Fred Van Lente celebrates Jack Kirby's Birthday, and talks comic book history and new Die!namite series - The Short Box Podcast Ep. 471

00:02
In this episode of The Short Bop. Nick Dragata of Absolute, Bat, Fave and I did this zombie comic, this Spider-Man, Marvel Zombies Spider-Man comic, probably 2010. I woke up this morning to someone on Instagram posted like this, not post, sent me a DM on Instagram. No, no, that's not even, it's even better than that. I had taken a photo of like, I had made like monkfish and snap peas or something. I took a photo of it.

00:31
And this guy posted this like eight paragraph rant as a comment about how much he hated this Spider-Man comic. At one point in the Spider-Man comic, it's zombie Spider-Man ends up in like the John Romita senior era of Spider-Man. Nick, he's such a genius. Like took the hell out this. It's the greatest thing ever. Sandman pours himself down Spider-Man's throat and then expands and explodes him in a gooey mess.

01:03
intro music plays

01:26
Yo, Short-Box Nation, hello again, welcome back.  Hey, and thanks for pressing play today.  If you're brand new, welcome to the show. 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 471 and today I'm talking with six time New York Times bestselling comics writer, novelist and playwright,  Fred Van Lente.

01:53
Van Lente burst into the scene with his first collaboration with cartoonist Ryan Dunlavy on Action Philosophers,  which has raked up a few rewards of the American Library Association.  From there, he went on to a long career at Marvel, where he worked on titles like The Amazing Spider-Man, Captain America,  and Marvel Zombies. He's also written for DC, Archie Comics, Dark Horse, Boom Studios, Dynamite Comics,  and Valiant, where his run on Archer and Armstrong was nominated for a Harvey Award for Best Continuing Series.

02:20
Van Lente is also a playwright  alongside his very talented and successful wife Crystal Stillman.  He's the co-author of King Kirby, a play based on the life of the legendary comics artist Jack Kirby. Little fun fact behind the scenes, we are recording this episode on Thursday, August 28th,  which would have been Jack Kirby's birthday. He would have been 108 years old.  Rest in peace to the king himself.  Van Lenti is on the podcast today to talk about his life and career as a writer,  as well as his new projects coming out later this year.

02:50
including a new noir style zombie series for Dynamite Entertainment called  Dynamite Blood Red.  It comes out October 8th, it features Vampirella, Red Sonja,  and an all-star cast of characters from Dynamite Superhero Ross. You can check out a preview of the comic and pre-order the first issue of Dynamite Blood Red by clicking one of the many helpful links  in this episode's show notes.  But before we officially get started, I want to dedicate this episode to all of the shortbacks, Patroni's...

03:17
AKA the loyal supporters that make up the Short Box Patreon community.  Big shout out to all of you. I'm gonna call each of you out by name at the end of the show.  But hey, you guys and gals are great. Thanks so much for helping me keep the show going every week. And if you're not already a member of the Patreon, well guess what? It's not an exclusive club. You can join the ranks of the Short Box Elite as well and support the show directly by signing up at patreon.com slash short box.  And look, I know I'm on my  shameless salesman  soap box right now.

03:45
But I will say, it is a good time to join, because I'm going to start doing a monthly comic book giveaway contest,  exclusive to Patreon, starting in September.  I'm also mailing out some comic care packages to some of the existing members right now, so it's a good time to get in on that.  Once again, support the show, get rewarded, and have my undying gratitude until the end of time. Sign up at patreon.com slash The Short Box.  And without further ado, we can finally get this show started. Short Box Nation, let's welcome Fred Van Lenti to the show.

04:15
What up, Fred? How you doing?  Hey, buddy. Thanks for having me.  My pleasure, man. My pleasure. Fred, it's great to have you on the show. We got a lot to talk about, but I would feel remiss if we didn't spend a little time talking about the king of comics, Jack Kirby, since we are recording on his birthday today. Yes. I learned today that you have been writing an annual celebratory column for Jack Kirby's birthday on the website 13thdimension.com, which is one of my favorite.

04:41
comic book related websites. I think it's underappreciated. There's some great stuff on there. But for the last five years, you've been writing a column on Jack Kirby's birthday. And some of the topics that you've covered in past have been Jack Kirby's, the top 13 Jack Kirby series of the 60s and 70s, the top 13 essential Jack Kirby Captain America stories. And today, this year, your column was about the top 13 Jack Kirby giant monsters. Not only did I learn a lot about

05:11
the different monsters and kaijus that Jack Kirby has created and wrote in the 50s and 60s. But I also learned  an anatomy lesson, a science, biology, whatever you want to call it, a uh lesson about a reptile's reproductive organ, which I don't think I asked for, but hey, that's what I got. It's hemipenis, you learned a new word before. You did not know or want to know. Not really, but you know I feel smarter.

05:40
because of that, right? learned  a lot. Later, can I explain the context of why I that open? Which is that everybody  is highly amused, particularly if you're a fan of  Warren Ellis and Stuart Immman's next wave of Lin-Fang Boom, the giant Kirby dragon with his, uh for some reason, you know, all the other Kirby monsters strut around naked. But for whatever reason, Stan and or Jack decided to put

06:08
these ridiculous purple shorts on Fin Fang Foom. However,  if you know anything about lizards, and I assume dragons, even giant alien dragons or lizards, right? They can actually, uh keep their  turtles also, actually most turtles and  was it snakes or turtles? forget. I think it's anyway, certain species of reptiles, they don't just walk around with their, you know, their fin dong dooms hanging out all the time.

06:38
they can actually retract them inside their bodies. So in other words, not only is it totally weird that all the other Kirby monsters don't have pants on, and Finn Fang Foom does, he has the least reason to wear pants since you're not actually concealing anything because  the organ in question does not really come out until it's being used. Which,  in 1961, Kids Monster Comics,

07:06
Not a lot of monster sex. They weren't those kinds of comics. Yeah, it left much to be desired if you were looking for monster sex in the  60s. Yes, maybe wait a decade to get some undergrounds, know, until people really started dropping acid and then drawing monster comics. That'd be a slightly different situation. But yeah, so that's why I felt the need to educate people on reptilian sex organs. Editors know, insert the more you know sound effect right here.  There we go. That's right.

07:35
I had a great time reading today's article to celebrate, you the king himself. And my opening question to you is how is writing about Jack Kirby for the last, you know, for 13th Dimension for the last  maybe more than five years  and on other projects like, you know, the comic book history of comics, how has that changed the way that you see his legacy and impact on the medium of comics? And has it changed your relationship with his work at all? Well, I  I'm sort of a strange kid. And then I grew up in the 70s when they have been

08:03
Marvel's kind of never let that stuff go out of print, when I was a kid, some of the first comics I ever had, my parents bought at the bookstore where they had these paperback collections of the original Ditko, Spider-Man and Doctor Strange, and the original Kirby, a bunch of original Captain America's and Avengers, and Hulk and-

08:26
Fantastic Four most notably. And so I sort of got exposed to his stuff like as if I was a kid in the 60s when actually I was reading them 10 years after the fact.  And I think like a lot of people when he made that transition to the fourth world and as his work matured, it wasn't until I was older that I was really able to.

08:47
appreciated and you know being in my 20s and finding out the whole story about how Stan Lee maybe took some more credit than was really deserved and that sort of I ended up kind of picking up the banner for him a little bit my wife Kristen Lai as you mentioned we were playing Kirby that that We did that in 2014 I think was the premiere that I've been working on for a long time comic history comics started as a complex years like 2008 so I've been doing it for a while

09:14
But I it's just awesome because I keep reading new stuff the fun thing about the angel gun the man was so prolific I haven't even like I Wouldn't go so far as saying I haven't scratched the surface I have very much scratched the surface, but I have not reached the bottom yet like I've been like I'm not a completist, but police numbers of collecting But I am in of reading and I haven't even you know, I think I probably read 70 % of his output something like that, you know,  and I'm 53 years old and I've been reading him since I was eight. So it's

09:44
It's taken a while.  What do you think someone that is  like a young, aspiring comic writer artist could learn from studying Jack Kirby comics? I mean, just the sheer inventiveness.  I think that it's  I think all I think that's all the great, particularly superhero creators have in common. I would add, I would say like in my other big influence from when I was a college student was Grant Morrison. would say Morrison is the equal of Jack in terms of the sheer inventiveness.

10:14
you know, just because the superhero genre is such a gumbo  of science fiction and mystery and pulp and mythology and fantasy. And basically it's just all of human culture kind of shoved in a Cuisinart, you know, and you pour out superheroes basically,  which is something, you know, for example, like the James Gunn Superman movie did a great job, I think of doing, of distilling that idea. I don't know if it's my favorite Superman movie, but definitely was the movie that came kind of closest to saying.

10:42
Here's how crazy this is the potential genre in this medium and all the insanity that's involved, but still grounding it in a human element. Even like a lesser Kirby comic, like the kind of the crazy monster books he was doing primarily for Atlas Marvel before Fantastic Four came along. I mean, there's like, you know, just to the point  that he did one comic called Mumba that was about like, what if all of the the tribal tchotchkes of the world were actually aliens and they can control you?

11:12
Literally, he was probably just walking down the street and passed an antique shop and was like, got to turn in an eight page story for Tales to Astonish or whatever.  Sure, wooden tchotchkes, why not? I've got your  article for today, pulled up the Jack Kirby giant monsters.  It was pretty fascinating to get the history of Zemu, the original Hulk, ah Groot.  I forgot Groot was defeated by a bunch of termites, but it makes sense.

11:38
But the one that I'm like now going to try to track down is this Tales of Suspense issue 14, the whole Colossus story. That just sounds like so much fun. know, a giant Colossus comes to life and terrorizes the USSR. And now like this uh statue builder decides to like play into it like, yeah, you guys better watch out or I'm going to summon him next time. Sounds like a lot of fun. You know, in the in the late 50s, like from the mid  50s  on the  Marvel, I think because their biggest title was Captain America Comics.

12:08
obviously curvy co-created. They did kind of this jingoistic thing that DC really kind of avoided. Marvel kind of leaned heavily into the commies will get you, you know? So like obviously Iron Man's origin, right?

12:24
It's political, but like in a not terribly deep way, a sport, it's politics is sports, right? We're on the good team and there are  commies, you know? uh So yeah, so that's one of the more egregious examples of that, but it's a fun story and clearly someone bought, they keep bringing them back, know, like Groot, Vimu and  it!  The Living Colossus, you know, somehow managed to keep coming back.

12:51
Now, Fred, your other connection with Jack Kirby, I brought it up in the intro, is the King Kirby play. Right. Was it on Broadway? I kind of got confused by that part. It was not. was in Brooklyn. OK, Brooklyn. But it's been done. In fact, I just found it a if you're if you're in your center of Ohio, which is by Dayton, your local high school is doing it in fall. So good luck, kids. One time I wish I lived in Dayton, Ohio, and I was a high schooler. Great. was Dallas earlier this year. That's a slightly.

13:21
That was done by a dope. I know that it was adapted into podcast form. I actually pressed play on episode one today. The audio production sounds great. Like the sound quality, sound design, all that. Yeah, that's the original New York cast. We actually recorded that for Kickstarter backers for that production in 2014. And it wasn't until the pandemic lockdown we were like, hey, let's dust this off. Well, how did you get involved with writing a whole play about Kirby and how was the experience working with your wife? What was that experience like?

13:49
It was great. mean, you we fought a lot, but that's kind of like just how you roll. But then you get to kiss afterwards and make up its own mind. But I had written the play before I had even really broken into uh comics professionally. And we were just dating at the time, but I was sort of a monkey see monkey do thing. I was like, well, she can do plays. I can too. And it was all right. But then she, I dusted it off when a local theater here in Brooklyn was doing a comic book theater festival, like plays about comics and stuff. In fact, my buddy, Dean Hasfield, who many of you may know is terrific. uh

14:19
cartoonist and comic book creator. He's he kind of got the playwriting bug and he's been doing a lot more lately. He was in that original season. But basically, Crystal read the old script and was like, Well, why don't you do this? And why don't you do that? And I was like, How about you be the co-writer? And we'll work out together and we did and people really seem to dig it. And rarely does a year go by when someone doesn't do it somewhere. And as you said, it's free on Spotify and Apple podcasts anywhere.

14:45
Yeah, it's great so far. Like I said, just from  a sound design junkie and nerd, like I'm loving it so far. What do you like writing more?  Scripts for comics,  prose and novels, plays or article? Like, do you find that you're particularly strong in one aspect or is all just writing to you? It's all just writing, but I mean, I've been doing it in comics for so long, it's just kind of become second nature. So comics is the easiest. I know that's not like the right answer, but

15:13
The true answer is each day is different and then if I'm sitting there writing comics, I'm like, wish I was writing novels. If I write a novel after a couple of hours, I'm like, ugh, wish I was writing comics and so on and so forth. It's just good to be able to exercise different muscles really when you come right down to it. I think if there's anyone that embodies that saying of putting in the 10,000 hours to perfection, I think you'd be a runner up for being the poster boy for sure. Your bibliography, I mean, it's a very thorough. I think even on your website, you say,

15:43
I used to keep track of everything I wrote, but it got to be too much. What was the catalyst or what was the moment that you decided to take writing professionally? Like,  did you go to school for writing? Like, were you always writing as a kid and in high school and such? I went to school for film. I went to Syracuse. um It turned out I didn't like making movies, which surprised me very much as a 20 year old. didn't like

16:05
In those days, I wasn't very technically minded. uh those days, this was before, this was,  I might have a different answer if I had gotten into it right when digital really started getting big because in those days, we were still working with film, which was ridiculously expensive, extremely cumbersome. You're looking around a lot of heavy lights, a lot of extremely  heavy camera equipment. I live in Syracuse. I don't own a car. It was a giant pain in the ass.  So I was like, all I care about is the story and all this technology is just getting in the way of the story.

16:35
But of course, I went to a school that had no undergraduate creative writing majors. So I just kind of to make it up. But I was too lazy to transfer. And I had a bunch of friends there who had been at the comic book club and they're all a bunch of them were studying to be comics artists, including Ryan Dunleavy, who I still work with today. I'm having lunch with him tomorrow. We did the comics for comics and we did action philosophers. You mentioned in the intro, should, I guess I should.

17:02
point out that Action Philosophers has been nominated for a Ringo this year. So if you're a comics professional listening to this,  you can vote for us in the best humor comic category.  And so basically,  there were some twists and turns right after graduation, but ultimately, within a year and a half, we'd all moved to New York City, me and a few buddies to break the comic industry.  And,  and yeah, I just really enjoyed the immediacy and just the collaboration, just the personal aspect.

17:30
I've always enjoyed artists, I enjoy collaborating with artists, it's still the best part of the job.

17:37
And yeah, and so I got my first, I was doing a lot of temping around New York City and doing a lot of indie comics. And then I first got hired by Marvel in 2004. I got laid off from my job at the United Nations in 2006. So fortunately, Marvel started getting me work after that. And so yeah, as of next year, it'll be 20 years doing this professionally. And I've heard that same sentiment echoed a few times, most notably, and I think because I just recently biased,

18:07
But Jimmy Pamiati has kind of said the same thing, too. I think he just posted he had a really great thread on Twitter the other day where he was talking about, you know, all these ideas and these projects that he's worked on for like movies and writing scripts for like shows and just how much of a slog it can be to go through the approval process to hear back from, you know, is it it budgeted and how and that's a big reason why he still loves comics and prefers like the comic industry over.

18:34
anything else. He could be making way more money in movies and television and Hollywood, but comics is his bread and butter because of, like you said, that immediacy, just  how much less red tape there is to actually put out a story.  Like you said, that direct line that you have to the readers and the people who consume your work, I think it's fascinating to hear you also echo that as well. Yeah, no, if you're a writer specifically,  it's just you have to really love working with artists.

19:04
you know, working in that it's like professional baseball or something. It's like this is a kid's game, you know, and we have to do it for full time. And it's it's really I just feel very lucky. Well, you mentioned Marvel around 2004, 2005. But prior to that was Action Philosophers first. Is that how I was supposed to understand it? Or was Marvel the first big? The sixth answer to that is is yes. In that Action Philosophers number one on my first Marvel comic, which was a series called Amazing Fantasy.

19:34
Both came out on the same day. I do a lot of history comics, so I can tell you there's an old French saying that God writes bad drama. We try to put these things into coherent narrative, but in a nice cause and effect, we can wrap our brains around. But usually all this stuff just happens in a simultaneous, chaotic fashion. And I had broken my ankle in 2005. So not only did I have two comics coming out on the same day because of the alphabet,

20:03
Actual officers in Amazing Fantasy, they were usually right next to each other. But because I couldn't leave my house,  I could not actually go to a comic store and see this with my own eyes. I guess I could have, but I just broke at the ankle. was brutal.  I was literally on OxyContin, like legally, like had a prescription for it. And so Ryan went very nicely, went to Jim Hanley's Universe, which was this great comic store across the Empire State Building, took a photo of our comic and Amazing Fantasy next to each other at the stand. So that was pretty cool.

20:32
Now, Action Philosophers, I know that is  a very successful series. mean, if I'm not mistaken, it also branched into action presidents, uh action activists. It's a very teen-friendly, some would say, like, YA-focused comic series.  And I'm curious, what can one learn  about writing or working in the YA industry and creating books for  catered to students and teenagers and  places like libraries and schools?

20:58
versus say working in comics in the direct market and for Marvel. What's that Venn diagram look like? I'll definitely say that it's nice to have multiple circles in your Venn diagram because I've been very lucky. Part of the reason I've doing this professionally for as long as I have is that I've had a very diverse portfolio, done a lot of different things. And I never really set out to, you never want to call anything educational as business because that's a kryptonite. People are like, you're trying to teach me something. God, go away.

21:27
giving me vampires, you know, but we just were doing this funny comic. I just thought it was funny to do a humor series about philosophers. The joke was that this was the comic you'd get with your Nietzsche action figure, you know, hence action philosophers. But people really seemed to dig it back in 2005. And  we've been doing it for, you know, about 20 years now.  We're about ready to do the next color volume. So a lot of this stuff is just repurposed material from like

21:56
15 years ago, but we always add new stuff just because it's fun and we like to keep doing it, you know. What would you say? I guess what are your thoughts?  You always hear people bring up like, are comics dying? You know, are they going the way of the dinosaur? All of this stuff. I might actually made that last part up. No one calls comics dinosaurs. But then, you know, it's always like the counter argument when you look at the data of things like, well, if you're just focusing on the direct market, you know, your big twos, your superhero comics. Yeah, maybe sometimes the picture doesn't always look

22:23
by the numbers like very promising. But when you look at comics as a whole and really think about like, well, things like Captain Underpants or any of the numerous YA novels, would also put. Yeah, exactly. Like they're thriving. Oh, I thought you were about to pull out a book, but you pulled out a cat. That's even better. My own orange kaiju is very neat. Whenever I talk at my screen, it gets very like. All right. What's his name?

22:51
and why are you paying attention? His name is Cali. Cali. Like California, he's a rescue and I didn't name him. When you see these discussions happen online, do you roll your eyes knowing that like, I think you said it on your ex or something that the New York City, what is it? New York City Library is like the technically the biggest comic book publisher of all time? Well,  I might have misquoted that. Little game of telephone there, that's cool.

23:19
It's the New York City Department of Education. about the Kirby stuff since really since right before the pandemic. They actually publish comics for their middle school social studies programs and I've done it. Andrew Aiden who's most famous for co-writing March with John Lewis does it. Greg Pock my buddy who I did Hercules with does it a lot. So I mean it's they send out about 80,000 physical comics to the schools.

23:49
Yeah, every year. that, you know, so yeah, my print runs for those books kind of dwarf all but the most successful big two comics, you know, so because they find it as a valuable teaching tool. Words plus pictures, it's how we think it's how we relate to the world. I'm a bit of a comic supremacist and studies have shown that, you know, that people retain knowledge and information much more readily when you combine words and pictures as opposed to using either exclusively.

24:20
It's just how our cognitive processes work.  Do you roll your eyes at that conversation considering that you've got titles like you said that are in the 80,000 range? When you look at how successful YA is going, do you see that argument as kind closed-minded? You  started this conversation by bringing a complex history comics, and part of what we wanted to do that, that was the series we ended up doing after Action Philosophers.

24:50
The problem with lot of things involving comics history or geek history or pop culture history is everyone, well, not everyone, most people approach those subjects as if they were fans, right? So they're into their one thing. So it's very hard to find a general comics history book. That's what Ryan and I wanted to do. You could find a book on the history of Batman  or, you know, Mobius  or underground comics  or, you know,

25:17
If you're into EC or whatever it is that you're into, you could find a book on that, but not anything that took everything in one whole. It's  sort of the classic blind man and the elephant problem is everyone's just looking at comics. When people say comics, I don't think they really process the fact that you should be talking about WebTube. You should be talking about what the NYCDOE is doing. Sure, there's the direct market. There's also what's going on in the bookstores. No, Cali, you can't interrupt the interview.  The simple fact of the matter is, you either you speak newspaper comic strip.

25:47
There's a Kickstarter. There's a huge community of people who do crowdfunding who  treat Kickstarter like comic shopping. That's where they get their comics from.  It's all these different uh tributaries all moving to the same river. But if you're just looking at the one thing, if you're looking at direct market sales or, you know, uh for many years,  manga and, uh you know, YA books were doing gangbusters. And finally last year, the YA market started to contract because that's just how markets operate.

26:16
know, they expand, contract, know, they expand and the producers in entertainment, you know, all go on a cocaine vendor and just decide, then overproduce. right. You know what I mean? It's a bubble then a burst. It's just economics. This is the way it all goes. Now, you know, you're seeing that right now with AI, you know, it's like, and then NFTs a couple of years ago, were any of you know, this is the new thing, you know, and most of those things fail, but but it's not like you have everything failing simultaneously. And who knows what the

26:46
future will bring but you know, they've been proclaiming ever since you know, the worth and shutdown of 1954. They've been proclaiming the end of comics and that predates both of our lives. And I have any reason to think that comics won't survive our lifetimes, you know, so it's just, I also like part of it is just selfish. Like I have rarely had more work than I do in 2025. Like it's been a very good year for me.

27:16
And, uh, and you're operating on in many different markets, including the kickstart market, including the Webster market, including,  um, the pure educational market. I've got libraries inviting me to shows and stuff. You know, you still have Hollywood interests. So I think people don't look at the big picture and they be, they, they become a little obsessed with the little corner they care about, you know, well said. You brought up the comic book history of comics. told you before we hit record that.

27:46
I ended up signing up for a 60 day free trial of Kindle Unlimited just to read that.  Little did I know, I started  on volume two, but I said, you know what? I'm going to learn.  The big selling point for me was  there was an Amazon review that said, it was five stars that said, you will learn something new even if you think you know everything about comics. And for me, I was like, let's sign up. I jumped just right in on that. accepted.  I jumped right into the middle.

28:13
I'm not really sure why I just jumped into the middle of the book and I started reading the  Heavy Metal or the Mattel Herlant chapter. And what I found most interesting was,  well, one was the history of Heavy Metal, Mattel Herlant, you know, the launch of the Belgian comics like 1010 being way more successful and way more long, you know, running than I ever gave it  credit for. And I think it goes to your point about like  having this narrow view of comics when in reality it's like this very wide umbrella that a lot of different

28:42
things fit under. But then also, I think the other aspect too is that is the medium of comics response to things going on in society. know, know, Mattel Herlant being a response to, you know, World War II and the outcomes and things afterwards and you know, how it moved and shifted with the culture and what was going on at the time. I think really paints comic books in a way more sophisticated light than I think a lot of people give it credit for.

29:09
when they hear the word comics, you know, it's much more than superheroes and capes or your big twos. It's like truly like this really beautiful art form that, you know, can be used to express a lot of different ideas. And I think that that series is phenomenal. So I'm looking forward to completing the rest of it. Thank you. I got invited to contribute to Metal Halas this week, so I'm very excited about that. Trying to try to keep up trying to come up with the they sent me their various storybibles. I'm kind of working on that. So was sort of it.

29:38
It's just funny you bring that up and that's where you end up starting in the book. guess what would you say is the most important discipline? And it doesn't have to just be one, whatever comes to mind. Like the most important discipline when it comes to being a writer that allows you the flexibility to be adaptable and malleable to all types of projects. Cause I'm hearing you say like, you know, a heavy metal. mean, obviously the action philosophers, like what's, what discipline do you put, do you think is really important to have as a writer to keep yourself from being pigeonholed or even bored?

30:08
I think I'm just very lucky in that I'm really interested in the world and I'm just really interested in people. I think it's important just to listen. I think that people get a little too wrapped up in the self-expression part of the creative process and not the other way around. I woke up this morning, sorry. No, please. No, I'm laughing. I don't even know what I'm laughing about.

30:38
Nick Tragata of Absolute  Batman Fave and I did this zombie comic,  Spider-Man, Marvel Zombies Spider-Man comic,  probably 2010. And I  woke up this morning to someone on Instagram posted like this,  posted, sent me a DM on Instagram. No, no, that's not even, it's even better than that. I had taken a photo of like, I had made like, like monkfish and snap peas or something.

31:07
photo of it. And this guy posted this like eight paragraph rant as a comment about how much he hated this Spider-Man comic. Because at one point in the Spider-Man comic, like it's zombie Spider-Man ends up in like the John Romita senior era of Spider-Man.  And he eats all the villains.  The villains understandably are really upset by this murder.

31:35
which is totally a shift in their relationship, right? Like, I don't remember Spider-Man killing us before, but now he is. Spider-Man freaks out  and in just Nick, just he's such a genius. He just threw the hell out of this. It's the greatest thing ever.  Sandman pours himself down Spider-Man's throat and then expands and explodes him in a  gooey mess. Oh wait, that's right. And  that's right. It wasn't zombie.

32:02
real spider. So he kills the real Spider-Man by accident,  thinking that it's the zombie Spider-Man. And so this 8 paragraph rant about how I have to admit it was 730 in the morning and I just looked at this, I just started laughing. Like when Ray Liotta from Goodfellas comes home and like his, he's just gotten married and his wife's parents were yelling at him, he just laughs and just leaves the car and drives off with Joe Pesci. Like I laughed and drove off with Joe Pesci.

32:30
This would have upset me so much as a younger writer to have someone just  break in being like, why didn't you use a spider sense? You're like, is this a scary, this is, I'm just like, this is a zombie comic where Sandman explodes.  Why did you waste the time to write? And it looked like correct spelling and punctuation and everything. You put some thought into this.  This was on a photo of like your lunch or dinner or something, right? Of a dinner I made. And it was from like 2023.

32:58
Comic fans. gotta love us. Anyway, so that's not what I mean by listening. Sorry. That was a ridiculous, but I just remembered that. Like one of the I really pride myself on is my dialogue and you can't get good at dialogue by not listening to people, you know, and really being in this for the cadence of speech. think one of the other like kind of basic boilerplate advice I've heard so many times when it comes to like, you know, advice for writing is that you got to read as much as you write, maybe read more than you actually write.

33:28
You mentioned me in the history buff. think it's to say you were absolutely history buff considering a lot of your books.  How much do you read? Like, do you read a lot of history? Yeah,  no, I do. I histories. mean, if I had my druthers, there's a there's an old timey old man. Praise for you. uh I would only write historical fiction. That's my favorite.  But no one gives a shit.  It's you can't see.  It's not happening. Oh, and so I read a lot. just thought but I read a lot of random stuff like right now. uh Magnetic Press just came up with the

33:58
Planet of the Apes role playing game. And they have this extremely nerdy like deep dive on the original. I love the original series of Planet of the Apes. It's like, it's just this insanely detailed history of the Planet of the Apes, but told like in in universe style because the role playing game. they're president, they did a really, really good job. But it just, I've been shocked at how much I care about Charlton Heston's backstory.

34:27
it's like,  why? don't know.  But yeah, so but yeah, I read all I read all sorts of stuff. newspaper. Probably not as many novels as I want to. Probably not uh as many comics as I would like to.  You do end up getting a lot of stuff  like blurb and stuff. So I've been reading. uh My favorite thing is monsters. That's the thing. Everyone else.  Amulet.  Ferris? Her name is

34:56
Oh, yeah. Yeah, no, she's she's amazing. But that is a dense book. it is. yeah. It has taken me a while to  I've got about this much left. I'm enjoying it. You'll see.  All right,  Fred, I want to I want to pivot to get us talking about the new  speaking about, you know, writing and in comics, I want to talk about the new  project that you've got coming out, in particular, the dynamite blood red. Whereas we call it dynamite.  Editors know, can I get a dynamite drop right here?

35:27
Alright, so you've worked on, this will be your fourth Dynamite series. So there was Dynamite, there was Dynamite the Lives?  Dynamite the Lives was the second one. I had to get this straight. Yeah, and then the third one was... Dynamite Never Dies. Dynamite Never Dies, okay, yes. And then now we've got Blood Red. This will be the fourth Dynamite series, not counting any  one shots or any of the other limited runs. It was a Valentine's Day special.

35:55
My Bloody Valentine. My Bloody Valentine, thank you. What is it about Dynamite as a publisher or the characters like Vampirella, Red, Sonja, Green, Hornet that keeps you coming back and excited as a writer? Well, I love that the old timey pulp stuff. Like, you know, I was talking about being influenced by the Lee and Kirby marvels and, you know, which were really even old hat by the time I was eight. My dad had like records of like the Shadow Radio show and stuff. So I loved all that old.

36:24
knee pulp stuff.  the dynamite characters, their stables kind of hits that sweet spot. And when we were talking about doing another dynamite series, um enough time had gone by where the first three series were all kind of interconnected. This fourth one is a new, it's a reboot. It's a brand new start. I thought it'd be fun to do something that was  set in that kind of noir world, not literally from an historical perspective, but Fapperell is a detective. There's a lot of

36:52
corruption and it's basically the senior side of LA during, in the midst of a zombie apocalypse, but sort of a different one than you've seen before. I want to play the game here where I'm going to say a couple of names and these are all collaborators that you've worked with. And I want to hear some words that come to mind, some memories or stories, whatever first thing that comes to mind. And I'm going to start, since we're talking about Dynamite Blood Red, I'm going to start with Marco Finnegan.

37:21
who is the artist on the series with you. What comes to mind when you think about working with him? He's great. He is from LA, which has been very helpful for the story. He did a great Oni private eye comic about an undead private eye. I believe it was called Calvera P.I. sort of the dawn of the, sorry, day of the dead, the Mexican American thing, which was really neat. But he's doing a great job. He's great with expression.

37:50
which is nice because it's kind of got this noir feeling. There's a lot of banter and back and forth and  many of the characters don't particularly like each other very much.  it's always good to sort of see the sparks fly  through his artwork. And Rarami, again, what characters can we expect to show up in the series?  We've said Vampirella, who else is going to show up? So  the difference between the zombie plague and all the other zombie plagues is in this world, only men can become zombies. There's some sort of corruption in the XY.

38:19
chromosome that allows the zombie um disease, we're to call it to flourish. So women can't become zombies, however, they can become lunch.  it plays out largely the same way, even with the gender bias.

38:36
And obviously, Dynamite has such a great stable of primarily female characters. That's where I see my natural fit. So you've got Red Sonja, Ms. Fury, a personal favorite, Deja Thoris, another personal favorite, a bunch of the Chaos characters like Purgatory, Hell, and then a couple of the female, a panther. I always liked panther. She's also with other Vampiril era characters.

39:05
And I love the Martian stuff. So there's a lot of a lot of we the the the zombie plague maybe Martian origin so there's a lot of their face there and I guess how much do you have to know about Dynamites roster of characters to jump into the series or is it perfect for like new readers zero? In fact, I think if you know anything about the even better It's a different I mean this is like a new universe like it's a different take, you know There is a red Sonia, but she's not from high Boria because there is no

39:35
Cause I'm not sure if Red's, Hyboria is not real. It's a laid up place. I don't know, Fred, you better be careful. You might get another eight page paragraph on a new post. I'm not gonna post my dinner photos anywhere. I'm just gonna tell those haters to hate these hate posts. Before I move on to the other names, I just want to remind folks Dynamite Blood Red comes out October 8th. FOC final order cutoff is September 15th. So if you're interested in picking this up, go to your comic shops, put it on your pull list before the FOC or pick up issue one on

40:04
October 8th. With that said, I want to continue this on and the next name I've got for you is a personal favorite of mine and that's Kev Walker who you worked on with Marvel Zombies  twice, Marvel Zombies 3 and 4 back in 2008 and 2009 respectively. What comes to mind when you think about your time working with Kev Walker?  He's great. He's super fun. He was sort of the perfect person to do that book with. ah He did a great job. That was the series where they wouldn't let me use  any of

40:32
This like the Disney sale was in the middle was in the midst of that. That's right. right. Let me use anyone you'd ever heard of before as a character. You know, Disney was like, Why is Spider-Man? Why is Spider-Man exploding? I want to play that after the Marvel's on Tuesday, then then Durgada and I got to the crazy Spider-Man thing. The editor at the time of Marvel Zombies was Ralph Machio and he actually co-wrote Machine Man when Ditko took over. So Jack Kirby famously created Machine Man and it's bringing it back full circle.

41:02
Kirby Kirby did it for a while and then he got fed up with Marvel and left after his 70s contract was up. Steve Ditko took it over and macho was re co writing it with him or editing it someone to anyway.  Macho hated next way and refused to let me use machine man. Because um like, more than I love next week, but let's be honest, more else basically just wrote machine man as vendor is this like drunken robot, uh which is great.

41:29
But I was able to convince Ralph, no, in this story we'll make Machine Man heroic again and we're going to revitalize him. And he believed me. uh I was not lying. did, which, you I didn't think really he needed to be revitalized because I love Next Wave. But uh yeah, so it was a big hit. And Kev just did a great job. know, he  just drew Machine Man drilling through the skulls of zombies with just the right level of... uh Gory detail. Yeah.

41:58
I want to say uh on the topic of Rafa Macho, had a chance to... uh He joined a fantastic four panel that I hosted in at HeroesCon  over the summer in June. And he was a surprise uh addition. It was supposed to be Tom DeFalco, uh Bill... Oh my God, Bill Wollingham from Fables?  I apologize if I got the name wrong. uh Paul Pelletier was on the panel and Tom Scholey. In the day, like the...

42:26
Five minutes before the panel, uh someone came up,  it was like, hey, letting you know, Tom DeFalco wants to bring Ralph Macchio to the, on the panel, and my immediate reaction was, the Karate Kid's gonna be joining this panel about Fantastic Four? And he was like, no, no, no, the editor. Ralph Macchio is super nice and one of the most soft-spoken guys I've ever heard. He was great. he, I mean, he was the guy who ushered the first, you know, he was the editor of the original oh Ultimate Line, and that's why he got.

42:56
because Marvel Zombies was originally with Fantastic Four Sport. All right, moving on. How about this? What comes to mind when I say, another one of my favorite artists, Clayton Henry, who is the artist on Archer and Armstrong in that initial run in 2012? He's a genius. I would work with him. It was legal for me to keep him working with anyone else. would. What's so great about working with him? Like all great cartoonists, he's a master of

43:25
other than just being a great draftsman and being great, you know, as a design work. He's just he's just he's a humanist, you know, like that's the nicest thing can say about cartoonist. He really gets people and in his his acting is always spot on. And he launched Arch Armstrong. He also did launched probably my favorite thing I did was this book, I'm our time walker, which is sort of an arch Armstrong spin off with our Armstrong.

43:50
I worked a little bit with Marvel, he did little bit of incredible Hercules, which is how he got the Archimandron job. He's the nicest guy. I haven't seen, unfortunately seen him in a while, because he's been in DC for a long time. Clayton Henry to me draws some of the most realistic looking people. I think he might have said something about the expressions that he uses. His lines are just so crisp, so clean. I don't know if he colors his own stuff or if he works with one colorist in particular.

44:18
I don't know if this will come up in the camera, but let me show you a page out of my wall. This is where it pays to be a video viewer of the show, which is on YouTube. You can find this video interview on YouTube. So his line work is so fine. So this is from Arch Armstrong 2. Holy moly, you need like a microscope. So look at that. So this is a scene. Wow. So for those of you listening and not watching, this is a shot from the end of Arch Armstrong 2 with

44:43
Armstrong and Archer and Nunn tumbling down a staircase and just look at how fine that line work is. That's just, yeah, this is just pencils. Yeah, Clay and Henry is awesome. I'll sign that petition to keep them just working. Okay, last name on my list and that's, you brought him up, Greg Pock, who you co-wrote Incredible Hercules with during 2008, 2010. Can I say it is one of the first comics

45:10
I ever had on my pull list when I was able to get like when I worked my first job was getting my own money and I was like, dad, I want to start buying like, you know, new comics because all I was reading was like his comics in the in the garage, his old comics and incredible Hercules is like a series that I look back and like, wow, I was collecting a Hercules, you know, a Hercules series was coming out on a monthly basis and it was damn good.

45:34
So what comes to mind when you think about working with Greg Pak on Incredible Herculean? Kudos to you. It was a great run, man. I was kind of sad the day it ended. He's great. I still see Greg all the time.  He lives in the city like I do. um We have a Dynamite book coming out soon, actually, which I guess I can't tell you what it is because they haven't announced it yet.  it's about another big strong guy. uh

46:00
Yeah, he's great. know, he's we just we just really hit it off personally. I think we have a similar sense of humor. We kind of went to a Chinese restaurant in Philadelphia during a con and kind of plotted out that entire Hercules run. Yeah, it's it launched me. You know, I wouldn't have gotten Marvel zombies without it. I wouldn't have gotten Spider-Man without it. I tell the story a million times, so stop me if you've heard this before. But the only reason there was an incredible Hercules comic was that they they they were like, will this book work? And somebody goes, yeah, it's like Archon Armstrong, original Barry Windsor Smith comic. So

46:28
And I'd never heard of Archer Armstrong until Valiant asked me to write it. So it was very much like a weird like snake, male kind of thing. More ignorance, guess.  What would you say? You know, I got to say I did read the first issue of your Archer and Armstrong as part of my research. And that first issue is phenomenal in terms of like how interesting that concept is, where you've got, you know, Archer being raised by a religious cult that's lied to him and he's got to go hunt, you know, this

46:55
Whatever thousand year old immortal being that's kind of like a drunk now and they end up to me It was such an interesting concept, you know on top of Clayton Henry's like beautiful freaking, you know artwork Yeah, so that's another series. I'm like if I have time I want to go back and finish that as well. All right, Fred I want to jump into another segment of the show I like to call the short box friends and family segment is where I shut up and take a break really quick and let someone else ask the questions in today's case

47:21
This question comes from Ben Kingsbury. He's the owner of Gotham City Limit Comic Shop, which is Jacksonville, Florida's premier shop for comics, toys, collectibles and more.  And shameless plug, it is also the official sponsor of this year podcast. So Ben gets special preferential treatment. I told him that you were on the show today and he's got a question for you. So let's toss it to Ben. Hey Fred, Ben K representing Gotham City Limit down here in sunny Jacksonville, Florida. Thanks so much for taking a little bit of time to field a question from me.

47:49
So you've been writing and creating comic book and comic book characters for decades now, and I'm sure you've just seen a ton of change. I mean, our comic shop down here is just under eight years old, and I already refer to it as uh PC and AC pre-COVID and after COVID for the amount of variance incentives and just overall amazing universes that have been created in the last uh five years.

48:19
I really honestly believe we're right in the middle of some type of Nirvana period. It really is amazing. So my question for you stems from that. I know you've seen a lot of different things. So what's the biggest difference between 2025 and say 2005 when you were creating new universes, the popularity of comics, the response on social media that you get.

48:47
and just the overall feel that you have for the comic community. I'll let you answer. Thank you so much for everything you've done over the years. We literally couldn't do it without you. And remember, short box nation, we'll always take it to the limit. It's a great question. ah You know,  I think paradoxically, number one, what I find sort of most interesting is that the direct, you you brought up social media. found that, I find the direct social media engagement

49:17
with fans other than, know, crackpots who  rant about 15 year old issues  on my dinner posts is really less than

49:30
I think that a lot of stuff is sort of pivoted to video and podcasting. There definitely was a lot more blogging and magazines and stuff like that. uh So I think that's a definite change.  I think that it kind of goes back to what  we were talking about a little bit while ago, which is that,  it's a word that has a lot of different meanings, but I keep coming back to it, and that's diversity.

49:58
both in terms of who is doing comics. Even in 2005, it was really much more of a white guys game, it a very white guys game, and that's definitely changed significantly. And I think even more importantly, the channels, as challenging as a lot of the digital stuff and a lot of the internet stuff has been to get the voice out there, because obviously it's much easier than ever before to create comics and put it out there.

50:24
The channels, whether it's Webtoon or Kickstarter, a bunch of these other mediums we're talking at, just the sheer number of channels you can go through has exploded. And that's sort of where the diversity in my portfolio comes from and how I'm able to do this and not have a day job and everything else and afford cat food. Right? That's what we're talking about. A big shout out to Callie, who is the co-star for this show right here. Beautiful cat.

50:53
Sally  is the uninvited silent guest. But no, mean, the word is diversity. the third aspect, so it's the people doing it, it's the places you're doing it, and I think it's just the sheer diversity of genre. mean, uh some of the big sellers in comics aren't superheroes, whether it's  something's killing the children, or it's the  Transformers stuff, or ah it's Walking Dead, or any one of a number of different genres. uh

51:22
You've definitely seen an expansion of that. And I think what comes along with that also, unfortunately, are challenges because you also are getting dilution. If everything is kind of balkanized and everywhere else, it gets hard to sort of get a critical mass commercially. But it's been a really good year for me. So it's something that's benefited me personally to having all these different avenues to sell your work through.

51:45
Just judging from the bios I've read, you know, the different projects and opportunities you've had a chance to like, you know, enjoy. And I mean, I can just tell just from like the screen and, you know, seeing your face, like you seem to like really love doing what you do. And I it comes across in the work. I think it comes across the way that you talk about the projects. I want to interject with a very random tangent. There was a movie in 2011 called Cowboys and Aliens that starred Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford and Olivia Wilde. I forgot she was in that movie.

52:14
But few men know that. Yep. And Sam Rockwell. And I think you may know that it was actually based on a comic book that you wrote. Just very curious, hearing about like, you know, the success you've enjoyed, you know, being very kind of happy with the blessings you've been able to have as well. Did you have any involvement with that movie other than maybe like signing off, you know, the rights or whatever it may be like? Did you have a chance to talk to, Daniel Craig or Harrison Ford or interact with any of the cast? Daniel Craig actually lives like six blocks from me. So get the hell out of here.

52:44
Well, we didn't do very well. So like when I see him on the street, I run away. This is my fault.  No, I, you know, that was  that was like my first  professional comics job wrote that script in 01 and the movie was made in 2011. So as you can tell, there's a significant time uh in between there. But  no, uh I didn't. um It was sort of a classic IP farm situation where the studio had independently developed the concept.

53:14
and then I was like the tenth writer on it. ah My take ended up being the one that got the movie made and then they ended up like throwing my thing out and then they actually hired someone to rewrite all my dialogue in the comic. So  I was pretty salty when that happened. Oh wow. Damn, I didn't mean to bring up a salty moment. No, hey, it's alright. It's not like it's common knowledge or anything. But  and obviously I got over it. So. Well then how about I pivot to the other question I have, which is

53:43
What's the goal now? Are you working towards anything specifically? Because  we're talking about the opportunities you had to enjoy, uh whether it was a painful experience or not.  The fact that you've got  one of my comics was adapted to a movie, I think is one hell of a flex.  You've got New York Times bestselling  in front of your name, behind your name, all which ways you have American Library Association awards.

54:09
What does a professional at your level, so that's been in the game for so long, that seemingly has done it all when it comes to opportunities, oh writing opportunities,  is there anything that specifically drives you now?  Or is it as simple as, I just do the projects I like. Do you have,  what's the big goal now? Well, mean, not to get totally cornballed too late, but uh I think  humans have a difficult time with the concept that happiness is really a choice.

54:37
One of the stories we tell in Action Philosophers is this guy, Diogenes the Cynic, who was this kind crazy philosopher in ancient Greece and supposedly Alexander the Great, who was famously  tutored by uh Aristotle, who was Plato's big student. Aristotle comes to Athens and finds, because here's this Diogenes, this great uh wise sage and is supposedly smarter than Aristotle, who was Alexander's great teacher.

55:07
He's like, all right, well, you know, teach me something smart guy, you know, so always a great way to start a conversation, right? But he is Alexander the Great. He just conquered Greece. So it's not like Diogenesis in the position to refuse him. And then he's like, well, what do you want to do with your life? And he says, well, I'm going to go conquer. I've conquered Greece. I'm going to conquer Italy. OK, cool. What do you do that? Well, I'm going to go to go further east and conquer. India, OK, that's cool. You like India and then when you do well, then I'm going to go south south and conquer.

55:39
Then we eat up to that and he goes well then I guess I will  you know be satisfied and just be happy and retire and enjoy myself and I just because why don't you skip to that part first

55:53
You know, why do you have to do all these, why do you put these milestones ahead of yourself? Like, why do you not just let yourself be happy now? Why does there have to be some sort of goal that you have to satisfy? It's like we get, think  when we're kids and we're at school and for our parents, we get obsessed with these carrots that get dangle in front of us.  And sometimes the sticks, right?  When really the simple fact of matter  is that the only person in charge of your happiness is you.

56:22
and um you should love yourself and be kind to yourself and realize that you should just choose to be happy. Which is not to say, you know, ignore your responsibilities, your loved ones, your family and your job and stuff like that. But but uh I just like getting up every morning and coming in here and feeding this obnoxious orange cat and talking to my wife and talking to guys like you and  talking to fans, not necessarily the ones complaining about

56:52
15 year old zombie comic, but even then it's just I'm at the point of my life where I just read that it just made me laugh like it's a really good way to start the day. uh But uh yeah, you know,  my goal is more of the same, you know, because I know I'm conscious the fact that  that's not going to be a permanent, you know, thing. So I'm just loving it while I can. That's a great answer.  I'm glad you went cornball route. That's a damn good. I can't I can't.

57:19
No, seriously, that was a wonderful answer. And I think I'm going to add that action philosophers book to my cart to give to my nephews. sounds like hell. might read that first and then get them to you. And vote for the Ringo's. for the Ringo's. You're right. Yeah. Hey, if you are able to vote for the Ringo's, man, Fred Van Lintze, he's got a book on there. All right. Speaking of which, not really speaking of which this is, I'm on my last two questions and they're kind of like all over the place. Fred, you might be the only creator that has a day.

57:47
named after them. Fred Van Lentide, which has been celebrated on comic book resources or CBR for the last 20 years since 2005. sounds right. Yeah. How does one get a Fred Van Lentide? You have a columnist named Brian Cronin who just reviewed, I think it was Action Philosophers. He reviewed the first couple issues of Action Philosophers and another book I did with another Syracuse alum, The Silencers, on the same day. So to clear Fred Van Lentide day.

58:16
People think it's my birthday, which it is not. Your birthday's on, wait, Valentine's Day. My birthday is Valentine's Day, yeah.  yeah, even though the holiday named after me is not my birthday, my birthday is in fact on a holiday. It's very confusing. And so he just did, he's done it every year. And every year I actually forget about it until Thanksgiving. And then he's like, oh, we gotta do new for Fred VanLenty Day. like, oh. And really quick, Fred VanLenty Day is December?  Six.  It's the day after Pearl Harbor Day.  That's  sort of the way my history reigns. Got it, got it.

58:46
remembers it. Alright, so December 6th and then every year you do something. I think the article I read was from 2022 celebrating Fred Van Lentide and you and think Brian the writer talked about the first issue of Bloodshot because it was celebrating your Bloodshot novel. Right, that was last year. yeah. Okay, that was last year. What are you doing? What's the plan for this year? Can you share what you're doing this year? I can't. I have no idea. Like I said, I don't

59:16
I don't know when to think. Okay, fair enough.  it depends on what is announced. We tried to do previews, but it's December, which is like a weird memory hole for the publishing schedule. Sure, sure. It's always a bit of a scramble. If you could tell me what to do, I'd really appreciate it because then I'd have to see it.  I'll bring some stuff. But look, hey, listeners, Fred Van Linty Day, December 6th. Make sure that you celebrate accordingly as a national holiday has been going on for 20 years.

59:46
And responsibly. And responsibly. All right. Fred, last question I've got, and I think this one will appeal to all the aspiring writers and comic creators that are listening right now. But on your website right now, you have a promo video promoting a three hour course on comic script writing. It's supposed to, from coming up with your idea to panel layout in a proper script format, you're partnering with a company called Domestika to offer said course.

01:00:14
And I'd like to know, maybe you could share a little more about the course, but I also want to hear what are some common mistakes or things holding back aspiring writers from being  great or proficient?  Are there any notable hurdles that you notice in young writers?

01:00:30
Yeah, mean, I think the obvious one is that  people struggled to have a start to story, particularly people in comics and people who are,  you know, lot of the students now, they're primarily weaned in manga, which has this sort of uh very broad and kind of sprawling world building. And so it ends up being like, you know, they have a tough time figuring out how to bring the audience in.

01:00:57
You know, honestly, I think the biggest thing and this thing I've catch myself doing also, so it's not like it's thing. I think  people struggle with the concept that the characters don't care about something the audience is going to care about it. So  it's that's a very common mistake to have somebody who doesn't want to do something or someone who is constantly complaining  or  a very common problem, something called passive protagonist where your protagonist is dragged around by the wrist everywhere is not taking an active part of their own story. I those are all.

01:01:27
And in the course, the domestic course, which you can watch that video described on friend, man, lady.com. And what's great is to best get like, think like, over 7000 people have taken it. We launched it in like 23, I think. So that's been very gratifying. And that's been super fun to do. And they always have great sales, like you can get it for 99 cents. Sometimes. It's also like eight different languages. I don't speak eight languages, but but people see really big.

01:01:56
Okay, I'll put on, like I said, I'm have a link to your website in the show notes. They can check that out if they want to take that course. And I think that being said, ladies and gents, this is the Short Box podcast and we just finished talking to Fred Van Linty about his life, his career as a writer.  We talked about Jack Kirby. uh talked, we got some philosophical, we got philosophical here as well. We got to see a very beautiful cat if you're watching the video version. ah Once again, his new comic  comes out  October 8th, it's called Dynamite Blood Red.

01:02:23
You can check out a preview of the book and pre-order the first issue using the link in this episode show notes. I'll also have links to Van Lentie's website and his social media pages in the show notes as well. So do yourself a favor, follow him online to stay current on all the things he's got going on. Fred, this has been a wonderful conversation. You were great. Do you have any parting words or shameless plug before we wrap up? I gotta make dinner, but I'm not gonna take a photo of it. I learned my lesson. Private dinners from now on.

01:02:51
I can see what they eat. Yeah. Brad, you've been great. Thanks again. My pleasure.

01:02:59
There you have it, Shortbox 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 theshortboxjax.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.

01:03:27
or wherever you get your podcast. takes two minutes tops and it would mean the world to us. 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.

01:03:53
Speaking of our Patreon community, want to give a big shout out to our current members, including Adam Chittani,  RcGamut, BJKicks, Blake Simone,  Blythe Milligan, Bo Evers, Brian Brumleaf, Chad Landenberger, Chris Hacker, David Morales, Greg Ligtike, Hershel, Mack Jacobson,  Issue number 3, Brad, Jay Sinner, Jeff Fremid, Jerome Cabanatan, Jose Sepulveda, Justin McCoy, Corey Torgeson,  Matt Godwin, Amanda Marin,

01:04:23
Melissa Burton,  Nick Wagner,  Ryan Isaacson, Steven Ginn, T-Mix,  The Wait For It Podcast, Tony A. Uppie, 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.