Daniel Warren Johnson Returns With CHAINKATA - Chainsaw Sci-Fi Epic!

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And I'm literally saying out loud in the coffee shop, ringing.
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Ringing.
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Ringing.
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Looking at you like, what the hell is going on with this dude?
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I can't help it.
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Welcome back to Direct Edition.
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My name is Dave, and I've got a great interview for you today.
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Danny Warren Johnson is back to talk about his brand new book, Chaincotta, Chicks with Chainsaws.
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That's right.
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Uh Dan is a veteran of this podcast, a fourth-time guest, I believe.
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And I told him when I did the last interview that we had to have a long, epic interview for when his creator on Sci-Fi Epic comes out, and the time is now.
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Today is July 27th.
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San Diego Comic-Con is in the rearview mirror.
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Some of you have copies of Chaincotta because there was an Ashcan edition released by Dan.
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That is the edition that I had read previous to this interview.
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So if you read it, holy shit, you know how awesome it is.
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And if you haven't, well, you will.
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So um me and Dan get to talk about the inspiration behind the sh the story and how much work he's put into it, the years, not just the years, the sweat equity, the amount of pages that he's done and redone for that matter, and the techniques that he's using for this black and white with splashes of color uh on this book.
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So we get to hear some inside information that uh about the creation of it, about how it's going to be released, a little bit of the plot, but not enough to really spoil anything, and the uh the madness, the madness involved with creating a sci-fi epic comic book.
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So many other things that we talk about.
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Obviously, we talk about manga in Japan and books and what he's reading, what I'm reading.
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Uh, I think we dive into movies a little bit, but we didn't get to talk about obsession, which I totally forgot to, but I'm sure I'll have Dan back on and we can talk about Obsession.
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Maybe he didn't like it.
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I want to say you should be able to pre-order it from your LCS in the next month or so.
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It's coming out in November, and right now Dan has Duo Powerbomb Black and White Edition out, and then next year, Beta Ray Bill, the artist edition, will be coming out.
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So we we talk about a little bit of everything.
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It's a great conversation with my favorite comics maker working in comics right now, and I hope you really enjoy it.
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Here's my interview with Daniel Warren Johnson.
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Do I see the art of Daniel Warren Johnson hardcover back there?
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Oh, it's a whole wall.
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Yeah, it's the whole wall, dude.
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This is this is me.
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This is how I do my shit.
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Here, yeah, I got the the you know, the sketch copy, the regular copy.
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I bought that before I bought the painting because I didn't know anyway.
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Spent a lot of money, but it's okay.
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It's just money.
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Um everybody.
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Um, I don't really need to introduce uh my next guest.
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You've seen him before.
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Uh, he is a four-time masters champion, uh, three US opens, two heavyweight title belts, and he's got a new book coming out called Chainkata, but yeah, it's Danny Warren Johnson.
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Hello, hello.
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Hey Dan.
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It's funny you brought up golf because I did golf today.
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Of course.
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Uh well, because I was a little bit stressed out about the big announcement.
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And uh sure enough, just shot an even 100.
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Did not play well today.
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Go figure.
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My mind was elsewhere.
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I wonder what else is going on in my life right now.
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Yeah, a new series, I guess.
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Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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That was a surprise because I didn't, you know, we hadn't actually talked about when you were gonna announce it.
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And uh it just like today was like a confluence of all these things because you've you announced the book today.
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Felix started uh Felix Comic-Con or whatever they call it, whatever he calls it, and then uh Do a Powerbomb Black and White comes out this week, which I actually already read thanks to my insider.
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Uh I get I get stuff early at my comic store if I'm gonna interview somebody that week.
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Um I didn't even know it came out this week.
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I know that my comps just came in the mail, so yeah, I didn't know either.
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I I walked into my comic store yesterday and he just had you know the piles of it and the different variant covers.
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I'm like, oh shit, this comes out this week.
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Oh yeah.
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And it looks awesome.
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It does.
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You know, it's funny because you know, it's just the first issue, and I was immediately like, damn, I really want to keep reading it, and I could just go get you know the the graphic novel off my shelf.
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And I'm like, ah, let the anticipation build, and I'll just read it as it comes out in black and white.
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I was reading it um a few months ago.
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I had to approve the third or fourth printing on the trade paperback.
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Um and I had to look through the entire thing um on the printer's website.
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So you basically have to read the whole just to make sure.
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And I found myself reading my book again, and I was like, oh my god, this is really good.
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Yes, it is.
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It is.
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Um, I mean, that was my first book of yours because like I had heard your name, you know.
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I I I guess I had heard your name because something was coming out, like people were talking about your name, and somebody had said that you did a wrestling comic.
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I'm like, oh shit, I've never actually read like a wrestling comic that at least I that stuck with me.
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And yeah, that was my introduction to your work, was uh was reading that, and and then I was like, yoink, murder falcon, yoink, extremity, yoink, you know, like it was just it's I mean, I I wonder if you're like that, and that's kind of like a I like I like to hear about stuff like this.
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When you discover a new artist, whether it's a comic, uh somebody creating a comic or a musician or a filmmaker or whatever, do you do that?
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Do you just like, oh, I love this, I want to digest all of their work as quickly as possible?
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I don't do it as quickly as I should.
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Um, yeah.
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I should probably be way more intentional about that.
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I I'm not good about staying on top of things that I like need to read or need to listen to.
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Um, but for the most part, yes, it just happens on a more kind of like slow level.
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Uh like I've been meaning to read Knights of Sedonia for five years.
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Uh because you know, I've read Apossums, um, I've read Blame.
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I uh Tower Dungeon is my favorite manga coming out right now.
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Um so Knights of Sedonia obviously is an older book with a different style.
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Um yeah, so like those are like his that's like his like space mullet, you know, for me, like the the analogous whatever.
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And so uh, but yeah, like I just managed to like remember to pick it up at Barnes and Noble, which they had, you know, it's not like they have Knights of Sedonia really lying around.
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Sure.
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And I don't really want to like in, you know, it's like all some of these mangas, they're not technically out of print, but like no comic book shop is gonna have them.
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So I'm talking specifically about manga right now, but um, it could be anything.
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I remember like I'm a I was I'm such a huge Michael Golden fan, and Felix uh Felix Lou was telling me about this one uh issue of Doctor Strange that he did.
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Uh it's like a one-shot.
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You know what I'm talking about?
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I don't remember what number it is.
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Yeah, I know.
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And it's fantastic.
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Yeah, it's like a one-shot.
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Yeah, Google Michael, Michael Golden.
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Um might have been a Marvel fanfare, actually.
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I'm pretty sure it was a Doctor Strange issue.
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Okay.
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It's either issue five or fifty or something.
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All right, I'm sure.
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Oh, yeah, it's like five is a few.
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I think it's fifty.
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Yeah.
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Okay, yeah.
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Well, there you go.
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Um, and I didn't even know that.
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So, and I'm a huge Michael Golden fan, but to be honest, sometimes I like stumbling on stuff by creators that I love.
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You know, every once in a while I will go on a hunt, but uh thing I I here's the real thing.
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TLDR, I own too many books.
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I am way I'm like, I don't read them fast enough.
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This is why I'm answering it this way, this question.
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Yeah.
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Well, you and me both, except my business is to sell books, but I still like I just bought a piece of a manga collection that that Wandering Island I just showed you was part of, but I got like an entire run of the Dark Horse uh Tezuka uh Astro Boy, so that's in English, so I want to read that.
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And I got like an entire run of Fists of the North Star, the actual original Tonko Bonds, so I want to look through those.
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Yeah, and it's like, you know, it's just uh it's not enough time in life.
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But speaking of time, it is today was your time to announce your brand new book, which it's funny because the people who know knew the name of the book for what, like a year?
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It's gotta be slipped up maybe like a year ago, chain kata.
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Yep, I I said it on a live stream because I'm a dummy.
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And I don't know why I was so protective of it.
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I really I think I was really happy with the name, and I was maybe worried that people were gonna steal it, which I don't really think would happen, but no.
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Um, you know, I get in my own head about my stuff, and then I'm like, oh I gotta make sure I keep it secret, keep it safe.
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Yeah, yeah.
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Yeah, but yeah, the people that knew knew, and uh everybody in the chat was like, you want to slip, you want to slip in real time.
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I was like, hey, let's all be real here, and uh, can you just not tell anybody this?
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And you know what?
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It didn't get it, it did not get out.
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It was not a single person like across social media, YouTube, like uh anything.
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Reddit, nothing.
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The name did not get out.
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It got it um gosh, Google Gemini, the AI Google thing, found out maybe a month ago because my lawyer submitted it for the copyright in like the official copyright office, which you know nobody's gonna know.
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What's the new series titled by Daniel War Joss?
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Chain Cotta, you know.
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And people wouldn't even know what that was if they saw it, because like you have to like the trailer today that you dropped, and uh for anybody that's listening, you know, I read the issue twice already, the first issue, but you wouldn't know what that is because it's not uh it's not an English word in the lexicon or anything like that, right?
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It's it you made it up, or is it like uh is kata I know what kata is for the story, but is it something in in the lexicon of any language?
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Gosh, I mean that's a good question.
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Um, I don't know because I stole it from Equilibrium.
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The the Christian Bale movie?
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The Christian Bale movie where he does gun kata.
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That's right.
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That's right.
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Yeah.
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Um, if anybody hasn't seen Equilibrium that's listening to this, you have to watch it because it's fantastic.
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Um, it still holds up today, speaks to our time, and uh yeah, they basically do a dance with choreographed dance with guns.
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It's like uh the matrix, but more artsy.
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Mm-hmm.
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Yeah, yeah.
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I in fact, I need to watch it again.
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Um maybe maybe uh maybe we can convince Chris and Jim to do a uh trash movie Bananza of Equilibrium, and then you could go and go on and talk about it.
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That would be awesome.
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Um because I had like I've had so many titles, working titles, um for the longest time, and and I it just I'm not sure how I came about it, but it was basically like thinking about like, well, what would what would the name of this fighting style be?
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And then I thought about Gunkata and I was like, Chain Kata, done.
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I wrote it in my little sketchbook, and and uh yeah, I just um I everybody that was in that chat on the YouTube stream where I let it slip, you're all real ones.
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You are true, you are true fans.
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Thank you so much for keeping it real.
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It's funny because I uh I forgot the name and I I messaged I texted Jeremy Heiler.
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I was like, remind me what the name of Dan's new series is.
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This is most a couple months ago, and he said it.
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I'm like, yeah, that's right.
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But I I it'd been so long that I had actually forgotten the name of it.
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Uh, because right, like nobody talked about it because everybody was like you said, they're real ones.
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We're all I mean that that's a great you do have a great community of people uh for that.
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I do, you know, for probably should go live more often and actually be engaged, but life is this lifing.
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Yeah, yeah, it's a it's a busy, it's a busy life.
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Um, so uh because this this podcast exists for me to fan out and you know be a fan while I'm doing this, let me just say, you know, I watched you create a lot of this artwork live on the channel without any context of what I was looking at.
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It's just yeah, I was working at it, I was working on it live like um not every Friday, but it was a regular appearance occurrence, like for me to be working on chain kata while the stream was going on, yeah, totally.
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Yeah, and uh I read the issue, and there's I I won't spoil it, I won't put it on screen for the people to see, but I'm gonna put it on the screen for me and you to see.
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Um there's this moment where like I I was like, this is cool, this is cool, and then this happens, and there is a moment that leads to this, and I'm like, and and to be honest with you uh out loud to nobody reading this while listening to some music, I was like, Holy fuck, this book is going to rip.
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And um, you know, I uh I can't wait for everybody to see it.
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Um, and this is a book you've been working on for on and off for nine years, right?
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It's true.
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Um, I have it in one of my sketchbooks.
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I've got 56 now.
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Um, there's these like moleskin sketchbooks, and um, I started in 06.
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I don't remember what volume it is, but I did this sketch of this space warrior lady um back in 2017.
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And I didn't do it in my sketchbook, I did it on like a scrap piece of paper.
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It might have even been like a like some sort of like a church pamphlet, you know.
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Like I I I went to church more often before COVID, and I would like draw on the back of like the pamphlets or whatever, then I would cut them out and space the drawings that I liked into my sketchbook, and she's there.
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Um, in I labeled it 2017, and you know, I don't have a lot of time to draw for fun anymore.
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It's as sad as that is.
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So, and I get the question a lot like, do you start with words or you do you start with pictures when it comes to creative endeavors?
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And honestly, at this point it is kind of 50-50, and uh this was one of those situations where it did start as a picture first, and the vibe was always to try and make some sort of like Warhammer 40k, really like pulpy, grindhouse y sci-fi comic that was kind of gross, yeah, but had the accessibility that I felt like Warhammer really lacks.
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Um, and I just was kind of looking to like mix like Warhammer with like Princess Monanoke and kind of like putting it together.
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So that was the goal, and that was kind of the vibe that I was thinking about because I wanted to make something different, and yeah, there's not necessarily anything different about some sci-fi sci-fi lady with a gun.
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She didn't even have a chainsaw when I started this.
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So, really quick, fast forward, like I would be drawing this character over and over, didn't really have a name, didn't really have a story.
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Then in 2020, COVID hit, and I had all this extra time and nothing to do, and I thought to myself, I'm gonna work more.
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Uh and uh I was working on I was draw drawing Wonder Woman Dead Earth at the time.
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I had a little extra time to write that I'd be writing it like after dinner.
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Usually I don't work after dinner, but I uh started writing this story to fit this character in and um worked on it, worked on it for about six months, and it was terrible, like it went nowhere.
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Um, I got multiple input from friends from editors, and I could tell like things were not quite firing.
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And uh it was actually kind of like a death.
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It was very sad.
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I had to shelve it um for a while, and what brought me back to like trying to get it to crack it was uh actually seeing the first Dune movie in 2121.
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Yeah.
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Um something about the presentation of the visuals and the the the bigness, the unapologetic bigness um about specific.
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I I like the second one a lot, but the first one is really like it's one of my favorite movies.
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Um it's very bold, it's unafraid to just kind of throw you into the deep end of the pool.
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It just got me so excited for science fiction again that honestly, like things like Star Wars and oh gosh, I don't know.
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Think of Hollywood sci-fi right now.
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It's I in my opinion, it's very the sharp edges have been sanded off.
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Um so I'm just kind of made, I was like trying to get into the vibe of like what I want to see, and I want to see like dirty chainsaw grime, you know.
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Anyway, so all that to say, um, I went back to the script and things started clicking a little bit more and just started picking away at it piece by piece, and I started actually drawing the first issue that you read, I finished in uh like end of the summer 2024.
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So I've been picking away at it in between projects, Transformers, Moon is following us, the Batman stuff.
00:18:14.640 --> 00:18:17.119
Yeah, it's been a journey, bro.
00:18:17.279 --> 00:18:30.319
And uh I honestly I've been working on it for so long that it's almost like I was a little worried to talk to you because I'm like, I have to sell it, I have to be I have to believe in it so hard, you know, and I I do.
00:18:30.480 --> 00:18:35.599
I've put all my eggs in the basket, um, but I'm also like, is this good?
00:18:37.440 --> 00:18:39.920
Like, yeah, you know what I mean?
00:18:40.160 --> 00:18:56.319
I do, I do, and I think you walking away from it is probably, you know, you'll probably look back on it when this is done, you know, maybe the hardcover's out or whatever, you'll probably think about uh that being the smartest decision you ever made was to walk away from it.
00:18:56.480 --> 00:19:09.839
Because I think a lot of us in whatever creative space you're in, or even whatever like you're it's going on in your life, you have to take a beat, you have to breathe, and you have to step away from things that are massive.
00:19:10.160 --> 00:19:12.000
Um agreed.
00:19:12.319 --> 00:19:20.799
Yeah, uh it's not like a you know, like creating something like this uh is not something you just make a heart a rash decision.
00:19:20.880 --> 00:19:21.839
You're like, you know what I'm gonna do?
00:19:21.920 --> 00:19:22.799
I'm gonna make an epic.
00:19:22.960 --> 00:19:25.279
You know, you don't just make you know 100%.
00:19:25.759 --> 00:19:28.720
And and I think sometimes, thank you for saying that.
00:19:28.960 --> 00:19:50.160
Sometimes I think the outside reading world, the non-creatives, so to speak, um, along with the creatives, there it's like both camps have a tendency to look at these larger than life stories and worlds and think that it was kind of developed like every Sunday for a summer, like this.
00:19:51.599 --> 00:20:29.039
It's like one of those things that's been like ground and reground and spit out and chewed up again, and like over the course of years, um even the the stories that have like a perfect like sell or or or pitch or mechanics to get the story going, they still gotta just beat them down, um, in a way that like I didn't really have to do with murder falcon or um even like um like do a power bomb and especially with things that I don't own like Transformers and Wonder Woman.
00:20:29.599 --> 00:20:31.680
They're all different exercises, yeah.
00:20:31.839 --> 00:20:32.880
Yeah, totally.
00:20:33.119 --> 00:20:39.200
Um and it's why you it's a lot easier to write a crime book than it is to write a sci-fi book.
00:20:39.279 --> 00:20:49.519
I mean, you can't have somebody like pull out a chainsaw powered by map like you know, blood magic or whatever, yeah, when you're looking for a serial killer.
00:20:49.599 --> 00:20:51.920
I mean, I guess you could, but then it turns into something else.
00:20:52.240 --> 00:20:52.720
Right, right.
00:20:52.799 --> 00:20:55.599
Then it becomes something else that you can't even maybe not even control.
00:20:55.759 --> 00:20:58.799
I would it was like the the darkest moments of 2020.
00:20:58.880 --> 00:21:05.680
I'm typing and I'm like, I don't know, it's like getting pushed out into space and not being able to reach the railing of your ship.
00:21:05.759 --> 00:21:07.680
You're like, there's nothing to go off of.
00:21:07.920 --> 00:21:08.400
Mm-hmm.
00:21:08.640 --> 00:21:09.039
Mm-hmm.
00:21:09.279 --> 00:21:16.960
So and that was before the chain, that was before chainsaws were in the story is when I was writing uh when I was writing it in 2020.
00:21:17.200 --> 00:21:18.480
It was not even a part of it.
00:21:18.799 --> 00:21:19.119
Wow.
00:21:19.279 --> 00:21:22.000
So BC g gives a new meaning to BC.
00:21:22.240 --> 00:21:22.880
Yeah.
00:21:23.119 --> 00:21:23.759
Yeah.
00:21:26.000 --> 00:21:28.480
Um, you know, I'll say this too.
00:21:28.720 --> 00:21:32.559
Uh the setup in this first issue, and I'm not gonna go into plot.
00:21:32.640 --> 00:21:42.799
I don't want, you know, we're we're we're six five months out from release, so no point in spoiling anything, but I'll say uh what you lay down, the questions that I have.
00:21:43.119 --> 00:21:50.319
I mean, there must be like five or six questions, which I'm like, okay, you know, because it's I love looking at your art, right?
00:21:50.559 --> 00:21:53.519
I mean, that's the I could look at it all day and never get bored.
00:21:54.079 --> 00:21:55.599
But story is a different thing.
00:21:55.759 --> 00:21:59.759
I need you want, and I'm assuming you want, uh you need the reader.
00:22:00.240 --> 00:24:17.200
uh why am i gonna pick up the next issue well i have this question this question this question how do we get here we get some backstory in this first issue uh but what i i can talk about first is your new and amazing and i know it's corbin inspired color technique because this is a black and white with color yes this is a black and white book with uh it's not black and white i i'm still honestly figuring out how to pitch it um but it is mostly black and white but every time there's like a large space scene or something that happens that's maybe a little more intense in the story there is like huge splashes of color that I've done entirely on the page um I can actually show if if it's all right yeah you can edit you can edit me trying to find it but um I have it I have the original art of issue one with me right now oh and Dan has decided to graciously donate page 22 and 23 to the West Coast Avengers art foundation for preservation okay so I'll do I'll do one more so this look this is partly in the trailer so I'm not really giving that much away this is from actually from this is the first page of issue two so you can just see wow yeah folks if you're just listening to this and not watching this you're looking at some amazing color work and it's uh I mean it's fair to say that this is the first time you ever did something like this right this is the first time I've ever done something like this because so you see it's like it's like it's really intense like space inky spacings right and one thing that I am very I'm not proud of but I'm excited about is at no point is anything called the galaxy or space in this right it's all called the ink and whenever like the the spaceships travel they go into inkwash it's all brushy technique stuff um anyway but it's all pieced together with this like stuff called mineral paper um that I actually so mineral paper is made out of granite trying to show you so it's like there's this film on top of the Bristol.
00:24:18.079 --> 00:24:20.720
It's hard to show people but like I can pull this off.
00:24:21.279 --> 00:24:21.839
Yeah.
00:24:22.319 --> 00:24:44.079
And so if I even on watercolor paper if you try and do this kind of swirly thing it will not dry uh the right way because uh watercolor paper is meant to absorb the water so it might look like that for a second but once it dries it sinks into the paper right and spreads and spreads out.
00:24:45.359 --> 00:24:53.920
With mineral paper because it's made out of rock it doesn't actually absorb any of the water or any of the ink that's on that's mixed in with the water.
00:24:54.000 --> 00:24:58.640
So it just dries completely like it looks um for the most part.
00:24:58.880 --> 00:25:07.440
And then especially if you mix pigments and mix different kinds of paints and then it will really be different or like it will really set in an interesting way.
00:25:07.759 --> 00:25:12.079
But the only thing is uh do not try an ink on mineral paper.
00:25:12.240 --> 00:25:16.319
I have tried and it is no bueno it's not good it's no fun.
00:25:16.880 --> 00:26:27.440
So what I have to do is every time there's a spacing in chaincata I've had to cut out the pieces of mineral paper that I painted on glue them onto the bristle board shit then either white out over on like over the uh mineral paper that I've glued on then wait for that to dry then ink that and then there have been other times hold on sorry you this is kind of I should have had these all ready to go this is not very spoiled this is not spoiler but this is issue three wow look at that yeah so you're you're cutting around the the ink I'm cutting around so I'm like cutting I have a light box we're getting real inside baseball here um I have a light box and I will literally like it's screen tone cut away the mineral paper and then I have to re-ink around the edges because the mineral paper is a little thicker so then you have to cut it in a specific way so you can like ink the side of the mineral paper so it all looks right.
00:26:27.680 --> 00:26:35.279
And then if the ship is big enough I will actually ink the ship on a separate piece of paper cut the ship out and I'll glue that on top of the paper.
00:26:35.519 --> 00:26:38.079
I think we watched you do that on a live at some point.
00:26:38.240 --> 00:27:17.759
Yeah it's like like basically arts and crafts with DWJ is this but there's a specific reason why I did this um I am always trying to find new ways to present the same kind of thing and uh since I can remember the way comic artists usually do space is um you take a bunch of black ink lay it down get a toothbrush dip it in the white out make sure it's a little wet flick flick flick and it looks awesome there's nothing wrong with it but I've seen it before a million times yeah and I didn't want to do that this time I wanted something different.
00:27:17.920 --> 00:27:29.759
I wanted something that looked like it was intentional like the space because ultimately it's like an epic space opera it's Star Wars space doesn't really matter it's basically a fantasy story in the swirly black you know whatever.
00:27:29.920 --> 00:27:43.440
Yeah I wanted it to look intentional like that background like I want it to be overwhelming and I want it to look weird like what is that it looks like I wanted it to look kind of like a photo collage like Kirby used to do in Fantastic.
00:27:43.839 --> 00:27:45.839
Oh those collages were amazing.
00:27:46.079 --> 00:28:00.400
Yeah they were and it's like cutout like arts and craftsy and it was all traditional um and yeah there's no Photoshop on these pages at all and um I wasn't quite sure like it was almost like a visual experiment.
00:28:00.559 --> 00:28:03.039
Issue one was me diving into the deep end of this pool.
00:28:03.279 --> 00:28:08.240
Like do I actually want to be doing it this way because it is more work for me.
00:28:08.559 --> 00:28:17.119
Uh and I just I I drew uh and like put together issue one and I was like I think I have something special here.
00:28:17.519 --> 00:28:33.599
So as soon as I finished issue one and the way that it looked with this new kind of like coloring technique I knew that it had to be mostly black and white um for the single issues and I love Mike Spicer.
00:28:34.079 --> 00:28:52.480
He's been alongside with me he's been my go-to dude for my colors um almost since the beginning like since the extremity days so he's coming alongside and he will be coloring the trade paperbacks so the only way you're gonna be able to see the book in black and white is if you get it in the single issues.
00:28:52.799 --> 00:29:08.960
Yes so yes and there's a few reasons why I wanted to do this I wanted to have a way to just differentiate the single issue experience from the trade paperback experience more than just this has a letters column.
00:29:09.200 --> 00:29:18.559
Like I wanted there to be like a real reason that someone would go to a comic book store and be like I want to see what this looks like in this kind of raw form.
00:29:18.799 --> 00:29:28.480
Because like I've seen how the book prints and it looks like something that you'd find like almost on like somebody's bathroom floor.
00:29:28.640 --> 00:29:39.680
Like it's got like it's got kind of like this dirty quality to it which is exactly what I wanted I wanted something that did not have the edges shaved down.
00:29:40.240 --> 00:29:57.759
I wanted it to be dirty and kind of gross and like what what is this and um so the vibe is just right um but then at the same time I wanted to have Mike help me with the world building with these colors so basically I'm having my cake and I'm eating it too.
00:29:57.920 --> 00:30:25.599
Yeah you're getting both yeah I am um so we yeah and so there's gonna be two different reading experiences for people I'm not trying to force people to like not trade weight I don't care really but this way there's two different experiences and there's a reason for people to get excited about a book that's coming out in comic shops as it's coming out and there's also a reason then for people who have read it to double dip hopefully in my mind and have two different experiences.
00:30:25.759 --> 00:31:52.079
And Mike's doing a banger job bang up job with issue one he's already finished issue one he's working on issue two now it looks fantastic and it's just another like way to get deeper into the art and man I'm uh I'm excited it is a risk I I will say like image was a little bit hesitant they're like you want to do this like black white with space color you know like I don't know really they they had hesitation on it yeah because um traditionally yeah black and white black and white books do not sell well or do not sell as well um which is just the numbers are what the numbers are but I've been working on this book too long for me to like go against how I feel don't go against what you're feeling yeah and I just I I looked at the issue one the completed art and I was like this this is uh enough for the single issue experience and this is what I want to present to the world and say I'm really proud of it this way and then let the chips fall where they may um my butt is actually clenching as I'm talking about this because it's a new thing it's like a this is me jumping off the ledge but if I'm not gonna do it like I you know allow me to say two two things to to ease your fears or at least give you some don't worry about it type stuff.
00:31:52.319 --> 00:32:40.400
Please for first the red that you use in this for the chainsaw for you know for the the automonopias is is the absolute perfect use of a single color in this book and I'm assuming it goes through all the books but you're you're also I maybe image doesn't understand and maybe you're you're not thinking of the fact that what is uh what what is everybody reading right now that young people like everybody's starting to get used to black and white because manga is 95% black and white sometimes it's the first 10 pages you know I I do think that some people will experience black and white comics for the first time that are you know like your typical superhero readers and stuff like that.
00:32:41.200 --> 00:32:44.240
But let me just say like here's the crazy thing.
00:32:44.319 --> 00:33:25.359
Here's my two experiences I read it last night and I read it about three hours four hours ago okay I didn't even realize I was reading a black and white book the first time I read it I didn't register like I was just like holy shit holy shit holy shit like let's keep going and then the second time I sat there and I I'm looking at the PDF I'm like oh this book's gonna be black and white with just a bit of color like it didn't even register to me because like I don't know I just told you I just finished reading a manga this morning you know and it's it's it's black and white like I think we're starting to see people are ready to try something that they're not used to.
00:33:25.519 --> 00:33:59.599
I don't think that this is going to be a turnoff for anybody and I do think subconsciously people aren't even going to realize it until they they take a take a minute to look and be like oh this is black and white sure yeah you know I agree and um I I am excited enough about how it looks that I'm willing to take a chance yeah so and at the end of the day you know if like I if it doesn't if it doesn't sell well then at least I'll I'll have the fact that like I did it what I thought was right in the moment.
00:34:00.640 --> 00:34:51.519
A f a follow-up to the black and white is the reason for the duo power bomb black and white is to kind of prime people for a new book that's completely new that's black and white actually no um the uh because Mike was already starting to color issue one of Chainkata when uh we were putting we we even came up with the idea of um do a power bomb in black and white which was all image's idea I didn't even suggest it oh cool um image said it thought it would be cool and I agreed and so we put it right into the pipeline and uh I'm really glad it's it's really fun to have it out in single issue form like double sized and I'm hoping that it will prime people a little bit to kind of re-experience my stuff that like fully in black and white and and see what that reading experience is like.
00:34:52.960 --> 00:35:02.719
But yeah they're actually pretty unrelated which is so it just kind of sympathetic how this working out yeah I mean you know they did raise I don't remember how much it was for the extremity artist edition.
00:35:02.800 --> 00:35:17.599
So there's enough people out there that have already said with their money I want more of Dan's work in black and white like we you know it's established and you you know it was just announced that Dunbeer is doing the Beta Ray Bill artist edition what comes out uh in 2027.
00:35:17.760 --> 00:35:33.599
So like I I think and I I can't speak for the masses of comic book readers but I do think the people that do buy books and that are supporters of yours are primed to want something that's not traditional.
00:35:34.480 --> 00:35:58.480
I I really do like I I I you know I've been having these conversations you know I recorded with Nick recently I recorded with uh Jeff Darrow and he says hi by the way uh he'll see you at San Diego uh you know a couple weeks ago and I just feel like the stuff that people are excited about is skewing away from the traditional space of whatever it is storytelling or it's art.
00:35:58.639 --> 00:36:06.159
I mean look at the absolute line right like absolute martial manhunter looked like nothing that ever existed in a Marvel DC book.
00:36:06.559 --> 00:36:38.960
What Nick and and you and the rest of the fill-in gang have done with absolute batman is unlike anything um what Hayden has done with Kelly and and absolute wonder so I think we're turning that corner and I really do think that people are going to lose their shit when they see this first book I hope so I'm excited I you know it's nice to have it out in the wild and and you know it's I've just had it on under a lid for so long which feels good.
00:36:39.199 --> 00:37:17.679
I feel free was I right by the way in like Corbin is a bit of the inspiration behind the color huge um you know I Cor I mean Corbin's uh rendering uh I I think of like I guess when I think of Corbin with comics um I think of the the way he rendered things and and how outlandish they looked yeah but also just I think about how incredible of a storyteller he was and his shot choices were like really impeccable even though there's like so kind of pulpy and like they're not like static they really feel they really feel alive.
00:37:17.920 --> 00:38:45.039
They feel alive yeah and I actually uh found Corbin through Hellboy at first um the crooked man just blew my mind that was the first thing I ever read and it was like the freak freakiest freak freaked it oust is the most this that I was uh reading a comic it was insane um and then I started going in Mexico yeah and that was and wrestling yeah wrestling comic um just fantastic so you know his colors and his like kind of his his compositions are a huge influence on me and so much so that I actually his a painting of bodies floating uh in a circle um it's like some sort of like occult like uh comic or or some sort of horror tales cover um and I I won't lie I I used it yeah it's a definite it's a definite little nod to uh Corbin um so yeah it's just kind of like overall composition especially and then with the color and you know with that vibe honestly it's like the attitude that pulpy nature of Corbin the the I mean I don't want to call it dirty because not dirty in like a sex way but like dirty in like a like what is this?
00:38:45.199 --> 00:38:48.719
It's yeah it's it's dirty in like the complimentary way.
00:38:48.960 --> 00:41:03.519
Yeah like ugh but hell yeah it like it kind of like might rub your mom the wrong way you know yes like like what am I reading here honey like this is it that's what my mom said when she read Shane Kata Yeah well I mean you've got people getting cut up and it it it's like that's the thing like you don't shy away from I think like one of your if you if we were to say like oh what's your comic love language I think it's violence like I think it's the way you depict it it's not uh it it it it makes sense like you it's almost an opera i uh like I was rereading you know like I said to a Powerbomb one it and wrestling is opera you know it's a soap opera um and I think that's the way you treat violence it's like I know you soundtrack a lot of your stuff but you could put on Mozart while you're reading chainkata one and it would make perfect sense totally totally you know and it's actually funny um I was shying away a bit from like really ultraviolet stuff um just naturally would do a power bomb there's not much like killing no um uh there's like a deat match but even that I feel like is relatively tame and then with Transformers of course um I didn't want to be super violent with that because it's of the property and I am you know reading a room and you you know you want to be it's not it's not Hasbro telling me to not do something it's just me like wanting to make a good book and yeah but with all that and also like having children honestly is like I've kind of like walked back not walked back I just like am not as into drawing violence as I used to be but now um I've just become I think with this uh if I can just be completely honest with the last like election cycle I've just become really angry and like oh I get it I'm like and then um full disclosure you know a huge inspiration for chain cotta was watching my my wife Rachel go through childbirth twice.
00:41:04.159 --> 00:41:57.039
Um and um something that we never know I know I mean yes for sure uh I got to witness it firsthand and there is a whole lot of gore I mean like it is it's bad and um so Rachel would be okay with me telling you this it was just like it was a mess like so much blood everywhere and uh you know everybody says like the day my kids report is the worst the best day of my life and I'm like that was the worst day of my life you know it got better after you know uh so this is uh this book is also like kind of a celebration of that violence that happens um when a new life comes into the world if that makes sense so uh yeah that kind of just shook me out of my you know shook me out of my cage a little bit and I'm like yeah all right I I think I can go back to the ways of old and tear some bodies up.
00:41:57.440 --> 00:43:15.599
Yeah oh yeah and you do and you know the thing is is I mean I think about gro like fiction violence I don't even want to get into what we've seen in the you know let's just say since 9-11 like we've sure been subjected as humans to some horrible horrible stuff that we don't even want to see it's on our TVs it's on our phones it's in our newspapers it's everywhere yes but like fictional violence um there's you know there's the gore porn stuff that I you know like I liked hostile one for like 10 minutes and I like Saw for like 10 minutes and then I never watch them again but then there's violence that makes sense for the story you can't have a war movie or a war book or a war TV show without violence you can't have a revolutionary thing or a revenge story without violence like these things you know like what's a revenge story without violence it's just somebody being like you've killed my son you know it's like um and then horror I love horror I know you don't but science fiction horror we talked about alien last time I do like horror I just I get scared just a baby like I I deeply appreciate the artistry of mutt a lot of horror but like I still can't get myself to watch Hokum.
00:43:15.920 --> 00:43:29.199
Yeah I haven't seen it yet and we're gonna talk about specific movie I want to get your opinion since you ruined my my heart last year when you told me how you felt about my favorite movie of the year.
00:43:30.320 --> 00:43:30.559
Okay.
00:43:31.119 --> 00:43:35.440
Oh yeah we could talk about that we totally totally could talk about that but please continue.
00:43:35.679 --> 00:43:49.920
But yeah but um I think when I read your books and especially reading this first issue or do a power bomb or you know extremity like the violence just feels what is natural to the characters and what is driving them.
00:43:50.320 --> 00:43:58.239
And um you know I'm sure one day we've talked about it you'll make a golf comic it'll be quiet it'll be nice it'll be serene it won't be maybe it'll be violent.
00:43:58.400 --> 00:44:02.239
I don't know it could be happy go more You know, on crack or something.
00:44:02.559 --> 00:44:10.719
But uh, but I just it's so funny because you haven't you can only see my brain when I'm thinking about this golf comic that'll eventually come.
00:44:10.880 --> 00:44:16.639
Like there are people getting blown away with a shotgun for talking in other people's backswings.
00:44:17.199 --> 00:44:17.679
All right.
00:44:17.920 --> 00:44:24.639
I just I will eat my words there, and one day maybe you'll do something like a Tayo Matsumoto quiet comic.
00:44:24.719 --> 00:44:25.360
I don't know.
00:44:25.519 --> 00:44:26.960
Um maybe.
00:44:27.920 --> 00:44:32.239
But I I just think that like I never feel like reading your stuff.
00:44:32.880 --> 00:44:49.760
I mean, some of your art when you're doing commissions is hilariously over-the-top violent, but it doesn't feel mean spirited and it doesn't feel um uh masochistic and like uh you know, like you're trying to like uh get something out on the paper that you're like, oh yeah, I really like this.
00:44:51.280 --> 00:44:52.559
You know, something like that.
00:44:52.719 --> 00:44:53.119
I don't know.
00:44:53.440 --> 00:44:53.920
100%.
00:44:54.559 --> 00:44:55.119
100%.
00:44:55.440 --> 00:45:02.800
And I feel the same way, and I feel like the tonally uh it matches uh like chaincata really hits that level.
00:45:03.039 --> 00:45:05.199
And uh, you know, it is called chaincata.
00:45:05.280 --> 00:45:08.880
I mean like if bodies are not getting hacked, I'm doing something wrong.
00:45:09.119 --> 00:45:09.760
That's right.
00:45:14.880 --> 00:45:15.840
Oh, hello there.
00:45:16.079 --> 00:45:17.280
We'll get right back to the video.
00:45:17.360 --> 00:45:23.199
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00:45:23.360 --> 00:45:26.320
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00:45:26.400 --> 00:45:28.400
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00:45:39.679 --> 00:45:43.679
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00:45:43.840 --> 00:45:45.119
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00:45:45.280 --> 00:45:50.480
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00:45:53.199 --> 00:45:57.119
I will say, like, there were multiple times in the coffee shop where I like have my headphones in.
00:45:57.199 --> 00:46:02.880
I'm listening to some horrific black metal track that I was really and I'm writing.
00:46:03.039 --> 00:46:32.400
Um I listen, well, I listened to this uh uh death metal band called um what are they like as Tekken Metal uh to Zampli uh uh anyway, and they have like war cry chants in and in their death metal songs, and I'm literally saying out loud in the coffee shop ring ringing like what the hell is going on with this dude?
00:46:32.800 --> 00:46:33.760
I can't help it.
00:46:33.840 --> 00:46:47.440
I I was air punching like when I was writing Transformers and now just ringing, and you're just like luckily you're like everybody in the coffee shop probably knows you, so they're just like, Oh, don't worry about him.
00:46:47.519 --> 00:46:49.280
He's he's a cartoonist.
00:46:49.519 --> 00:46:53.519
I have different coffee shops I go to for different problems that I have with my scripts.
00:46:53.679 --> 00:46:59.119
If I'm like fully like locked up, I cannot think of anything, I go to loaf lounge.
00:46:59.280 --> 00:47:01.519
If I'm really vibing, I go to back lot.
00:47:01.840 --> 00:47:05.599
Um, if I'm feeling really lazy, I have another one that I go to.
00:47:06.239 --> 00:47:09.360
I have three, I have three coffee shops also, so I get this.
00:47:09.599 --> 00:47:10.639
Heck yeah.
00:47:10.960 --> 00:47:15.360
Um, but yeah, so dude, crazy.
00:47:15.679 --> 00:47:23.440
Well, it's it's definitely going to be a book that I will be screaming about to anybody that doesn't already know about it.
00:47:23.599 --> 00:47:28.320
Um, and you know, once again, I'm not gonna get into uh I don't want to get into plot.
00:47:28.400 --> 00:47:35.760
Uh I I I like I said, I read it and had my questions, and I know that I'm going for a ride.
00:47:35.920 --> 00:47:36.559
How many issues?
00:47:36.719 --> 00:47:37.440
12, 6?
00:47:37.519 --> 00:47:38.559
What what did you decide?
00:47:38.639 --> 00:47:39.679
I don't remember.
00:47:40.079 --> 00:47:49.440
Okay, so I'm probably gonna have to take some breaks, uh, just because I can't keep up totally, but I'm thinking like 20-ish.
00:47:50.000 --> 00:47:51.760
Oh fuck, yes.
00:47:52.000 --> 00:48:03.199
Yeah, like I the goal is to well, you know, I said 20, but the goal is to go for an the goal is to be an ongoing um for as long as possible.
00:48:03.599 --> 00:48:12.639
Um and just hope people join me, and then when I have to take a break between an arc, I I take a break, and then uh, you know, yeah.
00:48:12.800 --> 00:48:26.159
But it's like one of those where it's like the questions that I put in issue one have been specifically put there for you to be excited and to like hint at things coming in a way that hopefully will be rewarded down the line.
00:48:26.400 --> 00:48:27.679
Oh, it makes me so happy.
00:48:27.760 --> 00:48:29.199
I hadn't no clue, you know.
00:48:29.280 --> 00:48:36.559
I I I think when I had asked you and we talked about it off the record last time, I thought you were you didn't you didn't have that.
00:48:36.639 --> 00:48:38.880
That wasn't part of what you were talking about with.
00:48:38.960 --> 00:48:41.119
And um, wow, that's that's amazing.
00:48:41.280 --> 00:48:55.920
So uh and I think once again, I think we've gotten to a point where most comic readers understand you're a human and you cannot do it all all gas, no breaks, all the time.
00:48:56.079 --> 00:48:58.159
I mean, it's the same with Nick we talked about.
00:48:58.400 --> 00:49:02.960
He's like, I couldn't do an ongoing monthly, it's just not it's not possible.
00:49:03.199 --> 00:49:15.440
It's it's not possible to do it for every 30 days to have it be as good, whether it's the artwork, I mean, for you, the writing and the artwork, or for him, the right, the the artwork, you know.
00:49:15.599 --> 00:49:17.679
Um, that's amazing.
00:49:17.840 --> 00:49:26.960
Well, I mean, I'm gonna I'm just gonna say a little spoiler, which is not a spoiler, but uh I'm hoping the chain kata is forever.
00:49:30.320 --> 00:49:31.039
We'll see.
00:49:31.199 --> 00:49:38.639
Yeah, I uh I already know that like there needs to be a shirt, you know, just like the extremity shirts that we got for the Kickstarter.
00:49:38.960 --> 00:49:40.559
It says remember what you fight for.
00:49:40.719 --> 00:49:41.440
We need a shirt.
00:49:41.840 --> 00:49:47.360
It's just the chain cottage says chain cottage is forever, or the chain goes on forever.
00:49:47.679 --> 00:49:56.000
Yeah, I'm already got like a sticker robot order ready to go just to like hand it out a like candy at San Diego.
00:49:56.159 --> 00:49:59.360
So um that's awesome.
00:49:59.599 --> 00:50:03.920
Well, we're not done, unless you really need to go to sleep, but you don't need to go to sleep.
00:50:04.079 --> 00:50:04.639
No, no, no, no.
00:50:04.800 --> 00:50:06.559
No, no, let's let's yeah, let's riff.
00:50:06.960 --> 00:50:11.679
Well, there's there's a couple of things that I wanted to ask, and and there's a couple things I wanted to talk about.
00:50:11.840 --> 00:50:24.400
One is so for anybody that doesn't know, uh Dan was at Heroes, I was at Heroes, and I saw you and we we had coffee that day, and I asked you point blank, are you gonna do a piece for the auction tonight?
00:50:24.880 --> 00:50:26.239
And you said no.
00:50:26.480 --> 00:50:32.559
And then lo and behold, I get there, and there's a wet painting of Wolverine, and I won it.
00:50:32.719 --> 00:50:35.199
Did I did I have a hand in that?
00:50:35.360 --> 00:50:38.880
Did my question inspire you to do that?
00:50:39.519 --> 00:50:41.360
Just struggle with here.
00:50:41.920 --> 00:50:45.280
No, uh you know what it was is like, yeah, I was not gonna do one.
00:50:45.440 --> 00:50:50.639
Um but then I was I had a little extra time that afternoon.
00:50:51.039 --> 00:50:57.519
Um, which so what always you those of you that don't know at Heroes, you know, there's this big auction.
00:50:57.760 --> 00:51:12.000
If you're a listener of the show, I'm sure you know, but when working on the auction, if you wanted to be there in time for the Saturday night auction where like they're yelling and there's people bidding, you have to get it in at a certain time.
00:51:12.159 --> 00:51:13.760
And this always happens every year.
00:51:13.840 --> 00:51:24.000
Like, I I am like so busy trying to make sure the line and people are taken care of, and then I gotta go like make this piece of the auction.
00:51:24.079 --> 00:51:25.119
I never get it in on time.
00:51:25.199 --> 00:51:29.119
It's this whole you know song and dance.
00:51:29.360 --> 00:51:32.159
So I did have like a little bit of time.
00:51:32.480 --> 00:51:43.519
I had 45 minutes, and so I asked uh if I could make an auction a piece for the auction, and so they were awesome.
00:51:43.599 --> 00:51:48.239
There's a like little those volunteers there, they all brought me, they were like, What colors do you need?
00:51:48.400 --> 00:51:48.880
And we'll get them.
00:51:48.960 --> 00:51:55.679
And I was like, I need black and red and white, yeah, yeah.
00:51:55.760 --> 00:51:57.119
It's like a lot of white.
00:51:57.280 --> 00:52:06.639
Uh and uh I just I was violent with that canvas, like I was slapping it, uh like beating it into submission.
00:52:06.960 --> 00:52:10.320
Um, so it was just, you know, I just wanted to kind of see.
00:52:10.400 --> 00:52:11.679
I was like, what can I do?
00:52:11.920 --> 00:52:13.199
What can I do?
00:52:13.519 --> 00:52:25.599
Um, because I just kind of wanted to test myself, and I like I was walking around, I had a little time, and I was like, you know what, let's just mosey over and see if see if there's anybody still at the booth manning the booth, and sure enough they were.
00:52:25.679 --> 00:52:27.360
So I was like, yeah, let's go for this.
00:52:27.599 --> 00:52:32.800
So it was an on the cu uh off the cuff decision, and uh sorry for leading you astray.
00:52:33.199 --> 00:52:33.760
That's okay.
00:52:34.000 --> 00:52:42.159
I mean, to be honest with you, and and I I think you doing it last minute is why I was able to win it.
00:52:42.239 --> 00:52:55.760
I mean, I didn't get it for cheap, but what I I used to work in the auction business, and I know that like the way that people work, like if they don't see something at the auction that they want to bid on, they won't go.
00:52:56.079 --> 00:53:00.400
Yeah, especially somebody that's gonna spend five thousand dollars.
00:53:00.639 --> 00:53:04.239
They're they either want something or they don't, they're not gonna sit there for three hours.
00:53:04.480 --> 00:53:11.920
And when I walked in, I said to him, I was with Jeremy, and uh and I said to him, I said, Nobody knows it's here, I'm gonna win this.
00:53:12.159 --> 00:53:23.440
And you know, I I have a video of me, like I just there was bids, there was bids, I just set a price, and and then nobody else wanted to challenge me.
00:53:23.679 --> 00:53:25.599
And I threw my sign up here.
00:53:25.840 --> 00:53:40.239
The play, yeah, yeah, I dropped the hammer, and like I mean, it felt good, and it's for charity, you know, it's for the hero initiative, and um, but it was it was a revenge for me losing out on the Transformers painting you did two years prior, and I lost out on that.
00:53:40.400 --> 00:53:48.079
So, you know, I mean it's it's uh you I know you you have uh quite a bit of an art collection, right?
00:53:48.159 --> 00:53:52.639
Or you uh like of other people's stuff, but you know it's like an addiction.
00:53:53.679 --> 00:53:55.599
I uh it's definitely not an addiction.
00:53:55.679 --> 00:54:05.119
Like I would say like I am quite conservative with my purchasing of art, um, just because I don't know, I have so many things that I like to buy.
00:54:05.599 --> 00:54:14.639
Um the most I've ever spent, and I am happy to say it is I spent I spent sixteen hundred dollars at San Diego Comic Con on a Battle Chasers page.
00:54:14.800 --> 00:54:15.280
Oh shit.
00:54:15.519 --> 00:54:20.079
And I I bought the page and then I had a panic attack because I spent so much money.
00:54:21.199 --> 00:54:22.880
I I mean I've that's happening.
00:54:23.039 --> 00:54:28.320
Like I literally handed him the money, took the page, I sent that with Felix, and I started shaking.
00:54:30.079 --> 00:54:36.559
And I'm looking at it right here, and I'm like, now that I have it, you know, I'm like so thankful that I have it.
00:54:36.639 --> 00:54:38.400
Because it there I it's a page from issue A.
00:54:40.000 --> 00:54:43.840
It's a Joe Man page inked by Jason Martin.
00:54:44.639 --> 00:54:52.559
Um it's not super flashy, but I just remember looking at that page when I was a little kid and just how did they do that?
00:54:52.719 --> 00:55:01.519
And yeah, I know for a lot of people battle chasers, like what, why, but for me it was a huge part of my growing up.
00:55:01.599 --> 00:55:05.039
Yeah, and it was like relatively affordable at the time.
00:55:05.119 --> 00:55:07.039
The I the pages have shot up in value now.
00:55:07.199 --> 00:55:07.760
Oh, yeah.
00:55:08.000 --> 00:55:13.599
But I just feel if I felt it feels good to have it now, as I guess is what I'm trying to say.
00:55:13.840 --> 00:55:17.519
I mean, I I didn't mean to uh to say it's an addiction for you.
00:55:17.599 --> 00:55:22.800
To me, it's not an addiction, it's an addiction to loving art and being able to own it.
00:55:22.960 --> 00:55:32.159
Like I never thought in my wildest dreams that I would have two McFarland Spider-Man pages, and I do, and they're not like the there they don't have Spider-Man on them.
00:55:32.320 --> 00:55:35.360
One has Peter and one has the chameleon, but it's the same thing.
00:55:35.440 --> 00:55:42.000
I'm like, I grew up looking at this, like I have the thing that was printed in the book, you know.
00:55:42.159 --> 00:55:48.880
Um but then it's yeah, it gets crazy, it does for me, because I've I'm like, yeah, I might as well, yeah, I might as well.
00:55:49.119 --> 00:56:03.360
I mean, luckily I don't have the kind of if I had the kind of money where I could just be like, yeah, I'll buy an absolute Batman annual issue in its entirety drawn by Daniel Warren Johnson, but I don't, I don't, so luckily I don't.
00:56:03.519 --> 00:56:09.760
Um you know, but um, but it was really cool to get that painting, and uh, I just I thought it was funny.
00:56:09.840 --> 00:56:11.599
I was like, he said he wasn't gonna do it.
00:56:11.679 --> 00:56:13.280
Was he was a K fan?
00:56:13.360 --> 00:56:15.920
Was he just was he like I can't tell doing it?
00:56:16.559 --> 00:56:20.480
No, it was just literally me like not thinking I was gonna do one.
00:56:20.639 --> 00:56:21.760
Yeah, yeah.
00:56:22.400 --> 00:56:47.760
Um one thing we did discover, and and we don't have to go into it too deep why, but me and you share a favorite bagel shop, which in a million years would I have guessed that we yeah, we you're uh you're one of the few one of the people that I I can always count on to ask me a question when you see me or when you're talking to me and you ask me, like, oh, you grew up on Long Island?
00:56:47.840 --> 00:56:49.039
I was like, Yeah, blah blah blah.
00:56:49.119 --> 00:56:57.760
And we discovered that bagel boss, you spent a lot of time on Long Island, and Bagel Boss, the 24-hour bagel place in Siasa, is our favorite bagel place.
00:56:58.639 --> 00:56:59.840
It's best, dude.
00:57:00.000 --> 00:57:04.320
Yeah, I don't know if you're ever on Long Island listeners, but uh bagel boss is the place to go.
00:57:05.119 --> 00:57:08.239
Were there multiple chains at one point, or was there just one?
00:57:08.559 --> 00:57:14.960
There the name was I think they they did open multiple locations.
00:57:15.039 --> 00:57:16.400
One was in Carl Place.
00:57:16.480 --> 00:57:22.960
Actually, I remember where it was, it was next to right by the Tower Records in Carl Place, but it was not the same.
00:57:23.119 --> 00:57:28.559
Like it was the same, but the bagels were not as good, and the other locations weren't open 24/7.
00:57:29.119 --> 00:57:34.000
Uh, and I don't think the other places were kosher, whereas the main one is kosher.
00:57:34.719 --> 00:57:35.199
Got it.
00:57:35.360 --> 00:57:41.920
Yeah, I remember like yeah, going to that main one, and it's it's huge and yes, I don't know, gigantic.
00:57:42.239 --> 00:57:43.519
It's just uh dude.
00:57:43.599 --> 00:57:46.639
It's and yeah, I remember we went there.
00:57:47.519 --> 00:58:07.599
We uh because I drive from Massachusetts to Long Island because my my aunt and uncle live there, um and so we would get always get stuck in traffic coming down, and we'd always be late because my dad was not good at like leaving on time for like family leavings, you know.
00:58:07.840 --> 00:58:13.760
And so it'd be like 9 30, which for my seven-year-old butt is like so late.
00:58:13.920 --> 00:58:14.400
Yeah, yeah.
00:58:14.639 --> 00:58:17.039
And I'm like bleary eyed as 9 30.
00:58:17.280 --> 00:58:18.480
Like, where are we?
00:58:18.800 --> 00:58:20.239
It's this brilliant light.
00:58:20.559 --> 00:58:22.320
I just read Bagel Boss.
00:58:23.039 --> 00:58:28.239
I probably have a picture of it, like an actual photograph of it somewhere in a box of photos.
00:58:28.480 --> 00:58:36.159
Yeah, so we would pull up there before we would go to my aunt's house and like get a like load up, and then I'd also get a sandwich.
00:58:36.320 --> 00:58:38.159
Or yeah, oh dude.
00:58:38.320 --> 00:58:41.519
Oh, but uh you're making me hungry, dude.
00:58:41.760 --> 00:58:42.480
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:58:42.880 --> 00:58:46.880
We don't really have Chicago's we don't really have bagels that caliber in Chicago.
00:58:47.119 --> 00:58:48.000
No, no.
00:58:48.480 --> 00:58:51.360
We have a bagel place here in Tacoma that's actually really good.
00:58:51.440 --> 00:58:59.920
That uh I think they figure out how to make a really good bagel, but bagel bus is like it's the untouchable, it's the yeah, it's S tier.
00:59:00.159 --> 00:59:07.039
Yeah, yeah, and it's it it, you know, I always like to dispel people that say that New York City has the best bagels.
00:59:07.119 --> 00:59:08.559
I'm like, no, it's it's Long Island.
00:59:08.639 --> 00:59:18.239
First of all, we have better water, second of all, we have more Jews that can have restaurants and shops with actual real estate, uh, you know, with with space.
00:59:18.480 --> 00:59:26.159
Um, but yeah, that place was uh like I said to you, I mean, there is a chance, you know, you're how old are you?
00:59:26.239 --> 00:59:26.960
You're 38?
00:59:27.519 --> 00:59:28.159
39.
00:59:28.400 --> 00:59:29.199
You're 39.
00:59:29.280 --> 00:59:32.159
So I'm I'm uh almost eight years older than you.
00:59:32.320 --> 00:59:46.400
There is a chance that when you were like 10, 18-year-old Dave was hanging out in the parking lot eating bagels with his would have been like mid-90s.
00:59:46.800 --> 00:59:47.360
Yeah, yeah.
00:59:47.440 --> 00:59:48.880
So I would just be getting my license.
00:59:49.039 --> 01:00:01.039
I mean, I seriously, like I was one of those kids that as soon as I got my license at 17, I was driving in New York City, I was driving to Jersey, I was hanging out, you know, like in with my friends at night and like parking lots and stuff.
01:00:01.199 --> 01:00:12.239
Not I wasn't doing any like terrible things, uh, but I would yeah, we'd go to that place at like two in the morning, especially after like a party, because I was always a designated driver anyway.
01:00:12.480 --> 01:00:13.360
Heck yeah.
01:00:13.599 --> 01:00:15.199
So oh, good times.
01:00:15.440 --> 01:00:15.760
Yeah.
01:00:15.920 --> 01:00:20.960
Did you uh did you ever have a like go to a comic store on Long Island when you were visit?
01:00:21.280 --> 01:00:22.000
Do you remember?
01:00:22.559 --> 01:00:26.000
I go to a baseball card shop, but I don't remember.
01:00:26.159 --> 01:00:28.960
I I went to a baseball card shop near East Hanover.
01:00:29.119 --> 01:00:30.719
No, no, no, not East Hanover.
01:00:30.800 --> 01:00:31.840
Sorry, I'm having trouble.
01:00:32.559 --> 01:00:33.360
Oh, sorry.
01:00:33.440 --> 01:00:35.920
Yeah, I'm getting my towns mixed up.
01:00:36.159 --> 01:00:38.239
So my aunt doesn't live in Syasa.
01:00:38.559 --> 01:00:39.840
That's where my dad grew up.
01:00:40.079 --> 01:00:40.400
Right.
01:00:40.719 --> 01:00:43.039
She she lives, I don't remember.
01:00:43.360 --> 01:00:44.320
East Northport.
01:00:44.400 --> 01:00:44.880
Is that a town?
01:00:45.039 --> 01:00:45.440
Oh, yeah.
01:00:45.519 --> 01:00:50.480
East Northport is actually where my mom taught high school for a number of years.
01:00:50.719 --> 01:00:51.280
No way.
01:00:51.599 --> 01:00:53.280
Yeah, yeah, East Northport.
01:00:53.360 --> 01:00:55.119
That that's her that was her neighborhood.
01:00:55.199 --> 01:01:02.159
So there's a card shop there uh that I like sometimes like get baseball cards at, but no comic book stores.
01:01:02.320 --> 01:01:07.119
Um so most of my comic booking was done in Massachusetts for sure.
01:01:07.440 --> 01:01:17.519
Okay, yeah, we were, I mean, I think anybody that's my age, your age, or older, um remembers, like especially the East Coast, all the way down to Florida.
01:01:17.679 --> 01:01:20.719
Like baseball card shops and comic shops were everywhere.
01:01:20.880 --> 01:01:30.880
I mean, that 90s boom, yeah, which not every store went out of business immediately, would like, yeah, you'd be able to spit, especially Long Island.
01:01:30.960 --> 01:01:34.079
I had four local comic shops within two miles of my house.
01:01:34.239 --> 01:01:37.280
Like, you you there was an abundance of comic shops.
01:01:37.440 --> 01:01:56.800
God, I wish I could go back to that time and just get that Hulk 181 off the wall for 35 bucks, or you know, but I remember uh there were at least five or six in a general area of uh my Massachusetts town.
01:01:57.440 --> 01:02:04.880
Um and I'm thinking about this because of Battle Chasers, like I would call up every place and be like, Do you have Battle Chasers 8?
01:02:05.199 --> 01:02:06.719
Do you have Battle Chasers 8?
01:02:06.960 --> 01:02:08.639
Do you like over and over again?
01:02:08.880 --> 01:02:20.800
Finding one that was like an hour away, and then I would try and find other like businesses or like shops that my parents would be interested in that would get them out there, right?
01:02:20.880 --> 01:02:22.559
To be like, Oh, you can go to this.
01:02:23.360 --> 01:02:27.679
So they would like my dad loved my dad loved these lamp stores.
01:02:27.920 --> 01:02:32.159
So I knew there was like a lamp store that was like really close to the comic book store.
01:02:32.320 --> 01:02:34.639
I was like, Dad, you could check out the lamp store.
01:02:34.719 --> 01:02:36.400
And he's like, Alright, get in the car.
01:02:36.880 --> 01:02:38.400
Shout out to Steve.
01:02:38.960 --> 01:02:40.239
Shout out to Steve.
01:02:40.480 --> 01:02:47.840
That's that's I mean, like, I feel like that is the kind of thing, like, uh, you know, try to get your mom to take you to the mall or something like that.
01:02:47.920 --> 01:02:54.400
It's like, oh, you can go to Macy's mom and I go to KB and you know look at video games and toys and stuff like that, and Toys of R Us.
01:02:54.559 --> 01:02:59.360
I mean, yeah, those were those were the days of scheming in the best way possible.
01:02:59.679 --> 01:03:00.239
Oh man.
01:03:01.760 --> 01:03:14.639
I um I did not realize, and it makes so much sense shifting to to to your art and and you or reading the hardcover that Flesk's put out, John Flesk put out uh last year.
01:03:15.119 --> 01:03:18.480
Yeah the the guy Davis inspiration, I never thought of it.
01:03:18.559 --> 01:03:28.880
And then I read in the book that you had written a fan letter and you know, a letter into BPRD, and I'm like, oh, this is really adding up because I read BPRD as it was coming out.
01:03:29.039 --> 01:03:38.079
I'm like, oh, was that was he like one of the first artists that you looked at that just really sank into you deep?
01:03:38.960 --> 01:03:39.679
Definitely.
01:03:39.840 --> 01:03:47.360
I mean, this is so I was buying, I was yeah, I was buying PPRD monthly.
01:03:47.679 --> 01:03:57.519
It was like the only book, it was like that, and basically all-star Superman was the only thing that I was buying because that's all I could afford was like two or three books a month, maybe.
01:03:57.760 --> 01:04:02.960
Yeah, um, and anything Guy Davis would draw, I would pick up.
01:04:03.199 --> 01:04:09.119
So I loved his squiggle, his like his mess.
01:04:09.199 --> 01:04:15.039
I mean, it looked so it looked so what's the word free.
01:04:15.679 --> 01:04:22.079
Um in a way that kind of makes me think about Walt Simonson, um Bill Waterson.
01:04:22.800 --> 01:04:25.599
Uh I mean I could name off a bunch that are like that.
01:04:25.679 --> 01:04:35.840
Uh another one that's a little more modern that I feel kind of takes from this school is uh like Simon Roy when he was working on profit, still working on amazing stuff now.
01:04:36.159 --> 01:04:47.840
Um, you know, it it's this kind of like I'm here to get the story across, and I'm here to get it, I'm here to have fun while I'm doing it and not sweat so much.
01:04:48.000 --> 01:05:05.280
Like that got me really excited, and I could feel that energy off the page, and it really it just looked so like it was just fun to read, and maybe I'll hear on an interview someday with Guy Davis that those pages were a nightmare, but I don't think I'm gonna hear that.
01:05:05.360 --> 01:05:09.519
Like there are just moments of just what seemed like pure joy.
01:05:09.679 --> 01:05:17.199
I mean, and I thought the stories were great too, and and it wasn't just about the art, it was like the stories were really, really great.
01:05:17.519 --> 01:05:18.880
Ah, I just yeah.
01:05:19.119 --> 01:05:28.480
It so of course Guy Davis has had a huge and long illustrious career, but the thing that gets me most excited is the BPRD stuff for sure.
01:05:28.800 --> 01:05:31.920
Well, he was drawing, you know, he was drawing different characters.
01:05:32.000 --> 01:05:42.559
Uh, the the BPRD team was comprised of some strange looking, you know, like it wasn't, you know, wasn't drawing he was like he was almost like doing the Fantastic Four in the Mignola world.
01:05:42.880 --> 01:05:53.760
Um, and I noticed like his line's chunky in a lot of places, the energy's kinetic, and his monsters were like not to be hyperbolic, but they were out of this world.
01:05:54.400 --> 01:05:55.440
They were out of this world.
01:05:56.000 --> 01:06:07.679
And I I I think uh I And I was able to join I was able to get on board early enough where I could really be a part of the the journey with the characters.
01:06:08.400 --> 01:06:28.719
Um and all the way like from like I was reading them in like 2007-ish all the way through to like 2012, 2013 when like other artists started taking over for yeah yeah like um 1947 was Gabriel Moon, Gabriel Ba and Fabio Moon.
01:06:28.800 --> 01:06:30.159
I think they did that one.
01:06:31.039 --> 01:06:37.199
Yes, but that was that was still unless I'm wrong, that was still pretty early.
01:06:37.440 --> 01:06:44.960
So it was like I'm thinking along the lines of like um when James Heron started coming in.
01:06:45.199 --> 01:06:45.679
Yeah.
01:06:45.920 --> 01:06:48.559
That was like 2012-ish, 2013-ish.
01:06:48.960 --> 01:06:51.280
Sounds about maybe more like 20, yeah, 20.
01:06:51.519 --> 01:06:53.840
Uh was it was Tyler Tyler Crook?
01:06:54.000 --> 01:06:54.800
He did some stuff.
01:06:55.199 --> 01:06:58.800
I think Crook, yeah, Crook was towards the end there too, like in that era.
01:06:59.119 --> 01:07:12.400
Because I looked through the first four or five omnibuses today to see if they had the fan letters in there, and it was mostly uh was mostly Guy Davis's stuff for those for a lot of those issues, but and I gotta read those again.
01:07:12.639 --> 01:07:14.000
Yeah, they were fantastic.
01:07:14.159 --> 01:07:14.960
I I probably will.
01:07:15.119 --> 01:07:20.719
Now that I've unearthed the omnibuses, I'm like, yeah, I might as well go back and dive in.
01:07:20.960 --> 01:07:34.400
But I I it was just interesting, like reading that and finding it out, and then looking at it after reading it, you know, and then look I looked at it actually today, so I had already just read Chainkata, and I'm like, yeah, I can see so much of it.
01:07:34.480 --> 01:07:40.800
And it's sometimes when you do the chunkier lines too, like I really can can feel that.
01:07:40.960 --> 01:07:45.760
And um yeah, it was it's one of those things like you I love influences.
01:07:45.840 --> 01:07:59.760
I know we've talked about this in nauseum, but I whenever I discover a new influence, it makes me appreciate both sides of it, you know, it makes me appreciate the original, and it makes me appreciate the person that was inspired to create from that stuff.
01:08:00.239 --> 01:08:07.360
Um so that's that's just one of those things that I I appreciated and I wanted to mention at this.
01:08:07.599 --> 01:08:15.920
Um I want to talk about the single greatest comic of last year, which is your absolute Batman annual.
01:08:16.079 --> 01:08:20.159
Um you know, there's so much obviously that you've said about it.
01:08:20.319 --> 01:08:29.600
I just uh, you know, I want to get how you're feeling like six months later, you know, or however long ago you drew it, eight months later.
01:08:29.760 --> 01:08:37.359
Like I know that was a whirlwind of you know 99% positivity that came your way from that issue.
01:08:37.439 --> 01:08:39.520
And uh, you know, I've heard you talk about it.
01:08:39.600 --> 01:08:41.039
And was it Marie Javins?
01:08:41.199 --> 01:08:44.720
Did you pitch it to her, or did you piss it pitch it to Chris or Katie?
01:08:44.960 --> 01:08:48.159
Who was it that you originally Hubert?
01:08:48.239 --> 01:08:49.119
I I pitched to you.
01:08:50.319 --> 01:08:53.760
Um, and definitely pitched it like uh, here's my idea.
01:08:53.920 --> 01:08:55.520
If you don't like it, that's okay.
01:08:55.680 --> 01:08:58.479
Yeah, uh, but I'm not doing anything else.
01:09:00.239 --> 01:09:06.079
But it was like we got on a call, and I was like, I know that this is like this is kind of intense.
01:09:06.239 --> 01:09:06.560
Sure.
01:09:06.720 --> 01:09:10.479
And if it doesn't fit, that's okay, but this is the idea.
01:09:10.720 --> 01:09:13.840
Um, and she was like, I'm vibing, like, let's do it.
01:09:14.000 --> 01:09:19.520
So um, so yeah, and the rest is history, yeah, yeah.
01:09:19.680 --> 01:09:21.840
And it's it's part of a history.
01:09:21.920 --> 01:09:27.680
I mean, look, we go back as far as Kirby and Captain America, but we can go back to Mark Wade, and I I don't remember who draw it.
01:09:27.920 --> 01:09:37.199
There was a Batman annual in the 80s where he's fighting the KKK, and it's on the cover, sure, you know, and uh, you know, I I know you're very much in the same mind as me.
01:09:37.279 --> 01:09:40.399
It's like art should actually have something to say, you know.
01:09:40.560 --> 01:09:48.399
Why why are we creating or why are we talking or why are we writing or whatever it is if we don't have something to say?
01:09:48.800 --> 01:09:51.600
And um, I just want to say thanks again.
01:09:51.760 --> 01:10:14.720
Like you, you know, I'm a I'm a kid of the 90s, I'm a kid of Rage Against the Machine, I'm a kid of Nirvana and Pearl Jam, people that had something to say that stood up for whatever it was that they believed in, and uh to have that come, you know, in the form of a comic that I was already excited about was like, oh yeah, this is I needed this.
01:10:14.960 --> 01:10:16.079
I needed this.
01:10:16.560 --> 01:10:17.840
Well, thank you for saying that.
01:10:18.000 --> 01:10:18.560
It means a lot.
01:10:21.760 --> 01:10:25.840
You know, makes you feel like I I did the right thing.
01:10:26.159 --> 01:10:33.520
You know, because um there were there were times in writing that script where I was like, maybe I should like uh what's the word?
01:10:34.239 --> 01:10:38.560
Ease off the gas or like make it actually be some sort of Mr.
01:10:38.720 --> 01:10:48.880
Freeze type villain or something, you know, and and and sh and like kind of code everything and like um you know, like you have to read between the lines.
01:10:49.199 --> 01:10:49.439
Yeah.
01:10:50.319 --> 01:10:54.800
Um but uh I think it's probably it's a bit of my personality.
01:10:54.880 --> 01:10:58.720
I have a bit of a you know, bull in a china shop kind of approach.
01:10:58.880 --> 01:11:05.359
So I just kind of leaned in and I honestly was just um thank you for those words.
01:11:05.520 --> 01:11:17.920
I was just it's just like the natural from the heart to the page and um an excising of of my feelings, and and I'm so glad that it resonated with so many people.
01:11:18.399 --> 01:11:18.960
Me too.
01:11:19.199 --> 01:11:19.680
Me too.
01:11:19.840 --> 01:11:41.359
Uh it was a I mean it's still a point of conversation with friends, with you know, comic shop friends or just comic friends or my community in general is just talking about like we've already got this book that we're all falling in love with head over heels, what Nick and Scott are doing, you know, and then you come in and just like yeah, I've got something to say.
01:11:41.680 --> 01:11:53.439
This one story, and it's just like, and the you know, the way it ends, like I've never endured or been a part of anything like ultra violent in my life, you know.
01:11:53.520 --> 01:12:05.600
I mean, you know, stuff at school when I was a kid, bullied and stuff like that, but nothing you know, like being kidnapped off the street by you know un you know, unmarked cars and thugs and all that stuff.
01:12:06.000 --> 01:12:23.760
But the way that the story ends with Bruce sobbing, because like he just did something that like his body needed to purge the emotions, but then the emotions that followed are you know sadness and and being regretting being you know doing that.
01:12:23.840 --> 01:12:30.479
And I just thought it was like I don't know how many people would ever end a story kind of like that.
01:12:30.640 --> 01:12:31.760
It's very human.
01:12:33.520 --> 01:12:34.319
Thank you.
01:12:34.800 --> 01:12:37.199
Um gosh.
01:12:37.359 --> 01:12:38.800
I well, thank you.
01:12:38.880 --> 01:12:39.760
That's very kind.
01:12:40.000 --> 01:12:44.319
I you know, loud, quiet, loud, quiet.
01:12:44.720 --> 01:12:46.640
You know, what do you what do you end on?
01:12:46.800 --> 01:12:50.239
And the contrast I felt was important for that story.
01:12:50.479 --> 01:13:02.479
And um I didn't know how the book was gonna end when I you know when I started when I when honestly when I pitched it, I didn't know anything like that.
01:13:02.880 --> 01:13:15.680
So it took a long time for that to kind of for me to come up with that, and I s I was still like kind of questioning the ending all the way up to the end until it was drawn and then colored.
01:13:16.000 --> 01:13:18.239
It's like I guess this is the ending, yeah.
01:13:18.399 --> 01:13:22.239
Uh so um it's so funny.
01:13:22.319 --> 01:13:30.000
So much of the comic book process is such a whirlwind, you know, you have to go with your gut because things move fast, and uh yeah.
01:13:30.079 --> 01:13:44.000
So I'm it seemed like the ending resonated with people too, which is fantastic, and um you know, everything in absolute Batman is very much like loud, like let's just like boom, boom, boom.
01:13:44.239 --> 01:13:51.760
So I just felt it would be good to take, especially with the big dump truck, you know, like absolute monstrosity.
01:13:52.159 --> 01:13:55.039
Thing was insane, tiny little Batman.
01:13:55.199 --> 01:14:08.159
And you know what's funny is like I drew Batman way bigger than he should be, like like that that actual truck is like he should be like half the size that he is, but he still doesn't look yeah, like he's already so small.
01:14:09.119 --> 01:14:14.800
Um so like one of those Joe Kubert, like he used to draw like the clothesline pin people.
01:14:15.439 --> 01:14:16.159
Oh, sure.
01:14:16.319 --> 01:14:16.640
Yep.
01:14:17.359 --> 01:14:27.039
So uh yeah, but sometimes you know you feel good about an ending, you just go with it, and uh usually the gut is what leads uh leads me.
01:14:27.199 --> 01:14:30.079
Um and usually it's right.
01:14:30.239 --> 01:14:50.000
So well, I think I think that's one of the most uh alluring things about your storytelling is that it doesn't feel like you're I mean like even Transformers, like you were saying, it's like you don't own it, it's not yours, you don't get to do anything you want, but within reason you did do kind of anything you want.
01:14:50.159 --> 01:14:52.960
You killed me, you destroyed Tacoma.
01:14:53.520 --> 01:14:57.119
Um and uh I forgot about that, yeah.
01:14:57.279 --> 01:14:57.840
Yeah, yeah.
01:14:58.000 --> 01:14:59.439
But uh but that's the thing.
01:14:59.680 --> 01:15:05.279
I always forget I blew up Tacoma, yeah, and people think it was revenge for whatever the AES.
01:15:05.439 --> 01:15:12.319
I well, I was gonna blow up the entire left half of the United States, but Sky Mount made me scale it back.
01:15:12.720 --> 01:15:16.399
So but it was too late for Tacoma when I got that note.
01:15:16.560 --> 01:15:22.159
Tacoma was actively being drawn in a state of absolute destruction.
01:15:22.720 --> 01:15:26.079
It just it just happened to coincide with that AEW pay-per-viewer.
01:15:26.319 --> 01:15:30.159
I forget who lost the belt, but it was somebody that you're a fan of lost the belt.
01:15:30.640 --> 01:15:33.359
And then and people are like, yeah, it's why he did it.
01:15:33.520 --> 01:15:56.159
But but what I was saying is that um I I I feel like, and there are a handful of creators that you know you we can probably name and people that are you know current, but put a lot of emotion into their story, and it feels like you're getting you're getting a story from the core instead of something like, well, if I did this and I did this and I did this, it would be cool.
01:15:56.399 --> 01:16:00.399
You it feels like you're when you're creating you're you're doing that.
01:16:00.800 --> 01:16:06.560
But you're doing it from a place of like this this emotional core, something that you care about.
01:16:06.880 --> 01:16:31.680
Um like the moon is following us, is like it's got some of the coolest moments that you had Riley draw, you know, cutting a shark in half, and you know, but at the core of it, it's coming from a place of like pure like emotion and you know empathy and and and a bit of realism of like maybe stuff you've gone through your life or been a privy to somebody in your life going through.
01:16:32.319 --> 01:16:33.119
Yeah, for sure.
01:16:33.840 --> 01:16:48.800
That's what makes the best stories, and um you know, I'm uh honestly, I I am I'm very thankful that I get to do this for a living.
01:16:49.600 --> 01:17:03.920
And I I don't know how many stories I have, but I have a few left, and they they all come from well, I've said it before many many interviews many times.
01:17:04.159 --> 01:17:15.920
You know, comics are too hard to not include myself in the narrative because otherwise I just don't care enough to do the work um and put myself through that grind.
01:17:16.079 --> 01:17:23.039
So uh even with something like Batman, like that absolute annual did not want to get made.
01:17:23.199 --> 01:17:25.600
It was I've heard you say that before.
01:17:25.920 --> 01:17:42.159
Yeah, usually scripts will take me about two weeks to do, and this one took me over a month, um, because I'd like to write a little bit, be like I wouldn't delete it, but I'd just like shut the iPad and be like, that does not work, and I can't think my way through it, it has to just come.
01:17:42.319 --> 01:17:46.800
So just did I just like hit my head against a brick wall for like a month straight.
01:17:47.439 --> 01:17:51.359
Um and I kept emailing my editor being like, Hey, I know this is due.
01:17:51.760 --> 01:18:04.399
Because I I do pride myself on getting things done script wise to editors, you know, and just every week I'd be like, I'm sorry, this is the update, and uh I'm stuck.
01:18:04.560 --> 01:18:07.199
And he's like, he's like, Do you want to get on the phone?
01:18:07.279 --> 01:18:09.840
I'm like, nope, nothing will help.
01:18:10.239 --> 01:18:11.680
I don't want to talk about it.
01:18:11.760 --> 01:18:24.239
I just have to sit here and just it's just a miserable, you're just sitting your ass is scratchy, sitting in the seat on of the coffee shop, being like, Do I order another donut?
01:18:24.960 --> 01:18:28.560
I love that because I feel that I feel that.
01:18:28.720 --> 01:18:34.640
Um I I mean I sometimes go to a coffee shop before I'm you know, I don't do too much questions anymore.
01:18:34.720 --> 01:18:36.720
Like I don't write, I just write notes.
01:18:36.880 --> 01:18:50.720
But if it's somebody I don't talk to or I've never really interacted with, like I will have to go out of my house and sit there and just be like, what can I engage this person with besides you know, if they got a new book or whatever, what can we talk about?
01:18:50.880 --> 01:18:53.039
Let me do a little research, let me see what they like.
01:18:53.199 --> 01:19:18.800
And yeah, there are days where I just like sit with my notebook just trying to write notes, and I just put the pen back in and I sit there and I stare and I pick up the pen again, you know, and it's it's different than trying to write a story, but in the same space, it's like like we said earlier, sometimes you just have to walk away, you gotta do something else, you gotta put the pen down, close the computer, and just put it somewhere and then come back to it.
01:19:19.119 --> 01:19:20.399
Yeah, for real.
01:19:20.640 --> 01:19:24.720
I mean, well said, um, and I'm doing that more often.
01:19:24.800 --> 01:19:33.840
I'm I'm I'm getting better at not grinding and just like putting it away for a while, doing something else, coming back when my mind is fresh the next day.
01:19:34.159 --> 01:19:40.880
Um because you know, for me at least, writing comics, it's not like I'm writing a novel.
01:19:41.119 --> 01:19:41.600
Yeah, right.
01:19:41.760 --> 01:19:45.279
You know, I don't need to construct a pretty sentence, the beats just have to be right.
01:19:45.439 --> 01:19:48.960
The dialogue for the most part has to be correct.
01:19:49.199 --> 01:19:55.600
Um, so I'll just be sitting and I might write a few sentences and I'm just thinking.
01:19:56.560 --> 01:20:10.560
You know, I just like look like the laziest person in the coffee shop, just like and then you know, at least if I don't watch any like golf or synthesizer videos while I'm writing, it's been a successful writing day.
01:20:13.039 --> 01:20:13.760
I love that.
01:20:14.239 --> 01:20:19.600
I mean, but but golf has golf helped you in a meditative way to like slow down?
01:20:20.720 --> 01:20:21.600
A little bit.
01:20:21.760 --> 01:20:23.680
Um, I've gotten a lot better.
01:20:23.760 --> 01:20:26.960
Um I do play I I do play a lot.
01:20:27.119 --> 01:20:40.399
Um and uh there's one thing that I like about uh golf is like it really if if you don't have like two bad shots in a row, it's kinda almost kind of hard to shoot a bad score.
01:20:40.800 --> 01:20:45.439
Um it's still possible, but you know.
01:20:46.479 --> 01:20:53.600
Uh so in that way the perfection of golf is truly an illusion.
01:20:53.840 --> 01:21:10.640
Um and uh in the same way with storytelling and writing, you know, there's no story without a plot hole, there's no uh piece of art that doesn't have like a line in the wrong place, right?
01:21:10.880 --> 01:21:16.880
Um it is ultimately about uh the end result, which is the story.
01:21:16.960 --> 01:21:24.560
And uh, I mean it's a little romantic to say it, but it's about the story, not the score when it comes to golf, for me at least.
01:21:24.720 --> 01:21:37.199
And uh one I golf as a sing uh as a single a lot because I don't not all my friends are comic book artists that can just screw off when their writing isn't going well and play nine holes, you know.
01:21:37.279 --> 01:21:48.479
So I end up I play with a lot of strangers, and so many people are coming at the game from different areas, and success looks like such different things to so many different people.
01:21:48.800 --> 01:21:52.800
It's one of the reasons I love the game so much is because it's a very communal thing.
01:21:53.680 --> 01:21:58.399
I mean, when people think about American golf, they think about individual, you know, stroke play.
01:21:58.720 --> 01:22:14.159
But you know, when you're like putting yourself, especially like public golf, which I do most of the time, you're putting yourself in a situation where like everybody's trying to achieve the same goal, but success looks so different for so many different people.
01:22:14.479 --> 01:22:22.319
But you're all able to meet in that that that level of what is considered to be excellence.
01:22:22.560 --> 01:22:28.479
And I don't know, I just have had so many amazing interactions with people that are very unlike myself.
01:22:28.720 --> 01:22:46.399
Um and at least in Chicago golf, you know, it's nice to like be paired with like I don't know, a drunk firefighter, uh, a lady in her 60s who you really can't hit the ball at all, uh like a high schooler who is like one of the best golfers I've ever played with.
01:22:46.479 --> 01:22:47.680
Yeah, like and me.
01:22:48.239 --> 01:22:50.319
Yeah, a prodigy, and me.
01:22:50.399 --> 01:22:57.439
And it's like we're all here and for that two hours or four hours or whatever, and then we'll never see each other again.
01:22:57.520 --> 01:23:00.479
And yeah, it changed the course of your life.
01:23:00.880 --> 01:23:02.319
Literally and figuratively.
01:23:02.399 --> 01:23:08.399
You just you just played it, yeah, you know, if we talk about golf, Scottish golf, uh, how is your experience?
01:23:08.640 --> 01:23:16.000
You don't have to we don't have to go too deep into it, but how is your experience on uh in uh uh uh Saint St.
01:23:16.159 --> 01:23:16.960
Andrews?
01:23:17.279 --> 01:23:18.560
Yeah, I spent some time in St.
01:23:18.720 --> 01:23:21.279
Andrews with my wife um in all of Scotland.
01:23:21.359 --> 01:23:22.319
It was an amazing experience.
01:23:22.479 --> 01:23:31.199
Got to visit some comic book stores there, um, in Glasgow, especially City Center Comics, where uh Frank Quietly used to shop.
01:23:31.439 --> 01:23:32.319
And Mark Mueller.
01:23:32.960 --> 01:23:35.119
Yeah, yeah, really cool place.
01:23:35.359 --> 01:23:38.239
Um, but yeah, I was very excited about the golf that was in St.
01:23:38.319 --> 01:23:52.239
Andrews, and the thing that I was so nice about that was um, you know, American golf can be a bit exclusive and um dare I say snotty, um which makes me crazy.
01:23:52.399 --> 01:23:54.399
Uh I cannot stand that.
01:23:54.640 --> 01:24:00.239
But in Scotland, it's so uh it's so down to earth there.
01:24:00.399 --> 01:24:01.439
It's very public.
01:24:02.000 --> 01:24:06.479
It's uh it's the game is part of the regular everyday culture in a way that it's not here.
01:24:06.720 --> 01:24:07.600
They invented it.
01:24:07.760 --> 01:24:19.760
Um yeah, I mean technically they brought it over from Holland, um, and then it was like it was like kicking a ball through a town into a hole on the other end of the town in Holland.
01:24:20.640 --> 01:24:21.439
Insane.
01:24:21.920 --> 01:24:22.399
Yeah.
01:24:22.720 --> 01:24:27.680
So Scotland took that and shrunk it and gave everybody sticks to do it with.
01:24:28.399 --> 01:24:53.279
Um but yeah, just like having it be such a part of the community and having the game be recognized as such a special thing without the country club BS and uh elitism and uh you know it's uh what else is America not ruined, but like taking something and just turning it into something that it really shouldn't be.
01:24:53.680 --> 01:24:54.880
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:24:55.039 --> 01:24:57.600
Well so yeah.
01:24:57.760 --> 01:24:58.960
I'm fighting a good fight.
01:24:59.119 --> 01:25:05.039
I mean, like I'm over here, like I still will wear a death metal shirt to the public muni.
01:25:06.000 --> 01:25:15.680
Uh you know, still topping my drives, uh sending them into the woods, and uh but I also get dressed up for the nicer clubs.
01:25:16.640 --> 01:25:18.479
And uh, but I I don't know.
01:25:18.560 --> 01:25:21.760
I need to find some way to show my punk rockism somehow.
01:25:22.079 --> 01:25:33.039
Well, when you make the uh whenever you make your your swan song, your other swan song, which is your golf manga or golf comic, that'll that'll be your punk rock.
01:25:33.119 --> 01:25:37.920
You know, it'll be like uh I don't know what the equivalent of do a power bomb would be.
01:25:38.159 --> 01:25:39.279
Sink a birdie?
01:25:39.359 --> 01:25:40.159
I don't know.
01:25:41.359 --> 01:25:44.399
It is funny, like Jar Johnson sink a birdie.
01:25:44.880 --> 01:25:50.560
With the general people that I meet in my everyday life, like friend groups, hanging out with people.
01:25:50.800 --> 01:25:58.079
It's like pretty hard for somebody to like for me to meet somebody that's honestly not impressed by like what I do, you know.
01:25:58.159 --> 01:26:16.640
Like you go, like I go to a metal show and people are like, oh you do comics, and then every once in a while you might run into somebody who's like, Oh my god, you're Daniel Warren Johnson, you know, like it doesn't happen that often, but it's more likely to happen at like a wrestling or metal show than it is on the golf course.
01:26:16.800 --> 01:26:20.159
Oh yeah, like the golf course is the great equalizer.
01:26:20.239 --> 01:26:30.159
I'm reminded how nothing I really am, you know, when I'm golfing with a bunch of strangers who work in finance, you know, and they're like, what do you do, Dan?
01:26:30.239 --> 01:26:34.479
I'm like, I write direct comics for a living, and they're like, So you like a barista?
01:26:38.560 --> 01:26:41.279
It doesn't compute, like they don't get it, you know.
01:26:41.520 --> 01:26:46.000
So like comics, so like do you like print them in your house?
01:26:46.239 --> 01:26:52.079
Like, and it's like you know, like it's a conversation I had to have with my grandparents, you know.
01:26:52.159 --> 01:26:53.840
Yeah, they just do not understand.
01:26:53.920 --> 01:26:59.760
I'm like, okay, so if you if you look up my name on Amazon, you can buy it.
01:26:59.920 --> 01:27:06.079
Yeah, you see that, and you'll see it'll say best seller next to it in some, you know, in some regard.
01:27:06.640 --> 01:27:07.359
Yeah, yeah.
01:27:07.520 --> 01:27:12.319
And then they like mishit the ball and scream at obscenity and then they forget all of that.
01:27:13.359 --> 01:27:14.640
Do you it's just nice.
01:27:14.720 --> 01:27:15.359
I I like that.
01:27:15.520 --> 01:27:16.640
I like being reminded of that.
01:27:16.880 --> 01:27:17.760
Yeah, like humble.
01:27:17.840 --> 01:27:36.079
But do you I mean, do you think about like in just in in terms of that, like what I don't I don't know, like what how we can fight more uh the good fight to get comics recognized like in that lexicon of like this is an art form.
01:27:36.159 --> 01:27:48.319
Like nobody would say if you said I make movies to those same people, or I I'm a musician, or I'm a painter, they would immediately like register.
01:27:48.479 --> 01:27:49.600
Okay, I know what that takes.
01:27:49.680 --> 01:27:54.800
I know that's like that is a really tough job and a tough way to make a living, etc.
01:27:55.119 --> 01:27:55.279
etc.
01:27:55.600 --> 01:27:56.720
But you say comics, right?
01:27:56.800 --> 01:28:04.640
And people they they flinch in a way, and I I I never I mean it's weird because we don't understand that because we've been we're lifers.
01:28:05.199 --> 01:28:05.680
Sure.
01:28:06.079 --> 01:28:10.640
Uh but I mean I don't really understand when somebody says they're in like business analytics.
01:28:10.880 --> 01:28:11.119
Right.
01:28:11.279 --> 01:28:13.680
Um like what do you start at spreadsheets all day?
01:28:13.840 --> 01:28:14.159
Cool.
01:28:14.399 --> 01:28:22.800
You know what's the best is like when I like grind somebody down to a pulp at like a party where uh they're like I work in business analytics.
01:28:22.960 --> 01:28:26.000
I'm like, tell me more about that, and I actually try and understand.
01:28:26.319 --> 01:28:30.399
And basically at the other end of the conversation, is they don't even know what they do.
01:28:34.319 --> 01:28:37.680
Yeah, I mean it's a creative field that makes you feel better.
01:28:37.840 --> 01:28:38.720
I mean, I I don't know.
01:28:38.880 --> 01:28:47.680
I like I've been doing this now all over all five years, but like in the selling of the comics, talking about the comics, now interviewing people, it's like, yeah, this is what I do.
01:28:47.760 --> 01:28:48.479
Like, I don't care.
01:28:48.560 --> 01:28:55.199
If somebody asks me what I do, I'm just gonna be like, look, I get to interview all of these great people and I get to sell the medium that they create.
01:28:55.359 --> 01:29:00.800
And uh I'd much rather be doing this than anything else that I've done in my life.
01:29:01.279 --> 01:29:07.279
Yeah, so mostly what I say is like I'm having a really great time and I'm paying my mortgage by doing so.
01:29:07.600 --> 01:29:08.000
There you go.
01:29:08.319 --> 01:29:22.640
And uh that that clicks, that clicks, and then as far as like breaking down the barrier, honestly, I think um well, uh I just buy a lot of my friends comic books.
01:29:23.199 --> 01:29:24.960
And I have a lot of comic books.
01:29:25.039 --> 01:29:32.319
So if I if because I've got friends who are like, you know, normal people.
01:29:32.560 --> 01:29:33.760
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:29:34.000 --> 01:29:48.560
Civilians, yeah, yeah, like who don't listen to like satanic death metal or whatever, you know, like or like like I'm like I'll go to like my doctor's office blasting cryptopsy and nobody else, nobody, you know.
01:29:48.880 --> 01:29:57.199
I have my friends in the car, like like I've got friends who are golfers, you know, and we drive to the corse and I'm like, all right, cryptopsy, and they're like, what the f is this?
01:29:58.239 --> 01:30:01.039
I mean, you don't you guys don't you guys don't like this band?
01:30:01.119 --> 01:30:01.520
What's wrong?
01:30:01.760 --> 01:30:03.359
And they're like, dude, can you switch?
01:30:03.439 --> 01:30:04.399
Can we switch this?
01:30:04.640 --> 01:30:09.199
Is that when you put on like Andrew Bird and you're like, okay, here, I'll go the other end of the spectrum.
01:30:09.359 --> 01:30:16.960
Like, I I mean I I I default, usually my like inoffensive choice that I still truly love is Allison Krauss and Union Station.
01:30:17.600 --> 01:30:18.000
Nice.
01:30:18.319 --> 01:30:33.760
Um but uh yeah, I just like if if I see a comic that I feel like might resonate with somebody, I will either give it away or buy it and and gift it.
01:30:33.840 --> 01:30:35.760
And it's like, you know, here's volume one.
01:30:36.000 --> 01:30:36.640
There you go.
01:30:36.800 --> 01:30:37.840
I had an extra one.
01:30:37.920 --> 01:30:38.640
There you go.
01:30:38.800 --> 01:30:39.279
It's great.
01:30:39.600 --> 01:30:40.880
And it's usually Nausicaa.
01:30:41.039 --> 01:30:42.079
Yeah, it's like that's right.
01:30:42.399 --> 01:30:47.039
Nausica, uh, and then you know, Bone Ducks by Kate Beaton.
01:30:47.119 --> 01:30:49.279
I I've gifted a few times.
01:30:49.840 --> 01:30:54.479
Stuff that like I feel like people people can really hang on to and have an experience with.
01:30:54.800 --> 01:31:00.960
Every once in a while, when I go to the uh fanographic store, which is in Seattle, they have their scratch indent room 50% off.
01:31:01.119 --> 01:31:13.439
I'll buy if they have the Karl Barks oversized hardcover centennial, like I've bought that for people before because I think it's some of the most readable stuff that you could hand somebody be like, this is your introduction to the art form.
01:31:13.680 --> 01:31:16.800
This is your introduction to the storytelling that comics can be.
01:31:17.039 --> 01:31:25.920
Because, like, yeah, I mean, I know you've cited before that your favorite comic movie is The Crow, and I assume that's still up there.
01:31:26.000 --> 01:31:31.279
And I think it's uh 99% perfect.
01:31:31.439 --> 01:31:34.720
The only thing that's not perfect about it is that it killed Brandon Lee.
01:31:34.960 --> 01:31:35.840
Uh totally.
01:31:36.159 --> 01:32:01.199
But that's a like you would have thought that that movie, as successful as it was when it came out, and I, you know, I saw it in the theater, you would have thought that would have been one of the turning points right there, that people would start looking at comics and Sin City and Watchmen and you know um Scott Pilgrim, like the stuff that's not related to Marvel and DC, because after 10 Batman movies, we're still not seeing people go to the comic store after Batman comes out in the movies.
01:32:03.039 --> 01:32:03.359
Yeah.
01:32:03.600 --> 01:32:05.920
Uh well that I that I don't know.
01:32:06.000 --> 01:32:08.800
That's uh that's a big question.
01:32:09.119 --> 01:32:25.199
But um Yeah, well, you just I feel like you never know what people might like and what what people might resonate with, so it's just uh I try and like read the room and and insert a comic book where I can.
01:32:25.439 --> 01:32:27.199
Yeah, that's a great idea.
01:32:27.439 --> 01:32:40.800
Um we were talking earlier before we started recording about like I just told you, I was reading this book Wandering Island, which has the two volumes, um Dark Horse Comics, the creator is Kenji Tsuta.
01:32:41.199 --> 01:32:50.399
Um and then you were telling me that you were gonna say what you're reading right now, like what uh what what's in the the reading pile of Danny Warren Johnson right now?
01:32:51.520 --> 01:32:52.319
Let's see.
01:32:52.479 --> 01:33:08.479
Um, so there's a new translation that Panini put out of um by I'm sorry, I don't know the writer's name, but uh uh LeJoie, the the guy who's from based in France, Oliver Lajoie.
01:33:08.640 --> 01:33:16.560
Um he did Wikia, and he uh does um oh gosh, I have it here in French.
01:33:16.800 --> 01:33:17.439
Requiem.
01:33:17.920 --> 01:33:19.119
Requiem, okay.
01:33:19.359 --> 01:33:20.479
Have you heard of Requiem?
01:33:20.800 --> 01:33:21.680
I have not.
01:33:23.039 --> 01:33:23.920
That's insane, dude.
01:33:24.000 --> 01:33:29.119
It's it, I mean, like, I don't really think you're gonna have an emotional experience.
01:33:29.680 --> 01:33:34.079
Um, but the art is and the world buildings really awesome.
01:33:34.720 --> 01:33:42.319
And um, but if you want like a better, not better, but here's uh Oliver d'Aurgeois art book.
01:33:42.720 --> 01:33:44.880
Oh wow that I picked up in France.
01:33:44.960 --> 01:33:51.199
I'm trying to find um this book is incredibly heavy.
01:33:51.520 --> 01:33:56.640
Yeah, I can tell you there's a lot of boobs in here, but like okay, here's I like those.
01:33:56.880 --> 01:33:58.560
This is a right, this is a requiem.
01:33:59.279 --> 01:34:01.039
This is like the Requiem vibe.
01:34:01.279 --> 01:34:02.720
Oh shit, it's like cute.
01:34:03.119 --> 01:34:06.159
Like kind of sci-fi vampires, yeah, yeah.
01:34:06.399 --> 01:34:14.000
Uh, but it's I I think he works a little more digital now, but he was been working on that book for a long time and he started with traditional for sure.
01:34:14.640 --> 01:34:29.359
Um, but anyway, Requiem by Oliver Lajoie, and then he did this other book called Wikia, W-I-K-I-A, which is that's if if you're looking to kind of get into his work, that's something else really that I love.
01:34:29.680 --> 01:34:30.159
All right.
01:34:30.479 --> 01:34:38.880
Um other than that, uh, yeah, reading um still keeping up with all of Simon Roy's stuff that he does.
01:34:39.039 --> 01:34:42.479
He does like these things on Kickstarter, which I'm sure you know all about.
01:34:43.039 --> 01:34:46.079
Um, he did a star called The Sun.
01:34:46.640 --> 01:34:52.399
Uh, and then um a few other titles that, but like any anytime he puts out a Kickstarter, I buy it.
01:34:52.560 --> 01:34:53.039
Yeah, yeah.
01:34:53.279 --> 01:35:05.279
Um and then uh something else that I'm reading right now, which is not like it's not like the most amazing book I've ever read, but Baki the Grappler is all translated now.
01:35:05.520 --> 01:35:07.199
Is that a wrestling comic?
01:35:07.680 --> 01:35:14.960
It's uh like a fighting kind of MMA kind of comic, like uh mixed martial arts, and it's actually all sorts of martial arts.
01:35:15.039 --> 01:35:16.000
Like oh, cool.
01:35:16.239 --> 01:35:21.920
There's like MMA guys, there's pro wrestlers, there's you know karate guys.
01:35:22.239 --> 01:35:27.199
It's about this kid Baki who is fights in an underground fighting tournament.
01:35:28.319 --> 01:35:34.720
And it's I don't want to like it's not bad, it's just pretty good.
01:35:34.880 --> 01:35:39.600
Yeah, like it doesn't have to, I mean, it doesn't have to be amazing, it can just be good.
01:35:40.399 --> 01:35:41.920
I like the art a lot.
01:35:42.079 --> 01:35:45.119
I like the way the fights are illustrated, yeah.
01:35:45.279 --> 01:35:50.880
Um the story is you know, new challenger basically a volume.
01:35:51.279 --> 01:35:58.880
Um, but I think it's really fun and it puts me to sleep, and it's like a real compliment.
01:35:59.279 --> 01:36:00.399
Yeah, in the best way possible.
01:36:00.560 --> 01:36:01.760
I understand that.
01:36:02.479 --> 01:36:03.760
It makes me very happy.
01:36:03.920 --> 01:36:06.319
So I I it's one thing that I'm like keeping up with.
01:36:06.399 --> 01:36:09.279
So every time I finish a volume, I go and I buy the next one.
01:36:09.680 --> 01:36:10.079
Nice.
01:36:10.159 --> 01:36:12.399
Um and I refuse to feel bad about it.
01:36:12.479 --> 01:36:18.079
It's like 20 bucks, it's like two or three nights of reading for me.
01:36:18.239 --> 01:36:22.079
I don't read, I don't read super fast or super often.
01:36:22.640 --> 01:36:26.239
And uh I like put it in my little free library when I'm done.
01:36:26.319 --> 01:36:28.720
And I I just I'm sick of buying it on digital.
01:36:28.880 --> 01:36:34.319
Yeah, like I used to feel guilty for buying stuff and having it be in my house, but I'm like, I don't have to keep this.
01:36:34.479 --> 01:36:37.039
No, like read it, move on.
01:36:37.359 --> 01:36:47.600
Um it's so much better than like buying it and having be in a perpetual state of not unowning on like digital digital platforms.
01:36:47.680 --> 01:36:55.520
So uh Baki the Grappler, and then oh, um something that's like really inspiring me lately is Redsonia.
01:36:55.760 --> 01:36:57.199
Is that Frank Thorne's Redsonia?
01:36:57.439 --> 01:36:58.079
Frank Thorne.
01:36:58.159 --> 01:37:02.239
I'll like yeah, so I always look for Frank Thorne's red sonia issues.
01:37:02.479 --> 01:37:05.199
Um doesn't matter the condition.
01:37:05.520 --> 01:37:16.079
If I don't own it, I'll buy like a really nice copy for 50 bucks, 70 bucks, just because I'm like I'm so into it.
01:37:16.399 --> 01:37:19.199
Well, I can just I can take care of that for you.
01:37:19.279 --> 01:37:21.119
I'm sure I could find some for you.
01:37:21.520 --> 01:37:24.079
Like that first panel there, yeah.
01:37:24.720 --> 01:37:33.279
It's doing so much work, so hard, you know, like and also like like unhurried, you know?
01:37:33.520 --> 01:37:34.399
Right, right.
01:37:34.560 --> 01:37:45.840
That I was a you know, I I can't say for much of the stories of that era, but I can say like if you look at that era of artists, there was so much good work being done in every book.
01:37:46.079 --> 01:37:56.720
I mean, it was it was pretty amazing that that 70s, like you know, like early to early 70s to early 80s was an interesting, especially for Marvel.
01:37:56.800 --> 01:37:58.319
Like that was an amazing era.
01:37:58.800 --> 01:37:59.199
100%.
01:37:59.840 --> 01:38:00.960
You'll you'll appreciate.
01:38:01.039 --> 01:38:11.359
I mean, like I in in the same way that you were saying about Bakia, I'm reading uh Q Hayashi's Die Dark right now, and in the same way, I'm just picking up a volume when I'm done and reading it.
01:38:11.439 --> 01:38:16.720
I gave the first volume to Sean because I brought it with me to Japan last year, and I was like, Oh, do you want to read this?
01:38:16.960 --> 01:38:23.520
He's like, Yeah, I I have never read it in English, so I I just left it with him, and I now volume two and three.
01:38:23.680 --> 01:38:24.479
Um, I'm reading.
01:38:25.199 --> 01:38:26.399
It's just sitting on my shelf.
01:38:26.479 --> 01:38:27.039
I have to read it.
01:38:27.760 --> 01:38:30.239
It's funny, it's well, the art's amazing.
01:38:30.399 --> 01:38:49.119
The story is is is weird and I love it, and it's it's a it's got a lot of irreverent humor that just like it's like, yeah, you you could see that a kid loves this like a young teen, but at the same time, like as somebody that appreciates manga and art, you can appreciate it too just as just as well.
01:38:49.520 --> 01:38:58.479
Um really really digging that, and I'm reading um I'm reading uh Dark Horses, you know, the library edition of Lone Wolf and Cub.
01:38:58.560 --> 01:39:01.600
The second one just came out, and it's Lone Wolf and Cub.
01:39:01.680 --> 01:39:06.000
I don't need to explain to you or anybody why I am enjoying reading that.
01:39:06.399 --> 01:39:08.399
One of my favorites of all time.
01:39:08.640 --> 01:39:10.479
It's so goddamn good.
01:39:10.560 --> 01:39:12.239
I really, really is.
01:39:12.640 --> 01:39:17.279
Um damn it, there was something else I wanted to ask you about manga, and I can't remember what it was.
01:39:17.520 --> 01:39:21.920
Did you did you read um Search and Destroy?
01:39:22.479 --> 01:39:30.560
I've read volume one, volume two I can't find, and volume three is sitting on my shelf waiting for me to find volume two.
01:39:31.119 --> 01:39:32.640
Um I'll get you a volume two.
01:39:32.880 --> 01:39:35.680
I mean it's in Fanagraphics, I'll have it.
01:39:36.159 --> 01:39:36.720
Oh yeah.
01:39:36.800 --> 01:39:40.079
I it's just a matter of me like going to the shop and remembering.
01:39:40.319 --> 01:39:46.239
Yeah, it's like I'm I it's not like I I I um like I can't find it in my house.
01:39:46.560 --> 01:39:47.680
Oh, I see what you're saying.
01:39:47.760 --> 01:39:47.920
Okay.
01:39:48.319 --> 01:39:52.399
You see this mess of nonsense behind me.
01:39:52.640 --> 01:40:02.319
Um but yes, it's um something I I really loved issue one or volume one.
01:40:02.640 --> 01:40:07.680
The only thing is I can tell it's been done digitally, and that I don't like that.
01:40:07.920 --> 01:40:10.159
Uh well I interviewed Kaniko.
01:40:10.880 --> 01:40:11.199
Okay.
01:40:11.520 --> 01:40:18.079
And he did see he said it was I think it was his second book all digitally, but what when he explained it, it made sense.
01:40:18.159 --> 01:40:26.159
It's just like I can get more done, and I don't have to worry about this thing taking so long to make because he's mastered.
01:40:26.399 --> 01:40:31.039
He said once he got his uh the iPad, he's like he couldn't believe how quickly he mastered it.
01:40:31.279 --> 01:40:36.399
I mean, I'm like, well, yeah, you're a talented human being that can draw the shit out of anything, of course.
01:40:36.880 --> 01:40:51.520
Um and you know, it's different, it's something that I was thinking about recently, and uh, this might be something to put and have Dunbeer and Felix on, but you know, Japan for the most part, he is an exception.
01:40:51.600 --> 01:40:56.079
There's a bunch of exceptions, but for the most part, the publishers own the artwork.
01:40:56.880 --> 01:40:59.600
And so it doesn't matter, right?
01:40:59.680 --> 01:41:07.520
Like he, you know, not him specifically, but an artist will never reap the benefit of having the original art sales.
01:41:08.399 --> 01:41:17.039
Do you think that in a way is its own benefit because that artwork is now centralized, it's owned by the publisher.
01:41:17.279 --> 01:41:21.600
It can be displayed whenever they feel like doing an exhibition.
01:41:22.399 --> 01:41:36.399
Right versus here, where if you want to do an exhibition or you want to put together an artist edition, you have to have somebody either like Felix who's making sure that the artwork's scanned, I'm assuming he's doing that with uh with everything.
01:41:37.119 --> 01:41:42.319
Um or Dunbeer, what he has to do is spend years tracking it down.
01:41:42.399 --> 01:41:46.239
And you'd be lucky if you can find a full issue.
01:41:46.399 --> 01:41:49.359
Um, you know, the Steve Ditgo artist edition just came out.
01:41:49.439 --> 01:41:57.039
There's three full issues in there, but like if the publisher had it or owned it, they'd have every issue and you could do those books.
01:41:57.119 --> 01:42:09.439
And my caveat to that would be the artist gets a cut of either the artist edition or in Japan the artist gets a cut of the admission fees for the artwork to be seen.
01:42:09.680 --> 01:42:10.880
But what do you think about that?
01:42:11.039 --> 01:42:13.279
Do you think like that is a benefit of Japan?
01:42:13.439 --> 01:42:17.199
Is like you you see you saw the Fist of the North Star exhibition, right?
01:42:18.720 --> 01:42:19.199
I did.
01:42:19.279 --> 01:42:19.840
It was amazing.
01:42:20.159 --> 01:42:21.520
Right, and you saw the Shiro one.
01:42:21.760 --> 01:42:28.640
So these, you know, nobody owns that artwork outside of either Shiro or you know, or the publisher or whoever.
01:42:29.920 --> 01:42:32.880
Yeah, that's a it's a good that's a good point and a good question.
01:42:33.039 --> 01:42:52.960
I think I it's uh I would say if you know what you're getting into, uh I think for sure, and of course, like all the Japanese artists know the deal walking in.
01:42:53.680 --> 01:42:57.439
Um but I don't know.
01:42:57.600 --> 01:43:06.000
I just know I just know for myself I don't I can't imagine a company taking my original art.
01:43:06.159 --> 01:43:06.399
Yeah.
01:43:06.560 --> 01:43:08.239
Like I can't I can't fathom it.
01:43:08.479 --> 01:43:08.720
Right.
01:43:08.880 --> 01:43:13.359
Um well you're not your creator-owned stuff for sure.
01:43:13.520 --> 01:43:21.600
Um yeah, maybe it would be different with like um Batman or or like Wonder Woman.
01:43:21.840 --> 01:43:36.239
Um but yeah, like this, like I feel like I've like this is like most of the original art that I have that's for my creator-owned stuff is like um it's harder to let go of when I sell it than it is with anything else.
01:43:36.560 --> 01:43:37.600
Sure, sure.
01:43:38.159 --> 01:43:40.720
Yeah, so I yeah, yeah.
01:43:41.439 --> 01:44:09.359
Because like I think about it, you know, if if the publishers, and it's on the onus is on the publishers to pay the artists, whether whoever keeps the art, and I think the manga ka do get paid a fair amount, decent, you know, like they work themselves to death, but at the same time, like they're they're not like oh, I gotta do this convention, oh I've got to do this commission, oh, I've got to do this convention, you know, and it's just it never stops.
01:44:09.600 --> 01:44:10.479
Um right.
01:44:10.880 --> 01:44:14.720
So it you know, I might I I like you.
01:44:14.800 --> 01:44:16.800
I I want to put more comics in people's hands.
01:44:16.880 --> 01:44:31.359
I want to give people the gateway to read more comics so that maybe in 10 years people aren't upset at the page rate uh that they're doing at the big two, or you know, not selling enough books and then having to do conventions and then having to sell all their art.
01:44:31.439 --> 01:44:40.399
Like I would love, you know, we'd all love for the Kirby family to have all of his originals and being able to do with with them what they wanted.
01:44:40.720 --> 01:44:42.960
Uh you know, totally.
01:44:43.680 --> 01:44:47.359
But it's just something that I just thought of the other day.
01:44:47.439 --> 01:44:49.520
I was at the comic store talking about it.
01:44:49.760 --> 01:44:54.399
Um I do want to do I try I'm trying something new with you.
01:44:54.479 --> 01:44:58.560
You're my guinea pig on uh a segment here that I wanted to try.
01:44:58.880 --> 01:45:01.760
I wanted to do five questions with Dan.
01:45:02.159 --> 01:45:03.520
And these are five.
01:45:04.720 --> 01:45:11.600
They're tailored to you and they shouldn't they shouldn't take more than a one-word answer, but the it might drive you a little crazy.
01:45:12.000 --> 01:45:12.319
Okay.
01:45:12.800 --> 01:45:13.359
All right.
01:45:14.000 --> 01:45:17.279
First question: Otomo or Kirby?
01:45:18.399 --> 01:45:18.960
Kirby.
01:45:19.119 --> 01:45:22.960
I connect with Kirby's lines emotionally more than I do with Otomos.
01:45:23.359 --> 01:45:23.680
Okay.
01:45:24.239 --> 01:45:27.199
So they're almost apples and oranges to me.
01:45:27.279 --> 01:45:28.720
Like I almost can't compare them.
01:45:28.800 --> 01:45:30.640
But if I have to choose, I choose Kirby.
01:45:30.800 --> 01:45:31.119
Okay.
01:45:31.680 --> 01:45:37.039
Uh besides a power bomb, if you were a pro wrestler, what would be your finishing move?
01:45:37.680 --> 01:45:42.960
I really love the I I don't know if I'd be big enough or strong, definitely not strong enough.
01:45:43.199 --> 01:45:58.239
The um the uh the power bomb specifically where you hold somebody up like they're a cross and throw them over yourself, um, or an F5, but I do not have the body type to give somebody an F5.
01:45:58.560 --> 01:46:01.039
Well, if you were, if you were Cobra Sun, you know, or whatever.
01:46:01.359 --> 01:46:05.520
Yeah, yeah, just do like a huge toss, a whirlwind toss.
01:46:05.600 --> 01:46:06.960
I think that'd be so cool.
01:46:07.279 --> 01:46:10.079
Uh, what is your go-to comfort movie?
01:46:10.319 --> 01:46:17.840
Gosh, that would have to be Wayne's World or um Wayne's World or Groundhog Day.
01:46:18.079 --> 01:46:19.680
Yeah, you're more lighthearted than me.
01:46:19.760 --> 01:46:20.880
I'm more sociopathic.
01:46:21.199 --> 01:46:22.880
The social network's mine.
01:46:23.760 --> 01:46:31.520
Uh I've I have watched the social network uh an ungodly amount of times um while drawing, you know.
01:46:31.680 --> 01:46:37.920
But uh yeah, I I yeah, I'm definitely gonna go on the lighter side for a cover movie.
01:46:38.239 --> 01:46:43.920
Um what is, in your opinion, the weakest movie in the original Star Wars trilogy?
01:46:44.159 --> 01:46:45.119
Definitely Jedi.
01:46:45.680 --> 01:46:46.000
Okay.
01:46:46.239 --> 01:46:48.960
That seems to be a thing, yeah.
01:46:49.199 --> 01:46:53.199
Yeah, I love Jedi, but it's is it a good movie?
01:46:54.720 --> 01:46:58.399
I think it's fine, you know.
01:46:58.880 --> 01:46:59.600
We'll see.
01:46:59.760 --> 01:47:00.319
I don't know.
01:47:00.479 --> 01:47:06.319
I just uh it has green it has green leader in it, you know.
01:47:08.239 --> 01:47:11.520
So it has my favorite scene in any Star Wars movie ever.
01:47:11.840 --> 01:47:15.359
Is it the uh the the and the lightsaber duel?
01:47:16.079 --> 01:47:19.680
No, Arval Crinod uh hitting the superstar destroyer.
01:47:19.920 --> 01:47:22.479
Oh yeah, that's uh the A-wing.
01:47:23.039 --> 01:47:30.079
It's like so much time and like resources devoted to like some non-essential character, you know?
01:47:30.239 --> 01:47:39.359
Yeah, and what was it like this the only the one the only other black guy in Star Wars, the X-Wing pilot?
01:47:39.680 --> 01:47:43.119
He like turns around, she's gonna blow, and then he blows up.
01:47:44.720 --> 01:47:46.720
Oh no, I love that guy.
01:47:46.960 --> 01:47:47.520
Different time.
01:47:48.319 --> 01:47:49.840
Love that guy, dude.
01:47:50.399 --> 01:47:51.840
I'm a what's his story?
01:47:52.079 --> 01:47:55.680
I'm a big fan of uh Porkins from the first movie.
01:47:55.920 --> 01:47:57.039
Heck yeah, yeah.
01:47:57.279 --> 01:48:02.800
I love Porkins, but I I almost love the guys who like didn't even get a line.
01:48:02.960 --> 01:48:03.359
Yeah, yeah.
01:48:03.520 --> 01:48:10.880
Like so many pilots in uh the Battle of Endor, just one shot of them screaming, and that's it.
01:48:11.199 --> 01:48:12.640
I love it so much.
01:48:12.800 --> 01:48:14.239
I love to send you a dude.
01:48:14.319 --> 01:48:20.880
Like I I have a lot of problems with Rogue One, but when that guy doesn't make it pulling up from the shield, oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:48:21.279 --> 01:48:21.920
So happy.
01:48:23.199 --> 01:48:24.399
So happy.
01:48:25.039 --> 01:48:26.960
Uh I'll have to send you a screenshot.
01:48:27.039 --> 01:48:30.399
There's a guy in the Battle of Hoth that it's James Hetfield.
01:48:30.479 --> 01:48:46.319
Like it's James Hetfield, like he was he it's him, and I'm gonna send it to you, and you're gonna have to try and figure out how James Hetfield went back in time 25 years to look like a 40-something year old in a movie that was filmed in 1981 or 1980.
01:48:46.880 --> 01:48:53.840
Um last question, this might be too easy, or you're gonna hate that I asked you this.
01:48:54.319 --> 01:48:54.640
Okay.
01:48:55.199 --> 01:48:59.840
What is Fred Durst's weapon of choice in break stuff?
01:49:01.680 --> 01:49:02.640
Oh my god.
01:49:02.800 --> 01:49:05.119
Wait, what sorry, I'm so sorry.
01:49:05.359 --> 01:49:06.720
What is break stuff?
01:49:07.039 --> 01:49:08.319
Break stuff was the song.
01:49:08.399 --> 01:49:11.039
It's just one of those days when you don't want to wake up.
01:49:11.119 --> 01:49:16.239
Come on, this it's a it it you should be able to get it because of uh of the book you're promoting.
01:49:16.479 --> 01:49:18.399
I'll just give you that hint.
01:49:19.359 --> 01:49:22.239
So I was never allowed to listen to Limbiscuit.
01:49:22.399 --> 01:49:26.479
The only song I know about of Limbiscuit is Rolling.
01:49:26.720 --> 01:49:27.600
Uh uh.
01:49:28.880 --> 01:49:41.199
So I know like like I just remember like watching the music video and uh like at my grandparents' house and my mom marching in and just like turn this off now.
01:49:43.760 --> 01:49:51.520
Well, take a guess at what his weapon of choice is uh when thinking about your new book coming out in November.
01:49:52.800 --> 01:49:59.680
I mean, it's gotta be It's gotta be like a real like a uh a man made.
01:50:00.399 --> 01:50:02.720
Chainsaw, like a pasted chainsaw.
01:50:03.039 --> 01:50:04.800
The chainsaw in the bridge.
01:50:05.039 --> 01:50:06.880
I hope you know I pack a chainsaw.
01:50:06.960 --> 01:50:08.159
I'll skin your ass raw.
01:50:08.399 --> 01:50:12.079
My day keeps going this way, it just might break your, you know, break something tonight.
01:50:12.239 --> 01:50:14.479
Anyway, it was a chainsaw.
01:50:14.960 --> 01:50:15.920
Damn it, Dan.
01:50:16.079 --> 01:50:22.159
I know it's late for you, so I I'll forgive you for not putting that one immediately together.
01:50:23.359 --> 01:50:27.680
No, believe it or not, I have not memorized lyrics and race stuff.
01:50:27.920 --> 01:50:31.119
But I also good on you for not listening to Limp Biscuit.
01:50:31.199 --> 01:50:42.239
I mean, I I like them as just like, you know, one of those bands that comes into a time and place your life and and you just hold on to it as a you know kind of a nostalgia thing.
01:50:42.560 --> 01:50:43.279
Totally.
01:50:43.600 --> 01:50:51.439
But um, well, look, uh, I did say two hours, but we don't have to go exactly two hours.
01:50:51.680 --> 01:50:54.399
Uh and we still always have more to talk about.
01:50:54.479 --> 01:50:58.239
And I want to talk more with you about Japan and manga at some point.
01:50:58.399 --> 01:51:11.600
Um, because like you and Sean and now Nick are like pushing me into the deep end of like reading stuff that I didn't, you know, I didn't know about, I never heard of, and uh and I love it.
01:51:11.680 --> 01:51:20.000
I love discovering in a whole different world of the medium I love telling completely different stories.
01:51:20.800 --> 01:51:21.520
Oh yeah.
01:51:21.760 --> 01:51:22.159
Yeah.
01:51:22.399 --> 01:51:25.600
And um, well, look, is there an official date?
01:51:25.760 --> 01:51:36.800
I know it's coming in November, but um, well, we haven't solicited yet, so I don't know the official date in November, but probably before Thanksgiving, I would think.
01:51:37.119 --> 01:51:37.359
Okay.
01:51:37.520 --> 01:51:38.880
Well, hopefully it's the 12th.
01:51:38.960 --> 01:51:40.159
That's my birthday.
01:51:40.479 --> 01:51:41.359
Oh yeah.
01:51:42.319 --> 01:51:44.640
Uh Chinkata November.
01:51:44.800 --> 01:51:52.159
Uh as of when this comes out, we've got the first issue of Do a Powerbomb Black and White, so the second one's on the way.
01:51:52.239 --> 01:51:53.520
You'll be at San Diego, right?
01:51:54.399 --> 01:51:55.039
Yes.
01:51:56.000 --> 01:52:02.079
And you'll be, I'm sure, busy and meeting and shaking babies and holding hands or whatever.
01:52:02.239 --> 01:52:02.960
I don't know.
01:52:03.119 --> 01:52:06.159
Uh just shaking babies.
01:52:07.039 --> 01:52:08.239
Hi, I'm Dan.
01:52:08.399 --> 01:52:10.800
Um, but Dan, I I appreciate you so much.
01:52:10.880 --> 01:52:13.119
Thanks for uh for doing this.
01:52:13.680 --> 01:52:14.560
You're so welcome.
01:52:14.720 --> 01:52:15.359
Thanks for having me.
01:52:15.439 --> 01:52:17.439
It's fun to finally talk about chaincata.
01:52:17.600 --> 01:52:19.520
Yes, yes, yes.
01:52:20.239 --> 01:52:23.760
Uh and remember, chaincata is forever.
01:52:24.319 --> 01:52:24.880
Ringing.
01:52:31.199 --> 01:52:36.960
Thank you for watching, and thank you to Dan for his time and for sending the first issue of Chainkata along.
01:52:37.039 --> 01:52:44.880
Uh, also thank you to Rachel, his wife, who is helping to set this stuff up, uh, and always a pleasure to talk to as well.
01:52:45.359 --> 01:52:47.600
Um comes out in November.
01:52:47.760 --> 01:52:48.560
Image Comics.
01:52:48.640 --> 01:52:50.399
Like I said, do a powerbomb black and white.
01:52:50.560 --> 01:52:52.880
Issue two will probably be out by the time you see this.
01:52:53.119 --> 01:52:59.279
Dan will have already been at San Diego, but you can catch him at New York Comic Con and then maybe one Comic-Con after that.
01:52:59.680 --> 01:53:02.479
Um, but go out, pick up one of his books.
01:53:02.560 --> 01:53:07.359
If you've never read a Danny Warren Johnson book, the entry points are pretty easy.
01:53:07.600 --> 01:53:10.079
You if you like Transformers, you can read Transformers.
01:53:10.159 --> 01:53:15.840
If you want something original, I started with Do a Powerbomb, but you could start with Murder Falcon if you're a metalhead.
01:53:16.000 --> 01:53:19.600
If you're not a wrestling fan or a metalhead, extremity is your go-to.
01:53:19.920 --> 01:53:27.039
But if you want something that's a little bit darker, uh a side of a superhero that you've never seen before, Wonder Woman Dead Earth.
01:53:27.199 --> 01:53:37.600
And if you want something emotional and family-based, something that'll make you hug your kids a little bit harder that night, check out him and Riley Rossimo's The Moon is Following Us.
01:53:37.920 --> 01:53:47.039
For my part, if you could hit the like button, drop a comment, engage with this in any way, shape, or form, share it with a friend, subscribe to it.
01:53:47.119 --> 01:53:53.600
That helps me push this out to new subscribers and uh hopefully gives me that ultimate interview with the Pope.
01:53:53.760 --> 01:53:55.199
Not really, just kidding about the Pope.
01:53:55.279 --> 01:53:56.479
Trent Reznor.
01:53:56.720 --> 01:54:03.119
Uh, and if you want to support, you can hop over to Westcoastaventures.com.
01:54:03.279 --> 01:54:05.039
You can join my Patreon over there.
01:54:05.199 --> 01:54:09.039
Five bucks a month gets you bonus videos from this channel as well as the other channel.
01:54:09.199 --> 01:54:16.720
I also have a web store that is on westcoastaventures.com, have rare books, manga, original art on there.
01:54:17.600 --> 01:54:20.640
Or you can click the link in the description below.
01:54:20.720 --> 01:54:26.960
I have t-shirts for West Coast Day Ventures and C Todd by Todd, and coming soon, I will have direct edition t-shirts.
01:54:27.439 --> 01:54:29.439
So once again, thank you to Dan.
01:54:29.760 --> 01:54:31.279
Thank you to you, the listener.
01:54:31.760 --> 01:54:32.560
Thank you to me.
01:54:32.960 --> 01:54:33.920
Thank you to Phil.
01:54:34.239 --> 01:54:35.199
All right, everybody.
01:54:35.359 --> 01:54:36.720
I'll see you next week.