Ep. 469 - Mike Del Mundo

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Yo, Short-Box Nation, hello again, welcome back, and thanks for pressing play today. If you're brand new, welcome to the show. My name is Badr, and this is the Shortbox 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 469, and today we'll be joined by renowned comic book artist and award winning cover artist, Mike Del Mundo.

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Mike has one of the most recognizable styles in comics today, known for his vivid art, creative storytelling, and concept-driven covers. He got his start in the big leagues in 2010 working for Marvel Comics, where he quickly gained recognition for creating captivating covers for comics like X-Men Legacy, Kang the Conqueror, and he provided covers for the Eisner award-winning series The Vision of Tom King and Gabriel Hernandez-Walter, all of which led to interior and cover work on runs like Electro of Hayden Blackman, followed up with runs on Thor with Jason Aaron,

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Avengers of Mark Waid, and a weird world with Jason Aaron and Sam Humphries. Outside of Marvel, he's worked with just about every other publisher under the sun doing some incredible covers for Image Comics,  IDW, Boom Studios, and most recently, you can find Mike's signature style gracing the pages of some of your favorite DC comics  like Wonder Woman and The Flash.  And if time wasn't a factor, I'm telling you right now, I could easily fill a 10-part podcast talking about Mike's contribution to not just comics, but also hip hop.

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He's done artwork for Wu-Tang Clan, Freddie Gibbs and the Alchemist,  Rakim, and a whole bunch more.  But this episode will especially be focused on his Marvel Comics stuff.  And that's because Mike has a brand new book coming out through Clover Press called The Marvel Art of Mike Del Mundo,  which will feature over 200 pages of Mike's best stuff from Marvel Comics.  The campaign for this book officially launches on Tuesday, August 12th. Some of the perks being offered to backers include brand new stickers featuring Mike's artwork, a companion sketchbook,

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and a chance to get some original artwork from Mike Del Mundo himself. There is a link to the campaign in the show notes, but you'll get to hear from Mike firsthand about what you can expect from this new art book and some of the thought process that went into choosing the covers and pieces that went into making this book a reality. Now, before we get started, I want to give a big shout out to all of these short box Patronies out there, AKA the loyal supporters of this here show. Join the rest of our Patreon community at patreon.com slash the short box for access to commercial free episodes, extra bonus episodes,

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and free comics and short box merch. Once again, support the show and get rewarded at patreon.com slash the short box. And without further ado, short box nation, let's welcome deadly Mike Del Mundo to the show. What up, Mike? How you doing, man? Thank you, man.  Thanks for having me.  Folks might not know this, but this has been an interview like two years in the making.  And I think it arrived at the right time because the hype for this book, the Marvel art of Mike Del Mundo.

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It's everywhere. see it. I see friends posting it. I've been watching your Instagram feed. I hell, I was actually  scrolling through your Instagram feed today. It looks like that you're still making like the final selections for what covers  and bodies of work that you've done will be in the book. Is that true? Yeah. I mean, we have made like a good amount of  choices, but it's just so hard to make the choices, man. Like, yeah, I don't envy you. I do not envy your position right now.

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Yeah, and I'm just like, I'll hit up Jay and  Chase Renty, one of my good friends that's leading the I think he's annoyed at me because I'll be like,  oh, man, we should we should like add in like, you know, some of the fan art I've because that kind of resonates a little bit more with fans and like, you know, stuff like that. And like, I'll just get like ideas like all of a sudden be like, we should we should add this or be too late to add this. So I think we're still in the process  of choosing. But we have taken a boatload of stuff to

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to Marvel to get approved.  most of it is about like 70%. You know, speaking about  Jason, I know that he tends to,  he'll write a lot of  the posts that are on your sub stack.  And I was doing my research, going through some of the posts there. And he mentioned,  I found some earlier posts when you guys were first announcing the idea for an art book. I think you guys took a poll  last year asking fans, hey, do you want a soft cover, a hard cover? Which I think is super dope. It's like, hey, you're only producing the things

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that your fans want and what better way to get feedback and input than reaching out and asking polls. But  at one point,  Jason wrote something that  he did a tally of how many covers you've done. And it's somewhere in the 320 range. And I'm like, man, that's an insane amount of work to select from. What type of criteria are you going for when it comes to what ends up in the book?

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Is there any criteria at all or any  way that you're organizing and filtering things? I think I'm just kind of like winging it and like  picking it based on feeling.  But as well, Jay's also he's also been picking a lot of  the books. So there are certain things that I'm like, I don't know about this going into the book. And Jay's like, I really like this.  So I trust his judgment. So we've been going back and forth that way.  For the most part, we're trying to collect

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the runs, like the X-Men Legacy run, the Electra runs or the Vision run. So we've tried to like, make sure that like that whole collection is in there for the book. And so that's made it a little bit easier because the runs do take up a large number of the book. So we went through the runs and then we also kind of like weeded out what we don't want in the book. So like we went backwards in that way. We're like, I don't want this in the book. I don't want that. we did a little bit of a process in that way.

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There's something you said in the press release for this book, which folks, once again, campaign kicks off August 12th, which should be by the time this episode drops. You mentioned about how excited you are  about having your first art book, it be Marvel centric, and you shared something about  recalling the thrill of landing your first gig of Marvel, running to  the comic shop on that Wednesday to see it on the shelves and how proud your 12 year old self would be.

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And  I want to know, thinking back to 12 year old Michael Mundo,  what was he into? What comics was he reading?  Comics or whatever, what was he into? What artists were inspiring a young Mike? Oh man, the  Image Era, So Jim Lee, Todd McFarlane, Rob Liefeld, Eric Larson, Wills Portacio,  slew of others, Jay Lee.  But that's what I grew up with,  90s era comics.

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My first comic was on Kenny X-Men 275 with Jim Lee. So that still holds dear to my heart. then 281, think, was partash show when like the X-Men gold and blue came together. So that's what I actually, I like went deep, deep dove like into X-Men in that way. And then just tried to kind of figure it out. feel like as a child, it was a lot easier to like get into comics, even though it's already like, you know, 200 issues in.

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There's some way that you would just pick it up and just keep reading.  yeah, that's where I started. Man,  there's so many stories from that time, but those are  my legends and my superheroes. Did someone get you into comics  or was that something that you came across  of your own? Hmm, that's a good question. I'm curious, what's your earliest comic memory? Because I've read interviews where you've mentioned the X-Men 275 that Jim Lee won, but also  in other interviews you've mentioned

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X Factor number 64 speaking about Wills Portacio. I love that you've said before that Wills Portacio draws the best Iceman ever. Yeah, the best Iceman. It's just like, I don't know. There's a lot of emotion in that one issue, man. I think it was issue number 67. Man, I fell in love with Iceman, like just because of Wills' the way Wills drew him, the way he like hatched those lines and just like added that rendering and just the emotion and like energy into Iceman.

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Iceman is kind of difficult because he's just made of ice and that was my introduction into Iceman. Actually my introduction into the X-Men because X Factor was the first X book that like, yeah, very first X book that you know, I was exposed to.  And like that pretty much bridged me into everything else. Those first books, X Factor books, I would grab them at the variety store, like the local hasty market  and like where the spindle racks were.

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And then we caught wind, like, and then, you know, we'd bring them to school, like me and my friends would just talk about it. Then we caught wind, like, there's a, you know what, there's an actual comic store that sells  the real shit, you know, like,  I'm like, the ones without the barcodes, like, oh, and they got the plastics. And I'm like, so that's when I discovered Uncanny X-Men and everything else is when I, you know, my first time at the comic shop and this and that. But yeah, like the first  time being exposed to comic

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comics was like X Factor and like even before that Toxic Avenger number one and two and like Sleepwalker, stuff like that.  Have you had a chance to meet any of your like childhood heroes in  working in the industry now and having made a name for yourself? Like if you had a chance to meet Jim Lee or Will Sportaccio, I know a couple years ago you had a chance to work with Todd McFarland directly. That must have been crazy. that was  a huge dream.  I could pinch myself. Yeah, it's crazy.

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Plus he's Canadian and like, that's what kind of like surprised me. Cause when I first started reading spawn, I didn't know he was Canadian  until later on. So same with Wills. didn't know he was a Filipino,  um, like myself. And like, I found that out. Cause my dad was like, yo, that's a Filipino last name or Spanish last name. He's gotta be Filipino.  So like those,  like my mind was just blowing, like exploding, like,  um, as a child. And, um, those are huge inspirations just cause of that. they're amazing artists. I didn't know.

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Um, you know, their geographic,  uh, locations and stuff, ethnic backgrounds with that. Yeah. And learning, learning about that was, that was big. was like, all right, cool. I could do this, man. Like, this is a thing I could do.  Um, I think I  lost the question. What was the question? I was asking if you had a chance to meet any of your like childhood heroes. I So I haven't met Todd, but we've talked on the phone and he's the

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I guess like the kindest person in the world.  like the first time he ever called me was the first thing he said was, this the superstar Mike Del Mundo that I'm talking to? And I'm like,  so like, yeah, man, that guy's  an amazing individual, man. And he can talk. He could, he could talk forever. So I just took it in, man. I just let him talk for like an hour and I just like took in all the knowledge and you know, whatever you have to say.  Um, and then,  uh,

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Yeah, I hung out with Wills  a couple years ago and that was amazing because I was with my family, he was with his family. It felt like a full like, you know, like a fan jam, you know? man, it's hard to like take things in at the moment.  And then like all it takes is like my wife to be like, you know, you're sitting with your like superheroes, right? Like your idols. And I'm like, I'm just like, yeah, I know. It's like I'm trying to keep my composure, you know, trying not to like...

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have an anxiety attack and all that, right? But it's gotta feel surreal. You brought up your dad and I'm very curious if what I read is true. Tell me this, this true or not. Has your dad posed for some of the covers that you've done and the artwork you've done? I think I read that somewhere. Yeah, he's posed for many covers, man. Like he's like the fittest 70 year old. But back then, mean, was in like, back then he was in his sixties. I don't bother him anymore. But like when...

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when I was first doing my covers. Yeah, man, he did a lot. like, he was like a true champ. And because like, I mean, I just be like, stand there and let me move you.  Like, I'll move your arms like a  like an action figure or something. But  yeah, man, he's like, my parents have been fully supported,  has  fully supported,  you know, my art career. And even to that day of like, yeah, all right, cool. I'm going to pose for you and be your model. So

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That's so cool, man. That's awesome to hear. If I had your talent and had that same story with my dad, my dad probably would never let me live that down. In his head, he'd be famous at that point.  That's awesome to hear.  I guess to kind of stick into this time frame, what was that comic  that you were running to the shop to grab? Because I found two different first  accredited work. There was a Heartbreaker comic from Marvel. That was it.

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Really? OK, so that's the one. Because the other one I found was Amazing Spider-Man, think 647. You did like a short story? Yeah, I did a short story like right away. Like it was crazy. that's what I kind of love about Marvel is like, well, at the time they were only really hiring like interior artists. And so I think I really lucked out.  that's what I'm really grateful about is like I feel like I really lucked out on like getting a cover gig or being a cover artist right away. I tried to find something earlier than that. And it's like, no, my man got a shot at Marvel.

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from the get-go, like he landed at Mount Olympus at Marvel. Yeah, they're very encouraging in terms of like, yeah, you're a cover artist. I want to see what you do with interiors. Give them like an eight-pager or something, right? So I started with a few eight-pagers, like an Osborne. Oh, man, it's like ages ago, which I can't even look at that artwork anymore. But yeah, the Marvel Heartbreakers is the first cover I did, which is

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Pretty unique because I don't think I've ever done a cover  after that that's similar. It was a Valentine's Day special with the character Boom Boom. But I don't even think I drew Boom Boom the way in her costume. I just have her in a Molly Ringwald  feel. I was  capturing  the Breakfast Club basically because I wanted to get all retro with it. So yeah, that was the beginnings.  That was first one.

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And I guess on the topic of beginnings, what's your relationship with CB Sobolewski now? Because I'm to understand if we're talking origin story,  you two met years ago, 2010, I guess around that time at  a fan expo in Toronto. He looked at your portfolio and  gave you a shot right there. Is that right? That's  right, Like  I hate telling the story because like the story is not like this like, you know, I came from rags to riches. It was just like.

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I mean, mind you, like stuff happened before that where like my life kind of changed where it just kind of like I changed my mentality to like, fuck it. Let's let's just go for broke. Right.  So I do remember going to  that Toronto Comic Con, setting up a table  and seeing I don't even think they do lines anymore. But there was like a like a portfolio line to do to do reviews. And I remember walking past that line and being like, I'll go tomorrow. You know, like I used to be like, I'll go tomorrow.

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kind of guy or I'll do it. I'll do it the next day.  And  I went to the table and my wife at well, that was my girlfriend's time. But now my wife,  I told her about it.  And I was like, there's a line up there. And she's like, just go. She's like, go tomorrow. Just go. Just go now. That was a Friday night to like we just kind of set up her table  and we were just ready to sell stuff. And I'm like, all right, cool. I said, fuck it, like  took my book. Mind you, the book that I made was like

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a nicely done hardcover back. And back then it was like no one was really carrying like hardcover printed portfolios. But  I was working in design at the time. So I had like kind of like the hookups. And  yeah, I took that book  and was in the book  fan art of like  not even not even really like  superhero stuff. It was mainly like films that I love, like Pan's Labyrinth, Where the Wild Things Are.

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And then I actually had an eight pager  story that  that we published through  Maple Leaf Entertainment, which is like  they do like Toronto Raptors and  Toronto Maple Leafs. So I did a Raptor story for Chris Bosch. Oh, wow. So we wrote we wrote the story. We got it published. And it was like a book that they would like  they would distribute to like schools. It was more for like kids.  I use that as like my portfolio for like sequential art.

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And yeah, I showed it and I don't know for me I'm like maybe I fooled them into like give me a job because the book was so nice like the book was so nicely designed and there was a hardcover book it was like a nice 12 by 12 it was big and um, I don't know like I just think I'm like what? got CB to be like yeah, this guy's this guy's ready because at the time I was like Looking back at it. I'm like, I don't know if I was really ready, you know, but it all worked out and um

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I gotta be grateful and thankful for CB just for giving me that, give me that shot. Cause that was huge. Like that Friday night was like, after that, I was like, I don't, don't gotta sell nothing anymore. Like I'm good. You know,  I got a job.  Um, uh,  but yeah, so that's,  I'm rambling here, like,  Mike, this is, this is your show right now. I'm, I'm here for these details and I think that so are the fans.  Um, I do want to ask though, prior to that, did you go to school for art?

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I went to school for graphic design.  Yeah, like I actually tried to get into like animation and at that time they didn't really have school for comics.  I mean, they did, but it was very like not in Toronto.  So I was trying to get into animation. Okay. Because the high school was mainly I was just I was breakdancing. I was b-boying that that was like basically like I was going to be a b-boy for the rest of my life. And I guess things changed and  I needed to like figure something out that like

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made money. I had a girlfriend. I'm like, yo, I need to make some money. But uh, and I was like, what else to do? What else do I do? Other than dance and like comics, I like art. Basically art brought me back to like, that's the beginning when I was, you know, as a kid, that's what I would do all the time is draw comics and draw art and draw the Ninja Turtles and stuff like that. So I decided to try to get into any sort of art school.

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And I get denied in every  sort of art school because I think my grades were terrible and I probably wasn't that great at art. But I like, you know, I had that determination and eventually I got into a fundamentals course with George Brown, which is like a local college in Toronto. And  after that, I still couldn't get into animation.  guess  I just wasn't that great. So  I took design.

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Design was the only thing that accepted me and I took design and like,  it was a blessing in disguise because I was able to take everything I learned in design into everything I do now in comics. So I fell in love with design as well. So it exposed me to something beyond just like that comic realm. And I think that's what draws  my eye to your artwork because  the graphic design tendencies.

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are so apparent. And when I say the tendencies, I mean, it's like the execution, the concept, like all  of your covers, even though it's like a one single image, there's a concept and there's a clear execution,  especially your covers have a lot of subtlety to them. And one of my favorite ones is that Mystique cover where she is, you know, face down and she's like making copies of herself. I think that that is one, anytime I think of your work, I instantly go to that because of the story, the humor, the personality, how like

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You know, like there's no words on the page, but the image tells you everything you need to know about the character and all of that. I think that's one of my favorite covers. Like I think some of my favorite covers are the ones that just. I don't know how I came up with it. It just kind of like I feel like it's like divine intervention at that point, because it was just like he just kind of came.  Those are the covers that are just like it just somehow rolled up in my head. And that way it's more like some sort of godly presence that like.

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gives me these little ideas here and there. Yeah.  Do you care to share who are some of your, when you think graphic design artists, what names come to mind in terms of who you've been impressed by or  who's motivated you? I think in one interview, you brought up  Herbert F. Lobelin, which led me down a giant rabbit hole of  finding out more about him. But when I see your work, think of  MC Escher.  I think there's a nice symmetry to your work at times.

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John Contino is another name that I kind of associate with your style. What names come to mind for you? Yeah, you mentioned like Herb LeBallon. I think that's how they, or a little Yeah, I might have fucked it up myself. Yeah, I don't know how to properly pronounce it either, but he was huge like in like when I was taking design and I think I applied like just the way he approached thought into like his typography. Cause it was mainly like.

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how cool and clever the typography was and how that one word would tell a story. know, like, I remember he did like, just  recollecting like some of the images, like he had  like a type that said family or families, the I, the L and the I would create like, you know, the mother, father and the son. And it was like, that was it. That told the story, you know, in like that one image. So I think I took that and was like, how do I apply that into like comics?

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where we could just fidget with some part of that image and it'll tell the story without you actually deliberately explaining it. And I guess back to the book. So the book is going to be 200 pages.  Speaking about, it sounds like your knack for a nice product  presented,  a  nice presentation is carrying forward. And this book,  I've seen Jason describe it, it's hardcover, something about gilded pages. I don't even know what that means.  I don't know what gilded

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I should have looked that up, but it sounded nice. I'm like, oh, Gilded We're learning,  Yeah. So it sounds like it's going to be a beautiful book.  I know that you guys have also been  announcing the extra perks. I think you guys are doing another run of  unique stickers for this.  There's a separate. All right, this is the thing that's really got my attention. There's a separate sketchbook that you guys are adding as a  perk or  a support level, where it's a separate sketchbook.

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I think that one's gonna be soft cover and that one features more of the sketches that ended up making, that ended up becoming the final product. So I guess that gives an opportunity for someone like me to see like, okay, where it started and where it eventually came. And I'm curious to hear from you, what cover or body of work was a radical difference in what started out, how it started out in the sketch phase to the final product? Like what comes to mind that was like such a radical difference? Radical difference.

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That one's a hard question. can't really recollect. I'm sure it's there, but I can't recollect a  sketch that  radically changed. I think it'll be just fun as a fan to go through, like what I'm saying, to have a companion book to already this  detailed breakdown, art book, to have this companion book to see the early sketches, the rough thumbnails, and all of that. As a process junkie, that speaks to me big time.

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That's my favorite part of like the process is the idea process.  The sketches, the thumbnail, that's my favorite part. Like I could just, I could just  sketch for days,  not worry about like how this character is going to look, just trying to create that energy and just like trying to create one idea to the other. Cause that's usually how I come up with ideas is like, I'll kind of sit on it. I'll take a walk, walk my dog, go to a coffee shop, let it sink in my head.  Sometimes those ideas,  sometimes the eureka moments come.

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at the time, most of the time it's like, all right, I got to start sketching. So like I have all these things in my head and I start sketching, know, and for some reason when I'm sketching on like, yeah, when I'm sketching on a book, they just come out, the ideas just flow. It's really quick. You know, something about an orange, I'll draw an orange and you know, like, I'll get an idea off that one orange. I always, that's why I always say to people is just like, when you're working on ideas,

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just start sketching and they just, they somehow your brain, it helps your brain to like kind of work its,  you know, start exercising.  But that's my favorite part is like the idea process, cause I don't have to worry about cleaning this up, making it look cool. It's just like the cool ideas that we can bring, come up with. And that's why we came up with a companion book because I really wanted to put the process in this art book, but at the same time, I also wanted to collect this nice

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volume of covers and I'm like, how do we, how do we fit this all in? I would have made it like a 400 page book  if we could. um, so then me and Jay have, I've already been in the process of like doing, we're like, why don't we just take all the X-Men legacy, like thumbnails that I've done and turn it into like a pocket book. Like I've, I've ever seen those 33 and a third. Yes, man. I love those books. They're like, you put them in your back pocket.

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I think I've got actually I'm staring at the few I've got. I've got like the Illmatic one, the Mad Villainy one. Yes, those books are awesome. Yeah. So that was like the examples telling Jay I'm like, let's,  let's take that and turn into something like that, where it's like, you don't have to worry about keeping this thing clean, putting into the shelf. It's just a book that you can put in your pocket, you can keep in the bathroom, and just flip through these pages. Because when me and Jay were both flipping through these pages of like thumbnails, I was more excited. Me and him were more excited about those.

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thumbnails than the actual covers. I think it's like you forget about  what happened during that time and it's like a nice time capsule to look at. What did they say? It's not always the final destination. It's  the journey along the way that you know is the story. Yeah, it's just like yeah, it just tells the story right and  and also  you know when I was first doing books like X-Men Legacy or Electra, I was very like I was very eager. I wanted to show off a bit, but I was also really excited about doing these.

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these designs and these ideas, especially with X-Men Legacy. just kind of like that theme of Legion allowed me to play a lot with different things. So I would do like 15 sketches per cover. mean, they only asked for three sketches to approve. I was like, I'll give you 15 because I'm just like, I'm just trying to show off a bit. also worked out because whatever they didn't pick.

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we would pick for the next following covers, you know, or we would like, I would kind of like reevaluate some of those sketches and put them into whatever ideas I can make. we just came up, like just X-Men  legacy alone had like a hundred sketches of ideas. And we're like, let's put that into a book, man. Like, like, like the real raw stuff, you know, like, you know, like the way I look at it is like,  I guess the way I look at it is like Madlib doing like,

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Beats, you know what mean? Like he kind of just like makes the beat and some of it sounds unfinished and they just let it go. You know what mean? Just like the idea or the feeling of it, you know. Especially when you consider someone like Madlib and then I think you have to mention J Dilla in the same breath. When you consider the amount of beat tapes that are out there for each one and how you can find the beat tapes. Yeah. How you can find beats that are on these, you know, lo-fi

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unpolished beat tapes that later find their way on  records with  Freddie Gibbs or  any artist. It is always cool to see the difference in how it started as maybe just a loop or this really  unstructured idea, but then it gets some legs  later on. And  I think when it comes to your artwork is that you are such an intentional artist. So I think that companion sketchbook is going to go a long way, not only for the casual fans,

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But I think especially for the folks that are fellow artists that love that breakdown stuff. Yeah, it's going to be fun.  I think we're going to do it.  We're going to try to match it with the book. So yeah, your X-Men legacy  covers and then the book will flip the same way. So when you flip, if you have both books open, they would kind of like they'd connect or they match up. Yeah.  How'd you guys land on working with Clover Press? Because if I'm to understand originally you guys, it sounded like wanted to do your own thing.

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but managed to talk with Clover Press. They've been killing it in terms of their Marvel art books. I'm looking on their website now. They just put out a Mike Allred out book. They have Michael Turner, Russell Dauterman, a fellow Marvel young gun from your class. How did you guys end up linking up with Clover Press? Well, Hank Canals, have you heard of Hank Canals? So Hank Canals is actually, he has a crazy story because he actually is the

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the designer that designed  the image logo. So he created the image logo. Oh, that's badass. Yeah. So he's been with the core original  90s image crew  since time. And you can see him in the pictures  in there. He's kind of like the secret sauce.  That might explain why all these art books look amazing. I mean, I've seen a few of them at the shop in hand and they all look

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amazing, know, bound really well. The cover art is great. The slip cases and all that. Yeah. So he, he's been working with three worlds, three moons,  which is,  uh, you know, the crew I have,  uh, with,  uh, Jonathan Hickman, Mike Rolston and Nick Spencer. And he's been helping us.  Um, you know, he's been in doing the inner workings there and, uh, you know, there's always been kind of talks of, know, why don't we do like a more Marvel art book or with like,

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my stuff and it's always been kind of like, with Sadie here and there. um, eventually, like, I was just like, I told Jay, let's just hit, let's just hit up Hank since like, we were already working with him. He's amazing. And, um, you know, Clover press does like beautiful books, like what, like, why not? Right. And, um, that's, that's how, that's how it worked out. We just hit him up and just hoping that they're down with the idea and like, yeah, he jumped in real quick. And, um, yeah, that's.

32:17
That's pretty much it. Is this safe to say this is your first campaign, know, Kickstarter backer kit? I would say this is my first.  We did do one with Three Worlds, Three Moons.  And Hank also  helped take care of the Kickstarter campaign with that. But this will be my very first one and Jay's as well.  What's the best? Have you gotten any advice from, like I said, colleagues, other friends,  artists, et cetera, when it comes to Kickstarter? Because that's like I asked because it's a conversation.

32:47
me and my buddy Walt was having  the last episode is that we're noticing more and more  comic creators going just directly to Kickstarter funding, getting these campaigns going, getting fans to fund them. And we're getting some dope stuff out of it. mean, we were talking about how Dennis Cohen just put out an amazing art book  on his own through Kickstarter. this is a trend that,  it feels like the floodgates have absolutely opened when it comes to artists just going direct to consumer.

33:14
I guess have you gotten any good anecdotes or advice from friends and colleagues? Yeah,  mean, we're learning every day. And even Torrin Clark has a Kickstarter out right now with a sequential. He's doing a Marvel art book.  And Luis La Rosa is also going to be doing one. So I've been actually talking to Torrin and just sharing whatever

33:43
cool things might work for the Kickstarter campaign and sharing like what didn't work or what we should have done before.  The main thing that I've  experienced even with Three Worlds, Three Moons is like that first like that prelaunch like that first week or two weeks of prelaunch is like very important because you got to gather all those backers  and get that list going. So when that first live day hits, you want to get as many as you can to

34:13
to back that project because that will take you to  the whole like  to higher stages with Kickstarter, like projects we love, stuff like that. So that first two days is very important. wanna like hit  everyone real quick.  And the main thing too is like what everybody's been like reiterating is that like the email list is like the most important thing to have. Like we've been building like these  social media  like Instagram and

34:42
Facebook and Twitter and all that. Been building it for years,  and just realizing that you're only attracting 2 % of that audience. you're almost fishing at that time. And it's like, we should have been gathering emails  and having a core community  that  supports.  And when you post things, it just kind of  gets to them. It's not like...

35:09
I don't know how many people I'm getting to and I don't know who's seeing my stuff on Instagram and this and that. So you're saying cut out the algorithm being the middleman that decides, you who gets to see it and having an email list is like the, you one of the most direct ways. Cause I was going to mention that I feel like I have seen you post more than I've ever seen you post last month, which has all been great. Like you've been posting. Yeah. I almost want to like apologize and be like, Hey guys, like,

35:36
I apologize.  Give me a month and I'll be quiet. Like after this month, I'm going to be quiet again. But this, this has, this is the time where you got to like, I'm just like, I'm going to be that annoying guy because  I can't be like acting cool and stuff when I'm trying to make some money here. sure. Look, and I say that because I've been enjoying the post you've been posting like behind the scenes stuff kind of giving us  a, you know, a preview of what's going in the book. The sub stack has been great. Big, you know, another big shout out to Jason who writes a lot of the posts.

36:04
But sharing  what is called Walk Down Memory Lane,  the Memory Lane post where you about some of earlier work. That's been great. So it's been quality posts to say all that. Oh, thank you. Thank you. It seems like a lot of your work is digital. But now I'm hearing  sketches and your sketchbook. Do you have a preference or do you kind of live in both worlds? I live in both worlds.  It's just that  working in Marvel is  doing covers and just

36:33
going through deadlines, digital art  is just quicker. man, it's just  sometimes it takes like a week just to finish something like fully colored.  so that's really it. like I was just fell into  the beginnings of like  the start of working at Marvel. I fell into like digital art right away. that Marvel Heartbreakers, I did that.

37:02
I did the initial sketch in pencil. But then after that, I just got swarmed with like work right away. And I was like,  you know, I was using a tablet at the time. So that's that was just my go to tool.  There's times where I will take  certain pieces and just because I want to get that pencil feeling or that pencil crayon feeling,  I will do like the original piece and put it into like one of the splash pages like I did with the Incredible Hulk.

37:31
thing I did with  Lamir.  And some of the splash pages I've done with Spawn, I've done that traditionally.  For most part, it's digital. Yeah, I guess when I read that post, I immediately got to thinking, I would love to own a Mike Namundo original art piece. I went to eBay, didn't find anything. I'm like, man, I guess maybe he's the type that you've got to go to a convention, try to get a Commissions are tough for me,

37:59
I sketch a lot. So I do a lot of traditional stuff where like I have a sketchbook all the time in my bag. I'm constantly sketching. When I'm outside, I'm like my favorite part of my favorite thing to do is to draw people like life drawing. So like, you know, I go to a coffee shop or a mall, draw faces for days.  I love it. It doesn't give me any stress. It's just like,  that's what I do is like my therapy. So I do do that  in terms of commissions,  like

38:25
I don't know what it is, but I am that guy that just gets stressed out over commissions, man. Like I remember when I first was working in comics and going to conventions and doing commissions and just being the most terrible person in terms of like being the slowest guy to like give out a commission. And it's quite embarrassing. So I'm like, I kind of made it, I kind of said it to myself. I'm like, this is just not me. It's like not for me.  I really, I think I care too much about

38:55
the commission and who I'm giving it to and like thinking about like, you know, like these guys are giving me like, you know, four or $500 and like, what did they have to go through to get that money to, you know, so then, so then for me, it gives me anxieties because I'm just like, I got to make this really good for them, which makes it even worse, right? So that's, that's my whole thing about commissions. But I think it's also the fact that like, I'm, we're doing commissions at the same time as like,

39:24
just going through the grind of comics and like constantly working. So that stresses out a lot. So I'm like, I'm just going to do these covers and I think I'll be fine with it. That's why we have our book coming out, the Marvel Art of Mike Romano. If you want an original sketch, you got to sign up. Hearing you talk about the grind of comics,  I want to ask Mike twofold question. At your busiest, how many covers were you cranking out, you know,  at any given point? Let's start with that. What I could say is that like,

39:53
What I do remember is working on  four or five covers along with  like a monthly book that yeah, like I was when I was doing Electra, I was also running like three or four covers or five at the same time in a month. You know, they say like when talking about something difficult, it doesn't get easier. You just get better. Is comics easier for you? Covers are like covers of have gotten easy. But I think I feel like covers have always been like

40:23
a little easier and fun.  Interiors is always going to be a grind. think, you know, I thought, hey, man, the more I do this, it'll get easier, like interiors for me. But I guess I haven't done enough. But, yeah, I feel like it's always  like a challenge and it's always stressful, but it's also the most rewarding when you're finished.

40:46
I would say like in terms of like covers, I would say in terms of speed, I was way faster back in the days. Yeah, just because I was just, I was just being bombarded with like, with gigs, especially when I when I signed, when I did my signs, like a two year sign with with Marvel, they would just, you know, send me books, like send me covers, cover jobs, like here and there. So I was just

41:16
going for it.  was  just grinding basically. And I think things have slowed down a bit more. And the fact that like, I haven't taken as much covers  now. I feel like I've taken my time or like, I'm like, maybe it's age, I've gotten slower, you know.  But back in the days, I was just like, I just got to get these things done. And I got to figure out like, the best possible way to make these covers look good with a short amount of time.  But the main thing was like, we just got to finish these books, you know.

41:46
Mike, that sounds like classic artist perfection talk, but I'm sure there's a lot of other factors that go into play here, right? The creative team that you're working with, maybe the deadline, you know, what's the assignment. And I want to use this opportunity to transition into our next segment and actually talk about some of the  writers and creative teams that you've been a part of. This segment is what I like to call the short box friends and family segment. It's where I shut up for a minute and let someone else ask the question. In this case,

42:13
This question comes from Ben Kingsbury. He's the owner of Gotham City Limit Comic Shop, the official sponsor of the short box. I told him  you were going to be on the show and he had a question for you. So let's queue it up from Ben. Hey, Mike. Ben K. from Gotham City Limit, a local comic shop here in sunny Jacksonville, Florida. Thanks so much for taking some time to be here today. So I'm always interested in other people's perspectives, especially people who work in the comic book industry.  So I guess that's where my question comes from today.

42:43
You've worked with so many fantastic comic book writers from Tom King to Jonathan Hickman and so many more. I'm sure you probably worked with a few that  you don't care to work with again. So what qualities do you look for when collaborating with a writer so that at the end of the day, you both have kind of created your shared vision? I'll leave you the answer. Thanks so much for what you do. We literally couldn't do it without you.

43:12
And remember short box nation, we'll always take it to the limit. Big shout out to the band, man. I love the energy. Um, what qualities, man? Like, I think I just look at, uh, working with the writers, like a collaboration, like a 50 50 collaboration. Um, in terms of like working, uh, with, with writers, with the writers I have worked with, it's, it was a different, it felt different cause

43:43
I would just, a lot of times I get the script and I'll just work the script in. Like I do my job and then sometimes I'll like, I want to change something and I'll put it, you know, I'll put the question out and like, I don't think I've ever had an issue with writers being like, no, we can't do it that way. It's just, they're just always open to it.  But I would say like my most memorable  experiences with Jonathan Hickman, I remember when we were first working on

44:11
our three worlds, three moon stuff. I was so used to just making sure that, you know, you know, the writer is like happy with like what we're doing with the book. Like, are you cool with me doing this? Are you cool with me drawing this mountain here? Are you cool with me changing this character up just a little bit and isn't that? Johnson was like fully hands off. He was just like, here's the here's like the skeleton of the the script.  And he's like, you just do what you need to do. And I didn't believe it at first because I was like, are you sure?

44:42
So it was like a constant back and forth where it's like, what do you think of this? He's like, well, I don't even remember what I, what I wrote.  So,  um, his collaboration is more like, here's, here's the skeleton piece. Do what you got to do with it. I'll take it. I'll run some ideas off of it, or I'll get some ideas off of the new characters that you've designed and we'll go from there. Like it's more of like this feeling and this like constant evolution of like ideas that like go back and forth. So.

45:11
I've had a great experience with that. In terms of all the other writers I've worked with, I don't have anything bad to even say about them. It's just, I think it was just different because a lot of it was just me getting the script and working off the script and that's it. Do you mind if I name? I want to say a couple of names and I want you to give me some words that come to mind, whether it be a story or just a couple of words. So Hickman was on my list.

45:39
It sounds like you have a very,  like you said, he's very hands off. It sounds like he gives you lot of  leeway and runway to  incorporate your ideas and style and bring stuff to the table. What comes to mind when I say Mark Wade, who was the writer of the Avengers run that you did interior work for? Working on Avengers was,  it was just a thrill working on those characters, And like being able to like work on Kang.

46:08
And like those bit like, yeah, I can't say I can't say anything bad, man. It was was it was amazing.  mean, and to work with like Mark Wade on like the most superhero of all books, right, with all these different characters. think he's he's one of my favorite writers. And when it comes to like writing superhero stuff,  he's one of the best out there. What about what comes to mind when I say  Hayden Blackman, who you worked with on Electra, which was one of like your I think you've said it yourself, like your

46:37
one of your first big projects that you got from Marvel that wasn't just covers. What comes to mind when you think of Blackman? Yeah,  Hayden's amazing. That was my first ever real moment of working with a writer for a long-form book. And  I remember working on all these sketches even before we had the script going and just ideas that I would throw on. Panel ideas, like, oh, this is what I'm thinking for a lecture.

47:05
You know, like maybe we could do something like this for these panels and this for these panels. And I think the fact that he was already working on, like he already did those books with  J.H. Williams.  It was like a nice evolution of like,  I wanted to work that way as well. So he was able to kind of write the same way.  Memories of Electra has just been amazing. And working with him was the same way that same way I worked with Jonathan Hickman. It's just like a nice cohesive, you know, hands off kind of thing.

47:34
All right, Mike, I'm going to do a right turn really quick because I feel like I have to ask this because I'm sitting here trying to think of like my all time favorite covers by you. And I mean, the Mystique one is it comes top of mind.  The Miles Morales with Kingpin with the graffiti comes to mind. I didn't know the story that, you know, that actually ended up being, you know,  you know, real graffiti and put on  a real wall. Yeah.  The Miles Morales is like a big milestone because of

48:04
the fact that it was like a collaboration between me and my good friend Bacon, which is like one of the top kings in Toronto, like graffiti kings. And Marvel hit me up to do a graffiti cover and I was like, I don't do graffiti, but I know the best guys to do this. So I hit up Bacon, was like, hey, I got this idea. I just need you to do like the letters, because I can't do letters, I can't write. And he's just like, well,

48:33
well, why don't we just put on a wall? And I was like, for real, I mean, if you're down, I'm down, right? And I remember bringing it up to Marvel, Marvel's like being like, well, just make sure that like, it's not an established like piece or like, they were just kind of iffy about it. And I'm like, nah, man, this is gonna work. Yeah, I remember like him just being like fully down to like do this on a wall. And he had his like warehouse. He had this warehouse there and just start painting, man. And like, it just looked incredible, dude, like.

49:02
I don't know. I was like, I didn't think this would ever, ever become a cover. And the fact that we just literally, we took a picture of that wall and just superimposed it to Photoshop. And I added the miles in there. And I don't know. It's just cool, man. I'm like. Is that piece still up? I don't know. I got to ask them. I got to see. Yeah. Let me ask this then. Marvel stuff aside, you've done a lot of merch.

49:30
branding and design as well. And it's always cool to meet other Mike, Mike D'Amundo fans that are like, oh, this is one of my favorite pieces by him. And it could be like the fucking, you know, Alfredo cover, you know, like you've done so much more outside of just the world of comics. What would, what other bodies of work or pieces of art would you put in, in a, in a bigger art book or a future art book that aren't Marvel related? Oh man, like all the turtle stuff I've done, you know, in nineties, nineties kids. So

49:58
Any of the turtle stuff that I'd done was like was a big deal. Those are like milestones Did you do a one for last Ronan and it was like all the brothers  pulling up? Yeah the flag together Yep. Yeah, and I did like a cut like I did one cover like a variant cover which kind of depicted like Michelangelo as the statue of David like eating a pizza  and  I did like a  big Mondo poster. I kind of put all of the

50:24
first wave of  like TMNT figures on there, like all the mutants and stuff. That's definitely one that I  would put in the book and like definitely a lot of like the hip hop stuff that  I've done. you mentioned the Rakim  piece, the box art I did for the Rakim and the box art I did for like the inspected deck, which is also concrete jungle. I know you just did  a concert.

50:53
poster for  Wu-Tang, I think I might've missed out on that. I tried to set an alarm, but yeah,  it's cool to see your stuff out in the wild. mean, we  mentioned earlier,  Jason keeping a running track of all your covers exceeds 300 plus. And then  if you were to think about the box art, the  posters that you've done, the album covers,  man, you've got a very impressive  bibliography when it comes to that.

51:21
The only reason I don't have, and here's the thing, Mike, I wanted to, had I planned a little better, I would have either had the Electra trade paperback here or an Alfredo vinyl, but I missed out on the pre-orders. The Alfredo too sold out quick. But I did happen to get the comic book pre-ordered. Nice, nice. So I've got to ask about working with Freddie Gibbs. My understanding is that he hit you up.

51:49
years ago when Alfredo1 came out and you guys managed to work out the concept. And if I recall the story correctly,  did he use emojis to tell you what his idea was for Alfredo? Yeah, from what I recollect, was like we wanted to do something like a Godfather theme, but in form of pasta. And I remember it was like an emoji of like, you know, the pasta emojis. Just a pasta emoji. Get out of here.

52:15
That's like the genius of these guys is they have the idea and they know that the idea is going to be strong enough to send me that like that's a real thumbnail, you know, so.  But yeah, those guys are like him and and his manager Lambo are like they think so different. Like that's what I love about that.  Freddie and Lambo was like, they're just different thinkers, man, especially with the rollouts, especially with like when they're working on an album and their themes and like what they're doing with that album.

52:44
It's like super different.  As you can see with like Alfredo 2, like that's a big roll  out.  And I just love how they think.  And  you know, I think the same way. And they just let me go with that comic too. So that was like, that was super dope. My thing is always like finding the synergy between like hip hop and comics, these two things that I really love.  when I, know, artists like you that fill that void for me, like I become an extra fan. But I think what's interesting about Chu is that

53:14
you will bring hip hop into comics where, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I think it's the vice versa, where hip hop tends to overlap with comics a lot, right? Like, you you've got your method man calling himself Johnny Blaze, all the reference, comic references made in hip hop. But I don't think it always goes the other way around where hip hop goes into com, finds its way into comics. And I think that's what's cool about your career is that you've always made it a conscious decision to bring hip hop into comics.

53:44
So to like pre-order the Alfredo comic, and I think you guys posted on the sub stack, was awesome to read. And knowing that someone like Freddie Gibbs and Lambeau, who you don't really take for comic book fans, have their hands on the pulse and they see something in your work for them to reach out and wanna bring that synergy together, I think is really cool. Yeah, yeah, it's cool, man. And I think another thing too is when you don't think a lot of these guys are comic fans, but.

54:13
A lot of these guys are comic fans. It's crazy. you know, even like talking with Lord Finesse like a few weeks ago and I didn't know he was a comic fan. He was just name dropping comics, man. And like, it wasn't just like your regular, you know, comic books. Like these are like gems and, and like he went on a deep dive with it. And I'm like, yo, they're, comic fans out there for sure. We're officially at the hip hop part.

54:39
I've got just a couple of questions. know we've been going a little long. I would beat myself up if I didn't ask you these. One of the books I ended up reading last year was the Dilla Time book by Dan Charnas. I think that's the name of the author. Yep. And I came across a chapter that blew my mind. It was a revelation for me because he goes on to explain that a famous  or an online famous image  of J Dilla, it's a 2D drawing. It's a drawing of Dilla as Linus from the peanuts and he's hunched over playing a NPC.

55:08
I have seen that image for years. There's like no way to call yourself a Diliphan and not have seen that on a blog, some bootleg shirt. You know, I probably have a bootleg sticker of it somewhere. The artist has never been credited until that moment. Well, for me at least, reading that book and he mentions your name and it's like, that's what I'm saying is like your career is so interesting to see like where you've dabbled and where you'll find like your artwork at. When did you do that piece of art and how crazy it to see?

55:37
How crazy is it to see it everywhere, man? I'm serious. It's like, you can't escape. that's gotta be the most popular image that has gone everywhere and been bootleg to death, man. But yeah, it's really special, man. Because literally when I did that as when J Dilla passed away, I think it was around exactly at that time. And I did that just as a fan.

56:05
I wanted to do an image as a fan and because it's not signed either. Like there's no way to tell it's I mean, is there a way to tell us you is it signed? Well, I think I did sign it and like people just start taking the logo off and like claiming it as like whatever. This is some like really rudeness going on. The Internet being the Internet. Yeah, the Internet being in there and it but it's it's all good because I love the fact that like, you know, like it pops up a lot and like I love the fact that I can be like, yo, I did that and they're like, no, didn't. I mean, like

56:34
Show me the signature. Yeah, it's one of those kinds of images. And like, shout-outs to Dan Charnas for even including me in that book. That was special, man. I'm a huge Dilla fan. He's my favorite producer. I could even say favorite rapper, man. That guy was super skillful, right? But shout-outs for him for even putting my name on there. I was like, holy shit, that was crazy. If you had to put together a Dilla playlist,

57:05
with your favorite Dilla songs, what immediately comes to mind? Like what are you adding on there immediately?  Oh man,  anything from the Rough Draft.  All the tracks from Lab Cabin California, man. So like Runnin' and Drop and  She Said and even like going back to like the Mad Skills, all the beats like that you did for Mad Skills.  Stakes is high. And like I said before, like let's take it back. Anything from Rough Draft.

57:35
Make them envy. Man, there's  too many things to name and peer pressure. They law. Now you have everything like the shining and E equals MC Square. Always love that. Yeah.  See from the shining baby that track. The guilty something. Yeah. So we can go for days, man. Would like it's crazy. I think he has like the best  album run of anybody. Like those albums are all classics. And I remember listening to Donuts and being like, yo,

58:04
When I first heard Donuts, was like, what is this? know, like it's like 15 second tracks,  you know, like 30 second tracks. And you're like, oh man. And like, they're just loops. And  I love that. Like it's one of those albums that took me like a few days before I'm like, oh yeah, I like it now. You know, like it's like it, like it grew on. It's the albums that grow on. Speaking about Donuts, that was like in my prime, bare share, LimeWire days where I was consuming

58:33
as much hip hop as I could. Now granted, to this day I own like several copies of Donuts in every single form. So I don't feel bad saying, I remember downloading Donuts, because I was really into beat tapes like 9th Wonder, I was looking for Pete Rock beat tapes.  And came across Donuts and it was unlike anything I had ever heard. But I contribute Donuts to my love of like record collecting now, being really into soul music, like obscure like funk stuff.

58:58
And into your point, and like in the context of like, you know, hip hop at that time, it really was unlike anything else, you know, but. Yeah, because at the time it was just like hard drums, like crispy snares and like, like heavy kicks and bass lines. And and and then he comes up with donuts and it's just like it's like, you know, Motown flipped and like it's almost like he was just flipping like the like those samples and just using those drums and.

59:27
and  sounds. And to tell a story too, right? You talk about really incorporating the samples. Because all you had is the only vocals on the songs were the vocals from the samples. And  speaking about those 30, 30 and a third books,  I have the Donuts one. And that one was eye-opening to see what the sample choices  meant and juxtaposition to his health at the time.

59:54
Yeah, I love the lore of it all, man, because there is so much lore with like donuts, whereas like he made that in his hospital bed. And then later on, you find out that he was using pro tools like they're like, I'm sure there's all these like stories of like exactly he did this and this. And then you find out later like, no, he He  was using pro tools for that. And like, there's just like all these different kinds of lore.  And speaking about Motown, I will add that.

01:00:19
All  of these things now are on YouTube, but back in the day you had to do some serious digging on  the internet, online forums, hope someone was kind enough to upload Dilla beat tapes, but they're all over YouTube now. There's a really good one called the Motown beat tape by Dilla that is stupendous, It's full of soul samples and all of that. So  thank you for taking me down a Dilla rabbit hole on my comic book podcast. We could go for days with rap stuff for sure. Speaking of which, I've got another hip hop question. The Marvel hip hop.

01:00:49
cover initiative from I think 2010, 2011, whatever year that was, is one of my favorite all time initiatives in comics. I'll never forget learning about it, getting those first couple of covers and feeling like this is what I've always wanted out of my comics, this perfect amalgam and all of that. And if I'm not mistaken, I think you might have the most Marvel hip hop covers done by a single artist. I think maybe there's one other artist that has done nearly as many as you.

01:01:18
But you've done four by my account. did a Marvel hip hop cover for Thanos number one. It was an homage to Every Hero Needs a Villain, the album of Zarface. You did a cover for Red Wolf number one, which was an homage to Kal by Method Man. You also did a Squadron Supreme cover, which was an homage to Enter the Wu-Tang 36 Chambers. And then one of my favorite ones, maybe one of the most famous ones out of that entire initiative.

01:01:47
was the amazing Spider-Man number one, which was an homage to Midnight Marauders by Tribe Called Quest. You have said before that Midnight Marauders was one of your first CDs you ever bought, the album that got you into hip hop. In addition to Midnight Marauders, what are some other albums that you cherish as much as that or had a big influence on you growing up? I guess what are some of your favorite hip hop albums? Souls of Mischief, 93 to Infinity.

01:02:16
for sure.

01:02:20
Black Moon and to the stage which is crazy because  I remember picking up Black Moon and to the stage  and Wu-Tang 36 Chambers and I didn't know anything about these guys, you know, you're just like sometimes especially at the time when you're just discovering hip-hop  you're just going into that music shop and buying a CD based on the album cover, you know,  I Remember I remember 36 Chambers scared the hell out of me. Like I was like that doesn't look hip-hop. It just looks like some scary

01:02:49
Like they had like  the candles lit and like the blank faces. I'm like,  I'm going to for like, yeah. And I was like, I'm going to go for enter the stage. And  I feel like that was like, like a really great choice because eventually I would end up listening to 36 Chambers. Like eventually, like a year later, like you're going to be exposed to that album anyways.  And  Masta Ace sitting on Chrome, like Masta Ace incorporated sitting on Chrome.

01:03:17
Like that was, these are big  for sure.  Favorite album, Mobb Deep to Infamous  and  Close Second,  Nasalmatic, even though like I can rhyme every word and not on Nasalmatic.  So those are always like, they're always battling for first and second, but yeah. Temperatures Rising is one of my favorite Mobb Deep songs ever, but there's an original version that has a Quincy Jones sample that is amazing.

01:03:45
So I highly recommend. Yeah, I I gotta hear that. I'll see if I can. I might actually have it loaded up on a drive. I'll send it to you. Can I say one of my favorite all time moments, I think, in life was attending New York Comic Con in 2023. And I sat in on a panel that was about like, I think it was about the Marvel hip hop covers, but Sanford Green was on the panel. Rob Markman was on the panel. Wilson Kavich was on the panel. And it blew my mind how.

01:04:12
how ingrained Bilsinkiewicz has been in hip Crazy, the EPMD covers. He did a cover for a TI album. It was so eye opening to also hear Bilsinkiewicz just be a cool ass dude. He's like, yeah, I was about this life and stuff. I was into it. Yeah, that blew my mind too when I found out about a lot of that. But yeah, I got all those records. I made sure to collect his run to one day, hopefully, get them signed.

01:04:40
But yeah, that EPMD cover is dope. And obviously, the Bobby Digital, Kid Cudi, the Kid Cudi man on the moon. That was Bill Sienkiewicz too. Oh my god, I completely forgot about that. Wow, my mom had been around. I forgot. That's right. I was one of them. I got one more hip hop question, and then, I will let you be. What comes to mind when I say dirty, defiant tribe? That's a deep dive, bro. That is the original Breaking Crew.

01:05:08
that my original breaking crew would like. Yeah, man, that's that's that was like my life since I would say 1999 is how that that crew started. And still to this day, those are my homies, man. And we're all doing different things outside of b-boying like my boy Heiss owns one of the biggest graffiti shop in Toronto.

01:05:37
It's like pretty much a hip hop hub, sells like really cool collective toys. So if you want your Dilla toys and your Madlib toys and Doom toys,  but if you ever visit Toronto, you got to check out Collective.  My boy Q, Q-Rock, he's still b-boying to this day and emceeing and putting on albums and yeah, like it's,  yeah, that's the crew and I still rep it. Yeah. Some folks might not know listening that.

01:06:04
Your handle on Instagram and lot of your online handle Deadly Mike was your b-boy nickname, right? That's my b-boy nickname and I've always I keep it because Like I like to keep that name because it's I feel like breaking like save my life in a way like from just It just taught me like that the craziest work ethic that like after b-boying anything's possible man, cuz back then we were the way

01:06:32
It's kind of like comics. was no school for to learn this craft. Like, you know, you had to just find it. And comics is the same thing. There is certain schools, but it's very limited. So you pretty much going home and you're just finding ways to make this thing happen. You know what mean? You're like trying to make it work. Maybe it's not like the foundations that you're supposed to be learning, but you're like, you're just looking at a comic. You're trying to make that comic work. You're copying whatever you got to copy. You're just working. You're just  grinding towards that. Just searching. Same as

01:07:02
same as  as b-boying b-boying you're just searching you're finding like that one guy that could do windmill and you're like just teach me how to do a windmill  maybe you don't find them so you're just going in slow motioning  like a video clip like a one second video clip just to figure this thing out so like it taught me like that that culture like just taught me to to figure out ways to learn it if you really want it you know and then you know we we flourished and in

01:07:31
like I flourished in Britain breaking.  And after that, I was like, it just gave me that kind of like gift of like anything is possible, man. If I could do it with this, then like anything else I take up, it's going to happen. just takes years of 10,000 hours of craft. You know? Yeah. That's awesome to hear. I want to give a big shout out to my homeboy DJ B Ryan,  who is a super talented DJ. But he  and he travels the world like DJing.

01:07:59
a bunch of b-boy events and competitions. He's established b-boy himself.  And when we were supposed to do this interview, you know,  two years ago, I think I had posted something or we got to conversing and  he was like, yo, you interviewing Mike Domundo?  Do you know anything about his b-boy background? And I'm like, no, like fill me in. And he sent me a clip off YouTube, know, a clip of you like b-boying and he shared a couple of words. He said,

01:08:27
He's from a time when breaking was super raw. A lot of the cats from  Toronto are highly regarded even now. So he was like one of those best kept secret type of guys. But yeah, he's definitely an official B-Boy, not just someone that happened to be there during that time. He's official. So yeah, B Ryan like kind of hit me on to like how important like, you know, that dirty defiant tribe crew is. And really, I don't think I had a chance to ask, but how did you get into B-Boying? What was like the  genesis of that? Oh man, like.

01:08:56
Grade seven, I remember. I had a cousin, same age as me, but he was always exposed to whatever's new. He had an older sister, and I guess he was just exposed to all of that stuff. hip hop, I learned from my cousin. He'd just come home with singles. He'd come home with, I remember on his birthday, his birthday party, he got Mobb the album.

01:09:25
like the infamous album. Bro, I think I was like 11 or 10 or 12 and like listening to Mobb Deep at the time I was like fucking scared to death. like, but if but it sounded so nice, like the melodies and stuff. But yeah, like I learned from my cousin, because like, you know, every fam jam, you come back and be like, yo, I'm doing graffiti right now. Okay, cool. Like I want to I want to I want to do graffiti. And then he'll come and be like, he'd had turntables, you know, so we're all like working on turntables. And then

01:09:53
And then like, yeah, he would start break dancing, like b-boying and like, we'd start getting our cardboard and like dressing up our cardboard and this and that. And eventually I just took it serious. Like I was like, well, I'm gonna keep, I'm gonna keep breaking. So that's how I got into it. That's awesome. If you could go back in time and, and I think, you know, this is a,  a good question considering the timing that you've had the opportunity to go back through, you know, all of your earlier work, your sketches, and you're doing this exercise of like picking out.

01:10:20
you know, your artwork that's gonna end up in the book. What would you tell  your younger self, you know, who was trying to break in the industry at the time?  you know, knowing what you know now, is there a piece of advice that you could give to your younger self or an aspiring artist listening right now that would go a long way in helping them, you know, achieve their dreams? I definitely wouldn't tell them how long it took.  Because I think I would have gave up.  Yeah, it's just like, you know, sometimes you like.

01:10:49
I look back now at how long,  what I've gone through and just the amount of work it takes to be an artist, to be successful. And all the time you put into it. And I'm like, man, if I knew  how long it would take, would I actually keep working at it? Or would  I just give up right there? So I think for me, whatever I would, what I would tell them is just to keep working and just enjoy the moment of...

01:11:17
whatever you're going through, whether it's bad or good, just enjoy like the enjoy the journey, you know, because eventually you're going to get there as long as you work your ass off. You're a nice guy. You know, I mean, like you're not an asshole. You know, you treat people right.  And you stick to your heart like you stick to your guns, like what you believe in.  Eventually you'll get there. But like as you're going there, it's going to be crazy. It's like, you know, you have to the passion for sure. You have to love what you do.  And

01:11:47
and just enjoy like enjoy the moments that like that journey that you go through because for me, like I think I wish I could just go back and like kind of like be in a moment sometimes with like certain things because you're you're you're so you're so focused on the goal that you forget that there's just things around it like the people that are around you and like like the cool things that are happening, you know.

01:12:16
Sometimes you have that tunnel vision. moment would you go back professionally speaking? What moment would you go back to to like soak it in more? Just working on that first  X-Men cover  or working on that first.  And I think I did enjoy the moment of like working on that first comic book. But then when you get into like the zone of things and you're just  like when you're just constantly on the grind  with deadlines,  it's hard to just sit there and be like, oh, my God, I'm like drawing Psylocke right now, you know, like.

01:12:46
or like, holy shit, like, just give me one sec, let me take a step back. I'm working on my first Wolverine cover. Like, how crazy is that? But like, like, it's hard to like even react to it. So a lot of times it's like when you it takes like years after that, where you look back, you're like, holy shit, I drew a lot of Wolverine. Or, you know, I drew a lot of Spider-Man books, you know, and then you got to think back like it, you almost have to think back to your childhood's like, oh shit, like we were

01:13:13
You know, know, like gets me in a moment is sometimes I'll be talking to my brother. Like the other day I was talking to my brother and we're talking about the books that we used to buy because I used to only get X-Men books.  My dad was like basically like you guys can only choose a book every every new comic book day. Like it wasn't like a stack that we could grab. just you choose one book and you read it. So mine was X-Men. My brother was more like he was going for like  the holograms and like the chrome covers and stuff like that. And I remember him

01:13:43
bringing up the Spider-Man hologram covers. And I'm like, fuck man, like that brought me back. So I was like, shit, like, and then now like I've done, you know, a whole handful of Spider-Man books. And I was like, that's, that's crazy. It just, it feels surreal sometimes that like I had the opportunity to be able to, do these things. And with that being said, ladies and gents, this is the Short Box podcast and we just finished talking to Mike Del Mundo.

01:14:11
about his life, career, and his new book, The Marvel Art of Mike Domundo. Like we've been saying, this campaign officially launches on Tuesday, August 12th. It'll run for a week.  But just like Mike was saying, the first day and first week  backers and campaign are  huge, they're important.  So if you're interested in backing this project and one day owning said book,  make sure that you back the project on Kickstarter and Bacch Kit. I'm gonna have links to that  in these show notes as well as links to Mike's social media page.

01:14:40
as well as his sub stack, I think is a great  place to follow along for more behind the scenes stuff, process stuff, and announcements of what Mike's got going on. Do yourselves a favor,  give those a look, follow Mike online.  Mike, one more bonus question. Do you have any parting words or shameless plugs before we wrap up? Did we miss anything?  Oh man, just  really hope you guys  coming back that art book, man. That's like 15 years of grind and love  and um...

01:15:08
Man, I'm super excited for that book to come out. We've been trying to make me and Jay have been trying to make that book forever.  And, you know, from the blessings of Clover Press and Hank,  we're able to do it. So we're excited for you guys to just  get that get that book, man. And please back it.  There we go. Support the book.  And thank you so much for tuning in and watching. I'll catch you guys around. Right. Peace.  Peace.  There you have it. Short Box Nation. That's the end of the show.  Thank you for hanging out.

01:15:38
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 wanna share with us, write us at BshortBikesJaxx 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 Podcasts or Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. It takes two minutes tops and it would mean the world to us. So leave us a review.

01:16:06
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. Speaking of our Patreon community, I want to give a big shout out to our current members, including Adam Chittani,  RC Gamut, BJ Kicks, Blake Simone, Blythe Milligan.

01:16:36
Bo Evers, Brian Brumleaf, Chad Landenberger, Chris Hacker, David Morales, Greg Lichtaik, Hershel, Mack Jacobson, issue number three, Brad, Jay Sinner,  Jeff Remed, Jerome Cabanatan, Jose Sepulveda,  Justin McCoy, Corey Torgeson, Matt Godwin, Amanda Maron, Melissa Burton,  Nick Wagner, Ryan Isaacson, Steven Gamet, T-Mix, The Wait For It Podcast, Tony Aupi, Trey Namo, Walter Gantt,

01:17:05
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.