Alrighty everybody welcome back to a brand new episode of four guys in a comic this week though It's really only three guys discussing comics because Mike is in my a so we have Michael aka the rest And then we have Alex aka the rusty old man server how And then myself Matt aka your boy tap so anyway, um Gentlemen how the fuck you guys doing this week? Doing a okay hanging in there enjoying all that is comics I know that we're still only gonna be talking about ones that are a week behind but I'm caught up on a lot of stuff finally. I took some time and I read some things. Yeah, I took two days and completed your man thing challenge Yeah, we didn't get a chance to discuss that really because I did it so fast Yeah, you did you know I gave you a full month and you read it in like five days It wasn't even three days But my issue was is that I hate losing like if it was just like a thing or it's like whoever gets it done gets the prize That I probably would have taken a lot longer But I didn't want to risk Mike like taking a vacation day or something and like flying through it And then I lose I hate losing I'm very competitive so Therefore I binge read the hell out of it in three days and For those that don't know it's the Steve Gerber ultimate collection like the trade paperback ultimate collections volumes one and two It's about 800 pages give or take in total.
So it's really about the size of an omnibus when you compare the two But So the well, you explained it was your challenge you explain what it was okay So the deal was is you know back in December a certain someone named a red skull or Michael challenged me to a Invincible read off and I ended up getting my My I saved to the Phoenix from the the ash and Was what was it uncanny 195 mericers? No, it was uncanny like 133 I think or 135 135 yeah 135 that's what it was Yeah, and if you didn't finish reading invincible by by December 31 I was gonna burn the damn thing live YouTube video Yeah, and luckily I saved the damn comic I'll tell you a lot of people are pushing for that. They wanted to see the damn thing catch on fire You know what was funny. It was a Lexi are you cranny and friend from the UK and It's ridiculous.
He was like alright burn the thing burn it come on red skull. Alex is a troll man. Don't let him mess with you He's a great guy. I love him to death.
He's a huge fan of everything that we do I love Alec. He's a wonderful guy, but at the same time. He likes to mess with people Yeah, he does yeah, he does you know and it's funny like I mean I know the guy pretty well I've done a lot of different business work with him and stuff. He's cool guy.
He really wanted us to do that thing Like he told it hard, but I will say all yeah, I'll say in all the years that I've known you I don't think I've ever seen you read as much comments as you did that month Yeah, right, you know, it's funny I don't hang out with that many people that are into comics I've like maybe two or three friends that actually read comics in like personally that I see regularly and It was funny because I'd be like telling people that are friends with that You know aren't in a concert I read like a hundred and eleven comics in 30 days and they're like you did what but I'm sitting here like I know people that will read Way faster than this that will knock out things like outrageously quick And it really made me put in perspective how much of a nerd Matt Michael is so It's not I mean we can knock out a hundred issues a month, you know, I'm gonna get an eye easy Well, I could too. That's my thing though, but a hundred issues of one series That's like But it was worth it wasn't it it was worth it. I'm glad I got the comment But I mean going back to what we're talking about this man thing is that if Nova or Matt or Mike and Matt You know if they finished all the Steve Gerber man thing run They would get a hardcover and loser get our all Stein's man thing. I'm sorry I would love to have our all Stein on the podcast.
I'm not trying to hate on his goosebumps stuff But you know man thing was not my cup of tea But this with Steve Gerber is something that I really enjoyed I I was at the point when I was reading Steve Gerber's man thing stuff Where I didn't want to finish it So I would take breaks just so I could like enjoy it longer some of it is repetitive Matt brought this up Some of it is repetitive But I felt like you know, it was up and down and it just throughout the whole thing long term beginning to end There's a lot of really good things more good things than bad things throughout the whole run Well, here's the thing so here's my here's my things like it's I've been dread this whole thing in three days So my view on it is this is that if someone were to actually take the time read it Let it soak in read an issue or two or you know read maybe four to five issues a week even right like just a few You don't go to town Let it soak in come back read some other stuff come back. It's not gonna feel repetitive. It's going to feel You're gonna you're gonna get more out of it whereas with me I read like all 39 issues or whatever it was and like three days time and the issue that I had with it Was that a lot of the writing was very repetitive but when that book was coming out though people weren't binging it People were buying it monthly, you know what I mean? Like it wasn't something that people did and so I think that was sort of my problem with it Is that I don't think it's a it's a book that people should bend I think it's a book people should like you said take their time and enjoy Yeah, and obviously I if I wasn't in a competition somebody else I probably would have done that But I hate losing so I want to make sure I want But that being said I will say this I was not excited to read this book at all Man thing is not a character that has ever interested me that I'd ever wanted to read about I could really care less and I read it It was way better than I ever expected it to be first off But not only that not only was it a really good book and a really good read the how are the ducks of your right did fall kind of flat I was actually really excited for that cuz I were the best first appearance and you know that one that one did fall a little flat But that being said one thing that came out of this that I will take away forever for the rest of my life is There's a there's a two issue arc in that book called night of the laughing dead and that Arc is in my top 10 if not top five all time favorite arcs ever in any book It's just so good So good I immediately messaged you and I said oh my god I just read this arc it is like the greatest thing ever I absolutely love this like arc like the book overalls kind of whatever I was like but this arc is amazing right And then you pointed out that they actually made a statue a few years ago gentle giant made a statue a few years ago From that arc which now if you can't find it's discontinued if you do find it's like 800 bucks But I was like oh my god.
I want that statue just it's so it's a cool statue Yeah, no the statues though, but the arc is amazing. It's a tearjerker man It's just it's crazy And so I made Mike read it as well cuz I said I told Mike where I was and he's like I'm not even gonna bother then cuz yeah He had really one issue at this point. He's like I'm not even gonna bother and I said okay Well, if you don't read the whole thing, that's fine I said but make sure you go read these two issues I was like there's an arc called night of the laughing dead you have to at least read that arc and he did he went back that night And read that arc and I said what did you think and he said it was really good. I don't know if he was quite as ecstatic about it as I was but he said it was really really good He was very surprised by it and he said and he said uh, it's funny He goes it actually felt very sand man-ish to me You know Neil game in sand man and I started laughing cuz I had read in an interview like a few days earlier that Neil Game in actually took a lot of inspiration from Steve Gerber's man thing run like that was a book that inspired him growing up or Whatever in writing like that was a book that he enjoyed And so I said well, it's funny you say that because Neil Game in actually credits that man thing run is like inspiration for him And he goes yeah, you can totally see it when you read sandman Which now in turn makes me want to go back and get all the absolute sandman books and start reading sandman I'd read some sandman before I haven't read all of it.
So I'm really wanting to kind of go back and read sandman now It's gotta be in that mood, but the problem with sandman It's not a book that I feel like I can read digitally I feel like the only way to properly read that book is in these gorgeous absolute oversized editions I think there's five of them out right now and luckily they're not very expensive. Thank goodness But yeah, so sooner or later, I'll have to get all the absolute sandman's and then Make sure I don't binge it though. I'm gonna take my time and enjoy this one You should that's what I was saying like one of the things that always I should have said it before again, too Like we said, you know binging it seems kind of repetitive. It was coming out month to month a lot of the man thing issues There's not like a long-term arc.
It's like one or two issues in the summer is done Yeah, coming out month to month though like that I would have probably been one of those kids that'd been like when is the next issue coming out? You know what I mean? The next thing and I would have probably been like super satisfied with just having a one issue a month too because it felt like you got a lot One issue. It's kind of like that Claremont thing.
You know, it's like filled with text or whatever It wasn't filled with this much text, but I mean overall like you got basically everything you wanted out of it Yeah, yeah, no, I'm I'm with you a hundred percent on that one. It's uh, I can see that Like I said, I think part of my issue was that I benched it and I shouldn't have but we still haven't decided So what am I getting for my prize? We know what Nova's getting and he didn't even read the mind You know what the thing is I haven't I haven't fully decided yet. We said a hardcover or something of that sort I want to get you something obscure though.
I almost very closely almost got you I know a fantastic for obscure All right, all right Oh, yeah, even in the price range too. I can't just like splurge splurge. I don't got that much money I'm broke fresh out of college guys. So, you know, we're gonna figure this out I almost got Nova though We decided that was getting that man thing many by all sign or I was gonna get him the Jim Starlin warlock thing because he even said Himself that this looks really good It's just he thinks that he would need a physical copy of it because it's one of those comics That's too old to see in a digital format.
You got to look at the page by page of it I even thought about getting that for you, but then I was like, no, it's too easy I'm not gonna make it about me. I want to get him something that he's not used to reading So that's something I'm still looking into I have it decided 100% but it's gonna be something weird It's not gonna be something that you're used to reading because it's no fun Just getting you things that you're into all the time. You got to explore and expand your reaches absolute sandman boy That a thing it's a thing. It's a thing.
It's a floppy, but it's a thing. Oh, it's funny It's a trade paperback. I could get you that. Oh, that's hilarious.
Oh, you want a little car anything go away. Remember me There's a high period trade paper back Positive When did Chuck Wendy's a big name? He's a really big name. He was a best-seller Times I'm pretty positive there was one There isn't then I I mean, I'm sorry.
I'm mistaken. I'm wrong, but I thought there was one I can give you several books that I'm definitely oh, yeah, no, there's one hyperion daddy issues. It's that really what it's called? Yeah I don't think it's only like a Book for I think like well issues.
I think maybe it's only a high period one through five Oh, but it's funny. It says the doll is in danger faced by a pack of freaks and lunatics known as the carneys Okay, that might be it then because that's how he finds doll. Yeah, yeah dolls dad. Okay.
That makes more sense. Okay. Well If you do that to me, dude, then I need I don't know. All right, I guess Yeah, I should get you that right.
I guess you know what I'm gonna laugh my ass But you finally read it with that man. Yeah, I probably would I'll see well To find it see if I can find a good price on the sandman and then man's cheap man ins doctorate is 58 bucks shipped Oh, okay, we can do that. All right done deal. That's actually oh really?
Yeah I've been wanting to read salmon for a long time. So the fact that I don't have it's yeah No, that's I've only read one issue here there sandman is tough to me anyway I think it's really good, but one issue is like 58 pages Yeah, one issue is is really like that's not a book you binge It's a book like man thing that yeah, and you let it soak in and you yeah, it's definitely not a book that you binge All right cool absolute salmon going what you guys heard it here first That's all right do that so worth to read then All right now, it's gonna be cool because you're gonna need to read that and you can make all the comparisons to this Yeah, yeah, no, it'll be dope. That's exciting stuff. Thank you, sir No problem.
I want to ask one thing though about the man thing run What you think about like all the different artists that were on it because even though it was a short run There's a lot of different artists and they're all really big name people for the most part Yeah, no, Valmeric was on it initially after Valmeric was Mike Plou I love Mike Ploupe's art Mike Ploupe has done a lot of stuff that I love from the 70s Where will find night? He was on that one and it's just I love Mike Ploupe's art And I actually almost messaged you when I realized that Mike Ploupe took over I thought it was like a one issue thing and I was like oh, this is kind of cool Yeah, and then I kept being Mike Ploupe over and over again and I went oh Mike Ploupe, Mike Ploupe, I almost messaged you and said like Mike Ploupe is probably my all-time favorite man thing artist Yeah, I love Mike Ploupe Mike unfortunately I've been trying to get him on the podcast but unfortunately I guess his health is not the best right now and he's he has People at to kind of take care of everything else, so he's unfortunately not doing interviews because I really want to interview him after where will By night, but yeah anyway, so Mike Ploupe is probably my favorite to be honest with you But yeah, you know because Jim Starlin did like a random issue and then like Howard Chakin Howard Chakin Howard Chakin did random issue and just like yeah, there's like this is one off things Yeah, there's a lot of big names But Mike Ploupe was probably my all-time favorite man thing or like Valmeric was great, you know He helped kind of you know create the character and whatnot, but um I think Sal Buzema did it too. Yeah, he did One or two issues I believe yeah, yeah, Mike Ploupe is my all-time favorite I just love the way that guy draws the stuff like I said like worldwide night when it's it's really really good Well, maybe you can appreciate this a little more than because I think I've shown you it before but now you've read it so There's Valmeric yeah, yeah, yeah, no I dig it a lot. That's why you get that frame son.
I know I need to I actually yeah, I'm actually getting stuff packed and whatnot in my house right now and As I'm packing I'm discovering all these Pictures that I've gotten done over the years. Oh my god. I really need to get these frames Yeah, I have a I have that here I have the uh It's not a sketch but it's the uh Scott it's a Scott Williams print of a drawing He did for over my towns like square where the courthouse used to be and he signed it and everything so I need to get that done too But yeah, I have a really cool Ryan Brown one from curse words Um that he did that I got last year with mike's I bought him a beer That's the whole nother story in and of itself, but um, yeah, I need to get that one framed And then I have those pages from uh super human resources like the original art pages that were sent to me I need to get those ones framed and I got a lot of stuff in the frame, but yeah I think I'm finally to the point now where I probably have none of wall space for everything that was a different frame Yeah, oh my god. Just some point you just gotta say, okay, this is going up.
This is going to go in and out Yeah, my office area that provided a fingers crossed all works out for this new house Um, but if I uh end up getting the house I want all the my my man cave office area is going to be significantly smaller than current But that's okay because it'll be like an actual room room Not just like a big open area like I currently have so I have like a nice closed off office. I'm looking for it Thank you Yep, now I got to another something I thought was kind of cool that happened to me today So now as I mentioned earlier, you know, I went and got my taxes done over at hnr block and uh, well I walked in there you know, it's greeted and And it's when the lady that worked there she's like, oh my gosh, you know four guys in the comic Yeah, my boys, you know, she heard her younger young boys at home listening to us every weekend And uh, so I want to give a special shout out to her kids out there walter and riley, uh Bianca and so walter riley, thanks for listening to our show Yeah, thank you guys. That's awesome. Yeah, thank you So Something that I want to bring up real quick probably maybe one of our last things depends on how much chime uh michael has left But um, I watched for the first time today, uh big hero six.
Oh, that's a great movie Yeah, I've never seen just now got to that Yeah, I don't have kids, but my uh, you know my wife, uh reagan she we went to the movie trading company today Where I get my comics from went there. She saw the movie She wanted to buy it she'd seen it before she'd told me because she used to nanny kids that Uh, they she should watch it with her kids and stuff and one of them would always say that uh, Fred and was me Right You know the guy that blows fire that wants to be the lizard guy that Or whatever she would always compare that guy to me or whatever and she's like you gotta see this movie or whatever, right? And she um, she was like, you gotta figure out who his dad is at the end or whatever, right? And uh, we uh, I saw it at the beginning the picture and I was like, it looks like somebody and then we went through the whole credits at the end or whatever And you find out that it's stanley is Fred's dad and she was like, this is super appropriate for you You know, this is like, this is you and I was just like, uh, but overall I mean, I liked a big hero six.
It was a really cool movie like if for kids movie, it was fantastic That's how they should do. I'm Disney Marvel movie. It was funny. It was sad.
It was it hit every emotion. I think yeah No, it's a good one. I'm exes cool. Yeah, my kids wanted to be next all for forever.
They've since forgotten about it Um, one other thing real quick here before we go that you talked about movies for the deadpool two trailer just dropped Well, the teaser whatever you want to call it just dropped Um, not that long ago super hilarious trailer first of all, but it has been confirmed. Okay, it just dropped It's been confirmed via the actor who plays colossus that won colossus will be in the movie Which a lot of people are like, oh colossus isn't in it. What the hell no colossus isn't it I don't know how much but colossus isn't it But he also confirmed in an interview that if you freeze the now you just google the picture and you zoom in in the back Behind terry crews a lot of people are saying that's gonna be Gw bridge or whatever. Yeah, go and pass terry cruise Shatter stars in the back no and the dude confirmed that it is in fact shatter star stop it.
So where to god? Oh, no, that's so cool. So then I zoomed in on the picture to like kind of get a better look at it He's got the little padded ticwondo helmet and everything like the little braids and all that It's legit shatter star that will say based on that photo though his costume looks a little funky I'm hoping that there's like some CGI maybe I don't know you gotta think about it though. It's shatter star man.
No, no, I get it I get it, but even still it looks a little cosplay-ish Yeah, deadpool looks dope colossus looks dope Uh, negasonic teeny door head look dope like they all look dope but like his costume looked a little Look a little stormtroopery cosplay. I don't know, but anyway, I thought it was awesome None the fact that like a shatter star is confirmed. I don't know how much he'll be in it, but shatter star is confirmed for deadpool too Okay, you know what I've always I've always thought this okay They've never really done it They've I mean it kind of done it, but not really like full-on done it before if they put like the x-men like you know like storm wolverine I mean not storm I guess but you know like wolverine cyclops gene All those people in yellow and blues regardless of how the movie was good or bad people would probably like it a lot more Or at least just because of the nostalgia sake Yeah, no, that'd be dope. That's why but that's why teenage and negasonic forehead.
She had the yellow in her costume and everything Colossus had the yellow in his costume if frickin, you know wolverine just runs out in the yellow and blues randomly Everyone would go bananas. You know what I mean? Yes, sir If cable eventually gets a yellow and blue costume like he used to have for the little suspenders and everything People would probably go buzz You know, it'll actually look pretty good once once they show the teaser They're like hang on one second. Let me go do the CGI effects How long does it take?
It's not a mustache. It's not a nice little justice like jab. Yeah Yeah, really? Yeah, it's uh, it's it's all I mean so go find that picture It's super easy to find just it'll be like deadpool to trailer where you'll find the photo zoom in though and you'll see shatter star So I gotta ask you though, uh, Michael I've never been like a big 90s x-men thing I've tried to get different things glad you you've never Pised my likes or whatever for it, but what do you think about cable in the deadpool movie?
Okay, he could be there. He couldn't be there doesn't make it a bit of difference to me So the deadpool movie is not your thing. It's not your bag. Oh, I enjoy it I mean I'll watch it, but no, I don't go nuts about shatter star or table anything I like the hydro bob bit in it, but you know, it's just it's Deadpool.
I've never been a huge deadpool fan to begin with either Yeah, yeah Man, I mean, that's another marble movie though. Go see I mean don't I can say the only marble movie that I've not been too excited to see is uh Black Panther. I don't know why you're saying it Amazing Of course they're all hype, but you know, it's for me. I just see the preview and it's kind of like, okay I will say that No, I brought this up before and um You know, it's weird because we're getting like sound in fury black panther and stuff now in comics and stuff and by no means This is shot or anything at all, but I don't understand why they just keep doing new Different black panther comic time to stand it kind of for the movie coming out and stuff You know that makes sense on a marketing standpoint or whatever But I mean, there's always like new black panther stuff coming out constantly constantly constantly, but I've never honestly Had any of my friends or anybody that I know personally that's just like oh, I'm excited to read the new black panther Now then again, you know, it could be really really good.
Um, I've never had any friends that have been honestly like, uh, you know I'm excited for the next black panther issue to come out. I know priest back in the day. Um, it had Well, I've been reading yeah, I've ever read all of it But I'm in action the process of reading his stuff and it is so good his is like almost a cross between like supernatural Um, I guess supernatural elements like it's not just all like technological advanced stuff He has some supernatural elements thrown in that make it Amazing in my book. Um, it's really good.
Yeah, but I mean like with new black panther stuff like any new current titles and stuff I mean, I've not had any friends have come up to me and been like, hey, man. You should definitely check out the new black panther issue It's so cool. I'm totally stoked for the next issue to be fair. I don't really have many friends that say go read this new marvel title period So that's like me too, but I mean we have our, uh, you know, our fan base in the line where yeah, but I even there I mean, it's complete randos.
I don't know every single person. There's like a thousand plus people, you know And I'm just sitting there and I'm like, I never hear anyone be like, hey, you know Black panther issue so and so is coming out next Wednesday. You should definitely check it out because this is happening Yeah, I don't know. My thing is is okay.
So I'm gonna kind of jump on a bit of a soapbox here So for those that don't know, um, which is probably most everyone, um, my wife is of mixed race and um, so she's very forward thinking very um, you know, we're burning supporters, etc. Um, and So in talking about this and talking about black panther and seeing you know, there's all these news articles about how these uh, you know inner city students all get to go see the movie or whatever and you just see it's on chairs and tables and it's super adorable and you're like, oh, it's awesome Yeah, but they look like beyond stokes like I have never seen in some of these videos I have never seen a kid this excited ever to see anything ever, um, and I was kind of showing my wife a video and I said, you know, I don't understand Um, I was like, look at this. This is so awesome to see like, you know, look at how happy these kids are and part of the reason she said I was like, you know, I've just never seen something like this is really cool and she goes well And some of you guys I'm not gonna get into this whole sjw crap with comics gate and all that crap I'm staying out of that. I am Indians, but we're not getting into that.
So don't even try to take this podcast there because that's not what we're going But my wife, um Ultimately said she said we don't understand because basically you're a white male like you're you're not going to understand this like any comic book movie You go in to see or you go in to see as a child like when I went and saw batman the 1989 batman on my seventh birthday like that was Like that was me. I was at kid dancing on the table like ready to go see batman like when batman 2 came out in 9192 I cried because the theater was sold out and they didn't have seats with my mom and I begged my mom to let me just sit in a seat by myself So I could still watch this movie like that's how much these movies meant to me as a child, right? And but a lot of that is because I was a white male sing a white male lead on tv like you know what I mean? Like I could imagine myself being like hey, that's me up there whereas these kids these inner cities, you know, Or even just these black kids in general the internet these kids have never once gone to see a superhero movie Where they can picture themselves and say, you know what that's me up there.
That could be me Yeah, not once has that ever fucking happened people say like oh spawn was the first or blade was the first true I'll give you that he was but those movies were not geared towards children. No, not at all those are rated movie Pg 13 are there are no those are already no spawns not are I don't think it's pg 13 Oh, either way those movies are not geared towards small children, right? Okay, those are not family friendly films. So does no that's a good point right there That's a great point to make right there.
So while yes, you do have Spawn and then blade and stuff so there are other I mean honestly if you want to go back You'd discuss you probably been mentioned shaft and some others if you want to go for a skill or whatever Yeah, I mean you could there's a lot for you but once again, those are not really geared towards children This is the first mega blockbuster movie that is geared towards everybody all races all ages all everything But the first time that these kids can actually go to a theater sit down and say that's me up there I can be Black Panther these kids have never had that before and I never even thought about it until my wife said something about So just think you've had this opportunity your whole life these kids never have I said, but like at first I was kind of like you're insane But then I actually sat down and I actually got to thinking about it and it is so incredibly true that It's just absolutely amazing like this movie is already breaking all these records for pre sales and everything else It's not because this movie is gonna I mean, I guess I do think the movie is gonna be really good But it's not because people are like oh, it's gonna be like the next Star Wars is really good. That's not why Pete it's breaking sales because of the the the historic significance of this movie like a diversity barriers. Correct Yeah, my hope is that this movie Continues to promote these types of conversations with people like the one that I had with my wife I really hope that that this movie helps break those boundaries and helps break these scenarios and Cultural barriers and social barriers and people start having conversations and realizing things that maybe they didn't see before Like I said, I didn't see that before I was kind of like oh, it's a really cool Black Panther movie But I didn't see it from that other side. I'm throwing out examples of like you can't picture You know what I'm saying?
Does that make sense? No, no, it definitely makes sense This is the first time where these kids can actually see that and say to themselves That is me and no, I Say That on a media standpoint on a movie scale that makes sense, but on a comic book scale. It's not something that's new No, but here's the thing black I feel like the black I haven't read any of the comics except from the pre stuff So to be honest, I have absolutely no idea what the new books are like Um, but knowing who some of the authors are I feel like maybe some people I don't know if they're necessarily I don't know like cenisha coz I've heard is a marvelous writer. I've heard he's an absolutely amazing writer Um, but he's also very kind of political and he's very and so be it.
That's perfectly fine. I have nothing wrong with that Um, but I know a lot of people are kind of sick of politics in general um and are kind of sick of I mean honestly like that's why the x-men were a lot of people I think the only reason why people even read x-men half the time is because of the name I don't think it's because it's a good book. I think they just read it because that's what they're used to reading Same thing with like Avengers and things like I I feel like some of these flagship titles People keep buying because of the name like a story people bitch about how bad the story is that they go out and buy it every month So because of the name black panther has never once had one of those major It's not a flagship title. There's not a dark Saga in the black no, it's like moonlight.
It's like uh Hyperion, you know, it's one of those like boutiquey type books that It's never so therefore unless it has like some crazy amazing fantastic run Nobody's gonna catch on to it right away like the same thing happened with priest I wasn't aware of how good the priest run was until a few months back when I started reading the collected editions And the holy crap is it amazing? It's really really good if you have never read priest run on black panther go check it out It's that's fantastic. Um, but what he does with the character is is just awesome Um, but that being said I didn't he wrote that back in the 90s and I'm just now 20 years later I'm just now reading and you know what I mean? Like it's because black panther's never been a flagship title Well, I think that that's something that we're gonna start to slowly see over time 90s titles didn't get a lot of love everyone looks at the 90s and usually thinks oh that's a piece of crap because of The bubble that burst in the 90s in ruined the comic world I think that as we get you know a little bit later on and stuff Some of these 90s titles will age kind of like a fine wine And then we will get to see more and more love out of them kind of like the priest run right now with black panther Um, I'm not gonna say that about everything that came out of the 90s You know everyone has their thing or whatever, but like you and me we can both agree like, you know executioner song Fantastic x-men's stories that isn't highly like up on there on the scale that people are like Oh usually talk about usually when you hear x-men age of apocalypse dark Phoenix, Saba and ferno, you know, mutant extinction agenda Bullshit, whatever, you know, but I think that you know as we get older now We're gonna start to see some of those things come back because it's some of those older people now are turning into adults They're gonna start talking about more they're gonna have more of a voice and you know They're gonna replace that baby boomer or generation x era voice that we're used to yeah And I mean I don't know I will say googling the black the current black panther book Like good read or whatever if you just google it like what it's scoring high like it is It's where I think it's just the people we know Like let's face a lot of people we know that read marvel comics are mainly reading flagship titles and nothing Yeah, like I think moon night is fucking phenomenal.
I've been preaching it for I don't know how long nobody that we talk to really reads moon night It's a good read. I mean I even read you know what I read of it and I still was like, okay, I could read the rest of this I mean it's horrible like let's say let's look at the comic chat rooms that we're in what are people reading x-men the thingos Thanos Phoenix Dr. Strange only cuz a don'ty-cates doctor Strange only gets mentioned once in a blue moon and that is only because of Kate's right Um and that's really about it That's all people talk about when it comes to marvel and then when it comes to DC all you hear people in those rooms talking about is And metal yeah, you don't hear them talking about action comics or Superman I'll tell you right now those books are phenomenal. They are great reads probably some of my favorites in DC But you don't hear the people that we converse with on a daily basis talking about those books um, and so I think that's why I think if you go to like certain I bet if you were to branch out and like other groups or other facets of like comic book readers We'd probably hear a lot more about black panther and moon night and whatever else I think it's just the core group of people that we converse with than the chats or whatever on a daily basis are very flagship readers Which who's absolutely nothing wrong with I just think that's what their core books that they prefer to buy and read are And you know hopefully people branch out like I said, I've been preaching moon night.
It's wonderful chris for a priest black panther go read it. It's phenomenal Another one's up venom me and you both been. Yeah, I really like venom Those are amazing spider man is so good It's been good for a really long time And there's like four or five people that I know of in the chat rooms that read spider man out of the thousand plus people that are in those rooms Four or five that I'm aware of talking about one of those titles that you would think everyone would be reading because it's flipping spider man And it's good Only book man. It's about his ex-man and those ones aren't even good.
I just I don't understand it Everyone's got that 90s five brother. I guess well, I mean, but you have to admit I mean you even say it yourself cables good, but we don't hear anyone talking about cable. No, you don't it's those characters I don't know that it's necessarily I don't know. I think it's just the groups that we're that we I think it's just the groups that we're part of that we the chats that we're in and think I think if we branched out a little bit or had different people come in We'd hear a completely different side of things because like right now on the some of the Facebook groups that I'm in A lot of people are talking about black panther.
But to be fair a lot of them are referring to christopher priest black panther Not not the current run. So I don't know. I've heard the current run is really good though. I've heard nothing bad about it Right.
That's the thing with me too. I always hear that it you know, it's solid or whatever But they're just I mean not anything coming out of it that I guess anyone is just like oh my god, you know Yeah, I don't want to call it mediocre because I haven't read it But I mean no one's coming out and just being like what the hell are you thinking? Why aren't you reading this topic? Yeah, well fuck man.
You know what maybe I'll I'm kind of looking for some new stuff to read digitally Like my bedtime reading I currently I'm reading a TMNT universe From idw. It's kind of a companion book to the idw collection and it is phenomenal go read it But I'll add all my plants are all read coaches black panther and report next week on What what I thought and we can discuss and kind of go from there cool very cool. You got to read it too though All right. Well, what issues do you want it to be?
I don't know how many issues are out? I don't know I don't know either. Hang on. Let me look one second Um, it looks like there's a grand total of about 19 issues.
Yeah, what's about 19 issues? And I'll tell you what right now, man somebody that we know is reading it Yeah, it's all cut completely cut up. So here's what we say. How about we read the first five issues?
Okay, I'm deal with that. That's what we'll do the first time I'm enjoying I might even do more But let's read the first five issues. We'll report back next week on what we think of uh, Tenish coaches run on black panther and if we think people should be reading it Etc. Or if it's just hype or if it's hype at this point, but either way All right, I'm excited.
Let's do this cool. All right now speaking of interviews There is someone that we're about to talk to that we've been trying to get all of it for a while a long time It's been a whole minute and he's finally here. So, uh, you know, listen to the music the other transition will be back soon All right, everybody. Welcome back to a brand new interview of four guys in a comic Um with me tonight.
I have none other than mr. Dan panosian Dan welcome to the show Thanks for having me. Um, I know it's not an easy Yeah Yeah, no, we're very glad you're here and then with us also tonight we have michael and alix So first of all Dan, um for those that don't know much about your work, which by the way, I absolutely love your art Um, I was I was recently reading the uh the ns, um, Punisher omnibus and you had a lot of the the bee covers I believe they were called um on the Punisher run that were just they were epic Um, I really don't know Yeah, uh, so Is that like alternate covers or uh? Yeah, they had just had yeah, I was like a lot of it's concerned as I have variant because it was uh I just said like bee cover like a cover bee cover, but it was always you were slipping through and you could see all the covers that you had done for the Punisher So I like the Punisher one of my favorite characters.
Yes, it was the story. Well, the story was epic and then you're like I said your cover art It was just insane. Um, but yeah, so how did you exactly get started in the in the process? I read something about how you sent in a letter at the age of 14.
Is that true? That is true. Yeah, there's a Marvel Comics tryout book that Mark Bagley did I think or T bear did it I think even maybe Eric Larson did it too. I'm not sure But a lot of a lot of comic book professionals sent in there that are working today sent in their samples via that book Because you can complete these different aspects different chapters and send in the work tomorrow And they I think it was a contest or maybe it was just a tool to see if there was anybody out there good enough To work on but I was 14 and I was like I want to do this.
I want to become part They thought I was a lot older than I was and I sent me back all sorts of information like you know the dental plan and health plans Yeah, which is not available now like you don't have that stuff, but um, I was pretty thrilled But when they do when they found out you're 14, they never did But yeah, so yeah, that's pretty young but that ruined my high school days from after that I was just like I don't know if I'm all comics one day and Mind you they didn't say I was good enough to look for what they just said you look like you'll be you know In no time working for us and here's what you can expect. So that's all I needed to hear and I was like Grades and here's about that stuff. I'm gonna be a comic artist Didn't help you get the girl. Yeah, I worked for Mark Yeah, it wasn't weird.
It wasn't it's not like today I wasn't I wasn't not vocal about being a comic book artist. I know those artists in the school So people knew I like that sort of thing When you first started drawing uh, what were some of the early things that you first started I guess doodling or anything at all that kind of just got you started off and going Well, I always liked Conan ever since I was a little kid and even before that I was drawing like Lord of the Rings sort of best drawings like very all fantasy oriented. I grew up there There's like I hadn't been to a comic book comic book store like you see now There's like bookstores occasionally at comics, but most of these I would just hang out in the science fiction um section and like these amazing book covers by Frisetta and I think it's like a wheeling who would do um the elk series at the time and I was just fascinated by that stuff So I would go home and draw that and it's probably like Maybe even as young as eight years old kind of like digging that sort of stuff I had some uncles that probably had heavy metal magazines and some other like creepy and eerie and so weird thing It's like a especially especially at that age for reading reading books. You're looking at them You know, it's not like a group activity So it's kind of a you know private thing and you get caught up in this world and whatever publishing house That is you know getting to those like worn and those worn publications.
I don't know if you guys ever Read those or anything But that was that was just kind of a weird little Interesting world. I just got sucked in so I always wanted to do that My dad was an artist and he really liked comic book artists and comic book art, but he just he did more of a commercial Percial art. Now you think you're doing some art since you were 10 Do you still have those old art books from when you're younger? Do you ever look back then and see how you progress throughout the years?
Yeah, in fact, uh We did not be garage so we're checking out all those things like all my old Dungeons and Dragons characters. I'd roll up I was so I was super into that and then I started a little company Around age 14 that if you see I put it in the back of Dragon magazine Which was the magazine back then if you were playing Dungeons and Dragons It was published by the same people that made Dungeons and Dragons And if you send me a self-addressed note that stamp uploads excuse me I was sending you back a character sheet and on that character sheet you order a black and white or color Character like whatever character or whatever games this would be played. So that really helped me Uh drawing and learning deadlines and brought me a little bit about business. It's fun.
Do you get a lot of orders through into that? Yeah, I bought my first car before I had a driver's license Nice car for a 15 year old and I slept in at the first two nights when I got it. This is mine. This is my space I can you know, I just slept in a driveway.
That's cool. That's awesome. We're talking to that It's a weird art like you see I say a little bit like oh, I still kind of do that line. I still do this and interesting to see You know My old book and send it up and step Yeah Go for it It's still not bad to mention prices Not bad Exclusionally you'll do sketches for that.
No, that's cool Depending on the show apparently if you you go to um, like he's living in kind of bases like and I'll do You know 15 minutes sketches for this amount of time for my money So she can you know If it's not like a huge huge show. She's so she's still constantly doing sketches. It's just a little bit smaller That girl is kind of she's talented and she loves those just in dragons Do any of you guys play that game or I did When I was a baby Yeah, no, I did I played a magic was the other thing that I played growing up Oh, I never got into that. I got a buddy who's really now they get the magic the gathering But then he plays me.
I got a bunch of hot chicks. He's like the only guy they let in And he's like these like these professionally hot beautiful women playing magic the gathering and him Yeah, I think he probably like in the early 80s and then oh then he'll came out. I don't be ever heard of booty Yeah, yeah, yeah when that came out that was it that was it was over it was weptor. I love my wester.
Yeah. Wow For the artwork Yeah, cuz I think all the all the artwork and if Jeff D worked on any aspect of that probably bought it Jeff D was kind of a big influence. He he uh, Aces is alterations very similar to Terry Austin And I really and then I saw Terry Austin for the first time when I picked up a John Byrne X man And saw that they were on the tail run until I did a run. I was like, oh my god.
This is it But contrastingly, I kind of like I like John Bissama. I know this I was sort of like look I would like Tony Dizugna I'm probably I probably put your this last name there, but um that was a cool look So I see more of the John Bissama look and coming to that creepy area and maybe even that magazine creeping into my work now Which is I would never would never does it as a kid Hey, they're on with operating them. It's about to say more comics are always pretty cool. Yeah, Bernie writes in hell is Pretty days when you do ink washes and yeah, sort of you that stuff.
Oh, yeah So, um, you know We were talked about you being young and all like going through all these cocktails. You've done a lot of books Just over time. Yeah, like a lot. Um, is there a point of like a book that you got assigned or anything where you realize you're like, hey Okay, this is this is it.
This is the moment like this is the thing I always want This is the thing I want to do is the thing I'm probably going to be doing for a long time in my life You know, I guess what I was on on the X-Men I kind of felt that way but I wasn't doing a whole lot of the full art. George on that is rarely They throw me something but just when I was thinking but I thought I never in a million years thought I'd work on any of the X-Men titles So that was a kind of a big moment for me. It was my early 20s. So it became kind of quickly.
I was pretty lucky I uh, I think I was Artie bear and I were the first adopters of Scott Williams, Jim Lee, Will Sertaccio Line and all the editors were scrambling to find acres that could You know, ink in that style because they're left with that. It can't be Jim Lee's awesome drawing or Will Sertaccio drawing. I have to be hinking Like we just put that polish on anybody stuff and it'll feel like crazy. I was a mindset and early on I liked Scott Williams stuff because it reminded me of a little bit of Terry Austin So I would think the stuff that Marvel would give me and then I was always studying Sally and stuff and I was wanting Xeroxes and his pages when they came in I was in New York at the time and Excellent books are getting really really popular.
So they They had Scott. We have stopped doing was in Lee Horvook with Will Sertaccio, but Will Sertaccio already finished canceling at the Bay Museum in the ink It I got the ink that and then I'm trying to do the best of a Scott's work never having done anything remotely close that prior And it was tough, but um that got me into that X-Men office real quick And then everybody started all the interest started like changing the way they ate for a period of time there even guys like Tom Palmer Which you know, that's a traumstie. I mean Tom Palmer should always Always had Tom Palmer ink like Tom Palmer. You know I don't know if you guys ever seen he's on Facebook You'll post like pages from throughout his career and you'll see things that this guy does and he's just so it ink wash too Which is incredible the tone and the value they didn't create with that stuff each page is a masterpiece But then again, they had him trying to do scumlin's eating sort of things You know Scott Williams Yeah, I was about to say it's only one yeah I got lucky enough to hang up with him for a little bit of last year He did a comic signing thing in my local shot or whatever I do a little bit of a local press or whatever and I hung out with him basically for the day and he's a real cool guy Never he modest nice.
I'm very coming with uh, you know new artists like myself. He was never like You know, I don't know this case ripping me off or anything like that I was never never took an attitude like that in retrospect certainly could have been resenting all these people But you know then and and now if you have a talent there's there's enough room in the business for everyone I guess you understood that pretty early from your perspective though What is the difference between thinkers from when you first started to thinkers of today? I don't do a lot of aching today, but I have a lot of friends that pencil and um one of my good friends Tim Townsend And uh, he's he's he's a cello. He does a lot of work on the cello Because Chris is usually pressed for time doing these things so I think Tim generally does the equivalent of finishes He just don't you don't see that too often With anchors anymore because the pencils are usually so tight that honestly you don't need an anchor You can just you know, there's you run them in photoshop and change the levels and there's little things you can do and um You know you really don't need the process of the pencils tight enough and I find most pencils are really really tight so You think or sadly for a lot of these guys you literally are doing that chasing anything where you're going you're a tracer In a sense, you're doing very stylistic tracing You can't just trace you have some style for sure, but it isn't a matter of like, oh, let me we kind of fix this hand a little bit or this I looks a little bit off like when I started I was still encouraged you know where you could maybe spot some blacks here and there and um That's the page out.
Um I mean, I don't know. I don't think that I think from the lost art sadly, but it was necessary for the time because the printing and now you just don't You know printing is the same today. You see coming to dead artists Is it's going to be at one point? Yeah, I mean, I hope not maybe not I think it looks pretty cool.
I see this stuff ain't I a lot of fun. My biggest mistake was I get working with veteran better artists over over time And my goal was always be You know, I was I grew up wanting to emulate Sean Barran and Frank Miller and Walt Simonson and write and draw my own stories and that Um, that means I'd have a better pencil than I was when I was working doing character art 14 year old when I was a 14 year old to doing this stuff and you know, I was just drawing characters as opposed to drawing characters in a car or an office building or Outside by a skyscraper or a horse, you know for that matter So, but I had this weird idea of like, oh, I'm inking over these people So I'm learning how to draw while I'm inking these guys And that's really not the case with the whole separate thing and I kind of fooled myself a few times thinking That you know, I get someone that couldn't draw as well. I'm like, oh, I could draw this book I should they should let me do it and then starting with that love page with nothing on it It's a whole different animal But it's funny because now when I do a bad drawing myself, I'm like, oh, I'm just gonna be excited I'm already done now. I ended somebody else and just go out at me this respect your page So from 14 year old and to Dan up today, what were some of the influence from then until now?
How would you look to and have looked to in a path? Well back then it was Jeff Dee and Bill Willingham who was drawing all the stuff back then They did work on Bill and Jivij land together and then Bill just I think difficult elementals for comic-o or kamiko We were however you pronounce that company. It's finished now, but those guys primarily and then I started being comic books. It was all about John Byrne and I guess it was John Byrne.
Although I always pick up Conan and I love the big John B. San John Byrne in a lot of ways. John Byrne has excellent form and you know his figure has always looked This is gonna sound negative but it's a big positive sense. It's like it's bigger.
It's always the same. They look like Action figures. It's like in the proportion zones are being the same as whereas there's some artists like Sam Keith and you know You asked him to draw Wolverine and it's gonna come out eight different ways depending on how he feels You know, and they're already cool interesting things but you're not gonna you know He's gonna I'm gonna try the bomb and draw this torso this way or the abs now look like you know circles instead of triangles or you know Whereas someone like John Byrne is like oh, that's that's a John Byrne torso. That's how he draws a leg or a knee or a nose And generally this is the same way, but it's a little bit more detailed.
It was interesting So I kind of fell in love that Jim Lee line and um with Scott Williams was doing with it So probably for the for the longest time it was Jim Lee and he's got Williams I think always in the background was for Zeta, you know, it's always insanely And we got that. You look at you see their art now and they oh my god. That is pretty cool. You know, look at that a little bit more You know, I find myself going back to um early illustration guys that we're doing magazine artwork.
So like Whitcomb and uh, there's a there's a page called um art inspiration or weekly weekly art inspiration by leaf pang and the guy just puts up amazing stuff so I look at that and uh as far as like modern the comic book artist Dave nonsense always Helping down teaching me. I would say teaching me, but we'll send we'll send each other Or our work back and forth and I really respect the way that guy colors and sense of composition So it's a big help to have a friend like that for sure. Yeah, that's cool. Trying to think about the other guys that really dig currently I don't know what kind of changes I like like Kerry Nord Um, he's really good and Robinson's one of my favorites Um really fun stuff.
I wish you I wish you was doing like a monthly somehow, but Whatever that does it cover or incontuorncial art is just amazing So kind of going back to marvel and you like said jimley and stuff So you kind of from my machine you started off in marvel and then uh when when the guy's kind of broke off and formed image Uh, you were correct from wrong, but you were kind of one of the early guys as well They kind of went over with the image with them worked under the extreme brain if I remember correctly Yeah, I went with finished Rob's last issue of x-force and he asked me to come with him to extreme and marx Lestry needed an anchor because scallings is doing wilson he was working with jimley Those were like good friends is and then marx Lestry joins on my studios So he went he liked that look so I did the I did issue three I believe of uh um marx first book and uh and then Rob just made me an insane offer. I was like all right rob it is And we got to california it was great And it was back and mental family called it me out very Too long after but yeah, so it was interesting. I was like the Artie bear and I were working at homogen teaching that the new pre-amaker is how to how to ink and Exile Townsend and I brought him on as a background guy he was some background here and there for john baby Um, but he just worked up with his girlfriend and I thought he'd probably love it out here in california And he did love it. It was I mean the background guys at rob studio were making more than the marvel guys doing their own you know full books Back in the crazy 90s Do you have any cool stories from the 90s that just something that sticks out that you remember So our t-girl if you're gonna chance interview him he's a lot of fun You and I were pretty good friends back then and we shared an office and we you know We knew we were inking just like scott williams and we created like a kind of a phony mythology about it in a way Because we're just like killing just jabbering endlessly to each other in the studio all day Listen to heavy metal and talking about comic books and and uh big and whatever wild storm was turning in It was very very exciting.
So so we would just uh You know we would put up we would take a scott williams page And keep running it through the zerox machine again and again and again But each time in large it's at the maximum enlargement size So you can get those little Z lines up to like you know almost the size of an 11 by 17 And we had as a joke we had our whole office like littered with them on the walls so it looked like you know something out of uh Was that uh Scientist guy where this whole they go into the next shed and the place looks like you know like I commit this guy he's insane um Russell he was a Russell crow movie, but uh, but yes, well one day jimmy, oh, we also have a cuckoo clock And and the eyes of dark back and forth in this cuckoo clock we found that the church in Lee cut his eyes out Put his head on there And so the eyes are going back and forth and so I mean it's it was for us it was all in good fun Like we really kind of idolize these guys but they're taking to a silly wacky place But there was like a the competition going on between kind of rob and and jim and and some of the other guys that His jim studio homology versus some of the guys that um extreme and our people there and I weren't really a part of that But you know we more Utilize them in a sense, but if you came to our office you think we're not since the one age jim is visiting this image comics is literally the Next door over and he stopped and see robin he stopped and see um Art and I and he goes into our office and we're carrying on a conversation with him I noticed he started to look at the walls And then he's looking at us and we're still we we didn't really think anything of it's been up there for a while After he left the office or I looked at each other and I'm like, oh, okay, I don't think jim's ever gonna see you as kid For us with our jimmy poop o'clock and uh I think it's that's like sky is cross all the maybe from the line and we're gonna cross it You know it's kind of like war or something, but I guess you know jimmy's have a degree in or I think that's a degree in psychology So I'm gonna be using analyzing us Yeah, I'm sure he is because I don't know about visiting extreme again I don't know if you ever told Scott Williams about that though I I know Scott but you know I just see him at shows and say hi and try to do his respectful as I can for the guy I'm sure jim came back and said oh man watch out for these two watch it back Be careful there But yeah, there's I mean guys we were repelling off of not me but the front of my was we were pell off the building the con to roof and Ruth is bank building essentially right next to angel stadium and there's all these You know executives coming in and out there's these pump kids with rock star cars coming in dressed in tank tops and you know Going up to one of the offices and then you know we're pelling down the sign of the building like spiderman Pretty wild I was there for about four years five years. It was great. It was like a very fun dysfunctional family for me Hey, cool. I mean I don't really have any negative Stories from it, you know, every was kind of disappointed to see you become a business change and camalot had to end there But I kind of I kind of factored that in that it would eventually happen.
So it wasn't as bad with it and rob life will always Treat me well very eccentric eccentric guy To work for but a very generous guy to no complaints there And the guys full of energy would be drawing while on the treadmill. He's always working. He's always hustling He sold that way if you guys are receiving interviews. He's got this be drinking.
Not only no one drags coffee. I'll be just maniac But extremely ambitious and that's one of the kinds of successes. I think energy translates certainly back then to The fans they can just tell how excited he was hello skonks Cool You're not busy working with comics or playing dnd What do you do? Take your mind away from the world of a comic I love boxing.
I love MMA. Oh, yeah, that's cool. Yeah, so he does catch the Flight lesson with rock holes in there. I'm a huge you a fan and general but I love usc That so I'm assuming you yeah That knockout by Romero was insane.
I knew Romero was gonna win I was disappointed though that he wasn't if he did when he wasn't gonna win the title because he weighed in over Yeah, but that knockout was vicious That was brutal. I like the ending where where you'll ends up to him and like And then they have to be that close to fuck old as he's like his marbles are all scrambled And he's probably just kissing on the cheek. I'm like, oh my god. You'll get this guy a chance to collect himself or you know Sentima thank you on twitter or something, but we've a guy alone.
She's yeah, but yeah, that was brutal brutal knockout I was disappointed by the more confite is yes, but the first place played a real smart You know, that's the way to handle a guy like that for sure. You can get the skills to do so well Especially I love that stuff blade has got a chin because hunt almost knocked him out in that first round So yeah, anybody gets in with hunt by hunt doesn't usually stand a chance. Yeah, I think blades fell into that guy. I'm taking them down Yeah, he's like, okay back to the basics here.
Yeah, that was fun So yeah, so I watch a lot of a lot of MMA and I do a little bit of boxing myself this disdain shape That's about it. I have a 300 year old kid. So I played that on Robin every day to his Batman um A lot of legos. I guess every parent doesn't they don't exactly know you playing legos as much as they do But there's a lot of legos going on Let's be honest.
I'm with that thought before I felt so I was pretty good. He's pretty creative. I'm like, yeah, you were or missing you know Like Elena's we can also the crazy stuff Well, she was coming back soon. Yeah, she's I'm pretty lucky like I gotta wifey thinks of stuff I guess now you're finding that more and more Geeks are finding each other more easily.
Sparser's not like a match.com for nerds and geeks. That's what the cons are for That's true. Or do you use like eyes wide shut style? Well, but yeah, no, I'm trying to think Comics MMA and boxing that's basically really big into um lifting weights exercising, but Nope After after after like you'll see number one.
I was like what that could be in the biggest most muscular guy in the room Still gonna get your head knocked off. It's not gonna be any good in a real situation like this. So Those days of Arnold Schwarzenegger, you know, now it's now it's um You know, you see math, even if one identity that looks pretty cool So kind of going back to the boxing MMA thing. Um your new book slots is uh kind of basically that It's kind of boxing with MMA background in there.
Um, so I've read the first two issues of it I haven't read three and four yet, but I have read the first two. Um, and Five's outbound time say oh perfect. Oh, man. Thanks.
I like I kind of like to wait like let's stuff build up in the bench because I'm so impatient I hate waiting like a month for a month for a book especially one that I really enjoy Um, uh, binging. I was that way about in the shine So Yeah, but I have It's really good. Um, I enjoy it quite a bit. Um, but one thing I kind of noticed and I was just wondering if this was Um, sort of a an Easter egg thing so in it it was in the first issue I believe it is he goes to the MMA gym or well, he thinks it's a boxing gym.
He gets her it's an MMA gym and it says uh, uh, Barnet's MMA and now is that Now is that like Josh Barnett? You can see Josh's I think two pages later. Josh is like calming down at fighter That is managed managers like friends and ranger fight with yes. Yes.
Yes. Josh Josh is a buddy of mine I did not know that I met him. He was also the magic the gathering guy I was talking about. Oh It was like into that kind of stuff.
Oh dude. He's totally into that. I'm sorry. He doesn't have his own like youtube That's what you should do.
He should be on twitch. Um, playing magic gathering with his with these knockout girls. They don't play They make a fortune He's also aggressive. He's doing a little progress length.
Yep. Um, commentating. I think he'll probably it's not No, him. He'll probably fight.
He'll probably fight again for the obviously one more time. I mean, he just he lives for that stuff Man, it's just like a walks around like a superhero. Yeah living like he Yeah, great guy. He and uh, Dave Johnson set up this thing with the overall on tv show Uh that chafus show where they take your car and redo it And they uh, they chafus me tricked me and all of a sudden I was on that tv show and they were changing my 67 Firebird that I paid 10 grand for and 99 into this Magnificent beast That's cool man.
Chafus is like I grew up in a car show family. So my grandpa would be able to do it. Yeah, yeah, exactly Uh my first car when I was 16 I paid 3500 for it was a 69 full of theory three Oh wow. Yes, that's a far apart from what I had.
I paid the same price. Yeah, I was a uh, worker worker real in seven. Oh cool Yeah, it's so No, the thing is the fury was a boat man. I mean it was a 318 in it But I mean it still felt like I was driving a yacht trying to park it into a parking spot Is that the uh Christine car?
Oh Christine is a very yes, right a little bit earlier, but yeah same same idea. Yeah How fine very cool. Yeah, so uh, yeah, there's lots of Easter eggs in in slots. There's almost every Other other page has some kind of little thing in it, you know from that means something special to me That's really cool.
I used to know it's kind of Into the like material awesome with you a page where there's graffiti on there and all its friends names You know, I was like, oh, that was what kind of the first Easter eggs in comic books where you could graffiti graffiti on walls And now I like how draw from my friends in there like to say Josh is kind of it's perfectly in this world um, there's pride posters and um Lucy's Room in the back of his garage this for zeta posters. There's all sorts of little tiny tiny things all the time I also love Vegas. So this yeah, this comic books like all my favorite things wrapped in the one I like that that bar scene that cd kind of loungey bar scene But yeah, no, I'm I'm saying that slums can be over by as you six but you never know they might they might ask to do another series That's five out which be great. Yeah, no, it's it's really good for those that haven't picked it up Go check it out because not only are you art is your writer creator art.
I mean you're everything on this Yeah, I did the logo. I wanted to I wanted the letter it too, but I think my letters like no one's book to come out Here So yeah, my dad was really good lettering so I was fascinated by it. There's a magazine called upper and lowercase So you have to be really nerdy to or into fonts to Remember that magazine. I don't even know if they make it anymore.
I used to write my down It was great about this stuff. That's a little bit of you also get a little bit of comic books like a letter right here and there That was young Is there anything that you remember specifically? You let her some grim jack and some john table freelance For it. I think it's that eclipse eclipse.
It was eclipse comics. Oh, no, it's first tonics. It's first tonic He's always trying to help Even when he knew what I wanted to do is like, oh, yeah, let me see if I can't Let's make it way when I'm some consent. It's not what I never worked for first conics up I worked for my first job is for americonics AC comics and guys like jerry lord way and erro larson did work there occasionally Now it's 14 and I penciled a few pages.
I don't know we can But it's kind of cool as a 14 year old kid to see her hold a comic book That was about to say so you're like second generation basically Yeah, my dad was I would he would draw a Batman page a day like coloring book style almost and come up from working to be a new Batman page The story so i was really pretty lucky But then we found out I wanted to be a comic book artist he I don't think we want found out one of the artists in general when he's real with that You know you're going to law school. Uh, yeah, I mean, listen, I don't want my son doing this This is you know freelance artists. It's a lot of hours. It's a very solitary job.
I don't see hate people maybe comic book artists is the greatest thing in the world So now there's Netflix. Yeah Right there. Yeah, at least I can watch that I can watch a Netflix show while I'm in game making Looking at all that inking and now inking is like the easiest part of the job for me So do you have any advice to any current anchors or like people that are looking to get into the industry doing it into inking? I guess or art in general if you have better advice for that Well, I think in general I say always compare yourself to the very very best in the business So if you want to be An anchor compares something very best in turn and look at how your work stacks up next to theirs as opposed to saying how to give this guy A job and he's I think I can do better than hammer That's I don't think that's gonna get you anywhere in any business.
So in general I'd say always compare yourself to the best guy and let that be your benchmark Um, and always got yourself like well, how like you're going in as a pencil like what how would he handle this? Well, why does why does my page look like this and you know this guy? I just got a young's page look like this and you start looking at it. You have to draw this comparison.
It's gonna help train your eye in a sense Um, I think too many people I do a lot of portfolio reviews and too many people just they want to do it so badly but Um, that's that's part of it. You know, that's we have desire in that passion that the other part of it is really Mastering that craft and respecting it. That's like that's the best advice. I could give anyone compare yourself to the very best and it's you know You know obviously you're not gonna get the best like but you you're gonna you're gonna get you're gonna move faster quicker with that mentality for sure Yeah, definitely it's like setting a goal and then reaching it you want that.
Yeah. Yeah, that's your pinnacle. That's that's the fruit at the top of the tree For sure. Now there's guys like you know, I wish I could be like Jack Davis, you know I'd be really awesome for work trucker We're kind of prankers that up for James Jean like those are you know, I'm always trying to reach that level I never thought honestly I'd be able to draw as well as I do right now looking back in my career Um, so I'm thrilled but that that I'm at where I'm at but the you know, there's a long long way to go before you become like You know one of those like a James Jean or um, you know, say John v.
So or any of those guys are icons And they're right on for a reason, you know, but yeah, yeah those goals for sure. Very cool. Is um Are you reading anything currently or is there anything that you're that's coming out that you're into right now or are you taking a break from comics? No, I always I was in the comics.
I really I'm not as much into superhero stuff anymore, but I am into whatever like group maker and Shawn Do I'm really down with that stuff. So like right now killer be killed It's kind of neat. But anything anything group maker does. I'm really big fan of that guys writing and what he does stuff.
He does right Um, I'm trying to think there's anything else Anything Brian has Rello and uh, what are we so do I'll pick up as well? I don't know what the two of them are looking at right now, but they've just done that moonshine book I think it's already in paper back. It's pretty cool. I love time to go.
It's trying to think if there's anything else ron garnies work Is it really cool to look at but money's doing their development? I don't know that he's still doing their double and i think he is I'm just so so obviously grab he's turning out kids. So he better be turning out pages So do you have any uh upcoming conventions or anything that you're gonna be at that you want to throw out there? Oh, go for long beach in a couple weeks at these two weeks from now.
I'll be there all weekend and then I'm trying to think heroes con this year. I'll be a new york comic con and same to you comic Um, there's one in phoenix and there's one in dallas dallas fan expo. Oh, i think alice. I'll actually be a dallas fan expo one so Yeah, I love dallas.
That's a fun city. Yeah, i've heard that's a pretty cool Well, i think here's we're gonna have to get you out to uh kansas city planet comic con Oh, i've been there once i've been there once i've been there once i've been there once i've loved that great barbecue. Yeah, yes guys are lucky Yes, yes, brian's got jack's jack's jack. Yep.
Yep. All right. I got some jack's jack barbecue sauce right now. I'm like my fridge Oh, that's awesome.
Yeah, my uh, our buddy mike the other cohost that wasn't here tonight. He actually is flying in from toronto He last year he flew in too and he stayed at my place and we drove to kansas city and uh We went to the con as of last year and so he's in toronto so he doesn't know about good barbecue and So i took him to jack stacks and uh we had lunch and stuff there and he's like this is amazing It's so like better than that though. Yeah, so like you mind he's like he's a very fit guy like he's super like muscular Really like he's in good shape, right? And he's sitting there eating and i'm i got a dad bod.
All right. I'm not gonna like so I know what americans are so fat Jack's next and then I took him to the waffle house. Um, we got back to the wall. Yeah, the one over by the airport I work for hyatt so there's a um, I have a hotel right near there that I get to stand for free Um, so we were staying there and uh, I took him to the waffle house and there's a funny story on that on its own But he's like sitting there eating waffle house.
He's like god. This is so good Yeah And he's not have this kind of food and he's like not like this So yeah, yeah, i'm gonna take him back where he went to barbecue this weekend and it'll be a good time take a dark ryan's That's great too. Okay. That's very good.
That's very good. It's what it's like a hole in the wall Pretty much every president is eating there. It's like that good. Well, nice.
So when was last time here in the airport too When was last time you're in Kansas City Uh the comic college Maybe maybe five years ago. I'm gonna try to get back for a while I guess i got a good friend out there and he's got bent a tail. It was a big Big comic book art selector too And all sorts of different types of art but he's always trying to get me to go out there to that planet comic con mainly so we can eat some some barbecue yes Um, that's a big draw for me. I'm like, uh when you're uh Jason erin.
I think had a party for all the all the comic of pros Oh, nice. And catered with jack stack. I was like man Jason erin. There you go Yeah, um, I know he'll be he's there every year.
He's kind of locals. I know he's every year but uh Um, yeah, I've been going the last three years now and uh it gets bigger and bigger every year like that con is Congratulations, yeah, I don't know about this week because they kind of it's in February whereas normally it's in April may But this year's in February by no last year. I think they were pushing close to 100 000 It was a it was a pretty big con especially for a midwest, you know convention That is amazing. All right.
Well, appreciate you guys telling me on the show. Yeah. Thank you very much. Thank you really appreciated And uh, um maybe when uh, you know, I get another book coming out after this one more pick it up there Yeah, sounds excellent.
Yes, sir. I'd love to have you back on I guess take care and uh, thanks for putting up with me. I appreciate it. No, bro.
Thank you. Have a good night. Thank you All right