Interview with Christy Marx on Jem’s 30th Anniversary

Hi, this is Christy Marks, creator of Gem and

the Holograms, and you're listening to a truly

outrageous podcast with Mike, Amy, and Nicole.

It's Showtime, Synergy. Welcome to Showtime Synergy.

I am one of your hosts, TFG and Mike. Joining

me is Lady Rek. Hello. Hello. And Nicole Hailstorm.

Hello. Aloha. In the first ever Showtime Synergy

interview, we welcome the creator and head writer

of Gem of the Holograms back to the Geekcast

Radio Network, Christy Marks. Yay! I so cannot

do Kermit the Frog. Hello, Christy. How are you?

Hello there, everybody. Oh, boy. So yeah, Showtime

Synergy. It's our new gem review podcast. I've

been planning this podcast since the DVD set

came out in 2011. Let's be honest. You've been

planning this interview since you were 10. No,

that would be Samantha Newark, which will hopefully

happen in the next few months. Oh, Samantha's

terrific. I'm sure she'd be happy to do something

for you. And I was just going to say that you

just had to find some checks to come and review

it with you, right? Oh, yeah. You get some insane

ones like us. As people will find out as they

listen to all 25 episodes of the podcast. You

are such a liar, Roxy. And the reason why I call

her Roxy, for the listeners viewing or listeners...

Listening. Knowledge. Thank you. Knowledge. And

Christy's knowledge is Nicole actually has a

Roxy wig. Yeah. I love Roxy. It's awesome. That's

awesome. I dressed up as Roxy, what, years ago

for Halloween? Well, I have a cat named Jetta

and she is because she is a, a sort of long haired,

fluffy, but always scruffy looking black cat

with just a little bit of white on her chest.

Okay, so before we get started, can you give

us the scoop on what is going on in the world

of Christy Marks? Any upcoming projects that

you're allowed to talk about? Because I know

there are things that are probably coming up

that you can't talk about. That's true. I'm still

a full -time principal game designer at Zynga,

and I specialize... more specifically in what's

called narrative design, meaning finding ways

to mesh story with gameplay, storytelling with

gameplay, and was recently promoted into a department

where I'm focusing on multiple games rather than

working on one game team at a time as I've been

doing for the previous four years. I'm now taking

that accumulated... knowledge and using it on

more than one team. So that's been a very interesting

change and I just marked four years at Zynga,

so that's pretty cool. And in my spare time,

haha, I've been writing for DC Comics. I finished

up my run on Birds of Prey with issue number

34 and then also the the futures end issue, which

would have been the equivalent of number 35.

And in fact, I just received my contributor's

copy of the compilation trade paperback of all

the rest of my issues from that run. And then

in the meantime, I've been doing some shorter

things for DC. Yeah, we'll be bringing those

up a little bit later. Okay, we can get into

those a bit later. I think one of them has been

announced, and I might be able to talk about

it. Uh -huh, because my jaw nearly dropped when

I saw the solicitation for it. Okay, cool. It's

a boxing glove, right? Okay, boxing glove arrow,

maybe? That'll be better. Oh, okay, boxing glove

arrow, okay. Oh, boy. All right. So you mentioned

Zyngo. Last time I talked to you in 2011, I believe

you had either just wrapped or were wrapping

on Mafia Wars 2. What are you working on with

them now? Well, from that project, I went on

to what's called a hidden objects game. It was

called Hidden Chronicles. It was a very story

-driven hidden objects kind of a game, which

was something I'd never worked on one of those

before. And that was very, very interesting.

And then I went on to Castleville Legends, which

was one of the very first mobile games that Zynga

has made. Because Zynga is now making a huge

turn to producing mobile games along with the

rest of the world. And I think just about every

game company in existence with a few holdouts

in the console world are now really focused on

mobile gaming because it's just becoming gigantic.

It's an enormous market now between the phones

and the tablets and everything else. So Castleville

Legends was a lot of fun. I spent about a year

and a half on that. And then, as I said, I got

promoted to principal game designer. And now

I'm in a special department where I'm using my

expertise across a number of games rather than

on any one game in particular. Nice. Interesting.

So how did it come about that you... started

working for DC Comics and writing Birds of Prey?

Well, it goes back to, oh, let's see. I'm trying

to remember what year it was, but quite a while

back anyway. I did the development and writing

and I was the executive story editor on a show

called Hypernauts. It was a live action show

that had some just amazing CG elements because

it was done by Ron Thornton, who did all of the

initial CG for Babylon 5. And so Ron and I had

become friends and remained friends. So he sold

this concept to ABC. And I was brought in to

do all the development and story editing and

writing and so forth. And the exec on that was

a guy named Dan DiDio. Well, Dan DiDio left ABC

and became vice president of DC Comics, which

is like. his ultimate dream job. This guy was

just absolutely a total comic book geek. And

so for him to get that job was just perfect.

So anyway, I had not heard from him in a very,

very, very long time. And then one day Ed Zingai

get a call and it's Dan. And he says, we would

really love to have you reboot a comic book from

the 1980s called Amethyst. So this was a property.

I was going to ask you about that. Yeah, it was

a property they had, you know, back in the 1980s.

I forget exactly how many issues, you know. And

I said, sure, I would love to do that. I remember

reading the book back at the time. So I ended

up doing a reboot on that. That ran for, how

many issues did that run for? Eight. Yeah, I

think it was like eight. And then they asked

me to take on Birds of Prey. So I picked up Birds

of Prey with number 18 and was writing that through

to, like I said, number 34. And then the last

one, the Futures End one. And I know they, you

know, they would love to have me be doing some

more monthly stuff for them. And so we will see

what happens. Woohoo. That'd be awesome. Okay.

Well, I got questions that you brought up Amethyst.

I was a fan of it. I was kind of sad to see it

canceled after eight. I'm like, really? Was there

any storylines or characters that you didn't

get to show in the world that you wanted to put

in? Oh, yeah. Tons of them. I mean, I sat down

and did a very detailed Bible for that for the

series and for what I wanted to do. And, you

know, there's all the other major houses like

House Ruby and House Emerald and, you know, all

of these. I just had all kinds of stuff planned

that I really wanted to do. So, yeah, I share

your disappointment. I really wish I could have.

Not that I know of, no. Yeah, I really loved

that. Because it was such a great fantasy. And

it was really cool with all the gem world. I

just loved it. It was great. It was sad that

I... It was only eight issues, but it was great

eight issues. And they've collected that into

a trade paperback as well. Yeah, I've got that

and I've got it on my Kindle as well. Oh, cool.

Yeah. Yeah, I think they might have done better

had they actually just called the book Amethyst

and not made it an anthology and just tried to

just sell Amethyst itself. I think they might

have reached their audience a little bit better.

Oh, I could see just where you were going with

all the different houses and all the different

conflicts of them. Oh, my gosh. It could have

been almost like a Green Lantern kind of thing

with all the different colors and stuff. Oh,

absolutely. Yeah, there's a lot there. It was

kind of funny when Dan called and we were talking

about it. You know, Game of Thrones had just

hit. and become, you know, really this massive

hit. And it just started to ring on HBO. And

so he was saying, so we wanted to have this,

you know, this kind of, you know, Game of Thrones

feel. And I'm like, wait, you mean incest and

all kinds of violence and murder and death? And

he's like, no, no, no, no, not that. And I said,

oh, you mean the dynastic stuff, all the, yeah,

yeah, that. Well, I hope it comes back. You have

to be careful what you use for an example, you

know. Well, I hope it comes back. I really do.

I'd like to see your notes on the rest of it,

too. All right, so I mentioned it earlier with

the boxing glove arrow joke. I found out that

you are, and I didn't know about this. I am a

person that is slowly being disillusioned to

DC Comics for what they are doing. certain aspects

of what the company is doing. I'm just not happy

with as far as the writing goes, as far as where

the storylines are going. So I hadn't really

kept up with this whole convergence two month

event because they have to move from New York

to LA. Um, but recently I did an episode of the

pull bag, uh, where, uh, we talked about it.

And as I'm going down, I think it's like either

week one or week two. Uh, Week two. Okay, thank

you. Week two, you're going to be writing a two

-part Green Arrow story. Yes. I have written

it. It is done. It is being penciled and inked.

Nice. Is there anything that you can tell us?

Anything? Boy, I don't know how much I can really

give away, to be honest with you. Convergence

is, of course, this big event, and there are...

or what they're calling the spine books. In other

words, there's going to be the line of books

that tells the really central part of the story.

And then there's all these sort of side branches

that are two -issue stories like the one that

I'm doing with all different people, all different

characters. And the idea behind Convergence is

that they're drawing from all the different multiverse

aspects of the DC universe. So, you know, you

have the... the kingdom come version of Metropolis.

And then you also have the original 1994 green

arrow version of Metropolis. And, and, you know,

you've got all the, all these different timelines

and universes that have occurred and it's all

being drawn into this huge conversions event.

So I think I can probably safely say that in

the first book, one of the key things that happens

is that Oliver Queen has found himself in Metropolis

and encounters the son that he didn't know he

had. So Connor is going to also be in this book.

And a couple of other characters of great interest

that I probably can't give away just yet. Maybe

your other character that you've written for,

Miss Canary over there. seeing as how they used

to date at one point or another. That would be

a fair guess. Yeah. Yeah. Amy, did you have a...

But the interesting thing would be which version.

Oh, yeah. Oh, no. Oh, no. That's the one thing

that's going to give all DC Comics fans a huge

headache with this whole convergence thing is

that question, which version of this character

is it going to be? Oh, man, I had so much fun

with that. I can tell. Brilliant. Yeah. Yeah,

absolutely. What I was going to ask is what was

it like working for the big three in the comics

industry? I mean, some people work really hard

their whole lives to get with DC and just jumped

right in and started going for it, man. It was

awesome. But what was it like? Well, I had previously

worked at Marvel on a number of books. And, of

course, I had Marvel through their Epic line

back in the 80s had published my creator -owned

series, The Sisterhood of Steel. So I had worked

at least with that company and then smaller independent

companies. But DC, of course, is a massive corporate

juggernaut, and you just have to take that into

account. And they're great people to work with.

I mean, I love all the people that I've worked

with and the editors. And, you know, Dan is a

hoot. He's so much fun. And Bob Harris is terrific.

I mean, they've all been very, very good to me

and treated me very well. And it's just that

you just have to understand that there are considerations

that come out of being a big publishing company

like that. There's going to be a certain amount

of action they're going to want to have. And

then they might say, oh, God, we want to have

more ties. Like with Amethyst, the thing that

came up very much towards the end was, oh, we

want to have a bit more tie to the real world,

the earth that she came from. So let's bring

in Eclipso. And then we came up, you know, Rachel

Gluckster and my editor and I. Played with it

and came up with this really cool connection

to make him someone who originally came from

the world of Amethyst. And so, you know, his

Black Diamond then relates to the House of Diamond

and the House of Onyx in that world. And so,

you know, we had fun with stuff like that. But

I had not planned to put Eclipso into that series

at all. I mean, he didn't figure into my plans

anywhere. And it was like all of a sudden, oh,

we suddenly want to have Eclipso in. And so you

have to like rejigger and rethink and go back

and. you know, rework stuff in order to satisfy

that requirement. So, you know, things like that

are going to happen. That's just, just a necessity.

Yeah. Awesome. All right. So we're here on Showtime

Synergy to celebrate the 30th anniversary of

Jim, but we have to talk about what's coming

up later this year for Jim, which is the new

movie. Yay. Hey, don't tell me yet. No, I'm not

being negative. I'm just saying yay. Originally,

a few years ago when this happened, or a couple

years ago, I don't remember what it was. It might

have been the 2011 interview we did with you.

By the way, Michael Wilson says hello. Hopefully

he listens to this. Oh, he will. We'll make him.

I believe we asked you about it then, but just

remind me more than anybody else what your conversation

with John Chu was about the movie. And did you

give what kind of info did you give to him about,

you know, the direction that you thought it might

go? Yeah, well, I mean, John already had a script,

you know, so he already knew the story that he

wanted to tell. But he basically was asking me

for. input about things that might be useful

to him about the characters and thinking about

the characters and so forth. And one of the things

I said to him that I thought that I could have

done a better job of on the original series was

treating Shana and Aja more like real sisters.

I mean, in the animation series, I never really

thought about this for some reason, but Jerika

would only ever refer to Kimber as her sister,

but really... Aja and Shana are just as much

her sisters. And I felt that there could have

been a lot more connection, a lot tighter connection

there for that. And I just reminded him that

it's really just very much about the relationships

of these characters and their friendships and

what they mean to one another and things like

that. And he was just terrific. He was really,

really a wonderful person to talk to. And Hasbro

actually flew me down to L .A. one weekend and

i saw that on a saturday i could sit down and

have lunch with john and he brought his computer,

and he ran me through this whole visual presentation,

the kind of thing he had used to pitch the movie

to Hasbro, and just ran me through what he had

in mind and what his goals and desires were for

it. And he was very enthusiastic. This is very

much a passion project for him. It's something

he's been, he worked for years and years to try

to get Hasbro to finally do something with this.

You know, so it's not like... Hasbro just said,

let's make a low budget movie and then we'll

just grab this guy. It was really much more,

you know, John Chu being deeply enthusiastic

and going out of his way to make it happen. You

know, so he cared very much about the project.

And for that reason and because I really liked

him tremendously when he asked me to do a cameo,

I said that I would. Well, there's one of your

questions already answered, Nicole. I'm so happy

to hear that. So since you already said that

you are making a cameo, before we started this

interview, I made a little prediction, but I

don't know if it will come true or not. We had

discussed this, and I have to bring this up now

that she already answered the question. I know.

I'm smiling so hard right now. It's a good idea.

Yeah. Since, I don't know, 2000. 2002 2003 more

so since iron man came out in 2008 we live in

a generation of where filmmakers and hollywood

in general uses after credit scenes and everything

i've heard about the new jim movie coming out

i believe it's without looking it up i think

it's october 23rd this year everything I've heard

about it and seen about what it's going to be

about has nothing to do with synergy whatsoever.

So I said to Amy and Nicole, I said, if she does

have a cameo, wouldn't it be the most awesome

thing if there was just this giant pink outline

and it's just her voice as synergy? Well, you

understand that I'm under nondisclosure, so I

can't really give much away at this point. The

scene that I did, God knows whether it will actually

make it into the movie. I hope it does. It could

be terribly embarrassing if it does, because

I'm not an actress, and I kept saying over and

over and over again to John, hey. You know, I'm

not an actress. I do not know how to act. But

he had lines he wanted me to deliver. And then

I looked at the lines and me being me, God, this

is so terrible. But I said, you know, this is,

can I rewrite these? And he said, oh, yeah, sure,

fine, whatever. So I rewrote them. Did you get

a writing credit for it then? Oh, no, no. We're

just talking a few lines. That's it. So they

flew me down to L .A., put me up in a really,

really cool old historic hotel in downtown L

.A. area. There's this very cool, interesting

little studio that's down there in the downtown

L .A. area. It's a very self -contained kind

of a little studio. It's an interesting place.

And they were shooting a big nighttime concert

scene. My cameo was taking place during that

event. So when I got into the makeup trailer,

all four girls were there. All four actresses

were there getting made up for this big concert

scene and so forth. So they all came over and

said hello and introduced themselves. They were

very sweet. And so they did the whole makeup

thing on me and everybody treated me. extremely

well on i mean very much i felt like i was treated

like royalty on the set it was very very nice

and then i did a scene with ryan guzman who they've

hired to play rio and so that was the two of

us doing this little scene with with they had

brought in all kinds of extras that were basically

gem fans so they're all behind us miming and

you know to to what should be the concert music

and so forth. So, so it was entertaining. It

was definitely entertaining. We'll be looking

for you. That's for sure. Oh yeah, definitely.

Now we know where to look. It's like, Oh, that's

awesome. I think it's probably, probably towards

the end of the movie. I'm not sure, but it's

my best guess. I haven't seen anything. I haven't

read this. I haven't seen the script. I haven't

read the script. I have not seen any. any of

the movies, so I know absolutely nothing in that

respect. Do you plan on going to opening night?

If they have one and they want to pay my way,

I probably would go. Awesome. They should. What

an experience that will be, though. Wow. I've

got a long way to beat Stan Lee, though. He's

got me beat. I'm sorry. I never matched the number

of cameos that the great Stan Lee has done. I

don't think anybody can. No, I think he's got

that record. Yeah. I don't think anybody will

ever be able to top that record. My favorite

one still is when he drinks the thing in the

Hulk movie. He's such a good sport. Oh, he stands

great. Well, I know you haven't seen the script

or anything about the movie, but I got a question

about it, just about your feeling about it. One

of the rumors around saying that they changed

Eric into Erica. How do you feel about that little

change? I'm kind of baffled by it. If it's true

and if that's actually what they've done, my

feeling is kind of like, why? You know, I mean,

there's nothing particularly wrong with it, I

guess. I just don't understand why go in that

direction. I mean, I didn't know about it. I've

only heard the rumors like everybody else. So

I didn't get a chance to ask John Chu about it.

I was baffled by it, too. That's why I thought

I'd ask him. I was going to say that's a perfect

reaction is it's very baffling. It's like, oh,

OK. You know, I mean, there's been an awful lot

of gender bending and rebooting stuff happening

lately. I mean, I'm a fan of the... elementary

show on tv which is a modern take on a sherlock

holmes and and instead of john watson you've

got joan watson you know lucy lou and and you're

you kind of like have to wrap your head around

it and go okay well at first but then it seems

like it just seems so right because then the

the uh the chemistry between the two main actors

are just so well that it Yeah, I'm a fan of the

show, too. I've been watching it. I've been like,

wow, I'm constantly amazed at how well it's worked

out for that show. So, you know, there's stuff

like that that happens. But I mean, I don't know

what the reasoning is behind it. So I can't really

address why. And, you know, I mean, this is pure

speculation, but maybe it was just as simple

as he had this amazing actress and really wanted

to use her. And that was like the only real role

for her. And so it was like, OK, so why not?

Let's try it. Yeah. See how it works. I mean,

that's that's just a guess. But who knows? It

could have been something as simple as that.

Yeah. In your first interview that you guys did

with back in 2010, you said that if you had any

control over what they did with Gem of the Future,

that you'd hope that it would be in a new animated

show. I know it's not your first choice, but

with the movie releasing later this year. what

do you hope will come out of its existence? I

just like the idea that a whole new generation

can be exposed to, to gem, you know, the concept

of gem and that might breathe more life into

the overall property. I'm sure you guys were

planning to get around to mentioning this at

some point, but IDW was also bringing out a new

comic book. Oh yeah. So, so, you know, there's

maybe opportunity to see other things happen

with Jem as a result. It just really depends.

It's hard to predict at this point. I know that

John would very much like to see these be a series

of movies, of Jem movies, you know, not just

a one -off. Oh, that's good. That's good. I hope

that that happens then. That's what he had in

mind at any rate. Awesome. That'd be cool. It's

interesting because the buildup between now and

the time that the movie comes out, we're going

to have a comic. I'm sure that there are going

to be more conventions and whatnot. It's just

going to be really interesting to kind of sit

back and see how that buildup is going to be

going over the next year and to see how that

pays off. It's quite exciting. It's quite exciting

to see. Yeah, it should be very interesting.

I did GemCon this last year in Toronto, and the

upcoming GemCon is at the end of August in Philadelphia

for this year. And it looks like I'll probably

be at that one. Cool. That'd be so much fun.

Jem is 30 years old this year. Now, I remember

when we were doing pre -production on Showtime

Synergy in 2014, Amy of all people pointed this

out to me about an animation error or an animation

flub, and I actually emailed you about this,

and I said something along the lines of, hello,

Christy, Jem is almost going to have its 30th

anniversary. In the first line of your email

response back to me was, Gack, 30 years? Oh my

god, yeah. It's a little hard to believe it's

been that long. So how do you feel about the

fact that something you created for the cartoon

series is now, it's been 30 years since the first,

well, in October it'll be 30 years since the

first episode aired. It's pretty amazing. I certainly

never imagined it back when we were first doing

this series. And I think it's indicative of the

fact that there's this natural cycle of nostalgia

where people grow up with something. And then

they get to a certain age and they look back

nostalgically on the 80s and they remember things

that meant something to them in the 80s. And

then suddenly that all comes welling up and becomes,

you know, another pop cultural thing that comes

up again. And so that's what we're seeing is

we're seeing this generation that grew up with

Jem and now are introducing Jem to their kids.

It's very interesting to me. The number of email

I've gotten from people who have told me, oh,

my kid just loves Jim. I've showed Jim to my

kids and they're absolutely crazy about it. And

then, of course, when it ran on the hub and then

it became available on Netflix, it began reaching

a new generation that began responding to it.

I mean, never mind that the fashion is old, the

music is old, the technology in the shows is

old, but it doesn't matter because the underlying...

richness of the characters and of the stories

just comes through anyway. And that's what endures.

It communicates across to a new generation of

kids, which is just terrific. Because we've been

going back and we've been reviewing all the episodes.

I don't know if Mike told you that or not. And

I think it's all three of us agree that it still

holds up. It's still very well written and produced

and it's still a great show. There's some shows

you go back. It's one of the most refreshing

eighties cartoons we've ever had. It really,

like it really, it doesn't matter that the vans

and the cars and the mansions are like eighties

style. It doesn't even matter anything about

that. The sad thing is, and I hope someone at

Hasbro listens to this when I'm about to say

right now, get off your butts. Talk to Netflix

and get them to sign the GD contract because

according to Netflix, as of February 2nd, 2015,

Jim will be leaving Netflix US. Oh. Yeah. So

somebody at Hasbro, do something. All right.

I was just going to point out the historical

factor. I mean, it might be the 80s, but at the

same time. For me, going back and watching it,

it's kind of a nostalgic rush because you're

like, oh, I remember when we were wearing that.

So if you're a child of the 80s, you can really

appreciate it. And if you're not, that's okay

because the interactions between the characters

are still very, very rich. I think any child

of any age will be able to relate to the show

just because of that. And not just kids, too.

I mean, I was absolutely amazed when the show

began to rerun on the hub. I received this very

sincere, lovely, handwritten letter from a 16

-year -old girl. Oh, wow. You know, she'd actually

handwritten me a letter, which was just amazing.

Nobody ever does that anymore. And she had discovered

the show for the first time ever, and it just

had resonated with her to the point where she

felt compelled to write to me and let me know.

Wow. That is so awesome. Oh, my gosh. So something's

there. Something works. There was an episode.

I forget which one it is off the top of my head.

I know it was season one. where Jem holds up

the the music biz top 10 with bands like Iron

Faden Twisted Brother the Rumones how did you

come up with all these band names like plays

on the band names well I don't know which episode

are we talking about It was one where their album

hit number one. I don't remember, but there was

an image where someone handed her. She was showing

off. I'll have to show you the picture, but it's

like Bruce Falstein, the moss -covered stones,

Tom Potty, and I can't see the rest of it, but

it says Tom Potty and the something breakers.

That might have been someone else's episode,

but when I was doing the Gem Jam, of course,

instead of Tina Turner, I had Lena Lerner. I

mean, you just do things that are close that

you can get away with. And everybody goes, oh,

yeah, I know who you're talking about. Oh, that's

really supposed to be Michael Jackson. Oh, that's

really supposed to be so -and -so. That's how

you get away with it. Awesome. So you've mentioned

in past interview, we listened to all of those,

of course, before we had this. You mentioned

that you had an idea how to bring Jem back if

you had a chance to bring an animated version

back. And I wanted to follow up on that. Have

you had a chance to pitch it? No, not really.

I don't know whether I just I think Hasbro is

probably sitting back and waiting to see how

all of this goes and what kind of response it

gets. Because animation series are expensive

and kids programming doesn't really pay very

well. There's not a lot of money in it. So, you

know, for them to do something as extreme as

fund, if they were going to fund an animation

show or some, you know, someone would either

have to come to them wanting to do an animation

show for some reason and provide funding because

it's highly unlikely that. that hasbro they're

not in the business of making animated shows

you know they're in the business of making toys

and uh it's true they are moving more into the

movie making and so forth but without a line

of doll to support it i'm not sure that they

would see the value of doing an animation series

so it's a bit difficult to know whether they'd

be willing to to go for that or not well i hope

that if the movie really makes a big impact and

the industry starts Looking at that as like,

hey, there's a space for this that happens that

you get a chance to pitch it because I'm completely

interested. Yeah, I mean, we'll see. I have already

talked to the guys at IDW and I know they're

interested in maybe the potential of working

with me on something. I'm not working on the

current comic. That's two entirely separate.

It has nothing to do with me, and I didn't know

anything about it until it was announced. So

I'm not involved with that. Well, with other

animation shows being in existence right now,

are you up to date on some of the stuff that

comes out now that's been really successful?

A little bit, I guess. I haven't followed it

quite as much lately, mainly just because I've

been working pretty much exclusively in full

time in game design. Yeah. You know, so I haven't

really looked at it all that closely. I mean,

the reason why I was asking that is just because

I thought, you know, if you've seen anything

and, you know, if it's influenced you, have you

updated any of your ideas on your initial? Cause

like I said, it sounded like you had like the

whole thing plotted out, which was awesome. Yeah.

So I was just wondering if, you know, it'd be

really cool. Cause I'm like, ah, I would really

like to see another generation of gem animation.

It'd be so cool. Yeah. I think that would be

a lot of fun. Um, I think that. We're probably

way, way overdue to resolve the Jim Jericho Rio

Triangle, and I think it would be kind of fun

to do something with that. But we shall see.

Time will tell. Okay, going back to that. Okay.

This is one thing that has totally confused me

the whole time. I'm like, what the hell? Did

you ever come to a conclusion where Rio found

out? They just didn't put it into the show? Actually,

when I first started working, the very, very

first development, I believe that was my intention.

But everybody at Sunbow said, oh, no, no, no,

this is too much fun. Let's leave it the way

it is. So we did. Curse you, Tom and Joe. So

you yourself never came up with the conclusion

that he ever found out? Not for the 65 half hours

now. Oh, dang it. That's all I want. I just want

this guy to know. I just want Rio to find out.

Nicole isn't the biggest fan of Rio at all. Oh,

I like Rio. I think Rio knows about the game.

He just enjoys the game. And then somehow Jerika

knows that he knows and she's just playing along

more of the game. That's my conclusion. Every

episode we've reviewed. Anytime Rio's in an episode,

Nicole takes two points off. I gave him credit

for the last one. He actually did something really

smart. I'm like, wow, why can't you always be

like this? Now, now, now. Poor Rio. I was cruel

to Rio. Oh, my God. I'd like you to be bored

now. Wow. Amy, what is your next question? One

of the biggest cool things about Jem is the fact

that there's a lot of music in it. And I was

doing a little bit of research just because we

love the music. I mean, we spend at least every

episode that we've reviewed just talking about,

you know, which one we liked and why. But, you

know, there are a lot of lyrics that are written

for the show. And I was looking on the wiki page

and I know that some of them were written by

other people. Barry Harmon was mentioned. I think

it was like the opening song that he wrote. And

then another one wrote the second half. But I

was wondering who. Who did all of the lyrics

for most of the show? Oh, boy. Or was it just

a group effort? No, no, no, no. There were lyricists.

You had lyricists that were writing lyrics, and

then you had the composer that was doing the

music. And I know that Anne Bryant and Barry

Harmon worked on that, but I'm... my memory is

so bad that I don't quite remember who was doing

the lyrics and who was doing the music, but they

did all of that. That was all done in New York.

What the writers would do, like what I would

do and what the writers would do is in the script

is we might, we would say, this is what the song

is about. And we might suggest kind of some ideas

for visuals or ideas for what might be said in

the song, but we didn't write lyrics. Okay. Yeah,

because I was going to say, did you write the

lyrics? Because they're awesome. Yeah, no, no,

no. That was not within my purview. Yeah, I counted

up for our podcast here. Season one, I don't

know about season two as of this interview, but

season one has 72 songs in it. Yeah, it got to

be very expensive and they reached a point where

we had to start reusing songs. And so it actually

did hit that point where it was. okay, now in

each episode we need to reuse at least one hologram

song or one misfit song. And the reuses, and

you fine listeners will hear us say this as we

go along in the podcast here, but the reuses,

how it blends into each new episode, it's flawless.

I mean, it works well. I didn't think reusing

People Who Care in some other episode other than

World Hunger Shindig would actually work. But

it does. But amazingly, it does. It's tricky,

but that's part of the job of a writer is to

figure out how to incorporate that stuff. I also

thought the fact that each music video that they

went with the music, even if they repurposed

the same tune in the background, it was a completely

new music video. And that, I always point out

as being a good point that helps make it work

is because there's something new that's with

it. So, oh, well, you'd have to. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Otherwise it wouldn't make any sense. Yeah.

Yeah. But it's just it's just cool because like

even when they've replayed the same song, sometimes

they'll they'll do a completely new video that's

with it as well. And and, you know, you know,

it's the same song, but it's because it's being

used in a different situation. You know, you've

got a completely different video that's with

it as well. So. Awesome. Was there ever a season

four planned? Or was it just the three? Remember,

this was syndicated animation. So, I mean, talking

about these things in seasons doesn't really

relate to the way people tend to think of seasons

on television. So really, it was more like batches

of 13 and 13 and 13 until you have 65 half hours.

65 half hours at the time was a full run of syndication.

Gotcha. And they did it that way because then

they would do what they called stripping, which

is where they would run one episode five times

a week, like Monday to Friday. Every afternoon

they'd run an episode. And so that would fill

up a certain number of weeks by doing the 65

half hours that way. So it was really just not

so much a season as just, oh. we've now done

65 half hours and and really it was tied more

to toy development seasons if anything because

there was the first batch was based on the dolls

that we had and then the next quote season unquote

was where you we introduced raya we introduced

jeda we introduced you know some other new based

on the next line of dolls. And then the next,

quote, season is basically, oh, now we're going

to do this whole Stingers campaign. We're going

to introduce the Stingers and all the, you know,

and these other various characters like Regine

and some of the others. So it was really tied

more to that. And it was tied to the 65 half

-hour structure of syndicated animation. So when

we got close to the end of the 65 half hours,

the big question everybody was hanging on was,

will we go beyond this run? Will we do any additional

episodes beyond the 65? And the word finally

came down that we wouldn't be doing that. Gotcha.

As I mentioned before, it's really cool to go

back to see the outfits of the characters in

the show. Was this a conscious effort to be kind

of up to date and kind of show, hey, you know,

because each season you get a variation. I know

you mentioned the dolls and, you know, the designs

of the dolls. Did they have like a clothing designer

consultant or was it just stuff that you kind

of left up to other people? Well, yeah, that

was, I mean, Hasbro was designing all of the

fashions for the dolls, you know. So we had the

glitter and gold episode where they want to introduce

this set of fashions that they had designed.

So basically they just said, okay, there's going

to be this line that's going to be called glitter

and gold. So write us an episode that will introduce

that. And I didn't know what it looked like.

I didn't see anything. I had no idea what it

actually looked like. I just knew thematically

that it was going to be glitter and gold. Glitter

and gold, yeah. So, you know, I just wrote something

that would allow us to introduce that particular

fashion. And then, you know, they had like a

Hollywood gem set of fashions. And so consequently,

we did some episodes that were more additionally

Hollywood oriented beyond the original ones that

I did. And things like that, you know. Yeah,

that's cool. But I got to see some line art of

the fashions, and I was always so impressed by

the really beautiful kind of line art that we

had for the show. It was just wonderful stuff.

That's one of the reasons why I like Roxy. Shit!

Yeah, that was one of the... The ways in which

the stingers were quite different than the other

characters because, you know, the holograms each

had their own look and the misfits each had their

own look. But when they brought out the stingers,

they had this more uniform look. They were all

black and yellow. And it was one of the reasons

behind why I created the characters the way I

did because they... The misfits are so individualistic

and they're a little bit at odds with each other,

you know, and that kind of fit for the misfits.

But when I saw that this was going to be a more

codified look, it made more sense to have the

characters themselves be much more in tune with

one another, you know, to be a much tighter group

that was really in sympathy with one another

rather than going their individualistic ways

like the misfits. So what would you say the biggest

changes are working on the show from the 80s

to working on something of today? What's like

the biggest change that you've seen? That's hard

for me to say because, I mean, for at least the

past seven years, I've been working in game design.

But what I do see looking around that makes everything

so interesting is that there are now just so

many more outlets. There are so many different

ways that you can put things out there. There

are so many different types of channels and different

types of things like Netflix and Amazon is now

producing stuff. And there's just all these other

possibilities, plus just putting stuff on the

web if you want to. I mean, it just seems like

there's a much more fertile ground there for

more independent work. And going back, I got

a quick question for you. Did you help write

the PSAs? I did write those, yes. Oh, cool. How

do you think they would have changed if you were

to write them today? Do you think anything would

change? No, probably not. It's been a long time.

It's been 30 years since I looked at those things,

so I'd have to go back and look at them again.

But, you know, they were pretty... simplistic

and to the point so i love the psa yeah i can't

see them changing too much no texting and driving

people we'll add that yeah see now you might

update it add some that we didn't have before

but yeah you know no texting while you walk even

How many videos have we seen of people who are,

you know, texting their way into ponds and falling

down stairs and things like that? Oh, my goodness.

That's brilliant. I mean, definitely in Rebooting

Gem, you definitely have to take all the new

technology into account. That's a must. That's

a given. Oh, I think that would be. Yeah, just

see if you were writing for a new show today.

It would be awesome. Talking about that as well,

though, after 30 years of Gem and now looking

forward, both looking back and looking forward,

what do you take with you and what are your hopes

for the future of the franchise? Well, what I

take with me is just a wonderful relationship

with all of the fans. I mean, I've been in pretty

much constant touch. for decades and of course

going to the conventions and just the warmth

and enthusiasm of the people. I just love it.

I think it's just fantastic and it's really amazing

to know that something like an animation series

has had this kind of an effect on people that

it has inspired people to become singers or musicians

or artists or whatever. It's had all of these.

wonderful effects that you might not have guessed

would come out of something like an animation

series. So I think it shows the potential of

that medium to actually move and inspire people.

So I still carry all of that with me, which is

wonderful. And I would really like to be able

to wrap up what I started doing with the original

series. I would love to be able to kind of like

wrap it up and move it forward. bring it forward

and just do some more with it that would be really

nice I don't know whether I'll get the opportunity

to do that or not but I do know one thing for

sure that it's really important for a creator

to have more ownership over work I mean Gem was

purely a work for hire situation and consequently

I have no ownership or control over it and consequently

You know, everything can happen without me not

having any participation. And that's fine. That's

just the way the business is. That's how intellectual

property works. It just makes me more aware of

the fact that moving forward, I want to have

more ownership and more control of things that

I create. And it might be, I have thought very

seriously, it might make more sense for me to

just create something new that has the same kind

of reach and feel as Jim, but that I own. So

that's certainly something I've thought about

a lot. That being said, though, I was just going

to say it's really I mean, I'm I I watched the

show and it affected me. And just hearing you

talk about, you know, that taking that with you,

that's just really touching. I know. And inspiring,

you know. So I want that. I can't tell you how

often, just day to day, just at Zynga alone,

how often I run into someone who's a Jem fan,

you know, who goes, oh, my God, you wrote Jem?

You know, had that kind of a reaction. And it

just happens all over the place. It happens all

the time. And I kind of kept track of all the

different places where Jem has popped up as a

pop culture mention. And there's... You know,

a number of mostly women singers who have shown

that connection to Jem, something that inspired

them and that shows up in their work. Oh, and

there's even a gender -bent version of Jem, a

musical group. I think they're Italian and they're

all male, but they're just doing a male version

of Jem in the holograms. I just saw that recently.

So there's just all kinds of fun stuff. Oh, I've

got to go check that out. yeah lots of i i i

know your influence made me really nervous to

talk to you i was telling these guys i'm like

i don't think i've ever been nervous to talk

to anyone you made my childhood not just with

jim but you i mean you helped with gi joe which

i loved and we worked on turtles and i'm like

oh my gosh yeah i get that stuff too that's kind

of it's kind of funny and i i really i kind of

love it because when someone says to me now Oh,

wow. I watched that when I was a kid. I said,

well, I'm very glad that I helped you twist and

distort your childhood. And you made it that

much more awesome. So you said that you're not

involved with the IDW comic book. And you had

said that you had just found out about it when

the world found out about it last... October,

right, Amy, was New York Comic Con? Yeah, I think

it was in October, yeah. Had they, now, since

then, I know when I've seen interviews with him,

that John Barber, Captain Continuity himself

over at IDW, said, the whole purpose of me even

having the job at IDW was to get a gem comic

book going. Amazing. I'm probably paraphrasing

what he said, but he said something along those

lines. Have they contacted you for any kind of

reference or anything like that? I know you're

not working on the current series that's coming

out in March. No, nobody contacted me. Again,

it's like I'm out there. I don't understand.

It's really kind of strange to me. I don't know

why people would not think to contact me, but

for whatever reason, they don't. And when I heard

about it, I contacted them. So I got in touch

with them and discovered, well, they'd already

had a pitch approved by Hasbro, so that was what

they had to go with. And both the writer and

the artist. of the comic have, have both reached

out to me since then, you know, and I told them,

God bless, good luck, you know, have great success

with it. I wish you the best. You know, I got

absolutely no issues with them whatsoever. You

know, it's terrific. They both seem highly enthusiastic

and, and have a strong, passionate desire to

make it a really cool thing. So, you know, good

for them. So my, my question about this was,

Now that you're involved with so much DC, would

you be able to write for IDW in the future? Oh,

yeah. I'm not exclusive to anybody. Oh, okay.

Good to know. John Barber, get on it. Well, first

they have to get themselves up and going with

the current reboot version that they're doing.

And they're dealing with... marketing at Hasbro

and you have to establish a relationship and

you have to build some trust and you have to

get all of that going then we can see what will

happen I think IDW and Hasbro really gave us

all the middle finger when this announcement

came out don't get me wrong I'm very excited

for the series and I somewhat enjoy what I've

seen of the art so far but they put up this idw

teaser poster of the classic looking the the

animated series looking gem and then it comes

out and it's all kiddified looking versions of

the characters and i'm like wait what i'm still

i'm still optimistic no i know i'm still optimistic

but it just was like wow i was expecting something

so totally different on the covers Okay, so it's

time to talk. You already mentioned the conventions,

but Amy, what's that question you got there for?

Well, I was going to ask her if she was going

to be attending any conventions, and she's already

kind of said that she is. So do you know of any

other new ones popping up? Other than GemCon?

Yeah, we've got GemCon. There was one that was

over in the Europe area. And now there's one

that's going to be in Canada, I think is what

you mentioned. There's only one GemCon that I

know of. And it moves, its location moves. So

people bid each year to hold the GemCon. And

so there was one year I got to go to the Netherlands

because they won the bid to have the GemCon there.

And that was just wonderful. That was just absolutely

the most fun in the world. I loved visiting Amsterdam

and Rotterdam. And that was just terrific. Last

year it was in Toronto because they won the bid,

and then this next year it's in Philadelphia.

So it's just a matter of who puts forward a bid

and gets approved to actually hold the convention.

And it moves around to all different places.

It's been in L .A., it's been in Chicago, you

know, it's been all over. So they just asked

me if I would be able to make it to the Philadelphia

one, so we're in the process of talking about

that. So I think I will be there for that one.

I don't know whether I'm going to make it to

San Diego Comic -Con. There might be some slim

chance of that. I don't know. We'll have to wait

and see how that works out. That was my next

question is, well, you know, you've worked in,

you've worked at DC, you've done all the animation.

I mean, you could go pretty much to any comic

convention anywhere, any geek, anything. Yeah,

I went to Denver Comic Con last year and I think

Phoenix Comic Con the year before that. So it

just kind of depends on who invites me. And I

missed it because that's where I met. Darn it.

Two years shy. If they invite me to come as a

guest, then I go. But otherwise, I tend not to

attend since I do have the job at Zynga and there

are expenses involved. Time off work. Yeah, exactly.

Alright, so let's get into other influences.

I have the biggest question. Who are some of

the other writers and artists that have influenced

you? Not just in the past, but even currently.

That I enjoy at any rate? Well, either they're

like, you know, as a writer, I'm sure that, you

know, you look at something, you see something,

and it inspires you. And you're like, oh, I've

never looked at something that way before. And

all of a sudden, now it's something that you

want to know more about. And it starts to influence

you as a creator. Yeah, probably. Currently,

I don't know. It's hard for anyone to influence

me as much these days. I do read and absorb the

work of other people. I know that I do want to

get into writing novels at some point. I just

don't know when. So I read tons of novels and

try to really absorb and learn as much as I can

from other writers. I just finished reading George

R .R. Martin's entire five books in the Songs

of Fire and Ice. And I learned a lot. from his

writing, just looking at how he structured the

books and how he, the things he did, there were

just a lot of really wonderful, I don't want

to say writer tricks, but stylistic decisions

and the way he conveyed information. I mean,

there was a lot that was really chunky and meaty

and it was really, really good stuff to study

in terms of writing novels and so forth. I mean,

growing up, I was very heavily influenced by

comic books, because I just read tons and tons

and tons of comic books. And I was influenced

by people like Isaac Asimov. I read all of his

books. Mary Stewart, I read all of her books.

And Tolkien had a huge, huge impact on me. read

his stuff over and over and over again. And it

definitely influenced me. Michael Moorcock, you

know, I thought he was wonderful. And there were

a lot of people that I read that that had quite

an influence on me as I was developing as a writer.

And currently, I'm a big fan of urban fantasy,

too. I really love the Dresden series. And I

love all of the coyote werewolf books that Patricia

Briggs does. I think her stuff is wonderful,

too. Nice. So I'm all over the place. I like

to do a lot of reading. And I finally got around,

I mean, I'm a bit late on this, but I finally

got around to reading the entire Vorkosigan saga

by Lois McMaster Bujold. And that was just, I'm

sorry, you said Bujold McMaster. But anyway,

and that's wonderful. Those books are absolutely

just delightful. I really enjoyed the hell out

of those. Wow, that's cool. How about Nicole,

if you have a question. I've got a question here.

Okay, so. You have written just about everything.

TV, cartoons, books. I mean, it sounds like you're

just everywhere on the board, which is so awesome.

Out of all the characters you've created, who

would you say you relate to the most? That's

a big list. Who I actually relate to? Yeah, who

would you say you put more of yourself into their

character? Hmm. Hmm. Probably the one that is

my own original creation, and that's probably

Bronway and the Sisterhood of Steel, since that

was 100 % mine. You know, I wasn't working on

anybody else's IP. You know, I wasn't, like,

doing an adaptation. I wasn't working with a

licensed character. It was my very own creation.

So that is probably what I feel the most in tune

with since it's 100 % mine. Is it available on

Amazon? You know, those came out in the mid -1980s.

They came out right around the same time as Jam,

as a matter of fact. Oh, wow. And they're available

for me. I have all of them. I have boxes of them.

to go to my website, which is just christymarks

.com, you can track down the link for that. Nice.

And I signed them. I autographed them. Oh, even

better. Yeah, it was an eight -issue miniseries

followed by a graphic novel. Nice. I've got to

track this down now. Yeah, I was going to say.

I created The Sisterhood of Steel out of a reaction

to what was done with Red Sonja at the time.

Because when I started writing for Marvel, my

very first sale was a Conan story. And then I

did a number of Red Sonja stories. And they had

done an origin story for Red Sonja. They plucked

her. She was a character that they had plucked

out of a Robert E. Howard story that had nothing

to do with Conan and had plunked her into the

Conan universe, basically. And so they had...

created an origin for her. And I had a strong

negative reaction to the origin for her because

I just didn't like that approach to creating

this powerful warrior woman type of character.

And so a lot of the reasoning behind the Sisterhood

of Steel is I wanted to say and show how I thought

an actual society of warrior women might function.

You know, how would that society actually work?

I mean, could it actually exist and function?

And what would that be like? And that was what

I was interested in exploring with that series.

Very cool. Very cool. No steel bikinis. No steel

bikinis. I don't think any of us were thinking

that. Someone was though. Someone out there was.

Because you've written for so many different

media outlets. Is it difficult to switch between

the two? to switch between the different media

outlets that you write for? No, no, it isn't.

I think probably just because I've done so much

of it and I've been doing it for so long, it's,

it's just ingrained. It's something that I've

learned how to do. I'm pretty good at switching

mental gears. What is something that you would

say is required? Like if a new writer or somebody

out there that's just kind of following you around

and going, I want to be doing what she's doing.

What would you say is required for a new writer

to do to be able to be in that mindset, to be

able to acquire that type of knowledge or that

experience? For working across the different

types of media, you mean? Yeah, like if they're

having a problem kind of adjusting and switching

gears from like comic to game to animation, that

type of thing. There are two different aspects

of it. As a writer, you have to first and foremost,

no matter what media you're working in, what

medium you're working in, first and foremost,

obviously, you have to know how to write. You

have to have the basic. fundamental skills of

a writer. So you need to learn that and gain

that no matter what you're working in or how

you're going about doing it. Just understanding

how to structure a story, how to create a character,

what is good writing versus bad writing, all

of those basic things you have to learn. And

then finding your own voice, what I call your

voice. It's that way of writing that characterizes

how you tell a story. So when you read Robert

E. Howard, you can see that it's done in his

voice. When you read a Hemingway story, that's

a very different voice. Or you read a George

Martin story, that's a very different voice.

Every writer has to develop and find and grow

into what is that writer's unique voice. And

then the other aspect is there's the craft. what

you can call, I guess, the art, which is learning

the skill of writing and finding your voice.

And then there's the craft. So working in animation,

working in comics, working in video games, whatever,

those are all very specific areas of craft that

you have to learn. You have to learn. what makes

an animation script. You have to learn what makes

interactive writing and non -linear writing work

and what works for a mobile game versus what

works for a console game. You have to learn the

craft of an animation script and how that looks,

how that's formatted. You have to learn all of

these areas of craft. So that's the other aspect

of it. It's learning those things and learning

how to apply your ability as a writer. into those

formats. You have to be good at adapting to those

different kinds of formats and understanding

what the parameters are. What are the restrictions

that you have to work within? When I'm writing

for a mobile game, for example, I know that I'm

going to have to tell the story in less than

a tweet. And that's because you just look at

a mobile phone. How much text can you put on

a mobile phone and still have it be readable?

And then what you have to think about when you're

a game writer is, It's not just the English text.

You have to think about when that's translated

into German, you know, it's going to be twice

as long. Are they going to be able to read that

text? And consequently, you have these built

-in limitations that you have to, like, well,

how do you tell a story in a series of less than

a tweet? If I only have 125 characters to tell

a story, you know, how do I tell a story using

those little bits and, you know, that you have

to develop? rules and understanding about how

to make story apply within that format. So really,

it's a lot about learning the craft and understanding

what all the requirements of the craft are, which

is probably a great place for me to plug my book.

Because I did create what is very much a craft

how -to book called Writing for Animation, Comics,

and Games, since I have worked a lot in those

three areas. you know, trying to convey not,

not how to write. Cause I think that's, there's

a lot of stuff out there that is really deals

with learning to write and what a three act structure

is and all that sort of thing. So these, these

are a little bit more on the craft side, you

know, the kind of basic things you need to know

if you're going to write an animation or if you're

going to write in, in games or if you're writing

comics. Brilliant. So yeah, absolutely. Go check

out her book. And that's digital and paper, both

that one. And you can get that on your website,

right? That one you can just get through Barnes

and Noble or Amazon. Awesome. But there's links

on it on your website as well, too. Yes. Yeah.

Awesome. And lastly, because this is my last

question, and I listened to, like I said, I've

been saying this the other two interviews that

they've had. I know that you like World of Warcraft.

So which is it, Alliance or Horde? Alliance.

I am a night elf hunter. That's my main, night

elf hunter. And my husband and I have been playing

for nine, ten years, nine, ten years together

as a night elf team. He's a night elf druid.

I'm a night elf hunter. We've got some alts,

you know, and I've got some Drené alts. I don't

know if there's going to be anything to the most

geeky people out there. Oh, it does to me because

I play. I've been doing it for three years. And,

you know, we've been playing the expansion, doing

the garrison stuff. And that's been really intriguing

to me because it's really interesting watching

World of Warcraft actually draw elements from

mobile games. Yeah. I mean, it's really intriguing

the kind of a crossover thing that I've seen

happening, believe it or not. But since I spend

so much of my time now in the world of games

and I'm looking and evaluating at this, you know,

one of the most successful and wildly popular

mobile games out there, you know, has certain

elements that I'm now seeing crop up in World

of Warcraft, which I find extremely interesting.

If it works, you know, might as well try it out,

right? Yeah, so I'm grinding my way towards level

100 on my Hunter at this point. I'm so jealous.

I'm still trying to get to level 80. I'm not

doing it every day, obviously. Yeah, yeah. Well,

you know, you can buy the level up if you want

to. True, but isn't that cheating? I guess it's

just up to you. It depends. If this, if it's

your first character, then it's probably better.

Yeah. If it's your first character, it's better

to level all the way up just to get a better

feel for the game. Yeah. But I've now leveled

up a number of characters. So, you know, I don't

know. I'm a little bit like, oh yeah, fine, just

make me a 90. Yeah, I don't want to miss that

between the 20 levels or whatever, just because

I'm like, you know, it's the experience of the

game. Yeah, especially I think, so you must be

on the Cataclysm part? I think I might have already

updated to the Mists of Pandaria at this point.

Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. Because there's a real,

there's a tie between the material that's in

the cataclysm and material that's in this brand

new expansion. That's very interesting. Yeah.

I look forward to getting to that point to, to

seeing that. So, yeah. Oh, oh, okay. Now I'm

getting what you're saying. Sorry. I'm such a

noob. I'm going through this the first time.

Yeah, I am. I'm, I think I'm on the wrath of

the lich king right now, actually. I haven't

hit the monks yet. Right, right. So these world

spaces that you're operating in now are the destroyed

and cataclysmic part that you see still untouched

in the expansion. So when you get to the expansion,

it's a time difference. It's a time thing. You're

actually going back in time. Oh, nice. Yeah,

it's kind of cool stuff. Awesome sauce. I love

that you sound as geeky as the rest of the world.

Because sometimes people like have no idea what

you've done or whatever. And that's another way

for them to get in is to see how geeky you are

about stuff that you like now that they might

be interested in. And then all of a sudden you

start going back and do that. That's how I got

into World of Warcraft is because Chris Metzen,

who works for the company who's done for. I've

done my research since then going, oh, I know

who he is now. But he wrote a comic, a Transformers

comic, on another podcast that I run called The

Underbase. We had him on and interviewed, and

he talked a little bit about World of Warcraft

because that was the other thing that he had

done. And I hadn't played the game since I was,

goodness, since the first expansion or the first

thing that they ever did, like way back in the

game before it was even online. And so because

of that, I jumped into World of Warcraft. shortly

after my interview with him. I had a friend that

was into it as well. Because of that, now I'm

a World of Warcraft geek. Who would have known?

I would have never gotten into that had I not

had the interview with him. Things like that

happen. All I ever remember about World of Warcraft

is those Mr. T commercials. Those were good.

Those were wonderful. Yeah. That's awesome. All

right, so it is Jim's 30th anniversary. As I

said at the beginning of the interview, we are

launching Showtime Synergy. You would have already

heard episode zero. Coming up May 10th, 2015

is when we're going to launch the first episode.

The reason why we're waiting until then is because

May 10th through, I think, the end of October,

beginning of November, it will allow us to actually...

the three of us, Amy, Nicole, and myself, to

actually go see and then come back and review

the movie on the podcast. So, Christy, before

we let you... I have heard at least one of the

songs since I was there that night. I have heard

at least one of the songs that will be in the

movie, and it was really good. It was a really

great little song. It's all new music, you know,

obviously. Oh, it's all new music. Dang, I was

going to say, I was going to say a 30 -year -old

updating of Misfits in Hawaii. No, they've used,

you know, they had a lot of musical talent involved

in it. And the four actresses, by the way, I

should say the four actresses that are playing

Jim in the holograms are musicians. They are

playing instruments and singing, and so that's

their talent. They're not faking it. Right. It's

their talent. That's cool. The more I hear about

this, the more I'm like, dang it, it's going

to be so long of a wait to hear all this awesome.

Before we let you go, Christy, remind everyone

where they can interact with you online, please.

Well, my website is very simply just christymarks

.com. That's C -H -R -I -S -T -Y -M -A -R -X

dot com. It's kind of an old website. I'm a little

embarrassed by it because I created it when HTML

was new. And it needs to be updated. Wow. But

nonetheless, there's a store area where you can

go to buy autograph scripts and books. I'm looking

at it right now. Things of that sort. I looked

at it last night. I found all of your cat blog

stuff, too. And I was like, oh, this is so awesome.

Yeah, I do the moggy blog. And I also do the

moggy blog on Facebook as well. Awesome sauce.

So there's a moggy blog, this part of my site.

And then I take the same material and also post

it on the Facebook version of moggy blog. Yeah,

I've got five cats. They're adorable. What? Upcoming

projects, I know you can't say too much what

you're working on. Is there anything that's coming

out that you can talk about that you've worked

on? The Zynga games that I'm currently working

on are still in development. I don't think I

can actually talk about any of those just yet.

Mafia Wars 3! I believe if they ever did one,

it would not be with me, that's for sure. And

then I'm doing a couple of short Secret Origins

story things for DC, so I'm not sure exactly

when those are coming out. Plus the Convergence.

Okay, I was going to say that's separate from

Convergence. All right. Well, we would like to

thank Christy Marks for taking the time to chat

with us here in the Showtime Synergy interview.

And we will catch you in May when we launch episode

one of the podcast, folks. Have a truly outrageous

year. Yes, indeed. Have a wonderful 2015, everybody.

Show's over, Synergy.