Issue #12: Cullen Bunn

Four Guys in a Con. Take this then with your folks, Sread, Rusty, Tap, and Noah. The revolution is at hand and the architect is special guest Colin Bunn. Welcome fans to another issue of Four Guys in a Con.

Tonight, we've got a writer that has literally worked on multiple universes. From Gunslingers to Rusty's favorite symbiote, the yellow-fear-monger Sinestro himself, and of course everyone's favorite with a mouth. I'm extremely excited to introduce Colin Bunn. Colin, welcome to the show.

Hey guys, thanks for having me. Welcome. Oh, we're so excited. We're really grateful to have you on.

It's very exciting for, I think Rusty especially because he's a big fan of yours. Yeah, I know everybody here is like, come on, please hold on. A big fan of all the Deadpool work, I'm a big fan of all the deadpool fans. Rusty's a big fan of fans.

One of my top favorite characters besides Red Skull of course is Nick Fury, and so I geek out with battle scars. I love battle scars. You're going, that's a deep dive for these days. How fast comics change?

That's a deep dive man. That is true. That is true. But yeah, I mean for the people, I guess anyone who's listening to this knows who you are.

But don't, they need to just kind of turn out the podcast and go read some comics. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, no kidding. Why don't you give us a little, or the listeners a little rundown maybe, tell us some interesting things and whatnot.

About yourself of course. I don't know how many interesting things there are. So yeah, I've been writing comics. This is my 10 year anniversary coming up, writing comics professionally.

And I have worked on, I've worked on on stuff ranging, you know, as you said in the introduction, I've worked for Marvel and DC. I've written, you know, Sinestro and Green Lantern, The Lost Army and Superman Batman, and Venom from Marvel and fearless defenders from Marvel. And these days I'm writing Uncanny X-Men and a lot of Deadpool stories, including the new Deadpool in the Merch for Money series. And then I also do a lot of creator-owned stuff.

I do Harrow County for Dark Horse. And I do, I just wrapped up a book called The Sixth Gun for Only Press, which was a creator-owned book that we ran for 50 issues. So yeah, I work on a lot of different books. I like to keep busy.

Yeah, no kidding. You also didn't mention your incredible magnate-your-run, which I enjoyed immensely from issue one. Oh, thank you. Yeah, that was a fun book to do.

And I kind of feel like, you know, I mentioned Uncanny X-Men because I kind of feel like Uncanny X-Men right now is just a continuation of that series. But yeah, that was a, again, it's funny because, you know, as I said, comics seem to change so rapidly, but yeah, that was a 21-issue run of Magneto that really just wrapped up, I guess, years ago. Most Marvel titles, I would say, are most titles lately really don't go for that long, but you've had a lot of success within the last few years of ongoing series that went 30 plus runs, or even plus 10 is even rare nowadays, it seems. Yeah, no, I think you're right.

I think the trend right now is shorter runs on books. So I've been pretty lucky and have been able to stick on at least a couple of books that have gone, you know, a lot longer than we probably expected. I'm the kind of guy I like writing long, I like sticking on a book for a long while. So it's never long enough for me, but yeah, it's a, I've been pretty fortunate in that regards.

I was going to ask you in that regards, do you kind of like say, hey, I would like to do X-amount of books when you submit a story to somebody, or you just really been that lucky? When I'm asked to pitch a series, if I know it is an ongoing series, I always tend to over-plan and plan out for 30, 40, 50 issues of a series. So I always over-plan, and that's actually been a little bit of a, you know, a hindrance for me, I guess, because there are times where I plan things out really far in advance and I'm working towards some of those plans. And then just because the way the market is and the way comics are, the series has to end, and I kind of have to wrap that all up a lot quicker than I would have wanted.

Is there anyone in particular that you wish you could have not had a wrap-up sooner, you can finish it all the way through, conclusion? All of them, you know, all of them are able to see stuff. You know, I had big plans for Venom, for instance, I had a much longer arc for that series in mind. Same with Fearless Defenders, I had a bigger run in mind for that.

Even Magneto, I had a bigger run in mind for that. Luckily, I was able to roll a lot of those plot points into Uncanny X-Men. And then yeah, like Sinestro, that was a book that I had, I had at least three or four more arcs planned for that series when it wrapped up. I've got to commend you on your Sinestro, Rani, it was probably some of the best Sinestro I've ever read.

He's, you know, Jeff Johns made an amazing character out of him, and I think you just elevated that. So I'm glad I get the opportunity to thank you for writing that as one of my favorite series. Well, thank you. That was all my DC stuff.

That was, by far, my favorite project. Like I said, I would love to have stuck around with it for a while longer. I've got to say, for someone who's, you said 10 years now, it's your 10-year anniversary writing comics, you've done a lot. I mean, there are some people who are 10 years in comics and almost do nothing.

And I just got to say, I'm surprised it's only 10 years. I just wanted to throw that out there. Yeah, you know, I guess it took me forever to break in. It was a very, I just, I had no idea how to go about it.

I didn't know anybody that could, at the time, it could kind of point me in the right direction. And I was making a lot of mistakes in terms of how I was trying to break in. But you know, now that I'm in, I guess, I guess I'm kind of, I'm always expecting it to all go away. So that's right.

So I'm trying to make up for lost time. And then, and kind of prepare myself for the day that I won't be doing comics anymore. Well, I don't think that's going to happen anytime in your series with your story writing. It's just unbelievable.

But I'm just kind of curious, what is your breaking story? How did you get into it? I was going to ask, can we hear the origin of Colen Blahn? Well, I was doing like little short stories here and there for like British anthology magazines.

And this is stuff that didn't pay anything. But I still didn't have any clue how to really get in the comics. But I, I was working at a comic book store years and years and years ago, with an aspiring artist named Brian Hurt. And Brian and I became friends and we knew we wanted to work on something together at some point.

And eventually, you know, we put in some pitches with publishers that didn't go anywhere. But eventually we did a pitch for a book called The Damned, which was a prohibition era mob story with demons. And we put this pitch in with only press and they really liked the book and published it. So that was my first, my first published work.

And then I thought that, you know, once that happens, hey, it's all gravy from here on out. You know, now that I have a book out, you know, now the offers for work are just going to start rolling in. And that did not happen. So I still had the struggle to try to find, you know, to try to break in some other way with every other publisher.

Eventually, Brian and I did a book called, started a book called The Six Gun, the one we just wrapped up. And that was the book that started getting some attention from other publishers. And DC reached out to me and asked me to do some books because one of the editors there read that and liked it. And then Marvel started reaching out and asking, you know, if I'd be interested in trying my hand at some short, dead tool stories and things like that.

So it was really the Six Gun. I mean, the Six Gun was sort of the key that kind of unlocked the door for a lot of these publishers. I mean, actually, Six Gun, you got nominated for an Eisner for that, if I'm correctly, didn't you? Yes, I believe so.

I believe the answer is yes. Yeah, you're getting nominated for an Eisner. And it's terrible. I can't tell you.

I know I didn't win the Eisner. It was nominated for a Harvey Award, but I can't remember if we won the Harvey or not. So probably not. But yeah, it got some attention.

And that was really the book that kind of opened the door for me. Very cool. So speaking of Deadpool, okay, you've done a bunch of different Deadpool stuff. Is there a specific Deadpool story that you've written that you had a lot of fun doing, something that you just really enjoyed writing for?

Well, I've enjoyed writing all of them, but hands down, my favorite of the bunch is Night of the Living Deadpool. I really, that's of all the Deadpool books I've done. That's my favorite. Followed, you know, probably by Deadpool Killis, the Marvel Universe, very closely by Deadpool Killis, the Marvel Universe.

But yeah, that was my favorite of the bunch, just because I was able to lean into a lot of horror tropes. And that's that's a genre I really like. And I was able to kind of reference, you know, tons of not just zombie movies. I mean, it was a Deadpool story set in the zombie apocalypse.

But I was able to reference a lot of movies that besides, you know, zombie flicks that I really enjoyed and kind of put in a lot of in jokes about horror movies in general. So that was a lot of fun for me. Very cool. Now, are you pitching these or is Marvel coming up to you with ideas?

So the way it usually worked, I mean, I just pitched some ideas to Marvel. But the way it usually works is they come to me and they say, and the same, this is the same with DC. They could say, would you be interested in pitching for a Deadpool mini series? And what would you do with the Deadpool mini series?

Or they could say, we want to do a book called Deadpool Killis the Marvel Universe. And that's all we know about it. What would you do with that book? And you more often than not, but the Deadpool mini series, that's the case.

They come with me. They come to me with a title. They say, in this case, they say, Hey, would you be interested in doing a book called Night of the Living Deadpool? And then I come up with a story that would fit that title.

One of our listeners messaged me and they said that they had a question for you. And their question is, who is your current favorite writer? And that was by a toe cutter. He wanted to know who your current favorite writer was.

That's a tough question. Probably, you know, I'm, there's a couple of writers that I sort of my go to writers, I guess the ones I tend to read and read a lot. Jason Aaron is probably my current favorite writer. And Warren Ellis is another favorite of mine.

But yeah, I would probably say current writers Jason Aaron is probably my favorite. Now I wanted to mention one word, since it's going to be a pretty big deal starting in I think September, revolution. Yes. So huge, like, this is just a dream come true for so many people.

Transformers, G.I. Joe, and my has rom, Micro Knots, all coming together in this huge epic crossover that you're writing. So what's that been like? It's been really, it's been really exciting.

You know, like you said, I've been preparing for this all my life really, because you know, when I was a kid, I played with all these toys, you know, all in the same, you know, I'd throw all these different boys together and just, you know, create all these wild stories. And it feels a little bit like that. You know, I'm getting the chance to, to tell a story with all those characters and all those, you know, all those ideas and different, you know, all these vehicles and toys that I played with when I was younger. So it's, you know, it's super exciting.

It's a little, you know, it's a, it's a very ambitious project. You know, when they, when they brought me on to it, I was like, man, this is a big crate. You guys are really, you know, you're really reaching here with this one. It's a big sprawling project just to bring all those ideas together in a way that seamless and makes sense.

It's pretty, it's pretty big and intimidating. But I think it'll be, I think it'll be a lot of fun. Now, do we know the writers are going to be on board for that? I'm not the writer.

I'm sorry, the artist and the, the anchors for that. I knew you were going to ask me that. Because I'm just going to, is, is Larry, how am I going to be involved? Larry, Larry, how am I, you know, I don't want to say no for sure, but I don't think he's doing any of the, you know, that he's doing anything, anything with it.

The artist of, of the main series, I can tell you. That's, that's a guy named Fiko Osiev. And he's, I mean, he's, he's amazing. Only because he brings all these insane images together in a way that, that doesn't skimp on any detail.

I mean, these are incredible pages. I don't know if you saw there's this image that came out. There was like the preview image that had all these, you know, characters kind of fighting and, you know, had snake eyes fighting a courier from micronauts and mass vehicles flying in and had all this intense, and this intense detail to it. And that's the way he draws the book.

It's not, you know, it's, it's that level of detail. So, I mean, that's pretty, it's pretty exciting to see that. You know, and then there's going to be a number of spin off, you know, spin offs, not, they're not series, but one shot. It's a revolution, one shot.

So there'll be, you know, mass revolution and G.I. Joe revolution, I think, and, and, and a couple of transformers revolution issues. And, and then micronauts revolution for me, which are just these one issues that kind of connect to the main series and tell a little bit more, give a little bit more detail on the main, on what's going on in the main series. I honestly couldn't tell you who's drawing most of the spin offs.

I can tell you that the micronauts spin off is, is drawn by a guy named Chris Panda, who's, who's really great. He's wrapped that up just recently. So, but yeah, I'm not sure who else is drawing the other, the other series. Very cool.

That's going to be an exciting book. IDW has, I don't, I don't know how they get all those licenses, but they do a lot of really cool spin offs and one like, you know, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Batman and like all that kind of crossover stuff is fantastic. You may hand in, all the caddles, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You used to watch when you know on Saturday mornings.

Yeah, I think, I think those guys just all a bunch of, you know, just like us, there's all a bunch of, you know, comic and toy geeks and they just go after that stuff. So cool. I have to ask you, well, I have you in regards to battle scars. I, six issues of just wasn't enough for me.

It was so well written. You just blew it out of the water. Well, and you know, I gotta be honest, all credit for that goes to Chris Yoast. I mean, battle scars was a weird, a weird series for me because it was really, so what happened was the sort of the origin of battle scars was they came to right after the fear, the fear itself event.

Marvel came to me and Chris Yoast and asked if we would co-write a 12 issue series with Matt Fraction, sort of in a consulting or editorial, almost an editorial role, really. Okay, so I was wondering what his role in that was? Yeah. Okay.

So if we would co-write a 12 issue series that would be a follow-up to fear itself and that was going to be called The Fierles. And Chris and I started coming up with ideas and throwing, you know, we had this really crazy story and basically it was going to, the story was going to follow two different characters on diverging paths. One was going to be Nick Fury and one was going to be Crossbones. And I was going to write the Crossbones sections of the story and Chris was going to write the Nick Fury sections of the story and eventually they would collide in some big way.

But as we started kind of brainstorming and pitching ideas back and forth, we realized that the story that we were trying to tell was even was too big even for 12 issues. So Marvel decided to break it into a 12 issue series which was Fear Itself The Fearless and the 6 issue series which is Fear Itself Battle Scars. And while we're all credited as writing each of them, I wrote almost every word of Fear Itself The Fearless and Chris Yoast wrote almost every word of Battle Scars. And then my role in Battle Scars was really to just help and sing with Chris on Fearless where we were just kind of bouncing ideas off each other and we saw all the scripts but really Battle Scars, the credit has to go to Chris on that one because he repeated the lion's share of that work for sure.

Gotcha. Okay. Yeah, I just really enjoyed that. And of course Fear Itself was just amazing.

It's like, wow, you know, put all that together. It's just really great stories. Yeah, it was a fun project and it was great to work with all those guys, you know, to do this sort of, this big, sprawling story we were doing. It was almost in-in-of-of itself, after Fear Itself, in my mind, it was like another event.

Yeah. And we really felt that way. And any plans in the future to revisit it at all? You know, I don't know.

I think that ship has probably sailed. I think there are plans for those characters and there are things that Marvel is doing with those characters but I doubt we will really revisit them in any-I mean, they'll show up in other books that I doubt will revisit them in a way, you know, in such a focused way. Gotcha. So kind of changing track a little bit.

I wanted to talk about your run on Venom a little bit. You introduced Eddy Brock as Toxon in Venom and they've kind of ran with the idea of it now because in the Carnage miniseries, Eddy Brock is brought back as Toxon. How do you feel taking the mantle of such a famous character and just kind of getting pushed forward like that? Yeah, no, I'm glad that they moved forward with that because I really, with the Venom series, there were a couple of things I did that I was very proud of and I was really scared that they wouldn't do anything else with.

Toxon is one of them and Eddy Brock is Toxon and this may be blasphemous to Venom fans, you know, Venom fans all over. I think Eddy's better is Toxon than he was as Venom and I like the potential that that gives the character. So I'm glad to see they're doing something with him and the other one was Mania, which was this character I introduced sort of towards the end of the Venom run that I had a lot of big plans for and she's vanished after the end of my series but now she has just now reappeared in Venom Space Night. The last issue of Venom Space Night, she shows up on the last page and you know I know they have a big story planned for her in that and then I'm doing everything my power to get my hands back on the character after that because I still, you know, that's a character I really want to do some stuff with and I have I have I have I have irons in the fire in terms of Mania, things I want to do with it.

Actually, irons in the fire with almost every character I've introduced that has kind of vanished since then I still there are things I want to do with them. So, Zanklid the tooth? Well, the tooth, yes. If I can get Matt Kent to draw it, we'll do another tooth.

Cool. Oh, I myself would be ecstatic to see you on a Eddy Brock Toxon series. I would, that would be the reason I'll just say that right now. I think that could be really awesome.

I mean, there's never been any discussion of that but that would be kind of amazing. So, yeah, I think it'd be a great character to do something with. Awesome. So, have you always had like a kind of did you grow up reading different symbiotes series?

I mean, you've done a lot of X-Men now, you've done a lot of Venom. I mean, were these series that you grew up reading? I was a kid when the black suit first appeared and then, you know, I was I think I can't remember how long after the black suit first appeared that Venom showed up but but I know I was kind of I was kind of out of comics for a little bit when Venom showed up for the first time but I was reading the issues because my younger brother was was reading the Venom issues and stuff so I was able to I was able to glean some of that from him but I can't say that I was ever a really big Venom guy until you know I didn't care for lethal protector and all that those weren't those comics weren't written for me really until until remender took over and kind of reintroduced Flash Thompson as Venom. I was kind of out of it for a while and then then I kind of really enjoyed what Rick was doing with Flash again to speak blasphemously to Venom you know, sendy at lovers everywhere.

I think Flash is a better Venom than then Eddie was so so I like uh you know I like Flash Thompson Venom and uh and yeah I think really my my real interest in Eddie Brock came as I was writing him in the Venom series. Very cool, very cool. Speaking of interesting characters, all you've done almost a dozen Deadpool minis, is there any chance of you ever have you ever considered ongoing doing what a nice lengthy run? Well um so I just wrapped up a series called Deadpool in the Mercs for Money with issue it was a five issue limited series.

This month we're going to relaunch Deadpool in the Mercs for Money as an ongoing series so so I will be writing uh you know I will be writing Deadpool as an ongoing series as far it won't be the main Deadpool series it'll be the Deadpool in the Mercs for Money series though. For a while I pitched doing like a Deadpool ongoing series uh you know to go along with the main series and at the time we really wanted to focus solely on these additional miniseries but uh Mercs for Money had enough juice behind it I guess that they wanted to to try it as an ongoing um and uh and hopefully people like like what I'm doing with it and then I'm still doing Deadpool some other Deadpool miniseries in the future as well. Oh are there some uh some in the works right now? The works I haven't have yet to be announced but yeah there's at least one more in the works.

Spoiler spoiler! Oh no no oh this is a spoiler welcome environment yes yeah I guess I will tell you nothing more than that's it. There are to me chongas in our future right yeah I guess you and Joe Kelly are probably my two favorite Deadpool writers that have ever written that character so. Wait wait wait there's more?

So yeah I'm very I'm very excited so um kind of going back a little bit to uh some of your other older works uh one of our other listeners Jake he wanted to know what your inspiration was for the empty man and then also if you ever had plans to go back and revisit the series um so I'm not exactly sure where the empty man came from I can tell you that I can tell you when the idea for it came to me uh because I remember very clearly we were driving to a comic book convention in Chicago and uh and I remember I was looking out across this field and there was this barbed wire fence and there was all this plastic sheeting that had somehow gotten tangled in the barbed wire it was kind of blowing in the wind and for whatever reason that inspired this sort of I wrote I had my notebook in hand and I wrote down this words you know these words the empty man made me do it and that was the first thing I wrote for the empty man that was the moment I wrote it and the story just kind of spun out from there I don't know if there was any particular inspiration other than I just wanted to to kind of look at the uh to look at sort of you know what spawns religion and what spawns people to you know kind of follow you know follow these these figures with a sort of fanatical devotion and then I started kind of tying that to this idea of disease and insanity and it just turned into this really surreal horror story and that's about all I can tell you as far as the you know the real inspiration for it um and yes I am going to be returning to it I'm working on uh I'm working on a follow up a story for a follow up series right now so yeah I will I will definitely be uh definitely be returning to it they just this week announced that Fox has chosen an actor to play the lead in the empty man movie and they're supposed to start filming in the fall so I would anticipate you're going to see you know a new series sooner you know relatively soon well congratulations on that I'd read that back in uh I think it was February of this year Fox kind of opted for it so that's awesome congratulations it's huge yeah it should be it's pretty exciting you know the actor that that they've cast is actually one of my favorite actors this guy named James James Badgdale who I think is a great actor so I think it could be could be really interesting and we'll see what see what they do with it and then yeah but definitely I'm working on a new series right now with the empty man ended on kind of a cliffhangery you know ambiguous note so I'll be excited to explore explore that and make it even more ambiguous as we go along very cool I'm sorry you said James Badgdale yes he was in Iron Man 3 yeah he was Iron Man 3 he was in 24 he was in World War Z he's uh he's said a lot of great a lot of really cool things yeah great choice very cool now you mentioned earlier in the show wrapping up the sixth gun which um I mean I hope to read the series soon I'm waiting for all the deluxe editions to be available because that's how I collect my books usually sure the biggest hardcore format I can get um and I mean it's a big deal when when a publisher that usually doesn't publish those has these huge hard covers available what was it like wrapping up you know six years of your life now it was uh you know it's a little bittersweet uh I you know I said to say farewell to some of those characters but at the same time it was pretty rewarding to be able to take a story and tell the story we wanted to tell and do what we wanted to do with it you know from beginning to end and I feel like there's value in stories that have you know a pre-determined ending and and work towards that ending and uh and that's one of the things uh you know we were able to do with the series so as much as I love those characters uh and in theory could write you know six young stories till the end of time with those characters uh I felt like it was time to say goodbye and wrap it up and I felt good about the way uh about the way we brought the series to an end so there's no chance of um you like you're completely done no more limited series nothing like that um I won't say that we're a hundred percent but but I will say that the story of those characters and the story of the six guns is over and I don't think we'll be revisiting those uh those characters really moving on to your current stuff with uh uncanny x-men um you're writing right now for apocalypse war or I guess what is being released right now anyway it is for apocalypse war how do you feel uh that marble is handling x-men right now and how the story through apocalypse war is hurting or helping the x-men is characters right now um you know I think uh you know they're you know they're as far as how marble's going I think they're doing they're doing great I mean it's uh it's you know it I hear a lot of uh strange uh conspiracies about marble and the x-men and things like that and they're they're a little uh they're a little uh fun to listen to I guess but I do the day they're kind of ridiculous uh and uh you know I feel like uh you know we're you know we're given the the chance to tell the story we want to tell and uh you know apocalypse war is as interesting well it helps only because it does help sales on a book and any book that you know any book that says they don't need a little bump in sales and the second or third arc is that's poppycock every every book can use a little bump in sales um the interesting thing about apocalypse wars is it's not really an event where it's across over where all the books tie into uh tie into each other and you need some sort of map to figure out how to with the reading order of the issues or anything like that uh it just so happened that dennis hopeless jeffle mier and I all had stories that kind of had something to do with apocalypse in them uh and we all wanted to tell them around the same time so uh that's really where uh you know where apocalypse wars came from as a as a sort of a pseudo event um is that we would have done those stories with or without the apocalypse war's banner I think at some point uh but but doing them this way kind of just puts a little bit more of a spotlight on the books and introduces you know it could introduce new readers to look at them if they're just looking at it from a you know from a perspective of if they're event followers I guess they're looking for something big there doesn't hurt that there's a you know that we decided to do a release around the time of the apocalypse movie uh that was coming out and uh we we just had uh these these these interesting stories we wanted to tell and and we just went for it right okay so when marvel first put you on this current run that you're doing with x-men or were you ecstatic were you excited to have the opportunity to work with these characters yeah no I was I was really excited um uncanny x-men was that was my you know as far as superhero comics goes that was my that was my jam was uncanny x-men I loved those characters um I followed them for years and years and years and years so uh it was uh it was super exciting and humbling and uh and thrilling to be to be working on that title in particular probably six six or eight months before I was offered the job someone asked me on a message board or something if I would ever consider writing uncanny x-men and I said well I would love to but I don't think that will ever happen because I just couldn't I just couldn't imagine that you know that particular dream coming true uh and then you know then a few months later there it is it's a nice thing to put down on uh the list of uh things it's like the check-off list the bucket list of comics yeah yeah sure yeah it's uh you know I said uncanny is a very important title to me so uh so you know it's it's something that I take pretty seriously very cool so is there something else that you've always had your eye on that you just would love to get a crack at trying to write for um yeah there's a there's a few uh with marvel in particular there's a lot of their horror based heroes I would love to do something with um ghost writer in particular I'd love to do something big with and uh that would be uh that would be something that that would be pretty excited to work on uh man thing really any of uh any of the horror characters uh I would be uh I'd be thrilled to write I have this uh there in the 90s there was this book called Night Stalkers that uh had Blade and Hannibal King and I can't remember if Morbius the Living Vampire was in it but it was you know sort of a vampire hunter series but I have this idea for a new Night Stalker series that would just be horror focused and would really uh kind of do something different with the the Marvel horror heroes so who would you say is your favorite Marvel character it's really tough it's gonna be you know Night Crawler is probably my favorite Marvel character I can't even tell you why but I've always been drawn to Night Crawler as a character uh and Rachel Gray also from the X-Men uh is another big favorite of mine very cool uh one of our other listeners of the show Scar he actually wants to know if you can give us any of your uh plans for Phantom X and what Archangel situation is if you could potentially dive in well my my first question is don't any of your listeners have real names because this is scar they're just like you guys and then these these names come on we live in the fantasy world all right well all right I can't fault you for that um so plans for Phantom X he's just gonna get continued to get beaten up by other characters I guess uh it's tough I can't I don't want to really reveal um too much I do have plans for Phantom X there's sort of a bigger story in mine for him uh that that you know when we you know before he appeared in my run on Uncanny X-Men he'd kind of been you know divided into three different characters and he'd lost uh Eva his ship and that seems to have all been undone and uh I do want to there's a story there that I want to tell to show how that's happening what that means for him uh and and that ties into some bigger plans I have have for Phantom X um and as far as Archangel goes uh the next issue of Uncanny X-Men will will answer all the I mean it will it will resolve you know the the mystery of Archangel is he seems to be this mindless drone and if you're reading Apocalypse Wars Warren Warren Worthington seems to be uh this tent revival preacher and he no longer has wings and uh I will resolve those the story of I will resolve the story as it stands with those two characters and introduce sort of a new story and maybe a new mystery with with Archangel going forward but at the next issue of Uncanny X-Men will wrap up Apocalypse Wars and and then yes that will uh that will definitely have some big revelations about Archangel and and some big changes for the character very cool thank you very much for answering those so cool I want to ask you um any uh maybe some spoilers on Conan the Slayer you guys in the spoilers you just want um so you know Conan the Slayer I'm on the series for 25 issues so I've signed on to write 25 issues of the book um so I'm real uh I'm real excited about it because Conan is a character that uh I you know I've loved for a long time so over the course of the 25 issues two of Robert Howard stories have to be adapted in uh in in my book uh but that won't be the entire series that that's gonna take up two arcs of my series everything that Dark Horse has been doing since the current buchic issues of Conan the Barbarian have been following a very specific chronology of Conan the Barbarian stories so uh I have I have my marching orders of I have to adapt the two stories that I have to that I will be adapting uh are called the Devil and Iron and the people of the black circle but my story doesn't start with the Devil and Iron I'm telling a six issue story that is all its own you know it is a new story and then I'll tell the Devil and Iron I'll adapt the people of the black circle and then I'll tell some new stories the interesting thing about the Robert Howard stories is there were characters who would show up but with us doing the comics the way we're doing them I'm able to take some of those characters and kind of dive deeper into those characters and what that means who they are to Conan and uh and what they uh you know what they will you know the role they play in his life for instance at the end of the the story the Devil and Iron there's this character introduced uh this woman Octavia uh she's never again seen in a Robert Howard story um but I have the opportunity to show what happened to her after the Devil and Iron and how does her story unfold and how does that impact Conan's life and beyond that I can say you know it's a pretty classic take on Conan it's a little it's a little closer to you know probably you know the Sword and Sorsery barbarian than it was say with the Brian Woodrun it's less less of the Brian Wood was doing with the character and it's more uh you know brutal barbarian you know storylines um so I think I don't know if that's any spoilers but that's that's kind of where we're going with it. Well I appreciate that thank you. I know I looked at the cover at that and they covered it was a sec it was just amazing the job that was done on that. Oh yeah it's an awesome image.

It is not sort of the blood and everything the muscle it was just really well drawn. Yeah and I think that that image I think speaks to sort of the tone of the series pretty well too. Very cool. So I think that our birthday boy tap here has our final question for you for the night and it's something that we always ask usually everyone that we interview.

Go ahead now. Oh yeah these questions are always the best. Oh no this uh basically for that it's just basically what's in your short box what are you currently reading right now? Uh I just read uh Weird Detective by Fred Ben Linte which is uh which is uh which is a great book it's a lot of fun.

Uh Jeff Lemire's Black Hammer I think is really good as sort of a superhero. It's Jeff Lemire just doing his kind of superhero story which I think is a lot of fun. Uh those are probably the three. I read a lot of stuff in trades of of reading and floppies.

Those are uh those are the things I've been reading. I did just read all the Star Wars books that I've missed out like I hadn't I was always uh behind on like the Darth Vader series so I just did a big you know marathon. That's cool. Only three more issues left on that one.

Yeah I rap on that one. It's been great. It has really has. All right well we're really appreciate your time today but unfortunately we're gonna have to wrap it up.

All right guys. Oh first of all for you do happy birthday, Tapp. Oh thank you very much. Yeah thank you.

I'm sure he's he may not sound ecstatic but he is super like he's big. If you could try his video right now he is cheesing right now. I'm just trying to keep it calm but uh no thank you very much that is awesome. I'm getting old but you know it's awesome.

We all are. That's one time we're all getting old. This makes you comment some work vintage. Yeah.

Welcome everyone. It is that special time of the podcast where we bring you nothing more than the reviews where each pull a comic out of our short boxes and tell you why you must read it or why you must not read it. Today we're gonna bring off Rusty with a special issue just for you. Rusty take it away man.

Okay so recently in a mail call I got a certain volume to Silver Surfer issue. The only one in volume two number one and it's by Stan Lee and Byrne. Okay so it's really cool. I mean obviously with that kind of team it's like a standout comic and the fact that it's Silver Surfer that's already Stan Lee's favorite character right.

I mean it's gotta be but it was a 50 page story and it was a one shot. There's only one issue in the entire volume two series and it was kind of just a story to tell a story. Let's put it that way. It didn't change a thing.

Okay well maybe one thing but we'll get to that. So we have Norin. He's done you know explored the world. He's saved the earth plenty of times.

He's made his friends with Fantastic Four and a few other people as well. He's stopped enemies such as the likes of Doom. He even pushed away Galactus but something that he always wishes he still could do but Galactus confined him to was leave Earth to go explore the cosmos skin and find his shallow ball. Okay.

And so he decides one day he's tired of it and he shoots himself straight up in the sky and hits the barrier and he's figured out he can't get past it but just so coincidentally he finds out that Reed Richards has been working on a ray gun that it will bring him down the barrier if he and the ray gun hit it at the exact same time. Now does this already sound like a kind of a one shot like hey this doesn't really this isn't probably gonna do anything like going right now. Yeah already but it was pretty good. Like you have to get through the first half of it.

You kind of take some building up before something happens like that because it's exploring a bunch of different things but when he finally gets past it he goes out and it works and they're like bye Silver Surfer and you think it's his like farewells and whatnot. Goes home just to find out that Zinnlaw is gone. Like Galactus came back and destroyed it. It's gone.

He got out of there for no dang reason. But while he's on the planet crying basically he sees a like a patrol car come by from his people and like it's like oh and what happened is once he decided to stay on earth and find himself to protect earth. Galactus said well he betrayed me. The deal was that I wasn't going to destroy his planet if he as long as he served me he doesn't serve me anymore so I'm coming back and I'm killing y'all.

And so he's looked at as an enemy amongst his people now. He's a betrayer a traitor okay. And so to prove that he was I guess not traitor or that he I mean he can't find ball and so he's like all right I will bring her back and he goes on a quest to try and figure out where she is and he constantly stumbles upon Mufisto of all people who has captured her and basically Mufisto being Mufisto tries to fight Silver Surfer just fight Silver Surfer there's not really a reason to it and he wants to destroy him. He ends up tricking Silver Surfer after the fight when he sees he's about to lose it's a surfer in the power cosmic and he sends ball back to earth okay.

So he has to go back into the barrier of earth okay and whenever he goes back into the barrier he cannot leave earth again so he's like all right it's worth it you know just to be with my love goes into the barrier finds out it's a trick and that she's not even there and then he's stuck on earth for forever and that's basically the end and it's like wow for all this 50 pages nothing happened well thank you for all the spoilers now we don't have to read it. It's a classic though the cover is amazing everyone's seen the cover with the surfer just standing there with his board and everything and I mean it's a good story for what it is but after reading it I really understand why they had to reboot things in Silver Surfer volume 3 and they figured out a way for him to get past the barrier and make it to where he can always get past the barrier if he wants. Yeah so let's start with tap you are next. Alright I'm gonna keep the short sweet and simple the book that I'm reading is 30 years old it is none other than DC's The Spectre.

Now prior to reading this book I did not know a whole lot about the character of the Spectre other than what I've seen and like Justice Like Dark and you know he pops up into some stories here and there's kind of like a side plot but you don't really know a whole lot about the character I've never read anything you know solo series anything like that. Well this series is by Tom Mandrick does the art and John Ostrander had to think for a second does the writing on it and it is absolutely phenomenal. Number one the art in it is trippy beyond belief but it's also extremely beautiful all rolled into one it is one of the best drawn books I've ever seen in my life. I am a huge fan of the Tom Mandrick's work on this and I'm very sad that it took me 30 years to discover this title.

Also the writing is absolutely bar none it is such a beautiful written book you know a lot of people say oh he's the vengeance of God and I don't want to have to listen to religion and stuff like that. Yes that's true he is the the vengeance of God however from a religious standpoint it's not preachy or anything like that so if you think that's what it is get it out of your head because it's not it's very much its own take on a man struggling to find what being a specter actually is and it's like his journey along the way and it is such a fantastic run. I'm a huge huge huge fan of it hopefully we can try to get those two guys on the show at some point that would make my year but yeah it's absolutely beautiful extremely well written that's only 62 issues I want to say and all started back I believe it wasn't 92 and ran from there ran for five years critically acclaimed title if you have not read it don't be like me and wait any longer go grab it you can get in trade paperback you can get on comicsology I got lucky thank you again Jabo I got all 62 issues in excellent condition for a very very very very good price so yeah go check it out the specter it's absolutely amazing if you're a fan of the supernatural type stuff you know such as Constantine dead man just as like dark those types of things you're absolutely gonna love this title so that's what I got Nova you look like you're rip rare and ready to go what you got well I was just gonna mention if you like those two guys they also had a pretty good run on Martian man hunter yes so it's also worth checking out I'm gonna talk about an image comic that's pretty metal if you ask me if you like heavy metal and beer you're gonna like this comic I can already and and yeah so I'm gonna talk about we'll be fine again to the comic I mentioned beer have you guys ever heard of this brewery called three floyds I have not but I'll drink it it's really good they seriously are their beers some of the best beer you'll ever drink are they Canadian no they're American actually when I was in India and I had two of their beers and it was just it was all I wanted to drink so now we do a bar and do you start drinking I'm just hunting for it it's actually hard to find it's actually really hard to find because they're not they're they're a smaller brewery but it's really good three like the number three and then floyds yes all right I'm gonna check them out so the comic is based on the beer actually Nick Floyd one of the co-founders of the company is co-writing it with Brian Azarello and Simon Bisley is doing the hard work and if you don't know Simon Bisley he's on a bunch of a global he's got a really creative style and it really suits the tone of the book so without going into the super heavy spoilers like Rusty always does there's two issues out so far and the gist of the story is it's called alpha king alpha king is actually one of their one other beers which is really good that's actually the one I had it was delicious so alpha king and right so what happens the plot of the story is these creatures from another dimension these like ogres and orcs they come to the three floyds brewery to steal the beer because it's such a good beer that they had to come from another dimension to take it and in the process they wind up kidnapping this guy's girlfriend one of the brewers and he ends up following them into their dimension and when he gets there he turns into this guy that they're all calling the alpha king so he's sort of this like prophesied king that's supposed to save them from all the worst brew the lesser breweries in their world and he's supposed to rain delicious beer upon them so it's a really it's a really like there's a lot of good jokes they're pretty crass jokes as well I mean we're talking beer orks and like heavy metal and stuff like an issue too there's one part where there's like a dog a bulldog that had machine guns coming out of his chest he's standing up on two legs he's got like cybernetic arms and stuff and there's like a cat smoking a will look like it could have been a cigarette or joint but just riding on his shoulder with like a leather jacket on and a machine gun in his hands it's really crazy stuff like that and there's a lot of jokes as well where they go into like a bar and they start drinking the beer and the alpha king guys like don't drink this it's poison it's horrible and there's a huge bar fight because there's this belting the beer there so if you like beer violence and everything that is america I think you'll like okay I think you'll like this book though it's a good creative team simon bizzales awesome I think it's only gonna run for six issues in total so it's a limited series but that's what i've been reading this past weekend really enjoyed it well they have a fantastic website the art on their website is incredible but unfortunately they don't have any any stores around me that sell it that's brewed in munster indiana okay that's yeah that's why that's why i got it in indiana yeah they don't they have it like in ohio, illinois, wisconsin like right around that area but they don't have it near me unfortunately true however you can buy it from their website and haven't ship it to you oh nice i don't know what all flavors can be shipped but you got to go to some bars and then just if the bar ever has on our restaurant you say yeah just give me that because it's really good all right i'm gonna take a word for it oh yeah so uh red what have you got for us i'm guessing it's a marvel comic squirrel girl today oh yeah right oh please and trick is squirrel girl no as you know me make my image so listen up you jive turkeys i have got i've got i'm telling you the dino mike out of sight issue that you're all gonna love it is be claymore's 1976 or short 76 all right i love this is the series eight issues series know what you're not in your head did you read this no i've heard of it though oh my god it is just amazing it is just i don't even know where to begin you get the art is by ed tandem art is so good i had a look him up because i want to read more of his stuff that he's done the you look at this stuff and it's like holy crap this is the 70s this is the way things looked the way it felt the whole issues in black and white and it's a simple story about uh basically detective uh john carmichael who has a past that don't even his girlfriend knows about and all of a sudden this this guy comes into town starts creating problems and he dawns on his old leather jacket brings a couple's buddies out of the woodworks and find me find out that he is none other than a kung fu master known by jacke karma and this is i'm telling this is so retro so well done so well to put together you read this issue all of a sudden it takes you back to start skiing hutch street san francisco and all those other great shows that came out in the 70s it was just really well written really well drawn put together and one of the things that i love about this is something similar to that we see man hawkins does within the front and the back of the all the comets he puts together some fun facts about 1976 he'll tell you a list of you know all the big things that came out such as evil can evil retires or gas was 59 cents a gallon all the way down to where was the top billboard hits and uh that you're listening to on the radio you know rocky was number one the box office really great story really lots of fun things going on in there you need to you know check this out and you're really going to enjoy it i can't speak highly enough about it i don't want to give out too many spoilers because there's some really cool things that happen in this that you just got to read to find out so check it out don't be a jive turkey pick it up and right on man keep on trucking just so everyone knows this this book brought rad back to his 20s yeah it's all right back you know when they start talking about you know she going to man and archy bunker and i mean things that i completely forgot about in my youth you know just trying to remember some of the stuff off the top of my head that they had thrown out and some of the back of the stuff but no really even if you were not born in that time period i'm sorry you're still going to enjoy anyways because there's so many cool things in there and you can maybe learn a little bit about your history so that's what i got check it out the issue is called 76 let me claim more and add tandem it issue we're going all right everyone you've heard the music so you know it's time for another mad libs and for those of you who are new to this segment shame on you but you're gonna hear something fun right now i've sent all the questions and i've gotten my responses for the perfect mad libs on the continuation part four of our ongoing superhero story now guys are you ready for this i am ready all right so once again we return for another mad libs the story is filled with action and adventure as tap and red fill in the blanks we left off last episode with our two heroes blue-footed booby woman and connor mccloud swordsman tied up and held hostage the scene changes as we see stink eye steve and steel returning to the great lake of avengers headquarters whoa steel it looks like well hit this place wasn't blue-footed booby woman and swords woman here analyzing some data from earlier today i didn't get a read from the avengers walkie-talkie it appears as though someone was looking for something or someone stink eye i think you are right my flatulence power could possibly help us track down the location of our missing comrades if this fails though we may be in for rude awakening with mistress pussy willow they're already on her bad list from the time when the zombie apocalypse happened you aren't kidding i don't want to see the wrath of her human light detector scary stuff mate but hey let's take off steel bursts through the roof into flight and steve runs to his 1968 shaville super sport the two keep in contact through the headpiece they wear in their ear we see the two journey across the loss of agus valley suddenly over a hill steel sees a cloud of smoke building over a nearby building i'm going to fly ahead steve i see smoke within the distance be sure to maintain contact with me at all times i don't want to walk into a trap go ahead there's a snowball or block in the road this doesn't look very safe wherever we are mates i'll catch up steel flies into the hilltop fortress and finds our two heroes laid out on the tables there's burritos everywhere and a confused steel suddenly here's the noise we see our mystery man hero that tried to save our heroes last episode crawling on the floor in a dirty mess please help me they are too strong i have been seen such power it was like it came from grandpa's basement the moustaches oh his cup the mystery man passes and he makes a swoosh as he dies what is working in the shadows for steel what could have caused all this destruction will blue-footed booby woman and connor mccloud swordsman ever be released find out next time on mad libs and there's flight burritos everywhere there's burritos everywhere a confused steel suddenly here's an ointz and the power came from grandpa's basement but your right some that steve steve's flatula power and mr mr mccloud was the human lie detected that was the best that one was the best that was good that was really good i told you it all just it lined up too well yeah the stuff just flowed perfectly tonight yeah i was really surprised I wasn't too much um there wasn't too much comedy really but there was a lot of suspense and we're building up now for our climax What's gonna happen next guys? We'll have to wait and find out next month.

Yep on the next issue of Mad Libs same for guys time same for guys channel All right, John, well, I thought I just a little bit different this week typically we'd be doing us prank calls But you know what what's one of the big things are going around worldwide these days? Pokemon Pokemon go yes, that is right and I know all of us been playing it. How are you guys doing? You guys been getting out there?

Can you get me? I'm doing alright? I'm not just playing with my kids. Yeah, I work with some die hard.

It's pretty insane I work with some die hearts too. I have a guy that's like level 20 at my job and it's kind of ridiculous But I just play him between times when I came I did catch a dragon air today, which is pretty cool. Oh, it is cool I caught up today with a with a Taurus. Oh, yeah, and I have to select the next level above the Pidgey.

I forget what it's called. Pidgeyoto. Pidgeyoto Well, I got some of those pigeon things that I had enough pigeon candy where I ended up involving him to the final stage And I think I'm like a four-candy short and completely messed out. That's cool.

Yeah It was just like okay kids. Let's go out and let's go to the seaside and see how many fish we can get so Take them out there for a while drove around we hit about a hundred focus stops Which is so many in my area there is a million in my college town You can't like drive maybe a mile down the road without running into one. It's crazy. Yeah That's kind of like how we are from my house to I'd say maybe about a mile and a half down the road There's at least 20 of them on the same street.

It's just impossible to you know not hit it so went out to some walk in to the kids out had some fun and I think you know It's been kind of cool. You know this week to talk with some people out on the streets about poking And so that's what I did I hit some poke stops And I talked to some random people about their experiences and so let's segment into that and let's uh, hear what some people had to say All right, this is Ren here I am at a Pokey stop which will be on the air guy you and Erica doing all right, so which poke is up are we at today? So we're actually kind of at the juncture of a couple of them There's says it's not go ship Jack's there's a lighthouse right there and there's the flag post over there Okay, and for those of you listening we're here in Portsmouth, Virginia We do have listeners worldwide, so what do you think of the Pokemon game? I think it's a lot of fun I think it's a great way to get people outside and to get people actually come together to talk to each other Kind of read some gaps it is that it's a wonderful way because people just kind of come together because I have a family Just walking up to me right now.

Hey guys if you want to come on over we can make this a group thing All right, just speak on over into the mic. So what's your name Andre Andre? Can be Andre yourself? Tatiana and who do we have here?

Okay, let's come on a little closer to the microphone here so everybody can hear you well. All right, so Erica you're talking about how you enjoy the game. How about you guys? Why do you guys like Pokemon?

I think it's really great as a mom just to be able to have something encouraging us to get out of a lot more morning and I the kids always want to go out go for walks no matter how hard or whole I think this is something that's really great just getting a lot of people together We all talk to strangers who seem to all have that one common ground It seems to not have that fear anymore of this one different from that one it seems to bring people together I agree with you as a father of three, you know my kids It's a one way to get them off the Xbox out of the house get some exercise and have some fun and do something family together And it brings people like ourselves together. You know, you know, so I gotta ask you what have you guys caught today? Erica today Let's see today. I know I've caught a tentacle a star me a whole plethora of the stuff magic harp me to ram polywalk I just got a whole of parisect we got a muttini Yeah I have you see a picture No, oh so that's the one number one thing everybody really wants to find I'll say for myself a lot of others that probably been on it since we were really on ourselves We're just out here just good as many as we can't see we can't just find as many as we can just catch more Alright, so last question what level you guys on I'm at level 14 14 19 9 9 I know I just hit level 7 Here by talking about buddy today.

You show us pictures of his level 26. Oh, I know I was like oh my look at the stuff You guys like wow just amazing I Was probably two days after the game yes When it came out I got it on the second day then there was some kind of server problems I lost my whole every my whole account. Yeah, it was a way to get it back I just don't remember what it is, but I know the tips and tricks always say I love the game I think when they made it they were not at all ready for it No, I think the biggest thing if they can start optimizing the servers if they can finally take care of the main server crash Before they even try to implement any new features in the game I think that's really gonna help solidify the base that is probably growing by the hour. Yeah, no it is I finally out in Europe now as of earlier this week Japan's I just foresee more server problems I think that they were thinking that the younger folks were gonna be getting high level rate But they didn't foresee all the parents that would jump on board and all the different accounts of all trying to encourage But enjoy with the kids, you know for safety reasons and for family time Yeah, to me there's nothing better and we actually have so much fun and it's the most cheapest way to have a family I mean it is it is a really it's a great summertime activity while schools out Yeah, I mean I go to school in Newport News, huh?

And the campus over at Christmas Newport the campus is just big enough I would not be surprised if on those summer warmer days. I see Hundreds of people just walk around. Yes trying to find the next time I'm not a cop exactly. Yeah, well guys.

I really appreciate your time today Thank you so much Yes, definitely all right. I'm here with John Lee. I'm John. I'm doing today.

All right So we're out here in Old Town in Portsmouth. So you guys place the module out here I think one of the guys sitting down here placing it just ran out there Oh, did it all right? So good take advantage of it, right? I know I see those things I have to run to it if I'm out for a walk and get them up guys are the same, right?

Yeah So it's just like the new suitable spot you guys come to This spot and down pretty much wherever they're docking so there are a lot of flurs around there So you guys get a lot of fish stuff that I take yeah, yeah So what kind of things do you caught today? Magic or side of all along the water here and then just some raditas weedles along the streets as well. That's cool So what is about the game you guys really like? Well, I've always been into MMOs and this is kind of an MMO where you get to farm like in real life.

So I think if you've ever enjoyed an MMO you could probably easily become addicted to this game Yes, it is a dick to you really I mean look at all the people are now into it It's gone crazy. Yeah, like if they see someone that they know playing it they can get into it very easily Yeah, very easy. So how long you guys been playing? I've been playing since I think the day after it came out which maybe was the seventh yeah for me about a week ago About a week ago.

So what levels you guys have? I'm at 22 22. All right. That's pretty good.

It's been a lot of time. Yeah, but no money yet That's the way to do it isn't it? It's nice you can play a game to advance it and really not have to spend any Yeah, you know and have a good level. Just level six.

I just a level seven today. So I hear you there. Okay All right. Well, I think you guys are your time.

I really appreciate it. All right guys have fun out there. Pokemon. Yeah, you did too.

Thanks. Now if you get your word on the back. What's up guys? It's your friendly neighborhood Nova here.

First of all, I want to apologize for my voice. I've been feeling a little under the weather Swami sound nasally or you may hear remnants of what was a cough that was edited by the one and only rusty So this is the creator's corner where of course we all sit in the corner and do nothing else for five minutes Now I'm just kidding. We're gonna talk about a creator. Well, you know, we're gonna have a virtual discussion over the sound waves Today, I'm gonna talk about a name that I assume everybody knows Mike Mignola who of course Did and created for the world Hellboy which I believe is what he's most well known for We've all seen the del Toro movies, you know, Pearlman, Veracaneda's Hellboy, but Hellboy did start as a comic and Mike Mignola basically created an entire universe over at Dark Horse.

It's called the Mignola verse And it includes stuff like there's a series called Baltimore, which finder BPRD, of course There's Abe Sapey and lobster Johnson Sledgehammer 44, I believe Hellboy of course and there's been series like Hellboy and the BPRT stuff like that I personally love the universe. It's really cool. There's a lot of sort of mythical magical fantasy elements to it that just rock Hellboy itself is just a phenomenal series if you've read it, you know how great it is but outside of that as well The whole Mignola verse that he's written It's just phenomenal. He doesn't draw all of his stuff, of course, but wish he did but of course he can't either way I mean if you ever have a chance to do check out BPRD, especially that's really good.

He's been writing Abe Sapey and I think it's in the around 50 50 issue count right now. It's also been pretty solid so far Every lobster Johnson miniseries has just been phenomenal and overall which finder Baltimore all great series like really good You can find the trades online. You can go on comicsology. It's all there Plus up a Mignola.

So American Born, of course, he's a writer, a penciler as well, anchor, color, all that stuff He's probably got one of the most unique styles Of anyone out there really I mean if you if you look at his You look at his art style is a lot of really sharp pencil work He's not the kind of guy who you know, it's a lot of pencilers If you look at their pencil work, there's a lot of sort of sort of Marks that the anchor had to sort of choose and flow with it's not the case with Mignola. It looks like it's very straight to the point It's really cool. He doesn't look like his shading work is phenomenal and he can oh you can just tell it's a mini-hole picture You can just tell it's a mini-hole artwork, but I'm gonna throw some facts at you guys in the awards He's won literally 1995 he won four awards Harvey Don Thompson and two eisner awards for Hellboy Unreal right 96 two more awards 97 another eisner 98 yet another eisner 2000 Harvey award I mean this dude has been winning literally every year from 2000 to 2011 Now I'm not always eisner's of course, but regardless I mean he's killing it and it shows in his work if you check out his work whether it's you know, Hellboying hell Hellboying the BPRD just BPRD Baltimore, which find it like I mentioned It's all really good stuff his writing's phenomenal and his artwork if you can ever check it out is gorgeous There's Hellboy library editions, which I highly recommend Their phenomenal they're like the best collected edition ever their huge paper gigantic It's like 11 by 14 12 by 14 I think and you just get all the beautiful artwork in this oversized pages another cool thing There's a neat little else world story that he penciled called Batman Gotham by Gaslight You may have heard of it. It's one of the more popular ones He did a lot of other stuff.

He did a couple legends of the dark knight issues There was a mini series he did that he wrote called the doom that came to Gotham Batman the doom that came to Gotham And he's done a lot of other smaller things. He's mostly obviously worked on Hellboy. There's been Dozens upon dozens upon dozens of series and one shots that he did for that BPRD has been writing for just as long Like I said, lobster johnson Abe sappian, but he's he has a whole universe that he himself has been writing with some help on the side But he has been sculpting this universe in its phenomenal if you like horror if you like a little mystic stuff You like some crazy stuff do check it out. Mike miniola actually just I believe finished with hellboy in general I think he's done drawing Hellboy that was his statement I don't know about writing but he's done drawing Hellboy with Hellboy and Hell issue number 10 So you can find that on the stands it might be worth something if you're into that kind of thing just because it's the last minula issue It's a great series as well if you actually want to read the book which I recommend again But yeah, that's I mean if there's anything that corresponds with Mike miniola It's Hellboy and Hellboy so you know personal to him, of course that he actually doesn't let anyone else write Hellboy So scratch what I just know someone else might draw it.

Yeah, but no one else will ever write Hellboy That is that's his baby and rightfully so. I mean it's a great character So glad we get to have that character in our world If you haven't checked out the movies, please do the phenomenal we need more del Toro I know you're busy going with all your stuff and listening to this podcast of course that he takes up most of your time But Yeah, that's it. That's all got for Mike miniola the rest I can't speak for because you just need to see it and read it So go now All right, everyone this is tamp with four guys in a comic and with me today on who's who I have mr Vito del Sante Vito. Thank you very much for doing this You bet So Vito have done lots of different stuff over the years but more probably more known for his creator own book stray So Vito what what character I guess would you like to discuss today on who's who?

Oh, let's talk about straight. Why not? All right wonderful floors, you're sir feel free to let us know Well, strays real name is Rodney weller, which I realized is a terrible pun roddy weller whileer was his Sidekick name and he was the sidekick of the character by the name of the doberman the doberman was the second in the legacy of doberman The first overman of course a golden age character superhero who Established himself in the european theater of war during world war two and then in fictional city called kappa city in Pennsylvania so the doberman set up shop there his son gained his abilities to heal quickly He became the doberman second overman in new york city at some point They both were two there were two doberman's running around the world which is a fascinating story that I can't wait to tell and The doberman the second orman married in olympic swimmer and they ended up having a boy and his name was Rodney and Rodney became the Rottweiler only after his mother was killed in a car accident But we find out later on that car accident might have had a couple of Not so accidental twists and turns um so yeah, so Rodney became a sidekick At some point he was teaming up with molly danger throughout his early careers and it kind of got him in trouble with his father And so his father said you know what let's take it to the team which is ages aegis Which consists of the titan sparta Black viper who is actually the fifth black viper. So there's another legacy in there.

I love legacy characters early and the theory And theory and so they decided as a team that instead of chastising the boy for trying to you know make friends Essentially, we're going to endorse a teenage team of heroes that'll only be used for kind of public outreach and community service and stuff Not for a crime finding or anything like that But um in stray volume two you will find out that that doesn't always mean that they won't get trouble and they won't fight crime Uh as they team up in the first time So taking stray how does rottweiler become stray? He quits when he's 15 years old uh due to an altercation with his father, um, which is can be seen in stray issue for and becomes kind of a homeless Jobless kind of teenage runaway, but eventually lands on his feet when he starts becoming a club promoter a party promoter and a de facto drug dealer And so this takes him off the side of the angels and puts him on the other side of the tracks Um, but he's got a weird kind of healing factor that doesn't allow for him to get high You know, like it almost eliminates all toxins as soon as uh toxins reaches Munster And so here he is at a party trying to enjoy himself But he can't and woe his meat his life is terrible until he finds out that the doberman his father was murdered And so that's what brings him back to capes and masks cowls and all sorts of costume characters And you can read it all in stray volume one and also action versus uh the tree pick red volume one You can find out more about his history in action versus zero Uh, which is the first book collected in action versus volume one and more is coming if you back to the gift star Fantastic. Well, thank you very much for for coming on again and discussing straight with us and giving us some more background on a Rodney weller and everyone please this is a fantastic book. Uh, we've had the opportunity to review it I'm only one issue behind but from what i've read on volume one.

It's absolutely fantastic so much So I personally went ahead and pledged 15 dollars to this kickstarter, uh to help it out. Um, so yeah, let's uh, let's get this thing funded I mean, I don't think he's got any issues, but let's get this thing funded. So, uh, yeah, thank you again for coming on we greatly appreciate it Thank you guys. I appreciate it With me today for who I have none other than mr.

colon bun. Thank you so much for doing this No, i'm glad to do it man. Uh, so creator owned character you've worked on who do you got for us today? Who do you want to talk about?

Um, you know what i'm going to talk about creator owned characters. I'll talk about this uh, this guy, uh, eddy that uh appeared in a book I wrote called the dam, uh, and uh, and I can't tell you why I really want to talk about eddy right now But there's reasons I want to talk about eddy. Um, eddy is a Eddy is a character who lives in sort of this 1920s 1930s, uh prohibition era Uh world Um, but the twist is that demons are running the the mobs from behind the scenes And they're using all the rackets to get people to sell their souls So they're using gambling and prostitution and bad booze to convince people to sell their souls Um, and eddy, uh, is this guy who's kind of caught in the middle of all of that now eddy's a Eddy's a real rat bastard. He's not a nice guy.

He does a lot of he does a lot of bad things to people Um, uh, and people that that kind of get into eddy's orbit, uh tend to tend to get hurt or tend to get messed up or some you know in some way Um, but the twist For the thing that makes eddy different is that he dies a lot he gets killed frequently. He just doesn't say dead Um, because eddy, uh, eddy has this uh, call it a gift or call it a curse Eddy has this thing about him that whenever he gets killed Um, the next person who touches his corpse Uh, the wound that killed eddy will transfer to the person that touches his corpse and kill that person and then eddy Uh springs back to life. Um, when we first meet eddy in the dam for instance He's laying in an alley, uh, with his throat cut wide open Uh, and uh, this guy comes and grabs him by the, you know, grabs his hands and and his throat just erupts As if someone's drawn a knife across it and eddy's eyes, you know Open back up and he sits back up, uh, in uh, in gasping, uh, but but alive again So yeah, uh, that's the thing that he's a character. I think uh, I think people could really like he likes it.

He's not a white hat He's uh, he's definitely uh, sort of a He's not a villain. He's not a good guy. He's just sort of a Uh, uh, he's just sort of a jerk that is making his way in a really, you know, really uh, uh, crummy world And uh, and I think uh, I think he's I think he's a pretty interesting character, not just because he dies I mean the other question is when he dies, let's say he dies for a, uh, a couple of, you know, a couple hours or a couple of days Uh, his soul goes somewhere so there are there's something out that he knows there's something out there Uh, that he that's kind of drawing him back into this other world after he dies Uh, if you like characters who aren't necessarily uh, uh, aren't good guys but are kind of cast in the role of having to do uh, semi heroic things He's a and an interesting guy Very cool. And I gotta say I wasn't very familiar with the dam, um, prior to the, I'm gonna have to go back and run And read that now you actually didn't read that.

I love horror and supernatural and that kind of like, that's all at my alley So I definitely want to read that. Yeah, uh, you know, uh, check it out. I think, uh, like I said, I have, I have reasons I have secret reasons that I decided to mention eddy today, uh, but uh, they won't be secret for too much longer. I hope Oh, okay.

Okay. Well, if nothing else, you got me hooked. So, uh, thank you very much for coming on and doing this. We greatly appreciate it Thanks guys.

I appreciate it. Thank you. Have a great night. Come on All right everyone.

It's time to close out the show with everybody's segment of the new comic releases for July 27th, 2016 and bringing in will be tap tap. Take it away, man. All right folks for DC Comics this week We have action comics number 960 two different covers for that one Just like all the rebirth titles just assume they're all gonna have two covers because that's exactly what's going on. Okay, uh, bat girl number one Batman detective comics volume seven anarchy trade paperback Uh, batman detective comics volume eight blood of heroes hardcover batman rebirth number one third printing variant cover Deathstroke number 20 demon volume two the longest day trade paperback detective comics number 937 There's gonna be two separate covers for that one dm z volume two trade paperback dr.

Fate number 14 flash number three super stoked about that one Future quest number three green arrow rebirth number one third printing variant cover how jordan and the green laner corpse number one Harley Quinn number 30 harley quinn in the suicide squad special edition number one Harley Quinn volume one hot in the city trade paperback book and mask set so it's gonna be a little bit pricier New suicide squad volume three freedom trade paperback new team titans volume five trade paperback night wing number one red hood in the outlaws rebirth number one Redthorn number nine redthorn volume one glass gow kiss trade paperback scooby-doo team up number 17 Suicide squad the silver age omnibus hardcover Suiciders kings of hell a number five of six Superman rebirth number one third printing variant cover seen titans 22 titans number one Wonder Woman number three and that is going to wrap up dc rusty. What do you got for us in the world of marvel? Okay, so i'm gonna tell you tap it's gonna be a little bit heavy with a death of x variants and they're gonna hit that event hard It seems like an october but we're starting off the list with all new all different avengers 12 We got a alex ross cover which is fantastic and we have that death of x cover We also will be seeing amazing spider-man 1.6 We'll be seeing reprints of black panther number two and third printing Also, we'll have a brand new black panther number four with three different covers including the death of x variant Also that one long-awaited issue that many people have been trying to figure out what's gonna happen Captain america steve rogers number three comes out with four different covers captain marvels number seven's coming out carnage number 10 Something i've been looking forward to also we will see civil war two number four with four different variant covers And none of them just so i'm gonna be a death of x one it's weird also we will see choosing sides number three dracks number nine Extra ordinary x-men number 12 with a death of x variant guardians of the galaxy 3 000 classic in the year volume one trade paperback also, we'll have a haunted mansion number five for all your disney fans out there I Howard the duck number nine. I know that that's coming to an end.

Hi, pearyon number five go out and buy it He fights carneys. Okay international iron man number five machine man by kirby and ditko the complete collection trade paperback Also, you'll be getting mighty four number nine. You will be getting marvel universe ultimate spider-man versus the center sinister six part one or number one We'll have a mockingbird number five moon girl and double dinosaur number nine miss marvel number nine lots of number nine's new avengers 14 Old man logan number nine spider goin number 10 we got past the nines and then we will also be seeing the star wars force awakens adaptation Number two out of six with four different covers also another number nine totally awesome bulk number nine Also, we'll be getting unbeatable squirrel girl number 10 We will be getting uncanny avengers number 11, which is something that i'm excited for with thank pimp and ultra on crazy stuff happening Also venom space night number 10 we are getting closer to the end of flash domsons days Also for those weird world fans we're getting volume one trade paperback of where lost things go and we are going to be ending it today on The one i've been waiting for for a long time x been 92 number five and that's gonna wrap up marvel for today But don't worry. We still have something else.

Don't we read that we do of course we have image comics and who can't forget image comics And going down our list first up we have a loha hawaiian dick part four of five and for those of you who love a loha Hawaiian dick Be sure to check our podcast coming up pretty soon with writer be claymore We also have autumn lands number twelfth two and claw you'll also be seen beauty number nine And that is brought to us another then jeremy han and for those of you like jeremy han We have also a podcast coming out with him very soon as well You'll also be getting drifter number 13 with covers a and b east to west by jonathan hickman issue number 28 Empty zone number 10 i want to want one time waiting for his image plus issue number four with part four of here's nigan Then we'll also be seen jupre's legacy volume two Number one of five second pre-invariant and we'll also be getting jupre's legacy volume two issue number two part five covers eight B and C. We'll also be getting mckanism number one. You'll be getting outcast It's number 19, which i'm really looking forward to you'll also be getting postal number 13 covers a and b and those of you coastal lovers out there Don't forget we have that podcast with brian hill check that one out. You'll really like it We'll have savage dragon issue number 215 and for you savage dragon lovers out there It's written and drawn this month by eric larson and if you like eric larson check out our podcast with him as well You'll also be getting she wolf number one second pre-invariant covered sons of the devil And to wrap it up steve of thieves issue number 33 and that brings us our comp book releases for next week on july 27th 2016 That'll maybe over but the fight will never end Be sure to subscribe to the four guys in comic podcast and itunes google play and pod B dying to hear us interrogate your favorite artist or writer Drop us a line and share your dream interview on facebook keyword for guys in the comic or tweet us at the number four guys in the comic Check out our photos on instagram and also on our website for guys in comic.com.

Thanks for joining us. Stay true to yourselves