you know, not that we're going to get them, but immediately my brain goes there.
[SPEAKER_02]: I was like, oh, shit, I'm Malcolm.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, oh my God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, that's exactly where I went to DC.
[SPEAKER_01]: Why went to DC versus Marvel first?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, Nick, since we're talking about licensed stuff, what is there any sort of like, I don't know.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know about grail, but like, is there still like a dream license that you've yet to work on that you want to work on?
[SPEAKER_00]: At this well, I'll tell you what, I'm really fortunate, a couple months ago, I signed a contract for what was I would say my grail license that I was able to chase down.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think you can see my shirt, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: No, we can.
[SPEAKER_00]: Good.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then I'm not going to tell you.
[SPEAKER_00]: because it's not announced yet.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I can't say that.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I just feel so lucky.
[SPEAKER_00]: I really signed on to my girl license and it was a really tricky thing because, well, I shouldn't say anything else.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I'm really fortunate in that.
[SPEAKER_00]: But you know what the funny thing is.
[SPEAKER_00]: And maybe again, this is we're going back to the 90s kidness of it all.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think my other one that I have spoken about recently,
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, outside of like, I love the superheroes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Marvel and DC both are just these are great for me.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you know, that's my life blood.
[SPEAKER_00]: I could, you know, be thrilled to work on almost anything and either of those worlds.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the one thing that I really want to take a crack at.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I feel like I could do a good job with this.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there's a lot of room to work with in this.
[SPEAKER_00]: I really want to do Mario coming.
[SPEAKER_01]: Ooh, ooh, it hasn't been a mar of comic, I don't know how long.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I think our course might be putting something out soon.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, I don't know the exact details of what it is, I don't know if it's a reprint, I don't know if it's more of like a kid's book, because you know, it's our course is quite like diversified in what they do, but I would love to take a crack at like a Mario on going.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, see if we could get to like a couple of years and like build our own lore in there.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just feel like it would be really fun and it's a little
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it is.
[SPEAKER_02]: The the the super Mario adventures comics from back when we were kids is apparently available on Amazon For purchase and has been since 2015 so they did they did want to put in that out.
[SPEAKER_02]: There was also a Mario manga
[SPEAKER_02]: uh... that that kodansha put it out uh... by kazuki uh... motogama uh... one fortunately passed away uh... last year but uh... that's that's that's also available out of kodansha and i i'm pretty sure it has been published here in the states if not recently that maybe around the time of the west uh... the west movie uh... but but yeah there there really have not been a lot of mario comics
[SPEAKER_02]: period over the years.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's not a whole lot of Mario content that's like got a narrative to it, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, like the games do obviously, but those are kind of like, I wouldn't, they're not staying the loan, but they're not necessarily like a continuous narrative either, you know?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, but obviously there's a lot of character growth, but I think that tends to be more visual or the capabilities of the character himself.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it will be fun, like let's do a
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's do a Mario, let's do a monthly Mario comic book where we get to see their origin and we get to build up to a place to where we are now.
[SPEAKER_00]: And maybe we take a few years to do it and maybe along the way we get to, you know, maybe he gets to meet Sonic, you know, what?
[SPEAKER_00]: We do some fun stuff like that.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I mean, hey, if they can if they can be in the Olympics together and they could be in smash brothers together Then then clearly they can beat in the comic book right the comic you might be thinking of by the way Nick is not necessarily a Mario comic, but Rapid I mentioned this on previews not too long go that their archie is doing a super Mario galaxy comic essentially
[SPEAKER_02]: where it's going to be like the archie characters, but super Mario Galaxy.
[SPEAKER_02]: So like there yeah, it's a weird ass crossover.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like it rather than a meeting Mario, they're basically going to be the characters in Mario.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's weird.
[SPEAKER_02]: I know it's such a strange concept.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why not?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: So does that mean that
[SPEAKER_02]: Sony is doing that then that's a good question actually.
[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't didn't only get the like Archie some license or something.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know what happened.
[SPEAKER_00]: Something happened.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for all your incredible research skills by the way.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh yeah yeah no dude that's I'm the one in sort of the in front of the computer.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm the one who could make the magic happen here.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah starting in 2026, Sony is going to be publishing Archie comics.
[SPEAKER_02]: So essentially they're going to be a sub imprint.
[SPEAKER_02]: It'll still be Archie Publishing, but only is going to be the one basically making the magic pie.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm fulfilling a fulfillment comment comment for fun if you were kind of what IDW is doing for valiant.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, exactly the case.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and there's, oh, what is it?
[SPEAKER_02]: Is it massive?
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm trying to remember.
[SPEAKER_02]: What's the name of the publisher that puts out all the Indies under lunar?
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, whatever we do previews that we always wind up on like there might actually be, might actually be massive.
[SPEAKER_00]: I thought we could be massive.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: The massive and the more we're that behemoth, that whole thing is very confusing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've talked to them about trying to do books there and I'm still confused about which ones, the publisher, which ones the imprint.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: that's one of those massive indies is what it's called.
[SPEAKER_02]: So essentially you sign a deal with massive and they then sub-distribute your book similar to what we're talking about here with with thought.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's all the diamond fallout more than anything else.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know like after crazy couple of years.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh my god yeah I mean you know trust me we've we've talked about it
[SPEAKER_02]: It makes sense actually to bring this up to be honest with you, because like the the whole distribution model itself is a very different place than it then it was a couple years ago.
[SPEAKER_02]: IDW itself is, you know, through Penguin Random House, like that's where their brand butter is.
[SPEAKER_02]: And, you know, the case with a bunch of other publishers as well, they've chosen one route of the other, but the fact that there are multiple publishers now and not just the one.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, can Glamo, we own you of diamond kind of is a blessing in the skies in my mind, because you're not stuck within the terms of the giant behemoth.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, you know, Penguin Random House itself is a super giant behemoth.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is true.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's true.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's only you completely got away from that.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, no.
[SPEAKER_01]: that not everyone is at penguins, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Exactly, right.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, these DCs still with Lunar, and then there are other companies with Lunar, too.
[SPEAKER_01]: So like, there's some sort of like, you know, there are choices now, though.
[SPEAKER_02]: But that's, but that's just it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, there are choices.
[SPEAKER_00]: I believe I could get my DC trades from PRH if I wanted to.
[SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, DC singles, you know, I got an option for that.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's very interesting.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I will say this.
[SPEAKER_00]: The kind of comic shop I own is very, very small.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: 10 feet by 10 feet in an art market.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we're more like a comic book thrift store, but I can order my own books that I've made from PRH directly from them at retailer rate, which is really nice, especially because I've been working with IDW and Boom, so that's convenient.
[SPEAKER_00]: But even Lunars within my grasp were diamond would not have been, diamond would not have given me an account.
[SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely.
[SPEAKER_00]: If I wanted to order from Lunar, my understanding is that they're pretty chill about minimums and stuff like that, and they would probably just treat me like a specialty, like a small bookstore that also has some comics.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, but it's a possibility, and Diamond did not have that, uh, that window wasn't open their foot with that said nobody controlled the flow of information with as much, uh, accuracy, and detail as Diamond did.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we have lost, we've lost our sales numbers.
[SPEAKER_00]: We've lost our, uh, consistent sole source for solicits.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's, I mean, it's hard to know exactly.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it takes more work to know.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's been solicited.
[SPEAKER_02]: trust trust me as somebody who now needs to track down you know six different catalogs in order to do it in order to actually get stuff together and you know, I mean I am on the other hand I am very glad that at least Penguin Random House puts out individual, you know publisher catalogs because you know not
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, you work for IDW right now in LHS, but like Penguin Random House, can you please put together a better catalog?
[SPEAKER_02]: Can you do me like the favor of maybe, like actually having individual publishers inside your own catalog rather than here's the single comics.
[SPEAKER_02]: Here's the graphic novels, like no, that doesn't work.
[SPEAKER_01]: The problem with that, well there's two things with that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, someone who worked a diamond.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: Is one.
[SPEAKER_01]: their comic, their comic distribution for them is probably like this much.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, like how Marvel and DC are this much of like DC of Disney and one of others, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: So it they don't care.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the second thing is that catalog is going to be 8,000 pages and you're going to have to sift through it for 200 pages of comics because they publish all that other stuff that they publish.
[SPEAKER_01]: Cookbooks, fantasy, romance, action, science fiction.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's true.
[SPEAKER_01]: You have to sift through all of that in a mega catalog and I don't think you want to
[SPEAKER_00]: No, and also the the penguin team is pretty small like it's yeah, I would be shocked if they had more than it doesn't people that Trinar will handle the comic submission Wrap you how many times I've to tell you you have a job
[SPEAKER_00]: you're in the right city.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's true.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's not the mention of New York, still I believe at least I believe it is.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, even though I live, I live like a, they're on the west side.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm on the east side.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm directly across from them.
[SPEAKER_01]: But you know, yeah, I mean, it's interesting.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like,
[SPEAKER_00]: When I did, and think, I have to say, I do really appreciate the accessibility that penguins, of course, give them me to my own books, which is not something that existed previously.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, after all, when I did action, my books, I had the order them via action lab, and guess who upcharged and kept the cut of what I paid, action lab.
[SPEAKER_00]: But, you know, I don't have that issue.
[SPEAKER_00]: If I want to get my penguins stuff I can, but I'll give you an example with the Power Rangers book that we did.
[SPEAKER_00]: They solicited it with no coverer.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now here's the crazy thing about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Penguin owns boom.
[SPEAKER_00]: They own boom at the time.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: You couldn't have a shorter distance between contact points.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, sure.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: But, but graph same.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think they got other priorities.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, that's how these companies are there expected to make as much money as possible without with spending as little as possible.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's something that I think you kind of lose.
[SPEAKER_00]: So even though I can get my books easy, you know, the channel to retailers has changed.
[SPEAKER_02]: there were the last couple of months there with with diamond before things went entirely tits up.
[SPEAKER_02]: I remember before IDW made the official switch entirely to Penguin Random House, and there were still solicits for IDW in there.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'd say nine tenths of the stuff had no cover exactly what you're talking about.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was cover to be real.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so my wife's book was one of those books that got called on the cost per book came out in August of the year they changed over and the first dedicated month was June that they were dedicated solely to being PRH and they because it was a quarterly book, they solicited it in the May catalog instead of June one and they solicited the wrong thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, cover on it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Diamond had the one cover for it and it was, oh my god, it was such a mess.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we had the weight until the following month when the, the PRH agreement began to actually catch up for her correct cover to come out.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there was like, people became like cremnot, cremnot, what is cremnot, cremnot, cremnot, cremnot, cremnotologists.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've never said this word out loud before.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's tough to say.
[SPEAKER_00]: They became that about the funny aspects of her cover.
[SPEAKER_00]: So they solicited it with the wrong, and like once they finally updated it, they had like the wrong logo on it and people, like it was this whole thing where it was like, it was not that it was a, let's say it was a logo date that publisher themselves had decided to replace, but the files were getting real mixed up.
[SPEAKER_00]: I fell on a weird cusp of my first, my Godzilla issue, I did with them.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was,
[SPEAKER_00]: it came out at a week when IDW, or let me say I came out maybe two weeks after IDW would fire the entire marketing team.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I didn't know if there were going to be preview copies or of the book getting sent out.
[SPEAKER_00]: I had no idea what was going to happen for reviews.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was like, let's even go and on.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, the way that these companies are operating nowadays, it's like, yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's weird, man.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's getting real weird.
[SPEAKER_00]: The consistency is not there in the same way.
[SPEAKER_02]: Dark horse, I mean, what just happened with Dark Horse is frightening to be entirely honest with you, you know?
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, those of you- Even Bracer gonna want to keep Dark Horse.
[SPEAKER_00]: So are they gonna sell them?
[SPEAKER_00]: Are they gonna close them down?
[SPEAKER_00]: Are they gonna farm the, the,
[SPEAKER_00]: Licenses out.
[SPEAKER_02]: What are they going to do for one thing?
[SPEAKER_02]: They're embrace her group.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I don't trust them at all And embrace her group has done an amazing job of doing absolutely nothing for anything that they own Over over the years like they you know, they they they buy companies and then they fail You know THQ Nordic
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, I'm glad they're still a version of THQ that exists, but that initial disaster that happened over there when that was happening.
[SPEAKER_02]: I had, I didn't know for a while that Dark Horse was bought by them and then.
[SPEAKER_02]: When the news came out that they got rid of, you know, the only person who's been with Dark Horse since the very beginning, it's very founder and replaced him with a game executive.
[SPEAKER_02]: It, it, it tell, it told me that if the writing is not on the wall, then the writing is at least written on the printer that has going to print it to put it on the wall.
[SPEAKER_02]: that things are going to be changing at Dark Horse significantly and probably not for the matter.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it's.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, you can already tell from their catalog a bit because there's pretty heavy focus on licensed books.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: All these companies, the way they approach creator on stuff at the moment, is really unusual.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're hearing so many mixed messages from them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Dark Horse is one where they would take a chance to put out something really weird and really cool.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: but I've also heard from creators that maybe their expectations or experience didn't always line up with what they thought and that these are in the pre-embracer days.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it'll be interesting to see how that sort of shifts as we move forward.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like I think that I'll give you a small example of some I ran into.
[SPEAKER_00]: I had some IDW and was quoting the
[SPEAKER_00]: at some point where they had the Lara Croft license and I was excited to try and get some pitches in on some Tomb Raiders stuff and that was right around the time that embraced her bought Crystal Dynamics or whatever the branch, whatever branch of it is, I can't keep track of it, I don't know whichever one owned the Tomb Raiders stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's like it's really weird because you would think that that would mean that Dark Horse would just go all in and you'd be seeing a really robust line of Tomb Raiders comics but I don't really know if that's the case.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, the really hasn't been a lot of anything at a dark horse and I really would hit them most back in a day.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I mean, yes, they're making Star Wars comics again.
[SPEAKER_02]: So it's not like they don't have rights to certain Star Wars comics, but some stars.
[SPEAKER_02]: Exactly, some Star Wars, but not all Star Wars and when they had all Star Wars, that's when they were at their peak and when Marvel took the the the rights back, which again, may perfect sense because Marvel was owned by Disney and that's that synergy right there.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was kind of a, oh crap.
[SPEAKER_02]: What do we do now moment for Dark Horse?
[SPEAKER_02]: And I remember that's when they started to be a little bit more experiment to exactly what you're talking about because they were like, what's going to, what's going to, you know, stick, what's going to make sense like that.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's when they started doing some more superhero stuff than they'd ever done before.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's when they started doing some more out there comics and hoping that maybe those will be the ones that connect with audiences.
[SPEAKER_02]: Obviously, they still have their, you know, their hellboy, you know, out the Wahzu.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's always a minula comic to, to, to promote because of course, because he's the man.
[SPEAKER_02]: And always will be the man, but even that only goes so far for, for, for Dark Horse as their premier property that they currently own.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: what would you guys want to see from now what would you want to our course to be doing if they are thriving not just survive and what do you see what do they look like?
[SPEAKER_02]: I'll be honest with you.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean I I kind of like that they were trying their at least to put their toes into creating a universe for a little while there.
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, like something, even if it's not superheroes, like even if it's like crime or whatever, like, I want to see, I want to see a series of books rather than just, um, you know, this is going to be what we're going with at this particular moment.
[SPEAKER_02]: Blackhammer is theirs also, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: If I remember correctly.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, yes, that's been with them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Blackhammer.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know what kind of agreement that is.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if that's.
[SPEAKER_00]: actually they have a stake in it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, Jeff has just been with them because they've been good to him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
[SPEAKER_02]: But it's been there and Blackhammer could be that quite frankly, if if if if if given enough leeway because it's it's excellent it's excellent writing.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's excellent world building.
[SPEAKER_02]: They've had Pat and Oswald's comics coming out that that are that are working really well for them.
[SPEAKER_02]: But yeah, that's that's really what I would want like build a build a small universe like something similar to what Skybound did with with the you know the Kirkman stuff like make something work, you know, that's that's what it will
[SPEAKER_00]: energy on how that's as just from a business standpoint yeah and creatively I don't read all those books but I do appreciate all the work that's getting done on them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Wow the way that they manage that and how they continue to manage it and make it exciting and make it feel like we're all just waiting for them to do their next thing over there that's really a great lesson and how to put the universe together in this current climate that we have.
[SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely.
[SPEAKER_01]: So here's my thing with Dark Horse is
[SPEAKER_01]: If it's still on my embrace or I don't know.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's say I let's say I go I Move to Oregon and embrace her loves me and they replace their CEO with me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, I think I would still keep some of that video game Tying stuff going yeah, and maybe you know like like like Tomb Raider, I maybe I would expand that create them
[SPEAKER_01]: But on the other hand, this is something that's always bothered me, is you're based in Portland, Bendis is in Portland, Kelly Sudownic is in Portland, fraction is in Portland, why can't you come to them like, you know, image had has Kirkman, where image has, you know, right now Jeff Johns and his friends, they're doing their own university image, why can't dark horse have their own bendist fraction,
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, Yola, the mirror, like, maybe not together in the shared universe, but like a project.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sure, that they all kind of participate in.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, Portland's finest, if you will.
[SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely.
[SPEAKER_00]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, like, there's no, like, hey, you know, you're on the East Coast, can I schedule you for like a three, eight, three p.m. No, can you, can you drive 10 minutes to the office and talk about it?
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and that would be interesting and that's and that's something that I feel like, you know, if I mean we're not comparing apples to oranges here, but like that's what that's something that I feel like is something that's allowed ID w to continue to succeed.
[SPEAKER_02]: over the years is that they have such a wealth of different properties and especially, you know, Star Trek Ninja Turtles, you know, like like so many different directions that they've been able to go to diversify their portfolio over the years and like yeah, some of these things they don't own, they publish, but they're clearly going to still make plenty of money off the publishing itself.
[SPEAKER_02]: that continues to allow them to roll, diversifying the portfolio.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's what Dark Horse needs to do.
[SPEAKER_02]: Straight up, you know, period.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's my grail, by the way, is I want to be the first person to work on Ninja Turtles that people get confused by the name on the cover.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like did you did the did they get the turtle to write is this like some sort of manager?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, like rafai rafai else Who what what what?
[SPEAKER_02]: Wait, I thought their last name was Hamata.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh the splinter's last name is China.
[SPEAKER_01]: What?
[SPEAKER_01]: They're gonna make any sense.
[SPEAKER_01]: Doing I did have you ruining the total franchise, I do know you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh my god.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's funny because I was up, I applied while right after Diamond, I applied for an opening a paramount for brand manager.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it was a Nickelodeon.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I don't remember who's actually from Ninja Turtles, but it's Nickelodeon.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think, you know, not to to my own horn, but I really think Nickelonian dropped the ball, not making the brand manager.
[SPEAKER_00]: It really is a shame.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm the aside from Kevin Eastman and Peter Lerd and then the people who worked on Ninja Turtles.
[SPEAKER_01]: I arguably the most qualified person to work on Ninja Turtles.
[SPEAKER_01]: I got like that.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's good.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, on top, on top of the whole, like, you know, idea of what we're talking about with the publishers and stuff like that, I wanted to get your take on digital right now.
[SPEAKER_02]: I went on a whole thing with Martha is so when we recorded about where digital was heading.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I mean, you yourself,
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, I think that one of the, I mean, I mean, sure you want to have a small comic shop, but digital is to me such a way to get those smaller comics whether they're, I mean, smaller.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, Sonic and Godzilla is not smaller, but still, you know, like, it's a name brand out there and you're talking about the humans.
[SPEAKER_02]: I, you know, get them in the hands of them.
[SPEAKER_02]: Digital really is the way to go.
[SPEAKER_00]: digital's an interesting thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I never would have thought we would be where we are with digital when you and I were tabling in New York comic comics.
[SPEAKER_00]: That was a completely different climate.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think T.C.
[SPEAKER_03]: was still trying to get what was that thing called going and began with a Z.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have like a really weird name.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh my god.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh my
[SPEAKER_02]: That was a great imprint by the way.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm going to have to look it up because, like, it was cool.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, because they really dropped the ball on that way earlier than they should have because they had some really good books coming out of that.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm going to find the name of it as you talk, continue.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can't remember what it was, but you know, I had like a funny z-name, but
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, comicsology really came up around that time and I think the biggest mistake that comicsology made is that they wanted to be the diamond of digital and then when the opportunity came up to really maybe become that and sell to Amazon, they did it and look what happened.
[SPEAKER_00]: Comicsology is dead.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it doesn't.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can be a comicsology original now if you've already made the comic and you bring it to them.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's how you can become a comicsology original, which is just bizarre.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: And like, that's like, that doesn't even why.
[SPEAKER_00]: What's even the point then?
[SPEAKER_00]: In that case, you know, even the views is it anymore.
[SPEAKER_00]: Brent.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if everyone.
[SPEAKER_00]: Brent.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, Brent, you know, is the one who still uses it.
[SPEAKER_02]: He's the one he asked me and said, like, he literally like, Brent, Brent got love him.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, you know, my glorious co-host is the one who keeps comicsology on a limited alive because he has all these things that he took out 10 years ago that he hasn't read yet that.
[SPEAKER_02]: If he were to remove from his library, would no longer be available on Comic-Sology on Liberty, because that's how weird their system is.
[SPEAKER_02]: But as long as he has it checked out, he can still read it.
[SPEAKER_02]: And by the way, the Emperor was called Zuda, with Zuda, with Zuda.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I thought Zuda was a great idea.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the thing that was interesting about Zuda was that it was made to be read horizontally.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, which is what we've thought was going to be the future of reading the digital comic at first.
[SPEAKER_00]: We were all using laptops or devices weren't nearly powered enough to do anything with it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I used to review comics.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like 2006, 2007, I was the in-house reviewer for a website called Toy News International.
[SPEAKER_00]: Wow, yeah, I know this.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know there's a month to bring comics for them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Wow.
[SPEAKER_00]: It buy a personal check that the guy would send me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, then.
[SPEAKER_00]: And at some point, at the simultaneously, I was working demoing pet snacks for in pet smart and pet coat from like an independent company.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: And one time they said they name me there.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I don't know, like, freelancer of the month.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they sent me a palm pilot.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I thought I was so cool sitting on the fucking boss, reading my digital comments, and I'm like, hey, no, I'm on a palm pilot.
[SPEAKER_00]: Zoom out.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hell, yeah, yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Zoom out.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it was terrible.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the PDFs were like one megabyte and the quality was trash.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you know what, I was doing it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that got me into wanting, then I started making web comics and that got me into thinking about what the future digital comics are going to be.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I really pushed, I used to sell digital comics at my booths and conventions.
[SPEAKER_00]: And let me tell you, I didn't sell many of them.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I tried a lot of different things, and then I don't think we ever really surpassed the heyday of web comics in terms of making original digital comics.
[SPEAKER_00]: That was about as good as it got.
[SPEAKER_00]: But that was also very different because a lot of those were strips.
[SPEAKER_00]: So at most you're getting a page of the time, typically.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was hoping that we were going to see some kind of evolution of the way tapest was working or something like that.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: where we were going to be giving people larger chunks.
[SPEAKER_00]: So when I launched a web comic in 2020 and I tried, I sent out press releases and got it on some new sites and stuff like that, I was also selling chapters on gum road.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was like, this could be maybe this could be sustainable and you guess what?
[SPEAKER_00]: No, absolutely unsustainable and every way what's to ever can.
[SPEAKER_00]: Didn't make any sense.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I wasn't worth doing it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because right around the turn of this decade is when the audience completely coalesced around the web-toon format.
[SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely, it's just so funny because it couldn't be more different than what we thought Web Comics were going to be.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's earlier.
[SPEAKER_02]: Absolutely.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's so right now, I think we're in a really weird space where all these publishers are rushing to catch up with the fact that Web 2 and has an audience that you simply can't even generate in the book market.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so they're just trying to put out things they published in the past, digital digital digital vertical, vertical.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the thing is about it, that for a very small select number of people, that's going to be a great business for the vast majority of comic book storytellers or just comic storytellers.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're not really going to see anything out of that.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're still going to have to collect it yourself and print it and crowdfunded or take it to conventions, whatever.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think we're at a super weird time for digital comics right now because we thought that super hero comics digitally were going to have like a really vibrant marketplace, but that marketplace is almost completely gone.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you know, I would say we find more people nowadays who pirate the big two comics.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then just go buy the issues they like.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're still great customers.
[SPEAKER_00]: Nobody's saying they're not buying the comics, but they're reading them first so they can read them the moment they drop and then they're going to the
[SPEAKER_00]: shop Thursday Friday, whatever, picking up the issues they collect.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's where we are in it's such a weird space.
[SPEAKER_00]: I really don't even know what's going to happen next.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I'll tell you what, two things immediately come to my one.
[SPEAKER_02]: We mentioned Zuda, we mentioned DC doing their digital initiative.
[SPEAKER_02]: What are they on right now?
[SPEAKER_02]: Web two.
[SPEAKER_02]: D.C. Publisha stuff through Webtoon in a very similar way that they were doing Zuda back in a day.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's just now they don't have the overhead of having to maintain a digital front themselves.
[SPEAKER_02]: They can just go ahead and publish it on Webtoon and then Webtoon deals with it.
[SPEAKER_02]: Two, what the main publishers seem to be going for these days.
[SPEAKER_02]: is the Netflix model, which is, you know, Marvel Unlimited, DC Infinite, they're putting out their own subscription models, which I've subscribed to, because obviously, if I read three comic books in like a four month period, I'm still paying for my subscription, because because I have a sense of comics are now.
[SPEAKER_02]: But like, that's where Marvel and DC have gone.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's everyone in between that in between space.
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's because,
[SPEAKER_02]: Kindle is still ubiquitous, whether we like it or not, you know, they have the former comicsology space.
[SPEAKER_02]: They have Brent as their last subscriber to comicsology and limited.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm going to throw that out there one more time.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they got the, they got the panel to panel technology.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, they do.
[SPEAKER_00]: The places have mimic, but have not done as effectively.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, if you look, if you look at more of one limited 10 years ago to now, it is so much of a better environment now, however you still can't search for shit and that's disappointing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Those apps are challenging.
[SPEAKER_00]: They have a lot of growing pains.
[SPEAKER_00]: Marvel on limited, I was on as soon as it launched.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was like, I'm so happy this exists.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I'm not going to be able to enjoy it for a long time because they would be missing issue four out of a five issue miniseries just randomly, you know, it was like very strange at first.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, obviously they've done a great job of taking those catalogs and I love to see it.
[SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, if you want to tell original stories and you want to start digitally, I guess you just make a web tune now.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I don't really know what else there is.
[SPEAKER_00]: I spend a lot of time trying to explore this and I think one of the reasons that I've probably shifted my focus towards making licensed comics is because I had a great deal of passion for
[SPEAKER_00]: making digital comics, but the possibilities seem missing at the moment.
[SPEAKER_00]: The audience doesn't really seem to be gravitating towards anything other than a vertical school.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, what is good at least is that, I mean, if you want to bring it back to IDW for a minute, IDW has their own app, you know, where you can download, where you can buy, you know, books digitally and stuff like that.
[SPEAKER_02]: They're on global comics gold as well now.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, you know, they have comics that are digitally available on there.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's a robust library system available now for a whole bunch of stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, you guys use who?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, I love who.
[SPEAKER_02]: I had to, I had to sign up for a young girl's library card in order to get hoopa because because I'm close enough to young girls that it's able to work, but New York City doesn't pay for hoopa.
[SPEAKER_02]: And even what?
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, okay.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, that's a scandal.
[SPEAKER_02]: But here's the thing, hoopa charges out the ass.
[SPEAKER_02]: to library systems.
[SPEAKER_02]: In fact, there was just, I just got an email a couple of weeks ago actually that that Yonkers had to change the amount of books that they allow people to have checked out.
[SPEAKER_00]: Wait, so once the change?
[SPEAKER_02]: So it went from being, I think, five a month down to, I think, three.
[SPEAKER_02]: As they, they charge per checkout at Hupa.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're on Libby, is that what they call it?
[SPEAKER_00]: Or did it?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I'm just named Libby.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, probably.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sure.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, Libby, your library owns the digital books in the collection.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Who below?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just borrow.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And if it's on who below, you get it in something like which is great if you're a consumer.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I love it.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're very fortunate about here in LA library system.
[SPEAKER_00]: We get 15 a month.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if I want to, like, go on there right now and just do, do, do, do, do, do, you know, you use all 15 and it's great.
[SPEAKER_00]: They got movies.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can watch them on my TV on my roco.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what I mean?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like it's great.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, but yeah, I don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's, it's, what, how do we end up in this weird situation?
[SPEAKER_00]: Distribution's crumbling.
[SPEAKER_00]: Uh, the digital, uh, funnels narrowed so much that it feels like the what they're like.
[SPEAKER_00]: four sources, you can go to Amazon if you want, or you have to go to the publishers, or even go to your library, or you have to make it look like a Webton, or really nobody's going to read it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's just a, in general, like media is compressing right now we got, we got paramount skydance Warner Brothers, which has HBO, TNT, TBS, Discovery, CBS, Crazy, Paramount Plus, HBO, like everything is just everything's compressing down and everything.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then so every single company with any sort of
[SPEAKER_01]: you know due to least to make the most like you were talking about before and it's like it's just so frustrating because like I look at at least I look at my I mean even like my own like comic habits have changed I mean I used I mean I was crazy though when I was still working at a mid 10 and in diamond I was reading you know 200 comics a month because I could because I could just go to work and read it lunch and you know and I had you know I was the guy
[SPEAKER_01]: sure great but like now I don't have that pressure but also like I don't have incentive like like I don't right really feel this dry I feel like there just doesn't seem to be that exciting I mean that's that's not that's not too completely like I do love what I did up you's doing overall yeah um I do love what these these been doing overall yes and I'm working so great like you know the one book I was excited about from Marvel you know they killed because
[SPEAKER_01]: They don't like dark home.
[SPEAKER_01]: They don't like white.
[SPEAKER_02]: They just wrath.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you for bringing it up, actually, because we were talking on our comic timing, like message group that we have with all the members of the show and stuff like that.
[SPEAKER_02]: And, you know, there was a clip of Dan Slot.
[SPEAKER_02]: He was on the word blue and podcast a couple of weeks ago, and he made perfectly clear that if you want his books to succeed, you have to order issue one.
[SPEAKER_02]: And you have to order issue two and you probably even have to order issue three because right now what you write right now at Marvel.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a five issue cycle.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like it doesn't matter whether or not it says it's it ongoing.
[SPEAKER_02]: If you do not sell well on issues one and two, you have a five issue many series and it's going to be closed at issue five, whether you had 12 issues of story to tell or not.
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's just where we are right now, you know, at least we're
[SPEAKER_00]: More was an interesting bag like they're the last hold out from going to the west coast.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think the question is, are they going to make the jump is Disney going to force them to make the jump at some point?
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that their business models a little bit different because of that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think that the climate there's a little bit different.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm really curious to see what this next decade looks like for them.
[SPEAKER_00]: If doomsday flops, well, it's not going to flop.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if doomsday underperforms, what happens?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's foggy out.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do we get a re-invisioned, are we going back to the comics?
[SPEAKER_00]: Is R&D rather than chasing what they're doing in the, you know, not that they don't, they do obviously continue to develop wonderful ideas for every single week and they put out great issues.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's, let's not get it twisted.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, they're announcing things coming up in their summer event that are intended to mirror what we know is going good characters.
[SPEAKER_00]: Of course.
[SPEAKER_00]: And connections we're going to see in Doomsday, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: Which always works every single time always works and has like, like, remember when the expman, all of a sudden we're wearing leather in the comics that always works.
[SPEAKER_01]: It did work.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, civil war too coming out when the civil war movie came out.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: That was ridiculous.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: We've seen with DC that the movies have to, you know, succeed or fail on their own merits.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: And with Marvel, they've obviously succeeded quite a bit.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I think that we've also seen that if your comics take really big chances, the readers are going to respond to it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, what they've done with,
[SPEAKER_00]: all in and absolute.
[SPEAKER_00]: And even Kayo, I know that I've had some friends that, you know, Kay was been for them and hasn't been for them.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the truth is, they're reinvigorating things with the way they're approaching.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's just a stupid amount of fun.
[SPEAKER_02]: It really is.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, it is, it is the as close to a manga as DC has gotten with their overall plot wine because they're literally putting out a battle comic.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, that's, I got a most sitting here.
[SPEAKER_01]: I got to read them all at some
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a damn amount of fun.
[SPEAKER_02]: It really is.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I've actually, you know, that was one of my long dreams was to just do a battle comic.
[SPEAKER_00]: And at some point I pitched them on.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not going to say who the character was, but I pitched it.
[SPEAKER_00]: To D.C. it was the character and it was just that versus.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it was going to be every issue would be a different outrageous battle.
[SPEAKER_00]: And trust me, this is not whoever you think this character is.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not what you think it was.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I definitely see why they didn't do it.
[SPEAKER_00]: with that said.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: So if you want to be able to fight everyone.
[SPEAKER_01]: Wow.
[SPEAKER_01]: She's like, if you want to be able to be able to be able to fight everyone, I'll tell you what.
[SPEAKER_00]: It wasn't that bad, but it might as well have been.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's basically that too.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I think the editor was like sure buddy send me the pitch sounds great Like just so he could be laughing at it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh my god But yeah, that's what we all want right creators.
[SPEAKER_00]: We want to make a battle comic readers.
[SPEAKER_00]: We want to read a battle comic It's so much fun.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I do like what Marvel's doing.
[SPEAKER_00]: I honestly was an X-Men relaunch skeptic But I love what they're doing with the X-Men line.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that said it is tough when everything when you know that there's that kind of mini series
[SPEAKER_00]: energy to everything.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not that they're not going to keep doing great stories, but I'm curious to see how Marvel, you know, DC, you know, raised the bet, let's see how Marvel answers.
[SPEAKER_00]: Are they going to knock or are they going to?
[SPEAKER_02]: This is the way the pendulum swings though.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, like, like, there there are there are a couple of years where, you know, it's all Marvel, Marvel, Marvel, baby, and then DC's a little bit down and then there's years where DC, DC, DC, and then they're a little bit down and even now and yeah, but even now in the movie space,
[SPEAKER_02]: Unfortunately, you know, Paramount Warner Bros. HBO Max go is made very well lined up, you know, causing some issues in that movie space once that merger winds up happening, which by the way, I don't think we've 100% mentioned on this show because it's been a couple of weeks.
[SPEAKER_02]: We had a couple episodes about that Netflix acquisition.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: How that happened.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not fully convinced that this Paramount Warren Brothers thing is going to go forward.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just everything is so unpredictable right now and I know Larry Ellison's been doing as much as he can do to cozy up before you know like like ahead of time to announcing this.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know man.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just feel like this is really one of your classic anti-trust scenarios.
[SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely.
[SPEAKER_00]: Please.
[SPEAKER_00]: How can it really happen?
[SPEAKER_00]: We've never seen anything this big.
[SPEAKER_02]: Look, if JetBlue couldn't merge with Spirit, like, what do you think about that?
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, there was a merger on the table between JetBlue and the one where you have to fly the plane, and that could not go through, because that was considered anti-trust.
[SPEAKER_02]: And yet here we are, again, different administration, we're not a political podcast, we're not going to get into it, but still different different situations.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, so obviously they've done what they can do to appeal to hours of being.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, of course.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know either.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's very interesting.
[SPEAKER_02]: But either way, to go back to my initial statement, though, I feel like now DC even has a little bit of the extra momentum in the movie space and the TV space.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like lanterns is coming out soon.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a window off production.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm hyped for it, even if even if some people aren't because it's costume was green enough.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, you know, super girls coming out this year, we've got the sequel to Superman coming out next year, like, there's a lot of good stuff on the table now at D.C. and Marvel's kind of playing a little bit of catch up for the first time in a while.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, you were saying, I don't think you were saying the ups and downs at D.C. and Marvel, I don't think D.C. has been on top since the 90s.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no
[SPEAKER_01]: that's how me about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've heard Marvel has their own thing in the works that they think is not an absolute killer, but I think an absolute competitor.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm really curious to see how it lands.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, traditionally I would normally say these at the trying to do the thing that's going to it doesn't always work when you try to do the comparable thing.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: But look, absolute certainly must have been inspired partially by this success of the reinvigorated ultimate line.
[SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know?
[SPEAKER_00]: But then it somehow surpassed it, so maybe Marvel can do the same with what they've got.
[SPEAKER_02]: Also, I see you laughing their laugh.
[SPEAKER_02]: That was unintentionally.
[SPEAKER_02]: Absolutely.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was unintentionally.
[SPEAKER_01]: That was your second absolutely by the word.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I blame you.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_02]: I warned you from you.
[SPEAKER_02]: Ultimately.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, you did.
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't know what'll happen.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, it's so ultimate what DST is doing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh my god.
[SPEAKER_00]: Could it be in New Universe?
[SPEAKER_00]: Could we be seeing a new 52 weeks of books?
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_02]: It would have to be iconic.
[SPEAKER_02]: But you know, well, well, MC2.
[SPEAKER_00]: will be epic whatever happens.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's true.
[SPEAKER_02]: Just because we talked about it and you know, we'll get back to some wrap-ups and stuff like that.
[SPEAKER_02]: But obviously the brand new day trailer dropped on the day that we're recording this.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm impressed, honestly, it had, it had the feel that I wanted it to and it kind of feels like, you know, sad Mopi Spider-Man, but that's my favorite Spider-Man sometimes is sad Mopi Spider-Man and getting his way out of it.
[SPEAKER_02]: Man's spider storyline quite possibly.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, like, please.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh my God, yes, I'm down, I'm completely down, as long as we don't get organic web shooters forever, then I'm perfectly okay.
[SPEAKER_02]: But, you know, what are you going to do?
[SPEAKER_01]: If we get emo Peter, I'll be even happier.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh my god.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's looking super emo.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, he's absolutely in the air down.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Point it some people on the street.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, you mean my Spider-Man 3D?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, obviously.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, we still have very fond memories of going to see that movie, Raff and I, and walking down the street doing the Spider-Man 3 dads afterwards in a very, almost 20 years since then.
[SPEAKER_02]: I know, I know, oh, yeah, but it's a good time.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a good time to be a spider man fan at least, especially with like, even even the case he's coming out right now, like it's, it's a bit, it's a bit of a reinvigration there and talking crossovers, super man spider man happening in the not-too-distant future as well.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, oh, I can't
[SPEAKER_02]: but they bring back to your crossover.
[SPEAKER_02]: How many, how many issues do we have to?
[SPEAKER_02]: I know.
[SPEAKER_00]: How many issues we're looking at for the, for the summer?
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so I don't know if I'm supposed to say that yet.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, to be honest with you, very enough.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I will say it's in keeping with what we are seeing for many series other places.
[SPEAKER_00]: Got it.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have to go.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is okay fair enough fair enough.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know just because they I don't think they've said it So I don't want to be the one to not.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's my break any information.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know I don't know what they're precious about it's you can never guess I got about a you're gonna be read Let's let me just say this book is Start ninja lie unless you know something happens, but you know the way things are going out It sure anything good.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, right and you should anticipate to be reading it through the end of the year
[SPEAKER_00]: and then hopefully around this time next year we'll have a collection out for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: That'll be gorgeous.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hell yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we'll have you down to talk about the next one.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: I just seem to be collecting IDW.
[SPEAKER_01]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_02]: I just need to be collecting IDW writers.
[SPEAKER_02]: And you know, I had Tim Sheridan on it not too long ago.
[SPEAKER_02]: So like we're just going to go down the list, slowly but surely and get to everybody and get Freddy.
[SPEAKER_02]: Freddy for Ninja Turtles.
[SPEAKER_02]: There you go, baby.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, I haven't haven't thought to him at a while, but it doesn't put me in that book.
[SPEAKER_02]: I am super excited for you, Nick, man.
[SPEAKER_02]: This entire book looks like a joy and it looks like you're having fun out there.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I love to see friends of mine succeed and get to do things like this at the big boys and hell yeah, man, absolutely.
[SPEAKER_02]: What everybody know where they can find you and also for that matter, you never actually mentioned the name of your shop.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: I keep it kind of close to the device.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I live in a Sam Pedro, not Sam Pedro, California, which is, uh, it's worth the very end of Los Angeles.
[SPEAKER_00]: And our shop is in an art market called Crafted.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the shop itself is called Cabrio Beach Curiosities.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're open Friday to Sunday.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if you're in the LA area, come hang out, shoot the shit, talk about some comics.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know,
[SPEAKER_00]: We really get along.
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll go head over there afterwards.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hell yeah, you know, but yeah, hopefully I'll be whatever that bucket list.
[SPEAKER_00]: license, we'll be making that announcement soon.
[SPEAKER_00]: I hope.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: Where she stopped to pick the pitch for that one.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm still waiting on the the stakeholder to decide what the story is going to be.
[SPEAKER_00]: They had me go back the first pitch they sent along so insane.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it was like, and I was like, I can't believe they picked this one out of the group.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was like, this is so great.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is such a dream come true.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then they were like, yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they were like, they were cool about it, you know, but I think they wanted something a little more traditional, which I gave them.
[SPEAKER_00]: They said specifically the phrase was high stakes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I've given them two pitches, both with the title high stakes.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we'll see how they feel about that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And yeah, it should be good.
[SPEAKER_00]: Guys, I was so nice to catch up with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's been a while since we talked.
[SPEAKER_00]: So this was really, this was a joy.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it just should shed about comics and hell yeah, life and stories.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yep.
[SPEAKER_02]: Come back at it time you want Nick.
[SPEAKER_02]: We're happy to have.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, but I already know it so much, but everybody know where they could find you on the socials and all of us.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, most of the time I'm at Nick Moreno, but sometimes I'm not because somebody got there first.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, just type in my name and see what happens.
[SPEAKER_00]: See if you find me or you find someone else.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, well, I will find your I will find your handles and and put them in the in the show notes Just one way or the other so if you do the wrong ones, I don't be funny too.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's okay.
[SPEAKER_02]: That is a music.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah I know a few people who uh, you know whenever they get emails from not them like if somebody uses their email instead of their own email They'll then like right back
[SPEAKER_02]: an entire, you know, fake letter or something like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, you know, although I'm subscribed them from whatever Netflix plan, they accidentally subscribed them for like, well, it's, I got Nick Marino's in all over the world wanting Canada one in Italy who used my email address for their bank accounts.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, that's messed up.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, guys, like, are you kidding me?
[SPEAKER_00]: And the one in Italy, they can't seem to change the email address on the account.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm getting this guy's information.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not a lot of you.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's got it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's got a nice little chunk of your rows in that account.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm trying to see if I can transfer that.
[SPEAKER_02]: Hey, hey, well, well, we didn't hear about any crimes here on this podcast.
[SPEAKER_02]: I want to make that perfectly clear that I'm sorry.
[SPEAKER_02]: I just blacked out for the last 30 seconds.
[SPEAKER_02]: What's this happening?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, exactly.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just saying if it's my email address, it's your email.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not really mine.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's your money and you deep cash now.
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh-huh.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yep.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_01]: You get it, Ralph.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, one other thing I meant to, I meant to mention, when we were talking to apps real quick and I promised, well, after this will wrap it up, is that if you haven't checked out the app comics plus, I don't know if you have access via the LA library system, but that's another great one.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, yeah, they've got, they've got everybody.
[SPEAKER_02]: Including IDW, you name it, they've got it, yep.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what, when I first started using it, it didn't, I was still wanting some options, maybe I didn't find it, and I'm hoping, because that was maybe like a use.
[SPEAKER_00]: have to go.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sounds like they've expanded and they brought in more, which is great.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_02]: They definitely have their searcher still asked, but you know, so is everybody.
[SPEAKER_02]: So you know, what, what can you think?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: These companies are doing the best.
[SPEAKER_00]: They came with two employees, so whatever.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, it's like, it's insane.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yep.
[SPEAKER_02]: Wrath where the worker they find you.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm Wrath does stuff pretty much everywhere Most socials, but I don't use a lot of my socials.
[SPEAKER_01]: I do stream on twitch where I talk to myself about all this what we do here What we just did except to to myself.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, occasionally, there's other people there, too, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, I'll then.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Also, I am the DM of, uh, of a core on the edge, which is my own home brew world.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's, every other week, it's Sunday this week, because I have plans on Saturday.
[SPEAKER_01]: A certain fancy baseball draft, we couldn't get moved, so I have to do it during my game time.
[SPEAKER_02]: I have no idea what you're talking about.
[SPEAKER_02]: However, thanks for reminding me, because I almost made plans for Saturday.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you
[SPEAKER_01]: Anyway, yeah, so that's me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Easiest way to find me is I'm gonna restart my WordPress and I've got Raph does stuff that calm lined up.
[SPEAKER_02]: I just need to get my paycheck and pay for it And you also have the comic timing Patreon where you can post stuff as well.
[SPEAKER_02]: So there you go
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, about that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Anywho, I got like 90 books to review and it's like, I don't get time.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, well, you definitely have some YouTube shorts to make, Mr. YouTube short.
[SPEAKER_01]: I owe you like 700 YouTube shorts.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know.
[SPEAKER_02]: I've read a short box in between, like, last the one in this one.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, good, because they're called YouTube shorts, so you've read a short box, you'll have plenty of things to do.
[SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, but those are technically YouTube longs.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I can't if you need to make a YouTube long YouTube long.
[SPEAKER_02]: I love it that I'm creating a separate website called YouTube longs right now If it doesn't already exist.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh my god, and on that note
[SPEAKER_02]: email address for comic timing is comic timing at gmail.com, facebook.com slash comic timing as we can find this conversation and converse with us as well.
[SPEAKER_02]: Also the comic timing fan group is a lovely group to join, so go ahead and do that as well.
[SPEAKER_02]: One blue sky is comic timing, one Instagram is comic timing podcast, and we are on threads as comic timing podcast as well.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thanks once again to Nick for joining us, thanks to Ralph, thanks
[SPEAKER_02]: There's always time for comics and God Zuki If you weren't gonna do what I was gonna do it.
[SPEAKER_02]: Ian I've been lying to you.
[SPEAKER_02]: I know nothing about God Zilla
[SPEAKER_02]: You've been really good at pretending all these years, man.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, you were on an episode with Sean Pryor and he did an entire book on it and I knew things that he didn't know.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you just have Wikipedia up like, that's why I have the third monitor now.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, I'm a 24, 7.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, okay.
[SPEAKER_02]: Next thing you'll tell me is that you've never even watched a Star Trek.
[SPEAKER_04]: Like, well,