Welcome to The Corner Box, where your hosts, David Hedgecock, and John Barber, lean into their decades of comic book industry experience, writing, drawing, editing, and publishing. They'll talk to fellow professionals, deep dive into influential, and overlooked works, and analyze the state of the art, and business of comics, and pop culture. Thanks for joining us on The Corner Box.

[00:28] John: Hello, and welcome back to The Corner Box. I'm one host, John, and with me, as always, is my good friend.

[00:35] David: David.

[00:36] John: That's us.

[00:37] David Are we on a first name basis now, John?

[00:38] John: Yeah, that's fine. Are there other ones?

[00:41] David: Not that I'm aware of. You're the only John I know.

[00:43] John: That's exactly it. Declutter your lives. Get rid of all the other people you know named John and David.

[00:51] David: Yeah, not get rid of them. Not mafia style, get rid of them.

[00:54] John: No.

[00:56] David: Yeah, just stop talking to them.

[00:57] John: What if your kid’s name is David, or whatever?

[01:00] David: That's a very old-school comic book fan thing to do, too. Just stop talking to people. I feel like that's a very antisocial move that most comic book fans from the 80s and 90s would understand.

[01:14] John: You should just get up and leave, as soon as we're done, not even say anything. Leave this thing recording.

[01:21] David: Everybody, welcome to the show. John, I derailed you. I'm sorry.

[01:26] John: They weren't really rails to begin with.

[01:29] David: More of a dirt road. A vague depression in the grass we could call a path.

[01:36] John: You know when Superman grabs hold of the two ends of the rail, and the train goes over him, and it doesn't derail? It's like that, but there's only Supermans, and it's really neat, but it's not an effective road. Eventually, you just derail, because there's only so much invulnerable person you can roll over. […].

[01:53] David: There’s only so many of those in the world. Oh, man. Superman. I want to see it again, John. I want to go back and see that movie one more time.

[02:01] John: By the time this airs, it's on digital.

[02:03] David: That's right. Man, that was fast. The conversion to the home theater is so fast these days.

[02:08] John: I vaguely had it in my head that, man, it'd be cool to just go out and just see a movie every week, for some certain amount of time—a year of, I went and saw a movie every week. Certainly, I wouldn't be able to do an IMAX movie every week, or something like that, but early morning discount movie, or something, every week. There's something that came out. I can't know what it was now, and I was like, “I want to see this,” and then I looked, and it goes on to whatever streaming service was backing it in two weeks. I’m like, “oh, man. Well, I guess I could just do that at home and not pay any more than I'm paying right now.”

[02:46] David: And they wonder why box office is down.

[02:48] John: Yes, exactly. I heard that Wizard of Oz show in Las Vegas—this is old men complaining about prices of movies. This is what this podcast is—They’re opening in the Big Dome in Las Vegas, and they're going to show Wizard of Oz. Well, they're going to do that. It's been controversial, because they AI-expanded Wizard of Oz to fill a 360° screen.

[03:09] David: That sounds miserable. I want to unsubscribe from that, immediately. Is that really what—they’re using AI to expand everything out?

[03:17] John: Yeah. It's hard to show clips of it, inherently. You can't show a clip of a thing that's 360° on YouTube, or something. So, I don't know the veracity of this stuff, but some of the stills that people were comparing were just radically different backgrounds. It was just “they expanded it.” The whole sky is a new AI background.

[03:38] David: If it was real people doing that, I would be interested—maybe even enchanted by that.

[03:45] John: There's something […].

[03:47] David: I am not interested in AI, whatsoever, in any form, when it comes to my art. I do not want it.

[03:53] John: Also, if you don't want—I forget—there's something like 20 or 30 minutes of the movie they cut out, so they can show it more times. Tickets are between $120 and $360.

[04:09] David: What? For a movie that came out in 1929?

[04:12] John: To be fair, it’s ’39.

[04:14] David: Oh, ’39. Well, there you go. So, $360 is nothing, then.

[04:21] John: Anyway, that's been old men complaining about movie prices.

[04:24] David: Join us next time, when we complain about the cost of Arnold Schwarzenegger's Running Man. [I bought] Arnold Schwarzenegger's Running Man on Apple TV the other day, and it was $6. I was like, “are you insane?” I can watch that anytime I want, at any moment of the day, and for free. You want to charge me $6 for that? Get out of my face. Is that how we do it, John?

[04:50] John: I don't know what's going on.

[04:52] David: You invented this segment. I'm just trying to follow it.

[04:55] John: We’ve got to get out of this. We’ve got to dig ourselves out of this hole.

[04:59] David: Someone, pull the ripcord. We're not here for that, John. We're here to talk about comic books, remember?

[05:03] John: Oh, yeah.

[05:05] David: John, I have to bring something up real quick. I don't know if you have a hot take on this or not, but I thought it was interesting. On the podcast, I think last week, I was complaining about the complete lack of marketing intelligence in the comic book publishing community. I am just shocked and appalled at the total inability of comic book publishers to know how to market things in 2025, and I specifically called out Marvel Comics and DC Comics. There is no social media marketing presence. The next time I see a Facebook ad for Marvel would be the first time, and sure enough, John, in the past week, I have been fed half a dozen Marvel comic ads from Facebook, which, great—that was the thing I was complaining about, and that problem is solved. The new problem that I have, though—I think it's a problem. I don't know that I like it—is that they're promoting, and it makes sense, but they're promoting Marvel Comics Unlimited, their digital app. They're not promoting physical comic books. They're not saying, “go to a comic bookstore and support the industry—the physical industry that we've built our entire empire on—but skip all that, and go straight to the digital version, where we take 100% of the profits,” and I understand why you’d do that, because you can draw direct lines from the marketing piece to the final sale, and that is very sexy, and the marketing people like that, and the bean counters like that. I don’t know. Maybe I shouldn't be complaining about it. I should just stop there, just like, “okay, I get it.”

[06:44] John: The first thing that worries me is just the general thing of your phone listening to you and making that happen.

[06:52] David: 1000%.

[06:54] John: I don't want to let that slip by. I do think it's logical, if you're on Facebook, to have this thing you can click immediately, and immediately start reading, without moving to a different device, or getting in the car. That does make sense. I was thinking, “man, I bet that's probably more the logic of it than the profit,” because things aren't really as organized as you’d like them to be, and I'm sure they're still looking at the print sales on everything, and that's the main thing. I'm not even sure who, within Disney, owns the Marvel app.

[07:23] David: Oh, wow. I hadn't even thought about that, John.

[07:25] John: Yeah. It might be a different division of Disney advertising this.

[07:30] David: Oh, I didn't even think about that.

[07:33] John: I might be wrong.

[07:34] David: It's not Marvel Publishing that owns the Marvel app.

[07:36] John: I don't know. It might be.

[07:39] David: No, you're right. It wasn't even a consideration in my head, but you're right. There could very well be a Disney digital division that is running and operating that stuff, and is the “Owner” of that. Wow.

[07:52] John: The thing you were saying that really I never actually thought about in those terms, or maybe I had, but not the next thing I’d thought about it—I don't know—but when you were saying that the demonstrable success of the marketing drives what is being marketed, in a way that might not be for the best for anybody, that's an interesting conundrum that that gets pulled into, that provable is better than unprovable, regardless of whether or not unprovable creates better results.

[08:20] David: Yep. Welcome to 2025 marketing, John.

[08:24] John: […] from 1995 marketing, some of that, but I'm probably a little behind on that. I don't know. I think, take the win. Somebody's at least doing what you're saying.

[08:31] David: Yeah, I think you're right. As it was coming out of my mouth, I was about to complain. I don't think this is a complaint. I think you're right. I think I should just take the win and shut my mouth. Maybe the next level will be for a softer promotion, where they're actually pushing people to stores. I'm not going to hold my breath, and I guess I should be happy with something. The fact that they are spending money on advertising, I think that, in and of itself, is shocking, and I should be appreciative. Anyway, John, what are we talking about today? If people didn't notice, we’re only half prepared for today. I've got what I think is going to be the biggest ongoing thing that we're going to do for the next probably two or three years. 

[09:17] John: I think it's a killer app. I'm just excited to go with that. Why don't we just go right into that?

[09:23] David: You’ve got something you wanted to talk about, but we'll start with mine. So, you had a great idea, John, and I ran with it. For those who haven't been around since 1993, there used to be an old magazine called Wizard Magazine, and Wizard popularized this concept of who the hottest artists were in the industry, in any given month, and it was Wizard’s Top 10 Hottest Artists, but Wizard Magazine hasn’t been around in—I don't know—20 years, at least. Actually, was it around in the 2000s? I think it probably was, but I don't know that it made it much past 2005. That was probably the last. It hasn’t been around for probably 20 years.

[10:04] John: Yeah, there's a last generation of Wizard people that made their way into comics editorial. Take a look at Alejandro Arbona and Mike Cotton were all coming out of there. A bunch of other people, too. I think it kept going a little longer than we all probably think.

[10:20] David: Yeah, I think so, too. The Wizard World shows, those definitely went into the 2010s, for sure. I think those were still going well into the 2010s. So, anyway, Wizard had this Top 10 Hottest Writers lists that they put out every month, and those are always fun to look at, just to see who somebody arbitrarily chose as the hottest artist in the industry. You brought that up. I was like, “man, I want to bring that back.” We're going to bring that back on the show, John. So, we're starting a new segment. I think this is going to be a regular, ongoing thing. I'm going to try to do this once a month. It's David's Top 10—The Corner Box—I'm making up the name right now. It's The Corner Box Hot Tops.

[11:06] John: Yeah, my favorite one of these, of all time, and this is somebody else's joke—This is a real thing—was a K Rock, the radio station I used to listen to, the alternative radio station in LA and Orange County at 106.7, they're still around. They had the Top 8 at 8 at 9, the 5 most requested songs of the day, and I still think that's funny.

[11:28] David: Top 8 at 8 at 9, covering the 5 best songs of the day. Something like that is about to happen here. I'm going to start with #10, John. I’m going to do this.

[11:40] John: This the worst artist in comics.

[11:42] David: No.

[11:43] John: Wait, am I misunderstanding? […] How many draw comics?

[11:49] David: I don't know. 7 or 8. We're doing the 10 Hottest Artists, but I'm going to start from the bottom of the Hottest, the least of the Hottest Artists. So, #10, and then we'll count down all the way to #1. It’s going to be very exciting, John.

[12:02] John: Yeah. I’m genuinely excited.

[12:06] David: All right. I have some qualifiers, though, because it's very hard. You’ve got to narrow the field a little bit, because there really are a cornucopia of fantastic artists just working within the industry right now. So, I want to narrow it a little bit. So, my field is, specifically, interior artists, and they have to have had work come out within the last 6-8 months. So, a current interior artist who's producing work right now, or has just wrapped up a project, or has a project about to come out, and then the other thing that I would say is that there's guys like Jake Smith that I talked about on the last podcast, who for me, he's going up like a rocket, in my head, of guys I'm really digging right now, but I'm trying to look at the broader picture. I'm not just looking at what their ability is, in the moment, but how well the person's books are performing. So, a little bit of that is in there, too. So, there's a little bit of sales figures for the ones you can find that are influencing this list. So, there's the rough criteria. So, away we go.

So, starting with #10, John, on the list. You know this artist. I think you love him, and right now, he's got a Kickstarter going, at least, while this podcast is going. Lewis LaRosa.

[13:39] John: Oh, yeah. Sure.

[13:40] David: All right. Lewis LaRosa, his art book is on Kickstarter right now. It's called Carbon Based. If you go on Kickstarter, even after this, whenever this podcast comes out, you can see some of the work that's in that book. Man, this guy is just nails. Lewis LaRosa is probably one of the best artists of the last five years. I've talked about him a little bit recently. He's largely doing books with the publisher, Bad Idea, and the book he's been working on for some time is called Megalith. I believe it's coming out soon, and it's only been slow, because I think Lewis LaRosa has had some health issues, but he does have a book coming out right now called Carbon Based, and he has been working diligently on interiors for a book called Megalith from Bad Idea, and I just think that, I mean, he's just one of the most detailed artists in the industry right now, and I think the only thing that's holding him back is that he's not producing at a level that some of the guys who are able to produce on a monthly basis are. Are you familiar with Lewis?

[14:43] John: Oh, sure, yeah, and I do think Bad Idea was also just—I mean, because of the distribution and everything about the way they operated, people weren't seeing a lot of stuff that was coming out from him. So, I can't remember if he was doing stuff for them that did come out. I think he was.

[15:01] David: Yeah, I think he's had a couple books that he's worked on, that have come out from Bad Idea. I feel like he did some Conan stuff for Dark Horse. I'm sure he's done some other things in the meantime. He's a relatively steady guy. I think he's probably producing somewhere between 80 and 100 pages a year, maybe a little bit less, but he hasn't had that level of productivity recently, because I think he's been dealing with […], but I'm super excited for Megalith. The samples that I've seen of that book are incredible. It's by your favorite artist, colorist, and mine, John—The colorist on the book. Do you know who I'm talking about? Who's my favorite colorist, John? That I'm just dying to work with, who we worked with together on a project.

[15:45] John: Laura Martin?

[15:49] David: Yeah. Laura Martin’s handling the colors on it, and it's gorgeous, the stuff that's going there, of course. All right, that's my #10.

So, #9. This one's probably going to be no surprise to anybody—Chris Samnee. So, currently Chris Samnee's on Batman & Robin: Year One. Chris Samnee’s the artist’s artist. I think everybody who likes drawing comic books is jealous of Chris Samnee, because of his ability. The simplicity of his line is so deceptively perfect. He can give you so much information with so little on the page that it is extraordinary, and I think most artists strive for that—the one perfect line, the most amount of information with the least amount of—not effort—but the least amount of lines on the page, and Chris Samnee is a master of that. His work on Batman & Robin: Year One is immaculate. The story itself is fantastic. I'm super enjoying it, and commercially and critically, that thing has been very well received. So, Chris Samnee’s my #9, John.

[16:57] John: Yeah. I think one of the things that's cool with him—he's got a really good thing going with Mark Waid across a bunch of different titles, where the two of them will work together, including this one. Chris Samnee’s good, no matter who's writing him. I mean, he's always great, but whatever those two do brings out the best in both of them, I think. I enjoy them both, separately. I mean, I can't remember the last Chris Samnee comic that didn't have Mark Waid, but I enjoy them both, separately, but together, it's just something really special. I don't want to mention anybody else, because there's a handful of other artists, and they might be on this list, that have similar pairings, where it's perfect when they're with somebody, in particular. Sometimes, there's really good artists, and you put them with a really good writer, and it doesn't work. A really good artist with any writer is going to be constrained and not be able to do their coolest stuff. I don't feel like that's going on here. There's really cool stuff.

[17:49] David: You're right. It is a good pairing. IDW Publishing put out an Artist Edition of Samnee’s work on Daredevil a few years back. Do you remember that, John?

[17:57] John: Yeah.

[17:58] David: With it—it came in a separate book—was the script that Chris Samnee worked on, and Samnee did all his thumbnails right on the page of the script, and that was reproduced. He kept all that. It was reproduced in that Artist Edition, and that is the most fascinating Artist Edition I've ever gone through. I just adored that book that Scott Dunbier put together, over at IDW Publishing. It was Daredevil—I don't remember what the name of the book was—but it was Chris Samnee, and I believe it was a Mark Waid script. What a fantastic piece that was, and really played into how Samnee thinks about comic books, which is a really unique experience, to be able to look through his eyes on that stuff.

#8, John. Ryan Ottley. Battle Beast just came out—burning up the charts. I heard Robert Kirkman on a podcast recently. He was being interviewed, and as best as people can tell, the Battle Beast launch outsold the new launch of Amazing Spider-Man. Even in 2025, that is a serious lift. That is a pretty impressive thing to do. Now, part of that, I think, is that the publisher, Skybound, is red hot. They can't seem to do any wrong between their Transformers and their GI Joe, and Void Rivals, and all their success in other media, with invincible, etc., and Invincible being such a hot commodity with their television show, but I do think that—I will submit—a nice chunk of that is that Ryan Ottley's back on a regular monthly book, and that guy is nails, man. His art is fantastic. I think Battle Beast, in particular, is playing exactly to the things that he loves to do, and his style. It's brutal and vicious, and overpowered, and just macho comics at their finest. I'm really enjoying it. I'm really enjoying Ryan Ottley’s return to monthly comics. His work over at Marvel, on Hulk, felt like he was going to go somewhere, and that just stalled out, because I think there was other variables happening with the writer, Donnie Cates, and it was unfortunate that that project didn't launch him higher and further than I think it probably would have, if all things had gone perfectly, or better, but Ryan Ottley at #8, and I think he's on his way up, John. Ryan Ottley’s burning up the charts.

#7, a book that we've talked about quite a bit lately. It's probably both of our favorite books right now—Absolute Wonder Woman, and artist, Hayden Sherman.

[20:32] John: I just, two days ago, looked at what I think is a very early Hayden Sherman comic, and I was surprised by where he started off—stylistically, where he was.

[20:43] David: No, I don't know much about him before Absolute Wonder Woman. So, Absolute Wonder Woman—I think this is another one that's a nice marriage of creative talent. The writing on Absolute Wonder Woman is top-notch. Kelly Thompson, I think she's having a moment right now. She's really at the peak of her powers, and Absolute Wonder Woman is really benefiting from that, but Hayden Sherman is no joke. That guy is putting out some fantastic work. His storytelling is top-notch. His sense of design, his ability to create environments, all of that is just through the roof next level. Feels like a coming-out party for Hayden Sherman on this book, because I certainly didn't know much about that guy. I hadn't heard his name mentioned once, before this, and now, he's just on fire. So, Hayden Sherman at #7, and I think he's on his way up, John. I think there's still some room for him to move up the charts, before it's all said and done.

[21:39] John: I completely forgot about this one. He did a John Carter: The End book at Dynamite. It might have been his first thing, but Alex Cox wrote it. Alex used to work at IDW. He sent me a copy of it. So, that was actually the first time I'd seen Hayden Sherman's art. That's funny. I didn't put together that it was the same guy. The thing I saw, though, was a comic called The Few that Sean Lewis wrote, and this is one where it was at, I believe, image. It was one where he had, obviously, the full control of what it looked like, visually. The other one, I'm sure, they brought in a colorist, and stuff. He's drawing like Ashley Wood. Full stop. It's Ash Wood color choices, Ash Wood design influences. You can see that carrying on for a while, on some of the stuff. The next time he really registered with me was when he was doing, at IDW, the Scott Snyder Dark Spaces: Wildfire series.

[22:32] David: I wonder why that doesn't sound familiar to me. Dark Spaces: Wildfire. Was that the full name of the project?

[22:38] John: After you were no longer at IDW, but I was still there, IDW launched the IDW original line of creator-owned series, and Scott Snyder came in, and as an umbrella title, created the series called Dark Spaces, where each one was going to be different. It was an American Horror Story Anthology kind of thing. So, he drew the first one. Rhonda Pattinson, colorist of Signa, colored it. Very cool art. You can see, this is really cool, and he did a couple of things between then and Absolute Wonder Woman. Absolute Wonder Woman is just so beautiful. Wherever he came from, nothing prepared for that. I just thought that's been terrific.

[23:14] David: I say this all the time—I think I've said this on the podcast—when I go to conventions and stuff, and I'm reviewing people's portfolios, you see certain people, and you're like, “it's just not good.” You'll see people that bring their portfolio of art to you, and they're certainly in the beginning stages of their attempts to draw comic books. Every single time I see it, I always, in the back of my head, remind myself that everybody starts somewhere. You never know who's got the fire in them to turn the corner and make something of themselves, and put the time and effort in that they need to, to train their hand, to get to the point where they're making interesting work. So, I always tell myself that, when I see those people, and I always try to remember that you just never know where you're seeing people on their career path, and they could be on their way up. They could be on their way down. They could just be staying at that level, and never do anything else again, but I don't know that. So, I want to make sure that I give people their due respect, no matter where they are, and I try to give them that respect, and I know it can be a nerve-wracking thing to do, but yeah, it's interesting that just a few years ago, this guy wasn't on anybody's radar, and now I can't imagine Hayden Sherman is not going to have a project to work on, for quite some time. That guy's going to be fully engaged, and fully employed, for quite some time. All right. So, that's #7, John.

#6. This is an artist who might have actually been on a Wizard Top 10 Hot list, because he's been around a long time, but man, he is firing on all cylinders right now. I love what he's doing on the book, Geiger, for Image/Ghost Machine. Gary Frank. Now, Gary Frank has been around a long time. I first encountered Gary Frank on the Incredible Hulk.

[25:04] John: Yeah, me too.

[25:06] David: It's the mid-90s, I think. I think he might have followed Dale Keown on the Incredible Hulk. Peter David was writing it, still. Gary Frank had a nice run on that book. Fantastic work, and then went on to do a whole bunch of different stuff. I think more recently, he's been at DC doing a lot of the Watchmen-esque titles over there, and he broke off with Geoff Johns, and a bunch of the other guys, to form Ghost Machine, and I think it was a fantastic move for him, artistically, because he seems he's fully engaged with Geiger. It's a gorgeous-looking book. There's tons of detail, and it's Gary Frank. He's never not been great, but this stuff seems like it's really in his wheelhouse, and he's really enjoying the work, and I'm really enjoying reading the book, because of the art. I say this all the time. Geiger is a Geoff Johns joint. It's exactly what you think it's going to be, but the art just brings it to the next level, and Gary Frank is part of that. So, Gary Frank’s my #6. I don't know where Ghost Machine is a year from now. I'm not hearing anybody talk about it, but everything that I'm reading from Ghost Machine, I'm still enjoying very much, and I hope that things are going really well over there, because I really like what's going on, and Gary Frank is definitely one of the reasons, on Geiger.

[26:20] John: Yeah, Ghost Machine seems like—and Gary Frank is—I don't mean this in any way an insult, but the all-star team from 10 or 15 years ago, doing cool comics that aren't the same thing they were doing 10 or 15 years ago. You wouldn't have been able to pull these guys away from Marvel or DC, and maybe they've done their big crossovers, they've done their big things that they want to do. I don't mean that their stars have fallen. I mean, they're going out, and now they’re doing these other things that they have ownership in, and have more stakes in, and stuff, but I love it.

[26:49] David: I agree, 100%. I think Geoff Johns was pushed out, but I don't think any of the artists were. I think the artists could all work wherever they want, anytime they want. I think Geoff Johns was pushed out of DC.

[26:59] John: Yeah, I think DC was specifically waiting on two Bryan Hitch comics when he went out. I don't think he was pushed out.

[27:07] David: Right. Exactly. All right. So, that's my #6, John. Gary Frank, specifically on Geiger.

My #5. This artist is one of the hottest cover artists in the industry over the last, at least, five years, and in fact, when I put this artist on a cover for a Crow comic book, back in the day, she was not super well known, at that moment, but she was starting to become well known. When the Crow comic book sold twice as much as anybody expected it to, the entire staff was trying to figure out “what just happened?” Come to find out, John, after the fact, in retrospect, there was a lot of great talent on that Crow comic book, but it might have been because Peach Momoko did the cover, and that was a very hard, very rare comic book cover from Peach Momoko, and still to this day, is probably one of the hardest ones of her work to find, but we're talking about interior artists, and not cover artist, and Peach Momoko is an interior artist, as well. As many covers as she is still doing on a monthly basis, somehow, she's finding time to also do interiors on Ultimate X-Men, and she's writing it and drawing it. When does this woman sleep, man? I do not know, because it is a great book. It's artistically fresh and inventive, and completely unique.

We talked a little bit earlier, John, about how marketing pushes the thing that marketing thinks is going to be successful. So, that thing is successful, and there's something in the industry, where Marvel and DC keep giving us the same exact thing, over and over, and it succeeds, in spite of itself, or it succeeds because it's the only option, and Peach Momoko is a perfect counterargument to that, because here's somebody out there, doing something very different, when you're looking at North American superhero comic books. She's doing something very different, and she is wildly succeeding. Her covers sell like hotcakes, still, and it's been years since she's been doing it, and her Ultimate X-Men comic book sells very well, and is very well received. I just think that, in a world of everybody doing the same thing—now I'm putting a broad brush with that—but in a world where superhero comics are looking very similar these days, here's somebody who's standing out, unique, and interesting, and different, and for that reason alone, John, she gets my #5 spot.

[29:37] John: Yeah. She's amazing. One of my favorite emails that I still think about sometimes, is when Chris Ryall came back to IDW, and he sent this company-wide email to all the editors, like “we need to get more artists. There’s this artist I really like, Peach Momoko,” and you and Bobby were both like, “well, she's doing covers for us now.” “Oh, I stand corrected. Good job, everybody.”

[29:58] David: I was like, “I can bring the published version over to you if you'd like.” I just don’t know. Yeah, she's fantastic. Okay. So, that's my #5, John. Peach Momoko.

#4. This artist also came out of nowhere, a little bit. Although, he's had a good long run, that was within the last five or so years, that was very well received.

[30:19] John: I'm going to guess, this is Liefeld, right?

[30:26] David: No. I struggled with that, though, I will say. Liefeld is not on my list, because everybody knows that he's always #1, in my heart.

[30:35] John: I just thought it’d be funny if that was your perspective on him. “He was big before.” There are really good Liefeld characters, like Riptide and Deadpool. It's not like you don't like Deadpool. It's that you think everything else is on that level, and you’re like, “he really hit his stride when he was doing the Snake Eyes series, and I think everything up to then had been a prelude, and it was really well received,” and I thought that was going to be the narrative. I'm sorry. #4.

[30:59] David: All right. I love that, but no. Rob Liefeld is always #1, in my heart, John. There's no arguing about that, but he's not on my list. We're going to be doing this every month. It's very possible. Rob Liefeld’s got a new Youngblood comic book coming out in November. It's already out. I own all the copies that are available. Well, I own several of the copies that are available of Youngblood #1, as well as the Giant-Sized Youngblood that came out during ComiCon. You're looking like you don't know what these are.

[31:29] John: I know. I missed these. I didn't know that.

[31:31] David: Oh, my god. How could I be so plugged into what's happening in something, and you don't even know what it is? We're going to digress from the list for just a moment, John. So, Rob Liefeld is becoming the model for direct-to-consumer sales, man. That guy, he gets on Whatnot, once or twice a week, he sells a ton, and he's been producing new comic books. He's produced 6 comic books in the last 8 months, and he sells them all direct-to-consumer on his Whatnot channel and through his website. So, he's produced 3 issues of something called Last Blood, which is basically all his Brigade characters, and the stuff that he owns, 100%, basically, because doesn’t own Youngblood 100% anymore. All of his 100% creator-owned characters he still has, in a book called Last Blood. So, he's done 3 issues of that, and then he's done 2 issues of Youngblood, the new Youngblood series, and he's done a Giant-Size Youngblood #1 on the 40th Anniversary of Giant-Size X-Men #1. It came out around the same time. So, anyway, he's doing a lot of stuff. So, he might make the list, John. Not today.

Back to the list. #4 on my list. Well, I'm just going to get […]. Absolute Batman—tearing up the charts. One of the best selling, if not the best selling, book in all of comic books, and Nick Dragotta has a lot to say about that. Nick Dragotta's art has been a breath of fresh air. He's got a really cool, energetic style—That beefy Batman design—that he's put together, as well as some of the other designs that he's put on some of the other characters. I know there was a little bit of hate going around for the new Catwoman, but man, I did not hate it, at all. I thought it was pretty cool. His character designs and his storytelling abilities—He's got that manga-inspired-influenced style that he goes with. It's not overly detailed. It's not a lot of cross hatching and noodling in his work—simpler brush work. It's good stuff. Love his style. Love what he's doing in Absolute Batman. I recently sat down and reread the entire East of West series of about 45 issues from Image Comics, that he and Jonathan Hickman did. I think they wrapped that up several years ago, at this point, but great art in that, too. Great sense of design. So, Nick Dragotta, John, is #4 on The Corner Box Top 10 Hottest Interior Artists of the Moment.

[34:06] John: Love it. Yeah. Huge fan.

[34:08] David: You ready for #3?

[34:09] John: Yes.

[34:10] David: The competition is getting stiff and tense. If I had drum rolls, I'd probably bring them on now. This artist has also been around for a little bit. We talked about Ghost Machine already. It's another Ghost Machine artist. Jason Fabok of Rook: Exodus. Jason's work on Rook is career-defining for that guy. This is the guy that did Three Jokers at DC. That was the last thing he did. Jason Fabok's work is just next level, in every possible way. The characters that he's designed are incredible. The environments that he's building in this story are incredible. This guy is not taking any days off. The level of attention to detail is off the charts. I don't think there's anybody that's doing what this guy is doing right now, and I'm just totally blown away. Every single new issue of Rook that I see, I'm blown away. He did the first six issues of Rook, and then he's taken some time off, which I'm sure he had to, because of how much work this book is, but he's coming back now. Issue #7 is coming out soon, and I'm super excited for the next story arc. I love that he took some time off. So, we're only getting him as the artist in this series. I don't mind waiting a few months between story arcs. I think that's fine. I also appreciate that he's taking some time off to refresh himself, and really continue the high level of quality art that he's producing. I hope he's able to maintain it for a good, long time. I'm on board, 100%, and I hope that a lot of other people are, too. Jason Fabok on Rook.

[35:50] John: Cool. Yeah, you’ve talked about him a bunch on here. Yeah. Very excited. All right. Can't wait.

[35:56] David: Okay, we're getting down to our last 2. So, I've been complaining a lot about the Marvel art, in general—how a lot of the Marvel books are—I don't want to say subpar, but I don't know—a little subpar. They're not blowing anybody's hair back. So, it's funny that when I actually sat down and started building this list, that my Top 2 artists are both working on Marvel projects right now. Of course, that's how it goes. All right.

So, my #2—he was almost my #1, but he is my #2 for this month's Top 10 Hottest Interior Artists of the Moment—Iban Coello, who is also working on a Jonathan Hickman’s book right now, Imperial. So, Jonathan Hickman was tasked recently with revitalizing and reimagining the Marvel Galactic characters. The artists are maybe co-artists on Imperial. I think there might be another artist in there. Iban Coello’s work is really fascinating, to me, because much like Hayden Sherman, he has really leveled up over the course of the last couple of years, and every new project that he comes out with, he is better than the last project. The only other guy that I can think of, that I had the same reaction to, in this way—I don't know—in the last 15 years or so—is Olivier Coipel. Olivier Coipel, when he came out, he was good, but he wasn't Olivier Coipel, and then he was, and I feel like Iban Coello is similar, in that he came out, he was a good, rock-solid guy, interesting, but now every single project, he's going to the next level, and he's getting to the point now, where it's like, “wow.” I'm just very excited to see what he does next. His work on Imperials is impeccable, and I just hope that he continues to do interiors beyond this project. I just hope Marvel doesn't waste him. I hope Marvel continues to shine a spotlight on this guy, because every new project is better than the last. So, Iban Coello on Imperial is my #2.

[37:50] John: Yeah, okay. I wasn't expecting that. That's cool. No, he's great.

[37:54] David: And then my #1, John, is also probably one that you're not going to expect, because I haven't really talked about him much, but he is another, what I would call, an artist’s artist. My #1 Hottest Interior Artist in the entire industry right now, the guy that's doing it better than anyone else, in the moment—Ultimate Spider Man's Marco Checchetto.

[38:15] John: Wow. All right.

[38:17] David: Marco Checchetto can do no wrong, in my eyes. His art is impeccable. It's beautiful. It's a beautiful style that he has, and it's a very realistic, beautiful style, which is very commercial, but the thing that puts him over the top is that his storytelling ability, his ability to tell a story, and his ability to bring nuance to expressions, not only in the faces, but in the hands and the feet, and the gestures, is so much better than everybody else, right now. He has to be my #1 for this month. The guy is just an incredible storyteller. I hope he continues doing interiors, as well, because that's where his strength lies—in the acting of the characters that he's drawing, and a wildly commercial style that I don't think anybody's ever going to get tired of, anytime soon. I feel like he's in that the Neal Adams tree—the Neal Adams to Alan Davis, to Bryan Hitch, to Marco Checchetto—he's in that tree somewhere, but there's a certain something to the quality of the gesture and the acting, that he brings, that I don't always see in some of those other guys. So, that's my #1, John.

[39:23] John: There’s probably a lot of the Italian comic tradition that comes into that. He's somebody I've actually known from pretty close to his beginnings at Marvel, and it's been cool to see him evolve, and he's always a super nice guy to work with. I've been excited for his success over the years, and he was blowing up on Daredevil. I feel like that's when he really got a shot—big enough to be on Ultimate Spider-Man, and has lived up to that, and more. Awesome. I love that list, David. That was really fun. That was really cool.

[39:53] David: Yeah. Good. I'm glad you liked it. Any gaping holes for you, John? Any shocking surprises, or shocking omissions?

[39:59] John: I'm going to say, largely, that was focused on the US direct market.

[40:05] David: Well, just like Wizard, John. I'm trying to do the Wizard Magazine version of it. You weren’t going to see some indie low-selling thing, no matter how hot the artist was.

[40:14] John: Yeah. No, it'd be interesting to hear that across different stuff, too. Absolute expert in manga saying is the Top 5 Mangaka right now.

[40:24] David: I did almost throw in the artist for Kaiju No.8, because that's still one of my favorite books right now.

[40:29] John: Yeah, no, I would do that, too, I think—throw in somebody from there, but I don't always know that I would be picking the right—There's too much stuff to be an expert in everything these days.

[40:39] David: That's the truth. I'd like to be an expert in just one thing.

[40:42] John: Write. Well, I'm going to be an ex-parent if I don't go pick up my kid from school, I guess.

[40:53] David: All right. Well, I guess this is the All-David Show this time, I guess.

[40:56] John: That was a homerun, David. I love that. Definitely want to see where things change, overall, later on, and see who makes it and who gets cut. People are going to hate you and love you.

[41:06] David: I'm very excited for this. We're bringing back all the old Wizard regular articles, John.

[41:10] John: Nice. Brutes and Babes.

[41:12] David: Oh, we should get Bart Sears on the show. We can do that.

[41:14] John: It's Twisted ToyFare.

[41:18] David: You literally had little muscle erasers. Was that what they were called? Musclemen, or something? He just held them up to the camera. What were those called?

[41:26] John: M.U.S.C.L.E, in the US.

[41:32] David: Oh, man. I remember those, man.

[41:34] John: All right. Well, be back next week for more talk of old men talking about how expensive movies are, and comic book artists. No, the Top […]. I loved it. We'll be back next week with something exciting. Thanks for joining us, and be back here next week, Like and subscribe to The Corner Box.

[41:49] David: Yeah. Nice. Bye.

Thanks for joining us, and please subscribe, rate, and tell your friends about us. You can find updates, and links at www.thecornerbox.club, and we’ll be back next week with more from David, and John, here at The Corner Box.