Jordan Blum, Patton Oswalt, Heath Corson, and I.N.J. Culbard Interview The Brood from the Minor Threats Universe

[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] Hey everyone, this is...

[00:00:13] Hi Byron.

[00:00:14] Who is this?

[00:00:15] I'm your fairy godmother.

[00:00:17] I have a fairy godmother?

[00:00:18] Of course you do.

[00:00:19] I'm 50 years old, why haven't you shown up before?

[00:00:22] I appear when I'm needed.

[00:00:24] And I didn't need you in all these years?

[00:00:26] Do you want my help or not?

[00:00:29] Um...

[00:00:30] Sure.

[00:00:31] Exactly.

[00:00:32] I was just about to pitch our Patreon.

[00:00:34] Why would I need help with that?

[00:00:35] Because you're an idiot sometimes.

[00:00:38] That's hurtful.

[00:00:40] What were you going to put on there?

[00:00:42] We do comic stuff?

[00:00:43] So something along those lines?

[00:00:45] And this is why I'm here.

[00:00:48] You do know what people put on Patreon most of the time, right?

[00:00:52] Honestly, no.

[00:00:54] People need something a little bit spicy to entice them to support you.

[00:00:59] Nobody wants to see me shirtless.

[00:01:01] I doubt that's true.

[00:01:03] You are in pretty good shape considering your age.

[00:01:05] Thank you.

[00:01:06] Let's see.

[00:01:07] A little spicy.

[00:01:09] I've been bugging Jimmy to figure out what he's going to do.

[00:01:12] I know lately he's been playing around with his **** all the time.

[00:01:16] He loves to take it out and show it off.

[00:01:18] There's even a specific TikTok channel now.

[00:01:20] How's that sound?

[00:01:21] Not a bad start.

[00:01:22] People like Jimmy.

[00:01:23] What else you got?

[00:01:24] I told a story recently about being in a strip club with some of the four horsemen when I was working for WCW back in the day.

[00:01:30] I picked up an infection on my-

[00:01:32] Woo!

[00:01:32] From the experience, I hate strip clubs.

[00:01:36] Is that better?

[00:01:37] Getting there.

[00:01:38] But maybe spicy shouldn't include infections you get in strip clubs.

[00:01:42] That's not sexy.

[00:01:44] We'll workshop it.

[00:01:46] Like I need more meetings.

[00:01:47] At least tell them where to find it while we figure this out.

[00:01:51] Mother goddess, help this poor man.

[00:01:52] You can find us on Patreon at cryptidcreatorcornerpod.

[00:01:56] I'll put it in the show notes.

[00:01:58] Anything else you'd like to remind me that I'm bad at?

[00:02:01] How much time do you have?

[00:02:03] Why do you look like Rosario Dawson anyway?

[00:02:05] I appear the way you want me to look.

[00:02:07] Okay, that's disturbing.

[00:02:09] Wait, have you been showing up in my dreams?

[00:02:12] I'll never tell.

[00:02:14] And we're done here.

[00:02:16] Y'all, Jimmy, the Chaos Goblin strikes again.

[00:02:20] I should have known better than to mention I was working on my DC Universe meets Ravenloft hybrid D&D campaign on social media.

[00:02:27] My bad.

[00:02:28] He goes and tags a bunch of comics creators we know.

[00:02:30] And now I have to get it in gear and whip this campaign into shape so we could start playing.

[00:02:34] Another friend chimes in, are you going to make maps?

[00:02:38] It's fair to say it's been a while since I put something together so I guess?

[00:02:42] Question mark?

[00:02:43] It was then that I discovered Arkhamforge.

[00:02:45] If you don't know who Arkhamforge is, they have everything you need to make your TTRPG more fun and immersive.

[00:02:52] Allowing you to build, play, and export animated maps including in-person Fog of War capability

[00:02:58] that lets your players interact with maps as the adventure unfolds while you, the DM, get the full picture.

[00:03:04] Now I'm set to easily build high-res animated maps saving myself precious time and significantly adding nuance to our campaign.

[00:03:12] That's a win every day in my book.

[00:03:14] Check them out at arkhamforge.com and use the discount code YETI5 to get $5 off.

[00:03:20] I'll drop a link in the show notes for you.

[00:03:22] And big thanks to Arkhamforge for partnering with our show.

[00:03:24] I think I'm going to make Jimmy play a goblin warlock just to get even.

[00:03:29] Hello and welcome to Comic Book Yeti's Cryptid Creator Corner.

[00:03:32] I'm one of the hosts of the podcast, Jimmy Gasparro.

[00:03:35] And I have a full house with me today on this podcast to talk about The Brood,

[00:03:43] which is the newest comic spinning out of the world of minor threats from Dark Horse.

[00:03:48] It is a phenomenal series.

[00:03:50] Listeners, if you haven't checked it out yet, I don't know why.

[00:03:52] It's phenomenal.

[00:03:54] But please welcome to the podcast Jordan Blum, Patton Oswalt, Heath Corson, and INJ Cubbard.

[00:04:01] How, how's everyone doing today?

[00:04:03] Thanks for coming on the podcast.

[00:04:05] Thank you for having us.

[00:04:07] Yeah.

[00:04:10] Yeah, I really appreciate it.

[00:04:12] I'm a big fan of this series in general.

[00:04:15] I mean, minor threats volume one and two.

[00:04:17] I really love the alternate.

[00:04:19] I think there's three, if not four issues of, of Barfly that are out now.

[00:04:26] And then this, this is the newest series.

[00:04:28] Um, I know this kind of Jordan and Patton, uh, with Heath have put the story together.

[00:04:34] I think Heath, you're scripting it.

[00:04:36] Uh, uh, INJ.

[00:04:39] Yes, that's right.

[00:04:40] You're, you're, you're doing the art.

[00:04:41] Um, I kind of love how all these different stories for this world are kind of put together, but, um, I don't know if, if Jordan or Patton, if one of you wanted to start talking about this newest iteration, the brood and what listeners, you know, can expect.

[00:04:57] Well, we've been very fortunate that, uh, amazing creators, uh, like, uh, uh, Heath are bringing us stories that have been inspired by reading minor threats and wondering about the world and wanting to expand it.

[00:05:11] So, um, he brought us this idea.

[00:05:14] And if you want to hear the elevator pitch, it was basically imagine, uh, Lex Luthor, uh, wanting to hand off his empire to his family, but his family is the Royal Tenenbaums, basically.

[00:05:24] This, this is like, this is like, this is my way of the world.

[00:05:27] And we immediately were like, Oh my God.

[00:05:30] And we were so happy.

[00:05:32] He wanted to set it in our universe.

[00:05:34] And it was, it was, I mean, we still had a lunch and we heard the pitch, but it was such a, Oh God, that's such a yes.

[00:05:41] Yeah.

[00:05:42] It came so fully formed.

[00:05:44] Um, you know, I think we've been lucky where some people will bring us beginnings of an idea, you know, but I think, uh, he said, had been sitting on this for a while and really kind of,

[00:05:54] fleshing it out.

[00:05:55] So it was a blast that, you know, he, he, he brought to us.

[00:05:59] Then we, we all met up and we kind of laid out, he laid out for us all four issues.

[00:06:04] And, you know, we all just kind of got to brainstorm and play off of it, but really it was, it was ready to go.

[00:06:10] And we, we found fun ways to kind of connect it into the world, especially by, by making, uh, the main character, the arch nemesis to the searcher, whose character we've only spent like a little time in, who's kind of flown in and out of, of some of the other books.

[00:06:22] And this was a good chance to kind of flesh that character out, get a background on that character and, and, and create, uh, you know, a whole world and city, um, around, around her.

[00:06:34] Uh, and then, um, Ian, we saw Ian's art and it was just the perfect marriage, I think of, of concept and execution.

[00:06:45] And, you know, we want every book to have its own identity.

[00:06:49] And I think, you know, Ian, when you see Ian's art, I wouldn't say, Ian, you, you would consider yourself the immediate superhero artist, right?

[00:06:58] Definitely.

[00:06:59] Or indie.

[00:06:59] And I think that's what we wanted.

[00:07:01] Like, you know, we joke about the right time, but we wanted this to feel like a Wes Anderson movie.

[00:07:05] And I think that's really, um, Ian's strength of these, you know, he can do these big, you know, fights and everything, but it's these really small familial moments that, that make the book work.

[00:07:18] Yeah.

[00:07:18] Um, I didn't, I didn't even think of reading the first issue of the Royal Tannenbaum's connection, but as soon as you said it, it makes total sense.

[00:07:26] Having gone through the issue.

[00:07:27] And Heath, I also would be remiss if I didn't say that.

[00:07:32] Heath, you have written along with Gustavo Duarte, one of my favorite series, because I'm a huge Bizarro fan.

[00:07:39] And your Bizarro, your Bizarro Jimmy Olsen, like five or six issues series is just so much fun.

[00:07:47] And it's a delightful story.

[00:07:49] And so when I saw that you were now coming into this world, I was super excited as to like what you, you know, how you were going to leave your, your stamp on it.

[00:07:57] And then when I saw Ian's artwork, there's a quality to it that it feels like a little bit of a, of a throwback more so than what was done in like, you know, um, in the main minor threats title.

[00:08:11] And it really does work so well.

[00:08:14] Um, and to see this character kind of deal with having to like, which one of his kids are going to take over and their different dynamic.

[00:08:21] It's set up so beautifully in that, that first issue.

[00:08:24] Was this a story that you were kind of sitting on and then came along to minor threats and you figured it would fit perfect in this world?

[00:08:33] Yeah.

[00:08:33] I mean, it was something that I had that I'd been sitting on for a while.

[00:08:37] And, uh, it, it, it did come exactly as Patton said that I was watching the Royal Tenenbaums and I was like, Oh, what if this is the continuing story of Gene Hackman's Lex Luthor from Superman who had these kids and decided to turn them into supervillains?

[00:08:54] And, uh, so I was playing with the idea.

[00:08:57] Now I'm also from a very big family.

[00:09:00] I'm the oldest of four.

[00:09:01] So I really liked the idea of being able to play with the concept of adult siblings who have all gone through the same thing, but see it in a radically different way.

[00:09:11] And then to be able to plug that into sort of the conventions of minor threats where a different character gets to pick up the narration in every issue that really spoke to me in being able to tell this story in the way that we wanted to.

[00:09:25] And I will say everything unlocked once I got to start working with Ian and, and we started talking about the look and feel of, of the book.

[00:09:32] And he just leveled some amazing designs to these characters and a hundred percent brought them to life.

[00:09:38] Um, he's doing the pencils, the inks and the colors.

[00:09:42] So there is literally no aspect visually of this book that Ian is not completely in control of.

[00:09:48] And it, it's just looks spectacular.

[00:09:51] No, I run my mouth unnecessarily, but one thing I love about Ian's art is the art is a reflection of, especially Archimedes Napoleon's personality.

[00:10:03] It is this very sparse, uh, very, very, um, stark way of looking at the world, clean lines to the point of it being sinister.

[00:10:13] Um, and I just love that fact that there's a lot of that, um, a lot of corporate design.

[00:10:19] There's an implied threat to it.

[00:10:23] They don't be too sloppy in this environment fit in, or you will be eradicated.

[00:10:28] And that's all underneath each panel.

[00:10:32] And it's really, it just, it does so much acting before the characters even have to act.

[00:10:38] And I love it.

[00:10:38] I love it.

[00:10:41] That was great.

[00:10:44] Thank you.

[00:10:47] No, I mean, I, the colors of this, the colors of the series are, are phenomenal too.

[00:10:52] I mean, like just when the three, just from the, the opening scene where we're introduced to the, the three kids kind of sitting around like the table, like one of the toughest things is to make talking heads panels, like interesting.

[00:11:05] But that background color looks so good.

[00:11:08] And right.

[00:11:09] There's such a weird, uh, like movement to it as well.

[00:11:13] Like I think when, what is it?

[00:11:15] Ben, whichever one is the, uh, the occultist, uh, Simon spook show.

[00:11:20] Spook show when Ben, like just the, the quarter just flicks off of like Simon's mask.

[00:11:26] It's just such a, like, I don't laugh out loud a lot reading comics.

[00:11:31] I mean, I, I, I get the jokes and I enjoy it, but that caught me so off guard that whole sequence.

[00:11:37] I just thought it said so much about those three kids, both in the writing and in the drawing of it.

[00:11:45] Um, Ian, is there, was there anything in particular that you look to in terms of designing this world?

[00:11:51] Like any, any touchstones from other series or other things you had done before?

[00:11:56] Oh, that I'd done before.

[00:11:59] Gosh, I come from a, I come from a film and TV originally about 25 years ago.

[00:12:04] So I started out working storyboards and I was directed back then.

[00:12:08] And so a lot of the influences that I have are actually cinematic.

[00:12:12] And so, um, so that comes in quite a bit.

[00:12:17] And, you know, so I have a lot of staging and blocking that I use that's straight out of cinema from theater basically.

[00:12:24] And so there's that that's happening.

[00:12:27] And at the same time, it's like when I'm reading, when I actually draw books, I draw on one character at a time because I read them like an actor would read a part.

[00:12:35] So I stay with the characters for a scene from usually for the whole book, usually.

[00:12:42] Um, and I'll stick with the same characters so that I stay on, on beat with the emotion that they're going to have or because anything can come out like a raised eyebrow or like an actor would bring to a scene really.

[00:12:54] And so all of those sorts of things.

[00:12:56] So it's a lot of stuff that I'm drawing on usually cinema.

[00:13:00] And, um, so the Wes Anderson thing is quite appropriate, really, because I'm already thinking in that space.

[00:13:06] Um, but I mean, going back to the original book, the minor threats book that they worked on, you know, cause my first beer, I think was just designing the costumes and all that kind of stuff.

[00:13:18] Cause you feel like you're going to run out of spandex.

[00:13:21] Everybody's done it.

[00:13:22] You know, everybody's, everybody's design stuff.

[00:13:25] So it's like, right.

[00:13:26] I mean, but then when you look at Scott's work on the original book, it is amazing what he's doing in that book is astonishing and intimidating.

[00:13:38] Cause every single scene, the bar scenes, for example, or anywhere walking down the street, it's just packed full of different costumes.

[00:13:44] And so I took a lot of my leads from him really in terms of how to make the thing look the way that it does, but bearing in mind that they wanted something different.

[00:13:55] And so in a way we were kind of thinking of it like that's in my head, I was thinking of it as that's Gotham.

[00:14:01] This is metropolis.

[00:14:02] So it's going to have a very different, very different sort of discipline to it when I design it.

[00:14:08] And, and in a way I was thinking of like a lot of late seventies architecture and mid-century modern architecture, mid-century modern furnishings and things like that.

[00:14:20] So I was drawing on those things.

[00:14:25] Yeah.

[00:14:25] Yeah.

[00:14:25] Did that answer the question?

[00:14:26] I've just gone.

[00:14:27] Yeah, it did.

[00:14:28] Absolutely.

[00:14:29] I mean, I think it's.

[00:14:30] I can't remember the beginning.

[00:14:31] Yeah, no, I, I, it did.

[00:14:32] I, I don't know that I've ever heard from an artist who said they keep up with the same character, like, like drawing throughout the issue.

[00:14:41] I think that's, I mean, that makes sense, but I mean, great.

[00:14:45] Yeah.

[00:14:45] Most artists I know they'll, you know, they'll take it, tackle it a panel at a time, but to, you know, kind of block it out.

[00:14:52] And stay with one.

[00:14:53] Can we call that method penciling?

[00:14:56] Yeah, basically.

[00:14:57] Well, I usually do very, very talky books.

[00:15:02] And so I'm used to going into books and, and, you know, you'll get 10 pages of a scene between two characters.

[00:15:08] So you got to act.

[00:15:09] And so if there's no action, you're acting.

[00:15:12] And so that's the, that's the way I've always approached it.

[00:15:15] And it's, and to stay in character.

[00:15:18] And it's also a psychological trick for an artist, because if you draw like one character on a page and do it over five pages, you come back after lunch and you're like, oh, those are done.

[00:15:28] And then I just got to, I just got to fit in this space where the other guy's got to now talk.

[00:15:32] And so in the morning, I'm like Agatha.

[00:15:35] And then the afternoon, I'm Ben.

[00:15:36] That's sort of.

[00:15:39] Oh, that's, yeah, that's wonderful.

[00:15:42] No, that's great question.

[00:15:44] Yeah.

[00:15:44] And it keeps an emotional consistency because like, there's not a, there's not a false moment that I've seen for me.

[00:15:52] And in terms of these characters acting, it's really wonderful.

[00:15:57] Oh, yeah.

[00:15:58] You're trying to tap into an emotion in a sense and hopefully convey that.

[00:16:03] And yeah, so I got, I got, and we were talking at the very beginning about what, because Heath was saying that like, he comes from a large family.

[00:16:11] I'm the middle of three.

[00:16:14] He's the eldest of four.

[00:16:16] And I'm the middle of three.

[00:16:16] I'm the oldest of four, yeah.

[00:16:18] So I'm team Agatha.

[00:16:23] He really resonated with me.

[00:16:24] That was great.

[00:16:25] Yeah.

[00:16:26] Yeah, that was cool.

[00:16:28] Yeah, it was good fun.

[00:16:30] So, Jordan and or, you know, Patton, when you talk about building out the world of, of minor threats, like, are you looking for folks to come, you know, to you with ideas that you want to work with?

[00:16:44] Or do you kind of have a, you know, a larger plan for this world in this series?

[00:16:49] Or just the right thing comes along.

[00:16:51] You're like, yeah, that sounds great.

[00:16:52] Let's do it.

[00:16:53] We have an overall idea of where we want Frankie, the minor threat story to go, that level of crime.

[00:17:00] But we love that people, if the writer and creator isn't surprised, the audience won't be surprised.

[00:17:09] So we, with Barfly, with the alternates, and now with The Brood, we were surprised at where the history of Twilight City and now of Meteor Falls ended up going.

[00:17:20] And we love that stuff.

[00:17:21] We absolutely love that.

[00:17:23] And I think what's been fun is, it is, you know, how these things connect and stuff is a little more jazz in that, you know, there's things where we're like, we're working on minor threats volume three, where we're pulling because of what he did and Ian did with the scripture.

[00:17:41] And, you know, and how does Spook Joe affect magic in this universe?

[00:17:46] And I think what's been really fun is we get to be fans of these things and then bring them into some of the other series and things like that.

[00:17:54] But, you know, I don't think we have, we don't, we're not, we don't have a summer event mandate.

[00:18:00] You know, I think we're not, we're free from that, right?

[00:18:03] So for us, it's about what's a new perspective in the, we love superheroes.

[00:18:10] We've read so many superhero comics.

[00:18:11] So what's a new perspective in the genre we've never seen?

[00:18:15] And is it character driven?

[00:18:17] And, you know, does it feel tonally right in the universe versus the right kind of story?

[00:18:23] I don't think there's the right kind of story.

[00:18:25] Right.

[00:18:25] We want variety.

[00:18:26] We don't want things to feel like the main minor threat series because that's a crime noir.

[00:18:32] And this is much more of kind of a family drama.

[00:18:36] And I think that's what's exciting to us is that we never repeat ourselves.

[00:18:40] All right.

[00:18:41] Let's take a quick break.

[00:18:42] I love comic books.

[00:18:44] Hey, children of the algorithm.

[00:18:45] I wanted to tell you about another great comics related podcast.

[00:18:48] Our friends, Dan, Dwayne, and Sienna with Comics Over Time have a great show that you should definitely check out.

[00:18:53] Dan has been a comic book yetty contributor since before I was around.

[00:18:57] And the show delves deep into comics history, analyzing it from the wider cultural landscape at the time.

[00:19:02] I learned a lot just listening in and they are keeping it fresh too with Sienna reporting in about the current Marvel offerings.

[00:19:08] I love seeing the next generation excited about comics.

[00:19:11] And it's cool to see a family participating in comics journalism together.

[00:19:15] This season, they are focused on the history of everyone's favorite Hell's Kitchen vigilante daredevil.

[00:19:20] It's a fantastic show that you're going to want to add to your rotation.

[00:19:24] You can find them at Comics Over Time on your favorite podcasting platform or at their website, comicsovertime.podbean.com.

[00:19:32] I'll drop a link in the show notes to make it easy for you.

[00:19:35] He's a daredevil, Ned.

[00:19:44] After a string of unexplained disappearances in the southern parts of the United States, retired Detective Clint searches for his white trash brother.

[00:19:52] While searching for him, he ends up being abducted by aliens.

[00:19:56] He is now in the arena for Big Gun's Stupid Rednecks, an intergalactic cable's newest hit show,

[00:20:03] which puts him and other humans in laser gun gladiatorial combat.

[00:20:07] And his brother is the reigning champion with 27 kills.

[00:20:11] That's the premise for a new book from Band of Bards, Big Gun's Stupid Rednecks.

[00:20:17] I got a chance to see an advanced preview of this book and being from the south, honestly, I was a bit skeptical going in.

[00:20:22] But they won me over and nothing is more powerful than an initially skeptic convert in my book.

[00:20:28] In Jimmy's words, Big Gun's Stupid Rednecks is many things, but it isn't subtle.

[00:20:32] It tells you exactly what it is up front.

[00:20:35] Then it delivers with a great premise, fantastic art, and a whole mess of fun.

[00:20:39] I had a great time reading Big Gun's Stupid Rednecks, and what I thought was going to be an indictment of redneck culture quickly showed it was actually a love letter.

[00:20:47] A family mystery, brother pitted against brother, aliens, fighting for profit in a big arena.

[00:20:52] This truly has it all.

[00:20:54] Issue one is out already, but you can still pick up a copy on the Band of Bards website.

[00:20:58] And current issues are available via your previews or lunar order form, or just ask your LCS.

[00:21:03] Don't miss it.

[00:21:04] Let's get back to the show.

[00:21:06] I think what I, as a reader, I think what I really love about this series, and I've read a ton of superhero comics, like, you know, all throughout.

[00:21:15] And I'm always amazed when something comes along, and I'm like, this hasn't been done before, like, in this fashion.

[00:21:23] And two of the biggest series I think that I've just absolutely loved and have read every issue that have come out is the Black Hammer universe.

[00:21:34] And now Minor Threats.

[00:21:36] Because just when I think that, you know, everything has kind of been done with superheroes and something else comes along, and I'm like, no, I don't.

[00:21:44] I mean, I don't think I've seen this in quite this way.

[00:21:47] I mean, I thought the Alternates was, like, absolutely phenomenal.

[00:21:51] And then, like, Barfly, just to take that character and then put Kyle Starks and Ryan Brown.

[00:21:58] I mean, that's been, you know, that's another series that has been so surprising and just, like, absolutely phenomenal.

[00:22:05] For a main character that doesn't, you know, really talk has been, you know, delightful, both in the writing and the art.

[00:22:14] And now, you know, with something like this, like The Brood, and again, it seems so different tonally than anything that has come before.

[00:22:24] It's really funny.

[00:22:26] You know, that whole opening sequence to set forth kind of who, you know, Napoleon Archimedes is, Stanley Tyler.

[00:22:35] And he, like, goes through those couple of scenes in his life are just wild.

[00:22:40] You know?

[00:22:42] Like, not to spoil things, but his dad tried to drown him and he held his breath for six minutes.

[00:22:49] And it's just the panel of him and the baby.

[00:22:51] Like, that's, like, the opening two or three pages of this story.

[00:22:56] It's just weirdly wonderful.

[00:23:00] I just was so unexpected.

[00:23:02] In the world of Minor Threats, I sort of wanted to give him this outlandish, tall tale, Greek mythology kind of beginning.

[00:23:12] You know?

[00:23:13] Like, a little like Achilles getting dipped in the river.

[00:23:18] I was sort of like, that's sort of the idea is that his father plunges him and baptizes him to become something greater than what he is.

[00:23:26] And inadvertently realizes, like, uh-oh, I'm stuck with this kid.

[00:23:31] You know?

[00:23:31] Because he held his breath for six minutes and then things just go wilder from there.

[00:23:36] Yeah.

[00:23:39] It's also wild to see the, like, the behind-the-scenes moments.

[00:23:44] Like, we're so used to superheroes, super villains in comic books just being so, you know, to the forefront.

[00:23:49] And if we ever see anything where they're not facing off, it's like with their henchmen, you know?

[00:23:55] Right.

[00:23:56] Like, Napoleon Archimedes just, like, talking to his kids, talking to his wife.

[00:24:00] Yeah, it goes home.

[00:24:00] At the end of the day, that was one of the big things that I would talk to Jordan and Patton about is, like, this isn't about the big fight in the sky.

[00:24:09] This is about limping home when your cornea is separated and you just got, you know, your ribs are broken.

[00:24:15] And I would say it's about the concussions and repercussions of those fights when you get to come home and talk to your kid.

[00:24:24] And you go, like, no, no, daddy can't roughhouse.

[00:24:27] He's got three broken ribs.

[00:24:29] Right.

[00:24:30] You know?

[00:24:31] And I was like, that's a really interesting thing.

[00:24:33] There's some Russian writer, I think it's either Gogol or Tolstoy talks about the guy, the guard in the prison camp in Siberia going home to his wife at the end of the day.

[00:24:47] And she's tending the bruises on his knuckles and making him hot oatmeal and being tendered to him, even though he's been beating up prisoners all day like he's tired of his day.

[00:24:57] Like, those weird moments of humanity where people that you kind of think, well, they don't deserve any humanity, but they do in a weird – they crave it.

[00:25:07] Right.

[00:25:07] All that's going on in this.

[00:25:09] And also the fact that the reverse is a weird look from his daughter or son at home or a weird argument that doesn't go his way might affect what he does out in the world fighting the searcher or threatening the world.

[00:25:23] Right.

[00:25:24] Right.

[00:25:25] Yeah, that's true.

[00:25:27] And I love the concept of supervillain as workaholic with a family that sort of like would have been great if dad was here for my birthday, but he was in a pocket dimension fighting the searcher.

[00:25:37] And, you know, he said he was going to be home for New Year's and he wasn't.

[00:25:40] So it's just – by the way, that was a little bit of my father growing up and I was like, that's a really interesting comp to put it in this universe and let's see that emotionally play out.

[00:25:51] I like the work-of-the-work-wife relationship you have with the searcher where it's like it almost feels like he's cheating on his family, right?

[00:25:59] Yeah.

[00:26:00] Oh, yeah.

[00:26:00] The more time he spends away and spends with her.

[00:26:03] And then all of that, you know, colors who is going to like take over his legacy because now he's at a point where he's trying to think about that.

[00:26:12] And just how frustrated he is with the three kids and I – you know, when folks read it, they'll see that there are very interesting reasons as to who he wants and why, you know, they may or may not want it.

[00:26:27] But which I'm sure will just heighten things as this goes on.

[00:26:33] Yeah, absolutely.

[00:26:34] I also love the little glimpses into the past.

[00:26:39] There's a character that shows up that he like met in the 80s and then they have like a little sit-down and a little meet.

[00:26:46] And, I mean, Ian, I love your work in terms of your background stuff because, you know, there's some of the other minor threat series like they can get pretty busy.

[00:26:56] And one of the things that I like that this is – your background work, love the colors in it.

[00:27:02] It's very geometric in terms of the designs on like, you know, Napoleon's bathroom and when he's with like his robot friend.

[00:27:09] There's like a sterility to it almost that feels like it should not be.

[00:27:13] I mean it kind of keys into what Patton was saying, but it kind of keys into like the sinisterness of it, that everything looks almost like surgical or sterile in the background.

[00:27:24] And I really love that effect going through it.

[00:27:28] It also forces you to focus on what these two characters are doing and their acting, which, you know, it's hard to do that with like a robot.

[00:27:35] But, you know, you did in terms of –

[00:27:39] So I thought that was really great.

[00:27:42] Thank you.

[00:27:44] That's one of my favorite characters.

[00:27:46] Which one did?

[00:27:48] Intellectus.

[00:27:49] Intellectus, yeah.

[00:27:50] Yeah.

[00:27:51] I remember the scene was like every time they're drinking it, it's a little thing that everybody stinks their pinky out when they're drinking.

[00:28:02] Every single time.

[00:28:03] Any shot taken.

[00:28:04] All wine glasses, cups of coffee, everyone's pinky's out.

[00:28:07] I quite like that.

[00:28:09] Yeah.

[00:28:10] Which is something you never get to see Luther and Brainiac do.

[00:28:14] Is just have a nice cup of –

[00:28:15] Yeah, nice.

[00:28:16] Just hang out.

[00:28:18] Yeah.

[00:28:18] Yeah.

[00:28:19] And I – just being able to make that – not that it's just interesting, but so like integral to the story you're trying to tell.

[00:28:28] Because like underneath some of the more comedic moments, the Wes Anderson of it all, is this guy dealing with like his legacy and like what happens next and who will take the mantle?

[00:28:42] I mean it's something like – you don't have to be a supervillain for that to be relatable.

[00:28:48] What am I leaving behind?

[00:28:49] What – how did I set my kids up okay?

[00:28:52] Do I think they're going to be all right without me?

[00:28:54] Like what's my responsibility to my family?

[00:28:57] And what's more my dynasty?

[00:28:59] Have I taught them enough to be able to get them to take over for what I've done?

[00:29:05] And do I trust them?

[00:29:07] And I think boomers are absolutely wrestling with that these days.

[00:29:11] You know, we've seen so many of them leave and then go, you know what, I don't think anybody else can do what I do.

[00:29:17] So I'm just going to stay.

[00:29:19] And I think that's really interesting.

[00:29:22] Oh, yeah.

[00:29:23] There's a succession vibe as well that we have built into this idea.

[00:29:28] Oh, yeah.

[00:29:28] And I also do love his – Napoleon's like total disdain for Simon and magic, you know?

[00:29:37] Because it – like those little things in there are just, again, like eminently relatable.

[00:29:43] Obviously not about magic, but there's just, you know –

[00:29:47] Well, listen, Jimmy, I don't know if your dad understands what it is you do, but my father does not understand what it is I do.

[00:29:54] And that is very much vocalized in Simon.

[00:29:59] No, I did not have that in my background.

[00:30:04] My dad's an HVAC mechanic for a casino in Philly, and I became a personal injury attorney.

[00:30:12] So I didn't have that, but I certainly have many peers that did.

[00:30:21] Yeah.

[00:30:22] And I think –

[00:30:23] You know.

[00:30:25] So I'll sit at the computer staring at the blank screen, and my dad will be like, well, it doesn't look like you're doing anything.

[00:30:30] Should we go to lunch?

[00:30:31] And I'll be like, no, no, this is the work.

[00:30:32] This is what it looks like.

[00:30:35] So you've just been able to take that and pour it all into this series.

[00:30:40] Oh, yes.

[00:30:42] Oh, yes.

[00:30:45] Perfect.

[00:30:48] So as – I guess as we – as you develop, is this going to – I think all the series have been what, like four issues so far?

[00:30:55] So is that, again, what we have here for the Brood?

[00:31:00] Yes.

[00:31:01] Absolutely, yes.

[00:31:02] Yes.

[00:31:02] Oh, fantastic.

[00:31:03] Fantastic.

[00:31:03] I really like that model in terms of – I think four issues is really nice in terms of, you know, being able to tell the story, and it makes for a nice trade.

[00:31:14] You know, so I like that aspect to it and how that works.

[00:31:20] And then when you're, like, planning these things out story-wise, you said you all sat down and you kind of, like – do you map out, like, all four issues?

[00:31:30] Or, Heath, do you, like, give them an outline?

[00:31:32] If that's approved, you kind of then start scripting?

[00:31:34] Yeah, that's a great question.

[00:31:37] I brought these guys a huge stack of color-coded cards with all four issues, basically.

[00:31:44] That's right.

[00:31:45] Wow.

[00:31:45] And each character was color-coded so you could scan through all four issues where each character was so that – it's a TV show.

[00:31:55] It's something that I do when I do my TV work to lay out so you can make sure that you have enough beats with each character in each episode.

[00:32:03] And also you can just sort of eyeball that, oh, yeah, okay, he did that last time and now Benny's here in issue two.

[00:32:11] And so I laid out basically my cards for these guys, and we tweaked them and moved them around.

[00:32:17] But that was sort of how I could wrap my mind around plotting out this thing because it's five characters, and they're a family, and we're telling the story over the course of a year.

[00:32:30] So each issue is a season.

[00:32:33] So we had to fill in the time jumps.

[00:32:36] We had to fill in, like, okay, when we last left this person, what were they doing?

[00:32:39] We got to remind you, oh, this is what Agatha was doing.

[00:32:42] This is where Simon was.

[00:32:44] This is what Napoleon was doing.

[00:32:46] And so it was really, really challenging but really a lot of fun to be able to sort of plan that out.

[00:32:52] Oh, wow.

[00:32:53] And is that something – you said you do that in your TV writing.

[00:32:56] So is that something you learned from when you started scripting?

[00:32:59] Like, was that from a writer's room?

[00:33:01] Because listeners, if you don't know, Heath has worked on what Justice League wore and Throne of Atlantis in terms of animation as well as the TV show Animal Kingdom.

[00:33:11] Yes.

[00:33:12] Yeah.

[00:33:12] So that sort of got banged into me.

[00:33:14] With a writer's room mentality?

[00:33:15] Okay.

[00:33:15] Yeah.

[00:33:16] It's a writer's room mentality and also just breaking pilots and stuff.

[00:33:19] It's easier to put on cards because you can go, okay, what if I move this here?

[00:33:22] And does it matter here?

[00:33:23] And so it ended up being great.

[00:33:27] I was just – and I wanted something that I could carry and bring to them and lay out and then point to each thing and go, okay, this is where this was.

[00:33:35] This was.

[00:33:36] The first thing Jordan said is, well, this is not how we do it.

[00:33:43] I love prep though.

[00:33:45] I'm a big outliner.

[00:33:47] So his process spoke to me.

[00:33:50] And we had so much fun.

[00:33:51] It was like –

[00:33:52] Oh, it was great.

[00:33:52] You have this macro view of the whole series.

[00:33:57] And you can kind of see, okay, maybe, you know, Benny doesn't get enough in this one or we can hold this for the next issue.

[00:34:04] Right.

[00:34:05] So it's a really great way to view an entire story and then zoom in on certain moments.

[00:34:12] And then how you bring –

[00:34:14] As well, there's a lot in it.

[00:34:15] You know, given that it's like a – what is it, 24 pages?

[00:34:18] Yeah.

[00:34:18] There's a hell of a lot of story in each one.

[00:34:20] We get four shots of this.

[00:34:22] And in each one, it's just tons of stuff going on.

[00:34:25] It's really good.

[00:34:27] What he says.

[00:34:28] No.

[00:34:29] He said, what?

[00:34:31] You don't do it.

[00:34:31] I mean, yeah, I know.

[00:34:33] I've realized.

[00:34:34] But, yeah, no.

[00:34:36] But from reading it structurally, I loved it from the get-go.

[00:34:40] Like, repeating themes.

[00:34:42] There's motifs in it and things like that.

[00:34:44] It's fantastic.

[00:34:45] It's good fun to work with.

[00:34:46] Well, as someone who's truly a reader, I did like – I loved it.

[00:34:49] It is really good.

[00:34:51] Thank you.

[00:34:51] Yeah.

[00:34:52] And that denseness is a real minor threats convention that I lifted from the home ship.

[00:34:58] Like, Jordan and Patton are really good at packing a lot of story into an issue.

[00:35:04] So I was like, oh, okay.

[00:35:05] Let's make this really dense on a page in terms of story, in terms of emotion, in terms of where we're going.

[00:35:10] So I wanted to take that challenge and really run with it.

[00:35:15] I'm a big, big fan of old 40s and 50s film noirs, especially the B-movies that were the second part of the bill, where they were basically given 70 to 80 minutes to tell a story.

[00:35:29] And they get – it's so lean and so tight.

[00:35:32] I just love that kind of storytelling so much.

[00:35:35] You know, I want – I like lean stories.

[00:35:38] I don't like these big, bloated, self-indulgent – you know, right now we're in that era.

[00:35:43] We're in that period of movies, end of the year, where it's all the big Oscar-craving movies.

[00:35:47] So they're all three hours long and it's like –

[00:35:50] Oh, yeah.

[00:35:50] It don't need to be this long, guys.

[00:35:54] I actually watched A Real Pain the other night and it's an hour and a half.

[00:35:59] And it reminded me tonally so much of The Brood because it is one of those things like no matter what horrible thing you do, like the connectedness of family.

[00:36:10] And I think like that works so well in the world of supervillains.

[00:36:12] Like you can, you know, have a hostage crisis or try to, you know, raise a dead civilization and attack your sibling and stuff.

[00:36:23] At the end of the day, you're going to go celebrate your dad's birthday together because that's what family does.

[00:36:28] And I kind of love that dynamic of like it's that – it's the great uniter that no matter how horrible you are, your family has to accept you back.

[00:36:37] Yeah.

[00:36:37] And I think that gets really tested in a fun way in The Brood.

[00:36:41] Oh, exciting.

[00:36:42] That's great.

[00:36:43] And I mean that idea of family has, you know, you're right, run all throughout.

[00:36:47] Obviously, the main minor threats and the alternates, you know, even to a weird extent with Barfly.

[00:36:55] Right.

[00:36:55] But that idea of family has run throughout.

[00:36:58] Throughout every part of it.

[00:37:00] And so to see it like so in your face on the page, though, I really – I just – I thought it was great.

[00:37:06] There's like a – I don't know, like a pathos to Napoleon Archimedes, you know, that I kind of – you know, you root for some of these guys to a certain extent.

[00:37:18] Well, you've uncovered the great secret of the minor threats universe is that before we agree to work with a creator, we ask if they have dad issues.

[00:37:27] Yeah.

[00:37:28] Yeah.

[00:37:31] Yeah.

[00:37:31] Yeah.

[00:37:31] Four for four so far.

[00:37:33] Yeah.

[00:37:35] Well, you know, Jordan makes a good point.

[00:37:37] And this was something that we talked about quite a bit.

[00:37:40] And one of the things I really liked about this is in a superhero world, good and evil is binary, right?

[00:37:46] There's good guys and there's bad guys.

[00:37:47] But when you sort of pull that into a family concept, there's no such thing as good and evil in a family, right?

[00:37:54] Like, everybody's good.

[00:37:56] Everybody's evil.

[00:37:58] Everybody's sometimes the bad guy, sometimes the good guy.

[00:38:00] So then to look at those binaries, they no longer really apply.

[00:38:04] And then, like Jordan said, you could have a big fight out in the streets when you're in your costumes, but in the end, everyone's going to be there for dad's birthday.

[00:38:13] Yeah.

[00:38:13] And I thought, wow, that is fascinating.

[00:38:16] Yeah.

[00:38:16] Yeah.

[00:38:17] That's another reason that I've loved, you know, this world.

[00:38:20] I mean, the very first series starts out with Frankie, you know, Playtime was a villain and now has turned over a new leaf.

[00:38:27] And the main bad guy, the Insomniac, is now, you know, tearing up the town.

[00:38:33] Like, the gray of the world of Minor Threats, I think, is, you know, fascinating and fun to play with.

[00:38:41] Which, when you get, like, big two superhero books, sometimes, like, you can't often do that because they always have to revert back to the status quo.

[00:38:49] You don't really have to do that when you're building your world from the ground up.

[00:38:54] That's right.

[00:38:55] They have to do this, and I understand it's because of commercial reasons.

[00:39:00] They have this thing called the State of Grace, that no matter what crazy thing happens in your story, at the end of it, Bruce Wayne is still Batman and is the scourge of the Gotham Underworld.

[00:39:11] And the Joker is back in Arkham, but he will break out, like, no matter.

[00:39:15] So, it does take some of the fun and tension away when you're reading it going, they will find a way to go back to the state.

[00:39:21] Now, sometimes they get back to the State of Grace in very clever ways, but you still know they're going to get back there.

[00:39:26] And we wanted to really give the feeling that some of these people might not make it.

[00:39:31] Right.

[00:39:32] And things are going to change in big, big ways.

[00:39:35] Yeah.

[00:39:36] Yeah.

[00:39:36] Which is, again, something you don't always see, which is what is so surprising about this world.

[00:39:44] Yes.

[00:39:45] I mean, I just love the tone of this book.

[00:39:48] I love the writing.

[00:39:49] I mean, Ian, your work is phenomenal, and I just love to see it in this world.

[00:39:55] And I cannot wait to see where it goes from here.

[00:39:59] This has just been a wonderful addition.

[00:40:02] And I'm kicking myself that I didn't think of the, didn't see the immediate, like, Royal Tannenbaum's, like, connection to it.

[00:40:09] But I love that aspect to it.

[00:40:12] I think I was thinking more Arrested Development with Simon and his magic.

[00:40:15] Yes.

[00:40:16] He's got a little of that, too.

[00:40:18] He's the Job of the family, clearly.

[00:40:21] Oh, my God.

[00:40:21] I never thought of that.

[00:40:22] He is the Job.

[00:40:23] Look, that's a solid observation.

[00:40:26] My illusions, Napoleon.

[00:40:32] Well, I hope listeners definitely pick this up.

[00:40:36] If you haven't yet, for whatever reason, checked out the world of Minor Threats, Minor Threats Volumes 1 and 2 are out, as well as the Alternates.

[00:40:45] You can get Barfly out right now.

[00:40:47] And the Brood, issue number one, I believe is going to be out December 10th or 11th, whatever that Wednesday is.

[00:40:56] December 11th.

[00:40:57] Yep.

[00:40:57] And I want to say, as much as we would love for you to go and buy all of the Minor Threats and read them, you don't have to.

[00:41:05] You can just come into the Brood completely cold, having never read anything.

[00:41:09] And every series is designed to be that way.

[00:41:13] Yeah.

[00:41:13] I mean, you're right.

[00:41:15] That's a good point.

[00:41:15] I mean, if you just wanted to check out the Alternates, you absolutely could.

[00:41:20] You could read those four issues.

[00:41:21] It's a wonderfully contained story.

[00:41:23] It hints at the larger world.

[00:41:25] But you could just read the Alternates and love it.

[00:41:27] You could do the same thing with Barfly.

[00:41:29] You get everything you need in the first issue to understand what this world is like.

[00:41:33] And yeah, the Brood is the same way.

[00:41:36] It gives you just enough.

[00:41:37] But if you want to explore the rest of the world, there's other series that are out there, as well as the main Minor Threats series.

[00:41:43] And it's just, I mean, it just, there's a, I mentioned Black Hammer earlier, but I do think that Minor Threats and the Brood, Barfly, all of them, there's a greater comedic element to it.

[00:42:00] Like, a little bit more of a sense of whimsy.

[00:42:03] I think there's more cursing, too, which I like.

[00:42:05] But in any event, they're very different animals, but both wonderful.

[00:42:10] But I just love the world of Minor Threats.

[00:42:12] And I can't wait for folks to check this out.

[00:42:14] I really appreciate everybody coming on today.

[00:42:18] And just because I'm such a Bizarro fan, if anyone hasn't read Heath's Bizarro series, please do that as well.

[00:42:24] I second that. It's amazing.

[00:42:26] Bizarro and Jimmy Olsen on a road trip.

[00:42:28] Absolutely wonderful.

[00:42:29] But Heath, Ian, Pat, and Jordan, thank you so much.

[00:42:33] Thank you, Jimmy.

[00:42:33] Thank you, guys.

[00:42:34] Thank you, Jimmy.

[00:42:35] All right.

[00:42:37] Listeners, let me know what it is you're reading.

[00:42:39] Go check out The Brood No. 1.

[00:42:42] December 11th.

[00:42:43] And, yeah, thanks for listening.

[00:42:46] And I'll see you next time.

[00:42:48] Take care, everybody.

[00:42:50] Bye.

[00:42:51] This is Byron O'Neill, one of your hosts of the Cryptid Creator Corner, brought to you by Comic Book Yeti.

[00:42:56] We hope you've enjoyed this episode of our podcast.

[00:43:00] Please rate, review, subscribe, all that good stuff.

[00:43:04] It lets us know how we're doing, and more importantly, how we can improve.

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[00:43:18] Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

[00:43:21] Bye.

[00:43:21] Bye.