[00:00] John Barber: Hey there, Corner Boxers. This is John Barber with a disclaimer. I convinced David that our special guest’s audio sounded fine, and it didn't. Fortunately, Ed Bishop, our editor, pulled us out of the fire, as usual, and made it totally listenable, too, but not up to the exact standards of excellence that have become synonymous with The Corner Box. For that, we can only ask your forgiveness and indulgence, but now, on with the show.

[00:27] Welcome to The Corner Box, where we talk about comics as an industry and an art form. You never know where the discussion will go or who will show up to join host David Hedgecock and John Barber. Between them, they've spent decades writing, drawing, lettering, coloring, editing, editor-in-chiefing, and publishing comics. If you want to know the behind-the-scenes secrets, the highs and lows, the ins and outs of the best artistic medium in the world, then listen in and join us on The Corner Box.

[00:58] John: Hello, and welcome back to The Corner Box. I'm one of your hosts, John Barber. With me, as always

[01:04] David Hedgecock: David Hedgecock.

[01:06] John: We're here with a special guest today. An old friend of both of ours, Magma Comix publisher and president, Denton J. Tipton. Yeah, I thought there could be a round of applause.

[01:17] Denton Tipton: Thank you, John. I'm used to a live studio audience myself. I still watch a lot of 70s television. I grew up on that stuff.

[01:30] David: Hey. Welcome, Jim. I'm so excited to have you. Thanks for taking some time out of your very busy schedule as publisher, president, CEO.

[01:39] Denton: I don't claim the CEO title. I don't like the C Suite. I don't like the corporate aspects of that. So, I just go with president and publisher.

[01:48] John: I would like to, before we get started, do a shout out to our mutual friend, Mr. Tom Waltz, and congratulate him on his nomination for Vice President of the United States. That’s super exciting. I wish Tom all the best. We can finally get to the bottom of Covid.

[02:03] David: We’re going to finally get down to the bottom of a lot of conspiracies. If Tom Waltz was vice president, we'd all learn some stuff, I feel, or at least he would. Tom Waltz, friend of the show, he came and really delivered a good interview. That guy knows how to talk.

[02:18] John: No pressure.

[02:20] David: Yeah, Denton.

[02:21] Denton: Yeah, that guy can talk. Yes. I spend many an evening in the parking lot after work, talking with Tom.

[02:28] David: Did you see his Twitter handle, John? He actually had to post on Twitter saying, “hey. I'm Tom Waltz, not Tim Walz.” He literally had to do that. “I am the writer of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle comics, not the current vice-presidential nominee for the Democratic Party.” He had to put a post out. So, I'm sure that's happening to him.

[02:51] John: Oh, man. Well, I feel bad making that joke now. I didn't know that. Actually, weird thing, I know for a fact, that's happened to him before. There was somebody else with a similar name, another politician, that he was getting tweets about. I can't remember who it was, but it was somebody with a similar name to him.

[03:04] David: Magma Comix editor in-chief, Bobby Curnow, posted something on Twitter the same day that Tim was nominated, congratulating Tom Waltz on his vice presidency. I died laughing, man. I don’t know why that tickled me so much, but it sure did. That was pretty good.

[03:21] Denton: It's a good deep cut.

[03:24] David: It's a good way for us to start off the podcast, with super esoteric, in the weeds, minutia.

[03:31] John: Especially, given that it's jokes, apparently, everybody else has already made. That's the best joke. They've been road tested.

[03:37] David: Yeah. Also, this is going to come out, God knows when. So, it will also already have been run into the ground several times before we finally put the death knell to it with our version.

[03:49] John: They might be a completely different set of people running for president, by that time, but you never know. You never know, these days.

[03:56] Denton: No doubt. You say that, but between assassination attempts and old people.

[04:03] John: That was darker than I meant. It was meant, Biden dropped out of the race one time, but yeah. To be clear, other guy from Tenacious D, that was not the joke I was making.

[04:19] David: We should probably get this interview started. How are you doing, man?

[04:22] Denton: Thanks, I’m fresh off Covid. I'm feeling pretty good. I bounced back after about a week, but Comic Con is always the worst of times and the best of times.

[04:33] David: there was an alert in San Diego County, right before San Diego Comic Con, saying that Covid was up in the county, and I was like, “we are going to be in for it, man. We are in for it,” and sure enough, man, it seems like everybody I know got taken down after that show. Why don't you tell us a little bit about where you came from, what you did before IDW, and then maybe some career highlights at IDW? I know there's so many, and then I'd love to dive into some Magma Comix stuff. What was your first comic book that really grabbed you? We've asked this of a lot of people.

[05:09] Denton: That one, it could go a few different ways. I usually go to Brave and the Bold #111. I got hold of this copy, I got from my dad's best friend, and that book, I just, Jim Aparo art, Batman, who teamed up with the Joker, of all people. So, it's off the wall.

[05:31] John: Usually, they're not friends.

[05:33] Denton: Usually, yeah. So, twist. So, I was very confused, as a child. So, that one, I just read the death. So, that would probably be a real cornerstone, for me, but I was probably three or four, since from ‘79/80, little guy.

[05:53] David: Wow, so you weren't reading that book yourself. You were having it read to you?

[05:58] Denton: No, that was pretty quick on reading those little golden books. I picked up on that. So, I was reading pretty quickly.

[06:06] David: You read the book to, yourself, you were reading?

[06:10] Denton: Yeah, I probably got it when I was three, maybe four, and then, look where it got me. Making comics, but, obviously, it's a love. We’re not in it for the money. We’re in it for the art and the stories. So, you get hooked at a young age and you keep coming back to it.

[06:32] David: So, your parents really were an influence, because did they continue to feed you books, at that point?

[06:37] Denton: Yeah, my mom always encouraged me on that stuff, and take me to the library, and scholastic book fair was around in town. I got to take a part in that. So, that was a big part of it, and then Star Wars came along, too, and I got into sci-fi, and then fantasy, and then I found the Star Wars comic book and brought it all back to that. Comics just never really left me. I stuck through it, through high school, a little bit in college, I got away, but started reading the Vertigo stuff. So, I aged along with the comics I was reading. I got into the alternative comics and underground stuff, and my taste in comics evolved as I got older, as it should. It continues to. I'm not into the same thing that I was into when I was in college or when I was a kid. So, that's a good sign.

[07:33] David: Your first professional job inside comic was retail, right?

[07:39] Denton: Yeah. When I was in college, the big brain I am, I spent my student loans and my grant money on starting up a comic shop after working retail for a while. So, yeah, me and a buddy that had done some local hotel shows, setting up several booths, set up in the flea market one summer, in ’99, and we just opened up a shop. I was still going to college, and it's still going. I moved to California to take a job at the Union-Tribune in San Diego. So, I sold by my half out to my partner, and it's still going strong, and right now, I'm planning on a signing there, in October. Going to go back after the comic I’m writing, Hell’s Half Acre, which I'll be plugging shortly, I assure you. So, yeah. So, it will be good to be back there.

[08:34] David: So, it's the 25th anniversary. You’re going to be back, signing comics on the 25th anniversary of you helping to open that store. What's the name of the store?

[08:43] Denton: It's called Comics Exchange. It's still run by Bill Langford.

[08:47] David: How original.

[08:48] Denton: I know. There was a store down the road that we loved, called the Disc Exchange, and you’d come in, bring in your used discs, this is when there was physical media that people bought and sold, and traded. So, we liked the idea of the comics. We sell a lot of back issues and stuff, and that was […] to start with. We encourage people to come in and swap them.

[09:12] David: Comic, not plural, comics?

[09:15] Denton: I wanted it to be Comic Exchange, because when we do Comics Exchange, it looks like Comic Sex Change on the old worldwide web. I was even web savvy back then.

[09:31] David: I think you made a good decision there.

[09:33] Denton: Yeah. So, it’s still in business, and we're going back and signing there.

[09:39] David: Is your former partner still the owner of the place? Oh, he's still running it. Wow.

[09:46] Denton: Still running it, yeah. I met him at the University of Tennessee. He’d graduated law school there, selling comics, and then got to be friends, started talking about working on stuff together, and he had a law degree and never practiced. He just opened a comic shop, and then continued to build over the years. So, it's pretty amazing. People love comics, man, and you can't shake it. You guys, you’ve got a podcast talking about it.

[10:16] John: I know several people in comics that have law backgrounds. That is a weird one that comes up. I was on one of Andy Schmidt's Comics Experience Panels at Comic Con. I forgot Mark Guggenheim was a lawyer. Marjorie Liu.

[10:32] David: Oh, Marjorie Liu? I didn't know that.

[10:34] John: Yeah. She was a practicing lawyer when she started writing comics.

[10:35] David: Isn’t David Goyer?

[10:37] John: David Goyer. Yeah.

[10:39] Denton: Not anymore. He's like, “I’m in the canto business now.” He's a professional writer.

[10:44] David: Oh, he's a professional writer, exclusively, now. Launching in ‘99. What a tough year to launch, too.

[10:51] Denton: Oh, it was horrible, man. It was terrible times. We couldn't have done worse. Diamond was having trouble. So, we couldn't get terms with them. They wanted us to prepay for books. Normally, COD is what you should get, and they were like “no, you’ve got to prepay.” So, we ended up getting a sub-distributor, basically, a different shop in town, that we were friends with, ordered books for us, and we’d get their discount and not have to pay two months up-front.

[11:21] David: That's crazy. They were basically helping their competition. Were you guys far enough away that you thought you could both service the same area, or you were in different areas?

[11:31] Denton: We were completely separate. They were on the north side of Knoxville. We were on the South side. So, totally difficult clientele. They have a podcast now, that I’m going to be on as part of their 25th anniversary, and there's some stories that we had driving out there to pick those books up. One, the wheel on Bill’s car came off. He had an old BMW. We were going down i-40 because this is Tennessee. Out here, you would say the five or the eight. In fact, there's 40. So, we were going down the 40, his back tire just shoots straight up in the air. We were doing 65 through a construction zone, and that was a crazy one, and another one, one of our friends, he was one of our customers. He wanted his books as soon as possible. So, he would ride with us to go pick them up, and every morning, and Bill, despite being a lawyer, he plays it loosey goosey with the law. His tags were expired, and we got pulled over, and Bill’s very nonchalant, whatever, he pulls over into the gas station because he needs gas anyway, he pulls into the gas station, at the pump, the cop pulls over on the side. He was freaking out. Our friend gets up out of the car and walks into the convenience store to go buy a soda, and the cop gets on the speakers, like, “Sir. Get back in the car. Where do you think you're going?” He's like, “this has nothing to do with me. I'm just going to get a drink.” He’s like, “Sir. Get back in the car, right now.” So, he almost got a shot.

[13:06] David: I just feel like you glossed over the important part of this. This guy wanted his comics so bad that he was going with you to make sure that he was getting them, basically, first, before anybody else. Is that what he was doing? And then you were like, “yeah, you can come, but you’ve got to lift some boxes.” Is that what was going on?

[13:29] Denton: Yeah, and he was a friend and early customer. So, we were like, “yeah, come on.” He recently passed, actually. So, there was some recollections and reminiscing going on last year. It was the craziest thing, but this guy was so peculiar like that. He was just like, “Bill got pulled over. That has nothing to do with me. I was sitting in the back of the car, and there's a police officer yelling.”

[13:56] David: I thought you were going to say he had warrants out for his arrest and got you guys in all kinds of trouble.

[14:02] Denton: No, very opposite. Very straight-laced.

[14:07] David: How long were you in the retail?

[14:08] Denton: That was about 5/6 years. Something like that.

[14:10] David: Oh, so you really got a full dose of comic book retail. You did it, and you were doing it at one of the toughest moments in the last 30 or 40 years, I’ve got to think. ‘99 to 2001, 2002, into 2003. Those were tough times. If Diamond’s asking to pay for stuff before the order, how are you supposed to do business that way? That's crazy.

[14:37] Denton: That was crazy. That’s what we asked Glenn Cunningham. I still remember the rep’s name, like, “how do you expect to do business this way?” But we did it by diversification. We were big into back issues, and then we were early on trade paperbacks, because that's when those started taking off. We were big fans of the Vertigo stuff, and it was a college town. So, we catered a lot to that crowd, and Pokémon, Magic. I played a lot of Magic: the Gathering. I sold my Magic cards to help fund it, as well. I sold a Black Lotus for $300, and I don't know, that’s probably $3000 these days, at least. Pokémon, I sold. I gave one of my brothers a complete first edition set, like “hey, take care of this. It might be worth something one day.” I talked to him last year, he was like, “oh, man. I should have kept it.” I guess you should have.

[15:34] David: So, then you come out to San Diego. You go from comic books to newspaper in 2005.

[15:40] Denton: In Tennessee, I went to school for journalism, worked in newspapers while I was also running the shop with Bill. So, I had a full-time job, and then another full-time job. I worked the morning shift at the shop, and worked the night shift at the paper, and basically, just ran myself ragged, and came out to San Diego Comic Con in 2003, and just, my first vacation on my own. I really loved the city. I went to a baseball game out at Qualcomm, while they were still building Petco. So, got a job at the paper here, and of course, papers were still on the decline, at that point, and, I assume, since, but I answered a Craigslist ad, and it turned out to be IDW, and they needed some editorial help. I needed a different job, and the Union-Tribune switched my position once they changed hands, and then it became complicated. I had some […].

[16:42] David: How long were you at the paper?

[16:44] Denton: I worked at Knoxville Paper from 2000 to 2005, and came out here, to San Diego, from 2005, and 2008, when I joined IDW.

[16:56] David: Oh, wow. You were at IDW for a long time. Did you have any highlights from your time at IDW that you look back on and go, “Man.” I don't know.

[17:07] John: It was the day I showed up.

[17:11] David: That's like the Angel Gabriel showing up.

[17:14] John: Oh, the Angel Gabriel. I thought you said David Gabriel. I was like, “I guess, a little bit.”

[17:21] Denton: No, not quite.

[17:22] David: No, but that was a good pull. That was a good comic book pull, John. Well done.

[17:26] Denton: And then there was the second coming, too, when John came back. Third time’s the charm.

[17:36] David: I don’t know. Has anyone come back for a third time yet?

[17:38] Denton: Did Ryall pull the hattrick?

[17:440] David: Did he? No, I think he's just two.

[17:45] John: Yeah, it depends on how you count certain things, I think, but basically, no.

[17:50] Denton: I think that's a good point. IDW, it was all lowlights. It was all lowlights, except for our lunches together, our Wednesday lunches, when we got to do comic shop runs.

[18:02] John: That was fun.

[18:03] Denton: Those were fun days. Get the whole editorial crew and a couple more will always bring in some of the people to go scan them.

[18:11] John: That really was fun. I don't think you get that everywhere. I mean, even in comic book places, where we actually all just went to the store and just bought a bunch of comics every week. That was what we were doing. I don't know.

[18:21] Denton: Yeah, it was pretty unique. We got to go and look at all the books, interact with all the staff, and see what else people were putting out, what people are into, gripe and complain, have some therapy sessions. Those were the highlights at IDW. We got to work with so many great creators, and a lot of creative minds on the franchises themselves, and licenses, and stuff. It's not always a big hassle. We get to talk with some of these people and pick their brains, and work with them on those things. I was a big Star Wars fan as a kid, and when I found a Star Wars comic, that married two of my favorite things, as a kid, and at IDW, I got to work on the Star Wars Adventures Kids Comic, which meant a lot, to me, for various reasons. I get to pay it forward and make some really cool comics for kids to enjoy and get into those worlds that I loved, as a kid, as well.

[19:27] John: You were editing a bunch of stuff. You did some writing.

[19:30] Denton: Yeah, I got to do a little bit of stuff. GI Joe and Transformers, early-on. That was pretty great. You got to write quite extensively on Transformers, John, and to much acclaim, you and James Roberts doing the robots justice. So, it's all about those relationships and those people you got to work with. I got work with Bernie Wrightson on Frankenstein.

[19:54] John: Oh, yeah. That's right.

[19:57] Denton: We got to do a couple of issues together, and that was amazing, to be able to work with him. Big hero of mine. They say don't meet your heroes, don't work with your heroes, and that's right, 80% of the time, but not with Bernie. Really, really sweet guy. Hard to imagine some of the things that come out of his imagination, but fantastic artist. Those two were big ones, for sure.

[20:29] John: Yeah, I remember, you put a Valerio Schiti on a D&D book, early-on. He had done Battle Beast, but then you put him on that, and I think that might have been, I mean, it was super early work-for-hire stuff for him, and I believe he went straight from that into Bendis’s mouth. Bendis swallowed him whole, and then he was doing a bunch of stuff over at Marvel, with Bendis, right after that, if I'm recalling it correctly.

[20:54] Denton: I love that, when that happens. You work with these really talented people, and they take off. I don't know. They're doing maybe a new creative team on Thor or something, and Valerio is taking over, and it's a big deal, and they're using his name to sell Thor. It’s pretty cool.

[21:13] David: Not to toot our collective horns, but I do think that the challenge at IDW was much greater than what you see in a lot of other companies, because not only did we have the fact that we were dealing with licensors, so we had an entirely additional layer of approvals for things, sometimes multiple layers of approvals for things, to get things through, because we were a smaller company, we were also restricted by the level of budget that we had. So, we were constantly searching for new talent and breaking new talent, and I think we all did a really good job of searching and finding that, all the time. For me, that was one of the fun things about the job, but man, I don't think everybody had to do that, working editorial in other companies. I've always said that running the IDW crucible, with the way the company was, at the time, if you could get through that crucible and come out the other end, still alive, then you can work anywhere, man, because you can do the job, guaranteed

As we see everybody spreading out beyond IDW, it's proven the point. Everybody's gone on to different levels of success and proving that they know what they're doing and doing really interesting things. Between you and Bobby, and Mike, and Joel, over at Magma, and then Scott's doing his thing now, over at Act 4, and then John and a couple of people over at PUG-W, and it's just really cool to see everybody going off and taking all those talents that were learned, and applying them in new and interesting different ways, and with great effect. Magma Comix being one of what I think is turning out to be a great example.

[22:57] Hey, everybody. It's me, David. I realized that I haven't done enough talking about my new project, Miss Mina and the Midnight Guardians. So, we're launching a Kickstarter on August 27th of 2024, and it's going to be running for three or four weeks. I hope you all go check it out. Get on Kickstarter and type Miss Mina, and it'll pop up in the search engine, or you can just go to www.funtimego.com and it'll point you in the right direction from there. Alright, I hope you check it out. I'm really excited about it. It's 1801, and Miss Mina and her band of misfit monsters are battling the forces of the vampire King Dracula, trying to stop him from taking over the world. It's got some high action, high drama, and lots of cute chicks. Alright, thanks, everybody, and I'm out.

[24:00] David: You launched in March. I know you announced or launched at WonderCon. Isn't that how you launched?

[24:05] Denton: Yeah. In April, we launched two titles, The Principles of Necromancy and Silicon Bandits, and then, in May, we launched the third title, Scale Trade, and bundled those together. We had a promotion, did a sampler that was sold to retailers, and WonderCon was our first show that we set up for and had some early copies of some of the books.

[24:26] David: The thing that I liked about the initial launch was that you were hitting some really interesting genres, a nice mix. So, somebody who might be interested in sampling you is going to have a lot of variety to choose from. Dragon Scale was bit of a fantasy, but there's some real-world mixed in there. Then you've got Principles of Necromancy, which is just a really cool psychological horror, I guess you would say.

[24:53] Denton: Dark fantasy.

[24:55] David: And then you've got the third book that came out, which is definitely sci-fi-leaning. I like that there was a couple of different genres to choose from there.

[25:02] Denton: We definitely wanted to have a nice mix. We were doing genre fiction for adults. So, we wanted to touch on as many of those genres as we could. Sci-fi, I'm big into crime noir. So, Silicon Bandits is a crime/sci-fi blend, and then Principles is a fantasy/horror blend, and Scale Trade is basically, “what if Dragons were real, but they're just animals that existed today?” That comes from that point of view. So, it's more grounded sci-fi, but one twist, cool fantasy element, everybody loves dragons. So, it's an easy hook there. We want to have representation be on this first mix.

[25:48] John: Magma has been something you've been working on, in one way or another, for a really long time, right? This wasn't exactly the debut of Magma, as a concept, because you had launched it before, in a different format, right?

[26:00] Denton: Yeah, exactly. It was 2020, during the pandemic, and I’d left IDW. I was looking at projects to do. I wanted to focus on some writing myself. So, I put together some pictures from stories that I’d been working on for a while and started pitching those to publishers. I got a freelance editing job on a book, and ended up pitching those at Heavy Metal, to Tim Seeley, who was the editor-in-chief, at the time. I met him through Dungeons and Dragons, editing that book. I had reached out to him about doing covers. So, I’d worked with him after he had done it at Devil's Due. So, he liked one of the stories I was pitching. He liked the story that I was editing and looking for a publishing home. So, kicked me up to the CEO, and they gave me an imprint there to publish those and many other titles. So, that's where Magma was born.

So, we put out three or four books, that we put out through them, and then as Heavy Metal […], the business practices weren't very sound. So, we had to part ways, and that just led me to setting up, independently, and I just put my money where my mouth is, and had all those great ideas all these years, and now I can try to put them to the test and be humbled, and then try to do what works.

[27:29] John: But 2000/1999 was a great year to pick, to launch a new comic book publisher, I think. Sorry, 2020, the heart of the pandemic. Well, comic sales were going up. I think there was a lot of comfort food comics that were really hitting well, I think.

[27:45] Denton: I think, we timed that perfectly to miss that rising tide, and then, afterward, everything's now in the correction. So, I did that with the comic shop, and that's still going strong. So, we're not trying to build a comic company to sell to a conglomerate or anything. We want to build a sustainable business, and make comics, and letting the media and all that stuff take care of itself.

[28:15] John: Joking aside, that's what I was getting at. This isn't something that's popping up, that somebody flashed some money at you, and you thought you can make money doing this. It was weird, because we talked at Comic Con, that you announced, last Comic Con, and then this Comic Con, the San Diego Comic Con, you had a booth, you had an Eisner nomination, you had a bunch of books, you had lines and signings, and stuff, and that was extraordinarily fast, but again, this isn't a fly by night thing. This is a thing that you've been working on and planning for a really long time, and you’d already worked on it for a couple of years, by then. It's cool to see when somebody launches a comic company that really believes in the stuff they're doing, knowing you and Bobby, and everybody else there, Joel, and you guys do. Joel's been on the show before.

[28:57] Denton: Oh, yeah. He warned me. No, yeah, Joel’s great. That's the thing. We’re a small company. We’re a new company, but we all have a lot of experience between the four of us, plus Sean, our design director, we've got decades and decades of experience in selling comics. I got interviewed by a local news site, Times of San Diego, and they were asking about it, and we just went into market in April, and we were at San Diego in July, and have a legitimate comic company. So, it came as a surprise, and he was wondering if I was surprised, and I was like, “you would think so, but I'm not, because I do what these guys have done in the past, and were capable of, and we're just getting started. We have a few books out, and things are going well, and we’ve just got to stay the course, and that love of comics is going to sustain us.”

[29:52] David: That retail experience that you had, back in the day, do you feel like that's serving you right now, in terms of, your audience is really twofold. You've got the comic buyers, but you've also got the retailers. So, do you feel that that retail experience has been helping you navigate the first few months of actually being out there in the market with the books?

[30:16] Denton: Yeah, I think so.

[30:17] David: Has there been any surprises?

[30:18] Denton: Always. The biggest surprise is that the things that you think retailers or fans care about the most, isn't necessarily what they do care about, but Joel also has a lot of retail experience. We put a lot of thought into our retail program, how we present our books, how we number our books, returnability, how many covers we offer. So, my experience probably didn't pay off as much, because it was so long ago, you're completely different, but in keeping up with the industry, in recent years, distribution is split. So, there's Lunar, there's Diamond, there's Penguin Random House, there's Universal in Canada, there's a lot of different players, and retailers used to just order from Diamond, and as much as I hated having to deal with them, back in the day, you had one source, and you just ordered from that one place, and now, they have to do that same process to multiple distributors. So, their time is precious. So, we try to keep our cover scheme simple. We try to keep things consistent across the line, we try to do all the things. That helps the retailers out. It makes it easy for them to order our books.

[31:38] David: There's another podcast that I listen to, and the name of it escapes me, but it's a comic book shop. Two of the retailers chat every week, out of Chicago. They actually mentioned, the other day, in one of their most recent podcasts, that your stuff was easy to order, I guess. They were speaking positively about Magma, as a publisher, when they were talking about how annoying variants are, and the counterpoint of that was Magma Comix. So, that idea that you have, in terms of keeping things simple and keep things concise, seems to be paying off, at least, anecdotally. That was good to hear.

[32:14] Denton: Yeah, that's great. I love hearing feedback. We went to the learner reception at San Diego, and Joel brought Cavan Scott, who I worked with on the Star Wars Adventures. He's doing a book for us, that launches in October. That’s super important, to be in contact with those retailers and let them know what's coming. Give them the tools they need to be able to sell the books. Super important.

[32:40] John: How much are you guys expanding, with the stuff you can talk about that’s not secret announcements, but do you have a number of books you're looking to hit, per month?

[32:53] Denton: Yeah, for this first year, we came out with, we’re launching 10 books. I think it ended up being 9 comics and one graphic novel. That's starting in April, between April and November. So, pretty aggressive, but we wanted to make a big splash. Instead of drip, drip, we wanted to make a splash, get behind this, we’re trying something big. We got some creators and some cool concepts. So, we wanted to be able to sustain ourselves. In year 2, we want to grow a little bit more, but not get too crazy. So, we may look at doing a licensed title to add to the mix, what the market is looking for right now, those are what's selling, […] is still popular genre, keeping that conversation going for retailers, and finding out what's working for them. Trying to do a little more of that. Maybe do 16-18 comics next year.

[33:55] David: 16 books a month?

[33:56] Denton: No, no. Total launches throughout the year.

[33:59] David: Oh, gotcha. Is everything running as minis or is there any plans for any ongoings yet, or any of the initial launches? Are you looking to come back with yet, or are you still waiting on data? Where are we at with the first three titles, I guess? I'm really interested in hearing about that, and then I know you made some announcements at San Diego. What's up with those? What's round 2 looking like?

[34:18] Denton: Okay, well, that's a lot there. Let's see. So, at San Diego, we announced our second Ruptura book. It's called Rome Eternal. Ruptura Estudios is a studio out in Mexico, that we partnered with to do comic stories, with Latin creators or Latin flavor. This one is a western, I'm writing, is Hell’s Half Acre. That one comes out September. So, the November one is called Rome Eternal, and that's written by Homero Rios, who I met through Heavy Metal. He had a strip for them. It's really cool, alternate history, basically, as if Rome never fell, and existed in present day, and then what if Rome started to fall now? So, it's pretty cool. The artist is Diego Yapur, who I worked with on a Frank Frazetta comic, and he's phenomenal. So, it looks great. So, that's coming out in November, and then October, we got Cavan Scott and Paul Fry on a book called Night of the Slashers, and that one is our, of course, October title. It's their ode to Scream and Nightmare on Elm Street, the slasher movies of the 80s, that we all loved that […] grew up on, but still live in the zeitgeist. Basically, a high school bus gets stranded in town, and one night a year, they all turn into monsters, and that happens to be that night. So, it's a really fun concept.

The other October debut, owed to David, because this one's by AJ Mendez and Aimee Garcia. They're doing Day of the Dead Girl. The name of their book, and it's basically, if Scully found out she was Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but with a Latin twist. So, she's a coroner, and her mother is a bruja, a witch. So, through a series of murders that happened on the Day of the Dead, she discovered her heritage, and has to come to terms with that.

[36:47] David: I'm excited for that one. You got a great artist for it.

[36:50] Denton: Yeah, maybe not as obvious to the fans, Aimee and AJ worked with you on some titles at IDW, right?

[36:57] David: Yeah, they did, I was talking about a while ago, probably one of my favorite Dungeon and Dragons books I ever got to work on, because I was more involved in it than usual, but Aimee and AJ delivered a fantastic story for it. The pitch was great. The story they delivered was great. I was really happy with it. I was anxious to work with them again, but it didn't turn out that way, but I was super glad that they eventually made their way over to Magma Comix, with this project, because I think it's really good. I think it's going to be really worthwhile. I’m excited to see it going, and I think the artist that you picked up, is it Belén Ortega? Is that her name?

[37:30] Denton: It's Belén Culebras. She is from Spain.

[37:33] David: Okay. Thank you. I knew I didn't have that right. Her art looks great. In my head, I had a slightly different direction, but I love where it's going. That's exciting. I'm really excited for all three of these projects. Hell’s Half Acre sounds fantastic. I know you're going to write a lot of it, and Cavan Scott, I don't think I've ever read something from Cavan Scott that I didn't fully enjoy. So, I think you’ve got me, man. You’ve got one customer, for sure, for the second round, there's no doubt.

[37:37] Denton: It’s a start.

[38:02] David: Then you just had something launch yesterday. We’re speaking in early August, and you just had a book hit, a new number one hit, yesterday, right?

[38:12] Denton: Yeah, The Pedestrian.

[38:14] David: By the way, I don't know who's doing the marketing for The Pedestrian, but I'm seeing it everywhere, dude. The Pedestrian is in every single bit of my feeds, all my social media feeds. The creative team is on every podcast, and they're on every comic book website. More than any other project that you've done so far, The Pedestrian certainly has capture people's attention, which is great to see, of course, but what the heck is it about?

[38:41] Denton: Getting back to the marketing of it, I will say, a lot of that is due to the efforts of Sean and Joey themselves. Sean is a boundless ball of energy. So, he has synthesized that into a social media campaign, reaching out to retailers, getting them involved, talking to his friends, all the creators. Joey has an extensive network, as well. So, they really got behind the book. They really believed in the story. They’ve been looking for a home for it, for a good while, and we sat on the pitch for a bit. It was never a pass. It was just, “how can we position this book? How can we sell this book” Kept it in the back of our minds. There was something special about it. It's very hard to describe. It's a book you really need to experience. You need to read it, but John will appreciate that it’s got some Twin Peaks vibes, because it's got small town vibes, but there's something under the surface there.

The main character, The Pedestrian, he doesn't speak, but he's probably the most defined character in the story. You know what he's about and what his rules are. Not everything. There’s still plenty mystery to be revealed, but it's a really odd book. It's strange. It's different. It's not grim/dark, but it's not a happy, shiny-type thing. It's about determination, and people coming together. It’s just very unique, and there’s nothing really like it, and something compelling about it. It's not a comedy, but there's still a lot of humor to it, and I want to say it's like the Ted Lasso of comics, but it's misleading. It's not that kind of comedy, at all, but there's just something wholesome and earnest about it, and unique, and it's striking a chord with people. So, they've been talking about it. Everyone that reads it wants to read the next one and find out what happens, and it just came out a couple of days ago, and the buzz has been really tremendous.

[40:53] John: Cool. A Mike Allred cover on there, too, and Dean Haspiel. Not to say anything bad about Dean, but Mike Allred.

[40:59] Denton: No, we all love Dino. They have some really cool artists on it. Tess Fowler, Chris Batista. There's a really good one. Valentine Delandro. Yeah. They've been doing some hustling, calling in some favors from their friends, and been marketing the hell out of it. They're all over San Diego with it. They had tons of signings, and they did tons of podcasts interviews.

[41:26] David: I think that was the beginning of it. Magma’s Twitter feed kept popping up in my feed, and it was all Pedestrian stuff. I'm anxious to pick that one up. I’ve got to get to the comic book shop this weekend. That's towards the top of my list of things to grab, for sure. What's the future look like? You've covered a little bit about what you think you're going to do for year two. Is there anything else coming up that we should be aware of?

[41:49] Denton: Well, I could talk a little more about Hell’s Half Acre. That one is coming out in September. So, it'll be pretty timely for when this podcast drops, and that one, I've had that story idea for, probably, about 20 years. In the early 2000s, I was really into Westerns, watching a lot of the classic movies, and the newer stuff. I’ve been working on this story for a while, and finally had the opportunity to tell it. It's set in 1904. So, it's a sub-genre called Sunset Western. So, the Old West is fading, and things are changing. So, it's very much like that. Unforgiven came out, the Clint Eastwood film, right before that. So, that was inspiring, I would say. So, in 1904, Nashville. We've got a lawman, that's a US Marshall, ready to retire. This is a lot about the things around the Industrial Revolution, cars are starting to take the place of horses, electricity, streetlamps are turning from gas to electric. That sort of thing. So, that's one of the themes of the story, but at the heart, it's a chase between this lawman and a gambler that comes through town, and he also has what appears to be a demon or a devil on his trail, and that causes him trouble in Nashville, at a brothel, which gets set on fire, and it's a big tragedy, and sends this gambler on the run, with this lawman on his tail, and also, the piano player at the brothel ends up joining the chase, as well.

A lot of fun write those three types of characters, and chases are always fun to write, but a lot of it is about demons on the inside of people, as well. So, you get to have some depth there, and found this great artist who did Jeremiah Johnson comics over in France and some Bee Gees, some beautiful albums, and I really loved Moebius’s work on Blueberry. I think of Westerns, there's John Severin, and I love his work, as well, but I love the European style. So, came with this. Super stoked to find Jack. He had done some stuff with Dynamite, and I was like, “what has this guy done?” And then, “Oh, this is perfect. Already done Westerns.” So, super stoked to get his work out here.

[44:41] John: It's funny how a Jeremiah Johnson comic is a viable thing in France, and that would be a tough sell in the United States. Not that you couldn't do it, but I mean, that would be, “can you believe they're doing a Jeremiah Johnson comic?” And then you're just, “here's the guy that happens to be doing a Jeremiah Johnson comic.”

[44:58] Denton: Yeah, well, and I've thought about picking up that as an international license and reprint it in the US, cross promote with Hell’s Half Acre. Like Hell’s Half Acre? Try Jeremiah Johnson. You know that Jeremiah Johnson meme? There's a Jeremiah Johnson meme. Just a close-up on the guy smiling. Not Grizzly Adams, but Jeremiah Johnson. Maybe we could sell the kids on a meme comic.

[45:34] David: The art looks fantastic. I like this artist, Ramon Bunge.

[45:37] Denton: He's the cover artist. He was the original artist, actually, and we had to bring in Jack, actually, because Ramon was living the nomad life. He had sold his house, and him and his partner bought an RV, and they were driving an RV through the Andes. So, they would go and cross borders. So, it was hard to keep up the schedule. Yeah. So, we ended up bringing in Jack to do the art.

[46:11] David: This is exactly why art, as commerce, is such a fool's errand. What are we doing?

[46:17] Denton: It's so hard.

[46:19] David: The artist just picks up and starts living in an RV. That's what we're doing. Thanks, comics.

[46:26] Denton: We tried to make it work. He was setting up a board, taking regular stock, had an assistant that would download his work and compile it for him, or whatever, and get it ready for the colorist. So, we tried to make it work, but it just wasn't sustainable.

[46:43] John: I was going to make a joke about that cover for #1 clearly being CG, because you can count, there's the wrong number of fingers on it. That's a joke, if you're looking at the cover, if you don't.

[46:54] David: Good one. We need to look at the cover to get that joke, but that's a good one.

[46:59] John: You can tell it's not because the clock on the cover has the right number of numbers.

[47:03] David: There you go. This AI is seeping into everything. I don't want it.

[47:13] John: Am I forgetting something, or this is the first comic you've written in a couple of years?

[47:16] Denton: I did one with Magma 1.0, and it was a Heavy Metal. So, I think that might’ve come out in ’21. Chasing the Dragon.

[47:23] John: Yeah, that's right.

[47:25] Denton: But yeah, it's been a few years, and it's always a challenge being an editor and being a writer. You can't edit yourself. Ernie Spence talks about editor interference and such, but any writer or editor knows, you need to have a good editor, no matter who you are.

[47:44] David: You've got a really good one over there, Bobby Curnow. The guy’s no joke. He steered the ship with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for many years. That's a great success. So, I think you picked a good guy to manage the team over there, for sure, and I'm assuming, manage you on this project, or are you just like “stay out of my way?”

[48:02] Denton: No, he tries, and I know what it is to be an editor. So, I try to be good to him, as well, but he keeps trying to put Mutants in the story, and I’ve got to draw the line somewhere.

[48:17] David: I think we've done a good business. What do you think, John?

[48:20] John: Yeah. Is there anything else you wanted to talk about or cover?

[48:22] Denton: No. I was looking forward just to catching up. We were at Eddie's Fine Burger on a comic book run, or Lit’l Pepper, where John was sexually harassed every time he ordered his sandwich.

[48:39] John: I couldn't remember the name of that place. Lit’l Pepper. That's right, yes.

[48:43] Denton: The guy would call you sweetie every time, or something. What was his deal?

[48:46] John: He called everybody that, though.

[48:47] Denton: Yeah. No, you guys have a special bond.

[48:53] David: Well, thank you for joining us, Denton. Appreciate it so much, having you on. I'm very excited about Magma Comix. Congratulations on all the current success. I know it's only onwards and upwards from here, and thanks again for coming on to the show and chatting with me and John.

[49:07] John: Yeah. Thanks for joining us on The Corner Box. We will be back next week. Bye.

[49:11] David: See you soon.

Thanks for joining us, and please subscribe, tell your friends about us, leave a review and comments. Check out www.thecornerbox.club for updates and come back and join us next week for another episode of The Corner Box with John and David.