Pull Party Presents | Austin Allen Hamblin: Big Guns, Stupid Rednecks, and Other Bad Decisions

We sat down with comic writer and all-around comic nerd Austin Allen Hamblin to talk about his new book Big Guns, Stupid Rednecks.

Austin talks about growing up in rural Iowa, discovering comics through Fantastic Four and Jack Kirby, meeting Phil Hester when he was only ten years old, and eventually going from asking Hester how to make comics to actually working with him. That's about as full-circle as it gets.

We also get into the 10-year struggle to get Big Guns, Stupid Rednecks published, the importance of comic shops, self-publishing, Kickstarter, conventions, and why sometimes you just have to keep beating on the door until somebody finally lets you in.

Then things get weird.

We talk about Smile If You Farted, Adventures of Punk and Rock, wrestling comics, redneck movies, tractors, FFA, high school journalism, the scrambled cable channels and the Jehovah's Witness.

And because this is Pull Party, we eventually abandon the topic completely and start talking about Lanterns, Peacemaker, James Gunn, Batman Forever, Fantastic Four, Amalgam Comics, and why Ben Grimm is one of the greatest comic book characters ever created.

Oh, and Austin leaves us with the only piece of advice you really need:

Don't be a dick.

Honestly, that's probably the most important thing we discussed.

Go buy Big Guns, Stupid Rednecks. Support indie comics. Support comic shops. And maybe don't tell the Jehovah's Witnesses where you live.

For all things Austin Allen Hamblin

For all things Pull Party

Chapters

00:00 — Meet Austin Hamblin

02:40 — Big Guns, Stupid Rednecks

12:14 — Discovering Comics

19:41 — The Road to Publication

28:13 — Rednecks, Comics & Storytelling

38:41 — Growing Up in the Bible Belt

46:39 — Movies, Tractors & High School

56:40 — Wrestling & K-Fabe

1:02:23 — Random Tangents & Bad Opinions

1:06:58 — Lanterns & the DC Universe

1:13:02 — Fantastic Four & Ben Grimm

1:20:13 — Amalgam Comics

1:24:31 — Don't Be a Dick

1:27:33 — See You, Degenerates

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