Dollar Bin Bandits

Transformers! Transformers, Transformers, Transformers. If you don't like where this is going, abandon ship now, because our guest today has been associated with Transformers comics for over 30 years. That's right, it's the British Bob Budiansky: Simon Furman! Simon was already working on a Transformers comics for Marvel UK, when Bob (the original writer and developer of the Transformers character...

Under-appreciated. It's a label that applies to many of the creators we have on this show, but never has it applied more than to today's guest: Rick Burchett. A journeyman penciller who's worked at virtually every publisher under the sun (including First, Pacific, Capital, AC and DC and Marvel, natch), Rick often changed his style to fit the content of the comic. Pre-DC, he worked on books like E-...

Are you ready? Our old-timey podcast is going full Matrix with the co-creator of the digital comics platform ComiXology: John Roberts! A genius of the ones and zeroes, this is the guy who took our precious four-color heroes, digitized them, and created a whole new reading experience for comics. We get into his early days creating and refining DotComics at Marvel, the inception of ComiXology as the...

What, another member of the Crusty Bunkers?! That's right, time to punch one more hole in your CB frequency card, because we have Mr. Carl Potts on the pod! This card-carrying member of Neal Adams' Continuity Studios got his start adapting TV shows like The Six Million Dollar Man before landing at Marvel in 1983. As an editor, Carl was a talent magnet, having brought on or mentored such luminaries...

How do you separate yourself from all the other independent books in an ever growing market? Well, Austin Hough ( The Masters ) and Phillip Russertt ( Tragedy ) are doing just that with books that feature incredible writing and a multitude of new and established artists that have gained them both a loyal following. Check out their journey into comics and what goes into creating your own book in ou...

No, not Edward Leialoha (Torpedo) from G.I. Joe. You see, that character was named after today's guest: inker, penciller, and all-around chill dude, Steve Leialoha! After starting his career on the early independent book Star*Reach, Steve went on to make his bones freelancing for Marvel on such titles as Warlock , Star Wars, Marvel Team-Up , Firestar , and New Mutants . The Star Wars gig even land...

Break out the cloning machine because we've got not one, but two amazing guests on the same episode this week! That's right, in another Oren Only edition, the Bandits welcome writers Howard Mackie and Terry Kavanagh to the pod. Best known for playing a major role in the pitching, planning, and writing of the infamous Spider-Man story, The Clone Saga, the two did amazing work together and separatel...

Reed Tucker (or Reed Tucker as we call him) is a freelance journalist and writer, who has hundreds of magazines and articles to his name. But more importantly, he's the guy who wrote Slugfest: Inside the Epic 50-Year Battle Between Marvel and DC . Now we've got your attention, right? As cool as the book is, which takes you through the Big Two rivalry in depth, the Roku show of the same name is eve...

Writer extraordinaire Steven Grant is in the hot seat this week. You may know him best from the famous mid-80s Punisher mini-series he created with Mike Zeck. But he's got a lot more under his belt. For Marvel, he was a presence on the Avengers and Incredible Hulk , and he co-wrote Marvel's first limited series and one of its earliest universe-wide crossovers, Contest of Champions . You may have h...

He's back, and he's not just talking Silver Surfer! Ron Lim returns for a career retrospective, starting with Badger and Ex Mutants , going heavy on the Infinity Trilogy (Gauntlet, War, Crusade), and jamming on 90s Marvel classics like X-Men 2099 and Venom: Lethal Protector . OK, fine, we do return to Silver Surfer and fan favorites like Captain America and Spider-Man. It's a long walk and a good...

What's it like to put on a comic convention? Ask today's guest, Mitch Hallock, who has almost single-handedly grown TerrifiCon into Connecticut's largest comic book convention! How does he find guests? What's changed over the years? How does the show keep focused on comics and defend against turning into a pop culture free-for-all? All will be revealed by this modern ringmaster! TerrifiCon takes p...

Yes, that Aaron Lopresti! The artist behind Malibu's Ultraverse's Sludge joins the Bandits for a retrospective of his impressive comic book career. From X-Men, Captain Marvel, and Planet Hulk at Marvel to Wonder Woman, Justice League: Generation Lost, and New 52: Futures End at DC, this guy has put in the work at the big two. And now, he's striking out on his own with his Indiegogo-funded passion...

Presenting, among other things, the 10th Editor-in-Chief of Marvel Comics: Mr. Tom DeFalco! Tom has done basically everything in comics, from shepherding Hasbro-licensed comics G.I. Joe and Transformers into existence, to writing and editing all manner of Spider-Man projects, to co-creating characters like Spider-Girl, Silver Sable, and Thunderstrike. We're already exhausted, and we haven't even t...

What are friends for? Why, co-writing comics of course! Dan Mishkin and Gary Cohn (or Gary Cohn and Dan Mishkin if you like) are the dynamic duo behind big chunk of DC's 1980s output. They may be best known for creating the characters Amethyst (Princess of Gemworld) and Blue Devil. But after this episode, they'll be known for getting grilled by our own Bandit Oren in a 2-on-1 interview for the age...

Probably best known for his work with Mark Waid on Captain America, Ron Garney couldn't be more different than the star spangled Sentinel of Liberty. He's a certified badass that had to wake up the day after our interview for some 5:00 Jujutsu. Maybe that's why his Hulk and Wolverine were among the most savage ever drawn. And perhaps that's why he was hand-chosen by Keanu Reeves to draw his first...

Here's a fun one for all you 90s kids! The Bandits welcome Adam and Michael from Wizards: The Podcast Guide to Comics for a convening of our favorite gimmick covers of all time. Witness as we attempt to organize the proceedings into four rounds: Die-Cut, Polybagged, Foil/Chrome, and Wild Card! Marvel as these covers unfold, pop up, are obscured by thick promotional copy, and blind you with their e...

The guy started as an unpaid college intern in 1989. Now, more than 30 years later, he's Senior Vice President of Publishing at Marvel. That's right, we're talking to Marvel's longest running editor, fount of comic book knowledge and history, and all-around swell guy, Tom Brevoort. During his decades-long career, Tom has overseen books for nearly all of Marvel's catalog of characters, as well as f...

Ladies and gentlemen, are you ready for a Hembeck of a good time? Well, that's what you're getting with this podcast-only episode of DBB. Master of superhero parody and curlicue joints, Fred Hembeck sits down with the Bandits to discuss his seriously funny career. You probably know Fred from his cartoons in Marvel Age , but he's worked across the industry, including First Comics, Fantagraphics, an...

Superman's #1 fan is back in Bandit Town! That's right, Mark Waid returns for more interrogation, this time without that pesky half-hour time limit. We get deeper into Flash (specifically the Speed Force and his supporting cast of speedsters), Kingdom Come , the 52 weekly series, and Mark's remembrances of his late friend and collaborator, Brian Augustyn. Finally, we dive into the world of Irredee...

In this roundup edition of Bandit Bits, Bandits Joe and Mike take a trip around the comics world, starting with a look at ComiXology's recent update. Then we move on to the various adaptations hitting the screens this spring. Is Daredevil's integration into the MCU a good thing? Is Marvel at the tipping point with its multiverse building movies? How dark is too dark for The Batman? We also dive in...

It's right there in his Instagram handle: Comic Legend Bob Layton . And it's true: not many of our guests have had his level of impact on the industry. Using the fanzine he created with Roger Stern ( Contemporary Pictorial Literature or CPL ) as a springboard, Layton would soon come under the apprenticeship of Wally Wood (and later the mentorship of Dick Giordano) and join the Crusty Bunkers inker...

Al Bigley has drawn it all, including comics, storyboards, merchandise, and more. His work spans not only Marvel and DC, but Golden Books, Disney, Saban, Film Roman, Scholastic, McDonald's and Kenner Toys. He was one of the first to draw the adventures of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and contributed storyboards to the Avengers and Wolverine and the X-Men animated series. He even does some impressi...

If you know Kelley Jones -- and you should -- you're probably conjuring up one of his creepy, highly-stylized Batman: Knightfall covers from his run in the 90s. That's fair. Those covers and his interior art on the Dark Knight are iconic. But Kelley is more than that. He contributed to the look of the Dreaming in several issues of Sandman . He also redesigned Deadman to look more like, well... a d...

Not just another inker-turned-writer, Jimmy Palmiotti has had an outsized impact on the industry that welcomed him way back in 1991. Starting with hard-edged Marvel titles like Punisher , Ghost Rider , and The Nam , Jimmy went on to found Event Comics with friend and frequent collaborator, Joe Quesada. After co-creating characters like Ash and Painkiller Jane, he and Quesada helped turnaround Marv...

If you ever thought studying chemistry and math could get you into comics, you were right! At least if your name is Val Semeiks. After studying STEM in college and trying his hand at advertising, Val finally found his vocation as a comics penciller, starting with Conan and continuing with big runs on The Demon and Lobo at DC. Collaborating with writer Alan Grant, the artist took on the rhyming hel...