Alex Segura Interview - Star Wars

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[00:01:29] Head to 2000AD.com and click on subscribe now or download the 2000AD app and why wait? Start reading today. I'll put links in the show notes for you. Hello and welcome to Comic Book Yeti's Cryptid Creator Corner. I'm one of your hosts, Jimmy Gasparro, and I have a guest I'm super excited to talk to today. He is a returning guest. He was on last year where we talked a lot about Dick Tracy and some of his other work.

[00:01:53] I think as we're recording this now, I think Dick Tracy 9 was the last to come out. Issue 10, I believe, is on the way. Also, the question all along the watchtower. And what I'm very excited to talk about is that he is going to be taking over the writing duties on the main Star Wars title along with Phil Noto doing interiors.

[00:02:16] Crazy. So this is awesome. I'm so excited. Please welcome back to the podcast, Alex Segura. Alex, how are you doing? Good. Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here. Yeah, lots of stuff going on. Lots of good stuff. Yeah, I went and I know this is a podcast, but just for the folks who do watch it on YouTube, I did went and grabbed all my my recent Dick Tracy number nine.

[00:02:42] My the question all along the watchtower number six. I'm so sad it's over cover. And I haven't got a chance to just to to start this yet, but I just picked up Secret Identity because I'm going to we talked about it a little bit last time on the podcast about Secret Identity. Because Alter Ego was coming out. Alter Ego is now out. So yeah, just picked up Secret Identity. So I can dive into that as well, because I'm I've heard so many good things about Secret.

[00:03:11] Oh, yeah. I hope you dig it. Yeah, I think I think it'll be up your alley. Yeah, I think so, too. So, yeah, I'm looking forward to chat about that. But but I want to talk about really everything. But but let's start because Star Wars is the next thing that you have coming out. You in the as we record this, we just I guess this is kind of fitting because we just passed, you know, May the 4th Star Wars Day.

[00:03:40] And the day before that, May 3rd was Free Comic Book Day. So I know Marvel had a Free Comic Book Day Star Wars issue that, you know, featured some of the stories in, you know, some of their titles, including the main Star Wars line. And I think there's the Jedi Knights one. Right.

[00:03:59] So I really wanted to talk to you in terms, you know, about your kind of like relationship with Star Wars, because you have you have worked on the Star Wars stuff before. You just recently were working on and wrapped up kind of like the Battle of Jakku series, which was three different parts, four issues. There was Insurgency Rising. I am going to forget the name of the middle one. And then the last stand. Republic Under Siege. Yeah.

[00:04:27] Republic Under Siege. Yeah. Yeah. That was a fun one. That was that was, I guess, the big contrast between the Battle of Jakku and the new Star Wars ongoing is there's so much established canon about that era between Return of the Jedi and the end of the Galactic Civil War, the Battle of Jakku. You know, there's the aftermath novels. There's a bunch of other canonical things.

[00:04:49] So it was much more like I think the term I've been using is dancing between the raindrops, like trying to figure out a path between all this established lore that includes the core characters, Luke, Leia, Han and Lando and some other characters. And also feels epic. That doesn't feel like continuity, like vamping, like, oh, we're just filling space.

[00:05:10] You know, what were they doing? And it by the end of it, without spoiling too much, you realize this is like a lost story that was never reflected before that. You know, everything it doesn't negate anything else, but it tells you what they were up to and how it could have very how it affected the end result of Jakku and how things could have gone really haywire.

[00:05:32] Had things gone differently with Adelhard and his coalition, which is to say that was really an exercise in immersing myself in the lore and the canon versus the ongoing, which obviously writing Star Wars at any point, you have to immerse yourself in the canon. But it's a little more open in that there's a kind of stretch of open space between pun intended between Battle of Jakku and like Mandalorian. So and even that's like years off to to where we are.

[00:06:01] So we've got some runway to really showcase what you know, what's Luke doing? What's what are Leia's priorities? What's Han Han doing and how do they all play together and how are the threats different from the Empire? Like, I don't think I think I would be cheating readers if I if we just came up with like a different kind of Empire. So a lot of thought went into what is the threat and how can we make these issues not feel like Battle of Jakku number 13?

[00:06:27] You know, like it's great if you read Battle of Jakku, there's some threads that will, you know, bleed into the ongoing. But it's a great starting point. If you know the characters, it's like a whole it's a whole it's the fourth movie. Basically, it's how Phil and I are are treating it. Like what if there was a movie after Return of the Jedi? What would that look like? And so that's been a lot of fun. And anything Phil draws looks like it's official Star Wars. It's like you've been blessed. You've been blessed by Star Wars when Phil draws something for you.

[00:06:55] When he did that first cover, I just blew my mind. And when he did, he did some of the covers for Jakku. And I was just like, wow, this is it feels so much more legit now. And I've known Phil a long, long time since I was at Wizard in the early 2000s. And he was starting out. I remember seeing his art. He had just put on an art book and I was just like so amazed by his range. Like he obviously draws beautiful people, but he draws great action. He's great at costume design. He's great at facial expressions.

[00:07:23] He can say a lot in a panel that it would take me like. Tons of captions to relay that level of emotion and subtext. So, yeah, it's really been a treat just to work with Phil and to work with my editors, Mark and Mikey at Marvel. And it's an honor to be driving this car. I can only imagine. I mean, I haven't read everything and seen everything in Star Wars.

[00:07:52] But as a kid, that was huge. I mean, as I sit here, I can look over. I still have my Darth Vader pace with my action figures that have moved from like house to house to house. You get it. Yeah. Yeah. So I haven't seen, you know, everything, but I'm familiar with some of the comics, at least in terms. I mean, I mean, all the movies, but I am familiar with Chuck Wendig's Aftermath trilogy. Yeah.

[00:08:21] And one of the things I was thinking about with the Battle of Jakku, you talked about it a little bit, kind of like threading the needle. You know, when you take on a character, you know, like something like the question, like you did in All Along the Watchtower with, you know, with Renee Montoya. You have a history there. And so you kind of want to be mindful of the history and the characterization, you know, but you're telling a brand new story.

[00:08:46] Renee's been put in charge of the Watchtower and this new, the idea of the Justice League Unlimited. So you have that backstory to be mindful of, but you're really telling something new. And I have to think it has to be a whole other different animal because, yeah, the story of Battle of Jakku was like a big part of especially the last novel, Empire's End, of the Aftermath trilogy.

[00:09:13] So you have to try and, you know, find a way to, like you said, not just, you know, fill in the gaps for the sake of filling in the gaps. Like you have to, like, kind of fit it in because you kind of know the beginning and the end with a focus on different characters, but also tell, you know, you tell a compelling story.

[00:09:36] You don't want someone to, oh, yes, I did wonder what, you know, Chewbacca was doing after the liberation of Kashyyyk. Like, but there has to be a reason behind it, right? Right. You don't want it to feel like filler. Like, oh, you know, you're just kind of vamping until we get from point A to point B because we knew it was going to end, obviously, on Jakku with the Star Destroyer crashing down onto the surface. We knew, like, Ben Solo would cap off the series when he's born. But the middle part has to be interesting. It's 12 issues.

[00:10:06] Like, they're going to collect it as a maxi series, which I always envisioned it as one big story. So it's split into three miniseries, but, you know, three miniseries with the beginning, middle and end and kind of. But each of those pieces are then the beginning, middle and end of the bigger story. So it was hard. It was a challenge. I'd never written, I guess, that many comics so quickly. Like. Because it came out like every week, right? Right. It came out like every other week.

[00:10:30] And so some great artists, Leonard Kirk, Stefano Raphael, Jethro Morales, Luke Ross did some stuff, some amazing cover artists. So it felt like I felt very much like the spotlight was on and we had to deliver something fun and entertaining that felt classic. That felt it had to feel epic enough. It had to feel like this is a real threat, not just an episode. Like, this is a movie villain, you know, like.

[00:10:57] And Abelhard had gotten was was interesting to me because there wasn't a lot of his history fleshed out and a lot of his motivation and a lot of where he could go. You know, we've got this one. We had this one snapshot from this game, but it wasn't super. There was a lot of room to add to his mythos, I guess, and to make him, you know, try to make him comparable to some of the greater Star Wars villains. Right.

[00:11:22] Right. And so when you're thinking about putting a, you know, a story like that together and I'm sure, you know, you're working with editorial and, you know, also I'm not I'm not someone who's super concerned about continuity. I'm sure there's some things that are different because, you know, you're telling a different story than they told in an aftermath. And some things that work in a prose novel aren't going to work in a comic or aren't going to work to hit the story beats that you want to tell.

[00:11:52] Right. But I would think that you have to have some type of, you know, anchor because you're more focused on the main that, you know, the the the original trilogy cast in Battle of Jakku. So what do you have to do in terms of figuring out the stakes or is it your you focus more on like character or is it just that you like anchor everything and fleshing out Adelhard's story? First, I mean, the first thing I did was like create a timeline.

[00:12:20] I mean, there's obviously the Star Wars timeline, literally a book that is right by my desk that I look at very frequently. But I wanted to know where each of the players were and what the timeline of the Battle of Jakku like we were basically the gap between, you know, the end of Endor and Jakku is about a year. So where was Luke? Where was Leia? Where was Han? Where was Chewie? Where where was Lando? And then how can we add to their experiences?

[00:12:51] I really liked the the pairing of Luke and Rinzana, who is a new character. And she's very much where Luke was at the beginning of the trilogy. Like she's a young pilot. She's got a secretive a secret backstory that we don't really discover until the end of the Jakku series. So I like their interplay. And then I like pairing each of, you know, I paired Leia with Keith Alacia, which is she's a double agent that ends up. You find out she's working for the Republic and she's found her way.

[00:13:19] She's going to snuck her way onto Adelhard's ship working for the Empire. So there's a lot of like double crosses. And I wanted. So the first step was building that timeline. Like, where are they? And that guided me towards what they could do, what else they could do, because, OK, it's established that Luke has to be here because of this video game or this cameo, this flashback. And so then I tried to weave a meaningful story that felt substantial through those hoops.

[00:13:47] But I didn't want it to be contingent on those hoops, if that makes sense. I didn't want to, like, move the entire narrative just to fit one thing. Like, if Luke has to go there, then he will go there. But the rest of the story can be happening here. But to your question, I mean, we tried our best to make sure everything synced up. I'm sure someone somewhere on the Internet found something that was off or that didn't sync up perfectly.

[00:14:09] But that's just kind of how it goes with big multi-platform IP franchises. Yeah. You know, you do your best and you work with the people that are part of the team and you try to make it work. I mean, I love Chuck's novels. I thought they were great. I read a lot of the stuff that happened around then. I read a lot of the stuff leading up to Endor. You know, a lot of the Greg Rucka stuff I thought was great as well. And so, you know, you just hope it syncs up.

[00:14:39] And I think at the end of the day, as a big overarching story, it worked. And so, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I haven't read all of it, but what I checked out, I really liked. I love the artwork. There is somebody on the... I did, you know, researching for this because I was curious. And there is somebody on the Internet that did, like... Oh, really? To match up the continuity.

[00:15:04] And I want to say, like, they were very happy. Oh, good. Yeah. The verdict was good. Okay, great. The verdict was good. I think... I don't know what it was, but there was one quibble about something. But they were like, for the most... Like, it was very interesting. It was like, well, you know, this must have happened after this. But they were like, overall, they were like, hey, you know, I think it's really good. It's a fun, exciting story, you know. Good.

[00:15:33] Yeah, I mean, we tried really hard to make sure it all synced up, but we, you know, you don't want to sacrifice continuity. You don't want to sacrifice story for continuity is my point. But, you know... Yeah, I agree. If it was like, oh, but Luke is here today, so he can't be on this ship that's going to be the main action point of the story, you make it work. You try to, you know, kind of squint and accept that maybe he just got there really fast. You know, it's the same kind of continuity stuff that allows, you know, in the 90s for Wolverine to be in like 10 titles.

[00:16:02] Maybe not the same, but you know, it's the same idea. Like, it's story. And you try to enjoy it for what it is. But yeah, it was a blast. It was a great time. I had a great time working on that. Yeah, that's awesome. And so, like, when you get a job like this, when you, you know, is there, are there, and moving on from Jakku now into like the main Star Wars title.

[00:16:26] So I'm assuming we just, you were a fan or have been a fan of Star Wars from an early age? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's hard. It's impossible to find, I think, anyone that isn't aware of Star Wars. But I was, I remember I was, I'm an 80s kid. So I was born in 1980. And I remember my first exposure was like seeing Vader in Return of the Jedi or, you know, the, and the Ewoks. And that really like kind of pulled me in and the toys I remember early on.

[00:16:54] And then obviously I watched the trilogy on video and then you had the re-releases and then the, the, the prequels, which was a big event for me and my friends in college. And yeah, so it's always been a constant presence for me. And it's always been something I've always been fascinated by how it grows in different ways and whether it's novels or TV or animation. So, um, I think being able to write in that space and fill up such an integral moment in the history.

[00:17:22] Like, um, if you zoom out, it's the gap between, you know, uh, the Return of the Jedi and the Force Awakens is pretty unexplored aside from a few things. So it's been interesting to add to that and to take and kind of nod towards stuff that's coming up. But I also want to note that the timeline for the ongoing, we're, we're staying in a pretty tight window. We're not, you know, we're not going to fast forward through time. Like I want to show, we want to show the immediate post-Return of the Jedi story.

[00:17:48] So, um, a lot of the questions I've gotten are like, well, are you going to get close to what's already been shown? We're not in a hurry to kind of speed through, you know, this very important time. Like, I think it's, it's actually going to move probably a little bit, uh, more thoughtfully. Okay. Yeah. Well, I mean, there's, there, there is so much that is, is like you said, left, you know, unexplored in that.

[00:18:13] Like there, there are a couple of things, but you know, and we see with some of the different Star Wars media that like they're still, even when you know the beginning and an end of the story, there's still like so much rich storytelling. Like if you look at like Andor and, and what's go, you know, the story that they're telling there. Oh yeah. It's so good.

[00:18:39] But, but you have, you know, so you have right coming out of right after the battle of, of Jakku, you know, you have the Han Solo and, and Leia starting their family. You have to imagine Leia being an integral part of whatever this new Republic is going to look like. You have Luke doing whatever it is he's going to end up doing and whatever other threats they might face.

[00:19:08] Like you, you can, there's a lot of stuff to choose from. Yeah. You can do anything from having like a fun, you know, to do like a, like a space adventure villain of the week thing to like a really, Hey, how do we, now that we've had 20 to 30 years of a galactic empire, how do we, how do we start democracy again? Yeah. And I think you kind of hit the nail, you hit the nail on the head. There's going to be a lot of political intrigue because we're basically building this new

[00:19:37] Republic and Leia and Mothma are trying to build it. But there's also going to be the kind of action energy of the done in one stories, like the different total adventures. Like the first issue is a big classic love letter to star Wars. The second issue then gets really tight and is very Luke centric. And the third issue then almost feels like a heist, like crime story on cloud city. So I wanted to play with genre and kind of hop around, but there's still the simmering bigger

[00:20:06] story that involves a much more dangerous threat that I think the heroes hadn't anticipated seeing so quickly. But we also don't want it to feel like, Oh, he's just trying to create a new empire. Or this is like the empire continued because we did that a lot in Jakku in terms of like the Imperial remnants and like what's happening post Vader, post Palpatine. So we want to be mindful to not repeat ourselves and also to remind people that they're in the Star Wars universe.

[00:20:35] So stuff will be familiar, but it will be a little different. I keep that's my, that's been our mantra. Like it's familiar, but different. Right. No, I mean, I appreciate that. I mean, you've seen like the meme ability of from whatever you think of rise of Skywalker, the, you know, somehow Palpatine return line that Poe Dameron deliver. And I mean, I think as, as certain, certain fans have met that with, you know, kind of derision that Palpatine is kind of like the big bad again, but you know.

[00:21:03] So I think even in like the Timothy Zahn, heir to the Empire trilogy, it was, I think it was something similar, right? Isn't that the clone of Luke one? Yeah, I think so. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's drama. I mean, you have to have the arc, the arc. You can't just, if I just did political intrigue, it would be maybe interesting to some, but I think people come to Star Wars with an expectation of some kind of action and newness while still

[00:21:30] having the comfort food of like, oh, that's Luke or, oh, this looks familiar. The ship looks familiar. This kind of uniform looks familiar. So I think you'll see a lot of it is Phil and I kind of walking that tightrope of like keeping things familiar and engaging, but also introducing new elements, new characters. But the focus is very much on Luke, Leia and Han and what they're doing and how they're evolving from the characters we knew in the films. That's awesome. I mean, I hope so.

[00:22:00] No, I think it's great. I'm excited to explore, you know, to see how you and Phil explore this era, you know, especially after the Battle of Jakku. Are there any, you know, I mean, I guess you don't have to say it if it would spoil anything, but I'm just kind of curious and I would have to ask, are there any characters that you, you know, are hopeful that you get to fit in one day?

[00:22:24] Like, did you, when you figure out you're doing this, are you like, oh, I want to try and sneak in somebody? Oh, you mean from the EU? No, you know, from, or from any, you know, from anywhere in Star Wars, just like, are you hoping that there's a toy that they let you play in the sandbox? But I mean, you don't have to say. There are, there always are. There's always Easter eggs that you want. But as a writer, I try to de-romanticize the Easter egg in that, like, I just want to tell the good story.

[00:22:53] I want to tell a good story that's compelling and entertaining. And if an opportunity presents itself to create a new character, I will do that. Like Rin in Battle of Jakku, there was a need for Luke to have a foil, to have someone that needed to like, look up to him and learn from him. But then he in turn learns from her. And so there was a space there. And so I created her, we created her. But I don't like to shoehorn things in just to do them, you know, just to be like, well, I want to bring in this character. So they're just going to show up and it feels kind of disjointed.

[00:23:24] So yeah, if it serves the story, 100%, we'll see like stuff like that. But at the end of the day, it's about these characters and their evolution over the next whatever amount of months and stuff. And that's going to be fun. I mean, Phil's drawing the hell out of the book and it looks beautiful. I saw some stuff from 4 today and he's just knocking it out of the park. And it's been such a thrill to work with him because he's such a fan. He knows the mythos inside and out.

[00:23:51] And so I'll say something offhand and dump in all this reference. And I know that he just knows it. Like, he just knows it. And it makes my job so much easier. And he's such a great collaborator. Oh, and it must be so much fun because like, you know, Han and Luke and Leia throughout whatever trilogy it is have had some like, you know, iconic outfits and like clothing designs as well. And like, this is, this is like totally new, you know, like what, what does one wear after

[00:24:21] they take down the Galactic Empire? Like all these designs are really, you're not wearing the same uniform all the time. You actually, you know, can take a shower and change your clothes and like take a breath for a second. But that's also something we wanted to, we didn't want it to feel like the threat was just the same. Like, okay, it's the same level of tension, the same level of concern. This feels, will hopefully feel much more like catching the new Republic while it's still trying to get its sea legs. It's still trying to stand up.

[00:24:50] It's, it's such a newborn little duckling. It's still trying to kind of get going. And now this new threat shows up and it's very destabilizing because, you know, I think what you'll see, the question that's raised is like, why do we need to be part of a new Republic? Like the old Republic failed. What's the guarantee that the new Republic is going to be any better? Okay. Yes. The empire is gone. Great. But that doesn't automatically crown you the new Republic, you know? So I think that's the push and pull that we'll see in terms of the politics and the nation

[00:25:19] building stuff, which I find really fascinating as a writer, like just a geopolitical stuff. But also I have to be mindful too, that it's, we need some high adventure in every like issue. Like it's got to feel like the issue was a meal on its own. You know, you know, it's part of a bigger story and that's great if you want to keep reading, but each issue feels like its own little cinematic moment. And that's, that's a testament to Phil. And it's also something that I try to be mindful of the writing side. All right, everybody, we're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back. Let's face it.

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[00:28:35] I'll drop a link in the show notes for you. And big thanks to Arkenforge for partnering with our show. I think I'm going to make Jimmy play a goblin warlock just to get even. Welcome back. Speaking of that, that's actually kind of a, I think, a good pivot point because I wanted to talk a little bit about the question all along the Watchtower because I'm like, I'm a big fan of the character of the question in all, you know, all iterations. But really, Renee Montoya.

[00:29:02] And you're talking about a DC comic that has a big cast of characters. Yeah. Plenty of action. And yeah, it's you and Cian Tormi. I'm saying. Cian. Yeah. Yeah. Apology. No worries. Cian Tormi, whose artwork is fantastic. And you have so much fun superhero action set pieces throughout the comic.

[00:29:32] But I mean, really, this is this is about a detective who is given a job, who feels like they always have to prove themselves and do it on their own and not ask for help. Like it is the most grounded human of stories in this unreal, you know, big, huge satellite with all the superheroes setting.

[00:29:58] I mean, you feel like kind of the perfect person after Watchtower to take on Star Wars to be able to handle big action set pieces, but also tell a very interesting character driven tale. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. You know, I had gotten the chance to write a few short Renee stories leading up to all on the Watchtower. There was a one off for Lazarus Planet.

[00:30:25] That was a lot of fun with Clayton Henry and he just an amazing artist. And then a three parter in Batman, Brave and the Bold with Andy McDonald. And that was that was a much more, you know, obviously street level. She wasn't on a space satellite, but she very much in Gotham as she's grappling with the final days of her time as commissioner. And I think midway through that story, I knew all along the Watchtower was coming. So it felt like a great.

[00:30:52] Her log to all along the Watchtower in that it allowed me to ramp up some of the things I was going to play with in the series. But Kian is just a fantastic artist and he has this ability that is so rare in that he can do facial expressions and nuance and make it look easy. But then is also equally good at the big action set pieces. Like he's got this very classic dynamic style. And really what I talked to him about was, you know, this is a noir story. It's it's just in space.

[00:31:21] And I think creatively like noir doesn't just mean. The grizzled detective in a city bar storming out and and walking down a dark alley and smoking a cigarette in a fedora like, you know, it doesn't know. Is a is a kind of story that can happen anywhere. You can have like, you know, Megan Abbott writes great noir novels that involve cheerleading or science or gymnastics like it's noir is a kind of story.

[00:31:48] It's about someone who is cornered and then has to make a choice and then has to fix that choice. Or, you know, it's about people being painted into corners and having to react emotionally. So the idea of Renee on the Watchtower was I'm bringing her we're bringing her into the Watchtower at her a low point, but not her lowest point. She's had some pretty low lows, but this is a low point for her in terms of her career and her reason of for being like she's she's put on the question mask a few times since she became commissioner.

[00:32:17] But I think she'd kind of put it aside. But now she's been summoned into this the big leagues. She's been brought up to the majors and she's not really sure why. It's like if Batman can't figure something out, what makes them think I can figure it out? And so that's kind of the the bubbling undercurrent for most of the series. She's not really sure why she's there and she's not sure about her team that she didn't pick like Wonder Woman introduces her team. And she's like, I had no say in this. Her ex is on the station, you know, Kate Kane.

[00:32:47] And she just gets beaten down and beaten down. And then finally, you know, without spoiling anything, the culmination of the story is her realizing why she's on this tower, why why she was brought here and and realizing that she has to lean into the team that she's been given. And yeah, we can't do it alone. The theme is like you can't do it alone. You can't you can't solve all your problems by yourself. And for me, it was like a big love letter to the DCU. Like, you know, when Paul Kaminsky, my editor and Julian Grant, when they asked, you know,

[00:33:16] they asked me like, which characters do you want to include as like the support staff, like the team? I just made a list of my favorite DC characters. Like I was like, no way they're going to give me both Blue Beetles and Animal Man. I mean, Kate Kane was going to happen and Nightshade. You know, I just thought that it just wouldn't work, but they were good. Right. And it was it made for actually a really fun, unexpected roster in that. There's a scene in issue for between Renee and Animal Man, Buddy Baker.

[00:33:46] And I remember Paul gave me a note. He was like, I think we can kind of make this beat a little stronger. And I rewrote it. And I think it's probably the moment I'm most proud of in the series where she basically talks him out of being under the control of Cyborg Superman. And she goes really hard after him, but then it brings them closer together. So those dynamics were interesting to write, but it was also really fun to do like a low,

[00:34:10] low grade Reign of the Superman riff, like with Eradicator and Cyborg Superman. And then also playing with Conduit, who was a villain that I remember seeing as a kid and just being like, oh, he's cool. He's going to be the next big Superman thing. And he wasn't. I think he just kind of faded into obscurity. Like, it's hard to make these characters stick. But then playing with that, playing with Nightshade, you know, it had a lot of like Charlton hero vibes. You have Nightshade. You have the Beatles. You have the question.

[00:34:40] It was it was fun. And there's a lot of fun Easter eggs and cameos. Like, I still get sometimes get messages saying, oh, wow, I saw that Panther was there or thanks for bringing back Argus or somebody noticed that the heckler is in the background somewhere. Because that's I mean, if you're on the Watchtower and every DC superhero is a member of the Justice League part of Justice League Unlimited. I think that's part of the fun is to show all these characters just hanging out, like almost like Krakoa was for X-Men. Like you'd have like they're all on this island. They're all just hanging out together.

[00:35:09] So why not show like Hawk and Fire and Ice hanging out and handling a situation? And so the cyborg Superman of it all was really fun because on paper you would think there's no she has no chance against Superman. He's literally Superman. Yeah. And the Eradicator is like a Kryptonian. So how could she survive? But that's that's really a testament to Renee's character. She's very stubborn. She's very driven. And she's smart. She's very cunning.

[00:35:37] You know, I think there's a moment where where she's like she basically says, I'll fight dirty if I have to, because I'm a scrapper or like she's a scrapper. And, you know, she takes the job seriously. And then I think it's heard the arc of the story is her journey from not being sure why she's there, not really wanting to grapple with her baggage with Kate, not wanting to be a leader of this team to realizing why she is there and realizing that this is important to her.

[00:36:06] And, you know, I'm proud of that. It's really a great story. I think it's I think we did our best. And I think he and really like. Just did an amazing job and Ron Fajardo on colors, Willie Schubert on letters. It was just a great team top to bottom, excluding myself. Like, I'm just saying that they were great to work with. And I'm really proud of the end result. Yeah, I mean, I I think it's a great series. I really like it. And yeah, I got it, read it as it it came out.

[00:36:35] And like I said, I like the question, but I like seeing, you know, I'm somebody that typically I mean, I like a lot of artists, but I do typically follow writers more so. Sorry, artists. I do love you. I know it's I know it's a visual medium listeners who are artists. But yeah, and I I I thought it was great. I I really loved the I love seeing the two blue beetles.

[00:37:03] I love whenever they kind of got to, you know, interact a little bit. But I also like the fact that, you know, Renee is somebody who's been sober for a while now. And she's not not just put into like a very high stress situation, but even more so with Kate being there. And there's a lot of triggers. There's a lot of triggers for Renee. Right. Yeah. I wanted to try to try to be genuine about exploring that process and like what she's grappling with. And also, you know, that it's an ongoing process.

[00:37:33] It's not something that you just wake up and you're cured and that's it. And you just go about your life as you would normally. Right. Yeah. I really appreciated that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So it was just about trying to be honest with what Renee's experienced. And then, you know, she's been through a lot. Not just, you know, I my touchstones for Renee are the Greg Rucker run. And all he did with her in 52. And then the Denny O'Neill, Vic Sage stuff is just iconic.

[00:37:59] So that was those were my big head pull influences for this book and also just in general. And then, you know, reading like the more recent appearances and just trying to get a sense of where she's at was really helpful. Yeah. I mean, I think you guys nailed it. I think it's a great series. So so listeners, if you haven't checked it out, though, I'm sure they're going to be collecting the six issues in a in a trade. I hope so. Yeah. Yeah. Because it was it's really good. I really love the cover, too, for that. I the one that I have here for issue six. Oh, yeah.

[00:38:29] It's just yeah. His covers were just iconic. Yeah. Phenomenal. So real quick, just because, you know, I'm a big Mad Cave fan and I know you were on last time last year talking about Dick Tracy, like right before it came out. But now issue nine is just out. And I think I think issue 10 will be out this month. Yeah.

[00:38:51] And I just, again, was excited for this when we talked because I I just love the old like these old the old type of comics from, you know, that era. I was a was a fan of the movie when it came out. Yeah. I get 1990. I want to say. Yeah. Ninety or nine somewhere around there. And, you know, and it's again, this is something else that it's kind of hard to take a property

[00:39:19] and breathe new life into it. But you, Michael Morisi, Geraldo Borges, what you guys have done with this, these nine issues, it's it's phenomenal. It is. Oh, thanks. It is such like a, you know, really grounded detective story. Like, I mean, I and I just feel it works so well.

[00:39:48] Um, uh, you know, the the old serial strip is its own thing. The movie is its own thing. What, you know, Mad Cave and all of you have created in this comic. Um, I just I love the character, Dick Tracy. I love Pat. I love how brutal it is at times. It just really feels like its own thing and really, you know, stands up very well. Um, you know, on its own. Um, I just I feel like it's, you know. Yeah, thank you. Really well done.

[00:40:18] I don't think I have a question, Alex. I'm just saying I really like Dick Tracy. I will sit here and be complimented. I'll take it. Um, no, I think for Michael and I, we we obviously wanted to tell a good Dick Tracy story, but I think at the end of the day, we wanted to write a good crime comic that happened to have these characters as part of the world and the mythos. I was I've always been impressed by Dick Tracy's rogues gallery. I think he's got one of the best rogues galleries in comics, newspaper strips. Um, and we wanted to have more of a slow burn.

[00:40:47] Like the thing about the movie that's hilarious is that all the villains die. Like he, he, they burned through all the villains in that one movie. But for us, it was like, well, we can start with big boy. Then we can throw in flat top and then prune face and then the blank and kind of like really like live in this universe. But we also didn't want it to feel repetitive. So that first arc is like a gang war, like a big epic gang war. Yeah. Then the second arc that we're almost done with is almost like a Michael Mann serial killer

[00:41:16] movie. Like it's very much about the blank playing the psychological warfare with, with Tracy and his friends. And then the third arc, which we're, we're kind of chugging along already is, is much more espionage and a little more global than we're used to. So, um, I think we just want to try and tell grounded stories with these characters. And I think the high concept we used was what if they did like casino Royale or LA confidential

[00:41:44] meets Dick Tracy, like really grounded and stylistic, but also, um, adult, but not like adult for the sake of being extreme, but just like, this is, this isn't an, the newspaper strip you're familiar with because that exists and is great on its own. Like you can keep reading it. This is a different take. Um, and while it's not beholden to any kind of canon or continuity, it honors the mythos. Like we try our best to honor what these characters, who these characters are and how they fit together.

[00:42:14] You know, sometimes we change things. Like we kill some characters. I know people were surprised at the end of number two when a certain villain was dead. Like people are like, that's a joke, right? Like, you're just kidding. Uh, we weren't like, you know, we want, we, we want the reader to know that the stakes are high and things can happen, you know, keep them on their toes. So that's been fun. Yeah. I mean, I knew, I knew it was just, yeah. Yeah. I knew we were in for something. Yeah. Yeah. Go ahead. No. And Geraldo has just been, is like the perfect fit for that.

[00:42:42] He was doing this book for image called no one with, um, Brian Bucciolato, a friend of mine and Kyle Higgins, who's also a buddy of mine. And I remember seeing those pages and I was like, this guy should be drawing big Tracy. Like he's just got this like, uh, noir style, but he's also really good at pacing and character at character expressions. And, um, you know, we, we, we try not to overwrite for him because he's just so talented on his own and he takes notes really well. And it's just been a great, great dynamic with him.

[00:43:10] He's such an easy creative partner and it's, it's really been a blast. Yeah. I knew we were in for something special when like the, you know, that first issue opened up with, um, you know, basically the people getting gunned down in the, in the diner and it's like all from there. And there, there, there, there is a, like I said, it was, it's brutal. There are some moments that there is kind of like a, a, a very serious brutality to it. Like I, I know there were Tommy guns in the movie and everything, but still maybe it was

[00:43:38] like the, like the outfits or the character makeup or, or something where it felt, you know, it, it, it felt like what it was very, very much of its time, uh, in 1990. But like, yeah, some of the scenes in here, I mean, he, it, issue nine, um, you know, Tracy gets like delivered a severed, something or other, you know, severed body part to him.

[00:44:05] Um, also that right after that scene, that next page, Geraldo and, and I got to give credit as well to Mark Engler. Um, yes, it's like four inset panels of the car and it's slowly, you know, they, they closer and closer and closer on, on Tracy's face, right down to his eyes. He's trying to figure out where, where Tess and Pat are. Yeah, no, it's great. And that's a beautiful page. That's a big Michael Mann nod.

[00:44:33] And I'm glad you brought up Mark because he does such a fantastic job of giving the reader the sense of the film. Like it feels very much like the movie in terms of the pastels and the colors, but grounding it in reality. And I think that's really hard to do to walk that balance between this colorful palette, but also making it feel more realistic and less like a movie version of a newspaper strip, you know, less cartoony, but still it's comics.

[00:45:01] It should be fun and colorful, but, um, through this filter of like a dark, uh, undercurrent. Yeah. Yeah. I just, I really appreciate it. I can't wait to see, you know, how it all ends up. I really liked where issue, issue nine ended. It was a very, uh, I'm curious to see how, I'm curious to see if people are surprised by the end. So we'll see how it goes. Yeah. I, um, I was really, really kind of surprised, uh, there's a character from the first dark that

[00:45:30] really comes back in issue nine. And then, you know, we haven't, you haven't revealed anything yet in terms of like who the, the blank is, uh, at least to Tracy. So yeah, I'm very much looking forward to it. I'm, I'm really, you know, enjoying the series. It's just, uh, you know, it's awesome. Yeah. No, we're having a blast. We're doing well done. I think we, we could keep doing it as long as anyone will have us. So yeah, it's, it's been a lot of fun. Like I love these, you know, these takes of the, these older properties that are kind

[00:45:58] of getting some new life and in really fun ways. And, you know, I guess the promise when you were on last year with Dick Tracy was that, you know, this is something that old fans will appreciate, but new readers can jump right on. And I feel like, Oh yeah, that's you guys definitely nailed it in terms of that. And I feel like it's its own thing. That's the other thing about it. It's not just like, Hey, remember that Dick Tracy movie from 1990. Now it's in comic form. You know, it's not like an adaptation, like it's a hundred percent lives and breathes on

[00:46:28] its own. Yeah. And that was the hope to be something that's welcoming that, you know, if you're a hardcore Dick Tracy fan, you will enjoy it. There's a ton of Easter eggs and nods, but at the end of the day, it's pretty open. And if someone doesn't really know Dick Tracy, just wants to read a good crime comic, this will scratch that itch. Hopefully. Yeah. And I also really like the interplay with, with Tracy and Pat. Yeah. I just, I like how they're not, you know, they're, they're very much their, their own character. I like their differences.

[00:46:57] I like the dialogue and the interplay between the two of them. So again, it's, it's very well done. It's gotta be a lot of, a lot of fun to, to write. Oh yeah. I mean, Michael's great to work with. He's a wonderful collaborator. We were very simpatico and how we work and how we see story, how we approach story. So it's very much like an extension of myself or vice versa. Like we both have very similar tastes. So it's been fun.

[00:47:22] And so just, I guess just to circle back to star Wars, since that's going to be out on the link in the show notes. And so I, you know, I had doing press for something like star Wars and not be, you get peppered a lot with what's your favorite movie and what's your favorite this? Like, have you had to deal with a lot of that? I was just curious. Yeah. I think people want to know. I mean, I love empire. Empire is the one that I always kind of grow back to. I love and or I love, uh, I like the Obi-Wan series a lot.

[00:47:52] I mean, I'm, I'm just a star Wars person. Like, you know, if it's new, I'll, I'll absorb it and see how it fits. Like, um, you know, I, and I, I think the question I get a lot is like, people want to know, like under the hood, like, what's it like, like interacting with Lucasfilm or what are the approvals? Like, are there things they didn't let you do? And it's, it's, it's, I think people love that kind of inside baseball stuff. But for me, it's like, we're all collaborating and we're just trying to come up with the best story. And, uh, they've always been really supportive of different takes and like bringing unique voices into the universe.

[00:48:22] So it's been a blast. That's awesome. Yeah. Um, I was curious though. I was going to ask, is there a character you loved when you were younger? Like when you, that, that as you got older, that fell out of favor or, or maybe vice versa character, you didn't really appreciate that as you got older and consumed more things and, you know, started writing. Yeah. I think, um, I think for me it was Obi-Wan because as a kid, I was so much more into Luke.

[00:48:50] Like I was, Luke was the star and it was all about him. But I think as you get older, you start to appreciate the father figures and the mentors a little more because that's what you are hopefully becoming to others. So I find Obi-Wan story really fascinating as I get older. And the same goes for Qui-Gon who I think when I first watched Phantom Menace, I was kind of like, you know, I, I liked him, but I was more interested obviously in the central, like Anakin story. But I've come to, I got to write a short story for, of Qui-Gon short story for, um, this

[00:49:20] anthology that, uh, they put out a couple of years ago. And that was really fun because it got me to get into his head a little bit and kind of explore him. And, um, yeah, I've always had a fondness for Obi-Wan since then. Yeah. Uh, I mean that, that, that makes a lot of sense. I was just curious. Um, yeah, I, I was always, uh, it is funny, like as when you, when you're younger and like having Luke be the star. And I think that, I think the older I got, the more I'm like, I, do I like Luke Skywalker? I mean, I definitely still do.

[00:49:50] There's a lot to, I think, especially now in this period, there's just a lot to explore. So, yeah, no, that's I, well, I can't wait to see you and Phil explore it. I think this is going to be a lot of fun. And so we'll have links in the show notes for when first issue is out. But, um, yeah, thank you for coming on the podcast again, Alex and listeners. I mean, if you haven't read Dick Tracy, go ahead, get it. The question all along the watchtower, we're going to get the new star Wars and yeah, I'm reading secret identity now.

[00:50:18] So, uh, check out any of Alex's books, secret identity. Uh, alter ego is the followup. And then, but also you've written a bunch of, I guess, crime, uh, detective books as well. Um, yeah, I wrote five PI novels set in Miami, the Pete Fernandez. Pete Fernandez, right? Yeah. And, uh, I wrote a, an Encanto novel. I've written a star Wars novel, Spider-Man novel. I've got a daredevil novel coming out, um, early next year in 2026.

[00:50:47] That's going to be part of Marvel's crime line. So yeah, I keep them busy. All right. Awesome. Well, let's just, let me know what it is you're reading, especially if you're reading some of Alex's stuff, let's talk about it. Uh, rate and review the podcast that helps us. And, uh, yeah, thanks so much for, for listening and, um, uh, I'll see you next time. All right. Thank you a lot. This is Byron O'Neill, one of your hosts of the cryptic creator corner brought to you by comic book Yeti. We hope you've enjoyed this episode of our podcast.

[00:51:15] Please rate review, subscribe all that good stuff. It lets us know how we're doing and more importantly, how we can improve. Thanks for listening. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.