Daniel Kibblesmith Interview - Marvel Holiday Tales to Astonish and Kitty Pride Hanukkah

[00:00:00] Your ears do not deceive you. You've just entered the Cryptid Creator Corner brought to you by your friends at Comic Book Yeti. So without further ado, let's get on to the interview.

[00:00:10] I love comic books.

[00:00:11] Hey children of the algorithm, I wanted to tell you about another great comics related podcast. Our friends Dan, Dwayne, and Sienna with Comics Overtime have a great show that you should definitely check out.

[00:00:20] Dan has been a Comic Book Yeti contributor since before I was around and the show delves deep into comics history, analyzing it from the wider cultural landscape at the time.

[00:00:30] I learned a lot just listening in and they are keeping it fresh too with Sienna reporting in about the current Marvel offerings.

[00:00:36] I love seeing the next generation excited about comics and it's cool to see a family participating in comics journalism together.

[00:00:42] This season they are focused on the history of everyone's favorite Hell's Kitchen vigilante Daredevil.

[00:00:47] It's a fantastic show that you're going to want to add to your rotation. You can find them at Comics Overtime on your favorite podcasting platform or at their website, comicsovertime.podbean.com.

[00:00:59] I'll drop a link in the show notes to make it easy for you.

[00:01:02] He's a daredevil, Ned!

[00:01:05] Y'all, Jimmy the Chaos Goblin strikes again!

[00:01:08] I should have known better than to mention I was working on my DC Universe meets Ravenloft hybrid D&D campaign on social media. My bad.

[00:01:15] He goes and tags a bunch of comics creators we know and now I have to get it in gear and whip this campaign into shape so we can start playing.

[00:01:23] Another friend chimes in, are you going to make maps?

[00:01:26] It's fair to say it's been a while since I put something together so I guess? Question mark?

[00:01:31] It was then that I discovered Arkham Forge. If you don't know who Arkham Forge is, they have everything you need to make your TTRPG more fun and immersive.

[00:01:40] Allowing you to build, play and export animated maps including in-person fog of war capability that lets your players interact with maps as the adventure unfolds while you, the DM, get the full picture.

[00:01:52] Now I'm set to easily build high-res animated maps saving myself precious time and significantly adding nuance to our campaign.

[00:02:00] That's a win every day in my book.

[00:02:02] Check them out at arkhamforge.com and use the discount code YETI5 to get $5 off.

[00:02:08] I'll drop a link in the show notes for you.

[00:02:10] And big thanks to Arkham Forge for partnering with our show.

[00:02:13] I think I'm going to make Jimmy play a goblin warlock just to get even.

[00:02:17] Hello and welcome to Comic Book Yeti's Cryptid Creator Corner.

[00:02:20] I am one of your hosts, Jimmy Gasparo.

[00:02:22] And I am here with an Emmy-nominated TV writer who also has written a lot of comics and has a bunch of stuff coming out that we're going to talk about.

[00:02:32] I've followed this individual on Twitter for quite some time now and a really great Twitter follow.

[00:02:39] I don't know with the algorithm if that's worth what it used to be, but a very funny individual that I am very excited to talk to.

[00:02:48] But please, welcome to the podcast, Daniel Kibblesmith.

[00:02:52] Daniel, how are you doing tonight?

[00:02:53] You know, we're talking on a very interesting night.

[00:02:56] I'll leave it at that.

[00:02:57] But I hope to feel okay in the morning.

[00:03:01] How are you doing?

[00:03:03] I'm doing well.

[00:03:04] Good, good.

[00:03:05] Yeah, it is.

[00:03:06] As we record this, it is a very, very, very interesting day in America.

[00:03:11] So we'll see what tomorrow brings.

[00:03:14] But tonight we're talking about writing and comics and TV a little bit.

[00:03:20] And I started to say this before we were recording, but I was familiar with you from following you on Twitter and your work on Stephen Colbert's show.

[00:03:31] I know that's where the Emmy nominated TV writer comes in.

[00:03:35] I think in 2017 you were nominated for an Emmy.

[00:03:39] I was familiar with your work from that.

[00:03:41] Very funny on Twitter.

[00:03:43] So I always do a little bit of research before I have somebody on just enough to kind of be dangerous and was like really pleasantly surprised by what I found because great.

[00:03:56] I mean, I think half of the things in like your Wikipedia entry would be like a solid bit or a solid sketch.

[00:04:04] And they were all like absolutely true.

[00:04:06] And I can't wait for listeners to hear about some of it because there was some great stuff in terms of your career working for Groupon and being one of the founding editors of ClickHole.

[00:04:20] Yep.

[00:04:21] Very beginning of ClickHole.

[00:04:23] Yeah.

[00:04:24] Working for Stephen Colbert's show.

[00:04:26] And yeah, you've written for you've written for television inside job, the animated show on Netflix.

[00:04:34] I think really proud.

[00:04:36] Yeah.

[00:04:37] Fantastic voice cast.

[00:04:38] And just.

[00:04:39] Yeah.

[00:04:40] I mean, delightful.

[00:04:41] If anyone hasn't seen it, I was checking out some of it today.

[00:04:46] And yeah, really great voice cast, really fun premise.

[00:04:50] And then you've written in terms of like Marvel characters, you've written you've written Loki, you've written Lockjaw, you've written.

[00:04:57] Oh, what is it?

[00:04:58] Black Panther versus Deadpool.

[00:05:01] Mm hmm.

[00:05:01] So you've, you know, you've really done quite a bit.

[00:05:05] And I wanted to start with what you have coming out next, and then we'll kind of circle around in some of these other things.

[00:05:11] So you have a story coming out, and probably most appropriate as we near the holiday season, in Marvel's Tale to Astonish, you're doing a Kitty Pryde story.

[00:05:19] Is that right?

[00:05:19] Correct, correct.

[00:05:21] I'm doing a Kitty Pryde Hanukkah story set in the Byrne and Claremont era.

[00:05:27] So it takes place over roughly eight nights during Kitty's first Hanukkah away from home with her new family, the X-Men.

[00:05:36] So the gist is that she wants to make a good impression and buy them all gifts, but she keeps getting sucked into crazy adventures and, you know, supervillain battles and things.

[00:05:48] And so she never has time to buy any Hanukkah presents for her new friends and family and make a good impression.

[00:05:55] So because she's Kitty Pryde and she's indomitable, she figures it out.

[00:05:59] But what it ends up being is this like, sort of like travel log of like a greatest hits of the Claremont burn, you know, early X-Men era that kind of like, you know, Kitty Pryde first year sort of 1981 feel and fashions and team.

[00:06:16] So I was very, very excited that they asked me to do it and that we all settled on that setting and that conceit.

[00:06:24] Yeah.

[00:06:25] And Pat, Pat Olaf is doing the, that's great.

[00:06:30] Yeah.

[00:06:31] Pat, Pat's doing it and he's an inspired choice because a huge influence for me on this story was the untold tales of Spider-Man, which is essentially the same gimmick to, to look at the cracks in continuity and try to imagine new stories that would have taken place, you know, during, during that time, like between issues of Amazing Spider-Man.

[00:06:52] And these are the stories that, that, you know, Busiek was writing and that Pat was drawing that supposedly took place during the Lee Ditko era.

[00:06:59] And then they would end up being influenced by things that you had already read from the Lee Ditko era.

[00:07:05] And I was hoping to do the exact same thing here with adventures that I was very careful about the calendar.

[00:07:12] We, we worked really hard to make it all fits, uh, adventures that would just slot neatly in between those issues of Uncanny X-Men in the early eighties.

[00:07:21] Uh, so that this could plausibly be one week, you know, one Hanukkah week of, of Kitty Pryde's life, uh, in a period that we're already familiar with.

[00:07:31] Is it, what's the challenge compared to when you're, you know, like for like a book, like a book, like Loki, like when you get that and you're starting kind of like a new chapter in the story as you know, and you're dealing with all that continuity and you're dealing with editorial in terms of the story you're telling versus you're now trying to tell, you know, a fun holiday story, but you're kind of slotting it in.

[00:07:57] Is it, is it, is it the same kind of struggle or is it a little different and is there more freedom to one?

[00:08:05] I think that there's probably more freedom to, uh, I think there's probably more freedom to something that broadly reads as drama, uh, you know, or action, uh, than something that reads as comedy.

[00:08:20] Because to me as a writer, the most important thing to keep in mind is your contract with the audience.

[00:08:27] You want to deliver some version of what you sold on the cover and satisfy that, that, um, faith that they put in you when, when they buy it.

[00:08:37] But you also want to surprise them and give them something that, that fits, uh, in what they expect, but is also not just like literally what they expect, you know, no more, no less.

[00:08:49] So if the story is marketed as like a lighthearted story, you, you do kind of have to stay within the constraints of a lighthearted story while still having, you know, all of the same story beats and kind of emotional beats.

[00:09:05] And you have to write jokes, which is hard, uh, which you don't always have to do in drama and action.

[00:09:12] Um, so I w I would say that I would say that, um, comedy to me has to do everything that drama does and do it kind of for a broader audience or an all ages audience and also have a bunch of jokes in it.

[00:09:26] Um, so I don't see them as kind of like opposites of each other.

[00:09:30] I see drama as being something that is at the core of comedy.

[00:09:34] Okay.

[00:09:35] Yeah.

[00:09:36] I mean, I can see I, I, that makes sense to me.

[00:09:38] Um, I, I, I guess it, it depends on, you know, thinking about the story, but, um, there's so much more in terms of timing.

[00:09:47] I feel like with comedy and, uh, you know, with comics, I feel like comedy is so, you know, much harder than if you're writing, you know, a, a pilot episode or if you're writing, you know, if you're writing sketch, you know, to, cause there's.

[00:10:04] You kind of, there's certain physicality you lose, you know, on the page.

[00:10:11] I mean, there's been some amazing artists who can show some amazing things, uh, in a comic with comedy, but I feel like it really is.

[00:10:20] There's, there's, there's so much more in terms of the, the, I guess the timing of it on the page, uh, which I think can be really, you know, really tricky.

[00:10:29] You don't, you don't have like a, an action or a punch all the time to, to fall back on.

[00:10:36] No, I mean, that's it exactly.

[00:10:38] Like, that's one of the things, you know, I write for television and, and, and live comedy and things like that.

[00:10:42] But, um, comic book writing is my favorite kind of writing.

[00:10:46] It's my favorite kind of scripting.

[00:10:47] And I learned a lot from when I was a kid, I learned a lot from Scott McCloud's understanding comics and the, the, the medium of comics, uh, its relationship with time.

[00:10:59] And yeah, funny books, you know, there's all these tricks you can do.

[00:11:02] Like you can do a bunch of shots from the same angle and that's somebody who's like, you know, shell shocked, you know what I mean?

[00:11:07] Like you can, you can, um, uh, I'm, I'm working on like a, an unannounced, uh, IP, uh, book right now where, um, it has a lot of slapstick in it, like a huge amount of physical slapstick in it.

[00:11:19] But it also has things that you can only do really in a comic book or a cartoon where, um, there's just a big sound effect that says crash.

[00:11:28] And, you know, the pain that the hero is going through is funnier because it's, it's off panel.

[00:11:33] Uh, it's all this, like all these kinds of jokes that are all hinging on the, you know, just the really incredible and, and, and addictive, uh, visual techniques that I have at my disposal that I don't have when I'm writing like a film.

[00:11:49] You know, uh, I can't say like, uh, you know, like, uh, uh, a year passes between panels, you know, like I can't just like have like a character be like, I'll, you know, what is it?

[00:12:02] I'll, uh, he's, he's on jeopardy and he's like, uh, Oh, it's on the tip of my tongue.

[00:12:06] And then in the next panel, he's like covered with like dust and, you know, like there's the sets is just right behind him.

[00:12:13] Uh, and you know, he's in some kind of post-walk with wasteland.

[00:12:16] Like, I'm not saying that's a good joke.

[00:12:17] I'm saying that's the kind of joke that you can do in a comic showing the same exact thing from the same angle and using, uh, the gutters, you know, who are, are sort of like our permeable barriers that represent time.

[00:12:34] Uh, to, to shoot us, you know, 50 years in the future where the guy is still trying to think of the jeopardy answer while society has crumbled around him.

[00:12:40] Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's one of the things I love with, with comics and, um, and, and especially the idea, uh, and of comedy and humor with comics, which I feel like there's, there's a lot in terms of the kid space.

[00:12:55] And there isn't as much in the adult space, which I'm always looking for because there is, there, there's so much you can do playing with the audiences or the readers, you know, imagination, you know, from panel to panel.

[00:13:11] And, and what happens in between the gutters, which, you know, uh, whereas if it were another medium, they, they'd show it, you know, and they're, and I like the idea of kind of being able to play on the reader's expectations and trying to mine comedy from, from that.

[00:13:30] And, uh, yeah, I, I would love to see more of that in the, you know, adult space.

[00:13:37] Like, uh, I, I mean, there, there hasn't been too much, but, um, I mean, I know what they, the recent, I say recent, but not that long ago, the, uh, Superman pal, Jimmy Olsen, which was, uh, Steve Lieber and, um, I'm forgetting who else worked on it.

[00:13:54] My apologies.

[00:13:55] Uh, yeah, yeah.

[00:13:57] Yeah.

[00:13:58] Really good.

[00:13:59] Really good.

[00:14:00] Really funny, you know?

[00:14:02] And it's just like, man, I was like craving something like that, you know?

[00:14:06] Yeah.

[00:14:06] And you know, so much of what I just talked about are these like really sort of like, um, comics theory, like kind of formality kind of tricks.

[00:14:14] But that book, you know, in addition to having that stuff at their disposal, you got Lieber, who's just like a king of character acting, like just draws like the most, like the funniest, most expressive characters in the universe.

[00:14:27] And then traction, who's one of the funniest writers, you know, on the planet.

[00:14:31] Uh, and then Jimmy Olsen, who is a character that just like lends himself to that.

[00:14:35] It's, it's, it's perfect.

[00:14:37] And you get this thing that's like, it's a real joy.

[00:14:40] And it's also like, it does everything a drama would do.

[00:14:43] You know, it tells you a full story, you know?

[00:14:45] Oh yeah, absolutely.

[00:14:46] The story involves like, I think like marrying a gorilla princess and like, you know, but the, but the stakes are real.

[00:14:55] The feelings are real.

[00:14:56] You're rooting for him.

[00:14:58] Uh, so I, you know, I, I would love to do like sad comics too.

[00:15:01] I would love to do like daredevil brooding on the, on the rooftop.

[00:15:04] But, um, in the meantime, you know, I have this, I have this comedy resume.

[00:15:08] So it's really cool that people ask me to do stuff.

[00:15:12] Um, that's a little more lighthearted and I still get to sneak in, you know, some, some pathos and some big feelings.

[00:15:19] Yeah, that's awesome.

[00:15:20] Um, so yeah, I'm looking forward to, uh, that out December 4th, I think the Marvel, uh, Marvel book.

[00:15:26] So that's Marvel holiday tales to astonish.

[00:15:29] Uh, final cutoff was a while ago, but I'm sure they'll have it at your local comic book shop.

[00:15:33] And, uh, that drops on December 4th.

[00:15:37] Fantastic.

[00:15:38] Um, I kind of want to touch on some of these other things.

[00:15:41] I know you have a, uh, a power puff girls book that's coming out as well.

[00:15:45] Yeah.

[00:15:46] I've written like four or five Christmas and Hanukkah.

[00:15:50] Yeah.

[00:15:51] Yes.

[00:15:52] I wrote a, so I co-wrote, what have I done?

[00:15:55] I wrote a book about Santa Claus called Santa's Husband.

[00:15:59] Uh, which of course is about Santa Claus who is black and gay and he lives at the North Pole with his husband who is white, but also has a big beard.

[00:16:08] And impersonates him at the shopping mall when Santa is too busy to, to do the mall.

[00:16:13] So when you see white Santa at the mall.

[00:16:16] Yes.

[00:16:17] That's Santa's husband.

[00:16:18] Um, which I heard, I don't know if it's true.

[00:16:22] I heard started as like, uh, I don't like, like something on Twitter or Twitter.

[00:16:27] Yeah.

[00:16:28] Yeah.

[00:16:28] Yeah.

[00:16:28] That's great.

[00:16:29] Yeah.

[00:16:30] It came, it came out of Twitter during a time when good things could still come out of Twitter.

[00:16:33] Uh huh.

[00:16:34] Um, and then, um, I had, I wrote a book of, uh, DC comics, um, uh, holiday carols, holiday carols and Christmas carols for Chronicle books.

[00:16:46] Uh, a couple of years ago called, I think it's like, we wish you a Harley Christmas.

[00:16:51] Yeah.

[00:16:52] It's the title is very long.

[00:16:55] It's a long, it's a long walk, but it's, it's Harley Quinn Christmas carols, Google it.

[00:17:00] And, um, that was tremendous one.

[00:17:02] Cause I love writing, you know, bad parody songs in my, not even my spare time.

[00:17:06] Just like when I'm awake, when I'm like walking through the kitchen, uh, I'm doing like the, the, the faucet in my head that makes like bad Christmas songs come out of me.

[00:17:16] It's just like always leaking a little bit.

[00:17:19] So, uh,

[00:17:20] Is it always holiday music?

[00:17:22] It, it, it's not always holiday music.

[00:17:25] Cause I'm also a dad.

[00:17:26] So I do like bad, like dad songs as well, but like, it is like predominantly like holiday music, you know?

[00:17:33] Okay.

[00:17:34] It's, um, about like washing the dishes and stuff, you know, you know, washing the dishes, Wonderland.

[00:17:42] So yeah.

[00:17:42] Wish you a Harley Christmas.

[00:17:43] I'm the same, I'm the same way.

[00:17:45] Uh, my wife gets very annoyed that I almost turn everything into.

[00:17:50] No matter what, no matter what are you doing.

[00:17:52] What are you doing in there?

[00:17:53] Why is this happening?

[00:17:56] Um, so yeah, I did that.

[00:17:58] I did, so I did the Santa Claus book.

[00:17:59] I did the Harley book.

[00:18:01] Um, and, uh, I'm doing this.

[00:18:04] Uh, I did a Rugrats Hanukkah special that I co-wrote, uh, with my friend Colin Crawford, uh, who also worked at a lot of the same places as me, including the show, including the Cole, including Groupon.

[00:18:15] Uh, uh, uh, his own animated show, um, that isn't announced yet.

[00:18:21] But, but, um, but, but, but, uh, it's going to be really funny.

[00:18:24] And if you have any streaming services, keep subscribing to them because it's going to be on one of those.

[00:18:31] Okay.

[00:18:32] All right.

[00:18:32] I got some of this.

[00:18:33] Yeah.

[00:18:34] It might take a year, but just like keep subscribing to your streaming services.

[00:18:37] Eventually you're going to see this very funny, very funny show that he's working on.

[00:18:41] So he and I wrote a Rugrats Hanukkah special together.

[00:18:46] We both think the Rugrats are very funny, both literally funny.

[00:18:49] Like the show is funny, but also like the idea of them is very funny.

[00:18:54] Yeah.

[00:18:55] Uh, and there's, yeah, we're like, they're like four to six, like neglected, uh, uh, uh, yuppie offspring who, who worshiped, uh, Reptar, who worshiped their universe's version of Godzilla.

[00:19:08] Uh, it's magnificent.

[00:19:11] So, and they're Jewish, some of them.

[00:19:12] So we did a, we did a Hanukkah special for, for them.

[00:19:16] Um, so yeah, when, when, uh, my editor, Darren Shan at Marvel, uh, asked, uh, one of my other editors, uh, Will Moss at Marvel, um, I'm looking for a writer who is Jewish and loves Kitty Pryde.

[00:19:27] And he said, oh, it's Daniel Kibblesmith.

[00:19:29] He has not stopped asking me about Kitty Pryde.

[00:19:34] And then, uh, at Dynamite, I'm doing this other kind of unannounced, uh, cartoon, uh, IP thing, uh, hopefully announced soon, hopefully coming out next year.

[00:19:43] It's going to be a very big deal.

[00:19:45] I can't say which one it is yet.

[00:19:47] Uh, but people will be excited.

[00:19:49] So that, that same editor, uh, is, is, is Nate Cosby.

[00:19:54] And he asked if I had any interest in doing a Powerpuff Girls holiday special.

[00:20:00] And I said, absolutely.

[00:20:02] Everybody gives me holiday assignments.

[00:20:05] I love them.

[00:20:06] You know, that's, that's, this is a self-fulfilling, you know, prophecy or, or, or need.

[00:20:12] So, uh, yeah, it's, uh, on December 11th, uh, you can go to your local comic book store and buy the Powerpuff Girls.

[00:20:18] Powerpuff Girls Winter Snowdown Showdown.

[00:20:21] I think I pitched Winter Showdown or Winter Snowdown.

[00:20:25] And Nate Cosby said, what's going to be Winter Showdown Snowdown?

[00:20:28] Uh, or Snowdown Showdown.

[00:20:30] I think it is.

[00:20:30] Winter Snowdown Showdown.

[00:20:32] Yes, that's what it is.

[00:20:33] Yes.

[00:20:33] Um, and, uh, man, it's great.

[00:20:36] Uh, it's, it's, it's turning out wonderfully.

[00:20:39] Um, the artist, uh, forgive me.

[00:20:41] Uh, he's somebody that I have never worked with, uh, before.

[00:20:45] Um, but the colors are rolling in.

[00:20:48] The artist is Carlo Lauro?

[00:20:51] Yes, Carlo Cid Lauro.

[00:20:52] And, um, he is great.

[00:20:54] It's just that, like, you know, it's not, like, totally, like, a photocopy of the show.

[00:21:01] It's not, like, a, uh, completely, like, static, like, on-model thing.

[00:21:06] It's, like, very alive.

[00:21:07] It's very, um, organic.

[00:21:10] And, you know, has its own, its own style and personality.

[00:21:14] Um, and it's just that perfect, like, comic book writer thing of, like, you know, you,

[00:21:19] you want it to look something like what's in your head.

[00:21:22] And then what usually happens, um, because, you know, artists are great, uh, is that it

[00:21:28] looks like a much better version of what's in your head.

[00:21:30] And he added so many visual jokes, uh, that were not in the script.

[00:21:35] And this is so in the spirit of Powerpuff Girls, uh, that he, like, there's just, like,

[00:21:40] there's an alligator that's just, like, got a guy's head in his mouth.

[00:21:43] Like, but very gently for, like, several panels.

[00:21:47] It's, it's a, it's hard to explain out of context.

[00:21:50] But there's just, when you, when you read it, just look at all the background stuff

[00:21:53] that, uh, Carla put into it.

[00:21:55] Um, because it's really good.

[00:21:57] And he's a really nice, funny guy.

[00:21:59] I love talking to him.

[00:22:00] It's awesome.

[00:22:01] Yeah, looking forward to that.

[00:22:03] Um, that's fantastic.

[00:22:06] I could also, like, say what it is, I guess.

[00:22:08] I didn't actually say what this book is.

[00:22:11] It's the girls are, uh, it's 28 pages and the girls are shopping for a, uh, Christmas present

[00:22:17] for Professor Utonian.

[00:22:19] Uh, who, if you have not seen the show, he's their sort of very angular scientist creator.

[00:22:25] And, uh, he takes such good care of them and he's bundling them up to, to play in a snow,

[00:22:29] snow day.

[00:22:30] And, uh, they fly off and they say, oh, you know what?

[00:22:32] We, he, he takes good, such good care of us.

[00:22:34] We need to find a nice present for him.

[00:22:35] And it breaks off into sort of like three intertwining kind of Magnolia solo adventures

[00:22:42] with the, uh, the Powerpuff Girls as they face three different classic villains or sets

[00:22:47] of classic villains.

[00:22:48] And then, uh, all come together at the end for a grand, uh, fight slash finale slash, uh,

[00:22:55] gift giving, I guess.

[00:22:57] Sounds, uh, a perfect, uh, you know, perfect for the holidays.

[00:23:02] I do like how on, I think it's Dynamite.

[00:23:05] For the, the preview, it says, uh, written and illustrated by jolly old elves, Daniel

[00:23:10] Kibble, Kibble Smith and Carla Laura.

[00:23:13] So they always do that stuff, man.

[00:23:14] They always do that stuff.

[00:23:15] I love it.

[00:23:16] I love it.

[00:23:17] I think we're doing something similar in, um, I think we're doing something similar in,

[00:23:22] uh, the, the X-Men story, uh, where it's like, you know, everybody's like, uh, you

[00:23:29] know, jingling CB.

[00:23:31] You know, like it's, it's very like a 1960.

[00:23:36] You know, bullpen joke.

[00:23:38] Right.

[00:23:39] No, I love that stuff.

[00:23:41] I like that.

[00:23:41] That sense of humor, uh, the sense of whimsy.

[00:23:45] All right.

[00:23:45] Let's take a quick break.

[00:23:46] After a string of unexplained disappearances in the Southern parts of the United States,

[00:23:59] retired detective Clint searches for his white trash brother.

[00:24:02] While searching for him, he ends up being abducted by aliens.

[00:24:06] He is now in the arena for big guns, stupid rednecks.

[00:24:19] That's the premise for a new book from Banda Barnes, big guns, stupid rednecks.

[00:24:27] I got a chance to see an advanced preview of this book and being from the South, honestly,

[00:24:31] I was a bit skeptical going in, but they won me over and nothing is more powerful than an

[00:24:36] initially skeptic convert.

[00:24:37] My book in Jimmy's words, big guns, stupid rednecks is many things, but it isn't subtle.

[00:24:43] It tells you exactly what it is upfront.

[00:24:44] Then it delivers with a great premise, fantastic art and a whole mess of fun.

[00:24:49] I had a great time reading big guns, stupid rednecks.

[00:24:52] And what I thought was going to be an indictment of redneck culture quickly showed it was actually

[00:24:56] a love letter, a family mystery, brother pitted against brother aliens fighting for profit

[00:25:01] in a big arena.

[00:25:02] This truly has it all.

[00:25:04] Issue one is out already, but you can still pick up a copy on the band of Bards website

[00:25:08] and current issues are available via your previews or lunar order form, or just ask your

[00:25:12] LCS.

[00:25:13] Don't miss.

[00:25:14] Let's get back to the show.

[00:25:16] The, the Rick and Morty finals week.

[00:25:18] The, uh, I think that's going to be early next year.

[00:25:21] Uh, the trade is coming out.

[00:25:23] Yes.

[00:25:23] So that's going to be a minute that comes out in March, but it's worth it.

[00:25:27] Uh, so I got approached, uh, I'm very close with Alex fear, uh, who wrote, uh, the Rick

[00:25:32] and Morty flagship, uh, series for some time.

[00:25:35] And with Kyle Starks, who, who also wrote the Rick and Morty flagship series for some time.

[00:25:39] And they put me in touch, uh, with only and the editorial team.

[00:25:43] And, uh, asked if I wanted to do a Rick and Morty one shot.

[00:25:47] And they had a couple pitches and one of them was Sherlock Holmes.

[00:25:50] And I said, we're doing that.

[00:25:51] We're absolutely doing Sherlock Holmes because I remembered that Rick and Morty had in the

[00:25:55] credits dressed up like Sherlock Holmes.

[00:25:58] And they do that, you know, new season of Rick and Morty thing where they put a bunch of

[00:26:02] new clips in the credits.

[00:26:03] And it's not clear which stories you're actually going to get to see and which ones are sort

[00:26:07] of like off camera, like red hair, red herring adventures.

[00:26:11] So I said, Oh, well, so we gotta do, we gotta do.

[00:26:14] It's so obvious.

[00:26:15] We have to do Sherlock Holmes.

[00:26:16] And, uh, I'm very proud of it as a sort of like a very, you know, very complete locked

[00:26:22] room mystery.

[00:26:24] Uh, I think we did an excellent job writing a Sherlock Holmes story.

[00:26:28] Uh, I think it's one of the best single issue stories I've ever been involved with.

[00:26:33] Um, but the, the other like meta aspect of this is that Rick cannot believe they haven't

[00:26:38] done Sherlock Holmes yet.

[00:26:39] It's like the most obvious IP in the world.

[00:26:42] It's such, you know, like it's such like low hanging fruit parody.

[00:26:47] It's like, wow, you did die hard before you did Sherlock Holmes.

[00:26:51] Yeah.

[00:26:52] Like you did David Cronenberg stuff in season one, but you did, I haven't done Sherlock

[00:26:56] Holmes yet.

[00:26:57] Like that's like a freebie.

[00:26:58] That's like a Christmas episode.

[00:27:02] So, uh, yeah, I'm doing, I'm doing the, the, the, I had written the first of the finals

[00:27:07] week series, which is an anthology series where Morty has a different school final every day.

[00:27:13] Monday is English literature.

[00:27:15] So it's much for Sherlock Holmes.

[00:27:16] And then another team takes over and it's another subject and another adventure.

[00:27:19] I believe there's five of them, uh, all by different teams.

[00:27:23] Uh, and they'll be collected into one, uh, maxi paperback at, uh, the beginning of next

[00:27:29] year in March, March of 2025.

[00:27:33] Yeah.

[00:27:34] Yeah.

[00:27:34] I'm a big fan of Rick and Morty and, um, big fan of Sherlock Holmes stuff too.

[00:27:38] So yeah.

[00:27:39] I mean, same, same, same, same.

[00:27:40] Like it was so, it was so great to just like, so much of what I do is like, I can't believe

[00:27:45] this hasn't been done before.

[00:27:46] You know, like the, when we did the, when we did the gay Santa book, we were like, we

[00:27:53] probably are not the best people to do this, but we will do it, you know, but we'll do it

[00:27:58] respectfully and, and, uh, we're, we're blown away that, that it hasn't been done before.

[00:28:04] Um, when I got to do the Kitty pride Hanukkah story, I was blown away that they hadn't done

[00:28:09] the story of Kitty's first Hanukkah with, with the X-Men.

[00:28:12] Like it's incredible that, especially with the superhero universes, it's incredible that

[00:28:17] you have these, you know, tapestries that are going on a hundred years and you can still

[00:28:21] find new things that are incredibly obvious in hindsight, but just that have never been

[00:28:28] done before.

[00:28:28] You know, you have a mutant who controls the weather.

[00:28:31] Have we ever sent her to Mars?

[00:28:33] You know, like, I, I love, I love it.

[00:28:36] I love comic books.

[00:28:38] Yeah.

[00:28:38] Yeah.

[00:28:38] I mean, I do too.

[00:28:39] And I, you know, I think a lot, some, I think some of it is, it has to be in terms of like

[00:28:44] changing tastes, changing sensibilities, like just the changing times that either someone

[00:28:50] just didn't think of it, or if someone did, they weren't able to do it, you know, for whatever

[00:28:54] reason.

[00:28:55] And then you can kind of, you know, you're in the right place at the right time and then

[00:28:59] you get to tell that story.

[00:29:01] And, um,

[00:29:02] No, I'm very grateful.

[00:29:03] Very grateful when it's me.

[00:29:04] Um, another, another example, another example from this year is, um, I got to do a spider

[00:29:09] verse story that was about, uh, J Jonah Jameson getting bit by the radioactive spider.

[00:29:15] And we turned him into a sort of a, sort of a masked reporter character, uh, called a

[00:29:21] headline.

[00:29:23] So instead of buying Peter's photos, uh, for the daily bugle, he just goes out there and

[00:29:28] fights crime himself.

[00:29:30] And then he writes his own articles about himself for the daily bugle.

[00:29:35] So he loves headline.

[00:29:37] He doesn't like Spider-Man, but he loves headline because, you know, it's him.

[00:29:41] And yeah.

[00:29:42] Yeah.

[00:29:42] And you just think like, how has that, how has something like that not, you know, not

[00:29:47] been done yet where they've, they've taken that kind of foible to Parker and, and, and

[00:29:51] put them through those paces, but yeah, you got, you got to do it.

[00:29:56] Um, I wanted to ask, you know, since, uh, we've talked about comics and how did you first

[00:30:04] get into comics?

[00:30:05] Was it something you've always loved as a kid?

[00:30:09] Not from the start.

[00:30:11] I mean, if now I say like, I got into comics when I was about nine or 10 years old, which

[00:30:16] does feel like always, but it doesn't feel like always at that time.

[00:30:21] So when I was five, six, seven, um, I liked Garfield a lot.

[00:30:26] Um, I still like Garfield in that sort of like unhealthy, like internet irony way.

[00:30:32] Sure.

[00:30:33] Uh, he's still, you know, very much a part of my life.

[00:30:36] Yeah.

[00:30:36] Um, and you know, Calvin and Hobbes, and I think Garfield and Calvin and Hobbes and

[00:30:40] just the newspaper pages as they used to exist.

[00:30:43] Um, they did a lot of work, uh, teaching me the language of comics, you know, the whole,

[00:30:48] like we were saying with the gutters, you know, the timing, the, the upper left corner,

[00:30:53] zigzag to bottom right corner kind of process that, you know, a lot of us internalized and

[00:30:58] the new readers have to, you know, have to learn as adults sometimes.

[00:31:02] So I, I spoke comics, but superhero comics to me always felt like kind of like boring and

[00:31:10] violent.

[00:31:11] And so I was a really sensitive child, you know, I was like a little Muppet baby's child.

[00:31:15] Uh, but I, I did love the, I did love the Superman cartoon, the Ruby Spears, uh, Superman cartoon.

[00:31:23] And a lot of stuff happened at around the same time, but the X-Men arcade game was so compelling

[00:31:30] to me, uh, that I, I instantly fell in love with, with these characters and, and these designs

[00:31:36] and Nightcrawler in particular.

[00:31:38] And for many years I thought Nightcrawler's, uh, superpower was to turn into a, uh, rainbow

[00:31:43] ball of fire and just kind of like bounce around a room.

[00:31:47] It's actually his, his superpower I think is that he's Catholic.

[00:31:50] Right.

[00:31:51] Right.

[00:31:53] He's Catholic.

[00:31:54] And then secondary mutation is just zigzagging around the room as, as a ball of, of, of jagged

[00:31:59] light.

[00:32:00] Uh, so, um, I always thought, I always thought of video games as my thing and comics as my

[00:32:06] dad's thing.

[00:32:07] Oh, then when I found video games about comics, my dad was like, well, if you like these characters,

[00:32:13] I have a comic at home.

[00:32:15] It's called Excalibur number one.

[00:32:16] It's about this guy and you can come home and just like read all of them, you know, like

[00:32:23] fall in love with, with this universe.

[00:32:25] So I was largely, uh, largely weaned on like silver and bronze age Marvel.

[00:32:30] Cause that's when my dad had, and then a handful of like man of steel era Superman stuff.

[00:32:38] Uh, and that, that became, that became the backbone of my, you know, my comics obsession.

[00:32:43] Uh, and from there people would start to buy me my own.

[00:32:47] Um, I don't remember which issue number it was, but, um, my first two comics that were given

[00:32:53] to me expressly, uh, were, uh, a Batman adventures, uh, Batman animated adventures where, um,

[00:33:01] the scarecrow is revealed on the last page and it's very scary.

[00:33:04] And that, that art, you can find it.

[00:33:06] It there's, that's a lot of information for Google.

[00:33:09] Uh, that art has, has stayed with me my entire life.

[00:33:12] And then the other one that blew my mind and hooked me for keeps was amazing Spider-Man

[00:33:17] number 374 because that's the one where Venom, who I'd never seen before, uh, was attacking,

[00:33:24] uh, holding, holding hostage, uh, Peter Parker's parents who I understood to be dead.

[00:33:30] So it was like this perfect 90 comic to be like, bro, you have no idea how deep this goes.

[00:33:38] Like, oh, that's so, that's so cute that you're, that you're reading these Roy Thomas

[00:33:42] Avengers, you know, when you're, you're, uh, nine, 10 years old.

[00:33:46] Um, but if you go to a comic book shop now, if you buy what your friends are reading, it's

[00:33:51] this whole other ballgame.

[00:33:54] So, uh, yeah, it was, I always, even though I was very young, you know, objectively very

[00:33:58] young to me, it always felt like I was playing catch up.

[00:34:01] Okay.

[00:34:02] Wow.

[00:34:02] Yeah.

[00:34:02] I, um, no, I mean, I, I'm always curious as to how folks got into it, whether it was,

[00:34:08] you know, when, from, from the very start when they were kids or who got them into it

[00:34:11] and what comic, you know, got them hooked and, and, and what did it.

[00:34:15] Um, but it's interesting to hear you were, you know, had that background of, uh, you know,

[00:34:21] bronze and silver age Marvel.

[00:34:22] And then when there's, I guess, what late night, mid, mid nineties, early nineties, like

[00:34:29] 90 comics.

[00:34:31] Yeah.

[00:34:31] Yeah.

[00:34:32] That was, that was a while time.

[00:34:35] Yeah.

[00:34:36] I subscribed to, uh, I subscribed to Excalibur and I subscribed to ASM and I was always

[00:34:42] I was very confused and surprised when Excalibur would arrive and it would be so different than

[00:34:46] the Excalibur I was reading out of my dad's long box.

[00:34:49] Uh, you know, like the, the, the masthead is a different logo.

[00:34:52] The team is different to the sort of the nineties edge, you know, has been, has been injected

[00:34:57] into it.

[00:34:57] And then, um, Spider-Man was stranger, but it still more or less felt like Spider-Man, um,

[00:35:04] until the clone saga.

[00:35:05] And then I just like, I couldn't keep up.

[00:35:07] So maximum carnage was a really big deal for me.

[00:35:10] That was kind of the peak of my childhood comic book reading.

[00:35:14] And then with clone, with clone saga, uh, I got sucked more into, um, like, uh, like magic

[00:35:21] cards, magic cards, overpower cards, uh, tabletop role-playing.

[00:35:25] Uh, and it wasn't until, uh, college really that, um, some of my friends were like, Oh,

[00:35:31] used to read comics or used to read comics.

[00:35:33] I was like, yeah, but I don't like them anymore.

[00:35:34] They're for little babies.

[00:35:36] And, um, which was not true.

[00:35:39] If anything, I didn't like them because they were like too edgy, you know, they were like

[00:35:42] all these like muscle bound, like Rob Liefeld, double swords, you know, like the gun, the

[00:35:48] size of a, of an oak tree, you know, like, I think that's what, that's what was putting

[00:35:52] me off.

[00:35:52] Cause I liked the sixties comics are all like sleek and, you know, swashbucklers and jumping

[00:35:57] around.

[00:35:57] And then the nineties comics are so, I love them now, you know, but, but at the time I was like

[00:36:02] anything that was like overtly trying to be hip, I was, I was very allergic to.

[00:36:07] Okay.

[00:36:08] So, so I tapped out, I tapped out of comics sometime in the nineties and switched mostly

[00:36:11] to, to, to gaming.

[00:36:14] And, uh, then, um, some, some high school and college friends were like, well, that means

[00:36:18] you've never read the dark night returns.

[00:36:19] That means you've never read Watchmen.

[00:36:21] You've never read V you've never read, um, uh, ghost world, you know, and like all the,

[00:36:26] like all this like indie stuff.

[00:36:28] And I lived in Chicago, you know, so like Dan Clow stuff and Chris Ware stuff and Jeffrey

[00:36:32] Brown stuff.

[00:36:34] And, uh, that was, that was me rediscovering comics again in their totality.

[00:36:39] Uh, that, you know, I could be reading like, um, whatever my friends put in my hands, you

[00:36:45] know, like Julie Doucette and like, uh, Johnny Ryan, but also like, you know, Kevin Smith's

[00:36:50] doing Daredevil.

[00:36:51] Like we love Kevin Smith.

[00:36:52] We're, we're 17.

[00:36:53] Like we love Kevin Smith.

[00:36:55] Absolutely.

[00:36:55] Let's read Kevin Smith's Daredevil.

[00:36:57] You know, I, I, I remember the first time I saw Clerks and was insufferable.

[00:37:02] Mm-hmm.

[00:37:06] Still am.

[00:37:06] Still am baby.

[00:37:09] Um, so how does that, you know, I guess love of comics when you're younger and then, you

[00:37:18] know, rediscovering some things or maybe just discovering things for the first time later

[00:37:22] on.

[00:37:22] Um, when is the idea of like first writing comic?

[00:37:26] Like, did you get out of college thinking I'm going to be a comedy writer or I'm going

[00:37:31] to be a writer of some type or I just want a job?

[00:37:35] Like what was, where was your head at?

[00:37:38] Sort of all of the above, you know?

[00:37:40] Okay.

[00:37:40] Like when I got into comics as a kid, um, I did the first thing that every kid who loves

[00:37:44] comics does.

[00:37:45] And, uh, I made my own, um, you know, I drew comics and I made my own team of superheroes

[00:37:51] and all of their corresponding villains.

[00:37:53] And I had my dad photocopy them at work and, you know, I tried to sell them at school for,

[00:37:58] you know, 50 cents or something.

[00:37:59] Um, and it was all very, you know, disorganized.

[00:38:02] I had the mind of a child and still largely do, but, um, I was always, uh, I always wanted

[00:38:11] to be a filmmaker.

[00:38:11] If you'd asked me when I was a kid, what I wanted to be, I would say, I want to be a

[00:38:15] movie maker.

[00:38:16] I would use those, those words.

[00:38:19] And I went to film school in a Columbia college of Chicago where I roughly lived and had a

[00:38:26] really good time.

[00:38:26] But, um, whenever I was the director on sets, uh, enormously stressful.

[00:38:32] And the things that I would, the things that I were trying to do were always, um, very high

[00:38:38] concept for the level of experience and skill and budget that I had, you know, I like, I wanted

[00:38:44] to dress people up as superheroes, you know, for my 16 millimeter film.

[00:38:48] Um, I'd have to be dragging around like crates of props and stuff and like trying these complicated

[00:38:53] effects that, you know, in-camera effects that weren't going to, to work.

[00:38:57] Um, and it just wasn't coming together and it was enormously, enormously stressful and

[00:39:01] expensive and tiring, but I loved writing them.

[00:39:04] I really, really loved writing them.

[00:39:06] And then I found, uh, that I also loved editing them.

[00:39:10] Uh, so in film school, I kind of drifted towards, um,

[00:39:14] editing and, and writing and then finally entirely writing.

[00:39:18] And then, um, fell in with some other, uh, Columbia college students who were largely

[00:39:23] standups, uh, standups and some sketch writers.

[00:39:28] So this was also the earliest days of YouTube.

[00:39:30] So I kind of figured out that on YouTube at that time, if you wanted somebody to watch something

[00:39:35] you'd made, they would watch a sketch, they watch a comedy sketch, or they would watch

[00:39:39] a music video.

[00:39:40] And this is still basically true.

[00:39:41] I mean, there's a lot of like vloggers and essays and stuff, but, um, there's not a

[00:39:46] lot of like, I could be very wrong, but I don't think that, I don't think that a lot

[00:39:51] of what gets watched on YouTube is like dramatic student films.

[00:39:57] I think if you're a young person with limited resources, making comedy or a music video is

[00:40:02] like a really great way to, to get people to actually take a chance on your work.

[00:40:07] So, um, I made sketch videos and I hung out with standups and I showed the sketch videos

[00:40:13] in clubs.

[00:40:14] Um, if you're in Chicago or know Chicago, uh, I showed a lot of stuff at the Lincoln launch,

[00:40:19] uh, which is kind of a famous venue.

[00:40:22] And, um, as I was doing that, it was kind of the same deal.

[00:40:26] You know, my house had like a green screen in it and like crates full of like, you know,

[00:40:30] um, top hats and Santa Claus costumes and, you know, fake, fake glasses and feather boas

[00:40:34] and stuff.

[00:40:35] And I just, I really just wanted to write really this whole time.

[00:40:39] I've just been chasing just writing.

[00:40:42] Um, so I switched to, yeah, to, to just writing and, you know, those were largely like marketing

[00:40:47] jobs.

[00:40:47] And then I would write script samples and I would get artist friends to, to try to draw them

[00:40:52] and we'd send them to, you know, Marvel and stuff to no avail.

[00:40:55] And, uh, I got really into Twitter, which at the time was fun and a good way to get your

[00:41:02] voice out there and to, to meet people.

[00:41:04] Uh, and I think it was that Twitter presence and the fact that I had a solid day job that

[00:41:11] let me sort of decide, like I live in Chicago, which is not really a movie town.

[00:41:18] I might, I had an internship in Los Angeles.

[00:41:20] I didn't really enjoy it.

[00:41:21] So I've never lived in New York, but right now I live in Chicago.

[00:41:24] And I could write comic books anywhere.

[00:41:26] And that's, that's narrative writing for a national audience, which is ultimately what

[00:41:31] I want to do.

[00:41:32] Right.

[00:41:33] Uh, so I got the attention of, uh, some editors, uh, like, uh, Alejandro Arbona, who had been

[00:41:39] at Marvel, uh, and, uh, was, uh, been moving over to Valiance.

[00:41:43] And, uh, he gave me my first, uh, significant, uh, comics gig.

[00:41:47] And those were some humorous pages in some anniversary issues for the title unity and the

[00:41:54] title bloodshot, which I'm still very proud of.

[00:41:57] Uh, and from there I was a, I was a professional comics writer who also was like, but you know,

[00:42:03] I, I wants to move to the coast and write for, and write for television.

[00:42:07] You know, I want to, I want to scale this.

[00:42:09] I want to scale this upward.

[00:42:11] Um, it's, it was less about what I wanted to do and more of my understanding that you

[00:42:16] never know who is going to say yes and when.

[00:42:19] So I just tried to be flexible and available and say yes to as many things as I was offered.

[00:42:27] And I, I still largely do.

[00:42:29] Um, I, it's one of the reasons my career is, you know, as you sort of set up top, it's,

[00:42:33] it's very scattershot because you kind of don't know what the thing is going to end up being,

[00:42:38] you know?

[00:42:39] Well, I mean, going through it, I, when I was going, you know, trying to piece things together

[00:42:46] for this, just to see, you know, what comics that you've done, what, what other things

[00:42:50] could we, we talk about.

[00:42:51] And so you, I mean, I think I said when we started it and maybe a little bit before we

[00:42:58] were recording, but going through like your Wikipedia and it talks about that you were one

[00:43:02] of the, you know, in the early days of Groupon.

[00:43:07] And, um, I think it says you were the in-house comedy writer and senior marketing copywriter in

[00:43:14] charge, uh, and in charge of developing the company's morale boosters.

[00:43:18] Yeah.

[00:43:19] And I was like, I thought that sounded like a bit until I found like another article talking.

[00:43:25] I was like, Oh no, this is, this is real.

[00:43:27] It was fully, fully my job.

[00:43:29] Um, the, the, the Wikipedia article, uh, which is not written by me, thank God.

[00:43:36] Um, uh, it exaggerates that dramatically.

[00:43:39] It was a whole team of people, um, including, you know, some very funny, uh, comics who have

[00:43:45] now gone on to, to big things.

[00:43:46] Um, Groupon hired the entire underemployed improv community of Chicago.

[00:43:53] Uh, so, uh, there was a, there was a comedy writer's room in Groupon that was like at any

[00:43:59] given time, it was like two to seven people.

[00:44:02] And, um, then there was, uh, a customer service, uh, departments that was all actors and comedians,

[00:44:10] uh, and improvisers.

[00:44:11] So we were able to do a lot of really fun, crazy kind of proto viral marketing things.

[00:44:16] I don't know how successful they were for Groupon.

[00:44:19] I think we might've been burning money, but, uh, it was really cool to have a paying job that

[00:44:26] was ostensibly, uh, a practice, a practice arena for, for doing comedy.

[00:44:31] And then when the onion moved to Chicago to consolidate their offices with the AV club,

[00:44:38] uh, a lot of, a lot of people from the Groupon humor room, uh, got hired at the onion just

[00:44:44] because we had a lot of practice and experience and good relationships.

[00:44:49] And, you know, we'd worked in, we'd worked in comedy in a formalized capacity before,

[00:44:54] which is like a rare skill, uh, for people at that level.

[00:44:58] Usually it's something that you're just doing, you know, with your friends or like through

[00:45:03] like a, an improv school system.

[00:45:05] Uh, so yeah, we were really, we had this huge advantage.

[00:45:08] It was like, you have kind of sort of written comedy professionally.

[00:45:12] So we'll bring you in as like low level onion guys.

[00:45:15] And that was, and that was great.

[00:45:17] And that was the first time I was, you know, writing comedy comedy instead of, you know,

[00:45:21] funny copy for a retail organization.

[00:45:23] Yeah.

[00:45:24] But still, I, I just, I guess it would surprise me.

[00:45:27] I was like, when I, when I first read it, I was like, Groupon.

[00:45:31] And I'm like, is, is, is, is Groupon?

[00:45:35] Like there's not another Groupon.

[00:45:38] And I dug into it and I was reading about it.

[00:45:40] I was just like, I was, I was fascinated.

[00:45:43] Um, and I guess then the onion led to being one of the editors or a founding editor at

[00:45:50] Clickhole, I would imagine.

[00:45:52] Right.

[00:45:53] Cause that's the same organization.

[00:45:54] Exactly.

[00:45:55] And then how did that lead to, you were writing for Colbert for what?

[00:46:00] Five years?

[00:46:01] Five years.

[00:46:02] Yes.

[00:46:03] Five, uh, very specific years.

[00:46:09] So I knew that I wanted to try to move to New York and write for television.

[00:46:16] Uh, so it wasn't a, it wasn't a direct, a direct move.

[00:46:20] Um, by virtue of doing so many online projects and, you know, so much, so much kind of new

[00:46:25] media stuff.

[00:46:26] Uh, I knew a bunch of people at Buzzfeed.

[00:46:29] Buzzfeed was hiring like crazy at that time.

[00:46:31] And they had this kind of, I mean, I, I infer that they had this kind of philosophy of like

[00:46:35] anybody who's anybody on the internet, we'll just hire them and they'll bring some kind

[00:46:38] of following with them and then we'll own the internet.

[00:46:42] And they kind of did for, for, for a little while.

[00:46:46] Um, yeah.

[00:46:48] So I moved to New York with a Buzzfeed job in my pocket.

[00:46:51] And then I wrote a submission packets to talk shows and Colbert was, was hiring, uh, very

[00:46:58] soon.

[00:46:59] Colbert was hiring very, very close, uh, to the time of my arrival.

[00:47:03] I got really lucky.

[00:47:03] I'm glad that I arrived when, when I did and didn't miss the window.

[00:47:07] So, um, I worked at Buzzfeed for about five, six months.

[00:47:10] Uh, and then I, I got the television job and they all understood that I would, I would

[00:47:14] rather be doing that.

[00:47:16] And, uh, worked, uh, for the late show with Stephen Colbert, um, from its first season

[00:47:22] on CBS, uh, and some preseason stuff in August of 2015 to, uh, my last show was in January

[00:47:30] of 2020.

[00:47:32] And, uh, it means I covered the entire presidential election, uh, 2016 presidential election and,

[00:47:40] um, the majority of the Trump administration.

[00:47:44] Right.

[00:47:45] Uh, and that timing, that timing checks out.

[00:47:48] That was, that was a lot that, that, that was a lot.

[00:47:52] And, you know, I have a tab open over here and it looks like, it looks like I, uh, looks

[00:47:56] like I got to call some friends who still work there and see how they're feeling.

[00:47:59] Okay.

[00:48:00] Uh, but, but yeah, that, that I, that I was able to, that I was able to switch to, um, telling

[00:48:08] stories, you know, like purely like character driven, like fiction stories, um, by, um, using

[00:48:16] my, Michael Bear credits to, to do a lot more comic writing.

[00:48:20] Um, and also, uh, I became friendly online with, uh, the Gravity Falls creator, Alex

[00:48:24] Hirsch, who was working on, uh, several shows.

[00:48:28] And one of them was Inside Job, uh, run by Shion Takeuchi, which, uh, was a, a, a fledgling,

[00:48:36] uh, Netflix animated show about, uh, uh, a overworked, uh, overworked mad scientist who

[00:48:44] has to run her department of conspiracy makers, uh, inside of the Illuminati.

[00:48:50] Yeah.

[00:48:51] Very funny.

[00:48:52] Really great.

[00:48:53] Really, really proud of it.

[00:48:55] Really, really proud of it.

[00:48:56] Um, would have loved, would have loved to have done more.

[00:48:58] I think our ending is very sweet.

[00:49:00] Um, I'm very fortunate that, uh, Shion and I got to write the, what ended up being the

[00:49:04] series finale.

[00:49:06] Um, I wish it had just been a season finale though.

[00:49:08] I do wish there was, I do wish there was a bit more.

[00:49:13] Yeah.

[00:49:13] I haven't seen that.

[00:49:14] I haven't seen the finale yet.

[00:49:15] So I, uh, I want to get through, I, I, I watched a little, I checked out, you know,

[00:49:19] a couple of things just to kind of get a sense of it, but now that I've had a, a taste,

[00:49:25] I want to go through and, and, and watch it.

[00:49:27] Um, like I said, I got a lot of stuff just like kind of out there, you know?

[00:49:31] So yes.

[00:49:33] Including, I found out an episode of millionaire match me.

[00:49:36] Um, we don't have time for that.

[00:49:39] We don't have time for that.

[00:49:40] That's, that's your homework, everybody.

[00:49:41] If you, if you know what those words mean, when you put them together.

[00:49:47] You've lived a life, Daniel.

[00:49:49] Yeah.

[00:49:50] So far, so, so far, so good.

[00:49:52] Absolutely.

[00:49:53] Except for the, you know, the terrifying parts, but you know, except for that.

[00:49:57] Except for the existential crises.

[00:49:59] Um, everything's great.

[00:50:01] Uh, well, look, I, uh, I have some, uh, it's going to be a long night.

[00:50:06] I have some drinking to do, but I really, I really appreciate you coming on the podcast.

[00:50:12] Uh, I'll put links in the show notes.

[00:50:16] So, um, that all of our listeners will be able to, to, uh, hopefully check out and get

[00:50:22] Marbles Holiday Tales to Astonish with the Kitty Pryde story.

[00:50:25] The Powerpuff Girls Winter, uh, Snowdown Showdown.

[00:50:29] The Rick and Morty, Rick and Morty Vinyls Week Collected.

[00:50:34] And also to check out, yeah, check, check out Inside Job.

[00:50:37] Um, because the stuff I've seen, it's very funny.

[00:50:41] And, um, I, I love that type of animation.

[00:50:44] My two kids recently just got into Gravity Falls, um, as well.

[00:50:50] And, uh.

[00:50:50] Very much of the same, you know, very much of the same kind of fabric.

[00:50:53] Yeah.

[00:50:54] Yeah.

[00:50:54] My, my oldest, uh, Charlotte, she went as Dipper Pines for Halloween just recently.

[00:50:59] She did it.

[00:50:59] She put her own costume together.

[00:51:01] She looked fantastic.

[00:51:02] She's now gotten to the point where she's just recently, over the weekend, she, uh,

[00:51:07] she drew her and her sister and her two of her friends in the Gravity Falls style.

[00:51:11] So we're, we're very much in that Alex Hirsch, uh, uh, mindset.

[00:51:16] So I'm very excited to, to watch the rest of, uh, of Inside Jobs.

[00:51:20] Yeah, man.

[00:51:21] It's, it's good stuff.

[00:51:22] And if you like, uh, you know, if you like the IP-based comics, if you like comics about

[00:51:26] Rick and Morty, if you like comics about Powerpuff Girls, if you miss these characters when

[00:51:30] they're not on TV and you want to see more of them.

[00:51:32] Uh, not announced yet, but it's 2025.

[00:51:35] 2025 is going to be a big deal for IP characters written by me.

[00:51:40] There's going to be two or two or three things that I know about that, that you should, you

[00:51:45] should stay tuned for.

[00:51:46] So you can, you can follow me on Instagram at Daniel.Kibblesmith and my website is just

[00:51:50] kibblesmith.com.

[00:51:51] Yeah.

[00:51:51] I'll put a link into everything so folks can find you on social media, find your website

[00:51:55] and, uh, yeah, especially like if it's more dynamite stuff, I love everything that dynamite's

[00:52:00] been doing recently.

[00:52:02] They've been, you know, bringing out a lot of great stuff.

[00:52:05] I love what.

[00:52:05] You can't see the, on the audio one, you can't see me nodding when you say dynamite.

[00:52:09] Yes.

[00:52:10] Um, so they've been putting out some great stuff and, um, uh, yeah.

[00:52:15] So, uh, fantastic.

[00:52:16] But, uh, uh, Daniel, thank you so much for coming on the podcast.

[00:52:20] I, I, uh, um, uh, a fan of you knowing you from Twitter.

[00:52:26] I think you're unbelievably funny and, um, you know, I'm an, I'm an old man now to be a

[00:52:33] comedy, you know, writer, but anybody who has been able to do that, I'm always unbelievably

[00:52:39] impressed by, I think somewhere in the multiverse, there probably is a version of me that maybe

[00:52:44] is certainly, certainly because it's, it's not that hard.

[00:52:50] That's the secret is it's not that hard, but this, this, this version is a personal injury

[00:52:56] attorney and interviews comic book creators at, at night.

[00:52:59] So, um, but Daniel, I really, I really appreciate it.

[00:53:02] Thank you very much.

[00:53:03] Thank you so much for having me.

[00:53:05] Listeners, you know what to do.

[00:53:06] Check out Daniel's stuff.

[00:53:07] Uh, if you haven't read Lockjaw or Loki or the Quantum and Woody stuff, you should check

[00:53:12] out all of that as well.

[00:53:14] And, uh, I'll put links to everything and, and, and Daniel has a link on his website

[00:53:18] as well.

[00:53:19] So you can check out a lot of his books.

[00:53:21] If there's something you can't find, I might have it.

[00:53:23] I just went to, uh, Patton Oswalt and Jordan Bloom's block party, comic block party on November

[00:53:29] 2nd, uh, with all of my, all my comps, all my inventory selling books.

[00:53:34] So if there's something you're looking for, you can't find it in print.

[00:53:37] I might have a bunch of them.

[00:53:38] Yeah.

[00:53:38] All right.

[00:53:39] Well, there you are.

[00:53:39] Oh, and check out, uh, how to win at everything, which.

[00:53:42] Oh Lord.

[00:53:43] Yeah.

[00:53:44] That was the first one.

[00:53:45] Yeah.

[00:53:46] Uh, that was written with, uh, that was written with Sam Weiner of Grubon.

[00:53:51] Yeah.

[00:53:52] Oh, that's fantastic.

[00:53:53] Um, well, thank you, Daniel.

[00:53:54] I really appreciate it.

[00:53:56] All right.

[00:53:56] Well, uh, good night, everybody.

[00:53:58] Uh, I'll see you next time.

[00:54:00] Oh, shout out to my brother, Bobby.

[00:54:02] I almost forgot the cryptic creator corners.

[00:54:03] Number one, most dedicated fan.

[00:54:05] Bobby listens to all my, my episodes.

[00:54:07] Bobby, I already know has read your Loki in particular.

[00:54:10] So he's going to be, he's going to be excited by this episode.

[00:54:13] So, uh, all right.

[00:54:15] Well, I'm going to get going and, uh, good night, everybody.

[00:54:18] See you next time.

[00:54:19] Bye.

[00:54:19] Bye.

[00:54:36] Bye.

[00:54:38] Bye.

[00:54:40] If you enjoyed this episode of the cryptic creator corner, maybe you would enjoy our sister

[00:54:44] podcast into the comics cave, listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.