[00:00:00] Badr: You Short Box Nation. Welcome back to the podcast and new listeners joining us for the first time. Welcome to the Short Box Podcast, one of the longest running comic book talk shows in the multiverse. My name is Boder and this is episode 3 84, A special two and one episode. You're being treated tonight, one. 

[00:00:20] Badr: Two awesome interviews with certified comic creating bad asses, including comic colorist extraordinaire Laura Martin, who is a world renowned comic colorist. She's got over 1400 credits to her name. You'll also hear from the zombie king himself, Mr. Arthur Syam. He is one of the co-creators of the Marvel Zombies. 

[00:00:41] Badr: Which at the height of his popularity was responsible for re-energizing and reigniting a whole new zombie craze within pop culture and comic books. You're gonna hear some awesome stories and perspectives and information from the both of them. Both of these interviews were recorded live from Collective Con this past weekend, which I'm happy to say was a fantastic event. 

[00:01:01] Badr: I am so. No, I don't have to drive hours outside of Jack's to enjoy a great convention experience. And you know what? My wallet and my car appreciate it too. So a big shout out to Jason and the entire Collective Con team and a bigger shout out to you listeners that I got to meet in person. Aside from talking comics of Laura and Arthur, I also got to rub elbows with a lot of other talented people. 

[00:01:25] Badr: I got to meet the OG Pink Ranger herself, miss Amy, Joe Johnson. I got a chat with Gimley from Lord of the Rings, Mr. John Reese Davies, who is an absolute class act. Might I add, and if it couldn't get any better, I also got to interview a trio of voice acting legends like Billy West, John DiMaggio and, and Jim Cum. 

[00:01:44] Badr: In short, we got a lot of dope episodes coming to this podcast Feed in the weeks to come. And if you're a Paton subscriber, you're definitely in luck. Not only will you get access to all these interviews first, but honestly, a few of them are gonna stay exclusive to Patreon for some time before they even see the light of day for everyone else. 

[00:02:02] Badr: So if you've been curious about joining our Patreon community, or you know you've been on the fence and you just need that one little push sign up for a month. Give it a test drive. See if it's something you like. patreon.com/the short box is where you'll want to go, or you just click the link in the show notes. 

[00:02:16] Badr: Make it easy on yourself. But that's enough for me. Enjoy the show. It's a really good one. Take care of yourselves and make sure you come back next Wednesday for another one. I'm outta here now. Peace. 

[00:02:35] Badr: Collective Con, I am here with Laura Martin, aka comic book, colorist extraordinaire here at Collective Con, obviously. Laura, how are you doing today? I'm doing really well, thank you. How are you? I'm well. How are you enjoying your collective comic experience? Is it your first time at Collective Con? My 

[00:02:49] Laura Martin: first time here, yeah. 

[00:02:50] Laura Martin: And it's been wonderful. It's been super accommodating and, uh, the, the crowds have been fantastic. It's been fun to really meet and talk with people here and obviously, A huge love for all kinds of fandoms here, and I just love seeing all of it, so 

[00:03:02] Badr: it's fantastic. Well said. And I understand that you grew up here in Florida. 

[00:03:06] Badr: You're from the central Florida side. Uh, graduated ucf, you're now living in Atlanta, correct? Yes, that's right. Uhhuh. And what's the comic scene in comic community like in Atlanta? 

[00:03:15] Laura Martin: It's very diverse. So the reason why we moved there in the first place was because we knew a lot of comic professionals who worked there, who lived there, worked there. 

[00:03:21] Laura Martin: Um, you know, guys like Adam Hughes and probably Hamner Mark, mark, uh, Brooks, you know, I mean's. Ton of artists are living there. Um, but also you've got, um, you've got some huge conventions. Like Dragoncon is the big one in, uh, yeah. And that's like a four day crazy event that's downtown. But if we've also got MOOC Con, you've got Atlanta ComicCon, you've got a number of cons that have come up that are doing fantastic things and each one, um, sort of. 

[00:03:43] Laura Martin: Uh, appeals to different fandoms, different types, you know, so you've got your, you know, dragoncon is a lot of fantasy, a lot of, uh, a lot of cosplay, a ton of cosplay. Hmm. Um, but, you know, then you've got MOOC Kon, which is more about anime and manga and, and, but it's also bringing in a lot of American artists and stuff. 

[00:04:00] Laura Martin: And then, uh, the, of course, you know, Atlanta ComicCon is more comics oriented, so it, it pretty much serves every possible community you could want. So 

[00:04:07] Badr: it's a Atlanta sounds like the mecca of nerds. Yes. Yeah, I would say so. Yeah, for sure. I'm here for it. All right. So Laura, for the uninitiated. Mm-hmm. Um, your comic book, colorist credits, I mean, are in the thousands I looked up. 

[00:04:20] Badr: Uh, I was on comic uh vine.com today, the, the massive comic database. And I think, like you said, over a thousand credits of yours. And I'm gonna ask you the very hard question of trying to hone in on maybe like a project or maybe a character that like is really memorable for you, like in your very expansive career. 

[00:04:38] Badr: Like what character or project or comic series comes to mind? Like when you think of like ones that really kind of touched your, you grew from. Okay. 

[00:04:46] Laura Martin: Um, I would have to say, uh, that, uh, just because I saw the movie when it first came. Um, you know, in the, in the nineties. Uh, and I got to know the artist's work over time as I became involved in comics. 

[00:05:01] Laura Martin: And, uh, and then I got to actually color his work, which was amazing. Which was The Rocketeer with Dave Stevens. Um, yeah, when he decided to republish all of his original comics into a, a full, you know, uh, singular format mm-hmm. He, he asked me to color it, and that was one of the greatest. Honors of my career. 

[00:05:20] Laura Martin: So I, I really tried to, um, you know, to put what I could of, of Dave into these pages. And unfortunately he passed away before he could see any of the pages colored. But, um, he had a, a, a trust in my work that I could, I, I can't even imagine. So it was a huge honor to work on that and, you know, to seize. Come back into print has been fantastic. 

[00:05:41] Badr: Wow. That is very touching and I understand that, you know, you got into comic books a little later, I think, closer to when you were, you know, in, in college and, and, uh, going for design. When you think of like the comic books or like that, that moment where you really got into comic books, like is there a title or, or, you know, a character or character or creator that comes to mind that like really kind of started your comic book journey in fandom? 

[00:06:04] Badr: Oh, 

[00:06:04] Laura Martin: that's a, that's a tough one. Uh, I would have to say the thing that actually sparked my interest in terms of. This is not the comics. I thought it was, was an issue of Conan. Oh, wow. That, um, my brother had, uh, he, he claims he doesn't remember this, but I swear he, I found a Conan with no cover on it. Yeah. 

[00:06:20] Laura Martin: In his, in his room. And he's 13 years older than I am. So we have a significant age difference. But it was, at the time I was reading little kid comics, I was reading like, you know, Scrooge McDuck and stuff like that. So maybe the occasional Archie, but I was still kind of too young for Archie even. And, uh, I found this Conan and I, and I looked. 

[00:06:37] Laura Martin: First page, and I was like, this is not, this is not Disney. This is not, this is not cartoons. And, and it really made me think about, wow, there's so much more that can be done visually with comic art. And I mean, even I didn't, I couldn't express that when I was seven, but, you know, I, I recognized it when I saw it. 

[00:06:56] Laura Martin: So I think that actually made me start thinking about how storytelling can be, can be interpreted in so many different ways in a visual. But it probably wasn't until I, like I said, when I was in college, when I got reintroduced to, um, you know, the X-Men, but also now this image boom, that was coming up at the time. 

[00:07:15] Laura Martin: Yeah. And, uh, I would, you know, the, the guys that I was working with at Kinko's would show me all these comics that were coming out at the time and would be like, oh, this guy's amazing. This is Frank Miller. Oh my God, this is amazing. This is Jim Lee. And then they'd have arguments over who was the better one. 

[00:07:27] Laura Martin: And I got sucked into this as well. I was like, okay, tell me more. Tell me. And um, so it was probably the wild, probably Wildcats that made me go, okay, what's this? You know, okay, this is new comics, this is how comics are done now. Oh, okay. Okay. Bring me up to speed, you know, come on. You know? Awesome. So, yeah, that was probably the one that sort of. 

[00:07:45] Laura Martin: Was my, uh, my gateway drug as it were into the comics field. So, 

[00:07:49] Badr: awesome. I can only imagine you opening up that Conan and just ac dc blaring is outta nowhere. 

[00:07:55] Laura Martin: I didn't, I didn't even understand any of it. I was, it was way over my head at the time, but there was some magic going on there that I'm like, oh yeah, this is very different. 

[00:08:02] Laura Martin: Also, the fact that he was almost nude, but, you know, I was seven. What did I know exactly? 

[00:08:07] Badr: Um, Laura, I'm, I'm gonna pay you a compliment in saying that. A, as I was kind of writing down notes to, to talk to you and things like that, I realized. Your name. You might be responsible for Maybe like my, my conscious awareness of like colors, like the importance of colors, the comic books. 

[00:08:25] Badr: I think like your name is like among the top names. When I think of like amazing comic colors or just comic colors in general, you come to mind, I guess, how do you define. The importance of colors and comics and the role of being a 

[00:08:37] Laura Martin: colorist? Well, I think that it's, uh, the, the point of coloring is the exact same point of the writing in the penciling and inking, which is to tell the story. 

[00:08:45] Laura Martin: That's all we do. This, it's a collaborative off process between all of the creative side of it, including lettering to make this story interesting, readable, uh, draw you into the, the visuals of it, draw you into the storytelling, draw you into the characters, pull you into, you know, the, the cinematography of it all. 

[00:09:02] Laura Martin: Um, colorists. Spring. That's a really good question. Um, I, I'm trying to, trying to equate it with a, like, film industry and it's really hard because sometimes I say it's, you know, coloring is like cinematography, but it's, it's different. It's, it's coloring. Uh, you know, color has an emotional pull that maybe we don't a, always understand, but visually we read that interpretation and we absorb it as we're reading the comics. 

[00:09:27] Laura Martin: So, you know, if the. Uh, is specifying a certain theme or certain mood in a scene. Colorists will take what's on the page already, you know, what's already given to us by the pencil anchor and interpret that into a color scheme that would enhance that mood or that sense. The, uh, you know, the tone of the story. 

[00:09:47] Laura Martin: That's a lot of what we do as the, you know, to bring more. Bring the tone more forward. Um, it's also a, a heck of a tool for doing, um, you know, things that you can't do in pencils rings, you know, I mean, let's face it, that's black and white and we have 16 million colors that we can pick from. So, uh, it's important to, you know, tie that in again, like, like I said in the story, but also we can do things like special effects mm-hmm. 

[00:10:09] Laura Martin: Like glows and, and blurs and whatnot. It can get a little overdone. You know, it's important to respect the art, but at the same time, these are effects that, you know, comic artists rely on us to do now because they can't necessarily reproduce that in their own pages. So, or in, in, uh, traditional art. So, uh, it's, it's. 

[00:10:29] Laura Martin: I really think that coloring is just a, another part of the creative, uh, team. You know, it's, like I said, it's, it's ultimately all of us are doing one vision and trying to bring that one vision to the page and to the reader ultimately, and that's, that's where I fit in. 

[00:10:42] Badr: Well said, well said. And I'm sure there's not one. 

[00:10:46] Badr: Comic artist where they're, where if they're spit as they'd say that I could name that you probably haven't colored or worked with in some capacity. But I was curious when it comes to, uh, that artist colorist relationship, um, what artist comes to mind when you think of like, artists that have pushed you to try new things and really elevated your own craft? 

[00:11:05] Badr: I got, I gotta 

[00:11:06] Laura Martin: take it all the way back to Brian Hitch on the authority. Uh, because when we started working together on, on, uh, storm. You know, we were just sort of feeling each other out. And at the time I was working on staff, so there were a number of colorists working on all the books together. So, uh, it wasn't my project to begin with, but when, uh, Brian Hitch and, and Warren Ellis transferred to the authority are trans, you know, transmitted that story into the authority, I came on as a singular colorist says the one colorist for the project. 

[00:11:35] Laura Martin: It took a couple of issues, but Brian finally drilled it into my head. You don't have to go with local color, which means like daylight, every day's expected color and the. I freed myself from that shackle. I realized I can do entire stories with just two colors. I can do limited palette, I can do, I can concentrate more on, on, um, on contrast and, uh, saturation and, and these other tools that I have that I didn't even know I had in my box that I can now really explore. 

[00:12:02] Laura Martin: So I think I, I gotta give credit to Brian Hitch for pulling that outta me. And the other one is, uh, John Cassidy with, uh, planetary. Again, these are. Of my most, um, formative books that I've ever done. And the fact that I was on them both as a single artist for the first time, uh, meant I got to really experiment on planetary. 

[00:12:20] Laura Martin: I got to experiment with Photoshop and the tricks, and the tips and all the crazy stuff that Photoshop can do because we did some amazing weird filters and crazy effects and stuff in there. And that was. Really fun to push Photoshop in that direction, but on the authority it was more about pushing the colors into a really cinematic feel. 

[00:12:37] Laura Martin: So 

[00:12:38] Badr: I gotta credit those two. Awesome. And, and I'm glad you said those too, because I read somewhere that, uh, Brian Hitch and uh, uh, John Cassidy. Only, I guess like because of your relationship with them, they typically only go to you as a colorist. So I thought that was pretty cool to uh, that you reciprocated that. 

[00:12:54] Laura Martin: Yeah, John definitely does. Brian, not so much. He's gone in a different direction now and that's great. Yeah. Uh, you know, I love seeing his work. Um, but uh, yeah, John Cassidy and I are still, all of us working together, so. 

[00:13:03] Badr: Awesome. And last but not least, for all of the aspiring colors that, that are tuning in, right. 

[00:13:08] Badr: That hope to one day be the next, you know, Laura Martin, what is some advice that you would give them? Uh, primarily maybe like a piece of advice that you wish you would've received early on in your career that maybe would've saved you a lot of hassle and, you know, made your life a lot easier. 

[00:13:22] Laura Martin: Learn how to do your taxes, stay on a budget. 

[00:13:26] Laura Martin: Very important. Um, now seriously, like, uh, understand how, if you're gonna be a freelancer, if you're going to be a, a sole proprietor of your business or even have an l. Figure that stuff out or find somebody who can do it for you. Cuz that's the part I can't stand. I am not good at math, that's why I'm an artist. 

[00:13:43] Laura Martin: So find the person or the company that can do that for you and stick with him and you know, stay on the up and up of this stuff because the IRS is no joke. Let me tell you. Hey 

[00:13:53] Badr: Uncle Sam, his dues. I'm so glad you said that. Thank you ladies and gen comic colors extraordinaire at Laura Martin. Laura Martin, thank you so much for your time. 

[00:14:00] Badr: Thanks so much. Hey everyone, bar Milligan here at Collective Con, and I'm sitting next to a certified comic legend. His name is Arthur Syam. You have probably definitely seen his covers. If you are, if you even remotely, call yourself a comic book fan. Arthur, how are you doing and how is your collective con going? 

[00:14:19] Arthur Suydam: Good to see you. Good to meet you. Good to be here in Florida. I love coming to Florida. 

[00:14:22] Badr: Are you from, are you from the area here 

[00:14:23] Arthur Suydam: in Florida? I'm from City. Oh, wow. Yeah, I'm the East Village. I'm a couple blocks from CBGBs, that whole area. It's kind of a cultural hub for the country. I'm from that 

[00:14:32] Badr: area. Yeah. 

[00:14:33] Badr: Nice. Okay. And obviously I, you know, I, I tend to like to ask, you know, what the common culture is in other cities, but I think for New York City, it kind of goes without saying. It's kind of, you know, considered to be the. Of comic books, but do you have a, uh, particular, do you frequent any comic shops or, you know, get, are you involved with the comic community around there? 

[00:14:50] Arthur Suydam: Um, no. My involvement with the comic community is at these shows. So doing the Comic-Con, I, I see all the fans every weekend. Uh, the two parts of the business that I like are, I like doing the work and seeing the work when it gets published, that they do a good job of printing it and then, uh, meeting the fans and hearing what they like and what they don't like. 

[00:15:09] Arthur Suydam: It really helps me. Take the temperature of the business. So I find it invaluable. Really 

[00:15:14] Badr: fantastic. And for the uninitiated, how long have you been working professionally in comics? 

[00:15:20] Arthur Suydam: Um, well I started in 1972. They hired me right when I was in high school. Uh, actually Warren Publishing hired me, so creepy and Eerie Magazine hired me. 

[00:15:31] Arthur Suydam: Um, they saw my work. They said, we want to hire you. We're ready when you're ready to. I said, well, I'm still in high school. They, I said, when you graduate next year, um, okay, as soon as you graduate, come here and you got a job. So I was on my way walking to Warren Publishing to start working on creepy Neerie and Drap Perella Magazine. 

[00:15:51] Arthur Suydam: And, um, it just happened coincidentally that, um, DC comics was along the way and they had a couple lines that was the same thing that, uh, Warren was doing, which are short horror anthology. Which was House of Secrets and House of Mystery. So I stopped in there, uh, saw Joe Lando, he told me he's the guy who was the art director for Warren Publishing, and he hired everybody. 

[00:16:14] Arthur Suydam: He brought in Frank Rosetta Re Pandle, uh, Steve Ditko, all the, all those great artists from EC comics. He brought those guys in and he begged me not to go there. He said, don't go there, stay here. So, uh, he offered me, he opened up a drawer. He said, there's 250 scripts in that drawer. You can have as many as you want, but please don't go there. 

[00:16:31] Arthur Suydam: Stay. Ah, so I said, okay. Okay. So I started working for Hip. At the time I was, uh, on the road touring semi full-time with bands. Um, I've, I've been in a lot of bands, uh, my whole life. I was a, I did movie soundtracks. I was a composer. I was a studio guitar player, studio of vocalists as well. So other bands would hire me to come in and play the lead guitar on the tracks and do that kind of thing. 

[00:16:58] Arthur Suydam: Laziness. 

[00:16:58] Badr: That's what we call a, a child prodigy. I think in short, you know, a child prodigy early on when it came to comic books and art, I think for anyone that is into comic books, I think a lot of people would say that you have a knack for combining, uh, classic painting of comic books to must be trained. 

[00:17:13] Arthur Suydam: Yeah. My training is actually 16th century Dutch and Italian. I, I'm probably the most trained guy that's ever worked in this business or in the other business. I've got about 30. Uh, fine art training. So I studied at the, uh, Newark Academy of Figurative Art. When I finished that school, I went to, I did eight years at, uh, art Students League. 

[00:17:33] Arthur Suydam: That was the, uh, the school of Norman Rockwell in, in, uh, New York City. I had an uncle who, one of the reasons I can do what I can do is I had an uncle who, uh, studied with Noman Rockwell, uh, when I was eight years old, I inherited his workbooks and my aunt gave me his workbooks. So I'm also kind of second generation trained by Norman Rockwell. 

[00:17:52] Arthur Suydam: Then I took the Charles Bar course. That's another six year course after that. So I've been in school my whole life. It's kind of what I like to do. 

[00:17:59] Badr: So tal just flowing through your blood. 

[00:18:01] Arthur Suydam: Well, the, the, the family's an art family. So, uh, the Sudan family is, uh, is a renowned fine art family going all the way back to the 16th century. 

[00:18:10] Arthur Suydam: They were a collection of about, um, a dozen paint. Who won American Fine artists recognition for the first time worldwide at the advent of the Civil War. And, uh, they were called the Hudson River Painters, and two of those were Sadams. One was a Henry Saddam and one was James Saddam. And then that was, and then, uh, later on in the. 

[00:18:30] Arthur Suydam: Early 20th century, America's foremost architectural artist was an artist named, uh, eh, Sudan. He's got a whole wing in the art, uh, the city of New York Museum in New York designated to his work. And so I'm like the latest scenario and I'm the zoning guy. 

[00:18:47] Badr: I think, you know, on that topic, I think it's, it's definitely safe to say that, you know, your name is synonymous, synonymous with the, the Marvel zombies. 

[00:18:54] Badr: Can you talk a little bit about the inspiration in the, uh, uh, the catalyst for the, for their creation? 

[00:18:59] Arthur Suydam: Mm. I think what happened there was, uh, now I had done some work for Marvel, but Marvel kept going in and out of bankruptcy. And when they went in and outta bankruptcy, um, everybody in the whole company got laid off. 

[00:19:12] Arthur Suydam: And so whatever editor you working with, they weren't there. Five years later they were all gone, you know, so I worked, uh, I was the first artist that they hired for, uh, epic Illustrated. When Epic Illustrated came along, that was like the very progressive. Um, yeah, same thing for Heavy Metal. I was, Richard Corbert and I were the first Americans that they hired for that magazine, um, that was very successful. 

[00:19:36] Arthur Suydam: Based on success of that, Marvel decided to put their own magazine and, uh, I was the first American that they hired for that magazine. And, um, and when that magazine went under, um, I was working with Archie Goodwin at, uh, epic Illustrated for Marvel Comics. Um, then I was on the road with bands a lot and working for Heavy Metal. 

[00:19:56] Arthur Suydam: And, uh, so I had limited time to really work on the artwork stuff cuz I was always on the road. And, um, what was your question again? 

[00:20:05] Badr: I wanted to know what was the, the catalyst to birth. Oh, the Marvels Zombie. Right. So I 

[00:20:09] Arthur Suydam: didn't wanna work on superheroes. That's what it was. I mean, I read 'em as a kid. I loved all the books. 

[00:20:12] Arthur Suydam: I, I had all those books from the 1960s, the Spider-Man and the Avengers, and I had 'em all, Thor and all that stuff. And, And so then basically when he got married I said, well, maybe it's time to settle down now cuz uh, and do some work on some superheroes cuz it's better business to do work on superheroes. 

[00:20:32] Arthur Suydam: So first, so I went in and showed him some work. All the editors I had worked for before were all gone. They were all new guys. Um, but I saw that, okay, this guy can really do horror well, we gotta put something together for this guy. So, The first thing I did for them was, um, another horror series called Hell Storm Son of Satan. 

[00:20:52] Arthur Suydam: I did that whole series and that's when they decided, oh, let's find a writer for this guy and then put a project together. And then, uh, that was put together by one of the editors, I think it was John, I can't remember his last name, uh, but the editor for the Marvel Zombies. He put Robert and I together, and that was a great combination. 

[00:21:12] Arthur Suydam: I thought that, uh, Marvel Zombies was the best thing he ever. Um, and, uh, and so it was a super big hit, came out and, uh, and then after everybody started chasing me, anytime there's any kind of horror stuff, Hey, let's go get that guy. So yeah, that's kind of how it 

[00:21:26] Badr: got going. You mentioned, uh, Robert Kirkman who had written the Marvel Zombie series. 

[00:21:31] Badr: How, how did you feel watching him, you know, transition and, you know, you know, uh, go into his own and create Walking Dead and just seeing that explosion? 

[00:21:38] Arthur Suydam: Yeah. Well, my understanding, what I'm told is the way that went, the way that worked out was, uh, no. He had the walking. Black and white series. Um, don't worry, didn't have much of a following. 

[00:21:50] Arthur Suydam: I think there were like two or 2000 between two and 4,000 people reading it, which is very small. Um, but it was good stuff. The writing was good. Um, so that's why Marvel went and they found him. I think they tracked him down online by his popularity online and put him together with me to work on Marvel zombies. 

[00:22:07] Arthur Suydam: And it's my understanding that, uh, they had been pitching that for four or five or six years and all the, all the studios. Because they said that zombies, nobody cares about zombies. We're not gonna do a zombie thing. Um, in fact, one of the companies that I was working for at the time, this company named Radical, uh, radical Publishing out of, out of la you know, they were, uh, putting together movie projects, projects to make movies of. 

[00:22:31] Arthur Suydam: I said, guys, you want to do a zombie thing? You know? Yeah. And they, and these guys were like, I'll shoot myself in the head before I do a zombie. Anything with zombies, you know, we're not doing it. Um, so, uh, they couldn't get the Walking dead sign. Uh, also the way LA works is with the studios, if they don't know you and you don't have a track record, Uh, slim Chances. 

[00:22:54] Arthur Suydam: They don't know you, they don't wanna know you, and they didn't know Robert. He had no credentials at the time other than working for a little magazine that nobody ever heard of. A little, a little black and white comic series. Um, but then when Marvel Zombies came out, you know, it won the Spike Award. Best comic of the year, best artist of the year, best writer of the year. 

[00:23:11] Arthur Suydam: And swept, swept the award awards. And when Marvel zombies raise the dead and an Army Dar arc darkest, first Marvel zombies came out. That's what created the zombie crazy. It became like when the Beatles came over, everybody in the whole country just lost their mind over zombies. All the computer games started to put zombies in their computer games. 

[00:23:30] Arthur Suydam: Toyota started with zombies in their car commercials, driving the commercials. It became. And it all started, really started with Marvel zombies and based on the success of the, um, the zombie craze that got prompted by that, um, then the Walking Dead got signed and then, you know, uh, people across the United States who walk, watch, uh, they then helmet became an even bigger thing, right? 

[00:23:54] Arthur Suydam: It's 

[00:23:54] Badr: become a part of the, uh, pop culture zitgeist. 

[00:23:57] Arthur Suydam: And uh, and it was the number one show on cable TV for 10 years. So, uh, so yeah, it was, uh, quite a ride, man. 

[00:24:04] Badr: Thank you for that history lesson. I, I, I didn't think I'd ever hear the Beatles and Marvel zombies in the same sentence, but you came and impressed me today on the topic of zombies. 

[00:24:13] Badr: All right. You, you can't pick Marvel Zombies or Walking Dead. I wanna know what's your favorite zombie franchise? Uh, or what's been the best approach to zombies outside 

[00:24:23] Arthur Suydam: of, of those two? Outside of Marvel zombies. So you talking about like film and 

[00:24:28] Badr: stuff like that? It could be film or comics. I wanna know like what other franchise, uh, zombies centric do you really enjoy 

[00:24:35] Arthur Suydam: or film? 

[00:24:35] Arthur Suydam: I don't really consider them franchises, but, uh, film-wise for me, uh, there were two good zombie movies and one was the Return of The Living Dead, which I thought was the best one that ever came out. And then Night of Living Dead was also really, really great. And I thought those were the two good zombie. 

[00:24:53] Arthur Suydam: Entities that came along before Walking Dead, and then the Walking Dead show for the first five seasons or whatever was, was fantastic. Just really incredible. Great acting, great writing, great directing, so I was 

[00:25:07] Badr: very impressed with it. Yeah. Good stuff. And I, I promised I wanted to circle back on, on the music stuff. 

[00:25:12] Badr: Uh, you know, for the uninitiated, they may not know that, uh, you have a band, the Gotham Playboys, which I think is a fantastic name for, for a band coming from, you know, a, a comic creator. Yeah. I understand that you toured with, uh, Bruce Springsteen, uh, your band, toured of Ru Springsteen. Do you got any memorable stories of being on the road or being Bruce Springsteen? 

[00:25:32] Badr: Well, the band did. 

[00:25:33] Arthur Suydam: I did. So, uh, the, the Springsteen thing came along. Um, at the same time, time that Marvel Zombies came along. So I had, I had my option of doing one or the other. Uh, I opted to do Marvel Zombies rather than, than fool around with this. Talk about a choice. Uh, yeah, it was a good show. It's one that I've never regretted. 

[00:25:52] Arthur Suydam: It's, it was, it was a 

[00:25:53] Badr: good choice. Can you tell us maybe a little bit more about like how music, uh, I guess, inspire your work in comics and 

[00:25:59] Arthur Suydam: art and things? Yeah, I mean, if, if people, uh, for people who follow rock and roll art specifically, I mean rock and roll music, um, there are a lot of guys, a lot of these great players, um, who have come along over the years. 

[00:26:16] Arthur Suydam: Who, uh, particularly the guys from England and actually some of the guys from the United States and the 1980s from the Nu Wave movement, these guys were all art students. Eric Clapton was an art student. Jeff Beck was an art student, so I dunno if Jimmy Page was as well, but, uh, Ron Wood is a, is an artist, so these guys were trained as artists and it's a way. 

[00:26:37] Arthur Suydam: It's creativity. So I mean, your creativity is your creativity and, uh, you can, you can bring it from one genre into another genre. So if, uh, it's a way of thinking, it's a way, uh, you kind of train your brain to think a certain way. And if you're a musician, you can bring that into the arts and bring that same, uh, mentality into artwork. 

[00:26:58] Arthur Suydam: Uh, um, and vice versa. There's a lot of guys who are artists who also play something. 

[00:27:04] Badr: Awesome. And I've thought of one more question, my favorite one to ask anytime I get to meet a, uh, a certified, uh, comic legend, and that's for the aspiring artist and comic creator that wants to be the next author or do you know, have a career like yours, what would be a piece of advice you'd give them and maybe one specifically that you wish you would've received early on in your career to, you know, avoid, you know, any heartbreak or, or hardships? 

[00:27:30] Arthur Suydam: Um, that's a good question. That's a really good question, uh, well put too. Um, so I consider that a two-part question and I get that question. Um, you know, at these comic shows, one of the things I like about these comic shows is, uh, these comic cons is all these budding artists and aspiring artists who want to get into the business, um, they, they come and ask me, that's the exact same question, you know, what should I do? 

[00:27:53] Arthur Suydam: What shouldn't I do? And um, um, I think two things. Uh, the first part answer to that question would be, um, get the training. So you want to be, I'll say, as good or better skill-wise than the other artists who are getting work. I mean, if you wanna go work in the business, your skill levels should be on par with, or my own personal, um, thoughts on it. 

[00:28:23] Arthur Suydam: My own personal, from my own strategy, from my own career. That I should be, there's a, I have a, in my head, a, um, a training that I want to have that I wanted to bring into comics. That's why I got all that classical training, um, because none of the other guys in the business had that training. Um, so get the good training and the good news is that you can get the good training for free now. 

[00:28:45] Arthur Suydam: You don't have to go like the slow route I went, which was to go to all these schools. Um, these, the best teachers in the world are all teaching on YouTube and it's free. There's a particular course called the Proco Course on YouTube, and he's teaching the Andrew Loomis course, which is considered the, the best drawing and illustration course in the world. 

[00:29:03] Arthur Suydam: He came out in like the 1950s, 1940s, fifties. Andrew Loomis was, uh, contemporary and, uh, one of the competitors for Norman Rockwell. And, uh, a great artist and that, that's a really great course. Um, so it's very thorough. Teaches you how to draw. All the different and teach you how to work in all the different mediums in ink and pencil and charcoal, in paint and oil paint and, and, uh, acrylic paints. 

[00:29:27] Arthur Suydam: Um, so it's very, very thorough. It teaches you anatomy. Um, and then, so that's the first part is get the training. And I recommend that course it's free. Why not? And uh, and then the second part is if you're gonna go to try to get some work, when it comes time, and you, you've, you've, you've done up some samples. 

[00:29:44] Arthur Suydam: You think you've got your skill level where, where, okay, this is, this is, I'm pretty happy with my skill level. I think I can get. With the skill level that I have now. Um, then the second part I would say would be, um, target the company you're gonna go see. So if you're gonna go see Marvel, take pic. Don't take them pictures of Superman and, and, and Batman, because I'll, I'll tell you straight, they're gonna be blind to it. 

[00:30:10] Arthur Suydam: They're not gonna see it. They, they have. Do your homework a little bit. No, no. It's not your homework. It's because you're gonna think, you're gonna walk, you're gonna walk in there thinking like, why did this beautiful picture of the Mo Mona Lisa? And it looks just like, you know, like Da Vinci's piece. But they're, they're, they're blind to that thing. 

[00:30:27] Arthur Suydam: So, uh, when you go see Marvel, take Spider-Man, take the Hulk, take their mainstream characters. They're classical characters. Same thing for. You take in Spider-Man, you take in the hall. No matter how good your work is, they're not gonna be able to see it because they're just not wired that way. And, uh, so yeah, so target your, uh, take some samples, draw up some samples of, uh, of your target and then, and that's what you want to show them. 

[00:30:52] Arthur Suydam: And don't waste your time with the other 

[00:30:53] Badr: stuff. Solid advice. Arthur, I appreciate your time a lot, ladies and Jen Arthur Siem here at Collective Con. Awesome. 

[00:30:59] Arthur Suydam: Good job. Thanks. Awesome. Good job. Yeah.