Ron Marz and Any Lanning talk Resolution!

Ron Marz and Andy Lanning

Melissa: [00:00:00] This is spoiler country and I’m Alyssa searcher today on the show. I’m excited to welcome two amazing comic book creators, Ron Mars and Andy Lanning. Welcome to the.

Ron Marz: Hey, thanks for having us. I’m Ron, by the way. And, and the other guys, Andy, that you click the guy with the weird accent is

Andy Lanning: Andy. I like to think of it as, as the proper accent actually, right?

Melissa: The proper English.

Andy Lanning: Yeah. You might not be wrong. Yeah. Sorry. And it’s great to be here. Okay. Well

Melissa: thank you both. And and how’s everyone doing today?

Ron Marz: Good. I just, I just got back from my first convention. 19 months. So, and I’m still healthy, so it must’ve worked out. Okay.

Melissa: How did that go actually? Was it, was it weird being at a convention again?

Ron Marz: It was, it was exactly the same and completely different. It was, you know, I walked in the bill, it was at the rose city. Comic-Con in Portland, Oregon. So I had to fly across the country. So [00:01:00] that was a whole different thing. But ultimately it was, it was all kind of the same. It was just, you know, everybody was a little, little more spaced apart and everybody had a mask on, so you weren’t quite sure who was, who was like a giant, it was like a giant bank robbery in progress for three days

Melissa: constantly.

Interesting.

Ron Marz: Yeah, but everybody seemed to be, I mean, to be serious about it, everybody seemed to be like chipper and in a good mood. You know, bitching or complaining about this is the reality that we live in now. Including the cost players. I mean, I, I assume there were mass under those Stormtrooper helmets.

He was going

Andy Lanning: to say if there’s one group of people who. Really used to it’s cosplayers,

Melissa: isn’t it? Yeah. They probably have the easiest time when the whole the whole transition. Exactly. Yeah, I think it’s I heard that they’re doing like the the photo ops with like plexiglass in between. Did you see any that

Ron Marz: somebody, yeah, somebody had [00:02:00] asked me if I was going to go get my photo taken with Christina Ricci and I thought, well, no, that’s probably not a thing that’s going to happen.

But they had done so because because that, you know, I guess she was their, their childhood crush, their teenage crush and said that, you know, they gotta, they gotta fuck. But there was a piece of plexiglass down the middle between the two of them, which I’m thinking I’m kind of shocked. Nobody thought of that ahead of time, like years ago.

Melissa: Yeah. Yeah.

Andy Lanning: I was going to say I still, I still think the absolute best version of this is, and I can’t remember what, what group did it, but they had everyone in salt balls in the audience. Did you see the picture of that? Yeah, there was a re they say there was a gig last year where, where the audience was just full of people in zoo balls.

But.

Micah. I’m going to look it up. I’ll look it up on the other leg, but while we’re talking and I’ll just, I’ll suddenly cut across every one of them, let you know, I’ve got to find it. [00:03:00]

Melissa: Oh, really? It’s hilarious. Well, I’m guessing you were there to promote resolution, right?

Ron Marz: I was actually there to promote almost American, which first issue just came out from from aftershock which is a real life spy story.

I just wrote So, so, but we’re, you know, we’re equal opportunity. Promoters we’ll promote any damn thing. So we, you know, we, there was some talk of, of resolution as well as endless winter, the DC crossover that Andy and I wrote last year. So. Yeah. It was an interesting time in that the man, everybody was just thrilled.

Like usually people are, you know, especially by Sunday by Sunday, the three three-day con everybody’s just kind of worn down to enough for it to be over. But the level of enthusiasm was pretty terrific.

Andy Lanning: And I’m now interjecting. I have my facts. It was, it was the flaming lips and they played a gig in, in Oklahoma.

They were in zoo books, [00:04:00] including a giant one around the drummer and the whole audience were installed.

It’s like you look at it, it’s like, that’s how to do a convention. It means you setting up, you’re setting up your standard. Someone just rolls in knocks everything. It

Melissa: makes it interesting. If everyone was drinking too, you know, you just like people rolling around, losing control of their balls.

Andy Lanning: And then there’s a, there’s a phrase you don’t. Right. Yeah,

Melissa: exactly. Oh my goodness. We’re getting so off track now.

Andy Lanning: Sorry. That was much.

Melissa: So funny, I’m definitely [00:05:00] Googling about later. So tell me about tell me about resolution you know, what’s it, or tell our listeners what it, what it’s about and you know, the premise of it and everything.

Ron Marz: I think the, I think the really short version is well, it’s a, it’s a, the The nuts and bolts first, it’s a hardcover graphic novel that Andy and I are co-writing and Rick Leonardi is drawing.

Andy is inking and Andrew dollhouse is coloring. And it is a it’s a return to sort of the cosmic storytelling that. That I have done in my career on stuff like green lantern and silver surfer. And Andy has done in his career on guardians of the galaxy and Legion of superheroes and annihilation.

The short version of the story itself is it’s. It’s essentially unforgiven meets the Greenland. Oh,

Andy Lanning: wow. Okay. That’s Ron’s verse in Munis. My version is it’s unforgiven meets the Nova call. Okay. So

Melissa: to interpretation,

Andy Lanning: it’s it depends on who’s who gets to the [00:06:00] microphone first as to which physician that comes out.

Melissa: Do you, do you have fun working on your own comic? I mean, as far as. You got fun regardless, no matter what you’re doing, but is there a different sense about it when you’re, when you’re doing your own creator owned?

Ron Marz: I think so. I mean, it’s look, this is,

Andy Lanning: I’m still convinced

Ron Marz: that this is the best job on earth.

You know, regardless whether you’re working on creator own stuff or working on You know, working on Batman or Superman or Spider-Man this is a great gig but there is, I think, a greater sense of personal investment when it’s your thing, when you’ve created it from the ground floor up You know, that also means that you’re working without a net you’re working, you’re working on something that you’re creating as you’re, you are making it.

You’re, you’re building the train tracks as the, as the train is running down the tracks. So you sort of have to have a pretty good sense of where you’re going. You don’t have [00:07:00] 40 or 50 years of superhero continuity to, to rely upon. When you, when you come to. Spot and story, and you go, I don’t know what should happen next.

You know, if you’re, if you’re, if you’re working on Spider-Man, well, what can happen next as well? Dr. Post attacks? Why not? But when you’re working on your own thing there, you know, there aren’t any toys in the toy box for you to fall back on. So, you have to, you know, you have to make up all of your own.

Which is awesome. It’s a, it’s a tremendous it’s a tremendous aspect of doing create our own comics. But it is kind of a knife that cuts both ways.

Andy Lanning: Yeah. I mean, it, like Ron said that the challenge is you have to make it all up, but, but that’s also. The, the advantage and the, and the attraction about the whole thing and the, the, the, the ability that, that we’ve been given with ACS to make up that sort of cosmic scope landscape of.

Of storytelling with something like this and we go and we we’ll get into, you know, I guess [00:08:00] there’s a bit of depth with the storytelling, but it’s like, we, you know, we’re creating our own sort of intergalactic, cosmic peacekeeping force with our central hero. And she’s a retired recluse when we meet her, but we also flashed back to her in our prime.

You know, 20, 30 years before. And so we’re getting, we’re getting to, by doing those flashbacks with fleshing out the past which has informed the future in which she finds herself. And she sort of, corralled by, by an old colleague to, to, to, to try and go on one last job. And that’s the central tenant of the you know, the story that at least of this this first graph.

Melissa: Okay, so she’s kind of reluctant at first. To take the bait and be like, just leave me alone. I’m in retirement.

Andy Lanning: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, she’s, she’s, she’s, you know, she’s very world weary. And has, you know, retired, not only from the superhero life, but from public life completely in is on a very remote world.

And again, that’s another advantage of what we did. We get into [00:09:00] make up some wacky, wacky planets as part of this sort of like fantastical galaxy or cosmic landscape we’re playing with. But yeah, so she’s, she’s, she’s basically a what we’re calling a fish herder on a planet who all this that’s got a weird gravitational peculiarity.

That means all of the water floats in. So it’s a, it’s a planet with sky scenes and sort of floating lakes. The, the, the visuals of that is sort of like these Globes almost like lava lamps suspended, floating in the sky, and she farmed fish in these giant Globes of water. Wow. That’s

Melissa: so great.

I’ve actually, I mean, that is, you don’t see anything like that. I mean, a lot of Saifai and planetary type stories. It’s, it’s similar. I mean, the names change, but the landscapes tend to look the same. So that’s really interesting. Did you guys come up with that together?

Ron Marz: Yeah, I wish I could say that we did, but I think that was mostly Andy’s

Andy Lanning: [00:10:00] idea.

Ron Marz: Absolutely.

Melissa: I will

Andy Lanning: take, got it, Melissa. It came to me after I watched this, I saw this picture of people in bizarre bubble.

Melissa: You’re still thinking like we, this sounds familiar.

Andy Lanning: They a there’s a through line. Absolutely.

And the cool, the cool thing with this is this is when we’re not doing well. It’s a weird one actually, because our artist, Rick Leonardi, and again, we’ll, we’ll, we’ll talk about Rick and the genius that he brings to the table. Rick’s, Rick’s kind of really cool wanting to get into some hard scifi stuff, which I love as well, but at the same time, we’re also balancing that out.

What I would call science fiction fantasy, you know, so, so, so something like June or star wars there, science fiction fantasy as is about Rogers. And so as opposed to, you know, 2001, and those types of ones, which are a lot more based in reality or you know, and the marsh and that type of film, but so we’re playing with [00:11:00] some proper, you know, sort of physics based.

Stuff, but, but we really taken flight it’s offensive. You know what I mean? It’s like, you know, this isn’t, this isn’t meant to be read as part of the physics curriculum in school. Put it that way. Yeah.

Melissa: That’s awesome. And yeah, you mentioned Rick Leonardi, which is, is a wonderful artist. And so did you, you know, you obviously went, approached him and said, Hey, do you want to be a part of this project?

And was he like yes, right away. And how did that all work out?

Ron Marz: Rick’s pretty casual. Yeah. Okay. That sounds good. That’s fine. I I’ve, I’ve known Rick. I’ve been friends with Rick for. More than 20 years now, I guess. And we worked together a lot. So when, when Andy and I started to hatch this you know, Rick was, Rick was number one on the short list of who should draw this.

So I just gave me yelling and he said, yeah. Okay. But that sounds like it’d be fun. And you’re, you know, he’s so good and so unique in terms of what he brings to the page. [00:12:00] And the style that he works in there’s, you know, there’s nobody, there’s nobody that’s sort of Wrigley and RD light. It’s it’s him.

There’s, there’s one unique, original. So, you know, I’ve worked with him on a bunch of stuff over the years. He’s actually just just finished a The original graphic novel for Naval Institute press that I’m working with him on which is obviously a very real world with a touch of superpowers in it.

Kind of thing called blue angel. So, you know, I’m just I’m just thrilled that we’re able to. Anytime that he can bring one of my stories to life, I feel like a very fortunate writer because in this business, your, your story is only as good as the person drawing it. So, so when you get to work with somebody like Brickley and RD, You got a pretty good chance of being successful.

Melissa: Yeah. You got, it made

Ron Marz: the real truth is you just, you ride the coattails of your artists as best you can, right?

Melissa: Yeah. Well, yeah. They bring everything to life for you. And did [00:13:00] he so I’m guessing he probably had his own input as far as like what he thought. So, you know, it should look like, I mean, I I’m guessing you had boundaries and guidelines and things like that too, but were you just more open to like his suggestions?

Just being such a great artist that he is.

Andy Lanning: Yeah, I mean, it, we, we did we, you know, we created character bios. We put visual reference in there of the sorts of things that we were thinking of. And then, you know, Rick took them and ran, you know, and that’s the best way the run I was talking about this the other day is, is we really liked to write plot style and then dialogue, when the pages come back from the artist That’s a real collaboration going on there, you know, it’s, it’s like, you know, and again, there’s no right way or wrong way to do this at all.

It’s just the way that you feel gets the best results on, on, on the page. And with someone like Ricky site. We can break a page down for him into, you know, potential panels and explain what’s happening and get quite detailed where you need to, but [00:14:00] then leave him to do the rest of the, you know, he’s been doing this for two years.

It’s like, he knows what he’s doing on his first day. It’s not his first rodeo. And we’re kind of like, you know, it’s almost like we tee it up and he knocks it down and then and then we get to come back in and. You know, and then I, in, in the ideal version of it is put very little dialogue on it because he’s done all of the heavy lifting,

Melissa: a couple of words here and there. Just a picture book. How did you, the exosuits. And in the concept of how they like merge, you know, to the person wearing ’em and then, then they’re emitting this like dark matter. And how did you come up with that concept? Was that, did you go through various that are Asians.

Ron Marz: This might shock you, but we just made all that shit up.

Melissa: Well, yeah, I’m guessing that,

Andy Lanning: well, it was, [00:15:00] it was another one of those ones where again, we, you know, we given our. I’ll pass the streets. We wanted to have the intergalactic team, the core. We wanted it to be energy based and Oh, yeah. And then I think Ronnie, it was like, we were betting a lot of ideas or, and it was like, oh no, that’s too close to Greenland.

No, that one’s too close to the Nova Corps. And we were trying to come up with something. That’s got a flavor of both of those without being directly a off I think everything fell into place. When we came up with the idea of, of, of calling the team they, they call blades they’re the resolute lights.

And then they’re, they’re sort of like rang. Based on the names of aged weapons. So, so there’s this, you know, stiletto rank, broadsword rain and I’ve run out of fish yet rank, I dunno, run out and played the sabers and stuff like that. And that, and the, our equivalent of the [00:16:00] guardians of odor called the heat.

And and, and then it was like, okay, great. Cause that played into this, this, this idea that they are weapons and they, they themselves become tools. And that’s part of the, the, the thing that our hero Zen Maddox is as we call it as part of the thing she’s given up, because she doesn’t want to be a weapon anymore.

But that, that played into in, in, into the whole notion of, okay, so let’s, you know, they, they. Create energy based weaponry around themselves and all of their kids is based by them being able to transmute dark matter and dark energy, which again is a great, this is that thing of, yes, that’s a real physics concept, right?

It’s so unknown at the moment, you can do whatever the hell you want with it at the moment. Then some physicist will come along and ruin it for us all. But there, there always be wacky things out there in the university. You can play on like that. But so, so yeah, so we, we, we, we sort of toyed with that idea and then, [00:17:00] you know, gave that to, to reckon he, he designed the costume and the power look based off those concepts.

Melissa: That’s really cool. I think, you know, definitely just from what you described, you can tell that both of you, you know, have so much experience in world-building either. Cause that’s very specific. It’s very creative. And I think that like when you’re first starting out, you know, it’s, it’s much harder to create something out of nothing.

Do you feel like you have any, it gets easier now or do you still feel challenged?

Ron Marz: Well, we kind of come off like jackasses. We say we’re not challenged. I, you know, I dunno, I, I like this job. I like making stuff. Sometimes, you know, sometimes, you know, you sort of stare at a blank wall and you’re not really, you know, things aren’t really working, but that’s actually one of the pleasures of co-writing with Andy is that between [00:18:00] the two of them.

We’re not both going to be stalled at the same time. There’s, there’s always an idea to, to kick back and forth or some sort of springboard that we can back, back and forth between the two of us and hopefully arrive at something that we’re, you know, that neither one of us was going to come up with on our own You know, I, I’ve obviously written a lot written a lot solo, and that is one of the pitfalls of writing solo is that there’s, you know, you’re kind of, you know, you’re kind of swinging on the trap piece by yourself.

There’s nobody to catch it. Right. So, so when Andy and I write together, I think, I think the process is. We, we can both in terms of getting the work done and also just sort of Ida eating on on where we’re going to go with. Yeah.

Andy Lanning: I mean that, that the world-building aspect of what we do, I love it, you know, it’s it’s you know, yeah, yeah.

It’s challenging because you want to always try to come up with something that is fresh and new and exciting. You know, that’s always a challenge, [00:19:00] but it’s, it’s so much fun. I love collaborating, you know, I’ve, I’ve barely written anything on my own, you know, everything I’ve done since I started was always with a, with a, with a co-writer and right from the very first thing I did with my friend, John Cornell, the sleeves province comic for the Marvel UK in the, in the eighties.

But that was also out of necessity. I was always either drawing or linking stuff at the same time. So, for me, it’s a really interesting thing because it’s using two different parts of the brain really. It’s like when I’m sitting inking I can listen to audio books and podcasts and stuff like that, but when I’m writing I’ve, I’ve got to have, you know, just, just blind music on, in the background or silence because I’m thinking about it.

And then there’s the great funded. Doing what we’re doing now, but we’ve run, we will jump on a Skype call for an hour and just bounce ideas around once we, once we’ve set the world to write, which generally is about 90% of the conversation

Melissa: once you’ve decided. Yeah. I’m just realizing [00:20:00] that both of you have.

Your backgrounds look almost identical right now that again, put the box in the toys

Ron Marz: in the background. We don’t, we don’t tell anybody, but we’re actually in the same room. It’s just on opposite wall.

Andy Lanning: So if you just spin the camera around, there’s the back of Ron and

Melissa: tooling desks facing each other.

Andy Lanning: Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. I hesitate to say this, but I would, I would gamble a large amount of money. A lot of comic group creators have a very similar specs.

Ron Marz: We’re essentially in the same room, separated by an ocean.

Melissa: The typical yeah. Comic book the den, the den of creativity.

Andy Lanning: It is, it is yep. Equal amounts of, of, of. Comics graphic novels, toys, dust, dust. Yeah, a lot of dust. I realized that today, [00:21:00] actually it looks like I’m an extra from June in here,

Melissa: but a dark matter going on in there

Andy Lanning: dark matter.

Melissa: So, so this is a one-shot right? So far, are you going to write anymore in this world?

Ron Marz: We would love to we, we, we, we plan to, but you know, first things first, let’s get the first one out and done and in people’s hands and then we can, then we can figure out what we’ve got. Well, I think we kind of know story-wise what we want to do for volumes two and even volume three.

You know, first things first, we got to get this one

Melissa: done. Okay. And it got fully funded on and I have to ask, cause I have not heard of Zoopla before. And so what is Dubin and is rather than Kickstarter.

Ron Marz: Zoop is a comics centric, crowdfunding platform that launched in June. I think so it’s new, it’s a new crowd funding platform.

And I I had a relationship, so I have a relationship, obviously with the, with the guys who founded zoo and they had contacted me and said, [00:22:00] Hey, do you have anything that you might want to bring to this new platform? And it’s the idea of, it was sort of this concierge platform for comics so that they would handle the heavy lifting of the campaign that, you know, designing the page and the logistics of all that plus put us with printing and fulfillment partners so that we could.

Concentrate. And most of our time and energy into what we do, which is to make the actual, make the actual comment made the graphic novel. So that’s where the really them counting, contacting me and saying, you know, do you have anything? And then me kicking it over to Andy and saying, well, let’s, let’s do with it.

Here’s an opportunity. You know, help this platform get off the ground and to get our own thing out there. Let’s, let’s give this a whirl. So kind of grew organically from there. And you know, there’s still zoop. Zoop is gotten off to a successful start and they’re still doing campaigns. So, [00:23:00] so far so good.

As to, as to why, why not Kickstarter no particular reason other than zoop came to us. I’ve been involved in Kickstarter campaigns previously and they’ve all gone well, there’s, you know, there’s an art as well as a science to how all of that stuff works. So I think it’s more and more, I think crowdfunding is crowdfunding for creator owned stuff is a bigger and bigger part of how the, the comics industry is going to

Melissa: work.

Yeah, absolutely. I see a lot of it now.

Andy Lanning: Yeah. And, and just to follow from what Ron was saying. Cause when, when was it guys approached randomly and we looked at what the options were. It was It seemed to us that it was, it was a good, a good bet to try this, to try zoom pout, because, you know, not, not only because they, we liked what they were trying to set up and the way that they want to do things.

But you know, from our point of view, it was like, well, you know, yes, we could try and do a Kickstarter, but that would be. I don’t think [00:24:00] we ever got round to it this year, but, you know, it’s, it’s a lot of heavy lifting. And you know, that that’s very attractive when, when people are offering to, to do a certain proportion of the work for you.

And to the degree that I think if zoom, zoom is as successful as they want to be in. And we hope that that, that, that things pan out there really because Then it becomes a genuine alternate way to publish beyond even the Kickstarter model where you generally have to have everything done yourself in your own spare time.

And all of that business, you have to, it’s almost like a slightly different form of indie publishing, you know, and then an alternative to your images. And and, and those, those more indie publishing models. Because, because you’re servicing a fan base and because you’re doing, you know, you’re doing direct to your fan publishing like that which also then gives you the option after the fact to, to, to.

Broadening [00:25:00] that reach by going to publishers because you know, that, that, that becomes a secondary market for the whole thing. So, yeah, we, we, we, I think it was quite literally when it rolled, we were like, yeah, what the hell? Let’s give it a go, let’s give it a go. Why not?

Melissa: Yeah. Nothing to lose at that point.

I mean, and I’m sure. Their platform being so new too, to have two people as yourself, like with a credibility that kind of helps boost the signal for them, you know, to kind of attract more N D artists. And established artists I should say.

Andy Lanning: Yeah, no for sure. And again, I think I didn’t adding, I didn’t recognize Andrew to the mix and everything.

It’s sort of like, it’s a pretty decent team. And you know, like light runs it again, was it is, you know, this is, this is the first part of what is really a three part story. So we really want to. We want to get it, get it going and start cranking that engine so that we can do do more in this world.

Because you know, we we’ve built all of that backstory. We’ve built that, all of that, that universe building. [00:26:00] It’d be nice to tell some more stories.

Melissa: Yeah. Keep putting in that world and for those who miss the opportunity to back it, when do you know roughly, like when can we kind of expect that the issue to come out.

Ron Marz: The plan is March, March was our target date from the start. And we’re still looking good for that. So, we’ve got some time ahead of us and obviously printer shortages and supply chain issues, thanks to the pandemic or also a factor in all of this. Unfortunately you just have to work around it.

And also you know, our, our intention is to have the book itself finished by the end of the year. And then you’re into the end of year printers, holidays and stuff like that. So we built in, we built in some cushions so that we can still make sure that the book comes out on time. So March is when the book will be available and you should be able to buy actual zoop wolves.

We’ll stock, extra copies at that point as well. So there you can actually just, just show up and buy the thing on the, on the zoop website. [00:27:00]

Melissa: And there’s a companion.

Ron Marz: Yeah, there’s kind of a companion making a book that kind of pulls back the curtain of the creative process of putting this all together.

So it will include the script and Rick’s thumbnails and selected pencils, selected inks by Andy and color. And so w you know, we want to be able to give the process junkies out there. A an entire book of this is, you know, this is how the sausage gets made. This is, this is what goes into actually putting together a book from scratch.

Melissa: Okay. Very cool. Awesome. Well, I know you’re both very busy before I let you go. So there is a Kyle Rayner appreciation page on Facebook and if it’s all right with you, I just wanted to ask maybe a couple of questions from some of the fans. Sure. All right. So Casey says I’d love to know how involved Darryl banks was and helping excuse me to develop the character [00:28:00] Ron’s writing.

And Darryl’s pencils were the perfect one, two punch for Kyle’s debut and early adventures. And it’s the sole reason. Kyle is my favorite characters since childhood.

Ron Marz: That’s very kind. Highly intelligent. So, yeah, I mean, Darren was obviously responsible for the, for all of the visuals. Darryl came up with what kind of looked like and put together a number of different costume variations that we sort of, took pieces from each and, and ended up with a final, a final look for him.

And in terms of his personality, I, you know, I think they sort of go. Go hand in glove. You know, I think I was more responsible for the, you know, what Kyle’s personality was like and sort of what kind of character they turned into. But if I didn’t have Darryl as an artistic partner, he, you know, Kyle wouldn’t have turned out like he did, it would be, he would be a different character.

So I think those are, those are fairly inseparable.

Melissa: Okay. Awesome. Mike wants to know like all the characters in comic books, Kyle has changed across the years. Is [00:29:00] there something that you don’t like that has been added on him or that you find totally out of the character in the new comics?

Ron Marz: I never look at stuff like that and decide, oh, well, I wouldn’t have done that.

You know? Yes, I co-created them, but it’s not my character. It’s DC’s character. And they can do with him. As they see fit, you, you go into an arrangement like this, knowing that. It’s not yours. You you don’t, you don’t own the character. You’re not taking the character away with you when you, when you stop.

So I don’t look at, you know, I never look at something and go, well, I would, you know, that’s wrong. I wouldn’t have done that. We all stand on the shoulders of the people who came before us. And. Part of the evolutionary process and comics. So there are, you know, there’s certainly stuff that I look at and go, well, I wouldn’t have thought of that, but that’s a good thing.

It’s, you know, it’s it’s good that you you bring something into the world and then you put it out there for, for other people to play with. Okay,

Melissa: awesome. Let’s see. Joel just would like to know what’s your favorite Kyle storyline?

Ron Marz: I think Andy should answer [00:30:00] that one.

Andy Lanning: That’s put me on the, on the spot. Isn’t it. This call Reiner again.

What member of the Nova call was he?

Ron Marz: Well, I mean, honestly, Nova was a huge inspiration for Kyle because Nova was a book that I read as a kid. I read. The first batch of issues of Nova as a kid, because it was a ground floor, read it, you know, it wasn’t like issue 1 68. It was issue two for me. And that had an appeal as a kid picking stuff off of a, of a spinner rack in the supermarket.

So Kyle was, was, you know, very greatly inspired by Peter Parker, but also but also rich writer also Nova You know, I was too young at the time to realize it, but obviously, you know, obviously Nova is Spider-Man and green [00:31:00] lantern put together, which to great extent is what Kyle is. So, they’re, they’re all in the same meal.

You I, I honestly don’t know that I have a favorite Kyle story. I don’t think I’m the one who gets to judge that. I think you sort of, You sort of put it out there and just hope that people respond to it. And and w you know, whatever anybody’s favorite is, is their favorite. It’s not.

Melissa: Awesome.

Yeah. And it, and it looks like you answered my question to you cause he wanted to know what inspired you. So that’s that’s awesome. Yeah. And, and most of these comments too, are just comments people just saying thank you. And that it’s their favorite comic from their childhood and just Joaquin from Guatemala?

Yeah, so, well

Ron Marz: it’s when, when we were given the opportunity to create tile and, and the only. The only parameters we were getting. Was, you know, and then a new green lantern is created. That was the, that was the brief from DC editorial. They sort of gave us the, the beats of [00:32:00] what was going to happen to how, but what happened after that was kind of up to us.

And my intention since, since how was being taken off stage was like, okay, let’s, let’s not do a hell Jordan type character. Let’s go in the other direction. So, how was obviously. Sort of classic lantern, jawed, no pun intended hero. You know, he’s a fearless test pilot. He’s a, he’s a hero before he ever gets the, gets the green lantern ring.

So my intention was to go in the opposite direction and do an every man type of character where you could see yourself in that role. You could put yourself in the character shoes very much. Kind of a cut from that Spider-Man archetype where the hero was just a guy, the heroes in, in that sense, the heroes nobody’s special.

The hero is, is, has to grow into the role. And I think stories of heroes becoming heroes rather than already being heroes are, are [00:33:00] more interesting to me though. They’re more interesting to me as both a writer and a reader.

Andy Lanning: Joking about what my favorite car sorta is, but what I found was really interesting, I was, it was, Kyle was my green lantern for the the, the, the, the time that I started writing for DC. Cause, cause, and do you remember Ron? I am and Williams and I filled in on the issue of Greenland as well. And I think I worked with Mike McKown on a call.

Sorry. You’ve done as well. It was like, I hadn’t read much Greenlands and prior to working in industry and working for DC, and then you get the comps coming through. So, so not only was, you know, Carlin’s own book. He was in the JLA as well at that time and everything like that. So he was it almost like, cause I’m the same as you with Nova Nova was my entry hero, the hero.

I discovered. Cause I think I came here on issue two of them. It’s

Ron Marz: funny cause I did too. Cause I didn’t get issue one. I don’t think I’ve actually ever had issue. One of Nova [00:34:00]

Andy Lanning: with the condo is,

Ron Marz: oh my God, this just got so nerdy. I can’t even try it

Melissa: started out with the same issue,

Andy Lanning: but the thing is it’s that thing of discovery.

A comic earlier, early enough, it’s like discovering a band before they get famous, or, you know, I that’s my entry level comic. And therefore I know I’ve, I’ve read all of the stories with that character because, and it was the same with Kyle as a green lens. I was aware of green arrow, green lens in the classic new items.

Read them. I was aware of them and I’d seen them reprinted and things like that. But Kyle I’d followed his story. I have seen him followed, followed, followed his, his development over the course of Ron Allen. Allen. Did you write him for what? Five years? Seven years.

Yeah, that’s a lot of comics in it. It’s a lot of page.

Ron Marz: It was the days of the long run being, not that unusual. And obviously now it’s, [00:35:00] it’s much more of a rare occurrence.

Melissa: Yeah. Yeah. The term that, I guess, turnover, I don’t know if that’s the right word, but it does seem to be shorter runs than it used to be. Yeah.

Andy Lanning: I think, I think these, these days. You know, it’s good.

If you can get a two to three year run on a comic, I think you’d be really happy. Cause you can get you, you can actually tell a decent arc of stories if you, if you, you know, and in some aspects it’s like, if you, if you’ve just got a year, you’re just about finding your feet with a character and then and then you’re out again.

I guess that’s the life of a freelancer.

Melissa: So, you know, aside from, you know, resolution, you’ve also, have you mentioned you have almost American. And then Andy, do you have anything else that you’re working on besides this one?

Andy Lanning: Yeah. Well, some other things we’ve run when we, I don’t think we’re at Liberty to announce yet, but we’ve been.

Beavering away, you know, we can [00:36:00] point back to the endless winter. Cause I think there’s the collection of that coming out very soon. Isn’t there, which that was great. I think November, cause

Ron Marz: you want to put your, you want to put your, you know, your winter story, you don’t wanna put your winter storyline out in the middle of summer.

So,

Andy Lanning: I, yeah, so, that was great fun. And like I say, we run a little bit, we’ve got a few. Other things with some other publishers that we’ll, we’ll come back and enjoy awfully pimp and that when we’re allowed.

Melissa: Yeah, I would absolutely love for you both to come back. It’s been really fun. Yeah, you guys are hilarious, actually.

Very

Andy Lanning: entertaining. Yes, please

Melissa: do not.

Andy Lanning: It was thought, but it’s slowly filling with beer. It’s

Melissa: a race against

Andy Lanning: time. Raise the games

Melissa: time. Great. Well, you’re going to have to match him then. I mean, I have to be in the ball. Awesome. Well [00:37:00] again, thank you both for coming on. Yeah, it’s been, it’s been awesome.

And yeah, everyone just keep your, your eyes out for a resolution when it sometime around March, he said, and you’re both on Twitter so people can follow you on there as well.

Ron Marz: We are on Twitter. That’s where to

Melissa: find us.