Tim Seeley talks Red Sonja vs Army of Darkness, Peacemaker, Chicago pizza, and original comic art! - The Short Box Podcast Ep. 453

00:01
in this episode of The Short Box. What are some other, I guess, opportunities outside of the world of comics or left field or something like unexpected that you still are like, man, that was a really cool project? I guess the biggest one is probably the, I did the label for the beer Zombie Dust, which is like a huge Chicago beer. We originally did it, you know, it was just sort of like a, this brewery wants to do this thing. We're like, yeah, cool. That was like 15 years ago. Yeah, now it's like an institution. And every once in a while, like somebody will text me and be like,

00:28
Hey, I was just drunk at a bar and looked at this label that says, drawn by Tim Sealy on it.

00:37
intro music plays

01:02
Yo, Short Box Nation. Hello again. Welcome back and happy new comic book day. It's another Wednesday, another podcast. Thanks for pressing play today. If you're new, welcome to the show. My name is Badr and this is the Short Box Podcast, the comic book talk show that brings you the best conversations about your favorite comics with the creators that put their blood, sweat and tears into making them. This is episode 453 and I've got a special creator interview lined up today with none other than Tim Seeley. Tim is one of those slash people. He's a writer slash artist.

01:30
You may know him for creating the New York Times best-selling series Hack Slash,  but my DC heads out there know him for writing titles like Grayson, Nightwing, and Batman Eternal. He's also provided artwork for a bunch of G.I. Joe comics.  And he's also the writer of the critically acclaimed horror comic series  Revival for Image Comics.  Tim is also a co-founder of the company Panel Punk Comics Originals. It's a company founded by artists that work to provide collectors with the finest original comic book art while treating illustrators like the rock stars they are.

02:00
while treating illustrators like the rock stars they are. See, I'm getting choked up just thinking about  how good they treat the illustrators out there.  Excuse me.  Tim has a new comic coming out through Dynamite Entertainment. He's writing the company's latest crossover series, Red Sonja vs. The Army of Darkness.  Issue one is due to hit comic shops Wednesday, April 9th.  So we'll talk to Tim about all of that, or as much as we could fit in an hour. But before we proceed any further,

02:27
I'd like to give a big shout out to the longest running sponsor of the podcast, Gotham City Limit Comic Shop. It's Jacksonville's premier shop for comics, collectibles, toys, and more. You'll hear more about them later this episode, but might I recommend that if you're local to Jacks or ever find yourself passing through Jacks on vacation or a road trip, that you stop by and tell them that the short box sent you. Or if traveling is out of the question, check out their online store for great deals on shop exclusive comics and other cool stuff at GothamCityLimit.com.

02:56
And we can't talk about supporters of the show without giving an honorable mention to the Short Box patrons who make it possible for me to keep this podcast going. Big shout out to my Patreon subscribers. I'll shout all of you out by name at the end of the episode. And if you're listening right now and you're like, yo, I want a shout out at the episode, or you just want to pitch in to help me keep the show going and growing, consider becoming a member of the Short Box Patreon community at patreon.com slash short box and look.

03:23
You can always support the show for free by subscribing to the podcast, sharing the podcast with friends and family and other people that like comic books, and or leaving a five-star review on your podcast app of choice. All of that stuff means the world to me. But for the good stuff like bonus episodes, early access to all the weekly shows, commercial-free episodes, and in some cases, free comics and short box merch, you gotta be a patron. So once again, become a short box patron saint at patreon.com slash the short box.

03:51
You can actually sign up for a seven day free trial to see if it's a good fit for you. And a big thank you to all the existing and future patrons of the show.  That takes care of that. And now we can start the show. Short box nation, let's welcome one of the hardest working guys in comics. It's Tim Seeley.  What up Tim, how you doing? Thank you so much. Thanks for having me. that's a lovely, I don't usually get the applause, so I'll take it.  Oh my God, I'm still choked up about talking.

04:19
All those rockstar artists. Oh my God, Panel Punk Comics has got me choked up.  Tim,  I decided for this interview, I'm going start off a little different than my usual kind of  momentum and outline I do. I'm going to see if I can maybe surprise you  or teach you something about yourself. Sure. Did you know that you currently have a perfect score slash rating  on ratemyprofessor.com?

04:46
There is a rating that says  a hundred percent would take  again. And I found a nice little  review written by, I'm assuming, a former student. Tim Seeley is great to have if you want to learn about drawing comics. He provides great information for the class so everyone can learn. So far, I'm learning well and I'm getting an idea on how comic panels work and I get to create my own short story. Tim, the uninitiated, for anyone else that might be surprised about this. I don't know if it's still the case or not. You're correct if I'm wrong, but.

05:14
Adjunct professor at the Columbia College of Chicago, right? You taught art? Now I am a full professor. I'm a visiting professor. got promoted. My man. Yes. I gotta give you another one of those, man. There you go. I know the world of academia is just as rough as the world of comics. So congratulations on that. That's awesome. Yeah, I chose the two toughest things to... Maybe we try to become a...

05:39
I'm a fucking singer after this just to really challenge myself. You're like I'm an astronaut on the weekends too because it's challenging. That's hard job to get, I'll take it. Can you talk about how teaching  art and comics, how that feeds into the work that you do? And do you ever find yourself I guess learning from students or maybe reaffirming things that you already know?  Oh yeah. mean the job,  basically  five years ago  my wife and I were  blessed with a young daughter.

06:07
But it was, she was not a planned kid. so, you know, I had to adjust my life. I had a studio with several other artists here in Chicago. And when we had a kid, I had to, you know, come home with to buy a house that had room for a baby. and so- room for all your awesome eighties action figures and everything else you got behind you. Well, if I didn't buy the house, there were gonna, those were gonna have to go. Oh no, we the kid was good. So I was like, yeah, we'll have to just buy a house. And so-

06:36
I moved up into the attic of this place, which is this place right now. It meant that I was not as social as I was before. I used to sit and draw with people. I'd write with people. do all this stuff. I did that for a while. It was great. My kid is amazing. Love her. But I was starting to go crazy. I'm not an introvert. A lot of creative people are. I'm not. I was kind of like, I got to do something. I can't just be here all the time.

07:04
My sister-in-law, Jenny Frison, had gotten a call from Columbia and they had asked if she wanted to teach a class. And if you know Jenny, she was like, no, not at all. I do not want to be a teacher. so she had given them my name. then Gene Ha called me, who's also a common guard, a friend of mine. He was like, yeah, they called me to ask about me teaching a class. And I said, no, but I said, you might be the guy. And so two people had recommended me. And finally, Columbia said, okay, well, we'll call Tim Seely.

07:33
And so they just called me and were like, hey, would you like to, you know, do a drop in for a class? And so I was like, yes, I'll get out of the house. Oh my God, that's a great idea. And Columbia College is downtown in the South Loop in Chicago. so this sounded great to me and I did it. I love teaching. I was teaching a cartoon class. I developed it. I was making it up. It like a long, was having a great time. It like five years ago. And then pandemic, locked everything down. So I taught six classes and then I spent a year and a half at home.

08:03
So, but that year and a half teaching from this very fucking chair right here, doing Zoom, like I really learned how to do it because I wasn't in person and I had, there was a whole bunch of things I had to consider. And it kept me like interacting with people. I'm pretty sure, you know, Zoom, that class and my wife kept me sane during the pandemic lockdown. So, so when it came back, you know, then it was sort of like, do you want to do this? And I, I just, I got so much benefit from.

08:32
from socializing with students, talking about comics, reaffirming what I love about comics, and then watching them make stuff. I can be as proud, know, them coming up with something really good as myself making a comic that I like. So, I was like, why not keep doing this? So I've been doing it for five years, and I just, in January, got hired full-time. And I got health insurance.

08:57
Hell yeah man, can't doubt that. The benefits go a long way, so congratulations. Do you have any, I guess, star pupils, any students that went on to like do comics full-time? Anyone that come Oh yeah, mean, you know, every semester I've got students rolling out and you know, I teach in the animation department, illustration department, so when the kids come to me they're almost always animation students or illustration students.  And so  a fair amount of students, I almost feel bad about it sometimes.

09:25
but a fair amount of them come out like, you know what, I'm gonna do comics. I'm like, okay, cool, just don't major in comics. There's no need for you to major in comics. Just major in graphic design or illustration or animation. Keep your animation degree,  but do comics. so, you know, my assistant is one of my former students.  I work with a couple of students on stuff that are former students of mine.  So, you know, I'm always happy to  have them  come out, wanna do this stuff, and then I help them as much as I can.  My student, Sarah,

09:55
She is actually doing this now. She helped color stuff for me. We're doing a YA book together.  She did stuff in  hack slash body bags. She did stuff in, she colored Zoe a thorough goods hack slash book with Zoe. So  yeah, as much as I can, I try to reward the hard workers and stuff. And  Sarah's certainly one of those. My student, Kevin West, is one of those. He's doing stuff.  Two of both of them appear.

10:22
as characters in Godzilla versus Chicago. So,  yeah, people roll in. I use them for stuff for sure. That's rad. You know what? It's funny.  I  actually ended up reading the Godzilla versus Chicago, specifically your story, and  loved it, man. mean, the story about two star cross lovers finding love on this train in the middle of a Godzilla rampage was a lot of fun. So that's cool to hear that real life students and people that  you know, you use them inside the story. It sounds like you keep yourself like,

10:52
Pretty much like surrounded by very talented people. It sounds like art kind of runs in the family. I know your wife is a co-founder with you, with the company. Yes. And a panel punk originals. You worked with your brother Steve Sealy on the He-Man art book back in the day. I didn't know that Jenny Frizen was your sister-in-law. I guess any other talented people in your family in terms of art? Yeah. we just, know, I get like I said, I'm not an introvert. So I like to do stuff with people. I like.

11:21
to see creativity in action. it's kind of my crack, I guess, to some degree. So yeah, my wife, she is a fine artist, a painter, but I got her, she's working managing artists for our original art company. We also have an art gallery. I run that with my brother, Steve. My wife also, Sean Smith, is an illustrator, and Anthony Hall, who's an illustrator. And so yeah, just, I don't know. I just like doing stuff. I mean, I probably like doing stuff too much, but.

11:51
You know, we did art show for Godzilla vs. Chicago here was awesome. You know, we teamed up with Howling Pages, the comic shop here was the biggest art show we've ever done. It was awesome. We were on the evening news for it and stuff. like, you know, I just like doing shit. I don't know. I can't, I can't sit and that's probably what will kill me. But also like it keeps me saying I'm the same way. I'm not a homebody. I even when I'm home, I'm

12:18
not sitting down longer than five minutes. It drives my wife crazy when we're trying to watch like Severance and she's like, for the love of God, sit the fuck down. So we watch this show and I'm like, no, I can go do this real quick. Do this real quick. But I wanted to stay on the topic of Chicago because it almost feels like if you were to throw a rock just in any direction, you're going to hit an artist, a comic person or some talented person in Chicago. guess, Tim, what's in the water in Chicago that so many talented comic people call that place home? I tried to do a running list. I've got Daniel Warren Johnson. He's from Chicago.

12:47
lives down the street. Ryan Brown. think Scotty Young lived there for a while. I think he lives in like North Carolina. City. Over Kansas City. Alex Ross, think is also in Chicago. Ashley Wood, Chicago. Am I missing anyone? mean, Gene Haas here, Jill Thompson, Brian Azzarello. Damn. Yeah, we got a lot of them. Yeah, Mike Norton.

13:10
Is it the art school in Chicago that produces, guess, so many, I guess, comic-centric people?  I guess, what is the comic culture slash scene like in Chicago?  And  how does it find its way into your work? I mean, definitely, so part of it is what you said.  For a long time, was the Academy of Art here. It's now closed, it turned out people like Alex Ross and Jill and Brian as well, they all went there. So there was a basis of  the creators here from that. There was also comic companies like First and

13:40
and stuff and then Devils Do later. So there was always that stuff. But I think the big part of it is just that Chicago is the only, I don't say this as a criticism of other places, but it's the only sort of like art supporting place within hundreds of miles, right? Like there's no sort of jobs, I guess, for art stuff. Iowa down to Southern Illinois over to Indiana, know, up to Michigan, over Wisconsin. It's a zit.

14:07
it pinches everybody  into this one place because it's the one place  where there's a community and then once there's a community then you bring more people in and then people can help each other out. I personally  came here for that very reason  and so then I'm trying to pay it forward. People paid it forward for me when I first moved here.  The people that were the previous generation, they helped me out. Hilary Barta and Gene Hahn and  Brian Asarello and Jill Thompson and all those people were like, hey, I can...

14:37
I can get you in the right direction and stuff. now when the young people come here, like Daniel Warren Johnson, when he shows up, we're all like, kids are great, can we point you in a direction? Can we help you out? And Caroline Cash is here and all these other, it's a kind of town where, we were talking about this when we did the art show,  it's a big city,  a very big city, right? It's three million in the city and it's millions around,  but it's not that big. So everybody who does shit knows everybody else who does shit.

15:05
All the people who do fine art know the cartoonists, all  the who do breweries know the fine artists and the comic people and know the rappers. Everybody who does creative stuff knows each other here.  The community is pretty tight  and you can always  sort hook each other up.  The local breweries, the comic book artists do the labels and it's like the graphic designers and the street artists and that's a big part of it. Our gallery is...

15:34
One of reasons we did that was just for that reason. Let's bring all the people that we know separately together. The illustrators, the designers, the musicians, the brewers, the people in McBeer, the people who make cool coffee. It doesn't matter. If you're creative here, you support each other. That's the job. I want to say, had Daniel Warner-Johnson on the show a couple years ago, think when...

15:59
Transformers was just announced and he echoed something very similar that there's a lot of intermingling among just creative people in general. Like you're saying graphic designers are hanging out with the rappers who are hanging out with the muralists and the comic people and the animation folks. So you have like this really cool kind of like stew of just creativity and support. And I know a couple of artists that have moved from like here in Jacksonville to your point about like, you know, it's just not sustainable to be a full time artist in a place like, you know, unfortunately like like Jack's.

16:27
They've had to move to like some place like Chicago where the art scene is, you know, developed and they can make a full-time living doing what they do. So that's awesome to hear.  And it got me thinking, you know, I'm thinking about Chicago and it got me thinking about the last time I went, which was last year. I went for C2E2.  I did a panel there and I stayed with my buddy, a very good friend of mine. name is Blake Simone.  So to me, he's like kind of my Chicago know it all, you know, tour guide. He grew up there. I mean, he knows that place really well. So I reached out to him. was like, Hey man, I got Tim Sealy on the podcast.

16:56
you know, Chicago's very own, you know, give me a question that a Chicagoan would appreciate. And he was like, Oh, I got you. He asked me two different questions for you.  One, if there's a superhero besides Riri Williams, that you could change their city of origin, who would it be? And why are they now from Chicago?  Oh man. That's a good one. Well, I was actually,  I was actually recently thinking about this because they, back in the eighties when DC bought  the Charlton characters,

17:25
they set Blue Beetle in Chicago. And so I was reading a bunch of those old issues and it totally made sense. the way that they set the character and he was like this, he was a tech guy but he was living downtown and he would fly the beetle out across Lake Michigan and stuff. I thought that was so perfect. I don't know, I haven't read the recent iterations of that.

17:52
of that Blue Beetle, Ted Kord Blue Beetle.  I would love to do Blue Beetle in Chicago. That would be great. I think the vibe of that is much better and it makes more sense. Chicago has sometimes been a Batman sort of location. Gotham is sort of like, and obviously the Dark Knight, the Millen movies were filmed in a large part here.  And that kind of makes sense to me in a way.  I feel like Chicago is good shit on for being like.

18:19
people perceive it as being this like crime written hellhole and that's not true. That's really, I mean for sure. Like any Fox news will tell you every day about, know, what, what kind of crime written hellhole this is and you know, it's war in the streets and gangs rule everything, all that shit. And if you live here, you know, it's not true. Yeah, right. Exactly. And, um, but it's just like to scare people and shit, you know, obviously. So I kind of like bristle it like, it's this crump city and it's full of all this terrible stuff, which Gotham is fake for a reason. Cause it can be that right.

18:48
So I kind of bristled that, but I think Blue Beetle makes a lot of sense. This company guy, he's kind of enthusiastic, he's kind of light hearted, he's midwestern. Midwesterns are funny, Chicagoans are funny. It's a place where humor is sort of valued. have comedians all over the place and shit. So Blue Beetle, if they moved him, I'm putting him back. I hope they didn't move to fucking LA or something, which disgusts me that we lose all kinds of people here in LA anyway. So if you're a comedian here, you move to LA eventually.

19:16
All people I knew who were comedians back in 2009, 2010 are now like on TV shows and have podcasts and shit, know, so. All right. His second question, which I think you'll appreciate as a Chicagoan, he wants to know, are you a pizza puff and old style kind of guy or a thin crust and RC Cola kind of hero? Man, you know what? People like to like either sort of saddle us with Chicago style pizza, which is the deep dish kind of thing.

19:43
and be like, that's some bullshit, or they're like super enthusiastic about it. If you live here, you love that kind of deep dish Chicago style pizza, but you do not eat it very often because it will kill you. But I love that kind of pizza. here, know, the place to go, there's a place called Pequod's, got two locations, closer to downtown and one up in the Burbs, near Burbs. And their pizza is so good. It's a caramelized crust, it's thick crust. It is incredible if you've never been.

20:13
and you want to know what a thick crust deep dish pizza can be, picoas is the one to do. Now, I'm going to also say do not eat a bunch of pizza pizza. Do not go every day that you're here. I want to die, Tim, for good pizza. This sounds, I don't know, this is a hell of a way to go. I kind want to go out this way. But I mean, it is one of those things that people will talk about it and then you'll go and be like, nope, nope. I see why you were talking about that. Cool. I'm with you there. That is some shit.

20:40
You know, we have the other ones that are sort of the more famous, you know, we've got Giordano's and stuff like that that people know and they're fine and whatever, but you can get that probably like, you know, anywhere. It's kind of a corporate version. Pequod's is a legit thing. If you can go to the original location, which is up in a nearby burb up here in the Northwest, completely worth it. You will not want to do it again very quickly afterwards, but it is totally worth it for that one day. It's great stuff.

21:10
Damn, that's great.  I'm like stupid. I might actually try to make C2E2 this year just to go, you know, eat my weight in pizza.  I'm excited also for Blake to hear this and shoot me a text about  his thoughts on this. But thank you for entertaining that.  All right. I want to move on to  another topic. We're going to get to Red Sonja and Army of Darkness. But I've got question about something I got in the mail. Someone at Image Comics likes me a lot. Big shout out to Dan Coyle. He goes by DieselDee Comics. Yeah, great guy.

21:41
Sent me something in the mail. He was like, hey man, Merry Christmas. I sent you something in the mail. I think you'll enjoy it. I had no idea what it was gonna be. When the package got to me, it was a pretty heavy fucking package. I'm like, damn, how many comics did he pack in here for your boy? It was just one comic. And I was like, oh shit, this is a beast. And what he sent me from the video. Oh, compendium. Yes, he sent me your revival compendium, which collects all 47 issues.  Actually, I think I made like an Instagram reel about this.  So if anyone's curious to see what it looks like.

22:09
It's on the short box Instagram for the YouTube watchers. They're seeing it now. But anyways, it's a colossal book. It collects the entire series of revival. And when I posted it on the Instagram, I got a lot of positive comments like, yo, that's the one. Can't wait for you to check it out. Let me know how it is. So I guess, Tim, if you  will help sell this for anyone that is, you know, maybe just piqued interest or curious, I guess, what can I expect from this? Like what type of journey?

22:36
Am I going on starting or reading revival? Well, it's going to be a sci-fi network TV show soon. So there's that. I don't know if that's a seller selling point. But it is a story about a small town in Wisconsin in which one day a number of the people who have recently died come back from the dead, but they are not zombies. They are not mindless. They are just themselves, but slightly off. And so the town gets closed off in the middle of the winter, sort of stuck in quarantine. We started this book before COVID.

23:06
way before COVID.  But they are  essentially put into shutdown while people try to figure out why people came back with it. And then this local cop  is stuck being the investigator for a murder of her sister, who is also alive again. So it's a murder mystery, except the murder victim is  back and doesn't remember what happened to her.  So it's about family, it's about the Midwest, it's about  cabin fever, being stuck in the house,  which we all understand now after that comic.

23:36
It's a horror story, but it's also really family focused. And it's gonna be a sci-fi series. I guess where are they at in  the process of that? Dun Dun Dun, I was on set in December for  the last episode. Wow, that is awesome, man. I mean, guess I had to feel like  being on set of this world that you  use pen and pencil to create, along with Mike Norton, obviously. Yeah. Oh, it was weird as shit because you...

24:03
Well, so like when I got in there, you know, I had to go,  they filmed a lot of it in St. John, Canada, which is way, way, way, far north and way, way, far east.  And so you got to fly into Banger, Maine, and you got to drive three and a half hours  to St. John. And  so I get there, it's  like a Friday night and it is like,  it's Thursday night and it was like  10 at night. And I go straight to the set with the producer and

24:30
They're filming the scene in the story in which a truck full of dead bodies  stolen from the area that are believed to make people immortal has tipped over on the highway. So I roll up into this, it's fucking cold, it was like negative 10,  and it's in the woods in Canada,  and there's a truck tipped over and a bunch of body parts spread all over the street. And there's like  100 people scrambling around in the cold, wearing these big Canadian  coats.

24:59
special Canadian coats  running around like picking up this stuff and moving body parts and lighting all this shit and I could think was like, you know, I wrote that like in my office, you know, like just doing this shit, you know,  there we go, you know, and now like like a whole bunch of people's lives have been completely displaced and they're out in the cold before Christmas, you know, filming this shit. So it's super weird.  It was wonderful. I got to meet the cast and hang out with the two main  characters.

25:29
who are sisters in the story and they're both wonderful and you it's just like, you kind of have this weird connection because you don't know each other but you're playing somebody that I wrote and now we have this like weird thing and like, you know, yeah, it's super I've never thought about that, especially from like, you know, a comic writer standpoint, like you've been in their brain. Yeah, in a weird way, yeah. Yeah, I mean, but it's also like, you know, the woman who played the main character, Melanie,

25:56
I've watched her stuff. She was in the show Winona Earp on Syfy and she's in Star Trek. I felt like I know her even though I don't. I've watched her. She was doing an Instagram show. You feel like you know them too, so you have this weird sort of thing. But also in the case of those two, and most of the people I worked with on that show, they were all so wonderful. It was just like you feel bonded and so we got to go sing karaoke and stuff.

26:26
I'm so comfortable with these people even though I don't know them. up on stage singing Danzig to them and shit. But yeah, it was great. I kind of came back from it a little shook, honestly, just because it was just like, well, this is not the previous experience of my creative career. It's where comics, you sort of put stuff out and it's just like... Yeah, you reached the mountaintop. That's like the...

26:49
A comic adaptation form into a legit show. I guess maybe the next level would be a huge blockbuster movie, but I still think that's  huge to go from  pen and paper to full-on production crew, actors, and a show schedule. Yeah. Mike had done it with  guy Luke Boyce and Brett Hayes with these two guys that were just like ... We were originally going to do the show at NBC and  we had this

27:19
We just couldn't get it going. And so we took it back when the rights were up. We were like, let's not do Hollywood. And so, you know, we worked with these guys that, you know, they were, they were working as a small production studio. They're here in Illinois. You know, and our thinking was just, you know, let's just do it our like with, so we're in the loop and it took a long time, but it worked. mean, and those guys, you know, every promise they made to us,  they, they came through on and they worked their asses off and you know, got this thing done. And in the end, Luke,

27:48
worked on revival more than I did. I've worked on it for five years, Luke has been working on it for eight. It's very weird. When does the show air? I'm trying to figure out how much time I have to try to get through this giant compendium before watching the show. I don't know an exact date, but they will announce the date soon. The show is shot, that stuff's all done. Awesome. That's good to hear. You mentioned the story taking place in a small town.

28:18
which I know is another setting that you use in one of my favorite comics of last year. think this was, if I didn't say it was my favorite comic of 2024, I might've said it in 2023. But Local Man, which you do alongside Tony Fleeks, who I had a chance to interview I think last year as well, who is also writing, who's at the time writing an Army of Darkness comic too. So I'm like, wow, these guys are really like best friends. But Local Man, just got, I just want to at least give you flowers for Local Man,

28:48
genuinely love that comic man. And I realized that I finished or I left off at issue nine or 10, which was the second story arc, think it was called Dry Season. And I realized I was like, oh shit, there was more issues. So I started reading the new run this week and lo and behold, I'm like, wait a minute, the shit just jumped from 11th to issue 25. I've got like, you know, so many issues to go through. But then I realized like, oh, okay, this is like another kind of

29:17
not like the image years and one of my favorite parts of local man is going to sound super weird but is the the letter column section where i think it's you write most of those um  we alternate okay you guys alternate but dude i love those so much just to hear like you know you antoni's uh perspective about comics and you know the image years how that's influenced you guys and just like the raw honesty is something i really appreciate

29:41
What is it about those early image comics? You know, we're talking Youngblood, Spawn, Wildcat, Savage Dragon, et cetera, that like still continue to inspire you, know, many years later. Like, I guess what kind of energy or inspiration do those comics still give you? I mean, I think the biggest thing is just the sheer authenticity. I mean, think that they're the thing I really like about them and I liked about them then I didn't recognize it. And then kind of what eventually sort of drove me off them. But then when I come back to them, reattach me to is that

30:10
It was just the perspective of the cartoonist with utter confidence in what they were doing, trying to make something  without this corporate bonds. in that sort of, and they were young, they were all really young guy. mean, Rob was like 23, 24, and  maybe Todd was 26, 27, somewhere in there, and Jim, and  they're just  pouring this stuff out with.

30:40
They're not like the best writers on earth, but they're like relying on their just raw art energy. like, there's an authenticity to that that comes back to me as I get older because, know, the older you get, the less you see that authenticity. You see stuff kind of cloaked in either sort of a learned, you know, I've got to fit in, I've got to do it the way it's supposed to be done. Or you just become really good at something, become kind of

31:10
refined and you know and that both those things are valid ways to do stuff obviously  and being refined is you know  the preferred outcome of a creator but there's something nice about the rawness and the missteps and the absolute weirdness you know of like just sort of hungry horny young 20-somethings just like doing something and not really knowing how to do it I think that really always comes back to me.  Yeah it was like they didn't really have a

31:39
I mean, I'm sure Jim Lee of the image years would never probably in a million years seen himself as, know, what is he like the chief operating officer? Some Warner Brothers executive. Yeah, like some a high level mark. it is crazy to like see where they started like in the mission for image and to see them like make good on it. You know, like Todd McFarlane, great example. You know, Rob Lee, Liefeld and know, Eric Larson still going strong. So yeah, are truly like, you know, one of the comics best success stories.

32:09
And failures. mean, in the same way, right? know, and just to be honest, I think they'd say the same thing is like all the company they made is incredible. And we are so lucky to have it and all those things.  not all of them sort  of went through the promise of what it was meant to be, obviously. And  in a weird way, like  it, you know, the things that it did wrong are also things I love about it in a weird way, like looking back, you know, the mistakes they made, the sort of crass commercialism  that

32:39
you they kind of were putting out all these books with so many covers and collectibles and all this shit that didn't work, right? Didn't hold readers. kind of, I sort of love all that shit too, because it's so, it's, we all learned from it, I hope, or we didn't because we're back there again. know, like you saw what happens when you don't rely on that authenticity. It doesn't work anymore, right? Like people can see through it, you know, and all those books that were just sort of launched as a money grab, they don't.

33:08
pulled up. didn't attract people then. People saw them read them and went, oh, this is bullshit. And so I think, to me, that's informed by everything I do now. I always try to make something authentic. I really try not to do things that are just for money. I try to make sure that I always have something that I'm attached to about it, no matter what it is. I think I really appreciate all the lessons I learned, even if some of those things were not necessarily

33:37
Good. Yeah, I think that authenticity is on full display, especially in like local man. mean, even going back to like Batman Eternal, which I really enjoyed when it was coming out.  Speaking of titles and projects, let's finally get around to talking about Red Sonja and Army of Darkness. It's your new comic series coming out through Dynamite. One of many, actually, for the record. It's not just like the only thing that you're currently doing. You're also doing  Peacemaker Project for DC. I'll get to talking about that here in a sec.

34:04
Red Sonja vs. Army of Darkness is Dynamite's newest crossover. They seem to love doing crossovers, because I just spoke to Joe Casey about Space Quest series, which is Johnny Quest, and Space Ghost. But Tim, I want to know whose idea was it to combine the sword and sorcery world of Red Sonja with the dark magic world of Army of Darkness? How did the idea for this crossover come about?  This was definitely Dynamite. I think it was Joe Revanse specifically.

34:30
You know, know those guys, I worked with them a lot. We did Hex Slash, Army of Darkness. I wrote the Chaos series for them. I worked on, you know, covers for them for a whole bunch of lots of Army of Darkness stuff. But we had talked about doing something, and I had pitched them a couple things that I wanted to do, and they were kind like, yeah, man, and then the email came back, which was just, what do you think about doing Redstone and Army of Darkness? I was like, yep, you don't need to say anything else. I was like, yeah, sign me up for that, I'm absolutely in.

34:59
Now is it because you were like a really big fan of Red Sonja or Army of Darkness or both? I guess what was the? mean, Army of Darkness specifically is one of my favorite fangs on Earth. I mean, that's just like for sure. And I've worked out before, you know, that I crossed over to Hackslash and stuff. you know, just always come back to that character. I can write Ash in my sleep. You know, like he's an idiot and he's abrasive and he's overconfident and I love him and I can just, in fact, Hackslash started out as an Army of Darkness pitch so.

35:29
Oh cool. So all that stuff I can just always come up with stuff for. But with Red Sonja, when I was a kid, I was super into barbarian shit, which is because of He-Man. Conan, Red Sonja, that was all that stuff coming out of Marvel at the time. So I had those issues from the Marvel run, the Frank Thorne ones, from when I was a kid. And then I had this Red Sonja novels and shit when I was a kid too. But I guess when he sent that email, like, yeah, I'll do it. And I was like, wait, have I never worked on Red Sonja?

35:59
was like, no, I haven't. I've done a cover or two, but I've never fucking worked on Red Sonja. was like, that can't be right. So was like, well now I really gotta, you know, so. But yeah, it's combined, I mean I know this stuff. There's also a thing like sometimes when I'm really busy and I got school and all that shit, it's really great to work on stuff that I don't have to do research. Because if I do research, that takes a bunch of time, you know? But like for Red Sonja and fucking Ash, I don't have to do any research. I saw the movie.

36:28
I read every goddamn comic. just read Tony's Ash comic and Army of Darkness and stuff. And then Red Sonja was like, I know this character. I know the deal. I know she's a Hercanean mercenary. I know all this shit. I'm like, I can do this. So I had an idea right away. I guess in the case of when you have to do research, what goes into your research? Is it as simple as just finding a bunch of back issues, reading that? I guess how deep do you go in terms of research? I mean, if you don't stop me, I'll just keep researching.

36:58
That's kind of why I can't, I have to be really careful about it. Because like something I don't know really well that I have worked on in the past, I'll get weird with it. I'll just have piles of books and just get really into it. And sometimes, now as I get older, I'm well maybe I didn't need to do that much research. But I kind of like doing research. I like getting the vibe. like knowing kind of all the aspects of the character so I don't repeat something or whatever.

37:28
I think there was a book I did last year that I just kept reading,  I just kept buying shit.  I know for sure when I did Lobo versus Superman, I read so many, I think I read every existing Lobo book  that I could find. when I did Vigilante, it wasn't really that important. I read all the old Marble Wolfman ones, even though James Gunn's Yeah, it's completely radically different one.

37:57
not even really similar. read every vigilante comic  I could find. That's my type of research, That is the reason why I keep my iPad charged by my mic stand.  And my wife's like, are you reading comic book at 1230 at night? I'm like, research, baby. Yeah, got to. Got no choice.  I got to know about  Saber and Cannon, the bad guys from vigilante.

38:19
Alright, so back to Redstone vs. Army Darks, I wanted to read the solicitation they have online and then I want you to add anything that you feel is important for someone that is interested in the book that wants to pick it up and check it out.  The solicitation for issue one reads,

38:47
Hurtling again through space and time to battle against the forces of evil. This trip is special because he's finally caught a break. This time he's teaming up with the She-Devil herself, Red Sonja. But who's that lurking in the shadows? None other than Kulan Gath. And if the most dread wizard of the Hyborian Age gets his hand on the Necronomicon, well shit, that ain't gonna be good. Wait, is that in the real estate? I kid you not. that is in the real estate. That's incredible.

39:14
On top, it depends on where you go to look for the solicitation,  but on League of Comic Geeks, the first thing they have is a quote from Ash and it reads, demon bitches are my specialty, which is a bar. I need that on a shirt. Oh, that's from the book. That  is in the book. That was a bit Joe. That's a great, that's  so Joe right back. But yeah, the only quote that is from me is the one where it says demon bitches are my specialty, which Ash says in the first issue. But  yeah, there you go. That says it right there.

39:44
Okay. And then in terms of your artists on this, Jim Terry is your collaborator. What does he bring to the table and how is he cementing his place among some of the all time greats? When we think Red Sonja and Conan the Barbarian, you got to say names like obviously Roy Thomas, but art side Barry Windsor Smith, John Basima, Frank Thorne.  They've all drawn and contributed to Red Sonja and the lore. How  would you say  Jim is leaving his mark on the character?

40:14
So Jim and I did Deathstalker together at Vault Comics.  so Jim's also one of my oldest friends, another Chicago cartoonist.  And when I signed up to do this book, he and I had just done Deathstalker together. We did a book called West of Sundown together for Vault as well. But Jim  is  the hugest Conan fan I know. He's a big fantasy fan.  He's the guy that re-reads Lord of the Rings every year.  He's that guy. And style-wise, he has this of Jamba-Sem-a

40:44
Jack Davis, Frank Lauren, kind of like that lush,  gritty fantasy style. That's how Jim draws.  So I wrote this at him. I, you know, I know what Jim likes. I know what Jim likes to draw.  You know, so this is us doing kind of what we did on Deathstalker, which is one of my favorite things I've ever made. If you haven't read it,  please read Deathstalker. It is a sort of homage, takedown of  80s fantasy barbarian stuff  with Slash from Guns N' Roses.

41:14
And but it's you know, we're applying that our aesthetic our Vibe that we got there, which I think we really figured something out like best starter is near and dear to my heart  And I think we applied it to these existing characters  as well And this isn't your first obviously not your first collab of  Jim Terry but one of the more interesting collaborations that I found between you two was wasn't even comic book related  I guess kind of like comic adjacent but

41:43
There's a company called Cacao Berry, which is like a  fine chocolate company.  I guess you care to share the story of how this collaboration of this chocolate company and Jim Terry came about?  So in addition to the comics and stuff, sometimes I do  creative consultant work. Because that's just like the cool side hustle. So Cacao Berry  was looking to sort of,  their chocolate is mostly just for chefs.

42:14
And so they have a location here in Chicago and they basically sell straight to pastry chefs and stuff. And it's like high end, like fancy stuff. But they also were kind of like, well, we'd like to sort of open it up to the public so people can kind  of get what we're doing. So they hired us to do like an art show. And I hired a bunch of comic book artists to basically turn their different kinds of chocolate into characters.  And so Jim did the flavor  guy.

42:43
word-shocking one.  But yeah, we like an art show at a  music venue and I don't just did stuff. Like again, I just like to do stuff. So  we did that. It was awesome. And you know, I picked artists that I like to work with. So Jim is one of those guys. I knew he would do something crazy. So, and he did. What are some other, I guess, opportunities that maybe, you know, outside of the world of comics or, you know, left field or something like unexpected that you still are like, man, that was a really cool project.

43:12
I mean, I guess the biggest one is probably the, I did the label for the beer Zombie Dust, which is like a huge Chicago beer with my brother Steve and my studio mate, Dove did the label. It is the most popular craft beer in the Midwest. We originally did it, you know, it was just sort of like a, this brewery wants to do this thing. We're like, yeah, cool. And we gave them this brewery, this thing is like, that was like 15 years ago. Yeah, now it's like an institution. Like, I'll go to a bar in Chicago or Indiana.

43:41
Wisconsin and there'll be like a, fact, I have it behind me, there's a little, the head, the tap topper, you know, they made the 3D tap topper, I'll see like a neon thing that's gonna be, it is definitely the thing that I've done that's gotten the most sort of eyes on it for sure. Like every once in a while, like somebody I knew from, you know, some other time or somebody will text me and be like,

44:08
Hey, I was just drunk at a bar and looked at this label that says drawn by Tim Sealy on it.  Have you ever had anyone show up to convention and ask you to sign like a can or something? Every year.  Every year. I just signed six packs. I signed cans. I signed bottles. I signed all kinds of shit. Yeah. I've signed those tapper heads. I've signed all kinds of stuff. That's cool. I want to get back and go back to Red Sonja. And this question is actually comes from a patron of the show, which is a benefit of being a patron of the podcast.

44:35
I reach out to the patrons in the Patreon community, ask for questions. I tell them who's coming on this show and I ask them for questions. This one comes from issue number three, Brad. Big shout out to Brad. But he wants to know, at any point throughout the history of film and television, who would Tim Dreamcast as his perfect red Sonja and Cassie? Wait, through all the cinemas? They can have  aged out, I guess, right, at this point?  Yeah, I think, yeah.

45:05
I the person I always think of as Red Sonja in my head,  she's not maybe an actor, but I don't know if you've ever seen the cartoonist from ElfQuest, Wendy Pinney.  She was sort of the first sort famous cosplayer, and she  was an assistant to Frank Thorne.  And so Wendy used to dress up as Red Sonja. And in my head, when I see real live actions in the flesh Red Sonja, I see Wendy Pinney. Part of it is because I first saw that picture

45:34
I was probably... She looks like the redstone from the comics brought to life. Well, because Frank was using her. So I see Wendy Pinney in my head for sure as that. And then for Cassie, if we're going through all the space and time, I mean, a stunt casting thing I wish I could have done. And obviously, she's my age now. But Daniel Harris, she played the little girl in a...

46:04
on Halloween four. And then, know, when she was in her late teens, twenties, she would have been an awesome Cassie. And it would have been stunt casting, because she was in a Slash movie. Yeah, so Daniel Harris was great. And then my friend, Tiffany Shepp, she's an actress, she was in a bunch of horror movies. She's friend of mine. She always thought I based Cassie on her, which I didn't. But, you know, Tiffany around 18, 19, all the way up until

46:32
know, 30 something would have been an awesome Kazzie. Obviously Kazzie has to be a teenager. That's kind of part of the shtick. She kind of has to be, but Tiffany would be amazing and she's a great person. Uh, so yeah, one of those two would be like a great, I get anybody I can get to do it, would, I would do those. Not that anyone asked me, but I did some thinking about this question myself and for Red Sonja, I've got Charlize Theron and I think it's because I was watching Mad Max like Fury Road a month ago and she's just been on my brain of how badass she is. I feel like she could probably, for real, for real,

47:02
wield a sword like Red Sonja. So I got Red a good choice, yeah. And then for Cassie, I've got Alexa Demi, who played Maddie on Euphoria. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She just has like that, you know, full respect when I say this, but she's just got like that bad bitch energy, you know, like she's confident. Yeah, she's good. Yeah, Alexa Demi, think, would make for a great That's a good choice. That's a good one. When I saw the substance, I kept thinking Margaret Qualley, too. And even Margaret Qualley, like, again, because Cassie sort of has to be a teenager by

47:32
virtue of the genre, but market quality would have made a good one too, for sure. All right. I guess on the topic of creator-owned stuff, I've got a question about Panel Punk Originals. I said in the intro, it is a company founded by you, your wife, I think you've got a third partner. And the way I understand it is that you guys help artists sell original art, sketches, commissions, directly to...

48:00
you know, buyers and art collectors and consumers and things like that. I guess the kind of selling point is that you guys are artists yourself. You understand them well and can help them kind of navigate the world of, you know, business and things like that. Is that accurate? Absolutely. That's a good that's a better pitch than our pitch. So I guess what artists are among the stable, I guess, what was the inspiration for starting it? Was it something like that you personally went through? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know, so for years I would be represented by a company called Cadence Comic Art.

48:29
I was one of Apollo's first clients. I've known him for 20 some years.  And then  that kind of fell apart  for various reasons. And I was kicking around like, what to do next?  I talked to various people about representing us at Selling Original Art. For me, Selling Original Art was always sort of a side hustle because I had switched to so much writing that I wasn't as doing as much art stuff.  But  it was always like a way to make extra money and

48:58
you know, trips or Christmas or whatever it's like, can you sell some original art? Oh, great, you know. So, but then when that kind of all fell apart, we were, was, I guess the thing I kept coming back to is that part of the problem, I think kind of with comics in general is that there's always people who kind of come in and are business people or they're collector types. And they tend to think of everything as like a game, like it's all monetized. Like, you know what I mean? It's like everything's a chase or everything's like a,

49:28
You know,  no offense to anybody who does these things, but like that whatnot sort of auction world and stuff. The variants and  the retail, yeah, all that. Yeah, yeah. And again, that is a valid part of comics. But I didn't want that applied to original art because I think for a lot of people, your original art is  special to you. It's things you actually put hands on. And it's becoming increasingly rare because so many people do things digitally.

49:51
We just wanted like, is there way to do this that we can treat it like what we think it should be treated with? And my wife and I had been running this gallery with my brother and Sean and Anthony, and we really liked it. And we really liked the way, you know, the way it introduced us to a lot of artists, the way it introduced us to a lot of collectors and the way that we could kind of, you know, decide the way it was presented. So we thought, what if we applied like an art world version, you know,

50:18
And again, not like the potential to sort of find our version, but the version that we were doing with our gallery too. And so my wife and I kind of set this up. Our partner is a guy named Alan Park and his wife, they own Howling Pages, which is a comic book store here in Chicago. Alan comes from the world of gallery art. He is a printmaker and he was sort of helping some other artists sell their stuff anyway. So we just teamed up. And again, that Chicago thing where it's not that big and everybody knows each other. So yeah, we're doing that and we work with

50:47
You know, Aaron Campbell, Scott Hepburn,  we're working with Gene Hano,  you know,  Jim Terry,  Jimmy Coochie. Wait, so I hear, I hear Scott Hepburn. My mind goes to Miner Threat. So you've got a bunch of original art for Miner Threat, I'm assuming, right? I have it like eight feet from where I'm sitting right now. Scott Hepburn is insane. mean, look, no disrespect to any other artists in the Miner Threat universe.

51:16
But if Scott Hepburn isn't drawing it, I'm always like giving it the side eye at first. I'm he just did the cover. God damn it. But  no, that's an awesome lineup right there. So I follow Jimmy Palmieri on Twitter  or X, whatever it is now. And he kind of single handedly has piqued my interest when it comes to like original comic art. know, like the,  you know, the rarity of it as well as like, you know, how it kind of holds better value and, you know, versus like kind of

51:46
just regular comic book collecting and things like that. And not that I'm trying to approach it just strictly monetize from monetary perspective, but it does pique my interest. And I don't ever get going to HeroesCon thinking like, oh, I'll buy some original comic art and being instantly fucking humbled when I saw how expensive like, you know, like  Marvel DC stuff. So I guess any and I guess maybe that's that's the wrong approach, like instantly trying to go like for the big pieces. But I guess any tips for aspiring.

52:14
comic art collectors? absolutely. Start small. mean, the pieces you're probably talking about are the ones that give you sticker shock. It tends to be, you know, sort of like classic illustrators or key pieces. So like, obviously, you know, the first appearance of the Spider-Man black costume, you know, is going to be a piece of historical art and it's going to cost you some money, right? And so that kind of stuff can go for like, you know, I don't know, $20,000, $30,000, right? It is by demand that causes that sort of thing.

52:44
You don't need to do that. You can buy things that are important to you, from a book that you loved. And you can get stuff for 150, 250, $350 to tier pages. And so I always just recommend people, and we do this for our gallery too, like, buy art that means something to you. Don't think of it right off the bat, oh, in 50 years I'm gonna flip this, in two years I'm gonna flip this. Buy it because it means something to you, and because you are now the person who holds that page of that comic that you love, that original is yours.

53:14
It's in your house, you can display it, you can make it a conversation piece in your house. I really encourage people to do it, because I think it, one, when you see original art and you see what it takes to make that thing that comes out on the comic page a certain way, it completely changes your perception of how this is, it makes it real. I think, if you see the printed line, you're like, well, you just have this sort of perception, oh, it's always that way. It's like, when you see it, that is someone's wrist.

53:39
turning to make this arc of a line. It's like all this really beautiful stuff to it. think it really, it's really informative. So I absolutely recommend people get into buying original art. Start small, know, save up 150 bucks at a convention and get yourself a commission or get yourself a sketch or find an original page of art. And you know, the stuff that tends to go for lower amount of money, it's not necessarily the splash pages or something like that, right? But I mean, I have one single page of my favorite comic of all time, Savage Dragon. I have one page.

54:09
because Eric doesn't sell much of it, one, and the pages that he does sell tend to be really expensive, too, and they tend to get bought by Robert Kirkman. Damn you, Robert! But I did manage to get one, and it's from like issue seven, and it's a great page, and it hangs in my office. It is a piece of inspiration for me. I have this one little moment of a comic that I love. I've got other art, and I've traded with buddies and stuff, and people have given me shit.

54:38
first appearance of Raptor from Nightwing that Javier Fernandez gave to me. I feel like I really owe him one for that. But I have these things that are very personal to me in my house. if you're a comic fan, connecting to things personally is what you do. On the topic of being able to appreciate those very fine nuances and things that you don't see in the printed edition, I think my baby step version of getting into original comic art is

55:06
IDW recently had a pretty badass 50 % sale on a lot of their Artesian edition books. So I ended up scooping up. Oh, they're right behind me. don't feel like grabbing all of them. But I ended up scooping up John Romita's The Amazing Spider-Man, a Gil Kane collection, some Hellboy one. But even just flipping through these smaller versions. And these are pretty accurate. They're high res scans.

55:33
It almost feels like you're getting a second story in addition to the main story on the page. that's a way to think about it. Process. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And sometimes those process kind of make you appreciate certain things a little more. Oh, I agree. But Tim, you mentioned the black suit Spider-Man, and I think you were very humble and modest with that estimate because it reminded me, I think it recently actually sold at a Heritage auction two years ago and I found it. If you had to take a guess right now, if I was to ask you how much did the original artwork

56:03
of Spider-Man first donning his black costume by art by Mike Zek. I think it was page 25 of Secret Wars number eight. If you just had to guess how much the original artwork recently sold for. Recently, okay. Well, I should know this at least in the ballpark because I sell art. $80,000. Not even close? Really? Holy shit. I'll give you one hint. It's definitely an M. Is that a million bucks?

56:33
It sold in 2022, at least this article is aided, for $3.36 million. Are you kidding me? Page 25 of Secret Wars number eight from 1984 featuring Mike Zick's white and white artwork. Insane. I didn't know it went for that much. I had no idea. That's insane. Wow. mean, you know, again, it is a piece of history.

57:01
Art is weird and again, I have to work in this world because have a gallery. It's not necessarily, it's like perception, right? Perception is what drives us. What people will tell you about Spider-Man stuff is, and the reason it holds its value is Spider-Man is such a perfect idea. There will always be Spider-Man fans. will be Spider-Man cartoon in 50 years, right? There will be a Spider-Man movie in 25 years. It's so pure and perfect, they'll keep making it. So that's kind of how that stuff manages to.

57:31
I mean that's a crazy fucking price, but I'm sure the person who bought it probably feels like they They got their money's well. They've got it behind a bulletproof glass frame for sure I would hope so I'm hoping that is like a central talking point imagine like them throwing at a dinner party and no one at this dinner party's asking  I'd  so fucking pissed. Yeah, I'd be like the 3.5 million dollars y'all better fucking bend down and worship at it. Exactly

57:59
All right, Tim, I want to move on to  a recent project works. will have a link to panel punk originals in the show notes. Vinnie was curious and checking out  what they've got going on there and buying some original art. But by the time this episode comes out, another project of yours will be out by now. Peacemaker presents The Vigilante in Eagly, double feature number one. You're writing issue one. I think you're writing the entire series.  But Mitch Gerard is doing the art for, I think, the first two issues.

58:27
And you've got James Gunn himself, the big DC studio head honcho on the project doing story consulting, which is no surprise there since he was a creator and the writer on the Peacemaker show, which was phenomenal. I guess what can fans  of the show expect from this comic? What type of shenanigans are we getting with  vigilante and Peacemaker and Eagly?  Mitch does draw all five issues.  Oh, awesome. And so it is set up, it's a split book. So  the first story,

58:56
is the Vigilani story by me and Mitch. And then the second issue is the, is the Eagly story by Rex Ogle. They are tied together. They're, take place in separate places, but they share a similar plot point. The  rough pitch on this is Peacemaker and Eagly go on a vacation together.  And then of course things go bad and Eagly has to save the day. And that's Rex's story. And in our story, it's what happens when Peacemaker leaves Evergreen  and Vigilani, you know, who thinks that Peacemaker is his best friend on earth.

59:27
uh, and is immediately like, where's peacemaker? Why didn't he take me on vacation with him? Cause he thinks he's best friend, not the damn Eagle. And so peacemaker believe or vigilante believes that a giant conspiracy has reached, reached evergreen. And so it's, it's what happens when peacemaker leaves town and vigilante is left by himself. Uh, that's the story. And it's, uh, it's insane. The first issue is like, I just, I just got my comps. I was like, I can't believe they let us.

59:55
do any of this shit. mean, it is... It's got the black label on it. So, you you get a lot of leeway. Might I add, first of all, I didn't know that Mitch Gerard was doing the entire art. That's awesome to hear. I'm a big fan of Mitch Gerard. He did the cover. He's the cover artist, I think, for all the cover A's. But for issue one, there is possibly the greatest comic book cover I've ever seen in my life. Cover B for issue one is drawn by Dan Panosian.

01:00:21
And it is a picture of Eagly holding some safety instructions. And I don't know why this tickles me so. He's got the American flag behind him. And Eagly just looks so proud. I would fucking hug that Eagly. Yeah, he's on an airplane.  Oh, damn. Yeah, you're right. Yeah, that is awesome. I can't wait. guess what was it like?  Did you have any direct contact with James Gunn? Did you guys hop on a call to talk through things? I guess how was it sharing creative control with someone like James Gunn?  James and I talked over Twitter.

01:00:51
Twitter direct messages. I mean, we know each other, but in this sort of like the way that people know each other in Hollywood stuff. But way, way, back in the day, going back to Hack Slash, when Hack Slash was got sold, the rights to a movie studio, James was my pick to write and direct it. Because he had just made Splinter and I loved his Troma stuff. And we had done a Troma comic where I emailed James back in like 2004 or something, 2005.

01:01:21
to try to get him to write it. Instead, he sort of gave me some plot ideas, and so we did this trauma comic. So, you know, I know his work really well, love his stuff, and he's familiar with my stuff.  so, you know,  when I saw a Peacemaker  TV show, I was like,  you have to let me write Vigilite. I was like, this is my, he looks like Jeffrey Dahmer, he is a crazy Wisconsin, and like,

01:01:50
I love that he was like a hyper liberal. He was always like, I hate races. All those things. This is perfect. is me. And so I just sent him a message on Twitter. I was like, you have to let me do the comment for that. And at some point he got back to me was like, I think we might be able to do that. So I emailed Katie Kubert at DC and said, hey, we can do this. I've got an idea. We can get James to give us the okay on the plot. And then we worked on it for three years.

01:02:21
to get it going. And now it's coming out, I'm really excited to have people read it. But it was a big process of making sure that it was tied to the James' version of the characters, that it fit the tone, giving Mitch a lot of time to do his wonderful art on it. So I'm really proud of it. I can't believe, like when you get to issue four,

01:02:43
There's shit in there I cannot believe DC Comics let us do.  Okay. I can't wait to check this out. All right, folks. Once again, that is  Peacemaker presents the Vigilante Eagly double feature. Number one, it'll be out  by the time this episode comes out. So go pick up issue two  next month or something. I had this question just pop up. Sharing  story duties with James Gunn. Local man. Sharing art and story duties with Tony Fleeks.  The art gallery. You and your wife and your partner.

01:03:13
It seems like collaboration is a big thing to you.  And I find that interesting considering the landscape of comics and the business side of comics.  Co-collaborating can always be a weird, maybe sensitive topic when it comes to people working in comics and things like that. But it seems like you're all about it. And I'm curious, what advantage do you find in co-collaborating? Have  you always been kind of like, hey, I don't need full control. I'm down to work with others?

01:03:41
Comics is often, it can be done by one person, right? You can be the auteur cartoonist, you can be Chris Ware or  Art Spiegelman and just take care of everything.  There's appeal to that for sure. And  I could do that, I can write and draw so I could do that. And I've done it on some things, didn't color them or whatever, but I could write and draw something and work with somebody. But comics is  often collaborative. And it can be collaborative between just like two or three people.

01:04:08
know, like TV is, it's collaborative, but it's like 50 or a hundred or something, you know? I like comics that can be collaborative with a few people can do something. And Tony and I could do majority of local manage us and then we would call in great colorists and stuff to work with us, know, like Brian Reaver and, you know, having this option of doing something small, but doing something large is, really appeal to me. And I like the different flavors I get when I work with different people, guess. So if I work with Tony, we get something, you know, so I'm,

01:04:37
I'm kind of like, here's a shit ton of ideas, and Tony can be like, here's those ideas that are good, and here's the ones that are shit. And so when I work Tony, that's what I get. then if I work with different collaborators, I get different things. Working with James,  I'm sort of adapting parts of his voice, which is also really natural to me, but I never get to be really abrasively gross and funny. I never get to do that because, mean, local man I did, but they never let me do that normally on a DC Marvel book.

01:05:05
That kind of writing, like the way James does things, that's the most natural thing for me to do. If I were going, hey James, I get to do that. And then, so for me it's everything is a different collaboration interaction.  And I  like the different,  I just like the different vibes it allows me to do. I'm not a big guy who just likes to be by himself. I like to talk, I like to have an excuse to call somebody.  So collaboration does that. Yeah, I can get behind that. Tim, I got one last question for you.

01:05:34
And I've had, and it's because I've had this phrase stuck in my head. It just kind of tickled me when I, when I read your bio, but I said in the intro that you're one of these slash people, you're a writer slash artist. And it got me thinking about some of my other favorite, like slash people in comics, you know, people that, uh, talented individuals that are capable of spinning a good yarn and also making said story look beautiful. you know, names that come to mind to me, know, Frank Miller,

01:06:00
Barry Windsor Smith,  Mike Mignola, and the list goes on, but I want to hear who are some of your favorite slash people? Well, Eric Larsen for sure. Dana Plaus,  let's see, who else do I love?  I mean so many.  Evan Dorkin, Phil Hester, Jack Kirby,  John Byrne.  mean Tony, Tony Fleece, I love when he does both things.  He great stuff.

01:06:27
Among all of the very talented slash people out there, especially the ones that you just named, I guess which one has had the most profound impact on your career in terms of showing you as possible to do both at a high level? Oh,  James O'Barr and Eric Larson for sure. I mean, it's kind of where my style comes from, I think, is those two guys. Somehow I'm a fusion of the crow and savage dragon somehow.  know, like, horror goth and then bombastic punchy shit, I guess. So definitely like those two, I think.

01:06:56
Both are comics like above my head here. So  yeah, definitely those two. Solid answer.  All right, ladies and gents, this is the Short Box podcast and we just finished talking to Tim Seeley about his career, his life and art. Be sure to check out his new project, Reg Sonia versus the Army of Darkness. Number one, it hit shops April 9th.  And while you're at it, why not go and pick up and see if you can find a copy of Peacemaker presents The Vigilante slash Eagly double feature number one also in shops by the time you're hearing this episode.

01:07:24
I have links to pre-order the book online. I'll have links to Tim's social media page. You can check out the Venomized Jughead on his Instagram. I have links to the art gallery as well. Go give them a follow. Tim, any parting words or shameless plug before we wrap up? Thanks for the interview. In depth, I usually hate to just hear me repeating some bullshit points that I need to do myself. It's nice to actually talk. There we go. Take care.

01:07:53
There you have it short box nation. That's the end of the show.  Thank you for hanging out. Thanks for being here. And a special shout out if you made it this far. If you enjoyed this episode and you have some thoughts or comments that you want to share with us, write us at the short box, jacks at gmail.com. And if you really liked this episode,  help us spread the word, share this episode with a friend or someone you know that loves comics as much as we do. And don't forget to leave us a five star rating and review on apple podcast or Spotify.

01:08:21
or wherever you get your podcast. takes two minutes tops and it would mean the world to us. So leave us a review. Now, if you want more content like bonus episodes or perks like early access and commercial free episodes,  and in some cases, free comic books,  consider joining our Patreon community at patreon.com slash the short box.  It's an easy and very affordable way to support the show  and get rewarded for being a fan. Once again, sign up at patreon.com slash the short box.

01:08:48
Speaking of our Patreon community, want to give a big shout out to our current members, including...

01:09:17
Melissa Burton, Nick Wagner,  Ryan Isaacson, Steven Ginn,  T-Mix,  The Wait For It Podcast, Tony Aupi, Trey Namo,  Walter Gant,  and last but not least, Warren Evans. Big shout outs to the patrons. And with that being said, that's it. That's what I got for you this time. Thanks for listening. Tune in next week for another episode.  And most importantly, take care of yourselves. Read a good comic and continue to make mine and yours short box. I'll catch you soon. Peace.