Chris Cantwell x Nick Marino

Christopher Cantwell (Star Trek, Doctor Doom, She Could Fly) and Nick Marino (Sonic the Hedgehog x Godzilla, Power Rangers, Godzilla Rivals) sit down and chat about lore, licensed comics, and more!

Produced by Reina Strauss

Edited by Sam Williams

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hey, I'm Chris Cantwell, the creator of Star Trek. Can I say that? It's the first time I've said it. I mean I okay. I'm not Gene Roddenberry, the creator of the new Star Trek comic from IDW. I'm excited. And I'm here with Nick Marino.

SPEAKER_03 0:15

I'm the writer of No, see this is a difficult thing, right? Because I learned recently when you're talking about Spy X Family, for example. It's actually Spy Family. So, oh I'm writing Sonic Godzilla. But let's be clear, there's an X in the middle.

SPEAKER_01 0:32

Okay, it's happening. Sonic Godzilla. Yeah. Which could be confusing because it would make you feel like it's Godzilla with the big sneakers.

SPEAKER_03 0:41

I would love that. Wouldn't that be cool? We have a sneaker, no sneaker policy.

SPEAKER_01 0:46

No sneaker policy.

SPEAKER_03 0:47

Yes, that's it's bumping in the thing. Licensor is like, no, no sneakers. Or like Sonic breathes fire. I would love that too. That's also something I'm not allowed to do. That's like a freaky friend. There's a lot of things we're not allowed to do.

SPEAKER_02 0:58

There's a ton of things we're not allowed to do. We should talk about all the things we're not allowed to do.

SPEAKER_01 1:01

Okay, so Sonic Godzilla, Star Trek. That's what we're doing. And uh what is the size and scope and parameters, if you care to share, of Sonic Godzilla? I have a lot of Sonic questions too. I also have some Godzilla questions. So tell me about the book first, both of us.

SPEAKER_03 1:20

It's gonna be uh five-issue mini. It's uh the scale, the scope. It's big. 225 screen comics. This is very early on for both of us in a in a promotion cycle for these projects. Yeah, this is the first time. Yeah, the first time we're really talking about this is openly with somebody other than Hushtone. And Star Trek. And it's really like the thing that I revealed in our announcement that might be evident from the cover, which I actually haven't seen yet, oddly enough, is that we're set in a city from one of the Sonic games called Station Square. Okay. Hopefully I can talk about this. I'm sure I can talk about this. Or if someone came in and they're like, No, no, no, Station Square! It's necessary because these are big monsters. They gotta have space to stomp around. Yeah, like it's a that's a god's so Station Square is really like I'm I'm like hate writing it. Like I'm writing it like I wanna see it. Destroyed destroyed forever. You want to just and then you know, and the scale is that they're you know I'm just gonna say we go to some other places that people know from Sonic lore, like well, at least one notable one. A guy who's red, who's got he's got big hands, he lives there. Okay, it's knuckles. Right? I don't know if I can say that. He's red, he's voiced by Idris Elba in the movies. Was Idris Elba the other? I don't think I can say who it is though. No, yeah. Was he really? Yeah. That's amazing. I I love that version of the character. That's really great. But this is not that version of the character. Oh. Sega.

SPEAKER_01 2:57

So when I'm reading it, I shouldn't read it in the Idris Elba. Who should I read it as?

SPEAKER_03 3:02

Me.

SPEAKER_01 3:04

Alright. Well, I'm gonna need to listen to this podcast a few times, and then I'll be like, okay, I got the cadence and I got okay.

SPEAKER_03 3:09

But yeah, we got scale, we got scope, things are happening. Okay. They're big, they're small, they're fast.

SPEAKER_01 3:13

Station Square, right? That's the name of the town. Sonic Town. Okay. Okay. And so, but Station Square sounds like, and I'm not I'm not as familiar with the Sonic, but I know there's the Sonic family. How many so the Knuckles is in there?

SPEAKER_03 3:26

Yes, Team Sonic, as we lovingly call it. No, no, no, don't be Sonic. Not Sonic verse or that maybe I can really jump. Oh no, don't be talking about it. That's why I say like I say that.

SPEAKER_01 3:37

You know, like maybe it's boob verse. Right? Because Sega comes in here and is like, who is this guy? Who else is in Team Sonic? So I know Knuckles, I know my my kids love Knuckles, Sonic.

SPEAKER_03 3:49

Miles Tails Prowler. Tails, I know Tails. And my beloved Amy Rose. Wait, you have a tattoo? I have spent a lot of time. That's incredible. I'm gonna try and get her near my head. Whoa, she I I got this recently. Okay, because we've grown very close.

SPEAKER_01 4:09

Oh, okay. So you're like, I'm getting it. I'm getting you know what?

SPEAKER_03 4:13

I just love her and her pico pico hammer.

SPEAKER_01 4:16

That's incredible. So you've got a member of Team Sonic on your left arm. For those of you just listening, jump the gun a little.

SPEAKER_03 4:22

The book's inside just so that's anything could happen.

SPEAKER_01 4:26

Okay, sure, sure. I hope it doesn't. Yeah. Um okay, so are all of them in the book? Did you cram them all into the five? People gotta read it together. Okay, okay. So spoilers.

SPEAKER_03 4:38

Team Sonic is there, yeah. I don't want to say anything beyond that, to be honest, which in terms of the characters. I mean Sure, sure.

SPEAKER_01 4:44

I just want to know. Dr.

SPEAKER_03 4:45

Eggman will be there, egging it up, doing his thing.

SPEAKER_01 4:49

Okay, so clarify this for me. Is that is Dr. Eggman who is Dr. Robotnik?

SPEAKER_03 4:54

That's him.

SPEAKER_01 4:55

So it's the same guy? Yes. What? Sure. Who calls him what? Does Team Sonic go, hey Eggman? Like it's more pejorative. And then every second, he's like, I'm Dr. Robotnik.

SPEAKER_03 5:07

I should be I should be an expert on this. Okay. As I'm sure you are incredibly well acquainted with Star Trek.

SPEAKER_02 5:13

Yeah, we can do that.

SPEAKER_03 5:14

It's it's these the terminology can be flexible depending on the era that the name's being used in and the context it's being used in. Okay, so this is interesting. When I I assume this is safe to say, I have to call him Eggman in the comic. Okay. But people know him as Dr. Robotnik. Dr.

SPEAKER_01 5:34

Eggman or just Eggman?

SPEAKER_03 5:36

It's you know what? It's like um, who's a good like two name character? If you're writing a Spider-Man comic, you're gonna make sure the first time somebody refers to him, your editor's probably gonna say, hey, call, make sure they call him Spider-Man first.

SPEAKER_01 5:47

Yeah, everybody in a comic book, a licensed book, has to introduce themselves on the first page. Right. So where it's like, well, Eggman, as tales, I must tell you that Sonic and I, who's standing next to me here to the left, right like every licensed book should be like, and then you can call him Spidey after that.

SPEAKER_03 6:03

Right. Eggman, they're like, let's let's start out with a Dr. Eggman, and then we'll get over to the Eggman after that.

SPEAKER_01 6:08

Full doctor or DR, period? What is the IDW style concept?

SPEAKER_03 6:12

You know what? That's a great question. I'll find out when I get my lettering proofs back. Because this is gonna be my first Sonic project. I'm I'm writing it as DR. But as you also well know from your work, if I'm writing Doctor Doom, I'm never writing DR. No, you're only writing. I'm only writing the full thing.

SPEAKER_01 6:28

Doctor is questionable what his doctorate is in. Doctor Doom? Yeah. He has no doctorate. That's the whole thing.

SPEAKER_03 6:35

It's like honoraries.

SPEAKER_01 6:36

It's like Esquire. Yeah, and I but I wouldn't challenge him on it. Oh, no, I wouldn't. It's Doctor Doom, the full doctor, just Doom. Yeah. I think that carries even more oomph. Oh, yeah. Sometimes Victor. Yeah. Once in a while, Vicky Baby. You spent a lot of time with this guy. Um, I did. We did a whole how many episodes.

SPEAKER_03 6:54

Writing his only solo series he's ever had, I believe.

SPEAKER_01 6:58

There's well, no, because didn't Ryan North, who is a IDW friend, uh he did One World Under Doom. Does that count? Or is that like kind of a crossover? That's a crossover. No. Sorry, Ryan, if you're listening, watching both. He's got the headphones in and watching it. He's going to be aware of the case.

SPEAKER_03 7:16

I know this because I was looking at your credits and I was like, oh, Chris's Doctor Doom series doesn't have a volume attached to it on the wiki. It doesn't normally cool.

SPEAKER_01 7:28

That's kind of good inside baseball. But I could spread you know? Well, I know that he appeared in I know that he appeared in Marvel Superheroes 20, 1969. Right. Like, of course I know that. Of course. Of course, it doesn't. That's the first solo Doom story. Right. No, no, no. Brew Baker. Oh, and who was the artist? It was really good.

SPEAKER_03 7:50

Oh yeah, that was a weird book. Books of Doom. Yes. That's a very strange story. I guess that counts.

SPEAKER_01 7:54

Ed kind of redid the origins. You are the eponymous. No. Yeah, that was kind of real-time.

SPEAKER_03 7:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:59

You know, what's Doom up Doom up to? But that's you're talking about license comics. This is funny. We're just talking about Marvel books now, but but like, you know, there's so much going on there so fast. Maybe people don't understand that, I'm sure. Is there like a main sonic book here? Or is it we're just doing Sonic?

SPEAKER_03 8:16

Oh, there's a main Sonic series. Are you coordinating?

SPEAKER_01 8:19

Well, this is a question for you. Are you coordinating carefully, or are you kind of like Elseworldsing Sonic?

SPEAKER_03 8:25

Neither.

SPEAKER_01 8:26

Oh, what does that mean? That's exciting.

SPEAKER_03 8:30

No, no, no. Well, first of all, this is really all up to my fantastic editors, Tia and Bixie, who have really been a dream to work with. Very kind people. And I say that as having had editors who are sadly not a dream to work with. These two have been a dream. That's their department. I don't get to make those choices. However, what I've been requested to do is to make sure that this feels completely relevant to the versions that you're seeing in the comics. Cool. But as um, I was recently told when I interviewed the Wonder Man showrunner, Andrew Guest, very nice guy. It's a no-homework comic. So you go into this not needing to know what's going on in the main sonic series. That's I don't necessarily expect these events to be reflected in the main sonic series, but the characterizations will be consistent with what you see if you're picking up that monthly book.

SPEAKER_01 9:21

Got it. Okay, that makes sense. I think that's that's great. So for those listening, you can you you just pick this up. You're like, Sonic, oh yeah, I played that in the 90s. Or Sonic, I hope all 17 members of Team Sonic are in this. All 17. Right? And and they're there. Or I love the main comic. This is now now I'm gonna see Godzilla come into the picture. Yeah. So it's for everybody, which is great. The thing I was gonna say was at Marvel, I did a story where Doom was trying to take over Simcaria.

SPEAKER_04 9:50

Right.

SPEAKER_01 9:50

And annex Simcaria, and there he was the victim of a coup attempt. And at the same time in Spider-Man, Doom was assassinated and shot on a podium, and in my first issue, he was shot in the head. And I was like, oh, okay.

SPEAKER_03 10:06

Yes, we've coordinated to make sure that Sonic is No, I can I can't be careful what I said.

SPEAKER_01 10:12

What's great is that the editor's at this, right? Because I was so like, oh my god!

unknown 10:16

Right?

SPEAKER_01 10:17

And they were like, No, no, no, man, it's a Doombot, you know, like it's fine, he's a Doombot. Like it's all it's all good. I love a Doombot.

SPEAKER_03 10:23

I just I want to move on to Star Trek. This is very important to me. I'm a huge Trek fan, but I need to talk about one thing real quick. Yeah, let's do it. Dr. Doom's nose in your book. What happened to his nose? Uh you know, LaRoka. Oh, just like super twisted up, right? Well, no, I don't know. I didn't do we see it. Oh, yeah, no, he takes his mask off. You took the you let him take the mask off?

SPEAKER_01 10:44

Oh, this everybody always like, well, can't take the mask off. If you read every Doom story, it's like when it at some point they're gonna take his mask off. And he's either gonna be gorgeous, like you know, John Hamm, Lee Pace, you know, like he's scarred from the inside.

SPEAKER_03 10:57

Did you say Lee because that's your buddy? Sure.

SPEAKER_01 11:00

But also, or it'll be like hideous. The funniest ones to me are where it's like Victor's like, don't look at me, and then he takes his mask off, and it's just like a little, you know, like a I like that. That's my best. Like he had a little bit of a fungal infection right here for like four months. And he put some cream on it and it just discolored a little bit, and he's like, I can't be seen ever again. I must be a monster.

SPEAKER_03 11:21

I believe that was Kirby's preferred version from when I went to a little and I like that.

SPEAKER_02 11:27

Yeah, where it's just whatever Jack says, just let it mean it's like that's the best.

SPEAKER_03 11:30

No, I was obsessed with this book when it came out because Salvador La Roca, yeah. La Roca. Yeah. This guy's art style's changed a lot over the years. Yeah. I feel like he was starting to get into his photo reference bag at this time, and my theory, which you would know way more than me, is that he had somebody put on a mask to work from. Oh, interesting. And therefore the nose became very pronounced.

SPEAKER_01 11:51

Oh, I should ask him.

SPEAKER_03 11:52

It's fascinating to me. And he he catches lots of crazy angles on the nose, lots of like upshots and stuff.

SPEAKER_01 11:57

The armor nose? Yeah, the mask nose. That's interesting. I have to go back and look at it.

SPEAKER_03 12:01

Go back and look at it. It's interesting to me. It's because I feel like a lot of people downplay it, but he was like, I'm not afraid of this.

SPEAKER_01 12:06

This is a guy wearing a Yeah, because sometimes it's just like Tony is like this too, right? Like Iron Man. Right. Oh, I mean that's a whole what's funny when we did Iron Man, it was like Alex Ross would draw the nose on every cover. Because then we control the book and then nothing there. Kaffu would be like, bloop.

SPEAKER_03 12:23

You know what, though? You got some all-timer covers out of him for that series. That was crazy that we didn't covers for those.

SPEAKER_01 12:29

So good.

SPEAKER_03 12:30

And he was really like, he's like, I'm gonna go into my day glow era for these. Right.

SPEAKER_01 12:34

And he, oh baby, he went in. And I I was really now I was like, I I would go in and be like, what character has Ross not painted? Oh, that's right. And how can I get Ross to paint? I love it. And I got him to paint Frogman. You know what I mean? Like, I was like, That's amazing. I got Alex Ross to paint Frogman. I'm sure he I didn't make him do anything. He'd be like, I don't want to do Frogman on this. Be like, okay, you know, but he did it.

SPEAKER_03 12:55

Yeah, I can't imagine he had any problems with that. No, no, none at all. Love that he he's carrying the torch. For whatever iteration of a character you didn't think someone's carrying the torch, he is.

SPEAKER_01 13:04

Yes, where you just look at it and go, that's perfect.

SPEAKER_03 13:06

It's amazing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:07

Let's talk about Trek.

SPEAKER_03 13:08

Okay. I have a friend who swears that she's not a Trekie. She is a Trek fan.

SPEAKER_01 13:15

Yeah, this, I feel like the term is a little people don't love that term.

SPEAKER_03 13:20

I think it's complicated. I'm sure it is. Do you have do you uh ascribe to either of those communities?

SPEAKER_01 13:26

You mean people who call themselves Trekys willingly? Or or people who say I am a Trek fan.

SPEAKER_03 13:32

I mean, have you been made a trekie just default by Defiant lore war red shirts?

SPEAKER_01 13:37

Yeah, I mean, I feel like I was before. I mean, I I discovered it, I started reading Trek and not reading Trek. No, I started reading Star Trek. Like that's when you're if you're not just watching Star Trek, you're reading Star Trek and it's a good thing. That's a good distinction.

SPEAKER_03 13:50

Yeah, when you when you move over, like where you go, you can flip and catch it, but when you're when you're seeking it out, you're picking up. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 13:56

Like you look at the original series and you go, well, okay, what is it, three times what? Is it 20 or 22, right? So you're looking at I don't do math well. So that was 66 episodes or something. Sure. Where you blow through those and you go, what else is there? Right? That's like that's heavy. But no, and I when I was in fourth grade, I was going into fourth grade and I got my first Star Trek novel because that's when I discovered the original series.

SPEAKER_03 14:18

This was 1991. No, you know what? I do think we are the same age.

SPEAKER_01 14:24

Are we the same age?

SPEAKER_03 14:25

I think so. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:25

What year were you born?

SPEAKER_03 14:26

82.

SPEAKER_01 14:27

81. Oh. Okay. So just yeah, right on the cusp.

unknown 14:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:31

Raina was negative 11.

SPEAKER_03 14:33

Good for you.

SPEAKER_01 14:33

No, she was probably like negative 20.

SPEAKER_03 14:35

Raina, can you turn the camera towards yourself? Are you okay?

SPEAKER_01 14:37

She's like, no.

SPEAKER_03 14:39

No.

SPEAKER_01 14:39

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 14:40

Raina's on the other side of the camera's.

SPEAKER_01 14:42

This is like two guys talking about howdy duty, like, I loved it when Howdy would dance.

SPEAKER_03 14:46

Dude, it really is like that.

SPEAKER_01 14:47

It was hard to see the strings because the TVs were so bad, but boy, it was such a great all the lore around howdy duty, you know. Okay John Lasseter.

SPEAKER_03 14:55

Do you know what my version of that is with Trek? What? That they wiped the practical out of the versions of the episodes that you can stream in terms of like the ships and stuff.

SPEAKER_01 15:04

Oh, yeah, they did the the updated version, which some of it I struggle with that. Some of the some of the ship work is kind of interesting, but yeah, because like I watched No, it's not that it's bad, it's well done. But I know you there's a there's like a changes the feelancy. I mean, there's a great photo I just saw actually of the guys who built the Enterprise model delivering it to the gate at Paramount, and they literally have it. It's um it's like the size of a mini fridge, and it's just on a wooden raw plank, and they have it next to the curb on the sidewalk on like what is that? Melrose Avenue, yeah, right?

SPEAKER_02 15:40

19, just on a curb, 1964, right?

SPEAKER_01 15:42

And they're just and it's the three guys is kind of put it looks like they're posing with like a prize bass. And they built this amazing thing that is like indelible that people are now here's a CGI model of it, here's this, here's Strange New Worlds version. Here I mean, like this thing has been around for so long, just this one simple design. I don't know, it's so cool. I love I love stuff like that.

SPEAKER_03 16:01

It's a fascinating thing to consider maybe disposable is the wrong word, but how temporary people who are telling these stories, yeah, whether it's comic books from NetTime, yeah, television and films from NetTime, they did not anticipate we'd be in the landscape where in now where you can really access everything like you're in the I don't know, some library.

SPEAKER_01 16:21

Like the everything machine, right? And you can just pull it up, right? Like, yeah, I I read um Art Spiegelman wrote this wonderful book that's itself a kind of an art artistic artifact about Jack Cole who created Plastic Man. And I I think in that book, I'm maybe heavily paraphrasing, but uh, but Spiegelman talks, but he has this term called termite art, where it's like uh like it's like it's the equivalent of like content, right? So it's like these guys, these people, right? I mean you'd think of people like Marie Severin, all these folks, like uh DC Fontana, like they're just they're completely moving forward, and the audience is just devouring it right behind them, going, what's next, what's next, what's next, what's next, what's next, right? So it's like 22 episodes or a hundred episodes, a hundred issues of Fantastic Four between Jack and Stan, and they're like, I don't know, and they hate each other by the end, right? Or even Jack Cole being like, his face can pull around an entire uh light post and a small duplex, you know, a tenement building, you know, like and they just kind of just go, go, go, go, go, go, go. So there's no backwards looking nature to it, right? There's no preservation or very little, right? All of that stuff, they just gotta like generate, generate, generate, generate, which is it's you know, it's the way the internet works today, right? It's just like blah blah blah blah blah. But that that idea of like they had no idea. I mean, because even if you look at like Sonic first appearance is probably around the time I'm a discovering Trek, maybe a couple years after that.

SPEAKER_03 17:44

I think it's right, right?

SPEAKER_01 17:46

Like he's been around for 35 something, maybe.

SPEAKER_03 17:49

Last year, I believe, was his 35th, according to IDW's marketing.

SPEAKER_01 17:53

Okay, so yeah, exactly. Like it's that, and then you look at Godzilla and you're like, that's before Star Trek, right? So which okay, so now here's a question for you Sonic Godzilla, which one did you come into going, oh, I can I can go deep on Sonic or I can I'll do Godzilla all day long or well.

SPEAKER_03 18:13

This is a challenging thing, and I think you'll be able to really to relate to this because you will encounter all kinds of life forms in the stories that you're telling with Star Trek. I feel like we're having like a battle of like trying to relate the conversation back to each other.

SPEAKER_01 18:26

I think we're both very considerate.

SPEAKER_03 18:27

No, we are.

SPEAKER_01 18:28

We're both very good guests. Not great hosts, but good guests.

SPEAKER_03 18:32

You're doing a great job. Writing the kaiju, the Godzilla monsters, uh-huh, it's very difficult because there's no real communication that they're allowed to do.

SPEAKER_01 18:41

There's no introspection.

SPEAKER_03 18:42

They don't even have pronouns. They are it. Interesting. Yeah. There's a very uh limited range of what you can have them do, right? So I don't know what life form you would have written and trek so far that is analogous to this, but there are a lot of challenges, and uh ultimately I kind of write the characters like they're forces of nature.

SPEAKER_01 19:03

That makes sense. Maybe with a little with a little implied empathy. Right? Like if a storm is a hurricane that is sentient.

SPEAKER_03 19:09

Yeah, like one of the storms hates you more than the other storm. Right. Do you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 19:12

Like that's when they hate each other the most.

SPEAKER_03 19:14

And I find that interesting because I'm fascinated by what we qualify as sentient life. So we see these kaiju as sentient, but they're no more or less sentient than I don't know, a microbe or something like that.

SPEAKER_01 19:27

What about like a dog, like a golden retriever?

SPEAKER_03 19:29

I would consider a dog to be slightly m more self-aware than these monsters, yes.

SPEAKER_01 19:34

You just have the Godzilla audience just now. Like they're like, Well, he thinks it's less than a golden retriever?

SPEAKER_03 19:40

Jeez! But the thing is, their problems are on such a different scale, right? Godzilla may have seen a dog. And you know what? If you catch Godzilla on a good day, Godzilla's gonna save that dog, or at least not kill the dog. Really? Maybe.

SPEAKER_01 19:53

Maybe like intercede and say that feels like a higher philosophical. I mean, now if you're in like if I want Godzilla to save the dogs, right? Like in lesser evils result in greater justices. If you're doing Godzilla will intercede and save the life of a dog on a good day.

SPEAKER_02 20:10

Which also means that contextually Godzilla has things going on that are different every day. Right.

SPEAKER_01 20:17

That that's like that's a higher because my dog wasn't gonna save another dog. You don't know until your dog's put to the test. Like dogs like pull people out of fires and stuff. That's maybe this is television. I think that's actually happened though.

SPEAKER_03 20:28

It happens, yeah. Yeah, no, dogs are okay, so dogs are empathetic. I think dogs are more communicative, they're more self-aware, they know their names. There's does Godzilla even know its name? I I can't answer that question. Maybe.

SPEAKER_01 20:39

You don't answer it in the five-ish U mini-series?

SPEAKER_03 20:42

I don't believe that we do it.

SPEAKER_01 20:43

Sonic asked that question? Are he in tails like Do you think Godzilla knows his own name?

SPEAKER_03 20:49

They don't know. Well, you know, and then they can't say his, right?

SPEAKER_01 20:51

And then someone knows tails. It's it. Do you have any it's do you do do you have any it's in your books? Do you have any it's? Someone where it's so low, Kirk kind of just pushes it over with his foot, you know.

SPEAKER_03 21:04

It's very challenging. They're even they're even day is a bit step too far, even for the singular.

SPEAKER_01 21:11

For for for Godzilla. It's it.

SPEAKER_03 21:13

They they plural.

SPEAKER_01 21:14

You think there'd be an interesting story there where like some scientist is like he and they're like, why would you say that?

SPEAKER_03 21:18

And he's like, Well, it's controversial among the fandom, too, because depending on the iteration of Godzilla, some people say, Oh, that Godzilla's clearly female, and that Godzilla's clearly male. Right. But I would like to clarify that in Sonic Godzilla, Godzilla is it.

SPEAKER_01 21:34

Godzilla is it. That's the that's the tag. Like coke. Um, we don't have any it's. Um, maybe it was a missed opportunity. I don't know. We've got Star Trek is very you know what I'll say. Star Trek is Star Trek's the other way if we're talking about these kind of legacy sci fi things. Yeah. Star Trek is all about this. Is what I it's tough because you're you all when you talk about stories, and when I talk about stories of people, you're trying to find The humanity in the character. It's weird to say that with Star Trek because people go, Well, there's a million different species. You know, like a cardass, you're going to be offended if you called him human. So I actually tend to use the word with even with so Dennis Manier is our artist. It's incr we just got he's he's just now starting to color the cuff cover, and it's incredible.

SPEAKER_03 22:21

Shout out to Dennis.

SPEAKER_01 22:22

Dennis is incredible. Um and Jodie Troutman is lettering, who's one of my favorite letters I've ever worked with.

SPEAKER_03 22:27

I am a big Jody fan. You like Jody? Oh, yes. Jody and I worked on a Godzilla book a couple years ago. Oh, that's awesome. We we did a really nice signing up here in at Secret Headquarters in LA. It was great.

SPEAKER_01 22:37

Oh, that's great. Would you do it at the old location on Silver on Sunset or the new one?

SPEAKER_03 22:42

At water. So where they moved.

SPEAKER_01 22:44

But now they can actually have more comic books because the real estate isn't so I mean they've that whole drag right there. Yeah. So I I tend to use the word people just because it doesn't necessarily I'm interested in I struggle with this too. I go, I I want it the people aboard the Enterprise. Because a a pe a people is more of a uh in my term categorical term, right? And so that can people can encompass humans, Vulcans, Romulans, Cardassians, uh, Bajorans, Andorians, all of which are in our crew on our ship. Yeah. Right. And then the the the the people who may be half, one quarter, this, that, right.

SPEAKER_03 23:26

So where does a character cease being a people? Or where do characters cease being people, and where do they become like Spider-Ham? Okay. I don't know the context, actually.

SPEAKER_01 23:39

It's really hard to think of a context where as soon as you do spider ham, I go, like, well, that's just John Mullaney.

SPEAKER_03 23:43

You know what I mean? Yeah, I get it.

SPEAKER_01 23:44

Right? But I think also but if you go to Star Trek, it's like the crystalline entity was maybe something that might be akin to Godzilla. Where you go, I don't know what it look it that's kind of like uh uh um like you were saying, a a weather event that almost feels malevolent because it does seem to have some sort of collective consciousness. Right. Right? But it is it is activated and so vast, it's almost like scale, right? It's like so for Sonic, how tall is Sonic? Is he like a gnome where he's like three apples high?

SPEAKER_03 24:17

Or is it like it's no, we we don't, to the best of my knowledge, we don't use Hello Kitty measurement systems. But um well, it's hard to say how tall Sonic is because the truth is it's all relative to who Sonic's around, right? Right.

SPEAKER_01 24:29

So the are the people at station are there Okay, well this is my it might be dumb.

SPEAKER_03 24:32

No, this is why I was so curious about it. Are there humans? I no. Eggman is the only thing that comes close to human, and that's really even debated.

SPEAKER_01 24:43

I'd be super pissed about that, probably.

SPEAKER_03 24:45

I don't know. You know, that could be an underlying theme for you to explore in Star Trek Sonic. Right next year.

SPEAKER_01 24:52

Star Trek X Sonic. Yeah. Ooh, I would do that. That'd be that would be so weird and ponderous.

SPEAKER_03 24:57

It'd be fun.

SPEAKER_01 24:58

That would be kind of awesome.

SPEAKER_03 24:59

Can you imagine like like Sonic running across the bow of the ship?

SPEAKER_01 25:03

Like, yeah, or like they just beat like all of a sudden Sonic is there and then we just they just beam down.

SPEAKER_03 25:07

Yeah. I'd love it.

SPEAKER_01 25:09

With a tricorder, you know, and they're scanning him.

SPEAKER_03 25:11

Let's let's do a crossover.

SPEAKER_01 25:12

Checking under the ears for, you know, mites or something. So I have They're quite hair suit, Captain.

SPEAKER_03 25:19

No, no, I get it. Like, I love it. But will you still say people when Sonic is on the ship? I would, I think. I think I would include Sonic as a people. I d I don't use that word, it's not present in any of my scripts. So what are you calling with it?

SPEAKER_01 25:33

Do you call them like the team, the group, the Sonic has kind of their own name?

SPEAKER_03 25:37

Their innate soul or when I'm talking about the the many beleaguered residents of Station Square who are having a horrible day. Okay. Because we're just stories like one day. Right. That's amazing. Yeah, I I don't know. I I I have issues. I just think it's fun to write in a really short space of time.

SPEAKER_01 25:54

No, those are I I like those. I like real-time stories.

SPEAKER_03 25:56

But um I I can't bring myself to say people. I say residents, right. Citizens, loaded terms.

SPEAKER_01 26:03

We gotta get these folks out of here, like Obama. Folks, right? Like it's I do think I've used folks once or twice.

SPEAKER_03 26:09

Yeah. Shout out to Iraq for that one. I wasn't using that as much previous to 2008. Folks. And um I think it's yeah, residents mostly. Yeah, but people, I can't bring myself to do it. I don't think of a talking animal character as a as a people. Yeah, that's interesting. What about a borg? Because is a borg a person? Or are they how do you how do you well the collectively plural borg is borg? Right. We are borg. Yeah. Is there a singular borg?

SPEAKER_01 26:36

So there's you know that now you're getting to the idea of like individuality, right? Because the singular borg would be the borg queen is kind of Love her. Who doesn't, right? But it's like, and there's a couple, right? There's uh what's or futz from um Picard, Allison, the actress, Alison Pill plays, I can't remember the character's name. She worked at the Daystrum industry, and then she becomes the future Borg Queen. I just spoiled all of Picard. I do enjoy the character.

SPEAKER_03 26:57

I did like that show a lot.

SPEAKER_01 26:58

Right, yeah, but it was it like the Borg Queen and Lacuteus was also kind of half, right? Look at that Lacute. Like he's kind of half and half, right? So it's like and then it was that came from the board realizing we need kind of like a spokesman. No, she was totally fully assimilated.

SPEAKER_03 27:16

No, but I mean, was she not a person until she was separated?

SPEAKER_01 27:20

Well, I think that's the thing, right? It's like it it it she was able to reclaim her that's the whole thing, the reclamation project and XBs and blah blah blah. But like but it now we're getting to like this uniquely unique idea of like individuality dictates your personhood.

SPEAKER_03 27:36

You know, it's scale again, too, though. If if we take a moment and and really look at it, if we pull out and see the map grow, the Borg is kind of like a monster, like a kaiju in a way.

SPEAKER_01 27:47

Yeah, it is it's kind of like a kaiju or a part, a crystalline entity, or a like a force of nature.

SPEAKER_03 27:52

And I guess the scale is what changes our perception of individuality. Uh does this count as a person? Maybe that's something. Okay, so am I therefore saying that a talking animal doesn't have agency? And so where's that coming from?

SPEAKER_01 28:07

Yeah, which is interesting. Because Sonic is like, I'm Sonic, right? Like he has individuality.

SPEAKER_03 28:11

I mean, the thing that's nice about those characters is if I need to be specific, Sonic is a hedgehog, right? So I don't have to worry, I can say, you know, the hedgehog. I don't have to say, like, you know, but then again, what context would I say that person?

SPEAKER_01 28:25

He never goes, Sonic never goes on behalf of all hedgehogs, right? He doesn't do that.

SPEAKER_03 28:29

Because he's speaking for more than just hedgehogs. He's speaking for you wanna know, okay, now what is he speaking for? The residents of Station Square? You want to know something crazy about this. This is because I'm doing a story of a very large scale in with Sonic, I want it to refer to the planet. But I'm gonna tell you what that planet's called.

SPEAKER_01 28:50

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 28:51

Sonic's world.

SPEAKER_01 28:52

Sonic's world is the name of the planet. So now we're at Sonic as God. In in right? I mean, does anybody stop like on Team Sonic? Does Knuckles go, wait a minute.

SPEAKER_00 29:04

What's the name of this planet?

SPEAKER_03 29:05

I'm gonna raise an interesting philosophical question for you. As the co-writer of The Flash, yes, I believe that speedsters are beholden to their own conditions of existence. I'm not saying Sonic is God, but I'm saying Sonic is certainly, if we're talking about scale, operating on a very different scale of life from many other characters, as is the flash, but he's kind of like the chosen one, right?

SPEAKER_01 29:27

Like, and if you go back to Star Trek, it's like Cisco being the emissary, right? It's like this, right? He's like a conduit for something, which the speedsters, yeah, right? So like Bart, Jay, Barry, Wally, right? Like, and and the others.

SPEAKER_03 29:43

Yeah, the crew. Team Flash. Team Flash. Oh, wait, or what are they called? The Flashers. The Speedsters, okay.

SPEAKER_01 29:50

The Speedsters. I that's usually what that's what Mark says. Mark Wade says, so I just do what Mark tells me to say. Whatever Mark says, I'm like, that. A likely story. Which is a good rule in comics. Um, no, but I that but we did a thing with we did a thing with Bart Allen where he realizes. Should I just spoil the flash? That's fine.

SPEAKER_03 30:08

Um you said the issue will be out by this point.

SPEAKER_01 30:10

Yeah, no, no, it's all it's all out. But like Bart realizes he is, he is the speed force. Like there's some that's some sort of it's interesting the way the characters have approached it, because like where Jay Garrick has always like he almost has this kind of uh God-fearing, like uh white guy of the golden age understanding of the force, where he's like, It's a holy mystery. And it's almost like Jay doesn't want to scientifically screw around with it. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 30:36

He's like, we just we have to respect it.

SPEAKER_01 30:39

And like, and and he is the one that realizes that Bart that somehow it is of Bart and Bart is of it, more so than being a kind of chosen emissary. So it's like that sliding spectrum, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 30:50

Where it's like borderline religious that you're getting into here.

SPEAKER_01 30:54

Where it's interesting, like off. Yeah, if Sonic is chosen or like a conduit of something larger, right? Likutis is the same, but maybe has less agency, right?

SPEAKER_03 31:05

Sonic doesn't get to decide anything on his own. I decide for Sonic.

unknown 31:11

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 31:11

So you're god of Sonic's world, at least for these five issues.

SPEAKER_03 31:14

I mean, really, the god of Sonic's world is Sega. Right. Sega tells you what Sega says.

SPEAKER_01 31:19

So it's the sky's clear, you just hear the little Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And Sonic's like, what is that? You know, it's just it's a tune that's in his head, it's an earworm he can't get rid of.

SPEAKER_03 31:29

And he's like, What is he thinks about it all the time?

SPEAKER_01 31:31

And it's like, what is that?

SPEAKER_03 31:32

It's like a I would love to play around with these kind of things.

SPEAKER_01 31:36

Yeah, where like the church of the church, the religious order in Sonic's world, like when they ring the bell, you know, it sounds like the Sega theme. That would be really cool.

SPEAKER_03 31:47

That would be great. Um scale and life. Okay, let's talk about Star Trek number one.

SPEAKER_01 31:51

So the whole thing for our book is that it is it is looking forward. I love that. That's how it should be. It's just all the way, it's a 60th anniversary, so it's just we were just talking about looking forward and not looking back. It is that. And so even thematically, we are addressing can we can they slash we, right? Can we shed our past and the baggage of what we've been through, or rather than even shed, can we embrace what we have done and did and were so that we can move forward, so that we can continue to boldly explore, right? Because I mean, I love Strange New Worlds and I love, you know, uh uh Discovery, you know, what all of these kind of building pieces of how we got to where we were, but now it's like, what's next? Yeah, what's really out there, right? Like that idea of like Strange New Worlds, as Kirk said it in the first episode, right? Or, you know, um, even though it was Captain Pike and the pilot, right? But we would but whatever. The second pilot, right? Um to boldly go where no one's gone before, right? That idea. So really push, push, push. And so they the ship is the Enterprise, it's the Enterprise G. It takes place five years after Picard season three. Oh. So it's some of the crew from Picard Season Three, and it does allow room. So were they ever, you know, were Terry or whoever, Paramount to go, what's happening right the next day, right? After Q shows up in Jack Crusher's room and goes, we're not done yet. Right, whatever. It allows for some of that to occur, but now it's kind of like they're they're kind of they're in a status quo, and they're they're out there, and the quadrants are the quadrants, and seven of nine is the captain, right, of the Enterprise G. Right? I just need I need a breath. This is great. It's good, right? I mean, well, that was I mean, Terry did that, and you know, they did that on that show. I uh she is still, but she's a little bit more seasoned. I just I'm very happy about this.

SPEAKER_03 33:50

Yeah. Voyager is really my that's my series.

SPEAKER_01 33:52

Voyager is amazing, right?

SPEAKER_03 33:54

And and this makes me very happy. I think this is a logical step to continue these stories with this character.

SPEAKER_01 34:00

I think, yeah, to have Seven there, right? And then um she has and so Rafi was her exo at the end of Picard. It's been five years, so we we figured Rafi's so senior that will Rafi will have just gotten her own ship. Oh, I love this. So Rafi has her own ship, and she is apart from Seven, but it's probably good for their relationship. They're still in a relationship because it was weird that you have a captain and an exo, and they're also romantically involved. I think that probably got freighted very quickly. But um, so she's got a um uh Seven has a brand new XO. He's a commander named Atticus Cassidy, is it in a completely original character, good name, and he used to be the head of Memory Alpha, memory alpha being the archive of all known knowledge in the in the quadrants, right?

SPEAKER_03 34:48

Also a very meta thing for the fandom.

SPEAKER_01 34:51

Exactly. He is taking he is the vessel carrying forth all we have done in Drek. This is great up until now. So he's like a librarian, right? Love me. And he is in the seat.

SPEAKER_03 35:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:02

Um, the other characters are returning. We get Crash LaForge, Sidney LaForge, uh, Geordie's daughter, is there. Uh, she's at the helm. Um, we also have Jack Crusher, is a a big part of this book. Yeah um, and he is now settling into that role of being a Starfleet officer. He's a lieutenant now. Okay. Um, but the fun thing with Jack is people still kind of give him the weird sidelong glances and stuff because he has those nascent Borg abilities to like take over people's bodies and read some people's minds. And it's a little it's not fast and clean with him, so he's kind he's stowed some of that and he's trying to just walk the line and be straight and narrow and not be seen as he's very he's very concerned he's being he's being regarded as a freak still, like this many years on, right? So but he has a very strong relationship with Seven. At this point, the two of them are very close because they have that kinship, they have that shared connection, and they even in the book have a shared telepathic connection that no one else knows about. So it's like kind of a private text thread. Little Xavier Jean between between Seven and Jack that no one else knows about, including her new XO Atticus, who no one could ever fill Rafi's shoes for Seven. Yeah. So she's already kind of out on this dude. He's a librarian, right? And so she spends a lot of time vetting things and and using Jack as an unofficial advisor, right? And so she's leaning on him a lot, and that's his kind of privileged position, but no one knows that. We also have the chief medical officer of the ship, is a Klingon. We have not seen a Klingon medical officer, and it's Alexander, it's Worf's son. So we've got a couple Nepo babies in this.

SPEAKER_03 36:51

No, this is actually that's a really natural role for that character, I think.

SPEAKER_01 36:55

Because he would be in his mid forties at this point. He's been through everything that happened in our book, Star Trek Defiant, which was kind of a real redemption arc for him, where he fell in with like kind of a blood cult, right? Went through the day of blood, killed some people.

SPEAKER_03 37:07

Well, which of us have not fallen into blood cult, right?

SPEAKER_01 37:10

I mean like Wayward Young Man looking for a father figure because the one he had was neglectful, right? He he made some mistakes and then Wharf brought him back and restored his honor through the couvright, all this stuff. And now we're full circle too. He's a healer, right? He has embraced that part of himself, and this he's kind of this, he's the most rat what I want with Alexander is he's like kind of the most radical Klingon we've seen.

SPEAKER_03 37:31

I take it.

SPEAKER_01 37:32

Because Wharf to me is the definitive statement in Star Trek on masculinity, right? That seems to be his theme. It is so it's fascinating. Masculinity and heritage are so much part of Worf's story, and so this is this is taking that to another level.

SPEAKER_03 37:47

When you were writing Balana, what did you see? How did you contrast that or complement that? Were you thinking about Worf when you were writing her?

SPEAKER_01 37:56

Absolutely. I mean, I think well, Balana is someone I so many of the Star Trek characters that I love are split in some of their identity, right? Worf um was raised by the Rajenkos, right? Humans, his parents died young, he's never felt included. Spock is half human, half Vulcan, Balana is half human, half Klingon. And for for me with Balana, it was always I'm known as the person who came through on the Voyager. She had just signed up with the Maquis separatists and she's like, I'm ready to go rogue and fight the Federation. Then she becomes kind of the de facto chief engineer, right, on Voyager. And then she gets home, and then people still kind of hold her at arm's length and go, Yeah, but you were also part of the Maquis, and that was weird, and you were on this one weirdo mission, and we don't know what to do with you. And she's someone I think that didn't know what to do with herself, right? That's kind of how we approach it.

SPEAKER_03 38:44

Yeah, no, definitely. But that's what makes her so interesting because I think that that for me that was a character that I saw as somewhat of an in-character watching Voyager. I don't know. I just kind of related to the book.

SPEAKER_01 38:54

I love her so much, and like, and that I mean that that book, Defiant, ends with Wharf the last arc at the or the second to last arc ends with Wharf turning to Badana and saying, The ship is yours. Like he puts her in the chair as captain of the Defiant for the last five, um, or last four before Lore War. Um so yeah, so just just that kind of stuff um is in there, but then we've got you know, we've got a Cardassian uh security tactical officer who has memories from the Dominion War that are pretty rough, right? Um but has a really high opinion of Starfleet, which we have not seen very much of.

SPEAKER_03 39:29

What's the state of that conflict currently?

SPEAKER_01 39:31

Dominion War done, right?

SPEAKER_03 39:32

Progenically, no, no, no, like the like the Cardassian.

SPEAKER_01 39:34

Well, they're kind of like, I feel like the isn't it that they I feel like they left uh the Cardassians and the Bajorans kind of figured out there was a truce, there was a detente, they came together during Dominion, the Cardassians flipped sides and said, We're gonna work with you. But I'm sure it's like tense. Okay. So of course I have a Bajoran on the ship. You got some and she is the ship's counselor slash chaplain. Speaking of religious things, they have installed her as a chaplain as well as a counselor.

SPEAKER_03 39:59

I feel like you're really pushing the um kinds of characters that are slotting into these archetypes that we've seen.

SPEAKER_01 40:08

I want fans who love this, whether they are Trek fans or trekkies or trekkers, I want them to pick this up and go, I love this, right? It's the enterprise, it is soaring. But it is it is and it's character, it's characters we know, some. And then there's also brand new folks, right? There's some from the comics. Lily Sato, one of my favorite creations from Ramon Rosanas and Jackson and Colin in the Star Trek run, she's now in her 40s and she's on the ship as the comms officer. She's come back from the Fenris Rangers because Seven has brought her back. You know, because that's where they there's a presumed second act there between the two of them.

SPEAKER_04 40:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:44

So she's on the ship. But the big, the big kind of the big enchilada of the book is that the Enterprise is assigned to leave the known galaxy. So that that alone, that's the that was the big marquee idea that I pitched Heather and Paramount and I love you from the beginning. It was like, they just got and of course I there we we work with a wonderful guy at Paramount named Dayton Ward, who's also a Star Trek author, and yeah, kind of just he's the mark weight of Star Trek. I will say that, right? In terms of the repository of knowledge.

SPEAKER_04 41:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:16

And Dayton's first reaction was like, but the quadrants themselves are only 22.7 explored, but percent explored, and there's many worlds that we and it's like, yes, I know, but it's almost like it's the dramatic piece of they have they're just gonna go somewhere new. You know? They're literally they're pushing the boundaries. There's this thing that is kind of opened up, probes have come back that were launched 200 years ago, and they thought the probes were lost, and they've come back, and they have new data and signs of class M planets in this kind of special corridor of space that seems to have been hidden from them. They don't know why. And Starfleet is like, you gotta go check this out. And this is Seven is ready to jump at this chance because she feels like she's been kind of puttering around, like it's been like uh Federation maintenance.

SPEAKER_03 42:04

I mean, she's seen almost everything.

SPEAKER_01 42:05

She has, and she's been through so much, and it's kind of like she's the captain of the enterprise. She's you know, Picard, Robert April, Pike, Kirk, all these people, right? The these incredible captains before she's got the name, and she's like, Where's the where's the big where's the big thing to sink my teeth into, right? Yeah, she's gonna be able to do that we go. She gets she gets more than what she bargained for. Where it's like, you gotta leave the known galaxy. Which and then it be the book becomes a psychological thriller about exploration, which is like what happens when you go out and you don't know where the hell you are.

SPEAKER_03 42:38

I'm very excited about this. To me, this is this satisfies a lot of the desires that I've had to see in a Star Trek story and a continuation.

SPEAKER_01 42:50

Push it and punch it forward and just just go, go, go towards the unknown. And it felt that felt right for the 60th, you know. We love these things, like you're talking about like Godzilla, like God. I mean, I have memories of playing Sonic for hours at my friend's house for like all this stuff. My kids, then, and then I have memories of my kids reading the comics, and then they've got Sonic stickers all over their chest of drawers that'll never come off.

SPEAKER_03 43:12

Kids love Sonic.

SPEAKER_01 43:14

Kids love Sonic.

SPEAKER_03 43:15

It is like almost unlike anything else I've ever seen, except for maybe Five Nights at Freddy's. They like kids and f and and FNAF is like that's like peanut butter and jelly, man.

SPEAKER_01 43:26

What and it's it's weird too. Like, I mean, my three-year-old has a pair of knuckle socks, and like when they're ready and clean, he's just dope.

SPEAKER_03 43:33

It's it's interesting because I don't there can be deep aspects to it. I'm not saying there aren't. But I think I think about this a lot, and I'm I'd imagine you've pondered this kind of stuff too. As a I don't want to say property, I feel like it doesn't as a as a storytelling world ages, right? We add so many layers to it. Sonic is still adding so many layers to it. And in a lot of ways, I think these characters are equivalent to when, in terms of age and, you know, when the Marvel characters were really getting their like extreme versions in the 90s, this is kind of age-wise where we're at in terms of what the Sonic characters are. Okay. You know, when they were getting their first live action adaptations and stuff. Well, I guess that came a little bit earlier with Hulk. Like Jim Lee's coming in and being like, Yeah, when they're when they're really getting, yeah, they're getting they're getting a really big spotlight right now. And I think they're reaching a sort of like um uh peak of popularity in a way. I mean, hopefully it can continue to go even further, but there's really a maximum saturation going on right now, I think, with these Sonic characters. And it's fascinating to see the way that young people connect with them because sometimes it's just the color of the character, sometimes it's the ability.

SPEAKER_00 44:42

It's just that these designs are um enchanting.

SPEAKER_01 44:45

It's like you can I remember those sense images, and I see them happen in my kids when something hits, whether it's the way Bluey the dog looks, right? Or like, you know, the Ghostbusters logo. There are these certain things where you go, Oh, what is that? And your cerebral cortex kind of fires off in a weird way and releases some endorphins you don't understand. And then the storytellers bring you in and go, Oh, come over here, let me show you, you know, and they show you something really cool.

SPEAKER_03 45:12

Yeah. I mean, I think we're, you know, storytellers in a sonic landscape, we're afforded a really interesting opportunity to, um, from my perspective at least, my my desire was to you can only go so far with what they will let you do, but I want to find ways to reveal things about these characters' personalities and the way they approach challenges that's gonna help people connect with them in and maybe an even longer and and deeper way than they had in the past.

SPEAKER_01 45:37

It feels like uh it's similar in a way to like, you know, Pokemon opens things up where you go, oh, it's so buoyant and so effervescent, but then you know there's some dramatic turns that the fans of those properties have experienced where they they like shatters them, you know, and they've removed them, you know. Like it's it's interesting to be able to do like I mean it's funny, you know, growing up with Mario, you know, it's like you're drawn to the design and the story, more so it was kind of like Mario's over here, and it's like jump, jump, jump, right? Jump man, right? That's how they started. That was the name of the character that they created. But over here is like Legend of Zelda, which is like deep, right? It's like, you want another Tolkien? Here, you know, and like Mario's like, but then they do things like I was just everything from the movies, yeah, and we just saw the trailer for the Super Mario Galaxy in the theater because I took the kids to see Arco, which by the way is a beautiful animated movie.

SPEAKER_03 46:30

Okay, good.

SPEAKER_01 46:31

Um, but the trailer for Super Mario Galaxy, I was like, that looks really fun. Yeah, it looks really fun, and it looks like my kid my kids are like enamored and they're ready to have a good time. And I'm like, I kind of want to see that, you know what I mean? And like I'm lip-syncing the old Mario Brothers cartoon theme song to my eight-year-old, you know, to help them cheer up before bedtime, you know. We're the Mario Brothers and plumbing's a game, you know, the whole thing.

SPEAKER_03 46:59

Yeah, it's a funny way that these things grow beyond their commodification to become like symbols of things that are that they're meaningful to us. We hold on to them. Like, you know, Trek's something that's definitely at the crossroads of that because it's always been philosophical.

SPEAKER_01 47:14

It's always been Yeah, people it gets this kind of ponderous rap.

SPEAKER_03 47:17

Right.

SPEAKER_01 47:18

But it is also super fun. Oh, definitely. That's the thing, too. It's like, you know, you do the you can do the you can do the Mario Brothers rap, but like you can also do Mario believes Luigi's dead for 15 minutes, and you're like, Jesus. Is and that's is Luigi dead? No, but like like like you do like Luigi Ghost Mansion stuff, and it's like going around with supernatural, and it's like, well, that's interesting. Now you have Luigi as like a paranormal investigator.

SPEAKER_03 47:42

What do you think the third Mario Brother is like?

SPEAKER_01 47:44

Like, you mean like Shemp, like from the Stooges, where you're like, although wasn't he kind of like the secret architect? I feel like he's like totally got an MBA, you know, like the third Mario. His last name is Mario. Greg Mario.

SPEAKER_03 47:59

Greg Mario, yeah, Gregory Mario.

SPEAKER_01 48:01

Greg Mario, attorney at law. You know, that kind of Staten Island. We were just talking about Staten Island. Oh, yeah. So Greg Mario is like, I'm getting out of this boys, come on. Let's go across the Verizontal Bridge, let's sit down, we'll have a nice pie. I'm gonna show you the good life.

SPEAKER_03 48:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 48:18

Okay? You know, like just with the mushrooms and the pipes and the come on, you know, like Greg is very much that, you know.

SPEAKER_03 48:26

Do you think that like if when Mario goes to like hang out with his family, they're just like, bro, the pipes, like always with the so gross.

SPEAKER_01 48:36

Or is it like, is it like, is it like Cosmo and Moonstruck, where it's like he has like an empire, where it's like very respected, where Mario is very much like Vincent Gardini in that movie where he's like, he's like, you've got, you know, you copper, copper piping is a gift from God. You know, like that he understands it. What are those pipes made out of? Well, the green pipes, I don't know. That's like I feel like that's like it, you know, if Olympia Dukakis is the Mario brother's mom, she's like you're doing too many drugs. You know what I mean? Always with the mushrooms coming over here with the pipes and and then you went to some He Yesterday. I saw Luigi, he was in he was in a dirty raccoon costume in Bay Ridge, just walking around.

SPEAKER_03 49:20

You know, I would like to read your version of this. For me, I have long dreamed of a scenario in which we could have a Mario comic where we could do these things. I feel like I feel like I could bring a slight insight into the characterization here, a little, you know, a little a little depth to it, but also have fun with it. But I I spend a lot of time thinking about these things. And I love that it's kind of like Wolverine in the 80s.

SPEAKER_01 49:44

Okay. In what way?

SPEAKER_03 49:45

In some ways, it's better if we don't know.

SPEAKER_01 49:47

Yeah, you yeah, where you're not like as big.

SPEAKER_03 49:49

It's kind of more fun if there's just a zillion questions.

SPEAKER_01 49:52

Yeah. As soon as you answer those questions, I learned this, you know, like in making some other projects I've been associated with, like that you kind of build something up, no matter what the answer is, when you just hand over the information, yeah, it's gonna fall flat a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 50:06

It's better to imply. I've been doing a lot of that in Sonic Godzilla. I hope everybody agrees with that.

SPEAKER_01 50:11

But I think what you're pointing out too with these different things, right? Whether it's Sonic Godzilla, it's Trek, Mario, whatever. Like when these things transcend their first purpose and they become these different flavors for different mindsets. I'll say mindsets, you know what I mean? Where it's like, I want Vonda McIntyre written Star Trek where they're encountering uh in uh constellation-sized creatures who only sing, you know, and about the philosophy of language. But then I also want an episode where Kirk is wasted and fighting everybody, you know what I mean? Yeah. I want to I want to try to do that in this book where I it is forward-looking, but I think in terms of story structure, I'm pulling most from TOS, where it's like There's a beam that makes everybody mad. You know, but you still build all of the the the the pseudoscience and and research into it and go brain wavelengths and things like this. And it's philosophies of that's fun for you as a storyteller, right? Right, absolutely. And you talk about like we are our pain.

SPEAKER_03 51:20

Right.

SPEAKER_01 51:20

We can't just let it go and forget it. It is it makes up who we are and it's helps it helps us remember who we are.

SPEAKER_04 51:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 51:28

And we carry that with us as kind of uh a badge that is also a wound. So it it's it hinders us, but also strengthens. You can do this, right? And I think like with Godzilla, I mean, geez, I saw Godzilla minus one in the theater, and it that was the best movie I saw that year. It's gorgeous. You see that and Oppenheimer next to each other was incredible because one was a very anxious Western, what have we done?

SPEAKER_04 51:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 51:56

And the other one was look what you did to us. Can we survive this? That was the question both movies asked.

SPEAKER_03 52:04

Maybe I I haven't been able to bring myself to watch Oppenheimer. I just feel like culturally in the world, maybe multiculturally, we still haven't really reckoned with that decision. I agree.

SPEAKER_01 52:16

And thinking that movie got some knocks, right?

SPEAKER_03 52:19

Because it's all I like this idea of maybe maybe I'll try and watch the city.

SPEAKER_01 52:22

You watch them both together. It's it is interesting because I feel like any slack that was left by Oppenheimer, minus one picks up and really just carries right. It's he's he's destroying those cities and it and it's terrifying.

SPEAKER_03 52:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 52:34

You know, and and then also, but then he is also atomically powered, and and like all of those things, but they're and and there's amazing kinetic sequences. But the movies are speaking to each other in this way, and obviously that the post-atomic age and where Godzilla even came from, right? And like Sonic is maybe a little less clear-cut in terms of what we're but I but I think it's also like those are artists and those are builders at Sega, whenever that was, going, Who's our guy? We can never top that guy across the street with the red hat. Well, who's our guy? Whatever we come up with, they're gonna go, oh, this is this the second guy. That's just it. And they created this indelible. He's not he's not the second guy. I remember the first time playing Sonic, and it was so fast. Yeah. The game, right? I'm like, I'm sure my kids have play it now, but like the ones now I'm sure are incredibly fast too. But like the speed of that game, yeah, was like I've never I hadn't experienced that in a scroller.

SPEAKER_03 53:28

If you were coming from the NES, as most of us were, yeah, trying to wrap your head around the speed in in the Sonic games was just like playing a Genesis belt like you were in a Lamborghini, where it's like you just got your license, you're like, this is fun. Look, I can you I can make a left turn, and then you're like Street Fighter on there from Street Fighter 2, like just like the the capabilities and the speed of those two games alone were just like and people analyze those games down to the frames. I find it amazing.

SPEAKER_01 53:56

Yeah, that's that's that's also where we're at now.

SPEAKER_03 53:58

I mean, when you get it, but they they analyze it down to the frames in terms of oh, well, we can push the characters to do this. If you catch them right here, you know, in this frame, you can do this, right? And then it's kind of like us in comic books, they analyzed it so much that they influence what came next. And I feel like we've done that a lot with comic books where we look so deeply into things, as you know, somebody writing Doctor Doom, for example, you're seeing you know uh uh decades of overanalysis to a degree, yes, obsession. I'm not gonna lie, I'm one of those people who obsesses over these things.

SPEAKER_01 54:35

That that whatever that phenomenon is where you look at something and you start to see patterns where there are none. Right.

SPEAKER_03 54:40

But those patterns then become patterns for just multiverse. They fueled ideas that uh you were able to explore, that uh Ryan was able to explore in One World Under Doom, and that becomes and and that you can do with Shrek too, because even though the richness is always there, the fandom's taking it to the next level.

SPEAKER_01 54:58

Right, and they'll they'll and that's what happened. Like, where well wait, why are the the famous example is why are the Klingons in TOS they don't have the ri the forehead ridges? Right. Well, they couldn't afford the makeup back then. Yeah right? It's like Lucas Roddenberry couldn't do all the things he wanted to do with the budget he was given. But by DS9, they explain it in the universe. They're like, oh, that was an experimentation to create spies or another, you know, kind of skion, scion within our scion, within our gene pool, and it was really bad. Actually, we've killed a lot of people, like thousands of people died, you know, but and now we have this genetic mutation and it's created a class system.

SPEAKER_04 55:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 55:40

So then, you know, but then I can go do red shirts, and I can which is set in TOS era, and it's like we can put the smooth-headed Klingon sitting next to um a woman at the helm with the ridges because of next gen and you know, Lursa and Beethoven, right? Like they so you can do all of it and kind of it all it all plays together quite nicely. Yeah, you know, and the fans do help with that, where they're like, but this, you know, well, maybe, and they kind of because they love it so much, they they pull it apart and they kind of stick it back together. It's like they kit bash the cool thing, and then the creators go, That's a neat, that's kind of an interesting, and they pull it in. It's just come becomes this like osmotic relationship. Are we doing questions? I had a couple questions. I also wrote some other questions for you. Oh, really? Well, I thought it'd be fun. I'm flattered. Well, so you've written, okay, so you am I correct? You've written some Power Rangers?

SPEAKER_03 56:35

I recently did a Power Ranger story.

SPEAKER_01 56:37

Okay. Which cast did you do?

SPEAKER_03 56:39

Did you do the I did I did Mighty Morphin and season one Mighty Morphin?

SPEAKER_01 56:43

So like Billy.

SPEAKER_03 56:44

Yeah. Okay. The the the pre um fired for going on strike cast or whatever it was.

SPEAKER_01 56:50

Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 56:51

Uh, but this was very interesting with Tommy, but Tommy had to be the Green Ranger.

SPEAKER_01 56:58

Tommy had to be the Green Ranger.

SPEAKER_03 57:00

Tommy could not be the White Ranger. Okay, that's that puts it in a very tight window of time. Yes. Where Tommy is the team's friend, is the Green Ranger, but has not become the White Ranger yet.

SPEAKER_01 57:09

Right. So that's like the yeah, that felt like on the show that was like three weeks. Yeah, it was. It was really short. It was like he was like, I'm gonna fight you. It's like the bad time.

SPEAKER_03 57:16

Season one-ish, I believe, something like that. Um, it was very interesting. I pitched a Kimberly story. My editor said, sorry, we got a Kim story. Uh, can we make yours Trini? And then I was like, cool. And then I really, really, really enjoyed writing Trini. Trini. That's interesting. So I think for for the time being, that's that's who I feel connected to.

SPEAKER_01 57:36

Okay. That's interesting.

SPEAKER_03 57:37

What about you?

SPEAKER_01 57:38

Do you have a I was I kind of feel like I we're the same age almost, but I feel like I almost kind of it was on later and it was live action. Right. I kind of tuned out after the animation. Yeah, I kind of I kind of fell away and I kind of missed it. And then all the younger kids, like my I had a cousin who was like crazy. It was just Yeah, just I missed it a little bit. But I went through it a little bit with my kids too. So I was like, I mean, I do like Billy. My other question for you is if you were to if you were a Power Ranger and you were to assemble into a Zord, what limb on what side would you prefer?

SPEAKER_03 58:11

I would be such a dream ranger because I just don't care. I'm just like just like if because first of all, like once we assemble mixed tail. You know what I mean? Just I would love that. But the thing is you don't stay in the limb really most of the time. Don't charge you driving, or is that Voltron? Most no, no, no. Okay. Most of the time, once you assemble, you're in that oh, you're in like the control with everybody?

SPEAKER_01 58:33

Right. Oh shoot. So it's not like the red guy isn't up in the head.

SPEAKER_03 58:36

There's all kinds of ways that this works. Okay. But I would just be so chill about it. I just really wouldn't be sweating it.

SPEAKER_01 58:42

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 58:42

You know?

SPEAKER_01 58:43

So you're like, plug me in wherever. Literally.

SPEAKER_03 58:45

I'm just like utility player on the room. Every limb can be useful depending on the circumstance. You guys have your preferences. I'm not that worried about it.

SPEAKER_01 58:54

I can't explain why, but on this mission we need an appendix. Can you get in there and be a stegosaurus appendix?

SPEAKER_03 58:59

You need to, you gotta have the appendix in there because that's the one. You need an exterior explosion. Correct. It's expendable. Yeah. Right.

SPEAKER_01 59:08

And you're like, I'm in. Golden. That's me. Not a problem.

SPEAKER_03 59:11

I you also have you've written some Transformers, Beast Wars? I did. That was a dream project for me. That's cool. Because I love Beast Machines.

SPEAKER_01 59:20

Beast machines, all Beast Machines. No, no, no. Or just, oh, those.

SPEAKER_03 59:24

The two season series, Beast Machines. That was which was like quasi-religious. They returned to Cybertron. Very metaphysical. Right. Megatron's taken over the whole planet. Right. Yeah, you're underground, very tail end of the 90s, playing with a lot of the themes they played with in the Matrix, oddly enough. Yeah. Technology and biology. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And um Beast Machines is not canon within anybody's comic book interpretation of the Transformers. And I got to do a campfire story that was a hair off from Beast Machines.

SPEAKER_01 59:59

Oh, so is it like and and take it in like a darker direction? Autobots is telling a story and things like I'll tell you.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:05

Yeah, it's it's um uh cheetahs telling telling the rest of them uh a campfire story.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:11

That's cool. That's a cool way in. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:13

Well, because the thing about Beast Machines is it's very um, it's very ethereal. Yeah. So my concept with it was this is a legend. Is it a self-fulfilling prophecy? That's kind of cool. Or will it never happen?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:24

Did that happen in the past or could it happen in the past?

SPEAKER_03 1:00:26

But his story's a little different from what happened in the series. So that's fun. Maybe it did happen, but it had a little creative freedom. Yeah. It was nice. So that was a big that was a big deal for me. Unfortunately, the license switched about six months after my story was published.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:40

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:41

And I am not able to You can't get it, or what do you mean?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:46

Like, oh, it's like it's it's lost.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:48

Once the license chains hit, that was the end of it. The lost episode. We were basically in the last collection that came out. Oh wow. So it was it was really cool to do. Um, but I wish that more people could read it.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:00

In the current comic books or whatever, that Energy, they're like, no, no beast machines. Is that like written on the wall? Maybe they'll get the offices.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:07

Have I um like Daniel Warren Johnson's like, if you say Beast Wars to me one more time? Have I emailed Skybound and been like, hey guys, so if you want to do some beast machine stuff, I know a guy who wants to write it. They're like, have I done that yet? Is this the Beast Wars guy? Did Drag a Trench. Did they say to me, Thanks, Nick? We we've got a plan right now, and that just doesn't fit in.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:29

So you know it's gonna show up in some way, and you're gonna be like, ah!

SPEAKER_03 1:01:32

If you were in a Tuvic style transporter accident, who would you like to be mashed up with?

SPEAKER_01 1:01:39

Of a Star Trek character?

SPEAKER_03 1:01:40

Yeah. Or or another comic book creator.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:45

That'd be really funny. Uh gosh, on a Star Trek level, I feel like who would I I would love uh maybe this is boring, but I feel like having data's positronic capabilities and strength would be kind of really interesting.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:04

But your own humanity.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:05

But my own right, where it's like you know, you put the emotion chip in data, it never quite functions the right, you know, lore was a mess, you know, B4 was I don't know. It's like, you know, where it I could maybe that would be the like I, you know, I like it. Kind of the sardonic, but then mostly data and have access to all of that.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:22

Do you want Captain Marino to separate you when that happens?

SPEAKER_01 1:02:27

Yeah, it's just really Or do you want me to leave you? Like sandwich cut.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:31

I think I'd be fine with it. You know, leave you? You want to be left? Just leave it. Just leave, just let it go.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:36

Yeah. But then that part of me kind of like doesn't make it, you know, and then the rest is kind of like dragging that stuff around, you know, a little for a while. It's like they got a power wash.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:46

Like now we're back to the just cleaning out the mess of the of the of the bad stuff.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:52

All right, I've got okay, this uh this one I like.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:55

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:55

Oh, this one made me laugh. What's an idea that you've had that's too unhinged to pitch? Raina, if you type these, I it's okay. I love that. Two is all caps.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:05

You know, I feel like every pitch I send in is that I really struggle with that. Like, I'm yeah, is that for license or like anything? Anything. I feel like everything I send over to people, they're like, we just I my most common rejection I get is I'm sorry, but we just can't do this.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:19

I've gotten that a lot.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:20

I get that a lot. So I've got one project that was uh potentially, hopefully going to move forward with our friends here at IDW. And it went all the way up to the license. The big cheese. No, no license. Okay. This was an original. Oh. And they were like, we just can't, we can't do it. It's we, you know, our the editors like it. I know I like it, but we just we can't.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:43

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:44

It's but I I don't want to say that. Well, I don't want to say that one because I want that to live somewhere else. Okay, okay. Well, we know that's one out there. I'll tell you one, and I did begin to develop this with a friend. I'll tell you the Godzilla thing that I pitched a few years ago. And it wasn't, it was more my editor that I think was like, I can't even send this over.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:00

Right.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:00

It was called The Monster's Kiss.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:02

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:03

And it was about a pilot of um a Mogera pilot. Are you familiar with a Mogera?

SPEAKER_04 1:04:10

No.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:11

This is it's one of those robots that can split and come back together. Like maybe even robots the wrong words. It's kind of like a battle ship in a way, because it's not sentient. And um uh but it's used to fight the kaiju. It's a Mogera pilot who has worked her way up the ranks to be in the position so that she can kiss her most beloved kaiju one day.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:32

Yeah, interesting.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:33

Who is the menace known as Destroyer, which is like m considered to maybe be one of the most violent or deadliest kaiju of all time.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:40

Why does she want to kiss?

SPEAKER_03 1:04:42

Ever since she was a kid, she's just she saw Destroyer on the TV and she was just like, I need to know everything about this monster. And and then she saw the destruction and and she was like, I could I could change it. I could fix it. I could fix him.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:56

I could fix it. Okay, so this is this is when my wife met me. This is the kind of thing of like, I can fix it.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:01

And she's just and and and and to me, the the climactic moment is she's she's gotten a platform to extend from the chest of the right of the thing, and it's hovering in front of Destroyer in the air. And she walks out onto the edge of the platform and she closes her eyes and she goes to kiss it, and it goes to kill her. Oh. That's that's my like scene that would be uh that was like my most that's heavy.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:25

Yeah, I like it.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:25

But does it? I don't know. You're gonna have to wait for the monster's kiss. I do original 2028.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:30

That's pretty fun. I like it.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:32

But yeah, at the time they passed on it, doesn't mean somebody wouldn't do it one day, but sure. What's your most one of your most unhinged?

SPEAKER_01 1:05:38

I pitched uh Richard Ryder Nova gets his GED in space while he's in deep patrol. Good for him. Yeah, because he's a dropout, and then the whole thing was gonna be I forgot who little Nova is, the other Nova.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:49

Sam something.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:50

Sam. Sam and Sam he goes to Sam's graduation and he's like, I want to be a Nova, that's all I want to be. Like, I don't want to go to college. And Richard's like, dude, like. Come on, bro. Yeah, it's like he's like, let's not right. So I was more of a like and he had all of the textbooks in the ship, and he's out like in deep space.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:09

And this could have been a great like University of Phoenix. Like custom comic, you know? It can be like, get your GD and you can go to the University of Phoenix online.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:19

Wherever you pitched a I pitched a very strident take on Marvel 1776, that book that came out last year. I don't think I can go into what it was, but it I did pitch it and I pitched it to the city.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:33

I love that you pitched it.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:34

And I will say, to their credit, Marvel was like, man, this is good. And uh they but they're like, we just that it was it was it was fraught. I will say that. It was fraught. Um I think that's a toughie.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:47

I mean, no, it was I I went all the way in.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:49

I was like Oh, I believe it. I I'll tell you that the the cast for my Marvel 1776 was Cap. Okay, um, Luke Cage. Love him, Sam Wilson, good, Sue Storm, good, what's her name? Moonstar.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:03

Oh, uh Danny, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:04

Yeah, Moonstar. And it was and they went back. So all experience.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:09

Sounds like a dream Avengers team.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:10

It was a very good team, but like it, it was like Danny ends up deciding she doesn't want to go back.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:16

I mean, can you blame her?

SPEAKER_01 1:07:18

No, that was the whole thing. And it was like, and Luke gets there and is like, what the fuck? Right. It's like that was and Sue is like, oh, this brings whole new meaning to the invisible woman. I mean, there was all of that was, and I was I was trying to, but uh whatever. Um the my my craziest original thing that I have not pitched is I've never told this to anybody, but it's about two brothers who are really dumb. Okay, and they discover that they have they discover that they have this one superpower, yeah, which is that they can throw each other hundreds of miles. I love it. And survive. That's not dumb. They can't do this to anyone else, and they are can be hurt by other things, but they can throw each other, like heave each other into the air hundreds of miles, and it's and it's and they land, they land in different towns, and then they help the people in the towns that they land. It's like night riding. And it's like a road trip, but they throw each other across America, and it's called Yeet Me Bro.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:20

I think we have a hit on our hands. I'm just saying. It could be really, it could be really amazing, and they're really dumb, and they're just like, do it, throw me, you know, and then he lands in like Azusa, you know, or he lands in like a.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:34

Which I love, but great town, by the way.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:36

Great town, yeah. Everything in the USA from A to Z.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:38

Do they um do they actually say it in the story? Of course they do. Okay, good. I wanted to make sure.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:43

Do it eat me broke, yeah. Like a But did they just say it once?

SPEAKER_03 1:08:46

Like it's like the final page of the final say it.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:48

It's like literally like yeet me broke. But then, of course, like the government was like becomes aware, it's like, what are these who are these brothers who can throw each other? Like, we have to study them and you know, they like come in after them, but then we will gotta like help people, but they can only do one thing, which is throw each other really violently very far.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:05

But like when they get to the town and they're like helping people solve their problems.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:08

That's like normal stuff, and they're not great at it because they're kind of dumb and they're like they can't really like they're like they're like, Oh, I I've worked on that carburetor, and then they put on the wrong part, you know, or like shoot, you know, like quantum yeet. That's that's this that's the next arc where they can throw each other through time. That would be pretty good. This we're doing this together. I honestly feel like IDW, you know where to call.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:30

I feel like this has a lot of potential.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:33

That's my crazy.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:34

You got a winner on your hands with that one. I think so.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:36

I think it'd be really funny.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:37

Should we should we wrap it? I think we should've top that.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:39

Okay, all right. So this is where we say uh it's over. Yeah. That was fun though.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:43

Chris, I really enjoyed talking to you. I enjoyed talking to you. You're a very interesting guy.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:47

You are an interesting guy, too. It was our first like big conversation. Yeah, first hang. This is our first hang.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:52

Yeah. Thanks, Raina. Thank you, Raina. Behind the scenes. Thank you. Shout out to our editor who we don't know, but we are at your mercy.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:59

Yeah, just do it, make it, make it, uh, make it sing, you know? That's all I can ask for. Yeah. Um what's the name of your book again?

SPEAKER_03 1:10:07

Sonic Godzilla. But remember thank you. I have an incredible art team working on this title. Jack Lawrence, our illustrator, and Reggie Graham, our colorist, they together are doing beautiful work, and they have really answered the call to provide scale, action. And and the thing that really blew me away, how much they embraced the city in this, which is not an easy thing to do.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:37

It's like, oh man.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:39

Yeah. And and you know what? Jack was like, I'm gonna dive into it. And Reggie's like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna make that city look so good. Reggie's asking me, like, hey, like, what time of day are we doing here? And I'm like, I'm like, oh my god, I need to put, I need to, I need to get more into it in the scripts. Like, they're they're inspiring me to want to push things further. So I feel really, really fortunate to be working with those two. And you said so?

SPEAKER_01 1:10:59

Yeah, so Star Trek number one, I believe, is coming out later this year. Um, and uh the artist is Dennis Manier, who is incredible. Uh he did uh an independent book called Ethereus that I think is gorgeous. He also did a cover for Last Starship, uh, which is a wonderful Star Trek book that's out now. Uh Jody Troutman is gonna do the letters, and I don't have a colors because I Dennis does his own coloring. Wow, he's one of those uh those incredible um dudes who can do that. Um and yeah, it's Star Trek. It's just just Star Trek. It's the Enterprise. We're doing the Enterprise going. We're we're boldly going.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:36

Yeah, I'm excited. I'm gonna boldly go to my comic shop and get that book. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:41

And when I go to get your book, I'm gonna do the full really fast loop-de-loop.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:45

Get all the rings to collect and then use the rings to buy the book.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:48

No rings. And then be hit with fire. No rings. We have no rings. No rings? No rings allowed. There's no rings in this one! No, there's no if you look closely, they are not rings in the the rings are a game thing.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:02

Okay. So that's not in the world. Okay. The YouTube video headline is gonna be Sonic Godzilla. No rings, ex question marking.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:11

If they if if the the readers already know this.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:13

Okay, well, I I'm excited to edify and learn.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:16

Yeah. Just ball up ball up on the floor in a little circle like your Right. Oh no, I'm yeah. Yeah, and then and then grab the book off the shelf and just run out of the store.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:25

We're not advocating ripping off your local comic book shop, definitely not. Awesome. Well, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:35

Hi. I hope you enjoyed listening as much as I did. If you want to explore more from these creators, go to your local comic shop or go to our website at idwpublishing.com.