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 is the first episode of the new year. Welcome to Capes and Tights podcast in 2026.
If you're listening to this after that, well, it's still 2026 because you are listening to it this year. But this episode is once again brought to you by our friends over at Galactic Comics and Collectibles. At galactic comics and collectibles.com we welcome our first guest of the year is Greg Katzman. He's the senior publicity manager over at IDW Publishing, who is the publisher behind comics such as tmnt, Star Trek, Godzilla, Sonic the Hedgehog, Rocketeer and a bunch of IDW horror stuff. In 2025 was a great year for them and they're gearing up for 2026, which is amazing.
Especially excited for me is the IDW Dark imprint which is going to be talking about horror comics. Smile for the Camera Exorcism at Buckingham palace, both those by Hannah Rose May In a Quiet Place and so much more, including Team nt. So check out this episode talking to senior publicity manager from IDW Publishing, Greg Katzman. But until you finish this episode, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Blue sky threads, all those places you can rate, review, subscribe over on Apple, Spotify or wherever you find your podcasts. And as always, you can find us on YouTube as the video portion and capesandtights.com for so much more and more, including our favorite comics of last year and what's coming up this year. So enjoy this episode with Greg Katzman of IDW Publishing. Thanks, everyone.
Welcome to the podcast. Greg, how are you today?
[00:01:40] Speaker B: I'm doing well. Thanks for having me. How are you?
[00:01:42] Speaker A: I'm doing wonderful. We're getting here to the end of the or beginning of the year. This episode's actually released the beginning of the year. So we're now in 2026. We're actually in the future right now talking to you.
Does that work? How was your new year?
[00:01:55] Speaker B: I hope it went well.
[00:01:58] Speaker A: The world did not end on December 31, 2025, according to this episode. We'll see. We'll see. So it's kind of funny, I was actually having that conversation with my wife about podcasts and we're talking about the end of the year and how I released these episodes on Wednesday. And this year Wednesday falls on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. And so it's one of those like, do you do an episode, do, do an episode kind of thing. And I, in my mind I thought, if I'm traveling on New Year's Eve or Christmas Eve to somewhere, I want my podcast that I listen to most recent episodes. So I said, you know what? This year, if it fell on Christmas Day, I think it's a different story. I think last year I did, I think I actually released it on Tuesday. But like, to me it's like, oh, you got to do this. But also it'd be okay if there wasn't an episode. And she was like, yeah, why don't podcasts say that, hey, next week we're not going to have an episode. I said, well, because they want to be Evergreen. They don't want to be you listening to an episode and be like, wait, there's not an episode next week when you listen to it six months later because you're behind.
But sometimes these episodes fall on times that you can say happy New Year and so on. So we'll talk that stuff. But yeah, well, welcome to the podcast. We've chatted via video chat about behind the scenes about other stuff, but I wanted to get you on here to chat about IW and all things comics. Um, first of all, when I tell people you're a senior publicity manager, what in a nutshell, is a senior publicity manager for idw?
[00:03:18] Speaker B: Yeah, that's a good question. Basically, I, I work with press and creators to make sure we're promoting our comics to the best of our ability. Whether that is lining up announcements, you know, and when to make those announcements to be most effective. And just to be clear, I work specifically for the direct market, which is single issues. We have a great book publicist, Kim Esslin, who works on the book for ogns and trades and hardcover, different kinds of collected editions. So for me it's working with press on announcement strategies, best timing for that interview opportunities, making sure press have access to PDFs for reviews if and when there are embargoes for said reviews. If they're spoiler free, spoilers are fair game. Preview pages, access to comics early for other kinds of coverage consideration. It really depends on the outlet.
You know, you obviously do a great job with interviews and reviews and stuff like that. There are other outlets who maybe they want to lean more into editorials or something. So it's making sure they have a heads up as well as embargo on. Here's what's going on in this comic line. Feel free to prop whatever comic, you know, coverage you would like to do, whether it's spoilers or other stuff.
So yeah, celebrating our comics to the best of our ability with press and creators.
[00:04:39] Speaker A: I imagine it's slightly different than in the book market, not the graphic novel market that Kim deals with, but in the book market itself, like the prose novels and nonfiction books that they have a year long thing and the publishers do a lot of the marketing for it. They're doing a lot of the, you see the billboards at Times Square and all that stuff. That's a lot of the publisher handling that. And in the comic book world, talking to people over the years in reviewing comics and things like that, they're doing a lot of legwork too. And so it seems like in the comic book industry you're doing a lot of we're work together on this. Whereas I think in some other industries it's like I wrote the thing, I sold the thing. Now it's the publisher or whoever's job to sell the thing and they do a little bit of it. But like a lot of us, like it's like it feels like a grassroots effort, even though it's bigger than grassroots in that sense. But it seems like these creators are also working with you on trying to get interviews and reviews and things like that. Is that correct?
[00:05:31] Speaker B: Yeah, that's, that's a fair assessment. Obviously with the book market, like you said, there's a much longer Runway. They have more resources at their disposal, frankly to do stuff there. But in the comic book market, it is obviously ideal if comic book creators are comfortable doing their own promotions, whether it's on social media, whether it's interviews, whether it's chatting with their peers and giving their peers early copies of their comics to say like, hey, check this out. If you do dig it, you know, would you be comfortable with a pull quote, a social thing? But also everyone has different comfort levels. There are going to be brilliant creators we work with who are like, I'm going to leave it on the page, thank you very much. I don't feel like doing interviews and stuff. And that's okay. You know, everyone has different, you know, comfort levels with that kind of stuff. But yes, a number of creators that we do work with, you know, they, they are always happy and eager to get out there, try to do interviews, try to do any kind of press opportunities possible. You've obviously chatted with a number of them, not only W, but of course from, you know, across the whole industry and I think comics as well, you have to, I mean like this is speaking personally for at least my role and My job, you have to hustle, like, every single day because, like, New Comic Book day every single Wednesday. How many comics are being released by Marvel? How many Hardcoms are being released by dc, Dark Horse, Image? All the different things that are under images umbrella, like, you know, Ghost Machine and Skybound, Dynamite, so many other publishers, Mad Cave. So it's like, yeah, we could just release the comics and we'll do what they do, but that's doing them and the creators a disservice. We always have to push. We always have to make as much noise as possible and do what we can to promote. Otherwise, they just kind of fly under the radar. And, you know, it's a busy market. We. We got to keep just. Just got to keep doing our best. And if creators are game for that, I always work with them for a schedule that works for them. I always ask them, like, do you have a preferred type of interview method? Are you comfortable with email interviews? Do you prefer zoom? Do you prefer phone? Phone?
Yeah, I was combining zoom and phone for a second there. Excuse me.
And yeah, if they do prefer a zoom or phone, you know, what's their time zone, what are their windows that are preferred? And then from there, trying to work best with press to meet those windows of availability. If press are interested in doing interviews.
[00:07:53] Speaker A: Yeah, it's just, it's also, you're dealing with. And you deal with the direct market. So there's issues 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 of every comic book or whatever it may be. Whereas in the book market, you know, and not say, Kim's job is extremely hard as well.
But Kim is selling the complete practice package. And so it's. And that sometimes has a little bit more Runway too. We know X, Y and Z trades coming out in June.
We don't really know. Like, even if I did some research on what's coming up for IDW in 2026, it's like, I know a few things, but, like, we don't know deadlines. We don't know all that stuff yet. And so we know that comics are coming out or trades are coming out at some point. And so that is like, you have to. You have to promote every single issue. And I see that in my emails I get from you every once in a while, you're like, hey, just let you know it's issue 12 of something or 6 of something.
And you don't say it. But, like, I can. Don't forget about it. Like, you want people to be reminded about it. Because it's true. Our attention spans, we Kind of talked a little bit before we started recording. Are so short nowadays that sometimes people forget what they're even like pulling or reading. And so sometimes they do need that little press push to be like, oh, my favorite website I go to, oh, there is a sixth issue of something or a fifth issue of something. Especially those ones that are weird, not weird numbered. But like, if you think about a traditional miniseries nowadays being around five issues that if it is a six issue miniseries, sometimes I feel like there's people who forget that that last issue was even coming. They're like, that was a weird ending. And then you're like, wait, it's a six issue miniseries or an ongoing.
[00:09:17] Speaker B: Yeah, for sure. I mean, especially based on the publishing schedule, if something has like a month off or something like that, it's always important to put those reminders out there. Yeah. As much as I would love to pretend that, you know, every book gets equal attention, I'm only one person with so much bandwidth. So like there are books where I will do my best no matter what to give reminders of, you know, we're, we're past the initial launch, we're past the initial orders for 2, 3 and 4 and just doing what I can to keep us going.
So at the bare minimum, you know, press are always receiving review PDFs with, you know, reminders about that stuff. But definitely got to keep trying.
[00:09:52] Speaker A: And it's a different, it's like, it seems like it's so cool. I deal with people on this side in the, in the prose novels, I deal with them in the graphic novel and in the comic book industry, some people with the movies. It's just every industry like this has a different marketing schedule or plan or way the story is promoted or whatever it may be. And so it's like, it's not as simple. So it's very simple for me to be like, I could plan out potential recording of episodes with authors until June because I know their books are, you know, like so on and so forth. To me with the comics, it's a lot of times where I'm like, hey, next week or the week after, can we do something? Because that's when I know about whatever comic may be coming. And so it's just a different world. So I can understand being a little bit. You must be, you know, always on the, not on the go, but like on the go with your keyboard, just making sure things are moving because they're just, I think just change. Things change and things get announced so, so quickly and so often that it Must just be hard to get everything out there at once.
[00:10:49] Speaker B: I definitely keep busy. I'll just say that. Yeah. But I'm lucky, though. I'm lucky to do what I do. I mean, like, you know, I was comic book press for a while. I was in the news industry. My. My LinkedIn profile, I'm all over the place, man. So the fact that I get to, like, promote comics now, no matter how busy I get every day, I remind myself that, like, this is a job that so many people would kill for and so many people would want. And, like, I get to promote Ninja Turtles at the end of the season. I can't complain. You know, every work is going to have its challenges and its obstacles, you know, every job. But I'm lucky to love what I do, and I always try my best to remind myself that. About that, no matter what my inbox looks like.
[00:11:29] Speaker A: Did that help? Like, going from press to publicity for comics, knowing what to expect on that side to help maybe, you know, facilitate both the creators and your publisher, but also, like, what potential needs that press might have because you've been on that side?
[00:11:45] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. I never expected I would work for a comic publisher, to be honest with you. I never had any aspirations of going into the side of the industry. It happened because once upon a time, I was. I was poached over at Valiant because they thought I had transferable skills and experience because I was not only comic press, but I also did marketing and events at Midtown Comics, and I had some other relevant experience. So they. They brought me on board, and I was very lucky to work there for the amount of time that I did. And.
And then, you know, I was lucky a few years later when IDW reached out and said, would you have any interest working here? I was like, yes. You guys have Ninja Turtles. Let's talk.
I'm happy to hear more.
So, yeah, I mean, it offers the perspective of what it's like to be on the other side of that press release or that pitch, you know, and also offers the perspective your schedule in life is like, you know, every time I reach out to press, I realize, like, I'm not the only. Just because I'm sending something that's maybe important to me doesn't mean it's important to that other recipient at that time. I don't. I don't know what you're working on. How many different publishers are emailing you? Like you said, a lot of people cover comics. Don't just stick to comics.
[00:13:00] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:13:01] Speaker B: How many movie studios or networks are reaching out to you, how many video game developers are reaching out to you or studios, how many editorials are you working on at the moment, how many interviews are you transferring, subscribing, how many reviews are you doing? How many other kinds of projects are you working on? So I always try to take that into account and realize like, you know, at the end of the day I'm, I'm really proud of what we do and I'm passionate about what we do and I try my best to get that out into the world. But I also understand that on your end, just like me and my bandwidth, you know, the press people that I work with, they can only cover so much. So I, I try my best to be realistic with those expectations while also being respectful of like, yeah, if you write a review where you're like, I did not like this, I'm sorry, but here's my reasoning why that doesn't like, that doesn't eliminate the relationship, you know, as press, that is your right. And like, as long as it's never, like, this person sucks as a writer and here's why. And like personal, you know, as long as it's not personal and mean spirited, nothing changes, you know, I would have.
[00:14:03] Speaker A: Liked this comic book except for the PR guy. It kind of sucked then that might ruin it. No, I also learned quickly that you also can't answer everybody, all the PR people's stuff. Like you can't. Like, I quickly, when I started doing book reviews on the website, I all of a sudden I know where my inbox just got flooded with, hey, you liked this one, you might like this one. And so on and so forth. And so all of a sudden, nowhere I was like, oh, maybe I'll read that. And then I realized like, I can't do it all. And so now it's like, a lot of times I'll read the email of some people who send me emails and I'm like, cool, I have a PR folder. I'll just go to the PR folder because it's just like, I maybe will get to it at some point, but I just can't do it. And so, and obviously having limited time, you have to pick what you want to work on or want to do. And again, you mentioned, oh, turtles. Yeah, of course, most things that come across my desk that are turtles related I'm gonna go for because the turtles are awesome. So it's like, why would I not? And then with IDW this year too, with the Godzilla, you know, Kaiser era, like all that stuff was also pretty. A lot of Fun to deal with. And then to me, for the IDW side of things, IDW Dark, you know, all that to me was just like this was this cool year for, for 2025 at ID only. Speaking of a few things there, I mean, you still got Sonic going hard. You got all kinds of stuff that are going over there. Is it My Little Pony too stuff going on too? Or is that. Is that. Yeah, it's still idw, right.
[00:15:20] Speaker B: My Little Pony, that, that license switch.
[00:15:23] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:15:24] Speaker B: But yeah, there's still a bunch of stuff. I mean, we announced a new Rocketeer comic.
[00:15:28] Speaker A: Yeah. Oh yeah, Rocketeer. That was the one on my.
[00:15:29] Speaker B: This year, even though we're recording in December, this year being 2026, this is published. Yeah, there's a new Rocketeer comic. And then there's more stuff that I can't really talk about for 2026 as well.
[00:15:40] Speaker A: Obviously there's. There's the, the Star Trek stuff too. But like, so. So this year. So you had a pretty big, like I said, a Godzilla, right? That was a huge launch for. For idw. And by. I say huge to anybody listening. This is also me just talking about huge as in like popularity and people talking about. And stuff like that. I don't know numbers and I'm not getting numbers, so I don't know how well it did. But I just know from like the buzz around the Internet and the buzz around at least our website and our interviews and things we've done is that like the Godzilla has been fun. My local comic book shop, going in there and talking to people about things. And a lot of times I do get advanced copies. So it's nice for me to be able to go in there and be like, hey, I read that you should get that because like just verbally, but yeah. That you had the Turtles stuff going on. We're getting ready for Battle nexus here in 2026.
IW dark with that stuff going on.
Sequel to Beneath the Trees where Nobody Sees. Like, there's a lot of amazing and fun stuff going on in IDW this year.
That to me it's like there's like, no, I don't have a ranking of publishers, but it's one of those things that if I were to pick on like fun, exciting new things that happened in 2025, IAW was like up towards the top of that just because of like what got launched. Not the quality.
We do our year end review or our comics of the year. Me and my buddy Paul, who owns Galactic Comics and Collectibles in Bangor, Maine, and we Always forget about like long term ongoing comics. A lot of times, like when you're making your list, you're just like, whatever. Like, like obviously to me or to a lot of people, something's Killing the Children would probably be in that list every single year. Now that it's getting up towards like the 50 comics though, it's like to me, but it's like, I almost want to say these new series or these like limited series or do something because it doesn't fall in that category anymore because it's just perennially good. Like you're just going to read that comic book and it's going to be good.
But this year with, with idw, I feel like there's a lot of new or relaunched things that were just like amazing. Did you feel that buzz this year? Are you going to Cons and things like that? Like, that was like an awesome year in 2025.
[00:17:38] Speaker B: I definitely did. Thank you. Yeah, 2025 was a very good year for IDW. Like you said, there was the IDW dark, which is the horror imprint that not only has originals like of course, Patrick Horvath continuing beneath trees where nobody sees in the sequel Rite of Spring, we also did kind of like a. A confirmation that there will be a third volume. We didn't want to spoil anything that's coming up in Rite of Spring, so we kept it to just, yes, there's a third volume in the works, but more on that later event horizon, you know, that just, yeah, received an incredible response. And obviously that's because, you know, it's a continuation of a movie from almost 30 years ago. And not only that, the creative team just killed it, man. Like Christian Ward the writer, Tristan Jones the artist Pit Martin the colorist, Alex Ray on letters. Just that prequel is so good. And we saw that response from the community in retailers. Every single issue at the time of this recording, four out of four has a reprint. And we actually just announced there will be final reprints for all four issues to coincide with the release of the fifth and final issue of the prequel.
And then we also announced, yeah, there's going to be a sequel to. Which takes like 200 years after the movie. And we're very excited about that. Godzilla, the Kaisei Era. You know, we launched that during San Diego Comic Con.
That was a big deal because that was the first time as far as I can tell, that TOHO was like, yes, create your own universe. Create your own take on the Godzilla mythology. Do something new. A new Godzilla design, new powers, new twists on different fan favorite characters. So there's this whole universe that they've been building and just expanding with not only like the Kaise era ongoing, but also, you know, Starship Godzilla and then of course Escape the Dead Zone. And there are some really, really cool plans for the Kaise era. I'll say this year being 2026 that I think late January or no, excuse me, I misspoke there in February actually. So next month that people will learn more about. So I'm very excited about that. Ninja Turtles just like, dude, surreal because like not only did we have the 150 run, we also had of course the relaunch with Jason Iron Killer lineup of artists Juan Ferreira. And that was just incredible month after month. And then we had Gene Lyn Yang and Freddie Williams II hop on with issue 13.
And the response to that was tremendous. And I. It's been really fun watching the response of like videos of people doing, you know, blind bag openings and saying like, I really hope I get this specific cover. And it's really nice to see when they actually get that cover too. Like the reaction, it's so rewarding. I'm really happy that the team also made sure the blind bags were cover price too. Instead of being like you know, 15.99 or whatever. Now it made it like affordable to. To have fun with that. But yeah, Sonic, dude, that's racing towards issue 100. There' a lot of fun stuff there. Star Trek. We launched the flagship series, the Last Starship, which is taking some really big swings. And then I guess what I'll say is 2026 this year is the 60th anniversary of Star Trek. So expect a lot of news on.
[00:20:46] Speaker A: That front that makes sense if that that coincides. You do something with it in the 60th year.
[00:20:52] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, just. And then of course with IDW Dark 2 in 2026, man, like we have a quiet place.
[00:20:58] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:20:58] Speaker B: You know, we have smile. We also revealed this new original that's gonn so fun.
Operation Iron Coffin. It's. It's literally just World War II. Dracula is dropped via an iron coffin onto a Nazi train that is full of super weapons. And Dracula basically has to stop this train from getting to Hitler so he can create his own army of vampires and all this stuff. And just like the editor showed me some of the opening inks the other day and my response to him was just like, like thank you for this dude. Like this is one of those books where like in different creators hands it could be like all exposition. And then the cliffhangers like yeah, here's the premise. Check it out next month to get what you want. This just, like, hits the ground running. I am so excited for fans to see more of that. And then, yeah, there's more stuff on the license front too, with Paramount. They've been great partners and beyond. Like, that's all I can really say for now. But I'm very excited about how 2025 went in terms of, like, the quality of the comics only with the creators, but also, like, the passion for editorial and the overall response from not only fans, but also retailers and press overall. So I think it was a really good year and I hope that 2026 goes even bigger.
[00:22:14] Speaker A: And as you mentioned, like, you have turtles and you're talking about Godzilla and you talked about Star Trek. There's these licensed properties, but you also have, like, there's a great mixture of. Of original content and new and licensed stuff. Like, so this is cool.
Exorcism at 1600 pack ended in 2025. Like, and then the trade came out in 25 too. So there's that. And then, you know, we talked with Hannah Rosemary about the future. Like, the future of, you know, with. With Smile and then Buckingham Palace. Like, it's just like, so much cool and having some of these cool creators. I mean, Tim Sealy being involved with Godzilla was phenomenal. First of all, it was like, when I heard the announcement, I was like, that can't be real. Because it just didn't seem like it meshed well. Like, I've read Tim Seeley's comics and I'm like, I don't. Is like, is Godzilla gonna be wearing a thong? Like, what's going on here? Like, like, what's going on with the Tim ceiling? And then I was like, wait a second. And so, like, he's just a phenomenal writer, like, in general, and he can write crossed. Whether it be a superhero or a villain or monsters or horror or whatever it may be comedy, Tim has the capability of that. And I think Tim handled Godzilla in, like, with, like, excellent fashion.
[00:23:21] Speaker B: Yeah, man. He's a die hard Godzilla fan. And then you also see that with.
He's also doing our TMNT Godzilla crossover, which feels like a real, like, celebration of both properties as well.
[00:23:31] Speaker A: Yeah. And it did. And it's like, there's certain ones I mentioned this year, I talked to Tim Hague about the Archies vs Minor Threats crossover, and I was like, there's these, like, there's like, a couple different, like, genre categories for crossovers. There's like, the.
This makes complete utter Sense. And there's like the. I don't know why they did this. And then there's like, this so doesn't make sense at all that it, like, works like that makes any sense. Like the Archie Minor threats one, to me was like, so off the wall different that it made so much sense. And when you read the actual comic, it's like, okay, this works. When. When the Stranger Things TMNT crossover from a couple years ago to me was like, okay, they're both like 80s creations and like, they're both ones in New York and ones. And all this made sense. Like, it works that way. They both, like, kind of fight like superheroes or extraterrestrial type things. And I was like, oh, yeah, exactly. It works.
The, you know, the Power Rangers TMNT stuff works. Like, all that stuff works. This, like, for some reason, like, Godzilla didn't click until I was like, wait, they're both reptiles. Like, this. This does work so well. And then the creation of why they are crossing over in that sense, like, there's not just all of a sudden or a portal opens up and like. Like there's like this. There's a story to it that had the actual media.
Yeah. And so I love that aspect of it. And you can tell, like, there's certain times, like, I haven't in recent years, but, like, people who are writing or creating comic books are passionate about the project they're working on. Like, it's not just a hired gun. Like, you know, you could hire any amazing writer to write Godzilla or write turtles, but the best ones are the ones that are great, but also are fans of the actual property. And I think that we got that this year with those. With those licensed properties, like, all the people who were behind the scenes actually cared about about with the characters they were writing, not just writing a good story.
[00:25:16] Speaker B: Yeah, I agree, man. And that's always so nice to see when there's, like, that legitimate passion and love and also, like, excitement, you know, because a lot of these creators get to work on so many different things. So seeing that they still have that kind of like, joy and almost like giddiness when they get to do cool stuff with some of the books at IDW has been really nice and that. And that makes it, like, especially fun for me too, because I get to work with them and I get to see, like. Like how much they care. And that is just, like, infectious. I feel like not only with me and, like, how I continue to go out and talk about it and everything, but also hopefully, like, that shows in the work itself and the press that they chat with and the social media that they put out there. And I think that was especially true in addition to, you know, Tim and TMNT with Gene and Freddy and Jason Godzilla, also with Christian Ward and Tristan Jones with Event Horizon, like that was a real passion project for those dudes. But also like seeing Patrick Horvath just continuing to play around in Woodbrook is like such a delight too, you know.
[00:26:15] Speaker A: And I talked to Patrick right around the time of the release of the second one and I also wrote a review and I was like, I had skepticism, I know. No offense to Patrick, no offense to IW or the story. I was like, it's one of those weird things where you like take something that was lightning in a bottle. It was a great story and he's excellently well written and well illustrated and all that stuff. But it's like one of those things that I don't think anybody really knew. Including like you knew you had something good, but I don't think you had it was gonna be that outstandingly successful. And then you're like, well, okay, sometimes you can read into these things. Like, made a bunch of money on this one. Let's try it again. And then it's like, is it really is the hardening? And I think there's been some interview. I did a discussion with Dave Schilling, who wrote the horrors new wave book for Blumhouse, and there was discussions about sequels and how there's certain ones, like Sinister was so well done. Then they went to do Sinister 2 and it kind of flopped because it was kind of like, like pigeonholed into doing a sequel. And that's why Black Phone 2 almost didn't get made because it was like, I don't want to do a sequel until the ideas started flowing and I'm like, okay, this works. And so I ran, went into Beneath the Trees right of spring. I was like, how is he gonna do this again? And then there's like the first like three or four pages. You're like, God damn it.
You are so smart. Like, how did you do this? And. And then by the time you finish the volume, you're like, okay, this is, this works. And it's, it's, it's, it's just so good. I'm like, now I can believe in more. Like, if there ever was more, I could believe in more. And so Patrick is just, you know, talented.
And the juxtaposition of Kitty looking like child looking illustrations in horror is just so cool. I Don't know if I told you this when we talked before, but when you guys sent me the trade of the first volume as a thank you to a lot of the press and stuff like that, my son opened it, or opened it with my son, who at the time was three. So now it's a year ago. It's like four. Yes, he's four or four and a half now and whatever. Like, you see the front of it and it's like to him, he doesn't know really what blood is. Like, the blood on the COVID is like paint to him. Right? It's a bag full of pain.
[00:28:14] Speaker B: Right? Yeah.
[00:28:14] Speaker A: It's like, can I. It's this for me, dad, can I read this? I'm like, ah, sorry, man. Like, I know it looks like it could read it, but you can't. It's all right. One of these days we'll sit down and read this. I promise you. One of these days. Not right now, but yeah. It was just kind of funny how that works that way. And it works so well. I don't know. I mean, Tony Fleece did it with with interest. Forrester did it with. With. With Stray dogs too. So it's not like unheard of, but.
[00:28:37] Speaker B: It'S just so cool as well.
[00:28:38] Speaker A: Yeah, thorough's phenomenal as well. Like, it's just so cool to see. And I think it's really cool that, you know, it's a lot of work for Patrick. I mean, writing something and illustrating something, it takes a lot of work.
[00:28:49] Speaker B: So, yeah, it was really nice New York Comic Con this year to. To be there and see him win book of the year for Benit where Nobody Sees at the Harvey Awards. That was really. It was nice to see him get that kind of recognition because obviously, like. Like that book has been receiving a ton of love and positive word of mouth since day one, but to get an award for it like that just further validates it. And he's just. That guy is so talented. Like, it's only a matter of time, I think, before he's like the next Scott Snider or whatever.
[00:29:16] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's true. And it's like Free for all was excellent too. It was his own.
It was on Zoop first and now then it's only press. And I think it's coming on hardcover too, in early 2026 was also excellent. It's like, it's same style of artwork, obviously, because that's his style of art, but a completely different story. But, like, it's. It's just. He's just a phenomenal creator and I think that's, you know, IDW is lucky to have some people like that. I guess we didn't mention Tim, you mentioned Jason Aaron, you mentioned all these people on. I mean, Hannah, Rosemary. Having these people in your bullpen, per se, is, is awesome. It's. So we'll get the. You got the licensed properties that people all want, but also now you're like, oh, we've also got the talent that everyone.
And obviously they're not stuck there. They can go other places. But I'm just saying, like, it's nice to have them there.
[00:29:58] Speaker B: There. Yeah. Or even like still having Kevin Eastman, like, yes. Distributing the way he does, not only like the Last Ronin, you know, universe, but also still doing covers and everything. Just having him involved and occasionally being able to work with him on press stuff is that, that's another like another like pinch me moment, you know.
[00:30:15] Speaker A: Well, Matthew Klein, a friend of the podcast, works for Penguin Random House, also a writer for IDW at one point with Crashing, which is awesome. Awesome. Yeah, yeah. See, pulled out of the blind bag, the Kevin Eastman Ben Bishop cover. He did like a reveal on Instagram and Maine's own Ben Bishop, I live here in Maine, actually got a Ben Bishop right here variant of Last Ronin. Oh, yeah, it's the one that he did. It looks like the old sheets. The old TMNT sheets. Yeah.
But yeah, so yeah, it was really cool to see him pull that. And he like. It's another person who writes comics who works in comics. Comics who loves, loves, loves comics is Matthew Klein. Yeah, it's a fan of the friend of the podcast. Yeah. But yeah, seeing him open that, I tell you right now, I'm glad that we don't do blind bags on everything. I feel like it would do really well sales wise. Like all your publishers would make a bunch of money off of it because people buying like the Pokemon of it all, you never know what you're gonna get the cards of it all.
But those people who would spend all that money. You're saving my wallet because I remember when Walking Dead did the 15th annivers mystery one and they had the like you could get like one of five different covers or whatever in the, in the package. I remember going to like Newberry comics and like trying to find. Because they always had like they'd bought a bunch of them and months after they'd come out, they'd still be on the shelf and I'd go buy three or four and I'd go open them like Ah, crap. I've already had those ones. But, like, the Invincible one, I remember that for. For Image was huge too.
Yes, yes.
And I got one.
You know, it was cool. I was like, okay, I'll fall. I'll get this. Like, I don't read Invincible regularly. It's not on my pull list. Like, anything from Invincible, just not on my pull list. I mean, it's not bad. It's just I don't read it. And so I grabbed it because I'm like, hey, this is not bad. Like, I'll do this.
But, yeah, it was cool to see people opening those TMT 13 ones. Yeah, I hear you.
[00:32:08] Speaker B: But I also feel like Blind bags need to feel like an event, otherwise it would be like taking advantage of killers and fans. Because then, like, like, if you're asking retailers to order a lot of something, they need to have the confidence that, yeah, it'll be easy to get foot traffic in here. We know we're going to be able to sell this and make money off of it. And that's why for TMNT, we did it with 13, which traditionally, you know, I imagine most people are doing a blind bag on issue 13 or past issue 1, but in this case, it was the launch of the new creative run for our flagship series of tmnt. And it's not every day that there's a new new creative team on the team and team ongoing. Like, since I picked up issue one back in 2011, I think there's only been four different writers. Yes, you've had, you know, Tom Waltz along with Kevin Eastman, Sophie Campbell, Jason Aaron, and now Gene. So that was like, a really big deal, the launch of a new era while still respecting and following up everything that came before it. And we wanted to do everything. We could signal that. But also, like, like, the blind bag itself needs to. Needs to have some really cool stuff in it. Like, people have to open it and be like, I really want the COVID by X, Y or Z. And that takes, of course, a lot of work. You know, our director of sales, Ryan Balcomb, and our editorial team had a really cool lineup of covers. Everyone from, like, Daniel Aaron Johnson.
[00:33:26] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:33:27] Speaker B: Crane, David Nakayama.
There were just a lot of really, really. And like you said before Kevin Eastman done the show stuff, a lot of really good artists on there. So even if you didn't get something that was exclusive to the Blind bag, hopefully you still felt like you got a really cool cover.
[00:33:45] Speaker A: And that's true. You know, like I said, it also pulls, like. Well, that also tells People, if you do something special only or only when it's something special, why is this special? Like, why is 13 special? I remember one of my favorite series of all time is Revival, which obviously is now just was on TV on Sci Fi. And I'm a big Scotty Young fan fan. And it was weird that, like, issue, like, I forget what issue it is. Like, it's issue like 13 or something like that, or 14 that Scotty did a variant for. And to me, it was always weird why this random middle of the series issue was. And I think it just was timing and whatever, but. But it was always weird to me that, like, he always does, like, issues one or if he's gonna do it, he does like the issues like 1 through 4 or whatever it may be. It's like, it was weird to be like this really middle of the ground issue. And so, like, it obviously has some significant. And I don't remember if there is anything but there's something significant about 13 that caused that to happen that you needed to have to you having 13 be the issue that's relaunching. And with not relaunching, but launching with new creators and pulling it. Why is there a blind bag for that? And then the LCS could potentially tell people, oh, it's new creative team, and so on and so forth. So it's also significant to other people when you're. When you're reading an ongoing and it does change a team and you don't really know about it until you open the issue up and you're like, wait a second. This doesn't look or sound like the other. Or it sounds like it, but it kind of looks different or whatever.
I've had that happen too many times. We were reading an ongoing. All of a sudden I know where you're just like, the next issue is like a completely different artist. You're like, what is going on? What just happened? Did we get tripled into a new universe?
But yeah, so, like, it was really cool. And it looks like it was fun. And people had. Like I said, I saw the videos. Not just press people, but just in general videos and people talking about it and discussing it at the shop.
Sadly, I like being there on the day, and sometimes it's on Tuesday late at night when he's like, putting the comic books on the shelf that I'm there, there.
[00:35:26] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:35:27] Speaker A: And I see them and I'm like, oh, this is kind of cool. And put some in my pull box or whatever it may be. And I was like, not available to Be there. So like they were on the shelf and off the shelf before I was even able to like to see people open them in the shop or anything like that. So I was like, I kind of like I was there for the battle beast one. A guy pulled up the 1 in 1000 who doesn't collect comics. He collects Pokemon cards. So he saw it and he's like, I'll buy this. And he pulled it and everybody else pulled junk. Wow. He's this one guy. I'm like, you suck. It's.
I'm the one that's collected comic books for years here. Now I'm gonna get the regular a cover and you're the one that gets the one in 1,000.
No, but yeah, it's. I mean, to me as a person who has a slightly addictive personality, I could see myself it being a problem having too many blind bags. And so yeah, it has to be like a special occasion I think in my opinion to make it work.
[00:36:11] Speaker B: But yeah, it has to feel warranted and just fine. For sure.
[00:36:13] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. But yeah, So, I mean 2025 was amazing. 2026 is going to be great for IUW. I think that it's also looking good for not just you. For all publishers. I think there's some. Some things that are going on. So that makes comics just.
Comics are here. Like they're here, they're vibrant, they're going, they're doing things. It's just really cool to see that happening and that. Like, you know, publishers that have been around for a while like idw have some really cool comics that coming up. And there's a variety that I always say comics are for everybody. It sounds like a gimmick or just like a. You know, I say it because I want to a cop out almost like, you know, so I get people to read comics. Comics. But it's true if you think about it like if you just talked about Sonic, talk about Star Trek, you talk about Godzilla, talk about tmnt, you talk about horror comics, like there is something there that everybody could find a love for. And I think that's why I think.
[00:37:02] Speaker B: A common misconception is people associating comic books just with superheroes. Which those are the biggest ones for sure. I mean like whenever there's a new absolute Batman, that's at the top of my read pile. Spider Man. There's one issue left at that point. Point. Or at this point, that's at the top of my repile as well. Like there's a lot of superhero comics I love, but It's a visual medium that within it has so many different genres. Like, it's not just dudes and capes punching. Yeah, there's a lot of that and done very well. Like, like we talked before about Invincible. I love that. You can see the compendiums behind the oven. Yes, yes. Battle Beast is one of my favorite comics of 2025. I love it. But there's just so much more to choose from and. Yeah, that especially, you know, now publishers. I.
Yeah, I feel like a lot of publishers produce a really good variety of genres and. And I'm lucky as well at idw, where we're doing that with, you know, IDW Dark. It's. It's not just supernatural horror. There's also, like, cosmic horror. There's, you know, supernatural stuff. There's. There's ground and terror.
[00:38:02] Speaker A: Yeah, it's cool. And one of the things I actually thought about the other day was I saw someone like, pulling their pull list up on. On Instagram and they're showing their polis and it was like. Like, Marvel dc. Right? That's what was it. Right. And I was like, well, that's cool. That's how I used to be. I'll tell you right now. Less dc, more Marvel. But like, every time it was just Marvel, it was Marvel, Marvel, Marvel, Marvel. And it was like, okay. But then I realized that, like, you don't get as much of a variety of artwork either in Big two publishing. Like, it's pretty much a similar. Like, you have to draw like a superhero or a superhero comic book artist. And I think what's cool about the variety of comics that IDW is coming out with this year and in this past year, you think about the IDW Dark in the. In the Event Horizon, like, that's a different style than you're going to get in tmnt.
[00:38:42] Speaker B: Yeah, Like, Jones returned to comic art. He was doing, like, other kinds of art. Like, he did these incredible covers for boxes with NECA and everything.
[00:38:50] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:38:50] Speaker B: This was his return to doing interiors. And not only that, like, I don't know if you've seen some of his Godzilla covers or, like some of the Godzilla art he's been sharing on his social. That stuff is so good and so terrifying.
[00:39:01] Speaker A: Like.
[00:39:02] Speaker B: Like, it's just been a real joy to see him return to comics too.
[00:39:05] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:39:05] Speaker B: And bring his visual style to it.
[00:39:08] Speaker A: And I think that what I'm trying to think of is who is. Is it. Who's the main cover artist on Event Horizon? Is that Jeffrey.
[00:39:15] Speaker B: Jeffrey Love. And he just did News from the.
[00:39:17] Speaker A: Fallout, which is like, I just. I just reviewed this review. Will be up by the time this is up, but, like, review the trade. That was one of my favorite comic books of last year because of the fact that it was just like. Like, there was, like, no artwork. I see no artwork. That sounds really, like, bad, but, like, it was very simplified, and it was just the shadows and silhouettes of things and a really gritty look. And it made this, like, a completely different reading experience. And it was, you know, after atomic bomb or nuclear bomb. Like, that to me is like, okay, there's that. The world is very simplistic in that sense, but it's horrifying. And, like, the claws of the hands of the people and stuff like that, which is really just. Just disturbing. But that wouldn't work in a Superman comic book. You know, I mean, like, it just doesn't work. So. So I love that thing about independent comics. In comics like idw, where you have a variety of comics people can get at is you don't have to read everything, but it's all not the same, if that makes sense. It's like. And I. Big two comic books are not all the same, but if you think about. If you pick up a superhero comic book, it looks like a superhero comic book. I'll just say that right now. And it does take talent to do that. But I'm just saying, like, the variety you get more independent publishers is really cool. Yeah.
[00:40:17] Speaker B: And I'll give credit where it's due. I do think at Marvel and dc, you do see, like. Like, a really good variety of creators over there too. Like dc, the absolute line. Like, all those books have their own distinct vibe to it, you know? And then I saw Juan Ferreira is actually hopping on Absolute Superman, which I'm so excited to see. I mean, the book is great already, but, like, I'm excited to see him and Jason reunited and doing stuff over there. That's really cool because they were just an incredible creative team on Ninja Turtles. But, yeah, even, like, over at Marvel, it's been fun. Like, for example, I'm a sucker for the Predator franchise.
[00:40:49] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:40:50] Speaker B: So seeing all the fun that Ben Percy and the publisher has been having with that, and then, like, the different artists who have worked on, like, Versus Spider man, which surprisingly, was more of a horror book. Like, no one could have ever expected Predator versus Spider man to be, like, a horror book. But, yeah, they pulled it off. I had a blast with that. Does it help that Craven the Hunter's my favorite villain, and it was secretly A craven book.
[00:41:10] Speaker A: Exactly right. You know, it's hurt. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
[00:41:15] Speaker B: I think you see a lot of creativity and a lot of like, like innovation across the board nowadays. Really, really great.
[00:41:21] Speaker A: I mean, well, I think every publisher is taking risks. I think that's the thing. I think they're all taking risks. I think some are taking more risks than others, but I think that they're like, everybody's taking a risk on. We, we want the, the different and new things that the, the Patrick Horvaths of it all where it's like this is not something that you typically see. So let's see it. And, and that's really cool. We've talked a little bit off the air about minor threats. Like minor threats is killing it over at Dark Horse. So like I love those kind of things. Things and taking some little, some, some, some, some liberties of what you want to do and some, some risks on things and dealing with some cool people out there as well is awesome too. But yeah, 2026 is going to be amazing for, for everybody. I think, I think it's. I'm looking forward to the year. I'm ready for 2025 to be over.
I think there were some good things that happened this year, but I'm really looking forward to like just like turning the page and going to next year. Except for my, my, my deductible of my insurance resets. That's the only thing I'm not looking forward to. It's one of things I've tell people like we, we had enough medical things happen this year that we like had like the last four months of the year like free basically. And so now I'm like, okay, January 1st is going to hit. And I'm like, ah, now I gotta pay for shit again.
Other than that, I'm looking forward to 2026, so hope the comics will hopefully make me feel better about what's going on.
[00:42:26] Speaker B: What is your most anticipated thing about 2026 in terms of comics? And it's okay. IDW thing. It could be whatever.
[00:42:33] Speaker A: I don't know. I think so to me, Hannah Rosemary is gonna have a good year this year. I think that's what I, when I talked to her on the podcast, it was the same thing with multiple comics and some other things that are happening at the end that she can't really talk about yet and things like that. So like, I think that's really cool. I think horror still here to stay and looking forward to more horror comics next year, which is really gonna be cool. Or this year I should say 2026. But yeah, I think just seeing how different publishers deal with different things, the landscape of distribution, see how that goes. I want to see how Free Comic Book Day goes. All those things. I'm looking kind of like. Like there are some storylines still left to be told this year that are still need to be settled. I mean the diamond thing is still not done. We're still dealing with repercussions of that and how the. How the distribution landscape looks. So. Yeah, it's just. I'm looking forward to a bunch of things. I don't know, man.
It's so hard. It's so Alex Segura's book, Enemy of My Enemy, which is a Daredevil book. It's part of the Marvel crime series over at.
It's the Disney publishing arm. I don't know what it's called. I forget what it's called. But it's the sequel in a sense to Lisa Jewel's novel that's about. That was about Jessica Jones.
And then next year there's a novel coming out that's about Luke Cage and so. And that's by s essay Barnes. I don't remember. I don't want to screw the. The, the author up. But those are pretty cool too. Outside, like the. Adjacent to the comic book industry.
The comic book related novels I'm looking forward to too. But no, I think it's everything.
It's hard to say. Like I'm. I'm.
I don't want to say it because there's some things that I want to go away in 2026, if that makes any sense. But other than that, I'm looking forward to the year of comics in general.
[00:44:16] Speaker B: I do want to ask you, since you mentioned you're reading more marvel than D.C. and we were talking about the variety of superhero comics. One of my favorite comics of 2025, outside of IDW and from across the industry was actually Daredevil. Cold Day in Hell.
[00:44:29] Speaker A: Did you hear that?
[00:44:29] Speaker B: Because the hardcover is coming out February and I'm so excited to get that.
[00:44:33] Speaker A: Yes, yes, yes, yes, I did. I'll tell you right now. I read the first issue.
It's just because again, I get first issues and then I don't read anymore. But so it'll be on my list to do that. Charles Soule is one of my favorite writers, authors of all time. And so like anything that Charles does, I have to be a part of. And so, you know, anything he's doing Daredevil, he's doing whatever. It's always going to be something that I want to get involved. So I'm excited to see the end of Devil.
What's it called? Devils.
What the hell is it called now? Now I'm gonna. He did it with Ryan Brown. Lucky Devils.
[00:45:11] Speaker B: Oh right, the image comic.
[00:45:12] Speaker A: Yeah. Yes. I'm looking forward to the end of that one too. That's 2026 one too because Ryan had his health struggles in this year. So it's like getting it finished is what their plan is to do. And so they were hoping to have it all done in 2025.
[00:45:22] Speaker B: It didn't work out and now shamelessly I won't, I won't ask about other publishers now. Idw tmnt13 we were talking about that.
What do you think about it?
[00:45:33] Speaker A: It's.
I love it. So I love when new creative teams are able to continue on other storylines. Like it's just fun to see their takes or their like because they obviously had to have read 1 through 12 and kind of had like a background on it, so on and so forth. So seeing that was really cool. Cool. I think where it's going I'm excited to see.
I want another 150 issues from this run. So I don't know if that's the case but I like where it is, where it sits. And we actually did. That was kind of cool. We did it for book club this year.
We did the first volume which was kind of cool because it was a little bit different for people because where are you?
How do you get started on TMNT is like as a question that a lot of people have. And having that having be a relaunch, have that first volume come out was pretty cool. So we did that for every people like to it long term fans were like I don't know, maybe. But most of the people liked it a lot. So it's just good.
[00:46:25] Speaker B: Awesome. I'm really happy to hear that. Yeah. So I will email you after we chat TMNT14 so you can check that out early. But also in case it hops when everyone's asking about like where to hop on. Because there is such like a rich mythology under IDW with TMNT we're actually going to release compendiums of the full 150 issue. People can start pre ordering those.
And then like you said TMNT Volume 1 from Jason Aaron and that amazing lineup of artists. This there are multiple options for different kinds of people. Like there's the trade paperback for someone who's like I just want to read it. I don't care about, like, extras or, you know, quality or whatever. In terms of, like, hardcover versus soft cover, that's the trade paperback with good bonuses. But then also there's like the library edition, which is an oversized hardcover, which has more process material. But then on top of that, dude, there is the inked edition, which is even bigger. And that is obviously based on the title, like, just celebrating the inks of different artists that were involved. And that has way more process art, too. Yeah, those are really cool items. And yeah, I mean, I. I hope people give it a shot and keep. Keep sticking with it.
[00:47:29] Speaker A: It's turtles. I think it's one of those things that it's. It's. I hate to say that because I don't want to talk about business, but it's like almost like printing money because, like, it's true if as long as it's fresh and there's something new and it's not just rehack, as long as those aren't just the same internal things in different formats. Do you mean, like, as long as it's not a hardcover of a soft cover of a library of. You know, if those are small little intricacies, whether it's a cover change or whatever it may be, I think there's a lot of people out there who are huge fans, are just like, okay, sign me up, I'll get it.
You know, TMNT has been a huge thing. And I will say to everybody, if you want just something fun to read that's different, read the last Ronin, which just came out in that cool box set.
[00:48:04] Speaker B: Yeah, dude.
[00:48:05] Speaker A: Of all the different ones, it's so cool that thing came out. I was like, that was one of my list of trades or hardcovers to come out between the day I released that article. Until the end of the year. What you can buy for someone for Christmas. And that's one of them. It's all together.
[00:48:19] Speaker B: Thank you. Yeah. Since this episode's going up in January, if you did receive any gift cards.
Yeah, the last one, Unbox that. It not only has, of course, that incredible first volume, it also has Lost Years, which is a prequel, while also teeing up the brand new Ninja Turtles team. And then it goes into Re Evolution, which is the full fledged sequel.
And then as for the future of the Ronin verse, all I can say is there will be more news.
[00:48:44] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:48:44] Speaker B: I can't say more than that.
[00:48:46] Speaker A: No, it makes sense. Yeah.
[00:48:47] Speaker B: There will be more. Yeah.
[00:48:48] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, Ben. Ben has a second kid, so he has to do something.
[00:48:53] Speaker B: Just kidding.
[00:48:54] Speaker A: Just kidding. Yeah, so. Idw, I love it. So. And I'm glad you came on. And like I said, we'll talk again sometime in the future. But. But yeah, check out if you're a fan of tmnt, Godzilla horror comics, if you're a fan of Star Trek or, or Sonic bank. Those are just some of the. Like I said. Oh, and again, you mentioned the Rocketeer coming out this year too. So those are just some of the few things that are available for idw, but local comic book shops could use your help. Not even at the end of the year, this year or like 2025, but at the beginning of the year. This is a kind of a slow year for this time of year. It's actually slow for comics in general. Less comics are actually kind of released on these. These. The pull lists are a little bit shorter. They're not. They're still being released, but like less of them. It seems like a little bit of, like a little bit of a slow moment. So go pick up your polis, use those, those trade those gift cards. You got to grab some issues, some trades or whatever it may be. But yeah, Greg, thank you so much for coming on and chatting with us and we'll talk again in the future. And yeah, happy New Year and all that stuff. And hopefully 2026 is great for you.
[00:49:47] Speaker B: Yeah, Justin, thank you so much for the invite. I really appreciate it. And also thank you for like, all your honest coverage of comics, your, your reviews, your interviews, the articles you put out there to try to say, like, here's what you should buy out of this holiday, because I think it's good and here's why, like, I just. All that stuff is truly, truly appreciated. So thank you.
[00:50:04] Speaker A: Thank you so much about it. Yeah. But yeah, again, keep up the good work and we'll talk soon. Thanks, Greg.
[00:50:09] Speaker B: Thank you.
