From Argentina to The Jurassic League: An interview with Juan Gedeon (The Short Box Podcast #399)

[00:00:00] Badr: In this episode of the short box. 

[00:00:03] Juan Gedeon: So I started sending samples every week, like once a week or twice a week. I would send him drawings until one day, no response, no response. It was pure faith. He says, this is very cool Juan. I would like to find something for you. Wow. And I was like, dude, and it's crazy. I was living alone.

[00:00:22] Juan Gedeon: My fr, my friends were all in Buenos Aires. My other friend in Mexico wasn't around, so I was alone in my apartment. I Like I wanted to do like, you know, in formula one, when they take out the champagne and like, I wanted to do that.

[00:00:43] Intro music plays

[00:01:03] Badr: You. Short box nation. Welcome back to the podcast. How's everyone feeling? Hopefully, um, hopefully everyone at home is, is yelling into the void, into the air. I'm feeling good. Badr. How about you? I'm feeling great. If you're new to the show, welcome. My name is barter and this is the short box podcast, the comic book talk show that brings you the best conversations about comics and the pop culture inspired by them.

[00:01:28] Badr: And sometimes occasionally. You'll even get to hear interviews with the best creators working in the industry today. This is episode 399. Today we've got comic artist Juan Gedeon on the show to talk about how he went from working in advertising and drawing storyboarding for commercials To eventually breaking into comics and drawing some of its most popular and iconic characters.

[00:01:47] Badr: For anyone that needs a crash course on Juan, let me tell you about him. Juan is an Argentinian artist who got his big break by drawing the Ghost Racers miniseries for Marvel Comics in 2015. Any fans of, uh, Hickman's Secret Wars? Or Battle World and all those spinoffs. Juan did the Ghost Racers series.

[00:02:05] Badr: And since then, he's interpreted some of Marvel's biggest characters in his unique signature style. He's drawn Spider Man, Venom, Ms. Marvel, Thor. And most recently, Doctor Strange. You can actually find his artwork in this month's Doctor Strange number 6. And outside of Marvel, he's also drawn issues of Teen Titans and Death Metal for DC Comics.

[00:02:23] Badr: He's also the lead artist on the Skybound and Image Maxis series Horizon of writer Brandon Thompson. And most recently, he just wrapped up the prehistoric knockout six issue miniseries Jurassic League, which he co wrote with Daniel Warren Johnson and provided pencil for a majority of the series.

[00:02:39] Badr: Together we'll hear from the man himself and explore some of his influences and pick his brain about the job and what it takes to be successful as a penciler and inker. Shortbox Nation, let's welcome for the first time ever Juan Gideon to the show. 

[00:02:54] Juan Gedeon: Hey guys, thank you for having me. 

[00:02:56] Badr: What's up man, how you doing?

[00:02:58] Juan Gedeon: I'm great, I'm 

[00:03:00] Badr: great. I'm gonna let this one ride out. There we go, I'm gonna let that one ride out to the finish right there. That was, that was very nice. One, this interview only took me, when was, uh, HeroesCon? It was in June. We are now, uh, August, uh, early August talking. Uh, yo, this is actually a pretty good record for me.

[00:03:16] Badr: Normally it takes a little longer to arrange things, you know, schedules. But I'm so glad I got you on the show, man. Yeah, me too. Me too. I was looking forward to this. Hell yeah, I still got the stickers, by the way, I bought from you. Look, I haven't decided where to put these stickers. Uh, Drew, you know, had reminded me that he copped, like, the big six inch Venom sticker.

[00:03:37] Badr: And I won't lie, I immediately had like buyers remorse. I was like, 

[00:03:42] Juan Gedeon: damn it, why did I buy this one? You know, I'll send you one. I have more, more designs that I didn't have at Heroes. 

[00:03:47] Badr: Long story short, man, I've been looking forward to chatting with you in more detail. Um, I've been playing hella catch up on all of your comics.

[00:03:53] Badr: This interview gave me a great reason to go back and like finish all of Jurassic League and look into some of the other stuff you've been working on. Awesome. Where do you call home? I mentioned in the intro that your hometown, uh, that you were born in Argentina, like where do you call home now? 

[00:04:06] Juan Gedeon: Yeah. Oh, I call home San Gabriel in California.

[00:04:11] Juan Gedeon: I really like it here. Really, really like it. I want to stay as much as 

[00:04:15] Badr: possible. How long have you been living there? 

[00:04:17] Juan Gedeon: Uh, I moved during COVID, so... So 2023, so maybe two years. Okay. Yeah. The last year started a blur. I didn't know. I don't know exactly when, when, uh, when that happened. So it was either 2020, 

[00:04:33] Badr: 2021.

[00:04:34] Badr: Okay. And then you said you're enjoying your time there. Oh, it's awesome. 

[00:04:38] Juan Gedeon: It's like old people and family. So it's very quiet. It's perfect for me because I'm like a, like a hermit, um, I'm a hermit and I, I hate loud neighbors. I hate loud noises. Yeah. Yeah. No, he says. So this is perfect for me. It's very safe, like the houses don't have fences, the windows don't have like bars.

[00:05:02] Juan Gedeon: It's, 

[00:05:02] Badr: it's very nice. You were born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, correct? Yes, yes sir. When's the last time you had a chance to go back? Oh man, 

[00:05:11] Juan Gedeon: 2018. So, wow, five years. 

[00:05:14] Badr: How would you describe, uh, how would you describe your hometown for anyone that's never, like myself, that's never been to Argentina, has no, like, idea of what it's like.

[00:05:21] Badr: Like, describe your hometown and your neighborhood. 

[00:05:24] Juan Gedeon: Okay, so I would say... The people, people from Argentina are basically Italians that speak Spanish. There's all shapes of color and colors and sizes. There's people that are. Like white as snow or darker than me, redheads, it's like a melting pot. So there's everything like, it's not like, it's hard to say, Oh, the typical Argentine person looks like this is very hard.

[00:05:55] Juan Gedeon: Okay. It's very hard. Uh, so, so that's one thing. And then I would describe Buenos Aires. Uh, it's crazy because. You have downtown that is like downtown LA, or I would compare it to New York, like big buildings, tall buildings, chaos, a lot of, uh, traffic, a lot of people, but then where I lived, it was like 40 minutes away in a, in a city called San Isidro, and it was like small, uh, but.

[00:06:28] Juan Gedeon: But there was also like a lot of activity. It's like, kind of like, yeah, I think Charlotte would be a good, a good comparison, Charlotte heroes. Yeah. You have like. They have buildings, you have a ton of restaurants, you have a lot of houses, a lot of apartments, 

[00:06:46] Badr: a lot of like the historic area? Because I know Charlotte is kind of like at that historic feel to it.

[00:06:51] Juan Gedeon: Oh, well, there's a historic, uh, there's a very old cathedral near where I live. Very old cathedral. So it's very lively. I wouldn't say it's like, this would be a good description. It's not like a small town. It's not like a small town with like 50 people in there, it's not like that at all. But it wasn't like a big city, like a big metropolis.

[00:07:14] Juan Gedeon: Like the metropolis, like the big buildings and the traffic and the chaos was far away. It's like in the middle. It's very 

[00:07:20] Badr: nice. It's very nice. And what's the comic scene like in Argentina? Because I, I, I, I had a feeling that Argentina has produced, and you know, given the world a lot of great comic artists, and I quickly just googled something and some of the names I recognize are like Eduardo Riso, uh, Ariel Olivetti, I think I'm saying that right, and then of course, like, the, the, uh, the legendary and iconic Hector German, uh, was it Osterheld?

[00:07:44] Badr: Is that his 

[00:07:44] Juan Gedeon: name? Osterheld, yeah, the writer, 

[00:07:46] Badr: yeah. So, I mean, can you describe, like, what is, uh, the comic scene like in Argentina, or maybe where you're from specifically in Argentina, like, what is the, the view on comics and the culture there? 

[00:07:56] Juan Gedeon: That's so interesting. Uh, I would divide that answer in two parts.

[00:08:00] Juan Gedeon: Okay. Like currently, I think people are obsessed with American comics, Marvel DC. And then there's the anime and manga crowd that's very strong, very big. You have those things. Then you have, uh, humor, humor, like people like, uh, like cartoons that appear in newspapers or stuff like that, comic strips, comic strips.

[00:08:29] Juan Gedeon: So that would be now, that would be now, but in the past, like. When I was like a kid, when I was, until I was like 12, 13, there were comics being produced, printed in Argentina by Argentine artists. Okay. So one of the, the big ones that I'm going to name that I still are very, I'm very fond of are Anita, the daughter of the executioner.

[00:08:57] Juan Gedeon: The artist was Juan Bobillo, Juan Bobillo, Bobillo, they were pronounced differently here. He worked for Marvel and DC, eh, that comic was like insane, that was amazing. Eh, the artist ended up drawing Fantastic Four, Spider Man, She 

[00:09:15] Badr: Hulk. Anita Blake the Vampire Hunter, or the Executive Editor's 

[00:09:19] Juan Gedeon: Daughter, I'm sorry, yeah.

[00:09:20] Juan Gedeon: Yeah, in Spanish it's La Hija del Verdugo, uh, La Hija

[00:09:25] Juan Gedeon: del Verdugo. So, that comic was awesome. That came out in the late nineties and it had the quality of like a Marvel book. Like the art was insane. The colors were insane. The story was really fun. And then there was another one that, that I still like look at it up to this day, which is called Cazador means hunter.

[00:09:47] Juan Gedeon: But my parents wouldn't let me buy it because it had like a lot of gore, gore, violence, naked women, like nudity, like, uh, like sex. Uh, so it was not for kids, 

[00:10:01] Badr: like at all. Holy moly. Yeah, I'm, I'm looking, uh, I'm, I'm Googling this as you're talking. Yeah. This looks like a 12 year old botter's like, you know, perfect 

[00:10:10] Juan Gedeon: comic book.

[00:10:11] Juan Gedeon: Yeah, no, it was insane. And the artists, they were like, it was drawn by like four people at the time. One of them was Ariello Libetti. He worked on some issues. He worked on some covers, but then the main one was Mauro Cacioli. He was like Simon Beasley on 

[00:10:29] Badr: Steroid. I was just about to say, I'm getting like heavy Simon Beasley on 

[00:10:33] Juan Gedeon: this.

[00:10:33] Juan Gedeon: Yeah. But the interesting thing is that when Mauro was doing Casador, I learned this when I got older, obviously back then I had no idea, but he was like a kid, like a teenager when he started doing that. So some of those covers that you see that are amazing, he drew them maybe when he was like 19, 20, 21, it was ridiculous.

[00:10:54] Juan Gedeon: He was like a huge talent and obviously very hardworking. Uh, but he was insane and the best pages from that book were drawn by him. But back, back then I couldn't see that. So now as an adult, I'm like, Oh dude, like this is awesome. Like, I wish I had, I wish I had been older when this was around. Uh, but that book, man, it was like.

[00:11:24] Juan Gedeon: It had like violence action, but it was also comedy and they were making parodies of current stuff that was happening in Argentina. Wow. So the average person would buy that. People who are not comic book fans. Like now it's like, unless you like Superman, Batman, X Men, Wolverine, you're not going to buy comics.

[00:11:42] Juan Gedeon: But there were people that were maybe into heavy metal or whatever that were not into comics. That I would buy this thing because it was 

[00:11:49] Badr: hilarious. Okay, so it's like, so it had like crossover appeal for a little bit, I guess for everyone, right? Like if you wanted the humor or the parody or the 

[00:11:56] Juan Gedeon: superhero stuff.

[00:11:58] Juan Gedeon: No, 

[00:11:58] Badr: they were crazy. Yeah, this looks, I mean, I recommend for anyone that's into like Simon Beasley or, you know, Garth Ennis, I'd probably put it there. Look up Cazador. C A Z A D O R. The R is, is epic. Um. Is it safe to say that one of these, whether it's Cazador or Anita Blake, is it safe to say one of those was maybe your earliest comic memory or do you have another, like, early comic memory that you, that you still have?

[00:12:22] Juan Gedeon: Early, early comic memories, again, it would have two parts. One would be the comic books of the Ninja Turtles based on the cartoon. Those, uh, they were super goofy, but I loved them. So that was one. But then when I. Started like, quote unquote, taking this seriously, the first memories were spawned, was spawned.

[00:12:46] Juan Gedeon: Okay. That was like the, the, the turning point. I'm like, I saw the toys first, then I saw the comic book and I'm like, no, this is, I felt like, uh, like that book was like, uh, showing me a path. I don't know if that makes sense. Like I saw that I'm like, this is what I want to do. Like this is what I want to do.

[00:13:09] Juan Gedeon: And this is the, the, the line or the vibe that I want to follow the spawn, the max. The Creech, uh, Pete, Dale Keowns, Pete, and uh, Anita came like a little after, I was a little older. The first was for sure 

[00:13:28] Badr: Spawn. Do you remember what issue of Spawn specifically? Yeah. Or maybe like, I mean outside of the very obvious Spawn just being one of the coolest looking characters ever.

[00:13:36] Badr: You know, what did Todd McFarland say, like kids love chains or something like that? Kids love chains. Yeah, kids love chains. Uh, I mean, like, what was it about, like, Spawn? Was it as simple as the art, or was it just really cool? Or was there anything specific that inspired you to, like, pick up a pencil and try your hand at it?

[00:13:52] Juan Gedeon: Wow. That's a great question. I didn't think about that. 

[00:13:55] Badr: You can easily just say it was the chains, dude. 

[00:13:59] Juan Gedeon: It was the design. The design and the, I remember the first Spawn comic, the design of Spawn, right? Yeah. So, uh, the first comic that I bought, he's in an alley, like, uh, squeezing the hand of a, of a thug, like breaking his hand, holding a gun on the other one, and there's like a bunch of thugs in the, on the ground.

[00:14:21] Juan Gedeon: It's like. The issue that follows the fight with Curse, the Curse appears, I think, issue 23 or 24. And then the next issue, he's like in a victorious pose in an alley. Yeah. Uh, and that's the one that, that I bought. And then I'm like, oh, shoot, I need to know what happened before. Because in that issue, he has a hole in his chest.

[00:14:43] Juan Gedeon: And the curse is, like, crucified in the alley, like, tied with, like, chains and, and stuff. I'm like, what happened? How did, how did this happen? I need to see what happened before. Uh, so yeah, that was the first, 

[00:14:55] Badr: that was the first. It is interesting to see, um, because I imagine we're probably not too far off in age.

[00:15:00] Juan Gedeon: Uh huh, 

[00:15:01] Badr: I'm 35. Okay, 34 here. So definitely not far off at all. So I think it's interesting to see like, you know, obviously 90s image, you know, the, your McFarland's, your Liefeld's, your Lee's, all of them, like having such a big impact on like people our age and a little bit older, um, seeing them coming to the industry and like, that is their like main inspiration, you know, like, versus the generation, like my dad's generation would say someone like.

[00:15:26] Badr: You know, Kirby's and all those other early comic artists, it's interesting to see now like this new crop of, uh, um, uh, artists come in and like image be like the, the thing that like got them into 

[00:15:38] Juan Gedeon: the industry. Yeah. And, and another thing is that the Spawn comics, I bought the Spanish version. Which was edited by a company, a publisher from Spain because it was like in Spanish language.

[00:15:54] Juan Gedeon: So I think that issue maybe came out in like, I don't know, whenever it came out, but you have to think about. It arrived in, it made it to Buenos Aires like two or three years after. So I was reading Spawn like in the States, maybe, I don't know, they were on issue 50 and we were on issue 20, 25. It was like a huge, they were years 

[00:16:19] Badr: between.

[00:16:20] Badr: Man, talk about having to be patient as a, you know, a teenage boy wanted to find out what happened to Spawn. Yeah, the delay. Yeah. There's so many factors in between, you know, from it hitting, you know, printing, finishing printing to getting into your hands and your situation. It's like, well, I got to wait for the translation to come.

[00:16:35] Badr: I got to wait for that to come. Okay. Yeah. There's a lot of different, yeah. Okay. I gotcha. I'm going to fast forward through your career and life just a little bit because I've read somewhere that early in your career, it sounds like, you know, after high school, you get into college, you had a career in advertising and drawing like animation or storyboards for commercials and all that.

[00:16:56] Badr: How did you get into that job? Dude, 

[00:16:58] Juan Gedeon: so, okay, uh, I always wanted to do comics. That's like my formation. I started drawing with, uh, with an artist from Argentina who passed away, Erwin Medici. I, I studied with him many years, for many years. So he acted as a mentor for you? He was, he was a mentor, but, but then I realized that, obviously when you're a kid, you don't know, but people always have limitations.

[00:17:23] Juan Gedeon: So I felt like, okay, I'm hitting like a wall here, you know? So after high school, uh, I didn't know what to do. Like, I didn't want to study graphic design because everyone thinks, Oh, you're so good at drawing. You should study graphic design. That's not how it works. Graphic design is a completely different beast.

[00:17:42] Juan Gedeon: Uh, I, I was never into painting, which is a shame because now I want to learn how to paint. Yeah, I think it's pretty, it's awesome. So. And there were schools that were very expensive, like digital art, special effects, they were expensive. My family couldn't afford it. So I'm like, what do I do? And I just started looking for jobs online with like the skills that I had back then, and a studio hired me as an assistant, they were doing storyboards for commercials, and I was basically doing pencils.

[00:18:20] Juan Gedeon: Then someone else was inking them and then I would help with colors, which was kind of like karate kid, you know, when he's like painting the fence and they're like, how is this going to help me fight people? So it's like, how is this, how is this going to help me draw Wolverine or Batman? But then I learned working under pressure.

[00:18:42] Juan Gedeon: I learned Photoshop because. And dude, I was even coloring with a mouse. Oh wow. We didn't have tablets back then, it was with a mouse. So, but I learned how to use Photoshop, all the commands, like my, my bosses were like super patient with me. Uh, but they show me the robes and it just so happens it's like fate, no, uh, like a miracle because they were also comic book fans.

[00:19:09] Juan Gedeon: So they were, they were doing comics, but commercial storyboards, sorry, paid more. So they just made the transition and they were doing really well, uh, but they always loved comics. So whenever we had some time off, there was maybe there was no work that day and I would talk to them about comics. And we would study like pages from Mike Mignola, they were huge Hellboy fans, both of them.

[00:19:36] Juan Gedeon: So they would teach me, oh, this is how the, the, the panels work and how the, the drawing leads the eye of the viewer to the next panel composition. So it was like an internship, like a men, they were my mentors. That was basically like college for me. I didn't go to college or university, I don't have a degree, but that was like my.

[00:19:58] Juan Gedeon: My school, you could say. It sounds 

[00:20:01] Badr: like it served multiple purposes. Like you said, it paid the bills. But it also gave you that, like, toolbox of skills. And you're getting, like, And it sounds like the, uh, your bosses or managers or whatever were, like, comic literate, too. Oh, they were, yeah. You mentioned, I was watching an interview of yours and you were, um, talking about when a piece of advice you'd give a, like a new artist is like learning different camera shots, you know, you mentioned that you personally enjoy like, you know, playing around with the camera and the angle and your panels and whatnot.

[00:20:30] Badr: And I was like, Oh, it makes sense if he, you know, if he worked as a storyboard artist, because I mean, I can't tell you how many comic artists I've, I've talked to where they're like, yeah, storyboarding and drawing panels for comics is like, Almost one in the same. Yeah. I guess how much did you have to learn to, to get into comics coming from that storyboard, uh, background?

[00:20:51] Badr: Mm. 

[00:20:52] Juan Gedeon: How much did I have to learn? 

[00:20:54] Badr: A lot. So you still had to learn a lot despite Yes. Storyboarding being pretty, you know, uh, pretty similar, huh? 

[00:21:02] Juan Gedeon: Yeah, because the thing with, with Story Wars, here's the thing. The, the creatives or the companies that would hire you to do storyboards, uh, in a few words, you make a lot of money, but it sucks.

[00:21:15] Juan Gedeon: You're just shooting a commercial of people eating their food, whatever. So very bland, uh, very exactly. That's the word. Everything is bland. So with my professor, with my first teacher, Erwin. Uh, I was doing like big dudes, like huge muscles, women with like big curves and everything. But when I started working for commercials, everything, no, no, toning down, people don't have muscles.

[00:21:41] Juan Gedeon: It's just normal people, normal clothes. Uh, don't make them, you know, I always make them like frowning or scowling and no, no, that looks scary. That looks dangerous. Like there's, don't do that. So I had to tone it down, learn the foundations, learn perspective, uh, polish my anatomy. Uh, learn composition, learn sequentials, like, Oh, first they open the door, then they entered the house, then they grab a beer, then they sit down, watch TV.

[00:22:10] Juan Gedeon: Like, I never thought of that. I wasn't doing that before. And then switching to comics, okay, now I have the foundation of the cameras, composition, everything. Okay. Now incorporate the things that you like. Now incorporate the muscles. Now incorporate the rendering. Because in, for commercials, like you have a very, you have very tight deadlines.

[00:22:34] Juan Gedeon: So there was no rendering, like no black areas, it was, everything was very simple and finished with color. Uh, Transcribed So going back to comics, no, you have to add rendering. You have to put more detail, but then I went to animation. So back again, remove everything, remove the rendering, the, uh, animation, it's also a different beast.

[00:22:59] Juan Gedeon: So it was like a lot of like, like, like ups and not ups and down, but like. I would say maybe detours or different challenges. So, and I'm still learning. 

[00:23:13] Badr: You should man, right? That's part of the journey. Life is all about learning lessons. Yeah. According to a few bios that I saw of yours, like they all point towards that Ghost Racers 2015 as kind of like your big break into comics.

[00:23:30] Badr: Do you consider that like the moment for you of breaking in? Yeah. What do you remember from that? Like how did the opportunity come up and like, what do you remember from like that experience? 

[00:23:40] Juan Gedeon: Oh man, it was crazy. Like I was so happy when I, first it was the email that said, Hey Juan, I might have something for you.

[00:23:48] Juan Gedeon: I would like to work with you. From a Marvel editor. How did they find you? I bugged them, like Oh yeah, persistent. Yeah. I was very persistent. So I, I was living in Mexico back then. I was working in animation. The animation gig ended, so I was doing other, other stuff. What was the name of the show? It never came out.

[00:24:09] Juan Gedeon: Oh, damn. Never. Okay. We finished all the pro the storyboards, but it never got to pro actual production. It was never animated. 

[00:24:17] Badr: I heard it goes that way, right? Like at the time it could be like, Oh, like the budget pulled or whatever. Okay. 

[00:24:22] Juan Gedeon: Yeah. So, so yeah, unfortunately, but I downloaded the first issue of all new ghostwriter and I read it.

[00:24:30] Juan Gedeon: I devoured it. I loved it. And then I did something that I never done in my life before, which is, uh, email the letter column, send a letter to the, to the actual comment, commenting on the, on how I felt and everything. So I sent an email saying how much I liked it. I never mentioned I was an artist, nothing.

[00:24:55] Juan Gedeon: And I got a response from the editor that it wasn't like a copy paste response. It was like a legit response. The dude address particular points of my message. And I'm like, this is what I always wanted to have the opportunity to talk to an editor. Like I haven't, I hadn't even gone to. San Diego comic con like back then you find you would find a job by going to a convention showing your folder your portfolio and then they would call, you know, I never even done that.

[00:25:24] Juan Gedeon: So, I, this dude replied and I'm like, Mark Paniccia, thank you for the opportunity, Mark, so grateful. Um, so Mark, Mark Paniccia responded and I'm like, now I have to start email him every, every freaking week, every 

[00:25:46] Badr: week. You're like, I got that ass, I got that email and I'm not letting go. 

[00:25:51] Juan Gedeon: Up to that point, I had been working so much that I had a ton of samples, you know, and I'm like, I'm going to start sending him samples every week.

[00:26:00] Juan Gedeon: Like I said, Hey, would you be interested in seeing my work? No response. But I'm like, okay, don't give up. Keep 

[00:26:05] Badr: trying. You're like, Oh, cool, cool. I know you, I probably caught you during dinner. I'm gonna come back tomorrow though. Yeah. 

[00:26:12] Juan Gedeon: So, so I started sending samples every week, like once a week or twice a week.

[00:26:17] Juan Gedeon: I would send him drawings until one day, no response, no response. It was pure faith, pure faith. Uh, he says, this is very cool Juan. I would like to find something for you. Wow. And I was like, dude, and it's crazy. I was living alone. I didn't even have a girlfriend. I, no friends. My, my friends were all in Buenos Aires.

[00:26:41] Juan Gedeon: My other friend in Mexico wasn't around. Uh, so I was alone in my apartment. I was like, yes. Yes, you know, if I, like, I wanted to do like, you know, in formula one, when they take out the champagne and like, I wanted to do that. So 

[00:26:58] Badr: just drenched the whole house, 

[00:26:59] Juan Gedeon: damn it. Yeah. So that's how we started on my first job was actually, was not going to be a ghost racers.

[00:27:09] Juan Gedeon: Initially I was going to do Avengers, like Avengers with the costumes from the sixties. 

[00:27:15] Badr: Oh, uh, was that one of the battle world, 

[00:27:17] Juan Gedeon: um, No, battle world was after, but this was, I don't know. I think it was like, what if. 

[00:27:23] Badr: Okay. Okay. That's pretty major though. Yeah, dude. That's pretty major though, to get the, the Avengers off the first project.

[00:27:29] Juan Gedeon: Yeah. But he got, he got canned, unfortunately. All right. So 

[00:27:33] Badr: they, they bring you on board there. They want to give you Avengers. It falls through. So then they're like, Hey, we got this ghost racers, which is, I think it's kind of, kind of, uh, I don't know. It's not coincidental, but it's a cool little parallel that this book that, Got you, that inspired you to write it and got you in.

[00:27:48] Badr: Now you're drawing the same character. So, I mean, how did that, um, I guess onboarding go? It 

[00:27:53] Juan Gedeon: was, it was very cool because the email said that I got an email from Mark. We were already talking about the Avengers, right? Uh, but one day I get an email from Mark, Mark Paniccia saying, Oh, by the way, Juan, bad news, Avengers is not going to happen, but in the same email.

[00:28:11] Juan Gedeon: Will you, I have something else you want to draw Robbie Ray's those writer. I'm like, Yeah, that's awesome. I was like stoked because sometimes it's like, Oh, you know what? This is not going to happen. And then it's like silence for weeks or months, but it was like in the same email. This is not happening, but these are the things happening.

[00:28:32] Juan Gedeon: I was so pumped. And at this point, I already, that was actually the first time I went to San Diego comic con or the, the, any comic con in the U S in 2014, and I met Felipe, Felipe Smith, the writer of All New Ghost Writer, an artist too, he drew some issues and he's also from Argentina. He was raised in Argentina.

[00:28:56] Juan Gedeon: His, his mom is from Argentina. His dad from Jamaica. So, but he lived in Argentina until he was 18. So I saw him at San Diego, I bought his, uh, comic, uh, Pipochu, creator on stuff that he made in Japan. And I said, dude, I'm, I'm going to work in Avengers. I talked in Spanish, right? But I'm going to work on Avengers.

[00:29:16] Juan Gedeon: So yeah, yeah, this is great. So, so we, I think followed each other on Twitter. And when they said, Oh, you want to do Ghost Rider and Felipe is going to draw it. I'm like, this is like amazing because we, like when we met, we got along really well. We clicked like right away. So it was such a nice first experience.

[00:29:43] Juan Gedeon: It 

[00:29:43] Badr: was awesome. Wow. And this is your first time, like, working on anything comic related, like getting, you know, an outline or notes from a writer and working off a script, the Marvel method of that, probably, like, so this is where you had to kind of hone and adjust, you know, your process from that storyboarding world into, like, I guess, the comic book world, 

[00:30:03] Juan Gedeon: right?

[00:30:03] Juan Gedeon: Yeah, I had, I mean, like, a short current or short detour, but I had a run. In Tomb Raider for Dark Horse. Oh, I was the anchor. Yeah, I was the anchor. So it's like, it's cool, but I didn't, it didn't feel like mine, you know? So Ghost Racers was like, like, okay, I wanted to do this for so long. Let's do it. And I was terrified.

[00:30:27] Juan Gedeon: I was very scared, but the good thing about the storyboards, working animation, doing the, the samples on the sides, whenever I could, is some small jobs here and there, that. Helped me with like, I watch an anime Ippon about boxing. One of my favorites. And one thing that I take from that is that when the dude gets in the ring, the coach says.

[00:30:55] Juan Gedeon: I know you're scared, but your body will remember what to do in the fight. Your training will, will speak for itself. So, although I was so scared with Ghost Racers, it's like everything that I had done before, tell me, oh man, I'm so scared, I'm so scared. Oh, no, I can actually do this. I know how to draw a face.

[00:31:12] Juan Gedeon: Oh, okay. No, another face. 

[00:31:14] Badr: You probably already had put in, you know, like that 10, 000 hours in some capacity, you know, probably like 5, 000 here, 

[00:31:20] Juan Gedeon: 3, 000 here. Right, right. But that was like the, the big, uh, I wouldn't say the big test, but maybe the, the first big, I don't know, maybe, yeah, maybe that's a good way to put it.

[00:31:31] Badr: You might've just given me one of my favorite origin stories when it comes to breaking industry. That was, that was awesome. I'm gonna switch it up and I wanna, uh, talk about, do you have a preferred, like, medium? Is it strictly, uh, pencil and, and inking? I know you ink a lot of your stuff, like, what are some of the, your favorite tools to use?

[00:31:49] Juan Gedeon: Favorite tool. I have them right here. Uh, this is my favorite, probably pen. I know everyone says, Oh, what pen do you use? And I'll tell you right away, it doesn't do anything. You have to know how to use it, but it's this, it's a Zebra, Zebra pen. I don't know if you can see 

[00:32:04] Badr: it. Yeah. For audio listeners, this is probably where you want to go on the video version, but.

[00:32:09] Juan Gedeon: But yeah. And it's only Japanese. I can't read this, but I get them a Daiso for 1. 50 and it's awesome because the tip is like. It works. You can adjust the, the, the, the value of the line. So you can do thick lines, thin lines. It's kind of like a mix between a brush and a pen. It's an, a micron. It's awesome.

[00:32:34] Juan Gedeon: This is my favorite. And then I use micron. So I have a pen brush. 

[00:32:38] Badr: Do you do any of your work digital 

[00:32:39] Juan Gedeon: at all? Yeah, like, uh, Jurassic League was digital pencils. Okay. Digital pencils printed out in a comic book board and inked traditionally. And then scan again and send to the colorist. And that's how I've been doing.

[00:32:54] Juan Gedeon: Do you ink 

[00:32:54] Badr: all of your stuff? Always. Why do you like 

[00:32:57] Juan Gedeon: doing both? Here's the thing. I don't necessarily, I wouldn't say I like it. It was just necessity. Uh, like my goal was always to be a penciler. Like, uh, Joe Madureira, Greg Capullo, Chris Bachado, Lenny Liu, those were my heroes, Jim Lee. And my, my dream was to be inked by Scott Williams, Tim Townsend, those guys.

[00:33:22] Juan Gedeon: But, I don't know, for some reason I just started inking my own work. I always fantasize about having an inker and just doing pencils the traditional way. I fantasize about that, but I already got used to doing my own stuff, you know. And I think a lot of the details that I put in my work come from accidents that I use whiteout.

[00:33:44] Juan Gedeon: I use a ton of whiteout. So, I don't know how I would present the pencils to an inker. For them to do what I would do with WIDA, you know, I, I wouldn't know how to, yeah. It sounds 

[00:34:00] Badr: like you got your own like process and formula that probably makes way more sense in your head than having to try to like lay it out, things like that.

[00:34:07] Badr: Okay. Um, I was reading an interview with, um, yourself and Brandon Thomas, the writer of, uh, the image series Horizon, uh, that you did. And. In it, he praises you for your knack of like, you know, just making things cool. I don't got a direct quote, but the overall gist of it was that you have a knack for cool aesthetic.

[00:34:27] Badr: You, you know, you're able to, uh, incorporate a lot of action into pages and things like that. And I was curious, where does that come from? You mentioned, uh, anime, and I know that you've got, you know, you've got a love of video games as well, but comic books aside, like, what are some, uh, I guess, where does this knack for cool aesthetic and action come from?

[00:34:45] Badr: Like, what are some things that you enjoy? 

[00:34:48] Juan Gedeon: Well, I'm just like a very cool person overall, so I think that's where it goes. I'm just kidding. I'm just so cool that it just, yeah, effortless. And then it just comes off natural. Now I'm just kidding. Uh, I think it's like a combination of, uh, the stuff I like, it's like, I cannot escape the things that I like.

[00:35:11] Juan Gedeon: They just like appear, you know? Uh, so it's, I think it's like a, yeah, a result of combining the things that I consider cool. Like for me. Dragon Ball is super cool, like the super cool characters, cool hair, cool clothes. Um, I think, uh, this, this spawn toys were super cool. So 

[00:35:41] Badr: the spawn toys still to this day are some of the coolest toy.

[00:35:46] Badr: And I'm talking even like this stuff from like the nineties still are some of the best toys out there. Uh, there's a few, uh, toy shops around me and anytime I go in, I'm looking for like the OG spawn toys. Cause I mean, it's just. They're so detailed and, you know, uh, just like comic book accurate. And I always think about, um, and I've heard Tom McFarlane say this a lot on, on several interviews where like his secret to making good toys is you keep molding it and doing whatever you do until it looks just like the comic book.

[00:36:17] Badr: Oh, 

[00:36:18] Juan Gedeon: I don't know. Yeah. It's interesting that with, with the toys, with the spawn toys. I saw the progression. I saw like the, the first series, the first or second series, and I, my first encounter with a spawn toy was not with a spawn figure. It was another character. I think it was either Mother One from Wetworks.

[00:36:41] Juan Gedeon: Uh, or Vandalizer, Vandalizer is like a blue, like monster demon. And I saw that and I'm like, this is the best thing I've ever seen. I turn around and see the cardboard. I'm like, no, look at all these other characters. I need to have all of them, you know, but they were not around. They were like those specialty stores just had those toys.

[00:37:04] Juan Gedeon: Uh, but then I saw the transition of how they became more detail and more intricate to the point where they were basically statues with very limited articulation. And I think now Todd is going back to doing more articulation, but that was like the coolest thing to me in that, at that time. Yeah. No, I always had like a very like defined taste that I couldn't like, I don't know, I cannot maybe explain it with words, but this is cool.

[00:37:32] Juan Gedeon: Yeah. And this. This is not for whatever reason, he's very subjective, but I always had like a, like a radar or a very clear, like tastes, 

[00:37:43] Badr: you know, it sounds like, yeah, you've definitely got a style that, you know, you gravitate towards. And it sounds like you also just follow your gut on like 

[00:37:50] Juan Gedeon: what you think.

[00:37:51] Juan Gedeon: Yeah. Yeah, totally. When I was a kid, for example, I never cared for cars or micro machines were super hot when I was a boy, but I was like the turtles. Like the Ninja Turtles were like the best G. I. Joe, I didn't care for G. I. Joe. I could, I like street charts. When I saw street charts, it just blew my mind.

[00:38:10] Juan Gedeon: I'm like, this is the best thing ever. So, uh, I don't know why I prefer one over the other. I really don't know. Uh, but, but yeah, I always have that. I'm glad you said that. 

[00:38:24] Badr: I'm glad you brought up action figures and Street Shark, especially because as I'm reading Jurassic League, those are two, two of three things that come to mind when I'm reading it.

[00:38:35] Badr: I'm like, man, the way he draws these characters are like, they've got some heft to them. Um, the anatomy is on point. The action is awesome. And it made me think of like Street Shark, like these anthropomorphic. You know, uh, creatures that, like, can fight. They've got, they look like bodybuilders, right? And it would be cool.

[00:38:52] Badr: Like, the fact that we don't have a Jurassic League action figure line is, is kind of crazy. But maybe, you know, McFarlane toys will get to that soon. But the other thing that, that it made me think of, and I think this is a consistent, uh, across your work, but specifically Jurassic League, because I just think the, um, the subject matter and the character designs, but it made me really think of, uh, uh, Genndy Tartakovsky.

[00:39:16] Badr: Like, Dexter's Laboratory, Primal, uh, and all that, like, was Dexter's Laboratory, uh, a big influence, or Genndy Tartakovsky in general, was he like a big influence for you? Especially considering your storyboarding background, and animation. Yeah, 

[00:39:31] Juan Gedeon: well, I would say, well, I watched that when I was a kid, but I didn't...

[00:39:36] Juan Gedeon: I didn't watch those cartoons like Dexter or Powerpuff Girls. I didn't see them from like, uh, I wasn't studying them. Like I just watch it and I'm like, Oh, cool. But as an adult, when Primal came out, like a few years ago, I don't remember exactly when, but I'm like, this is awesome. This is the best thing. No, no dialogue, no, nothing just grunting.

[00:40:03] Juan Gedeon: And like, they just. Telling you the story with the expressions, it's all action that proves that if you do it well, you can like action can carry out a full series. Yeah, like cool action, cool beats. I mean, there's also emotional stuff that they achieve different ways, but the primal was definitely, uh, in the DNA.

[00:40:27] Juan Gedeon: It's definitely in the DNA of Jurassic league. Definitely. 

[00:40:30] Badr: All this talk of McFarlane toys and Spawn, have you ever had a chance to meet Todd McFarlane? 

[00:40:35] Juan Gedeon: Never. I would love to, but I would love to, but I, I also kind of don't want, don't want to because I, I'm afraid of being like, me being too nervous or get emotional and start crying like an idiot, you know, I'm like, oh, Todd, 

[00:40:50] Badr: you're, you know.

[00:40:52] Badr: Tom McFarlane is looking at you like, that's not cool. 

[00:40:55] Juan Gedeon: That's not cool, man. Like, 

[00:40:56] Badr: behave yourself. He's like, I thought she was cool, Juan. I thought you were cool. 

[00:41:00] Juan Gedeon: You're like crying, being a weirdo. I don't want to make, I don't want to make you uncomfortable. So I would love to meet him, but it would require like a lot of 

[00:41:11] Badr: preparation.

[00:41:12] Badr: I got you. I got you. I guess on the topic of Jurassic League, uh, how about we talk about how, how Jurassic League came to be, like, what was the impetus of the idea, how did you end up partnering with, you know, Daniel Warren Johnson, who's one of my favorite, absolute favorite comic creators in the game right now, like, how did that whole idea come 

[00:41:28] Juan Gedeon: about?

[00:41:29] Juan Gedeon: Oh man, it's crazy. Okay, so, I was drawing death metal. Um, the name is such a mouthful death metal multiverse and that issue, that issue, it was 40 pages. They were super nice. They gave me a lot of time. It was also back when I, uh, right when I moved to San Gabriel. So I was like moving and working, uh, but it was also COVID.

[00:41:52] Juan Gedeon: So they were very understanding, like. I finished that book, 40 

[00:41:57] Badr: pages. Which, I'm sorry to interrupt, which is a beautiful book by the way. Thank you, 

[00:42:01] Juan Gedeon: I appreciate, 

[00:42:01] Badr: that means a lot. I ended up reading that after Jurassic League and I'm like, man, that same bombastic energy and knack for like, cool aesthetics and action was like, prevalent in that.

[00:42:12] Badr: Thank you. 

[00:42:13] Juan Gedeon: So I finished that and one of the the negative aspects of that quote unquote was that That's like the epilogue of a major event that happened in DC, right? An event that I didn't read I had no idea what happened. So they sent me a reference Like the f the reference folder bat was one gig. Wow.

[00:42:38] Juan Gedeon: One gig for reference, because they were, I had to draw stuff that happened. Other characters, different events, and I'm like, oh, 

[00:42:45] Badr: wow. They had, you had to basically keep it because there was a story already built up and it was already dealing with, I mean, it's in the name multiverse. Yes. So there's a lot of things to 

[00:42:54] Juan Gedeon: factor in.

[00:42:55] Juan Gedeon: Wow. Yeah. I, I couldn't do just whatever. If they tell me, oh, draw venom jumping on rooftops, I can do that. I don't need to. Read the previous five issues, you know, it's just whatever, but by, by the time I was done with that, I was so exhausted. I'm like, man, I can't, it's like too much. Like, I'm glad that people like it and that they are, you know, if it, if it holds up, I'm so glad, but it was a lot of heavy lifting, not in, not in necessarily in execution.

[00:43:28] Juan Gedeon: But in terms of like research, Oh, how does, what costume is he wearing now? Oh, the costume from earth 63. Oh, and I drew the costume from the version earth 20. So I had to, Oh, okay. So that was like messing up my momentum, you know, it was, it was hard. So I, I turned in the last page, I had an all nighter, I pulled an all nighter.

[00:43:55] Juan Gedeon: I was done. My brain was fried. I will for a walk. And I'm like, okay, I'm tired of superheroes. I'm tired. I don't want to do this again. 

[00:44:06] Badr: You got your full. You're like, look, I got, I got one gigabyte waiting for me at home. I'm good. 

[00:44:11] Juan Gedeon: Yeah. So what do I. It made me think of the stuff that I want to do. I just want to do monsters and dinosaurs and animals and ninja turtles and sea sharks.

[00:44:22] Juan Gedeon: And the light bulbs went off. And I thought another thing that's in the DNA of Jurassic League is Primal Rage. I also love video games. And Primal Rage was like, I went to the arcades as a kid and I spent so much money. I was so bad at it. I was a kid, but I just love the monsters. Who was your character?

[00:44:44] Juan Gedeon: Armadon. It's like a Triceratops and Kilosaurus combination. I like, uh, Blizzard, the, the blue gorilla, but I couldn't use him right. But Armadon, Armadon, I could, I was more effective with him, but I just tried it. All of them. I tried all of them so I could see them. Although I got my ass kicked, I just want to see how they look and how they move as a kid.

[00:45:06] Juan Gedeon: So I thought of Primal Rage, like as an adult, like I, maybe I, I don't know if I should say this, maybe cut it out, but I hate everything. Like I hate 90% of the stuff that's out there. Comics, TV shows, movies, I hate. Like, I, I like very few things, so I think of the stuff that made me, that makes me happy, made me happy as a kid.

[00:45:31] Juan Gedeon: And when I see it, it brings something back, you know, in me. So I thought of Primal Rage, that brought me so much joy. So, okay, how can I do like a current version of Primal Rage or how can I. Two Primal Rage with DC, and I thought, how about doing these dinosaurs, but dressed as Batman, dressed as Superman, dressed as Wonder Woman.

[00:45:59] Juan Gedeon: I, I mean, it's, I just, and the idea came from the book, like Death Metal multiverses, and I learned that there's so many multiverses. Why not have a multiverse where they, they are anthropomorphic dinosaurs? 

[00:46:14] Badr: That's some smart thinking right there. You found a loophole. 

[00:46:17] Juan Gedeon: I found a loophole. Exactly. And it worked because they approved it.

[00:46:20] Juan Gedeon: And the book is out. 

[00:46:21] Badr: I imagine for you, it's like, look, I just did a 40 page giant book based on, you know, costume accurate, you know, uh, accurate costume for all the different worlds. Y'all going to give me six issues to draw some dinosaurs in, 

[00:46:34] Juan Gedeon: all right. That's basically how it went. Was there any 

[00:46:38] Badr: pushback?

[00:46:38] Badr: Oh, yeah, yeah. I remember when I first seen the announcement, I was like, Oh shit, a new Daniel Warren Johnson book. Wait, wait, he's... There's dinosaurs? 

[00:46:46] Juan Gedeon: He's not, he's not drawing it, yeah. I was like, 

[00:46:49] Badr: okay, alright, I'm, I'm, color me 

[00:46:51] Juan Gedeon: interested. Yeah. So, well, they gave us, uh, they gave, I came up, okay. So I came up with the designs, right?

[00:46:59] Juan Gedeon: I came up with the synopsis, like beginning to end is what's going to happen. I came up with the idea of, uh, having Darkseid in an egg in the center of the earth. He's like, uh, also in multiverse death metal, blah, blah, blah. You have these things that I never seen in my life. Well, tuning forks where people are attached to those, and, uh, these character sucks the life force out of them.

[00:47:25] Juan Gedeon: I'm like, how about we do this, but with dinosaurs. So instead of the tuning fork, it's like a tree and it's like a living organism or like tendrils or something. And the cavemen are strapped to that. I started having all these like images in my head and, uh, yeah, they, they asked me for some changes. In the, I think mostly in the presentation or some story beats, one of the biggest changes that the editors asked for was that I, I pictured Jurassic league as.

[00:48:02] Juan Gedeon: This is the Batman issue. It's a six issue miniseries, right? But this is the Batman issue. This is the Superman issue. This is the Aquaman issue. And towards the end, they come together. They're like, no, Scratch, Scratch, forget about that. They have to meet as soon as possible because the Justice League is the Jurassic League.

[00:48:20] Juan Gedeon: So the fans of the Jurassic League, of the Justice League, want to see them all get together. And then we came up, I came up with some origin ideas for like the powers, like, okay, so how, because there's regular dinosaurs, right? In this world, how does these dinosaur end up being an anthropomorphic dinosaur that dresses as a bat?

[00:48:46] Juan Gedeon: And we came up with ideas. Some of them were my ideas. Some of them were Daniel's. But, but we never showed them in the book. We, we didn't have room, but there, there's ideas for that. And some of them were like, I think they're so funny. They're like really fun, uh, like both to look at and like silly. But the, the tone for drastically is that, yeah, it's a silly concept, but I took it super seriously, super seriously.

[00:49:15] Juan Gedeon: So that makes it even more fun, in my opinion. 

[00:49:18] Badr: A dinosaur dressed as Batman is silly at its core, but to your point, it was a really fun read. It was a gorgeous looking book, um, and I can't recall the name of the fill in artist that stepped in, I think, on issue four 

[00:49:31] Juan Gedeon: or five. Rafa Garres. Yo, 

[00:49:34] Badr: his style... I won't lie, at first I was like, yo, where's Juan?

[00:49:37] Badr: Why is Juan not on this issue? But I, I grew to really love that issue a lot. Um, yeah, so like, great action. It looked great. The character design wise, this is a prime example of, prime example. Uh, this is a great example of like, Character design work and really playing around with like iconic, uh, designs for Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, and, and, you know, like still carrying those, those name, uh, those iconic signature aesthetics and like, you know, giving them a cool look.

[00:50:07] Badr: Um, aside from like the, the, the trio, you know, aside from Superman, Wonder Woman, and, and Batman, I thought your designs for the Aquaman version, Dinosaur version, Flash, and especially Black Manta were among my favorites. And when I saw Black, when Black Manta makes his appearance in the, in the, uh, uh, in the series, that's when I started drawing parallels, like, yo, this reminds me of...

[00:50:29] Badr: You know, this reminds me of a primal rage. Like that's when I started seeing like the vision for it. And you've got a one hell of a story too, man. I, a lot more heartfelt than I thought I was really expecting just dinosaurs punching each other. But I'm like, damn, I'm over here crying for Batman, you know, for the loss of this dinosaur's family.

[00:50:47] Juan Gedeon: That's awesome. That makes me very happy. 

[00:50:49] Badr: How did Daniel Warren Johnson and Mike Spicer come in? Cause you know, like them, them two are like, you know, two peas in a pod. They're, they're tight. Like Mike Spicer is colored. I think Mike Spicer is colored everything Daniel Warren Johnson has Kubert.

[00:51:08] Juan Gedeon: Who I'm, I'm very like, 

[00:51:11] Badr: uh, Wait, Katie Kubert, uh, related to like Andy and, um, the Kubert? Yeah. Oh, wow. 

[00:51:16] Juan Gedeon: From the Kubert family. Yeah, yeah, Adam and Andy are her uncles. So Joe, Joe Qbert was, uh, her grand, grandfather. Okay. So I'm, I, I love Katie. Yeah. That family 

[00:51:32] Badr: is a, is comic book royalty, 

[00:51:33] Juan Gedeon: man. That is. Oh, definitely.

[00:51:35] Juan Gedeon: Yeah. Yeah. So I, I, I was very close with Katie and she is also a huge dinosaur fan. So it was like, I took this idea from, uh, there's a manga and anime called Bakuman. That it's amazing, highly recommended, but they talk about their relationship between the artist and the editor. That is something that a lot of people don't know.

[00:51:57] Juan Gedeon: But I thought, Oh, it was like a perfect storm because I wanted to do dinosaurs. Katie's a huge dinosaur person. If I preach this to her, she's going to love it. And I will, I love it too. This is going to work. Initially I was going to write the whole thing. Right. But, um, I never published anything as a writer.

[00:52:17] Juan Gedeon: So they were like, maybe we need someone to write this with you, Juan, hope you, hope you don't mind. That's fair. Okay. Whatever. As long as I can draw and get this published. So I thought, okay, I don't want to be paired with someone who's not my vibe. Like there's a lot of writers that it's all dialogue or it's like very boring or whatever.

[00:52:41] Juan Gedeon: I want to work with someone that hopefully has a similar DNA. Daniel, like I met Daniel, uh, uh, for the first time at Emerald city, I think years ago, 2015, 2016. We got along really well. Um, and then I just texted him, texted him to see, Hey dude, I'm working on this thing, but they, they want to, they want someone to write this with me.

[00:53:08] Juan Gedeon: Are you, are you on board? And I, yeah, let's do it. Uh, that's pretty much it. Then I emailed Katie. Damn easy. Yeah, and then I, I emailed Katie, Hey, Katie, Daniel, he said he would be interesting. That's cool. Yeah. Yeah. That's perfect. I love Daniel. Uh, And that's how it happened. 

[00:53:28] Badr: Wow. Your career so far has been a lesson on persistence, you know, with emailing the editor and just kind of like right time, right place.

[00:53:38] Badr: And I mean, really kind of setting, you know, and kind of looking at, um, I guess foresight is the word I'm thinking of, like seeing, like, you know, leaning into the multiverse thing. You just, you know, drew 40 pages of that multiversity comic. Finding like a little pocket for you to fit in this story and like knowing the right people.

[00:53:56] Badr: I think like, yeah, it's, it almost feels like right place, right time, but there is definitely like, um, a lot of like prep and planning that, that you do behind the 

[00:54:05] Juan Gedeon: scenes. Yeah. I think also, I left Buenos Aires when I was 23. I moved to Mexico with, with friends, uh, one of them, we, we worked together and everything.

[00:54:18] Juan Gedeon: Uh, but I was going to say that a lot of bad stuff happened in there in Mexico and also then coming to the States and adjusting to the States. And when I came to the States, I had three roommates and I was sleeping on a couch in a living room for like six months, nine months till I met my girlfriend and my girlfriend at that point.

[00:54:40] Juan Gedeon: Um, and then we moved in together. But I'm saying this because I'm just realizing now, right? I think. Your life or your experiences in that helped me like adapt, adapt and read situations. And although maybe I couldn't put like a word to it or, um, understanding completely, I had like an instinct where I could like read people, read situations, adapt, act quickly.

[00:55:07] Juan Gedeon: Uh, and I think that maybe translate to, Oh, I'm doing a death metal. Oh, there's some multiverse. I hate superheroes. I want to do dinosaurs. You know, and all seeing all the pieces. Uh, fit, you know, I think it like a lot of, like, at that point it sucked. I lived through so many bad experiences, but it kind of shaped me and gave me that, like, like that skill.

[00:55:36] Juan Gedeon: I think I'm realizing that now. 

[00:55:38] Badr: Yeah. Well said. So aside from learning a bunch of different dinosaurs, because I'm looking at this list of dinosaurs and some of these I won't even pretend to try to, like, pronounce. 

[00:55:49] Juan Gedeon: No, I can't even do it either, so don't worry. I can't. 

[00:55:52] Badr: Because, I mean, I found this, like, list that names every dinosaur.

[00:55:56] Badr: Like, Aquaman in this comic is a Barony Baryonyx, I don't know. Like, was this a conscious thing? Like, did you, were you like, okay, Aqu Green Lantern's gonna be a Parasaurolophus. I said that wrong. 

[00:56:09] Juan Gedeon: I'll, I'll say this, like, I, I love Primal Rage because of this. They're not trying to be biologic, scientifically accurate.

[00:56:19] Juan Gedeon: There's like a cobra dinosaur, there's the gorilla, there's the... It's like a Triceratops, but it's not really, 

[00:56:26] Badr: so... They found all the easy dinosaurs, like here's a Brontosaurus, right? And a 

[00:56:29] Juan Gedeon: Velociraptor. Yeah, exactly. They made up their own dinos. So I, ideally, I, they are based on a certain dino, but they're not real dinos.

[00:56:40] Juan Gedeon: Like, like I'm not, I never, I never, never, never claimed that, Oh, these are scientifically accurate dinos. Like some people were complaining about that. Oh, but this doesn't look like blah, blah, blah. Like, Dude, if you want to see like, go read a science book, go read a science book, go to the museum. That's the right place for you.

[00:57:01] Juan Gedeon: This is fun. This is, if you like fun, do this. If you hate fun, go to a museum, you know, or watch or watch Jurassic Park. This doesn't cancel Jurassic Park. You can watch Jurassic Park as many times as you want. So I thought also of like, uh, the Looney Tunes. If you look at Wile E. Coyote or the Roadrunner.

[00:57:24] Juan Gedeon: Like when I was a kid, I never seen a coyote in my life, so I thought they would kind of look like those things, but I saw a coyote like a few years ago, and it looks nothing like Wile E. Coyote, right? Say, say, say... 

[00:57:37] Badr: You're like, yo, why is that coyote on all fours? Why is he standing there 

[00:57:41] Juan Gedeon: getting blown up? Or the...

[00:57:43] Juan Gedeon: Or the, um, or the Roadrunner, you know, the color scheme of the Looney Tunes Roadrunner is not, it has nothing to do with the real Roadrunner. So I had that approach when I was doing the dinosaur Jurassic League, like, yes, they're loosely based on a dinosaur, but they're not, it's something different. And, uh.

[00:58:03] Juan Gedeon: I, again, I gave those names on purpose to those people in the interviews. Why? Because here in the States, there's something very interesting that you look at someone and you're like, and people go like, Hmm, you're like Hispanic, right? And maybe one third is something else. Or you're like, Oh, you're Asian, right?

[00:58:21] Juan Gedeon: Or you're. Like black, but like mix and that's a very American thing where people try to put a category or a label. Yes, exactly. So I knew, I know how people think. So I'm like, Oh yeah, this is a brontosaurus. Okay. Yeah. There you go. Gotcha. But it's not really. It's not really. So the lesson, 

[00:58:41] Badr: uh, listeners, if you're one of those, uh, uh, that are critiquing, uh, for accuracy, just enjoy the goddamn book.

[00:58:47] Badr: It's 

[00:58:47] Juan Gedeon: just 

[00:58:48] Badr: fun. Juan, what would you say was your biggest lesson you got out of the experience with Jurassic League from, well, I guess just like biggest lesson, period. I wanted to know, like, from a writing perspective, like, did you learn something from that? I guess, what did, what was your big 

[00:59:01] Juan Gedeon: takeaway?

[00:59:02] Juan Gedeon: Initially, when I had this idea, Of the dinosaurs. I, I always kind of sabotage myself, second guess myself. I'm like, Oh, I'm not good enough. This is, this is stupid. No one's going to care. But I heard a quote from Rick Rubin, the music producer that said, the only value that something needs is if the artist likes it, that's the only value that it needs, because if the artist likes it enough to do it.

[00:59:29] Juan Gedeon: And share it. Some people will respond to that. So my takeaway was like, you know, people were laughing at Jurassic league and it's cool, they can laugh. I don't care. You can go read dark night returns from Frank Miller watchmen. That's fine. That's never going to go away. That's still, you know, exists. Uh, so, but there's people who enjoyed it and that made me think that I have just like Jurassic League.

[00:59:56] Juan Gedeon: I'm not going to talk about them now, but I have 10, 15 ideas for different things, both for the big two, if the deal is right for the big two, but if not, I'll do it on my own. And if Jurassic League, all these ideas that would seem like goofy at first, they might be home runs or maybe not home runs, but like a small success, as long as I can keep like paying bills with doing, doing this.

[01:00:26] Juan Gedeon: And I don't have to, I don't have a degree, so I would have to either do Uber or work at McDonald's, you know, that, that's my reality. So. So as long as I can keep doing it, like, and if, and I like the, the response and, uh, you know, yeah, that people respond to my stupid dinosaur idea, which again, some people think is stupid.

[01:00:53] Juan Gedeon: I never thought of it as stupid. I'm like, yeah, it's, it's kind of goofy, but it's fun and I want to do it, you know, so that, that was my biggest takeaway. It was very encouraging. 

[01:01:03] Badr: And it sounds like it might have sparked a fire in you to, it sounds like maybe do more writing. Is that safe to say? Like you want to do more into the writing?

[01:01:11] Juan Gedeon: Absolutely. Uh, one of the things I'm not gonna name names, but uh, I worked on a project that I'm like, man, this is terrible. This is not good. Like this doesn't work. Like What's the structure or yeah, I, here I need to draw this. Okay, is this going to pay off later? Are we going back to this beat that I have to draw now or no, nothing made sense.

[01:01:36] Juan Gedeon: It was like a collection of, it seemed to me like a collection of brain farts. I mean, I'm not going to be Alan Moore. I'm not going to be Frank Miller, but maybe I can do carve your own space. Yeah, yeah, I think this, uh, Sean Murphy said this back in the DeviantArt days when he was doing, uh, journal posts.

[01:01:54] Juan Gedeon: He said, maybe I'm an A, uh, my art is an A plus or A. Maybe my writing is a C, but if I combine my C writing and my A art, I can be a B, B plus book. I'm good with that. So I think that's my, my approach. I'm not gonna, I, I don't care about being Alan Moore or Frank Miller. I, I'm going to be something else. But if I can do a decent, like story, Uh, and just go crazy with the art, people will hopefully, you know, respond and it's going to work and I might be able to keep doing it.

[01:02:32] Badr: Yeah. You got to focus on just being the best version of you, like the version that's going to make you proud and, you know, doing things that make you happy. Absolutely. Absolutely. And that was a really cool reference, uh, because I'm not familiar with, like, Sean Murphy's early deviant slash art slash blog years, but this isn't the first time that you've brought up, I mean, you just brought up a Rick Rubin quote, you brought up, um, some other stuff about Todd McFarlane.

[01:02:56] Badr: I'm gonna take it, uh, uh, us in a different path here real quick, but I love asking this question anytime we have a comic artist on the show. If you had to make a comic book... Comic artists, Mount Rushmore. So, you know, top four, top five. I mean, technically Mount Rushmore is four, but I was at a fifth. Why not?

[01:03:14] Badr: If you had to make a comic artist Mount Rushmore of four artists that like inspire you, that you strive to, that you look at and, you know, in high regard, what are some of the names that come to mind? 

[01:03:25] Juan Gedeon: Oh man, that's such a good one. Uh, off the top of my head, I would say like currently, Oh, I'm going to put some, some love and I'm going to explain my, my answer.

[01:03:38] Juan Gedeon: I think right now the best living comic book artist, I see him probably as like the final boss in a game. Being a comic book artist was a video game and there's a final boss. It's James Herron. Wow. I think he's the final boss. 

[01:03:56] Badr: He is, uh, what was the name of that series he just did last year? 

[01:04:00] Juan Gedeon: Rumble? Not Rumble.

[01:04:01] Juan Gedeon: No, Ultramega. Ultramega 

[01:04:03] Badr: blew my mind, uh, when I got a hold of that. Yeah. James 

[01:04:07] Juan Gedeon: Herron is, is the shit. Yeah, he's the shit. Okay. So the first time I went to heroes with a table as a quote unquote professional. I saw his originals in person and it felt like a punch from Mike Tyson in the gut. Like boom, like, you know, in the anime, like a one punch man, when he goes like this and I felt like a, like a mouse and the lion.

[01:04:32] Juan Gedeon: That's how it felt like, but I'm kind of, I'm like Goku, you know, like when I see someone strong, I, I, it gets me excited, you know, and he might kick my ass. But it's like motivation to get better. And I think there's a reason why I think James is like the top of the mountain. And, and although I aspire to be like, I think it's silly to say, Oh, I want to surpass him because I don't think that art is subjective for some people, the best artists might be, might be Noah.

[01:05:04] Juan Gedeon: For some people might be Jim Lee, for some people, James Haran. And who's the best of all time? It's impossible. I don't think, I don't think it works like that with art. Like, even for me, like, I, I'm saying James Caron now, but back in the day, Sean Murphy was number one. Sean Murphy, hands down. And another time was Ashley Wood.

[01:05:25] Juan Gedeon: Another time, Greg Capullo, Todd McFarlane. 

[01:05:28] Badr: It changes with your taste, right? It sounds like it changes your taste as you grow up, the things you like. 

[01:05:33] Juan Gedeon: Yeah, totally. And for example, I love the turtles. I love the turtles. I love the toys. I love the cartoon. I love the animation. But, I wouldn't necessarily say that Kevin Eastman or Peter Laird are my art heroes.

[01:05:47] Juan Gedeon: I like the turtles, but I'm not particularly crazy about them as individuals. Does that make sense? 

[01:05:55] Badr: Yeah. That's fair. So you've got James Herron at, at, at the top. He's George Washington in this, uh, analogy. Who else is 

[01:06:03] Juan Gedeon: on the Mount Rushmore? I would say when I was starting out, Greg Capullo, Tom McFarland, I had a very, I had a huge Lenny Liu and Chris Bachalow face.

[01:06:15] Juan Gedeon: They were my, my heroes, but then for, I read, I read a, I read a lot of manga. So the artists of One Punch Man, Yusuke Murata, he might be also a final boss. Like for sure. He's like James Harren and then Murata because he's insane, dude. And also a lot of people don't know about this, but before One Punch Man, he had a football manga called Eyeshield 21.

[01:06:40] Juan Gedeon: The anime is not very good, but the manga, dude, I don't care about football. I don't care about sports. I don't play sports. But this book is about American football, and I devoured that thing. That thing made me cry, made me cheer. It's about American football? Yeah, American football. Oh, in my eardrums? It's like, dude, look it up.

[01:07:00] Juan Gedeon: Eyeshield 21. Okay. And the art, you can also see, I think it, this might've been his first professional work. So you see the progression, how different volume one looks from volume five. Wow, I have never seen this. This looks crazy fucking cool. Dude, and also the, some of the art, I would say One Punch Man is like at the top of my, of my list.

[01:07:29] Juan Gedeon: But I Shoot 21 sometimes is as good, if not better. Yeah, the volumes are, are out of print, so it might be very pricey, but you can probably read it online somewhere. 

[01:07:40] Badr: Okay, so we got, we got two of four for your Mount Rushmore. Who else do you got? Shoot, I don't know. 

[01:07:45] Juan Gedeon: Oh, Beasley. Simon Beasley, for sure. Uh, I don't know.

[01:07:50] Juan Gedeon: I think, I think James might be the top, uh, and Murata. Uh, but then the, the rest kind of change and depends on how I feel and, and depends on whether I'm counting the actual art. Or what it makes me feel. But yeah, I think James and Murata would be the core, maybe Bisley would be the core. And then like floating, I would say McFarland, Capullo, Lenny Liu, Chris Bachalo.

[01:08:19] Juan Gedeon: So 

[01:08:19] Badr: they could be swapped out for the fourth place anytime, depending on the mood. Yeah, 

[01:08:23] Juan Gedeon: depending on the mood. 

[01:08:25] Badr: Alright, now that's a solid list, man. Uh, I mean, the James Herron being so, uh, so high up there is, is a little, it's not surprising, but I think it's one of the more interesting picks, um, that I, that I've heard.

[01:08:37] Badr: That's a solid Mount Rushmore. One, what would you say is the best series that I kind of, I feel like I already know the answer. So I want to, uh, I want to take Jurassic League off the board. I know how close Jurassic League is to you. I can already tell like your enthusiasm for that series. Um, you know, it speaks volumes, but with Jurassic League off the board and considering everything else you've done, what series do you feel like best represents you artistically?

[01:09:03] Badr: Um, and maybe even a little bit of like your personality. Like, what are you? I guess, like, what series are you most proud of outside of Jurassic League? 

[01:09:11] Juan Gedeon: Mmm, that's a great 

[01:09:12] Badr: question. Because there's two series I'm, I'm kind of in between to check out next. I've obviously read Jurassic League, I've read the, the Multiversity book, but I didn't know that you did the interior art for this Pennyworth, this DC Pennyworth series.

[01:09:26] Badr: Yeah. And then I haven't read the, that, uh, the sci fi series Horizon that you did for Image. So I'm kind of, like, in between those two. So I'm looking for, like, direction on which one. You felt like you came most correct then? Mmm, 

[01:09:39] Juan Gedeon: I don't know. I don't know. I think, uh, oh, and you put me on the spot. Uh, I think outside of Jurassic League, I'm really not answering your question.

[01:09:50] Juan Gedeon: I'm sorry. I'm answering in a separate way. Sure. I think my favorite work outside of Jurassic League is my Venom stuff. Like the three issues of Venom. And like you said, the personality comes through and my personal taste. Uh, I think Venom was, is probably the best vehicle for me in, uh, in American comics.

[01:10:15] Juan Gedeon: Maybe the turtles. I would love to draw the turtles. Oh my God, I dw I feel like 

[01:10:20] Badr: you is listening. 

[01:10:21] Juan Gedeon: Absolutely destroy it. I would love to draw the turtles guys. It's time free. Maybe in 2024. . Uh, for now, I'm free for now. I don't know. 

[01:10:31] Badr: Look, I, I'm, I'm gonna find you an editor's email. All 

[01:10:34] Juan Gedeon: right, I got you. Yeah.

[01:10:36] Juan Gedeon: So, but, so I, I would say Venom, that, that's like the most honest answer. Sorry, I didn't, I didn't answer the other thing. No, I'm, 

[01:10:43] Badr: uh, that's kind of what I was looking for, so I'll have to go back and check out the Venom. I'm assuming like the, the stickers that you made, the stickers that you sell, uh, when you, uh, set up at these comic conventions, that's like, that's the venom from the comic, right?

[01:10:55] Juan Gedeon: Yes and no. It's like one of the, one of the Venom stickers is like a commission that I turn into a sticker and change some stuff. Okay. One was a commission, then another one. Yeah, and the other two were actual drawings from these books. But again, I changed some stuff and recolor them, uh, the venom with the back towards the viewer.

[01:11:18] Juan Gedeon: It's from a panel that kind of blew up on Instagram, like, uh, when I posted it. Okay. So that thing at that point was the thing with most likes I ever got was like 15 K back then. But it's funny. Sorry. Like we can go back to this. Uh, I have a post that's going to reach 275 K likes. And I'm like, this doesn't make sense.

[01:11:43] Juan Gedeon: Like this is, I, I don't think it's one of my best works. What, what's the post? It's Teen Titans. It's uh, uh, this boy has a little cat and then Raven appears and, and Hypnotizes, uh, two security guards. Hmm. And that thing, dude got 275 K likes. Unfortunately, I cannot convert that to money, you know, or followers.

[01:12:09] Juan Gedeon: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. But it's cool. It's an interesting thing that happened and I didn't expect it. The 

[01:12:16] Badr: algorithm surprises me every single day. Insane. Of like what it picks up, what people don't. You're like, come on guys, I really put my heart and soul into this, but then like this bullshit post I did.

[01:12:26] Badr: Yeah. It's like blown up. I know exactly what you mean. I'm gonna try to find this, I think I know what venom image you are or you're talking about. And if I could find a, actually if you'll send me a good image of it, I'll use it as the episode, um, as the, uh, episode artwork. 

[01:12:39] Juan Gedeon: Uh, probably. Oh, perfect. I love it.

[01:12:41] Juan Gedeon: Yeah, I'll do 

[01:12:42] Badr: that. So it sounds like I can't go wrong with any of your, your Venom stuff, so I'll check that 

[01:12:46] Juan Gedeon: out next. Yeah, please do. Please do. Unfortunately, there's just three issues. Dude, one of them went to fourth printing. Oh, wow. Like, it's, it's not like I'm, oh, I'm tooting my own horn, but... No, fourth print's a flex.

[01:12:58] Juan Gedeon: It's a pretty big deal, you know? And what makes me happy is that I, I done three issues, but people associate me with the character because... They must like the way I draw him. They must, you know, and again, not to toot my own horn, but I really like my version of Venom. I really like it. Like, I don't know if it's like arrogant, 

[01:13:22] Badr: but like, what is it about it?

[01:13:24] Badr: Uh, what is it about your version that you like? 

[01:13:26] Juan Gedeon: I like that Venom combines two of my, like my skills, you know, my artistic skills. And one is like male anatomy. Like, I learned anatomy, I looked at tons of photos of bodybuilders, uh, studied the muscles, the shapes, everything. And then monsters. And I love, I love the turtles, and I like sharks, and Venom is, uh, he's kind of like a, has like a shark mouth.

[01:13:57] Juan Gedeon: Yeah. You know? I mean, he changed his shape. That's what I like about him, too. That he's like... The fact that he's like a organism that's kind of like liquid, but it can change form and it can become solid. It can stretch, enlarge, whatever. 

[01:14:11] Badr: I imagine it probably keeps it fresh for you. Like as an artist, you're not drawing the same thing.

[01:14:15] Badr: You could play around with it. 

[01:14:16] Juan Gedeon: Yeah. And once I figured in my head, like no one told me this. I just came up with this idea that, Oh, he's like rubber. He's a rubber. So I can do whatever I want with his face. You know, and also it's a cartoon. It's not like a cartoon, it's a comic. So you can play with the rules of reality, you know, to some degree.

[01:14:35] Juan Gedeon: So I stretch the eyes, deform the eyes. Sometimes I make the big teeth. Sometimes it's the shark mouth. Sometimes it's like Sam Keith that he did like the, the cat from Alice in Wonderland, the Cheshire cat. Sometimes I do that smile. Uh, sometimes the tongue, no tongue, the saliva, no saliva, he's so versatile.

[01:14:58] Juan Gedeon: Sometimes I draw him without a, without a jaw or without a chin. In some commissions, it's like fun. It's like, yeah, it's made of rubber. So he can look however I want. So that's why, that's why I like Venom so 

[01:15:11] Badr: much. Venom, the character that keeps giving back to artists. I like it. Yeah. So Juan, where are you at in your, your career now?

[01:15:19] Badr: Like what, what do you got, uh, project wise? Like what can people expect from you, especially coming off of, you know, the success of Jurassic League, dipping your toe into co writing, like can people expect? You to be writing more like what do you got lined up? 

[01:15:33] Juan Gedeon: Yeah. Okay. So the most immediate things is a Marvel black white and blood black white red Marvel 

[01:15:40] Badr: zombies.

[01:15:41] Badr: Yeah Marvel zombies black white and blood Yeah, 

[01:15:44] Juan Gedeon: black white and blood that's coming out. I don't know what it's coming out, but I'm wrapping it up in August So then it, I don't know, it comes out when it comes out. Uh, so that's one thing. Then another thing that they gave me last week or the previous week.

[01:16:01] Juan Gedeon: Uh, but I don't know, I can't, I don't think I can talk about it. It's not Venom, it's not Venom, but yeah, hopefully it's cool, but I don't know. Uh, I don't know that one's coming out either. But then, it's interesting because I feel like, you know, sometimes, as a freelancer, it's like feast or famine. There were periods of time when I didn't have a lot of work, but then, sometimes I have so much that I have to turn down stuff.

[01:16:29] Juan Gedeon: Or it's like, you know, a funnel, like a funnel when you put 

[01:16:33] Badr: like a lot of liquid in and it's 

[01:16:34] Juan Gedeon: like a lot of stuff. Yeah. Like a lot of stuff on the top. So maybe nothing comes up or like little drips. So I feel like I got so many offers and so many projects that now I'm like, I want to say yes to everything.

[01:16:50] Juan Gedeon: Obviously I want, I want, uh, I want the work. I want my art to be out there. I want to draw. I want the money. I want to be busy. But sometimes it's like, man, I'm just one person, you know? Uh, so hopefully and thankfully these people are being very patient. Hopefully 2024, there's going to be a lot of books.

[01:17:15] Juan Gedeon: Well, no, nothing with DC for the moment. I can, there's no problem in saying that nothing with DC Marvel. Yeah. Uh, the Marvel zombies, then the other thing, but then stuff with like indie publishers, like indie publishers, but they, they pay good rates, so it works. And it's like, I don't have the pressure of like, Oh, make sure the costume matches the previous issue, 

[01:17:41] Badr: you know?

[01:17:41] Badr: Yeah. It's not a lot of like continuity backlog and all that to worry 

[01:17:44] Juan Gedeon: about. Exactly. So that's very cool. That's what's in my plate right now. 

[01:17:50] Badr: All right, man. Well, look, I, I, I'm sure I speak on behalf of the listeners, whatever you got going on or coming next will be worth checking out. And I just looked up, uh, that Marvel Zombies book.

[01:18:00] Badr: Issue one comes out October 25th. Marvel Zombies, Black, White, and Blood. There isn't a bunch of solicitations. I imagine you're probably like issue two or whatnot, but at least that's when the first issue comes out. So I'll be picking that up whenever I see your name on there. Go on. Awesome. I got one more question for you, man, and I always like closing out with this question, uh, because I like to imagine there's a lot of, no, not that I even imagine, I know there's a lot of aspiring comic creators listening, whether that be writing, uh, pencilers, inkers, colorists, etc.

[01:18:30] Badr: What's a piece of advice you'd give to an aspiring comic artist that's looking to break into the industry based on something that you wish you would have known, like, as you entered the industry? Like, what would you advise to that aspiring artist? Uh, I would 

[01:18:43] Juan Gedeon: advise... If you want to do comics, just do comics on your own, whether you're getting paid for it or not.

[01:18:53] Juan Gedeon: If you need to have like a main job, like a nine to five, whatever that is, do it. And then your free time, uh, draw comic books. Uh, whether it is your own story, come up with your own story or, uh, work with a script. There's sample scripts online that you can download or buy a really poorly drawn comic book and draw it well.

[01:19:17] Juan Gedeon: That's another exercise that they 

[01:19:19] Badr: suggested. I've never heard that. That's pretty cool. I've never heard that one. 

[01:19:23] Juan Gedeon: Yeah, grab the, go to the store, grab the worst looking comic that you can find and do it well. It's a good exercise. And then, uh, but then I would say, like, there's already... You know, I, I wouldn't consider myself like a new guy anymore, you know, I feel like there's already like New, newer guys, younger guys than me, like, started, that started to come out, like, uh, Jake Smith, uh, Kevin Catalan, uh, uh, Jevin 

[01:19:54] Badr: Luke.

[01:19:54] Badr: Wait, did you just say Kevin Catalan? 

[01:19:57] Juan Gedeon: Yeah, Kevin Catalan, he's 

[01:19:58] Badr: awesome. Dude, he is, man, alright, uh, this is definitely going to be for the video listeners. Kevin Catalan, I met him at HeroesCon for the first time this year, and I And I hope Kevin is listening. That dude is, is awesome. Uh, he drew the Space Knights, uh, comic book that came out through, uh, Cosmic Lion.

[01:20:15] Badr: Big shout outs to Eli. And at this year's Heroes Con, I commissioned, uh, Kevin to do a, uh, commission piece. And it actually just came in today. Oh, nice. I'm gonna go ahead and grab it. And I'm gonna go ahead and, and show you what it is. Hold up. 

[01:20:29] Juan Gedeon: There, yeah, yeah, yeah. 

[01:20:31] Badr: It's amazing. Wow, this is kind of like serendipitous, because I was waiting on this for a, for a hot minute.

[01:20:36] Badr: Um, Oh 

[01:20:38] Juan Gedeon: yeah. All right. Oh, you're you're paying it right now. 

[01:20:40] Badr: Yeah, right now for you, man. Um, dude. All right, here we go. And I had him draw a super obscure commission piece. So at the convention, um, I was, I don't know, I got this weird itch of like combo man. 

[01:20:54] Juan Gedeon: Combo Man? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. The, the, yeah, the one from the Combo guys.

[01:20:58] Badr: Yeah. Yeah. The most shameless, you know, uh, uh, marketing for, uh, here we go. Oh my God. So, uh, I guess like quick little backstory. I, I bought like a little, a print from, uh, Kevin and it was a dial M for monkey speaking about Dexter's Laboratory and Ginny Tartakovsky. And I liked it so much. And I was like, dude, I think you'd be perfect to do a Combo Man commission.

[01:21:23] Badr: And he was hype about it. And sure enough. My man. Absolutely. 

[01:21:27] Juan Gedeon: Dude. He's so 

[01:21:28] Badr: good. He's insane. That's awesome. So I'm glad that you mentioned his name. He's definitely 

[01:21:32] Juan Gedeon: like up and coming. Yo, big 

[01:21:34] Badr: time. He's like a prime example of like up and coming artists. Yeah. 

[01:21:39] Juan Gedeon: And he's so hardworking. You can tell how he, like, I see his commissions and I can tell or his pages and I can tell, Oh, he's studying this.

[01:21:46] Juan Gedeon: He watched this. He practiced this. You know, he's Like learning all the time and like the nicest dude, like the nicest dude. I mean, the other ones I mentioned also super nice, nice people, but with Kevin, we hang out at heroes. It was like, so such a nice, uh, nice interaction. Like he was, it's funny. I mean, it's, it's weird maybe that I say it, but it felt like I was.

[01:22:12] Juan Gedeon: To some degree, like senpai, you know, like he was like, but he was like, like, he was cool about it. He was like picking my brain and asking me different things. And I'm like, yeah, dude, I, I'm not, I'm not like those people who like keep secrets. So I don't want people to surpass me. So I'm going to withhold it from.

[01:22:32] Juan Gedeon: I'm like, I share everything. If you're cool, I share everything. I don't care. I don't mind. And he was like that, dude, we hang out at the, yeah, yeah. Oh, he's such a cool guy. 

[01:22:42] Badr: That was awesome. You've been fantastic, man. This has been a great conversation. Yeah, man. Likewise. I'm gonna have links to your, uh, your website, to your store in the, in the show notes.

[01:22:52] Badr: Um, is there anything that you want to get off your chest? Uh, any shameless plugs, any promo that you want to do? Uh, I 

[01:22:59] Juan Gedeon: think, uh, no, check out my store, check out my store, check out, uh, all the stickers that I have. I have a lot of prints, uh, I'm going to, I have two conventions, Dragon Con, end of the month. Oh, cool.

[01:23:13] Juan Gedeon: Uh, here in Atlanta. Hell yeah. Yeah. Dragoncon. And then, uh, what's the other one please say? New York. ComicCon. New York ComicCon. I went to New York ComicCon. I got my flight last weekend for like, crazy cheap. It, it was probably like a fluke was No, oh yeah, it was like a, like a glitch in the Matrix. . It was so cheap.

[01:23:33] Juan Gedeon: So New York ComicCon and end of the year, uh, LA ComicCon, uh, here in LA obviously at the convention center. So those, well, hell 

[01:23:41] Badr: yeah, dude. I'm looking forward to seeing you at, uh, New York, ComicCon. That'll be fantastic. And I can't wait for the world to hear this episode. Juan, you've been great, 

[01:23:50] Juan Gedeon: man. You've been great.

[01:23:51] Juan Gedeon: You, you too man. It was so much fun.