Interview with Mairghread Scott and Jason Enright on Comics, Reading Habits, and Their Work

Hi, this is Margaret Scott, the first female

writer in Transformers Comics, and you are listening

to the Geekcast Radio Network. Welcome to The

Polebags Origins episodes. Join TFG1 Mike as

he grills this week's guest on just how they

got into reading comics and more. So sit back,

relax, and enjoy The Polebag. Welcome to the

pull bag. This is a very special origins episode

It's gonna kind of serve as an interview as well.

I don't know how we're going to market this at

this point I am of course your host TF Joe and

Mike And we've had a few hiccups in the pull

bag schedule and how I want to get things done

We are supposed to be coming up on episode 89

in two giant size episodes uh... ninety and ninety

one in there is it now eighty nine ninety and

then ninety and ninety one and screw that up

eighty nine ninety and ninety one and ninety

two are supposed to be two giant sized episodes

coming up i have no idea what's going to be putting

into them originally it was going to be countdowns

but for now uh... it's an origins episode for

those of you that don't know what the origins

episodes are first of all go back and listen

any of the ones i've done previously second of

all it's myself getting together with friends

with people I know, people I'm interested in

finding out how they get into comic reading,

and this time we have Windblade Returns, oh,

I'm sorry, Marigrid Scott, hello. Hi. And we've

brought along her husband, Jason Enright, who

actually started, I started following on Twitter

shortly after he started teasing me about Beast

Hunters. Predacons rising last year. Because

you guys are an evil team when it comes to Twitter.

He's the evil part. I'm the team part. So this

is going to work like any other Origins episode.

Jason, let's start with you. Was there a parent,

a relative, a friend, who was it that said here

kid here's a comic go bother me and what comic

was it you know don't bother me go away what

comic was it when you first as a kid so i was

uh... really into the x -men animated series

as a kid and uh... i believe the very first comic

i ever got was uh... x -men number one the jim

lee you know like with the fold out gate the

gatefold cover with Cyclops and Wolverine and

everybody on it. And I believe my dad got that

for me at a flea market. It was a comic that

was a few years old because I just would not

shut up about the X -Men. And then from there,

I was one of those kids who didn't have a regular

place to go to get comics. So it was like, you'd

see them on a spinner rack at the supermarket

or at a bookstore. And every once in a while,

I would pick up something and it was always like

you had no idea what was going on or you know

where where the story was but it was pretty much

for me in the early days kind of always x -men

or x -men related um until i was like a teenager

and got my own car and started being able to

like search out comic shops but yeah so a good

mix of both my parents buying me comics whenever

i would find them on a spinner rack sort of got

me started Who is your favorite X character?

Cyclops. Really? You like emo boy? Really? Emo

boy? Are you talking about Wolverine? No, Cyclops

is the emo one. Gene! Gene! Why won't you believe

me? Oh, I'm sorry. He's a man who's devoted to

the love of his life. That's so terrible. What,

are we fifteen and we're afraid of cooties? Oh

my gosh. He probably is in most incarnations.

There's actually a really interesting thing.

They found that people who were introduced to

the X -Men prior to the 90s are fans of Cyclops.

And people who were introduced to X -Men later,

when they started shifting it to make the book

more about Wolverine, and they turned Cyclops

into essentially the guy who enforces the rules,

that they tend to not like Cyclops as much. You

can see a very definitive line in sort of when

people We're introduced to the X -Men as to which

side of the Cyclops Line they're on But we don't

be wrong. I grew up with the 92 series, but it

just even in that going back and looking at that

cartoon Oh, yeah, they totally screw up Cyclops

like they don't do a good job And you think that

they would because I mean Claremont was on that

series. Yeah, but Pretty much the best X -Men

stories are from like the 70s and 80s And you

go back and read those and Cyclops is the man.

And it's really interesting because until later

in the 90s, he really is the main character.

And then what's really interesting is they had

always planned to retire him. After Gene died,

he was supposed to sort of quit and go away and

retire. And the idea was supposed to be that

the promise of the X -Men is that you could fight

for a while and then he'll live a normal life.

But then, because of editorial, because it's

comics and you can't ever give anyone a happy

ending, they kept pulling him back in. And over

time, I feel like they kind of slowly grew into

his character. Because I don't think he works

as, like, a Lifer. You know? Mm -hmm. What were

you going to say, Marigold? Oh, nothing. He just

cut out for a minute, so I was like... Oh, okay.

No, he's still here. All right, what about you,

Marigold? I don't remember. It's... As earlier

last was last year. We did the interview with

you. I think sometime last year I forget when

it was it was during the time when prime was

still fresh so What about you growing up and

reading comics? How did you get into it? Um I

actually got into comics comic book specifically

through Sailor Moon Mango was my first introduction

to comics and because I mean, quite frankly,

the Western comics weren't super accepting of

women at the time. And like Jason, I also had

the thing where I love 90s X -Men and I went

to go find a 90s X -Men comic and it's like issue

376 and I had no idea what was going on. And

of course, they're missing issue 375 and like

I thought they come out every Wednesday. Why

is all the other X books out? But this one isn't

out. Like, I just I couldn't even deal with it.

So I read Manga for a really long time, and then

Jason finally got me to make the jump to Western

Comics. So thanks, hon. Yeah. And really, we

should thank Greenbrain. Yes. When we were younger.

Yeah, when we were younger, this couple opened

up a comic book store in our hometown. I think

there were other comic book stores in the area

before then, but that was the really first, like,

very friendly one. And they would do really big,

like, free comic book day celebrations and stuff

like that. And that's where I had my first pull

list. And I feel like that was really integral

to both of us getting into, like, regular monthly

comics. Yeah, you had a pull list there. I had

a pull list there. My mom has a pull list there

now. Like, they're a really great store. Um,

but yeah, I think my first my first western comic

actually was an idw comic called lore Um that

actually sort of like went on like a year's long

hiatus So I never got to read the ending So I

finally actually I think like my last convention

idw put out the like lore like the their big

giant editions, you know the complete edition

and I saw it and i'm just like Wondering over

to John like oh my gosh. This was my first real

comic that I loved I never got to read the ending

So I weaseled a copy But I did that and and the

first comic cover I can remember when I've I'd

already been reading comics for a long time but

like by the time I was like this is my thing

was a One of Greg Rucka's Wonder Woman comics

and it was the one where she was I just moved

in New York and it was the one where it was thing

was an anniversary cover and she's leaping off

a taxi or like flying above a taxi and I was

like, that's it like Awesome awesome. Alright,

so as you guys are growing up You know the the

teen slash young adult years. What were you reading

back then Margarit? Very much. I was reading

a ton of Sailor Moon much to the chagrin of my

family Because my mom loved buying us books like

that was the rule is that you could always there

was always money for books like Right, but she

hated manga cuz like we would buy it and then

like by the time you get home You're done with

it. It's like I just paid eight dollars for that

But as far as superheroes goes, I was watching

a lot of Transformers Beast Wars, Batman the

Animated Series, 90s X -Men. Also, I was a huge

90s X -Men fan. Man, there was a lot of fights

on the playground over 90s X -Men. Who got to

be who? That was like a blood sport. No, the

the blood sport for me was in kindergarten kid

between kindergarten and third grade Who got

to be optimist prime and who got stuck being

a shark decon because that they they had those

stupid plugs on their tails Because everybody

thought the shark decons were like you that's

the cold virus. You don't want to be a bug I

don't know. It was really weird back in the 80s

Yeah, ours was always all the women fighting

over who didn't have to be Jean Grey. Cause she

couldn't do anything until she needed to do something

and then she could do it and then she'd pass

out. And she was like, what the heck? Yeah, no,

literally, I remember like getting stuck being

Jean Grey and someone was like, well, you have

to pass out now. Like, and I'm like, I'm not

just going to pass out. Like, yeah, no, you have

to pass out. Yeah, that was the revenge. when

they finally did the phoenix then it was like

yeah eat it i'm jean grey now guys you said you

said she always have to pass out that reminds

me of um him and shira secret of the sword and

when when she faints to to when adora faints

to basically fool uh... web store in cobra khan

and skeletons in the background says eh, just

like a woman. It's just so hilarious. My throat

isn't that great today to do Skeletor, but what

about you, Jason? What were you reading as a

teenager slash young adult? Well, in the early

2000s they did the ultimate lines and that was

really huge for me because like we were talking

about, you know, you have the problem where you

go in and you'd want to read X -Men or you'd

want to read Avengers and there was like 400

issues. So the Ultimate lines were really great

because they were a new jumping on point. You

could start at number one and that was when I

first started reading things monthly because

I was reading Ultimate Spider -Man and Ultimate

Avenger or I guess it was called Ultimates and

then Ultimate X -Men. I still remember really

enjoying Ultimate X -Men was probably really

cool until they like killed half the team and

alternate them. But yeah, so yeah, that was pretty

influential in my teen years. Thinking around

that time too, like Kingdom Come came out. I

remember that being really big and influential.

Oh, you're so about Kingdom Come. Yeah, that

was really cool. I don't know if you know this,

but we were dating each other in high school,

so we knew each other in our teen years. Yeah.

Wow, and there was a there was a great series

by Straszinski called rising stars. That was

really good and I remember that was like The

guy at the comic shop Dan like was like I think

you really like this and so he started pulling

me the issues That was really cool Absolutely,

yeah All right work affiliations aside as a comic

reader The age -old question is Marvel or DC?

Marvel. So... Yeah, Marvel. Wow. Yeah. No question.

I mean, there are some things. Like, I'm a big

Superman fan. And I'm a big Wonder Woman fan.

Yeah, but both of those characters, they very

rarely do well. So it's kind of hard to, like,

really get behind them. What about the fact that

they're married now? I haven't read a DC comic.

Actually, we just read Gotham Academy. That was

the first DC comic I've read in like three years.

If you guys want to gush about that, fine, but

I don't think I can talk about that one. Gotham

Academy? Yeah. I haven't read it yet, so. The

way that I've described it is it's what if Harry

Potter took place in the US instead of the UK.

That's the way I've described it in several tweets

and Facebook posts, and I think I have to at

least check out the second issue to see if it

gets any better for me, but after the first issue,

it was just one of those things where... Well,

Harry Potter made Warner Brothers, like, billions

of dollars, so I think we're onto something there.

I think if DC was smart, they would start making

all of their comics for 14 -year -old girls.

No, because 14 -year -old girls are the largest

growing comics readership right now. And if they

want to make money, that's the target they should

go after. I'll say this about Gotham Academy.

It's obviously, as you said, targeted at that

age group. And I'm all for having fun in comics.

it there just too many flake bruce wayne is just

kind of there there's nothing really that there

wasn't enough explanation of the characters for

me in the first issue so i guess that all check

out the second one but if it doesn't impressed

me by then i'm i have other comics that i'm more

interested in reading and read would rather spend

money on uh... i will say that i'm really interested

to see what they do with arkham manor Putting

Arkham Asylum in Wayne Manor later this month.

That's gonna be interesting for me All right,

so I went the Marvel route overall Marigold who

is your favorite Marvel hero and villain? That's

not even fair This is the easiest question ever

My favorite Marvel villain right now is... I

have a weird love for Madame Masque. I have a

lot of personal backstory, like my own headcanon

with Madame Masque. I was wishing they'd do more

with her. I think she's a really neat concept

for a villain. In terms of a hero, probably...

right now would be Miles Morales. Like, I really

like, I really, really like him. And I really

feel like him and Ms. Marvel are just a real

breath of fresh air, like getting back to the

actual teenage superhero, you know? And that

real wish fulfillment and that great combination

of like, I don't know what the heck I'm doing,

like, and like superhero -ness. So I've been

really enjoying them. What about you, Jason?

You said this is an easy question. You already

mentioned Cyclops. Cyclops and Magneto are the

hero and villain, the greatest characters in

the Marvel universe. Although Magneto's kind

of an anti -hero now, so you gotta pick a new

villain. I don't know. He's still murdering people

left and right. So I don't see how that's not

villainous. But yeah. No, Cyclops and Magneto.

Although I gotta say, Ms. Marvel is... probably

the best comic being created right now. I love

that book. Except your wife. I don't know. Well,

I did say outside of stuff that is being worked

on, so I was trying to, like... You and Sarah

are great, but you're not topping this Marvel

right now. Wow! My husband just talked himself

onto the couch. I was gonna say, man, that dog

house looks pretty full right now. No, you're

probably right there. They're close, though.

They're close. Alright, outside of Transformers,

what other IDW titles are you guys reading right

now? Oh, um, I started reading Little Nemo, which

is, the art is just gorgeous. It's really, really

pretty. Hold on, I'm pulling up our pull list

because I'm having trouble remembering all the

things on it. Yeah, what else are we reading

from? Hold on, I'll pull it up. We're reading

Wild Blue Yonder, that was good. Yeah, that's

good. I think that's on hiatus right now. yeah

um oh i'm excited for edward scissorhands is

coming up soon that's oh yeah that looks really

great and uh and dungeons of dragons which sarah's

doing the covers for that's on our pull list

those both of those start this month so i don't

know if those count we are huge dnd nerds so

they totally had us there I was really into the

last iteration of G .I. Joe, but I haven't picked

up the new one. I don't know if it already started

or it's starting really soon, but I'll probably

check that out. I'll see if they have it at New

York Comic Con this week. Yeah, I thought the

G .I. Joe bandwagon when I heard they were going

to reboot it, so. Yeah, it kind of stinks sometimes

when they announce they're going to do a reboot

and the old series still going on and you're

like, should I? Keep reading Like you're gonna

do a new number one in six months like yeah But

yeah I also I really like a lot of the stuff

that Sarah Gatos is doing with like a lot of

the kid properties They're doing some really

neat stuff with like they got a bunch of the

Cartoon Network properties And they're doing

this big crossover thing right now called super

secret crisis war yeah Which is a great jab at?

That's been really cute. Jim Zub's Samurai Jack

comic is really good. Yeah, that's surprisingly

good. Obviously, we're not the target audience

of those, but it's really, really nice to have

kids' comics, because it's so hard when you meet

fans. You know, they have kids and it's like,

well, can you know, what can my kid read? And

it's like, not much. I'm not the target audience

of those, but I still love them. Like I get so

bored of like dark and gritty and gruesome all

the time. I love all ages comics. Like, yeah.

What I don't like about all ages comics is specifically.

One of the big two they constantly start them

and then just yank them say well Yeah, there's

no there's no commitment to them and like like

it stinks when the only real like true all ages

comics at Marvel or DC Are the ones that are

like times their cartoon shows, but then they

don't feel like really committed to them. Yeah

Absolutely. Yeah, like I will say that IDW is

doing So far I've had one good All Ages series

and one that I just don't... I just didn't think

that it was... I wanted it to be something different.

The good one was when they did the Rocky and

Bullwinkle 4 issue miniseries. That was awesome.

We just released our episode on the Dexter's

lab for issue pretty series. Don't get me wrong.

I was I was 17 18 somewhere around there when

I was probably yeah, I forget when Dexter's lab

came out It was a while ago, but I remember watching

the cartoon as a teenager or whatever else and

I remember liking certain parts of it and I was

hoping that the Dexter's Lab miniseries would

have been something different than what it was.

I was hoping it would be more focused on Dexter

versus Mandark than just another lesson of Dexter

needing Dee Dee, et cetera, et cetera. So yeah,

I mean, the other all -ages comics that I have

read in the past are like Beware the Batman and...

Scooby -Doo team up and that kind of stuff Scooby

-Doo team up. I stopped reading because I just

Don't care about the team ups that you're doing

right now. Yeah The tough thing with like a team

up book or crossover book is like if you don't

like who they're crossing over with Yeah, yeah

Have you been reading Lumberjanes? We were reading

Lumberjanes for a while. That was really interesting.

Yeah, Lumberjanes is awesome. That's from Boone.

Yeah, that's a great book. I'll have to check

that one out. I haven't... It's sort of like

Welcome to Night Vale meets The Girl Scouts.

Ooh, interesting. Or like meets... Actually,

I think I almost described it as Welcome to Night

Vale meets Camp Lazlo. Yeah, it's this summer

camp that is like being embroiled in all this

weird supernatural stuff. But what's great is

that the girls are just kind of like, yeah, sure.

We'll fight werewolves. What else? Like, you

know, and then it's craft time. And they actually

put like little activities and things in in the

comics, like the comic, you know, each one has

like a playlist on the back or has like a little

maze. It encourages kids to to interact with

the physical comic book, you know, to cut out

a mask or to draw in it. And I think that's I

think that's really smart and really important

because I feel like, you know, like we don't

collect comics. We read comics and then we donate

them. Like there are very few comics that we

actually hold onto. And I just feel like the

more we can get people to see comics and just

to let children see comics is like something

that you can interact with and that are kind

of disposable. Like they're not precious and

sacred and you have to approach them from one

way. Like the better off we are. Yeah, we love

cutting panels out of comics. I feel like people

freak out when they see us do that, but we do

that all the time. All the time. And we'll put

them on our desks. Yeah, there was a great scene

in Miles... I forget if it was Ultimate Spider

-Man or... The new Ultimates? I think it was

the new Ultimates. The Captain America special

in Ultimates? Yeah, and Tony's just drunk at

Cap's funeral. Yeah, he's giving the eulogy at

Cap's funeral, and he's got a martini in his

hand. And he's clearly kind of drunk. No, it's

even better. It's a Cosmo. And yeah, there's

a couple panels I had to do out of that, which

especially out of context are just like, oh my

god, Tony, you are... So bad at this you should

not be advising future generations What um, what

do you guys think of the whole Marvel superior

line They well Yeah, they they took When amazing

quote -unquote ended for now When amazing 700

came out they switched to superior spider -man

And now, coming up, I've learned that they're

also going to be doing a Superior Iron Man, which

supposedly is spinning out of the events of Avengers

X -Men Access. I don't know. Our Spider -Man

is miles. We don't read the regular Spider -Man.

I was reading Superior, and it was really interesting,

but it got weirdly rapey on a number of levels.

Yeah, and it just sort of became too uncomfortable

for me That's what happens when you have the

mind of like an 80 year old Doc Ock and spider

-man's body Yeah, well not just that but like

cuz I try to pick it up again when Peter came

back, but then it's like oh my god I have a why

you know kind of wife like what like it just

like it just became really Icky yeah She'd know

it's not the most mature response and clearly

that's a really interesting thing to explore

and I totally recommend that. I like other books

that do other things like that. I loved Bedlam.

There's something about Peter Parker that to

have that happen to him did not click for me

as a fan. See, I thought Superior was refreshing

because I've said this many, many times in the

two and a half, three years that I've done this

podcast, that there's only so many times where

I can see, you know, 616 Universe Peter Parker

fight Doc Ock or fight Green God. There's only

so many situations you can see him fight those

characters. And I thought doing Superior with

creating this whole other... Bag of worms was

so interesting Excited about these changes. They're

coming up because like I feel like I've read

every potential Steve Rogers Captain America

book I Like every potential matchup and team

up I can think of so I like the idea of replacing

him like it was up to me I would replace every

character that was introduced in the 60s in Marvel

with characters introduced in the 70s and 80s,

and I would slowly start to phase out every 10

years, just phase out older characters and replace

them with new characters. Well, not even in just

Marvel, although, like, I love... Kate Bishop

as Hawkeye. Yeah, Kate Bishop's a much more interesting

Hawkeye than Clint Barton at this point. But

like, my favorite Batman was still Dick Bats.

Like when Dick Grayson was Batman, like Black

Mirror is one of the best Batman graphic novels.

And it was so refreshing, you know, and I loved

Dick Grayson as Batman. And I know why they don't

do it. Like, I get it from like a business standpoint,

but it is really interesting. because I feel

like you're starting to have a weird challenge

where by keeping the same characters around for

so long they're essentially growing out of their

core conflict. Like the reason why I like Miles

Morales is that like, and they haven't done this

for a while, I really love Dan Slott's Spider

-Man because he finally sort of had his shit

together. And for a long time I couldn't read

Spider -Man because like it's one thing for Miles

Morales like, what is it like? 13, 14 year old

kid not to have his shit together. But it was

another thing when like Peter Parker was like

almost, Peter Parker was like 30 and like still

I couldn't hold that in a job and it was like

you still won't have this figured out. Like,

it stopped being, it's sort of like when they

made Rent the Movie and it's like everyone's

30 and it's like maybe you people should just

pay your rent because it's not happening at this

point. Like. You're not 19 year old Bohemians

anymore. Yeah, now you're just weird. No, I the

only so far and it's gonna surprise a lot of

listeners because everyone that's been listening

to this show knows I'm a huge Dick Grayson Nightwing

fan and damn you to dildo for killing him jerk

But the only Dick Grayson is Batman story I've

read to this point is gates of Gotham I want

to read more but gates of Gotham was awesome.

Go get a collection called Batman the black mirror

That's like, it's Scott Snyder, Francesco Francovia,

and Jock. Because they do a thing where they

alternate on Francovia's issues, it's following

Dick more, and on Jock's issue, it's following

Commissioner Gordon more, as they're trying to

solve the same mystery, but coming at it from

different angles. And it's a really interesting

story and it's got this really interesting theme

of the idea of Gotham being this black mirror

that sort of shows you the worst of yourself

and you either sort of succumb to it or overcome

it. And the idea being that characters like Joker

and Riddler and all those people succumbed to

it and people like Batman overcame it, you know?

Plus you start to really see I felt like that's

where you first started to see some of the really

cool things that Snyder did in terms of like

interacting with the art and the page layout

I really felt like that's where you first start

to see things that you know like in Court of

Owls where they did Batman trapped in the maze

and it's rotating so that if you follow the rotation

you are also trapped in the maze And I felt like

you start to see the beginnings of that playfulness.

And that was actually something that really,

really inspired me. Like that and the Young Avengers

run that Guien did. Yeah, McKelvey and Guien.

Yeah, McKelvey and Guien, where they had like

the, there was like a Novart fight scene where

they literally diagrammed the room and drew like

seven Novars and like labeled it like almost

like a catalog page. And that really was something

that inspired me when I was working on Windblade,

just to see what new ways can we push the art

and the writing's interaction. Like how can we

push a physical comic book? I think that's sort

of what gave us the idea for Metroplex's voice.

Like having Metroplex be essentially talking

like all the time on like seven different levels.

I remember when we, for myself, Amy, Nicole,

and Heather teamed up to do the underbass pullback

crossover for Windblade's first series, I remember

the first recording and as soon as Chromia said,

as soon as Windblade said, I'm gonna tell him

you said that, you know? She's like, no, don't!

And I'm like, I can no longer hear Ironhide unless

it's... Thanks for noticing me. Ironhide is essentially

Eeyore. You turned Ironhide into a Winnie the

Pooh character. Ironhide has some cool stuff

coming up. Stop spoiling things. No, yeah, we

do build up on Ironhide a little bit in upcoming

issues. Yeah, I know. I actually really wanted

to spend more time with Ironhide. That's kind

of like the one sad thing about Windblade, as

much as I loved everything about Windblade, it's

like when you're doing a book focused on one

character, you can't sort of get lost in the

other characters, but it's like you just want

to spend more time with them. Like, you just

want to hang out with Ironhide more. It was a

Windblade Chromia book that like yearned to be

a teen series book. Yeah, by the way, I'm really

sorry. I heard your guys was like last review

Everyone's always mad about issue four. I'm sorry

Don't remember what we were angry about I assume

it was the fact that it was chromia. Yeah Yeah,

everyone. I that whole month. I kept getting

people like how could you do this? I you know

if it had been like honestly if it had been somebody

like rc or anybody else i probably would have

been more like chromia to me she's one of four

of the female autobots she's you know one of

alita one's crew along with firestar and moonracer

i mean you did great flushing her character out

and giving her more depth than just another female

autobot but I was really expecting something

other than it was Chromia all along. I don't

know what I was expecting out of it, but I don't

remember me being that mad, I'm sure. I think

it was more the other people. But yeah, no one

was expecting it. That was the funny thing. I

was so worried, especially by issue three, that

like everyone was going to know. Like, oh yeah,

clearly it's Chromia. I'm like, we set this up

way too much. We've tipped our hand and like

no one. No one figured it out like one dude on

like one of the message boards did and then Proceeded

to talk himself out of it That's how good your

writing is that you can have people talk themselves

out of their own opinions Yes, yeah, which I

liked I liked the idea of iron hide like sort

of is went to like some weird nihilistic place

It's like, since there's no my future, there's

no any future now. Like... Ironhide's biggest

claim in IDW, I saw the future, now it ain't

happening. Oh, man. Uh, no, you know, the...

I think what... I think I was expecting some

sort of comedy thing, because... And really,

it's all Sarah's fault, honestly. Sarah did a

cover for Windblade number three. I think it's

the regular cover, which it's the one where she's

got the blood going down her face. Yeah, she's

crying blood. Yeah. Yeah. As soon as I saw that

in Solicits, I'm like, hey, it's Lydia from Beetlejuice.

Where's Michael Keaton when you really need him?

I really thought it was Lydia from Beetlejuice

when I saw the cover in Solicits. Like, oh, that's

so awesome. All right, Jason, what are you currently

reading? What are you currently paying attention

to? We read a lot of stuff. So I've actually

been really getting into this new Fire and Stone

series that Dark Horse is doing. It's Prometheus,

Aliens, Predators, and Aliens versus Predator.

And it's really cool. It's set between Prometheus

and the first Alien movie. And each one is its

own series, but then they have elements that

tie together. But they've put together a really

good writing team and a really good art team.

And it's really awesome. So that's been really

cool. And then... I'm a big fan of Rat Queens

over at the Image, which is essentially a D &D

party of four 20 -something -year -old women.

If you really were an adventuring party and you

just came out of a dungeon with 10 ,000 gold

and no job to have to go to in the morning, you

would not be like... Nice upstanding noble people

you would be like drunk and disorderly and your

people that have literally chosen to kill for

money. Yeah And so it's just really interesting

it's not for women and You know getting into

all sorts of trouble and you know some of their

past discretion is catching up with them But

yeah, no, it's it's really cool. It's by Curtis.

We've been rocked up church. It's really good

Over at Marvel, I really like Captain Marvel,

and I'm really enjoying the current X -Men run.

Although it's interesting, so there's uncanny

and all -new X -Men, and it fluctuates from time

to time which one I like more, because they're

both really good. It's really nice to have the

original X -Men back, and like... No, it's not.

I like this. I like this because they're making

them characters. I mean, it's an interesting

character thing, but it's like, first of all,

Beast is a tool. He's just the tooliest tool

that ever tooled. And it's like, I don't know.

It's like we have other interesting relationships

we could be going to. I just miss Jean Grey and

Jean's back, and she's really cool. And I like

Kitty being their professor, like Professor K.

is really fun. But yeah, and then probably over

at Boom, they have this great book called Suicide

Risk that Margaret and I are obsessed with, which

is just awesome. I am kind of going... See, you

know, you guys mentioned Dick Grayson as Batman.

And the way I've always looked at Bruce Wayne

as Batman, like he's the legend. He's the one

you want to live up to. So boring. OK, well,

yeah, but here's the thing. Bruce Wayne is the

legend. No one person is ever going to attain

or become Bruce Wayne Batman. But Dick Grayson,

whether it's Robin Nightwing or Batman, he's

he's DC's everyman character. And when DC and

the editorial took him and said, Hey, look, we're

just waiting to give him an eye patch and make

him the Nick Fury of the DC universe. I'm like,

yep, I'm out. Once they killed Nightwing is when

I'm like really turning my back on DC. Now, Gale

left the book on Batgirl. So they're taking,

which I'm all for Batgirl being brighter and

happier and everything else. I just. from seeing

the preview and everything else for issue 35,

I don't like the art style. I can already say

I don't like the art style just from seeing the

preview. And she looks like she's going to be,

even though I've talked to the writers on Twitter

and asked them how old she is, they said she's

21, in the art style she looks like she's 14.

Really? Yeah. She does look like, I would have

thought she was 14. That's exactly what I said.

I said, because I asked them, I said, how old

is Barbara going to be? They said, they told

me on Twitter, in Gail's run, she's 21. And that's

what she's going to be in our run. She doesn't

look like a 21 -year -old at all. She looks like

she's 14. So I'm going to give Batgirl one or

two more issues. And if by issue 36 it doesn't

grab me, I'm dropping the title. Because honestly,

without Gail writing it, It's lost. Honestly,

the new Batgirl is the only DC book we're probably

gonna be reading. Wow. Well, with them cancelling

Batman Beyond, yeah. We have nothing on our DC

list except Batgirl and Gotham Academy. They're

the only books that have interested me in years.

Well, I mean, it's just... I get that DC is...

You know, they have a lot of turnover which makes

it a little hard to like tonally sort of maintain

characters and this insistence on Sort of this

very consistent art style It makes it a little

like like when when new 52 came out like we read

a bunch of like animal man and things like that

and it's just It's I just want my books to be

a little more visually diverse and a little more

Diverse in terms of of story type and I feel

like that's not necessarily where DC's headed

I mean, they kind of keep putting toes into that

water and that's interesting but and in all honesty,

like they're not really It doesn't seem like

the company is super interested in going after

my personal demographic You know like with the

whole like bikini thing and you know like soup

like Wonder Woman getting a second book that's

her dating superman like that's it's just it's

um it just doesn't seem like we're the the types

of readers that dc is looking to court right

now so yeah um yeah and you know for me the only

new dc book i'm like i said i already said i'm

interested in his arc of manner but right now

i was gonna pick batman back up with this new

end game arc but with the price being $4 .99

for issue 35. I'm sorry, not digital because

it's a double issue or something or other. Yeah,

but is it really double issue? Do they just throw

a bunch of nonsense from the back? I don't know.

All is I know is I just I'm still on Batman Eternal

for that. I'm waiting for that to kind of wrap

up and end. Batman Beyond 2 .0 got cancelled,

so that's ending in November. So yeah, I'm pretty

much at this point. I'm reading Cowl from Image,

which... That's... You can't say... You can...

No one should ever say... read Cowl, you know,

have your kids read Cowl, because I think the

second issue, the second issue, this is not a

spoiler for the plot, but the second issue of

the book, because there are five issues in, the

second issue of the book, second or third issue,

I think, one of the guys, one of the police officers

is fighting with a criminal over a gun, and the

gun goes off in the guy's pants, quite literally.

I have the screen cap of this. But I'm really

liking Cowl. It's by Kyle Higgins and Alex Siegel.

It's based off of Kyle's short film, The League.

It's really, really cool. What would happen if

there was a superheroes labor union in 1960s

Chicago? So that's really cool. Yeah, I mean,

outside of Batgirl and Batman Eternal, Those

are the only two DC books I'm getting right now.

Like I said, I'm looking forward to Arkham Manor.

Those are the two main DC core titles. I do have

their licensed title for Masters of the Universe,

which that's going to be changing come December.

And then the rest of it is IDW stuff, Turtles

and Transformers. Turtles is awesome. I don't

know if you guys are Ninja Turtle fans, but oh

man, what they've done with that series. He is.

I don't know. Yeah, I haven't really been following

it. A lot of my friends tell me this current

run is really good, but it's one of those things

of like going back and finding the trades and

getting started and all that, you know. And just

going to Comixology, they have them all. Yeah.

I mean, if you're, all right, well, yeah, I don't

know. All right, so are you guys pro print or

pro digital? We're pro anything. I think what

I really like what I really prefer is the idea

that I buy my comics in print And then when I

can't get a hold of them in print I buy them

digitally So it's like if I'm starting a new

line, and it's like oh you're out of issue 2

then I buy issue 2 digitally so digital is sort

of my Yeah, back up stopgap there are a lot of

people who didn't know sort of how to get them

from a comic shop or a lot of people who went

to a comic shop and found them sold out. So I

like that digital created this really nice sort

of no barrier, no gateway way for people to get

the book. I think that's really great. I think

that's why you're seeing such growth like in

digital and you're seeing new demographics of

comic readers find comics through digital. But,

for me personally, I really like going to our

shop and meeting our, you know, seeing our guy,

Judd, at Blastoff Comics. Yeah, Blastoff Comics,

really great place, very very north Hollywood.

And, you know, like, it's Wednesday and everybody's

there and everybody's debating, like, the latest

comic thing and, you know, it's just fun. It's

a nice community experience that I worry sometimes,

like... there's not enough of, you know, for

comics readers. But no, digital's great. Like,

currently I'm reading that Sensation comics featuring

Wonder Woman. I actually subscribe, so like,

every Thursday morning I wake up and I have a

new Wonder Woman comic on my Kindle. And that's

been really fun. I really like that. And, you

know, it's just, I think that that's a neat business

model that they should explore more. The idea

of doing these little 12 -page weekly comics

is really fun, I think. See, I think for me what

it is, and I've said this before on the show,

but haven't said this to you guys, is I was getting

a lot of print issues because I started reading

comics full -time when Death of the Family was

going on over at DC, so two years ago. You know,

I was getting a lot of print, a lot of print.

I thought at first that digital was just, oh,

you have to have Kindle, iDevice, whatever. And

I realized, oh, hey, no, I can just go on their

website and do it that way. Right on your computer.

And that's all well and good. And honestly, for

me at this point, for me to actually get the

story without, and this is just, I guess, the

way I am with everything I do in my everyday

life is, I found that every time I would go to

sit down and read a comic, I would even if it

was just a 40 page comic I would end up either

falling asleep in the chair or something you

know just something would distract me from reading

the book and I'm thinking okay well if I'm sitting

here in front of my computer and comics ology

has this amazing guided view technology which

takes you panel by panel Absolutely awesome cannot

say enough good things about that. I actually

highly recommend whenever people ask me about

learning to write comics I think guided view

is Just a phenomenal learning tool as a writer

to how to beat out your panels, you know to be

able to see You know, how are you breaking this

up as a writer? Some writers obviously do go

into what panel goes where I'm not one of them

and the fact that you can watch Guided View almost

is like a storyboard. I feel like it really helps

break it away from sometimes the really cool

and really intentional interaction between panels.

So I'm very like Guided View. Yeah, I like it

for the kind of like Forrest Gump aspect of it

where You never know what you're going to get

on the next panel. It's a whole new way of doing

that whole page turner thing where you're like,

what's going to happen now? I have no idea. Have

you read any of Mark Wade's Thrillbat comics?

No. Those are designed to be read online. So

they're done panel by panel. And they actually

do a lot of really unique things with the light.

the idea of the page turn or the reveal, the

transition from panel to panel. They're actually,

especially like, if you ever get a chance to

read, I think it's called Valentine by Alex DeCanti.

She's one of the first people to really push

what a digital comic can be and how you can like

really do things when you're doing that panel

to panel thing that you couldn't do in a book.

It's really great. Awesome. But Jason, I would

suggest Turtles. You can get most of the trades

on Comixology if you want the trade versions

of it so you don't have to buy the, you know,

have a multitude of the single issues. It's,

the current IDW Turtles line, the main Turtles

line is an entire love letter to the entire franchise.

It calls back to so many things. It puts in so

many things. Just amazing. They just wrapped

up The latest for issue miniseries where they

actually did a damn good job of doing turtles

in time in comic form But it made sense for the

story as to what's going on in the IDW turtles

verse So that that was pretty awesome I Am getting

a lot of static from you guys Sounds like somebody's

blowing all over the place there we go All right,

51 17. All right kind of wrapping this thing

up here What do you guys have going on for work

related comic stuff marigold? That you can actually

talk about exactly well Not as much as you think

everything Yeah, I know no well wind blade is

coming back in in the new combiner wars, which

we are hard at work on Firing on all cylinders

and actually this Interview comes out before

next week. You can see us at New York Comic Con

Sarah John Livio and me Oh, yeah, and Andrew

Andrew too So we're doing that and I'm really

excited I got a chance to write a short for Boom

Studios bravest warriors paralyzed horse which

is a short story about one of their characters

who is a horse that becomes completely paralyzed

because he gains awareness of the entirety of

existence. And he's sort of in a perpetual state

of awe. Which is actually really cool. We've

done some really neat things with that. And yeah,

I'm working on an OGN right now. That's... I

can probably talk more about in 2015 That I'm

very excited about that's definitely it's nice

to go back to To something a little darker and

this is definitely probably one of the more messed

up things that I've written. So Very excited

to put that out there and then we have quite

a few TV shows coming out. So That's always fun

Yeah, which was what can you Which ones can you

talk about? Gosh, you know, I never really know.

I mean, obviously, I'm working on Transformers

Robots in Disguise, which I think this episode

is supposed to be out 2015. And then I do write

an episode of Ultimate Spider -Man that hasn't

come out yet. But I'm not sure when that's going

to air. Everything else, I'm not sure how much

I want to broadcast it. But fun things. Since

you mentioned the Ultimate Spider -Man cartoon.

I have not been keeping up with that I need to

but I've seen the advertisements since this is

Monstober on Disney Channel I've seen the advertisements

of the first ever Disney Channel live -action

crossover where the characters from Jesse are

gonna be on Ultimate Spider -Man What do you

think of that? I mean, it's a really, I was not

involved in that. I didn't work on that episode.

I'm just a gun for hire on that show. But I mean,

it's a really neat idea. Like the idea of crossing

over a live action TV series with an animated

TV series. And I'd be really interested to hear.

I'm kind of surprised just because live action

works on a completely different timeline than

an animation. So I mean, but why not? Why not

push things a little more? And I'm sure I would

imagine Jesse has a larger viewing audience than

Ultimate Spider -Man. So it's probably really

good for Ultimate Spider -Man. I think if they

had done the reverse and tried to do like a live

-action Ultimate Spider -Man shows up in Jesse,

that would have been weirder. Yeah, that would

have been much weirder. No, that wouldn't have

worked. All right. Where can the good folks interact

with you guys online, Jason? Whoa, whoa, whoa.

What about my work? Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, I've

got a series on Comixology right now called Father

Robot. That's an all ages comic series that I

believe issue two is out and issue three is coming

out soon. It's a five issue series. And you're

editing on that. Yeah, I'm editing on that. And

the 215 Inc. is releasing the issues, I believe,

later this year. And then, yeah, where can they

find you online, Marika? Yes, well, we're hard

at work on a new website right now that I should

be working on right now. So I don't know, how

much lead time do I have until this actually

airs? This will go up, most likely, since it's

a comic episode, it'll go up the eighth. OK,

let's shoot for it then. You can find me at mscotwriter.

and you can also find me on Twitter at at Marigold

Scott and on Tumblr at mscotwrights .com. There,

mscotwrights .tumblr .com. Oh yes, sorry. And

then you can follow my monthly podcast, The Previews

Party, which is part of fanboycomics .net. where

we talk about upcoming comics. I love Previews

Party. They go through the Previews magazine

and talk about like what is upcoming and what,

you know, they're thinking, what do they think

about, you know, things that you should be pre

-ordering. If you don't have time to like wade

through all of Previews, it's a really great,

really great segment. Yeah. And then we do, you

can find my writing on Comics Beat. I do the

monthly sales analysis articles. And then I'm

on Twitter at Jason Enright. And I think my Tumblr

is just JasonEnright .tumblr .com. And yeah,

and we'll be, we're there to chat. If you find

one of us on Tumblr, you'll see the other one,

because we're always blogging. Yeah. Alright,

and the wind blade trade paperback is currently

out The link will be in the show notes to Jason's

post on tumblr on how you can get your copy of

wind blade I always love reading some of those

posts that you put up for that For your tumblr

regarding how to get comics because it it's our

number one question It is my number one question

that people ask when I was pushing wind blade

Was always getting like but how do you do it

and what if I live in the middle of nowhere blah

blah blah blah blah like Yeah, I I wish there

wasn't such a barrier to entry on comics But

we try to make it as easy as possible for people

to find these things Absolutely, absolutely I

have no idea what's coming up next in the pull

bag. Honestly, no clue. My plans are all over

the place. We may be talking about The first

two volumes of John Layman's Chew, we may be

talking about... We may be talking about More

Than Meets the Eye or Robots in Disguise 208

and 209. I have no idea what's coming up. Alright,

so I have been TF2 and Mike with... I'm Margaret

Scott. And Jason Menright. Make your greatest

game in the comics and we will catch you next

time. Talk to you later. What is this I sense?

The Taint of Primus? You've just heard the latest

episode of The Pull Bag, the GCRN's comic review

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