Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome back to the Capes and Tights podcast right here on Capesandtights.com, i'm your host, Justin Soderbergh. This episode is once again brought to you by our friends over at Galactic Comics and Collectibles at galactic comics and collectibles.com or if you're in the Bangor, Maine area at 547 Hammond street in Bangor, Maine. This episode is writer and editor Steve Fox coming to the podcast to talk about his upcoming series Let this One Be a Devil, a true weird story series over at Dark Horse. But Steve is a editor extraordinaire, writer extraordinary. He's an Eisner and Ringo Award winning, winning author of over 80 comics and children's books including Spider Woman, Dark X men, X Men 97, All Eight Eyes, Rainbow Bridge, and the upcoming series I just mentioned, Let this One Be a Devil. As well as he edits books for James Tynan's Tiny Onion World Tree, the Deviant, the Department of Truth, and so on and so on. He also writes the children's books like Super Mario for Golden Books, Little Golden Books, which is phenomenal. So Steve came on and talk about his upcoming series, Let this One Be a Devil and so much more. Check this out. But before you do, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Blue sky, threads, all those things. Subscribe, rate, review on Apple, Spotify, where wherever you find your podcasts as well as follow us over on YouTube and check our website out capes and tights.com this is Steve Fox, writer and comic book editor talking Let this One Be a Devil over at Dark Horse. Comments? Enjoy everyone.
Welcome to the podcast. Steve, how are you this morning? I should say early afternoon. Whatever you want to say this morning.
[00:01:36] Speaker B: No, it's, it's morning in my time zone. Yeah, no, I'm, I'm doing great. I live in a frosty climate and it's starting to melt a little bit. So I'll, I'll take what I can get.
[00:01:47] Speaker A: Are you in the Northeast? Is that where you are?
[00:01:49] Speaker B: I'm in the Midwest. Midwest, solidly in the Midwest. I lived in New York for about 15 years and then my fiance got a job offer out here and we can actually afford a house here versus New York. So we, we decant.
[00:02:01] Speaker A: I don't know, can anybody afford a house anywhere? Now I live in Maine and I feel like a saint. My wife and I are looking for a house and I'm like, I don't know how people afford houses, honestly.
But yeah, we're, it snowed this morning. We got About, I don't know, four, maybe five inches this morning here in Maine. Luckily, the snow we've gotten so far this year has been like powder, like, very soft. It's like one of those things. Like, I feel like if I had a leaf blower, I could go outside and just leaf blow my driveway and it would probably go away, which is nice. But I could use some warmer weather here pretty soon. I'm already tired of the snow.
So, yeah, we're here to our comics, though. We're not here to talk weather.
So let's just get started. Do you wanted to give us a little background on how you got into the world of comics in the first place for those who may not know who you are, Steve?
[00:02:47] Speaker B: Sure. Yeah. I mean, I was kind of the perfect age to hit the. The comic cartoon boom. So I grew up watching X Men, the Animated series, Batman, the Animated Series, all those shows in the early 90s, and also all the toy lines. The toy lines were really instrumental to me. I think I have every single toy biz action figure produced in the 90s. And I'm not really being hyperbolic about that. I really do think I have every single one. And that's what made me an obsessive and got me into comics at an early age. And I just became a lifelong reader. And I actually went to college for comics. I went to nyu. They have an individualized study school. So I studied comics and children's books. While I was there, I interned at Marvel Comics for a year. And when I graduated, I ended up working in children's books for a while. But I knew I wanted to do comics, and I wanted to write comics and edit comics and just be in the industry however I could. And my first publication, I won a top cow talent hunt and did a Witchblade story. And the year I won actually ended up being kind of like a fruitful little group because I won the same year as Teenie Howard and Isaac Goodheart and Ryan. Katie was one of the editors that year, and Phil Seavey was one of the runners up. So we became really good friends, and we all have kind of progressed through the industry together.
And.
Sorry, my dog is.
[00:04:17] Speaker A: That's good.
[00:04:18] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, she's in the background. She's excited about it, too.
Get in here, get in here. Come here. But no, we've all kind of progressed through the industry together.
But that was my first publication just a little over a decade ago now, and I just chipped away at it while I had a day job. So there was a period of Time where I was just publishing, like, one comic a year, but I was doing a lot of children's books, so if you, like, go on my Amazon page, there's 30, 40, like, Super Mario Pokemon.
Yep. That is probably the book I've sold the most. The Super Mario Little Golden Book. It is in every grocery store, every Kohl's. If I got royalties off of that, I'd have three houses.
But sadly, it's so funny.
[00:05:03] Speaker A: It's like, what's the weirdest thing when you, like, you have, like, a crossover, you walk into your son's room, and it's just like you pick a book up and you're like, wait a second, I know that name.
[00:05:12] Speaker B: I can't tell you how many times an editor has emailed me and said, you know, the. The weirdest thing I. My kid is reading this book, and I saw Steve Fox. Are you the same Steve Fox I was like? I surely am. I. I did write that baby shark book.
[00:05:28] Speaker A: It is funny because, I mean, Steve Fox is not, like, it's an obscure name, too. So you could be another Steve Fox too, right?
[00:05:34] Speaker B: I mean, yeah, but those paid the bills for a really long time. And then thankfully, they kind of became a bridge to Spider Ham, which was when Marvel and Scholastic teamed up to do younger readers comics.
Me and Shadia Amin did the Spider Ham series, and that got me in to Marvel to do x Men 92. And from there just kind of blossomed to do more and more. And so for the past couple years, I've been really lucky to stay very busy. And the other side of that is I've been editing for years. You know, that was my first job out of college. I edited for Paste magazine when they covered comics. And several years ago, gosh, about six years ago now, James Tynan hired me to edit the Department of Truth, which has blossomed into me being an employee of Tiny Onion. Yes, that's my Tiny Onion Water bottle.
[00:06:29] Speaker A: Will attend. Is that what you get? That's your salary? It's just a water bottle.
[00:06:33] Speaker B: Well, it's so much merch. Yes. Buttons, pins, tote bags. Yes, that's.
[00:06:39] Speaker A: I feel like I work for a brewery by day, and I feel like the same thing. It's like, I get a salary, but I also, like, have an entire wardrobe and koozies and all that stuff that I have that says the name of the brewery on it, which is kind of funny. But, yeah, I mean, Department of Truth, we just actually read that. I'm part of a book club for my local comic book shop. And we actually read that in November. Kind of like, you know, political oh, month. Yeah, it made sense. Yeah. And so we read that and it was actually, it was kind of funny that I looked it up afterwards. I forgot that you had. You had edited that and obviously what the deviant.
You did some razor blades in the world tree.
[00:07:15] Speaker B: James and I co created razor blades and then other. Other stuff that hasn't been announced yet. So.
[00:07:22] Speaker A: Yeah. And you, did you edit the room service comic book too?
[00:07:26] Speaker B: I did, yeah. So I wasn't involved with the Kickstarter, but I did edit the comic book one.
[00:07:30] Speaker A: The comic itself. Yeah, yeah. I have a. My room service thing somewhere around here. I don't know where I went, but yeah, but yeah, so that's kind of cool. I mean, what's I mean to you? I mean, you're a writer now or you're both, but like, you have a lot more writing titles, credits now.
What do you find? Do you find there's like fun in both different sides of things, of editing versus writing?
[00:07:52] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. I don't think I would ever want to, you know, give up one or the other.
I've said before, I kind of always worried that there would be a point in time where I'd have to choose. Like I felt like I was walking on two planks that were getting progressively farther apart and eventually I'd have to choose one or just break apart like a wishbone.
But it's never happened. I've just gotten more and more limber because it scratches different itches. And I learn from one side and get to apply it to the other. The people, the people I edit, the perspective I get from editing them, you know, looking over their shoulder, obviously that influences me as a writer. I get to see other tactics, tools.
And being a writer myself, actually, that doesn't flow as much into the editing side because my job when I'm editing James, or when I'm editing Matt Rosenberg or when I'm editing someone else, it's not to say, what would Steve Fox do on this book? Because, you know, James doesn't need Steve Fox. He's doing well. You know, it's to bring out the best possible version of what they're trying to do. So.
But they scratch different itches. I love being an editor. I've been doing it for over a decade now, so I don't plan on quitting anytime soon.
[00:09:12] Speaker A: And honestly, it's a silent, silent, but a really lesser known job in the world of comics for those who are maybe on the fringe of comic book Reading and collecting and stuff like that. Knowing that there's someone who actually is in charge of editing the book making things, you know, deadlines are met and things like that and so on. And so sometimes when people are like, you know, you talk to who on the podcast and I'm like, oh yeah, you know, Daniel Stroban, he's like, who, like, oh, he edits books for dark works. It's very integral to a lot of the comic books that you probably know, but you actually don't know who this person is. They're kind of like behind the scenes and sometimes it's nice, sometimes it's nice to be behind the scenes and just see people like in the book and being like hands off kind of thing. But no, it's a kind of like a silent, you know, successful person in a book. For real.
[00:09:57] Speaker B: Yeah. That's why when I. So I'm off of social media entirely, but I still sporadically put out my newsletter just to let people know I exist. And I always try to mention my editors on all the books because the amount of talent wrangling and deadlines and just, just the pure logistical work sometimes, let alone the creative feedback and the, you know, the narrative structuring and all of that, just the logistical work of being an editor can be so taxing to have to wrangle people across the globe. You know, comics is such a global industry. Like just thinking of World Tree. Aditya Bittokar, the letterer is in India. Fernando Blanco, the artist is in Spain. You know, James and I are both in Eastern Standard Time and Jordi Blair and Image Comics are on the west coast. So it's a 24 hour span to talk to the team.
So it's, it's, you know, logistically challenging. And so I, I try to give editors as much credit as possible, you know, removing myself from the equation, just knowing how much it takes to put a book together.
[00:11:03] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, yeah. So is that one of those things that, like, I don't know. I'm sure a lot of writers out there have respect and like their editors in general. But does it make it easier to, to understand maybe some deadline things or some other things that maybe an editor comes to you, you know, if Greg Lockard or Daniel come to you with True weird and we're like, hey, this, that and the other thing. Is it easier as a writer to understand what they're going through because you do edit books as well.
[00:11:30] Speaker B: Oh yeah. I definitely have more sympathy for the position because I know like, you know, sometimes you're just getting it from all.
[00:11:36] Speaker A: Sides and something like so you can speak to obviously. True Weird Story. This is the new book. This is the. Was it Let this one be a dev would be the first one coming out here over at Dark Horse Comics and Tiny Onion is the. This new series. You're the writer. James is the writer as well. Is it a real team effort on this writing this book?
[00:11:59] Speaker B: Yeah. So, you know, I've been editing James, but James and I are also very good friends. We talk to each other every single day.
It's a weird relationship for someone who's like both my boss and I edit him, but we're friends and now we're co writing. It's, you know, we've become like a very close symbiosis in a lot of ways.
When this program, this True Weird Story program got kicked off, we wanted to do this first book and we wanted to launch it together.
It just became really natural to do one together and to co write it.
And yeah, we worked on it really closely. We talked through every issue.
We had Google Docs going so both of us could contribute at the same time. So it was a close collaboration on this one. Each True Weird story is going to be executed in a different way, so I can't speak to how they're all going to be pulled off. But this one was. Was a very close collaboration because we've also, we've done cryptid stories together in other ways because Department of Truth had Bigfoot, had Mothman. We did the whole Wild Fictions together where I was pulling all the research together. So James and I have talked through so many different, like cryptid stories before, so much folklore. And we're both such nerds about the topic that it made sense to collaborate on launch title for this new sort of mini imprint we're doing.
[00:13:25] Speaker A: Yeah. And so for those who maybe don't know what exactly is. So you touched a little bit on what true weird stories are. But what is this specific kickoff story that let this one be a devil really about what's like an elevator pitch on this one?
[00:13:37] Speaker B: Yeah. So for the broader. True Weird has been going on at Dark Horse already through Blue Book and then through the True Weird backup stories. And sort of the ethos of True Weird overall is to take quote, real weird stories, you know, strange phenomenon, alien abduction stories, strange, unexplained, you know, monsters, weird sightings, things that just don't make sense and to tell narrative stories around them, to put them into real story format. And with this new mini imprint, we're doing it's specifically focused on Cryptids and monsters. Let this one Be a Devil is our attempt to do a definitive Jersey Devil story. The Jersey Devil is kind of weird amongst Cryptids because I don't think there's anyone who really makes a case for the Jersey Devil being like a plausible biological animal within cryptozoology. That's kind of one of the core debates, right? Like, are these biologically plausible animals? Are they supernatural creatures in some way? You know, that's. That's one of the main forks in the road. And the Jersey Devils always had this strong folkloric element because a lot of the original myth originates from, you know, the sort of Judeo, Christian side, this whole, like, gossip in the early 1700s. It's very complicated. So to say we want to do a definitive Jersey Devil story is already sort of an oxymoron.
But that was the fun in it was to try to compound all these different contradictory stories and both educate the reader about why the Jersey Devil's so confusing, at why it's both a chimera physically and narratively, and bring it all together in one four issue package. And we're doing that by building an original story around the myths. So you're going to get an actual sort of education in the real myths. You know, the facts we're telling you are what people actually believe about the Jersey Devil. It is what's documented about the Jersey Devil throughout history. But you're getting that told around an original story that James and I have come up with, which is really kind.
[00:15:48] Speaker A: Of cool because it's a way to like, learn a little bit about, like, the historical aspects of things like Jersey Devil or those kind of cryptid things. But also know that there's a little bit of fiction in that, in that sense that you guys said you had that story that goes around it. Is it harder to balance those things? Is it like one of those things, like a completely original true story or fiction story that has nothing based in fact at all? Is that an easier thing or a harder thing to do with, like, this kind of thing, which is, like, based in some factual evidence out there?
[00:16:16] Speaker B: You know, it has its benefits and challenges because you have a lot to draw from already, right? So you have these sort of building blocks that you get to pull from and use, and that's really fun. The most challenging thing, and I realized this, like, halfway through the first issue, is that a lot of this is set in the 1907 wave of sightings. And that is an extremely challenging period in history to write about because so much was in flux. Like cars existed, but they weren't widespread. Bathrooms existed in houses, but it wasn't widespread. You know, electricity existed, but you didn't necessarily have it if you were too far out in the boonies. So it was like everything was kind of on a borderline. So just figuring out the kind of reference to give Pyotr Kowalski, our artist on the series, because he's so detailed. That's one of the reasons I love working with him, is that Pyotr builds entire worlds. You know, some artists you work with, backgrounds are more suggestions. It's just enough to set the scene. Pyotr is going to build the entire world, the entire setting. He's not going to skimp on anything. So you really have to provide what you're going to see. So figuring out that the early 1900s in like rural New Jersey, that was difficult. The research for that was difficult. And I think I told Greg Lockhart, the editor, I'm never doing a period piece again.
This is everything from now on is set 1950s and above, never going below that.
But that was the most challenging part.
[00:17:52] Speaker A: Because this is a work of fiction in the sense that it's a comic book. It's not based 100%. In fact, people still will pick apart it. People still will be like, not everybody had a bathroom. I don't know what you're thinking. They will. And it's like, come on. It's like we're trying to have fun here too, at the same time of bringing these stories to it. Pyotr is one of my favorite comic book artists of all time, bar none. The work, you know, that, that I just can't get every time I pick a book up. And I didn't realize, or maybe I didn't know, but I forgot I opened the book up. I'm like, I know who wrote this book. It's so like, I don't know, like that's the hashes they use in each panel and page and stuff like that is just so beautiful. And obviously the colors too by Brad Simpson are phenomenal as well. So like this, like you guys have really have like an all star team on this freaking book too. With you, with you and James and P and Brad, like, this is just like, you know, phenomenal team to kick off this series for sure.
[00:18:46] Speaker B: Yeah. And then we brought Tom Napolitano on Letters, who also did Blue Book.
[00:18:50] Speaker A: Yes. Yeah.
[00:18:51] Speaker B: P and Brad. We also worked together in all eight Eyes, which I did at Dark Horse, also with Dan Chabon. But yeah, P, he's so detailed. He brings so much reality to the world. And that's. That's really why I love working with him. And I think it's why we did. It's why I. I asked him to do all eight eyes with me, because I wanted that to be really grounded. And it's why I think he was a perfect choice for Let this One Be a Devil, because there are so many outlandish and strange elements to the Jersey Devil story. So having him be able to ground that in the reality of Henry and Roy's story while also having these. I don't know if you've gotten a chance to look at issue two.
[00:19:34] Speaker A: No.
[00:19:34] Speaker B: Yeah.
In issue two, we get into more of the political backstory of the Jersey Devil, and Pyotr has a chance to really let loose with more symbolic pages. And seeing him get to cut loose on that side, he can really do anything. And I guess that's. That's what's so fun to see both the grounded storytelling that really makes you feel like you're in the 1900s, that really makes you feel like you're in the 1700s. But then to see him do these, like, full pages that look like woodcuts, these full pages that look like, you know, these weird, hallucinatory, you know, satanic nightmares. Like, it's fun to see the whole spectrum from him.
[00:20:16] Speaker A: It's funny because for P, it's like one of those things, like, over the past, I don't know, a couple years, probably starting with Ollie Dies. Like, from that point on, I was just like any horror series that I gave a good review to. I was like, the artist happened to be Fyodor. It's like. It's like one of those things like, oh, this is amazing. Obviously, Where Monsters Lie is also another Phenomen series that. That he's attached to. But yeah, in Satan's Swarm was a graphic novel that came out or late last year that was phenomenal as well. But, yes, like, to me, it couldn't go any more positive on the artwork side of this thing with having P there as well as. Like I said, like I said Brad, and you mentioned Letterer. Who's the letter again?
[00:20:54] Speaker B: Tom Napolitano.
[00:20:55] Speaker A: Yes. Thank you.
For some reason, I stopped my notes with simp and not even Sun. I must have been in the middle of something and actually didn't even finish. Finish the actual note there. But yeah, I mean, so. So in general, you have true weird. This true weird. Let this One Be a Devil series. You've. You've Written. Mario, you've written the X Men.
Is it. Is it hard? So. So as someone who's a designer, a graphic designer by trade, sometimes I find myself hard to, like, focus on a specific project because I want to be focusing on the thing that's over here that's actually, like, something. Is it harder to separate these kind of things where, like, maybe you really want to be writing X Men right now, but you have to write this, or maybe you want to be writing this and you have to be writing something like some sort of IP or some sort of, like, superhero story? Is it hard to, like, wrap your reign around when you write these things?
[00:21:42] Speaker B: Well, I have to write them when they're due.
[00:21:46] Speaker A: That's the thing. It's like. That's the difficult part, like I said, about being a graphic designer and having to do something. It's like I literally just had a meeting with the ownership of the company I work for, Orno Brewing Company, and it was like, one of those things that I had to, like, start prioritizing when things are due and not when I want to do them, if that makes any sense. So do you find that difficult, or is it something that, like, you just. It's part of the job.
[00:22:06] Speaker B: I'm really used to it at this point because I've been juggling these, you know, different. Juggling these different hats for a decade to mix metaphors.
I had more trouble or I had more stress when I was doing a lot more children's books. And I've pared down that side of my career. And I love doing the kids work. I love doing, you know, the licensed books. It's. It's fun to walk into, like, a Meijer grocery store and see, you know, Pokemon books that I wrote. But that was so far field from what I was doing otherwise, because those aren't narrative. Like, those are activity books. You know, I had to come up with Sudoku puzzles for those.
[00:22:45] Speaker A: Yeah, there's the Mario.
[00:22:47] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:22:47] Speaker A: Which looks very well.
[00:22:49] Speaker B: Well, love.
[00:22:50] Speaker A: Well, I'm glad, because my son realizes that he just peels the sticker off and sticks it back on the book instead of on something else. So there's that.
[00:22:56] Speaker B: Yes. I was in a Barnes and Noble once and watched a kid pull one of my splatoon books out and proceed to take the stickers and just put it all over the table at the Barnes and Noble. Which was one way to engage with.
[00:23:12] Speaker A: Yes, exactly. So, yeah, I mean, you know, is that you continue. Sorry. Yeah, yeah.
[00:23:18] Speaker B: So when I was doing more of the kids activity Books. I had a harder time there because there were times where, as much as I loved that work, Yes. I would be doing, like, crossword puzzles and thinking, I would really love to be working on, like, a script right now. I would really love to be engaging with something a little more narratively stimulating. Now, though, I'm kind of used to the juggling, and it works in a nice way to kind of flex different muscles. Like, you know, when you go to a gym, you don't do leg day. Every single day. You want to kind of vary the workout. So that's how I feel about, you know, switching from a new Champion script to, you know, a horror project to editing department of Truth to, you know, whatever else I may be working on. Also, you know, people forget there's so much just kind of busy work to being a writer or an editor. Like, the amount of, like, forms and invoices, tax stuff, filling out different, like, employments. You know, there's so much other stuff you're doing. Even just responding to emails and correspondences takes up a lot of time.
So it can be nice to just flex different muscles. As far as the challenge creatively, though, of keeping things in your mind, sometimes that is difficult because you go a month or six weeks between scripts and having to think like, okay, where did I leave everyone? Especially right now, I'm working on a number of team books. So, you know, Superior Avengers has a cast of, like, seven or eight principal characters. New Champions has a cast of, like, six or seven principal characters. So I'm going between months where I'm like, okay, six weeks ago, Phantasma was in this state of mind, you know, so you kind of. You end up coming up with different ways to manage that. And one of the. I've talked about this on other podcasts, but for me, I often pick a band or an artist that I heavily associate with a book. And I don't listen to anything while I write, but I listen to something when I'm getting into it.
So when I did Spider Woman, it was a PJ Harvey album and a Slater Kinney album. So those two, I would listen to them just, like, in the car taking my fiance to work, coming home before I'd write Spider Woman. And that was just kind of my, like, mental click to do that. Like, Dark X Men was Nick Cave.
Superior Avengers is chat pile, like, for what it. For whatever reason, it just kind of, like, becomes associated in my head with that series, and it allows me to get into it. Let this one Be a Devil was challenging because it's 1700s and 1900s. So I'm not really listening to music that easily fits that. But what I finally found was Ethel Cain, the first Ethel Cain album. She has these weird, choral, haunting melodies. So there was a song on her first album that felt like, okay, this sounds like a ghostly dirge from the 1700s. So that's going to be my lead in for this book.
[00:26:29] Speaker A: It's just to see you trying to find music for the 1700, trying to find that son being like, now I don't want to write this book.
But yeah, that. That's. I mean, that makes sense. And I also feel like, I mean, is it not that you ever phone anything home, but it's probably a little bit easier to just like, get like, you know, there's not a lot of creative or super creative writing in something like this sticker book than there is like, let this one be a devil. Right. I mean, I'm sure.
[00:26:54] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:26:55] Speaker A: You know, there is this, like. There's a lot more heavy thought that goes into that, whereas this is more like, I gotta get it done kind of thing. I know. Like I said, I don't think you probably ever phone anything home. I'm sure there's not, like, sentences that don't make any sense in here. But there are children. I'll tell you what. There are children's books that I read to my son. Like a paw patrol book or something like that where I open it up and I'm like, what was someone just, like, putting words on a page and it just like. Like, this doesn't even make sense. Like, my son's gonna be like, my son's gonna point it out to me, like, dad, that doesn't make any sense. I know you're talking about. Because, like, there's certain times where, like, there's such a hard to read. Like, it's so hard to read.
[00:27:26] Speaker B: Yeah, the. The activity books, too. That's something that, like, if the deadline was pressing, I could stay up all night and just like, you know, copy and paste things from past activity books and, like, change the numbers and change the puzzle formats. I can't really do that with, like, a new Champion script. Like, it's gonna show if I've, like, stayed up all night and just kind of like frantically done something, you know, that's gonna suffer. And that's also unfair to all my collaborators.
[00:27:50] Speaker A: Right.
[00:27:51] Speaker B: Because yes, Ivan Fiorelli is gonna spend six weeks drawing something versus, like, a designer plugging in stock art. So it's not the same situation.
[00:28:02] Speaker A: Yeah, but you get A chance.
[00:28:03] Speaker B: I mean, I totally phoned in some.
[00:28:05] Speaker A: Of those activities, which I don't blame. It's one of those things. It's like, I just, you know, it's like I don't. I'm gu person who does the voiceover stuff for children's toys. Phone that in versus this. And they do the same thing where they do a voiceover for some sort of animated show. Like their job, it's different. They should be like, okay, the letter A. Whereas, you know, maybe something they're actually voicing. Mario. It's going to be different than actually voicing some sort of button you push on a book. I mean, it's just. It is what it is. My son's not judging your work in this. It has freaking Mario in it.
[00:28:36] Speaker B: You never know. Because one the. So I don't read any reviews of my work now, but when I was, when I was younger, you know, of course that's like the. The siren call of all creators. And one of the review, the only review that haunts me to this day is for a Batman storybook where I wrote that the Joker was escaping in a dump truck and the artist drew a garbage truck and a parent wrote. Wrote an angry review that their child was upset that it said dump truck, but it was a garbage truck.
I had no control over that. And I didn't get a chance to review the text before it went to art.
[00:29:17] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:29:17] Speaker B: But it's now a two star review on Amazon for all time.
[00:29:21] Speaker A: It's funny, I wanted to bring it up because I talked to Tim Jacobus who wrote or who do the illustrations for the covers of Goosebumps books, and I wanted to bring it up to him, but I ended up not bringing up to him on the podcast. But like, like the thing is, one of the things that's always original Goosebumps that's always frustrated me is that the Deep Trouble Goosebumps book has a hammerhead shark on the front of the book. And you think that it's gonna be this whole thing about sharks and so on and so forth, but the book's actually about mermaids. And to me, it's always been one of these things that every time I pick that book up and like skim through it, I'm always like, so frustrated that the COVID has a shark on it. And it's really about troubles with mermaids in the ocean. And so, yeah, I can see how that could be frustrating to someone. But yeah, yeah, it is. I mean, like I said, the majority of people, the people are going to Judge of me sitting late at night being like, what the heck is Mario doing in this book?
And actually, the biggest complaint I would be about the designers on black text in certain places where the pages are too dark. Because, I mean, most of the time you're trying to read these books to children at night in the. In the dark, or like, with like a reading light on. And sometimes I'm like, dude, I can't. I'm only 38, but I can't read this thing.
No, but you also get an opportunity to write Super Mario. I mean, there's no Super Mario comic, you know, I mean, as of right now. And so you get a chance to dabble in some characters that some other people in the. In the comic book world maybe don't get a chance to get dabble in. So that's pretty cool too.
[00:30:38] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. I consider it very bucket list that I've. I have published Super Mario and Pokemon. You know, Justice League Saves Christmas. You know, those are all really fun. Like, I was very grateful for my entire, like, children's books career and. And I'm sure I'll continue to do some kids stuff here and there. It was just not sustainable to do that in the volume that I was doing it. Now that I've had so much comic work.
[00:31:04] Speaker A: A question for you. Has anybody walked up to, like, a booth at a convention, had this be signed yet or.
[00:31:09] Speaker B: No, not that one.
[00:31:11] Speaker A: Okay, but someone's done, like, a different one.
[00:31:13] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah. So I don't really do a lot of convention appearances, but I did do a signing for Spider Verse, the Spider Verse anthology I was in. And someone brought up another Mario book with a spider ham book, which was very cute.
[00:31:27] Speaker A: That's. That's awesome. I also laugh because it's like, you're one of the few people who've written something like this where. Where I'm, like, not freaking out that my son's putting the stickers on the front where, like, if he's had, like, one of comic books that you've written, I'm like, no, don't do that. That's horrible. But yeah, so he's had the opportunity to do that, which is kind of cool. And the kind of thing that we could sit next to each other, he could be reading his Mario book and I could be reading, you know, Time Slide or whatever. And we're both reading the same writer, but at different levels is really kind of cool too. So. So I. Yeah, it's. It's a really. To me, it would be a pinch me moment. And I'm guessing it is for you as well. It's just pretty cool.
[00:31:57] Speaker B: I'm one of the few writers that like, I've gone from activity books through to erotica. So I've really got the entire, like.
[00:32:04] Speaker A: You'Ve got someone's entire life.
[00:32:06] Speaker B: I've got the entire life. Yeah.
[00:32:08] Speaker A: Someone, someone could read your Mario book and then later on graduate to X Men or over to Let this one be a devil and then, and then they finish with the erotica stuff. So there you go, you got the whole market. You don't have to do anything else.
[00:32:19] Speaker B: Birth to death.
[00:32:20] Speaker A: Yeah, it's pretty good. But I mean, this is really cool. I mean, I think that like, you know, honestly, I think a lot of writers out there, editors out there, would also say it's a pinching moment to work alongside someone like James in the world of comics. I mean, James is one of the, you know, premier comic book writers and creators right now, in my opinion. And I think that a lot of people at the local comic book shop would agree on that. And so you getting to not only attach your name to someone like that, but actually be friends and work together closely and, and I guess, you know, for me, like I said, I work at a brewery and it's really sometimes when the ownership group listens to you and says something for something that we're one of the, we're the fifth largest brewery in the state of Maine. And it's like when they actually say something like, yeah, cool, that's a beer name. We'll like that beer name. We'll use that beer name. And it's kind of like a pinch me moment in that moment because it's like, oh, cool. This is like I actually have say. And to be able to have something like that with someone again so recognizable like James, I'm guessing that's a pretty cool experience as well.
[00:33:10] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, we're very lucky. That Tiny Onion. We're still a small company and we've done really big things already and there's stuff that hasn't been announced yet.
But even the things that have been announced we're very proud of. But James is a very collaborative leader. He's a very open minded leader. I think that's one of the things that has made it so easy to work with him from the start is that I've edited people who you give them a note and their first impulse is to push back or defend themselves. And that's just really not James's mindset.
If someone's response to something is, oh, this doesn't quite make sense, or here's how we could improve it. He's open to hearing that he wants the books to be the best they can be. So having that sense of flexibility and openness from the jump from when we started Department of Truth, from these other books to now that we're a full fledged company where all of us from, you know, the production designer through to the events manager through to, you know, me as the editor, we all have the chance to provide, you know, feedback and suggestions where we all really feel like we have a voice being heard, you know, that I think is what is making Tiny Onion such a fun place to work. And really a place that feels like we're against all that language of like we're a family, blah, blah, blah. Like, I think that that is kind of like a toxic way to move as a company. But like, we do feel like very collaborative as a company as a whole. Like, we do all feel like we have a chance to contribute something. And even though we're spread out geographically, you know, we have people on both coasts we try to meet multiple times a year for in person summits so that we have a chance to contribute while we're in the same room and really bounce ideas off of one another, that's really cool.
[00:35:05] Speaker A: I mean, I've talked to Isaac Goodart, I've talked to Tabe Romball, you know, now you. It's just a cool, it's a humbling experience for myself just to know that like no one said anything bad about James. And like that's, that's the, you know, that's a cool, it's a cool thing to hear that. Like, it's the same thing. I love to hear about people like work with Dark Horse and things like that. Like, you know, I've always heard talk to people even off air. Even if people, someone like was like, oh yeah, it's a great company to work for. And then they sign off and they're like, oh my God, dude, don't experience it. Truthfully will say there's never been that experience with either, either someone with Dark Horse or James in that sense. So that's pretty cool too in that sense. You guys all praise working with someone like that. But the cool thing, to me, it's like opening acts for a comedian or opening acts for a band. To me, it's like those people who may not know who you guys are between you and someone like Isaac or Tate, get an experience, you get your name out there and then now people are gonna Be fans of yours. And I think that's kind of cool too. Even though obviously you were writing and you do your own thing on the side too, too. But someone who solely was like James Tiny and I gotta get something from him, will now maybe experience someone from you, which is really cool. And I think that's cool. And that's what I love about variant covers too. The variant cover, you know, discussion can be happening for years and years and years about whether there's too many or whatever. But I know I found artists that were on variant covers that I found that I liked, that I ended up following their art afterwards, which is kind of cool. So having these partnership writing things that you and James write the script together, I think will open up people's eyes to actually finding your work and then going, yeah, Steve's a pretty badass writer as well. I want to write. And I think so. And that's one of those things. I mean, the Super Mario book is like one of the best things I've ever read. So.
[00:36:46] Speaker B: Yeah, no, I mean, I'm very in favor of it. Some of my earlier credits were with Steve Orlando before I had done as much writing on a solo level. I'm sure that helped position me to do more on my own. And now that I've done a lot more on my own, so I do a series of Spider man comics for Disney in Italy and in the European market. And now that I've done like 30, 40 of those, I'm actually bringing on a co writer who's a friend of mine, Josh Corneon, who's sort of like a rising creator to help boost him up and get him more credit. So it's like paying it forward to kind of keep it going. So, no, I think that's a great way to kind of spread the love around and. And I'd love to carve off more James fans to come over and be Steve Fox fans. But the main reason we did this was to just launch the line as large as possible, of course. And to make sure folks know that the Dark Horse side of the line is something that we feel strongly about too. Not just the boom and the image books that we do.
[00:37:52] Speaker A: Let this one be a devil. Is it a four issue series?
[00:37:54] Speaker B: It's a four issue series, yes.
[00:37:56] Speaker A: Okay, so four issues. And I know they haven't announced yet, but there's obviously a plan for the next True Weird Stories, right? I mean, it's already in the motion. Okay, yes. And it's obviously going to be some sort of cryptid, some sort of, you know, in that. In that same vein as the Jersey Devil.
[00:38:10] Speaker B: Yes. So different creative teams will do each one, and we have other monsters lined up, so they're each going to be major monsters. You know, don't. Don't be looking for the Fresno nightcrawlers. Unfortunately. I don't think you could do 100 pages on the Fresno nightcrawlers, but I'd love to see someone try.
But, yeah, so we're going to tackle major monsters, and it'll be the same format each time where it's going to be an original story built around the. The real mythology.
[00:38:38] Speaker A: That's. That's so awesome. Honestly, every time I read these kind of stories, whether it be wild fictions or. Or like this. Let this be a devil, I. I'm a huge X Files fan. So, like, these are, like, those episodes. Like, honestly, in my mind, I'm, like, picturing the X Files Jersey Devil episode when I was reading this, which is completely different. Different. Yeah. Close to what?
[00:38:56] Speaker B: This is terrible as a Jersey Devil episode. It's a very empathetic episode. But they should have called it, like, a Bigfoot episode or a wild man episode or something. I have no idea why they called it a Jersey Devil episode, but I.
[00:39:08] Speaker A: Was like, but it made me want to watch it. I'm like, okay, but the problem with that is it's a slippery slope, because I feel like when I say, oh, I made me want to watch it, I'll, like, watch that episode. I'd be like, ah, screw it. I'll just watch the whole thing over again, and I'll just watch the entire X Files again. And people are like, have you seen this new show? I'm like, no, I'm watching the X Files. Like, what?
[00:39:22] Speaker B: That's a better use of your time, I think.
[00:39:24] Speaker A: But I was just like, it's just so funny. I. When I. When I saw the Jersey Devil, literally reading it in the solicitation was like, oh, I want to watch the X Files episode. Even though, like I said, it's not good. But I like that episode. I like that short episode.
[00:39:36] Speaker B: Oh, no, no, no. It's a good episode. It's just not a good Jersey Devil.
[00:39:39] Speaker A: That's. I should. Yeah, yeah, you're right. You're right. But it's cool. And I think there's a, you know, carving this little section out that people have told stories, obviously, about these kind of creatures over the years in comic books and books. Books and things like that. But it is kind of cool right now that it's like to tell these stories and bring your own little pizzazz to it from Tiny Youngen and from you and James and Brad and Pyotr over there at Dark Horse is really cool. Yeah, the Dark Horse line of Tai Young and stuff is awesome too. So check the Blue Book stuff out too, because that's really cool. And so on. And obviously the oddly pedestrian life of Christopher Kayes is phenomenal as well.
Dark Horse, but. But true weird stories. Let this one be a Devil, which I think that the world nowadays in these long titles. Man, I don't know what to tell you.
[00:40:26] Speaker B: Search Engine Optimization.
[00:40:29] Speaker A: Well, I was thinking Matt Rosenberg is coming on. He's actually the next episode after this episode on the podcast to help promote Matt's new book. But I laughed as I'm like, dude, he's just trying to like, outdo himself with the longer titles. Like, he's trying to win. Like, it should be some sort of like Eisner Award for the world's longest title in the year or something along those lines. So sort of honorary title for having the longest title.
[00:40:51] Speaker B: Well, I'm expecting. Yeah. So I'm editing Matt now and. Okay, so when he gave me the list of books that he's working on, it did take me like three weeks to memorize which was which for the length of all the titles.
[00:41:03] Speaker A: Well, just like my buddy is like, when he's like, ready, go. Because he's like. Types out as like LCS owner. He's an owner of a Galactic Comics in Bangor, Maine, and he's typing out the titles and he's like, dude. It's like, I don't have space on these. Like, I'm trying to find a way to put. And I'm like, it's true. When you go to review a comic book and like the SEO says your title's already too long, I'm like, that's just the name of the comic. I can't even put some sort of descriptor to say what I like about the comic. It's like the name of the comic fills the spot. But no, it's a. It's kind of funny. So this. Let this one be a devil. This hits February 19th at local comic book shops. The first issue and then obviously it's coming out monthly after that. I wanted to quickly touch on something you mentioned, something about you remembering characters from every six weeks. Weeks. It's bad enough as readers, as us, as readers, to remember what happened in the comic book issue that happened the month before, let alone the person writing it. So I Can understand.
I can understand that, you know that dilemma on that. But yeah, because you know, month to month I'm always like. But it gets me to read the old other episode, the other issue again. It's like, oh yes, what happened in the past. Yeah, exactly. So that's really cool. And you have new other books that are out. So you have time slide that just came out. Your New Champions, that's over at Marvel as well. Is there anything else that I'm forgetting? Right.
[00:42:17] Speaker B: Currently Superior Avengers just got announced which is a One World under Doom tie in. It's a brand new team of hand picked Doom's Avengers that are being led by Kristoff Doom's son.
So that book, I think, I don't think we've actually revealed too many details, so I probably shouldn't say more. But it's a brand new set of villainous looking Avengers. Yeah. Who share names with a lot of familiar villains.
So that, that's launching in April, I believe.
And then yeah, New Champions is going on now. So that I think.
[00:42:59] Speaker A: And obviously you're still editing. I mean, Department of Truth is still coming out. The Deviant.
[00:43:03] Speaker B: Yes, Department of Truth World Tree, the Deviant. And then. And this fall I have Kid Flash Going Rogue, which is a middle grade graphic novel coming out from D.C. with Jerry Gaylord on art. And I have the first two books in the archives of the Unexplained series, which is coming out from first Second, which are middle grade spooky nonfiction series.
So it's actually kind of like a tonal cousin to True Weird style stories where we are telling scary true stories.
[00:43:40] Speaker A: That's. That's awesome. I love that kind of thing. Honestly, over the past couple years, some of my favorite books have been middle grade books. And I don't know, I don't know if it's because it's like, I don't know. I just feel like I don't know if that's because I don't have to think as much or something, you know, like, I don't know what it is, but there's like, I mean, honestly, the Blue Beetle story by Julio Anta and Jacoby Salcedo was a middle grade or younger young adult, I should say. It's not probably middle grade, it's probably a young adult book. But it was like a Blue Beetle story that I was like, oh, this is really cool. It's very, very like, I don't know, just easy to read and easy to understand and things like that. I don't know what it was about it. But some of my favorite prose novels of the past couple years have been young adult or middle grade novels. Honestly, maybe I just not thinking too much. I think it's what it is.
[00:44:22] Speaker B: And we got amazing art on it. Naomi Franquiz and Fran Braino are doing the first.
[00:44:27] Speaker A: That's awesome.
[00:44:27] Speaker B: And they look stunning. And I should say Luca Maresca is my collaborator on Superior Avengers, so shout him out. Yeah, yeah, I think that's everything. And then, oh, I should mention too, Beastly Buddies is currently running on the Marvel Unlimited app. So that's Werewolf by Night and Man Thing Serial, which I'm doing with Armand Bodnar. It is probably one of my favorite things I've ever written. It is just this very silly road trip comedy between the two of them.
And if I could, I would write it for 1000 chapters. So I would love folks to go check that out if they have Marvel Unlimited so we can get a second season.
[00:45:12] Speaker A: That's awesome. That's so cool. Yeah, I love that. And it's always a fun thing. It's like the one thing that you love the most is the one that's probably the one that isn't the one that's the most popular, which is always. Yeah.
[00:45:23] Speaker B: Flying under the radar.
[00:45:25] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:45:25] Speaker B: Oh, and Alien Paradiso is still running. So, yes, Alien Paradiso. I think issue two just came out.
[00:45:34] Speaker A: You're one of those ones. Steve Fox here is one of those ones that, like, I always, like, talk to my local comic book shop owner, Paul Eaton, and I'm always like, hey, you know, Steve is coming on and they ask always like, okay, what some of his credits? And I'm like, listing off credits and like, it's like, same with Matt. I was like, oh, my gosh. Like this. I just go back and I'm like, holy crap, there's so much stuff. I'm like, where do you guys find the time?
[00:45:54] Speaker B: I just make it work a lot.
[00:45:56] Speaker A: Yes, you make it work. Make it work for sure. And that's awesome. I'm so excited. So. So let this one be a devil. Part of the true Weird series over at Dark Horse and Tiny Onion comes out February 19th at your local comic book shops. And this will drop about a week prior. So just if you still haven't told your LCs that you want it, tell them you want it. Put them in your poll box, whatever it is. And I know it's a little harder. I know my lcs a little harder to get books right now. So just let them know you want it because The. The upheaval in the distribution world right now is kind of crazy and people switching and all that stuff. So I. I know you can get Dark Horse comics from Penguin Random House, so it's a little bit easier in that sense that they've been pretty, you know, on time and stuff like that. But just let your LCS shop know you want it so that they can at least hold it, or if they only get a few copies or whatever, it may be that you actually get the book. That's one thing. I just communicate with them on that sense. And if they don't get it for some weird reason, they can reorder it and things like that. So just communicate with your lcl. Don't walk in there and go, I don't see it, and leave. Like so many people I've seen. I know where a lot of us comic book readers are a lot of introverts. And so they don't want to talk to the shop owner or anything like that. But, like, if you really want something, just say something, because they might be able to. They may have it out back or. Or whatever. So make sure you talk to your LCS owner on that or someone who works there, I should say. So, you know. Yeah, I'm excited. I. I loved it, so I hope other people do. And I'm excited for more from not just this series, but this. The continuation of the True Weird Stories. And I'm hoping that you do many more comics. Does that work?
[00:47:22] Speaker B: That's the plan.
[00:47:25] Speaker A: Let's keep. Keep Steve employed. People like, let's buy. Let's buy Steve's comics. No. I appreciate you coming out and. And talking to us today on this episode. And we'll get you back in the future when. When we have a chance. So I'm going. Good.
[00:47:37] Speaker B: Sounds great to me. Thank you.
[00:47:39] Speaker A: Thanks, Steve.
