Spotlight – JD Boucher

This is Neil Ross, and you are listening to the

GeekCast Radio Network. You are tuned in to Steve

Megatron on Altered Geek. Hello, and welcome

to Altered Geek. I'm your host, Steve Megatron

Phillips. Today, I'd like to welcome to the program

J .D., a professional comics writer, presenter

at various comic cons, and freelance comic editor

-writer. Welcome, J .D. welcome thanks for having

me on the podcast i really appreciate it no problem

so tell the listeners a little bit about yourself

yeah so my name is jd boucher i am you know freelance

comic writer and editor i've edited um a couple

of indie comics i've written for quite a few

comics that have gone to kickstarter like anthologies

and i have well been in the comic scene and done

panels on for about five years now um i presented

at san diego and emerald city comic cons um on

a variety of topics so that's my background i

also wrote 80 pages about spider -man for my

senior thesis so yeah that's pretty geeky right

there yeah that's my uh there's my cred right

there That kind of reminds me of taking a screenwriting

class and creating my own superhero universe

in a TV pilot I had to write for the screenwriting

finale of the class. Oh, pilots are tough. What

was your logline? It was... I've got to try and

remember. I wrote it like three years ago. It

was something along the lines of... A man that,

it sounds super boring with me saying it now

because I can't remember it, but it's like one

man has to save the past, or has to save today

and the future, but doesn't know it yet, and

he's basically assassinated, but you find out

that he can't die. Oh, was that the big twist

at the end of the pilot is that he gets assassinated

and it's like, oh, I'm still alive. It happens

in the middle, actually. But then the real twist

is the villains and some of the things, because

there's a lot of confusion, a lot of mystery

around it. And then the person who helps the

lead of the story is actually from the future,

but nobody knows it. Oh, okay. Nice. That's a

good way to end your first episode. Tune in next

week. Or I guess with Netflix, it's please watch

the next episode. We need those streaming numbers.

Yeah, and it's the villain of the week type thing

again, but the main villain of the week, something

happens to him, but there's a twist to it at

the end. So, yeah, definitely I left it off so

that I could write more, and then it just never

got back to it. I understand that. Sorry if I've

revealed your secrets to everyone. If you have

to tweak it before you pitch it again. Oh, no,

no, it's fine. It's sitting somewhere in a file

on my computer. So I see you run a website called

gothiccomics .com. Yes, I curate that site. I

built that during one summer. because i realized

there was no like it's a pretty it's a pretty

popular set of comics like gothic comics but

there's no place to find them all and so what

i did is put that site together for just an easy

to find especially for web comics um And then

I put links to some of the more classic ones

that were in print. A lot of them aren't even

in print anymore, though. I've got to pull that

up. But that's why I wanted to kind of make that

collection so that way if people were ever curious,

they could go find it. That's awesome. So what

about the genre is it that kind of drew you to

it? Well, I don't want to say. I'm kind of goth,

but not enough to be hardcore about it. I mostly

just read the comics. And so that was I felt

like that was my contribution to kind of the

gothic subcultures. I want to just catalog them

all on the website, mostly because I lived in

like the middle of nowhere. So there's no like

goth clubs or scene. It was it was just, you

know, a bunch of hicks. So what are some of the

series that you've had the pleasure of writing

for and some that you strive to work on? Okay,

yeah. So if you, shameless plug, go to my website

at skeletoncreative .com, you'll have all of

the stuff that I've published and is available

you can buy on my shop. Most of it's digital

download, and most of what I've written so far

is for anthologies. Like the one that has most

recently come out was a night. It was the knock

knock zine and which is a zine that's all about

nightmares. And so mine was Robert Smith nightmare

for hire. So he was like this Cthulhu ask my

like giant businessman guy. You could hire it.

infect people's nightmares, but he puts ads on

Craigslist. He's just a normal businessman who

just happens to be a Cthulhu -esque monstrosity.

That's awesome. And I know somebody that would

really enjoy that as a storyline, too, which

is even funnier because he's huge into Cthulhu.

Oh, yeah. It's it's huge right now. I mean, apparently

they're going to do. There's a Nick Cage movie

coming out from the people who made Mandy. That's

I think it's the like the color from space, which

is an old Lovecraft story. And Nick Cage is going

to be in the lead in a feature feature film.

So that'll be I know Nick Cage is an acquired

taste, but apparently he was good in Mandy. And

so those producers probably know what to do with

him. He kind of plays the same thing in everything,

though, in a sense, because he's still Nick Cage.

True. Yeah, no, you're signing up for the cage,

and so you've got to know how to just let him

loose in the right ways. You just put the costume

on him and then just let him go. Mm -hmm. Pretty

much. I'm a Nick Cage fan, so it doesn't bother

me in the slightest. Yeah, no, I'm one of the

few people, like, when I was a kid, I loved the

Ghost Rider movies. Movie. I like the first one.

The second one, I can't really... The special

effects were cool in the second one. Other than

that, I can't really defend it too much. So,

you mentioned the Comic -Cons. What was it like

presenting and being a part of that whole process?

Oh, yeah. It's a lot of fun. I'd highly recommend

to anybody listening, if you have a... Pretty

much a lot of knowledge in a topic that you're

passionate about and you know enough people to

fill up a panel, I would say apply. If there's

local cons nearby that usually have open submissions

for panels, and if your panel gets accepted,

you get into the con for free or for a discount,

usually for free. So when it comes to Emerald

City, which is like my hometown con, the first

one I got in was the Spooky Comics panel. And

so I've done that one for five – yeah, this year

will be the fifth year doing it because nobody

else was doing a panel on it. I knew some folks

that had a lot of knowledge on the topic, and

so I just brought them on board. And then I've

just tried out different panels throughout the

years. This year is the second year I'm doing

the RPGs and storytelling. Last year – it was

standing room only in Emerald City last year

because – rpgs are huge right now everybody loves

dnd and like all the spin -off ones like with

things like the adventure zone everybody's just

hyped yeah especially with um with like geek

and sundry and everything doing their shows yeah

i need to if i had more time i'd watch more geek

and sundry but i've heard nothing but excellent

things about it Yeah, I know they've done a variety

of D &D -esque games, or they've done a Star

Trek version, they've done a lot of other ones,

and it's something that interests me because

I don't fully understand it, because I'm just

not into that space. That makes sense. So it's

something I'll periodically tune into just to

kind of figure out what makes it tick a little

bit. Yeah, that makes sense. So what are some

of your experiences with the whole RPG scene,

and what do you think makes it popular? Okay,

I think there's a couple of things about why

it's kind of having a resurgence right now. One

is that nerdy stuff is cool again, and that's

nice. Yes. Second, with a lot of people, like

with the internet being bigger than ever, having

video game or like having a game that you can

play with someone far away is a big appeal and

so like sometimes it's video games but for a

lot of people it's rpgs um and also yeah people

are kind of really craving that social interaction

right now and if you can have a more structured

social interaction like an rpg usually you meet

once a week you meet for a certain amount of

time and it's somewhat low pressure i think a

lot of people really dig that um and also you

get to like you know, be a fun character. Cause

like I'm playing in one right now that I've been

doing for like almost two years now where I play

a little mushroom man named, um, soot and he

just is really stabby and he talks like this

and he's just ready to go. Nice, nice, nice.

I used to play, um, like as, as close as I got

to an RPG was, um, Warhammer. Oh, yeah. The little

piece. Oh, yeah, actually. Well, I take that

back. In the early to mid -2000s, I was a part

of a Transformers website doing RPGs. Oh, nice.

Oh, yeah, RP? Yep, RP. Yeah, that game, the RP

part. Yes. And in crafting the characters and

coming up with the storyline and writing, you

know, pieces in that. And it was a lot of fun.

Yeah, no, I think. Yeah, there's I have a lot

of respect for people who do RP, not my thing,

but like I respect because, you know, people

who could put out all those pros for those characters.

I'm like, wow, good job. I wouldn't have the

focus for that, though. You said you're a Warhammer

fan. i am as well i my friends just got me in

this year and it's just like well rip wallet

yeah i i was fortunate i had a friend that like

i couldn't personally afford any of the the pieces

or uh to play the game but he liked to buy them

and then give them these like wild paint jobs

oh nice um Because he was very artistically inclined,

whereas I am not, as far as my painting skills.

I can do digital art better than I can do any

type of drawing or coloring. Right, yeah, and

you can't digital art a miniature, no matter

how cool that would be. Yeah, and so we would

play the game and... Because I lived close to

his house anyway, and we'd hang out and do that.

And it was very interesting learning how that

whole process works and coming up with the whole

process. And there's a lot you can do with it.

And we actually, funny enough, adapted it and

created a paper version. Oh, that makes sense.

We did it on paper. in in school because obviously

you can't bring all the miniatures so we figured

out a way of doing it on paper uh and and people

were like what are you guys doing and we're like

oh we're playing warhammer yeah they're like

how are you and we're like oh it makes sense

to us and they're like i have no idea what you're

doing it's proxy models don't y 'all know so

yeah it was it was interesting um but yeah that's

that's crazy about the the rpg stuff coming back

uh as as strong as it is um so so what are what

what are some some panels that you have that

that you're looking forward to doing if you have

any yeah so emerald city coming up in march i

got um pretty much the two two panels already

talked to you about the gothic comics panel like

spooky comics and then the rpgs and storytelling

those are gonna be tons of fun um In previous

years, I did one on asexual rep in comics and

media in general. I did one San Diego Comic Con.

I actually got my pass there for free because

I wrote a paper on Captain Marvel, who has the

movie coming out. So that's really exciting.

I can't wait for that. That's awesome. Yeah,

I I'm looking forward to a lot of those new superhero

movies coming out this year as well. There's

so many. I just. I wish I could be a little kid

right now because there's superhero stuff everywhere.

There's way more toys and action figures and

t -shirts. They didn't have an eighth of that

stuff when I was a kid. No, it's the same boat

here. I'm not sure how old you are, but I'm going

on 33 and the toys were not nearly as nice as

what we have now. like i turned 25 this i turned

25 and like even then it was still not as good

like it's only in like the last five years or

so that everything has been like especially like

honestly a lot of people like to make fun of

them but props to funko for finding their like

niche yeah i give them props i'm not a fan of

the designs oh yeah no that's fair um definitely

you like them or you don't Yeah, I'm more of

the fully, I have a friend that likes to argue

with me about the accuracy of them, and I get

where he's coming from. Like, they do make them

look better than, like, the Mighty Mugs did.

Oh, yeah. When those were a big fad a few years

ago. I remember those, yeah. I have a Ghost Rider

one. Nice. I have Cobra Commander. Oh, that's

a good one, yeah. Yes. I have Weird Al Funko

Pop because he sent it to me. Oh, yeah. He's

got a whole wall of them. But I'm more of the

show accurate type of look. I want them to look

like my series that I'm watching. Fair. But yeah,

it's amazing the things that they come up with

now. So what are some of your inspirations as

far as when you're doing comics? series that

have kind of played into that or characters that

have played into that let's see i mean the dream

of if you guys you couldn't tell already would

it be to write ghost rider my favorite run all

time jason aaron's ghost rider um it is insane

there is machine gun wielding nuns there's possessed

truckers there's fights with angels like It's

just off the wall, crazy, and I love every moment

of it. And that's what I love about comic books

is the stuff that you can do in comic books you

couldn't do anywhere else. Like, again, Ghost

Rider is one of my favorites. I love Wickdiv

currently by Kieran Gillen and Jamie McKelvey

and, well, the whole team. If you're listening.

team i swear you're important too um that one's

about pop god or um gods that come back every

like 70 years in the form of like in 20 as i

think 2014 they come back and they look like

pop stars so odin looks like a member of daft

punk and ball looks like kanye west and amuratsu

looks like florence from florence and the machine

um And there's a lot of murder, man. It gets

real intense. Um, there's a, one of the biggest,

like the fan group size, they call it a WIC div

support group because of all the murder that

happens. Nice. Yeah, no, it's, it's a good time.

I'd recommend that to like, that's a great comic

to get started. And then everybody loves saga.

That's not mine of my favorite, but I know that's

what a lot of people just love saga. So I also

see that you've had ties to the Terminator and

Evil Dead franchise. Yeah, so that was my past

job. Don't work with them anymore. But, you know,

it was really great to kind of work with the

people who owned it and, you know, licensing

and kind of making sure that things are approved

by a licensor is such a fascinating process.

like once you learn how that industry works you

see some stuff and you're like i see why it was

made that way nowadays um and you could also

wonder like how things like kingdom hearts happened

because it's a licensing miracle the fact that

kingdom hearts exists is due to so many small

miracles happening at every single part of the

process that's almost like um like the Wreck

-It Ralph type of scenario where you have all

these different franchises taking place in these

movies just because, you know, or like even Ready

Player One with like Steven Spielberg. Yeah,

Steven Spielberg. Yeah, anybody would drop it.

Yeah, anybody would open those doors for him.

Mm -hmm. Yeah, you pretty much nailed it because

if somebody comes to your company, it's like,

hey, I want your character in here for a Steven

Spielberg movie. They're going to be like, yeah.

Yeah, no, where do we sign? Exactly, because

he's like walking money. Mm -hmm. Walking, yeah.

Walking money. It's a new show. Yeah, new for,

what is that channel? AMC, the walking money.

New from AMC, walking money. I mean, honestly,

that's what that show is. There's a reason why

it's got a spinoff show and like 12 million consumer

products. Oh, yeah, and the huge comic following

that it has. Oh, yeah, I mean, pretty much, like,

and from what I've heard, the comic has just

stayed consistent. Like, it's just a good zombie

comic, and that's why, like, people stick with

it. Yeah, and that's what I heard. Even on a,

funny enough, a previous interview on the Altered

Geek Spotlights, one of the guests, talked about

the walking dead, how it's been consistent, how

it's been a great franchise and, um, sells, you

know, consistently the, you know, a massive amount

of comics per month and the ratings have never

really faltered all that much. And, uh, it's,

it's kind of that nice melding of, of pop culture

and, um, in comic books. Yeah. It's one of those,

it's one of the few comics that actually converts

people from like watching the show to reading

the comic. Because no matter how much people

like a lot of companies want this to happen,

is it like, oh, you know, you'll go watch the

show and then you'll read the comic. But sometimes

that conversion doesn't happen, which is a bummer.

um and sometimes it's really hard to get the

people who are watching the tv show to read the

comic and especially hard for like superhero

comics because there's there's so many of them

and then there's a new number one like every

year or so and people are just like i i don't

know i'll just go to the library i guess yeah

every time they reboot it's like uh do i really

want to sign up again Um, or, or where you have

the characters and you have their main run and

then you have like, cause most characters have

like multiple runs going at the same time under

different titles. And then they, the, the, there's

also the ones like, say you have like the flash,

but then you have, um, you know the flash but

it's based off the tv series and then you know

so it's like why there's barry allen flash and

wally west flash and there's impulse who became

kid flash for a little while and then it yeah

it's just yeah it gets too convoluted too too

confusing and that's why people kind of are like

whereas like you get something like the walking

dead and there's really nothing like it yeah

it's pretty much it's like oh you want to read

the walking dead here's volume one go keep going

there's only one volume one So what projects

do you have coming up that you'd like to promote?

Okay, so I have a story in the upcoming Shakespeare

anthology put on by Arledge Comics that's My

Kingdom for a Panel. which is a bunch of short

comics inspired by Shakespeare that will be hitting

Kickstarter sometime this year. Pretty much if

you follow Arledge Comics on Twitter or follow

me at JDBoucher0 on Twitter, you'll be able to

keep up on that. And I have stuff that I'm working

on and pitching, but I can't really talk about

until it's like official time because of, you

know, it has to get bought by someone approved.

Yep, exactly. But yeah, I mean, if you follow

me on Twitter, you'll keep up with all the stuff

I'm doing as well as I always post everything

on my website too. It's skeleton creative .com.

Awesome. Awesome. So how can, well, you've kind

of already given the listeners a way to get ahold

of you. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I'm always, if you

have quick questions, Twitter's good. If you,

you know. If you want to hire me for writing

some comics or editing some comics, feel free

to shoot me an email. Information's on the website.

That's a plug for money, people. Come on. Yeah,

come on. Yeah, thanks for having me on the show.

Any other questions? No, but I appreciate you,

and I thank you for taking the time out of your

schedule to come hang out with us here on Altered

Geek. Yeah, no, I really appreciate it. Thanks

for having me on the show. Yep. Until next time,

get altered, get geeky with the Altered Geeks.