Welcome to The Corner Box with David Hedgecock and John Barber. With decades of experience in all aspects of comic book production, David, John, and their guests will give you an in-depth, and insightful look at the past, present, and future of the most exciting medium on the planet—comics—and everything related to it.

[00:24] John Barber: Hello, and welcome back to The Corner Box. I'm one of your hosts, John, and with me, as always, David Hedgecock.

[00:31] David Hedgecock: […] tomorrow.

[00:32] John: But we're not alone. With us is one of the co-hosts of Comics and Chronic, and the creator of Superguy.

[00:39] Anthony Iannaccio: Yes, sir.

[00:40] John: Anthony Iannaccio.

[00:41] David: Welcome, Anthony, to the show.

[00:43] Anthony: Yeah, I'm glad to be here.

[00:44] David: I'm a huge fan of Comics and Chronic. I've been listening for--I don’t know--a year or two. Since I got into podcasting, I've listened to a lot more comic book podcasts than I ever did previously, and one of my favorites, by far, is Comics and Chronic. You and your co-hosts are just always a good time, and you guys seem to really enjoy reading comics, and talking about comics and pop culture stuff, and I just really enjoy the show. Are you really baked every time you do that?

[01:10] Anthony: No. I mean, these days, definitely less. Sometimes, not even at all. It started off as a pandemic project, basically. We were inside a lot. None of us were really working, at the time. So, we had a lot of free time. So, my co-hosts are Jake and Cody. Jake lives in LA. Cody's in West Virginia. So, everything's remote. We're doing it over Zoom, just like this. Jake came up with the idea. He's like, “hey, guys. We're always talking about comics. Let's go for a podcast. Let's try it out,” but we wanted to have some hook, and the other thing we love, besides comedy and comics, is weed. It was a match that we didn't see anywhere else. We hadn't seen the combo, yet. I still feel like it's almost too soon for it. People are still weirdly not so accepting of weed, of marijuana, in 2025, but we've been doing it since 2021. We've been having so much fun. I can't imagine stopping doing it, but it's just one of those things that I never realized would last this long.

[02:08] David: What do you think the secret is to the longevity of it, at this point? Because 4 years, that's no joke. Well, you're going on 5 years. Are you wrapping up your fifth year, essentially?

[02:15] Anthony: So, I guess we're starting our fifth year, but I think longevity-wise, number one, all three of us, we've known each other since 2011. So, we've known each other for a while, and the way we met was through a comedy program in New York City. I'm from New York. I still live here. Jake's originally from New York. So, it was a place where we all met each other, and kicked off our friendship, but also, we were all starting the same path of trying to get into comedy, somehow. Right now, Cody is a stand-up comedian. He tours the country. He's done big shows. He did one recently with Hannibal Buress. He’s making a name for himself in the indie comic world--well, yeah, comic world. You could call it that, too. We're all just really passionate about making people laugh and having a good time, and if we weren't recording it, we'd be doing the same thing. So, that makes it really easy.

[03:09] David: That's cool, and what do you do for a living?

[03:11] Anthony: I'm in IT. So, I work in a hospital in the Bronx. There's a medical system that everyone uses, called Epic, and I just have to set up training for doctors and nurses, etc. Wildly different from anything creative. As a day job, it's pretty good, but my whole career was always trying something else. I used to work for WWE. I was on their writing team for a little while, and that's about as far as I got, professionally, being a writer. I always found it a little bit difficult, coming out of college, to land a recurring gig, and it only got harder as the years went on. I dropped out of college, went back, graduated in 2013, or so, and it's never really been that easy to find a job at television, or anything like that. So, all my creative projects are completely independent. I've tried sketch comedy. I've tried stand-up comedy. I've always written. I've written prose, things like that, but I landed on comics, I don't want to say accidentally, but through the podcast, I developed even more of a passion for it, and felt like I wanted to finally try it, and everything coalesced.

[04:19] David: You were reading comics when you were a kid, right?

[04:21] Anthony: Oh, yeah, absolutely.

[04:22] David: Did you ever fall out of reading comic books, or have you been a steady reader your whole life?

[04:27] Anthony: At first, I wasn't a hardcore fan. I guess, the way it started off was that I would watch Batman the Animated Series, X-Men the Animated Series, Spider-Man, and that was pretty much my first exposure to superheroes, and then I'd have random issues, here and there. I think when I first started picking up comics, what was the X-Men doing? The X-Cutioner Saga. So, I had no idea what was going on, but it was always so cool to me.

[04:53] David: That is a great crossover, though. X-Cutioner Saga is a pretty badass saga to drop yourself into, if you're just starting getting into collecting, because correct me if I'm wrong, John, but wasn't X-Cutioner Saga--that was Jim Lee's vehicle, wasn't it?

[05:07] John: They shoot Xavier, right?

[05:08] David: Yeah, I think so. One of the times they killed Xavier.

[05:13] John: No, I think he was just out for those 12 issues. It wasn't like he was dead. It was like, “he's out of the picture for this.”

[05:19] David: What's the one that I'm thinking of? The Jim Lee.

[05:22] John: X-Tinction Agenda.

[05:24] David: X-Tinction Agenda. That's the one that was just a murderer's row, because it was Jim Lee--wasn't Simonson on? I'm confusing all the X-Men crossovers.

[05:34] John: I made two hard covers of that, back in my time, when I was doing books for Marvel.

[05:37] David: Fantastic.

[05:38] John: I think X-Tinction Agenda is not as good as you remember it. There's a couple of good Jim Lee issues. Liefeld's not--he's in one issue. You know the issue that he's in, but he's got finishers and stuff on it, if I remember right, and I don't think he does a couple of the issues. There's some fill-in ones on the other ones. It wasn’t Portacio, Lee, Sylvestri, and Liefeld together, like you'd think it would have been.

[06:02] David: What is the one with Sylvestri and Simonson doing the heavy lifting?

[06:08] John: Mutant Massacre.

[06:09] David: Yeah. Anthony, X-Tinction Agenda was your jam.

[06:14] Anthony: Yeah. If the only comics I got were if I was lucky enough for my parents to buy something. So, it wasn't until I was in high school and college, where I had a job, a disposable income, where I could start buying my own comics, and start this collection you see behind me. So, that was 2007/2008. So, Marvel's doing Civil War, DC's doing Infinite Crisis, and that's where I jumped in really hard, from that moment on. To this day, I'm still reading. I try to keep up monthly, although recently, it's a lot harder to do, but that's my jumping in point for comics.

[06:49] David: For the listener, Anthony's got a not-insignificant amount of comic books behind him. He's got two bookshelves connected to each other, at least six shelves tall. Just from here, I can't see titles, or anything, but there's one shelf that looks literally dedicated to just omnibi, and then to your right is another, at least, one shelf that's five shelves deep. You’ve got it going on, and then you’ve got piles of comics behind you, too. I love it.

[07:18] Anthony: Oh, yeah, it's worse. There's so much behind me, because I have to put my new shelf together, but yeah, it's crazy right now.

[07:27] David: I have had to move a lot of my Marvel/DC reading over to the app, because it's just too much. I've run out of space. Literally, I can't collect anything anymore, and every time I get something now, I'm like, “oh, God, where am I going to put this?”

[07:43] Anthony: No, that's the point I've hit, for sure. So, my wife doesn't like it

[07:47] David: As long as you can keep it contained to the one room, you're going to be fine. That's what I do. One section of the garage, and as long as I just can keep it all there, it's going to be fine. It's going to be fine. Back to Comics and Chronic. You guys met at a comedy school.

[08:03] Anthony: We would call it comedy school. It always sounds weird to say that, but it was a program that had stand-up comedy, acting classes, improv, and sketch comedy.

[08:13] David: And were you there for the writing parts of it, or were you there because you were thinking, at one point, you might try to go into stand-up comedy?

[08:19] Anthony: Yeah. So, honestly, I did have this pipe dream that I was going to be a stand-up comic, at some point. When I actually did try it, I found that it was just not something that was for me. I love writing. I'd rather write for a stand-up comic. I never really wanted to be a performer, but it helped me get out of my shell, to go on stage, just experience it from that vantage point. Even doing improv and acting, that was not something I really wanted to do, but doing it strengthened everything else I did, creatively, and I feel like I still hold those skills with me. It made me a better public speaker. I don't even think I'd be wanting to do a podcast if I didn't have experience like that, because it made me feel more comfortable, just talking in front of people, just trying to be myself. So, I feel like I got a lot out of it, but nothing really career-wise. They set it up in a way that was like, “you're going to do the show at the end of the year, where you do your own standup act.” A lot of the sketches that I wrote got to be performed, and I was in some other sketches people wrote, and then we did acting monologues, things like that, but with the idea that there would be people headhunting you there, maybe to get you to join, I guess, especially back then, one of the biggest and only things was SNL. That could be the goal everyone wanted, but that was not realistic. We were blinded by the idea that “this was too good to be true.” So, nothing ever really came out of that, except friendship and just skills that helped me just be a better creator.

[09:49] David: The journey, it all adds up to something, eventually. It’s all taking you somewhere. Anthony, you mentioned that you wrote for WWE or WWF--which one?

[09:58] Anthony: Yeah, WWE.

[09:59] David: What was that experience like? How did you get into that?

[10:02] Anthony: That was wild. So, I wasn't there that long. Maybe, I was there for half a year, a little bit more. Definitely the job that I only got because my wife was working there, and then she saw that there was an opening, and I was able to just interview, and get in there. It was interesting. I got to travel with them for a little bit. So, I would go across the country every week to different shows, different cities, and get to really be in the thick of it, as they were putting on a live show, and it was a lot of fun, don't get me wrong, but I was a way bigger wrestling fan in the 90s, as I was growing up, and watching it, when it was WWF still, but by the time I was doing it--I don’t know--the product felt a little stale, and it was a great experience, but I don't know--some things about working there are a little bit toxic. You'll hear, a lot of people have horror stories about it, but a lot of people also just stay there their whole lives, basically. That's something they really like doing, but for me, it wasn't a good long-term plan. Maybe career-wise, it would have been, but I couldn't do the traveling every week, just trying to maintain a relationship, and just live my life. It wasn't--I don’t know--maybe if I was a little bit younger and not committed to anybody, I would have just been like, “F it,” and just be on the road all the time.

[11:18] David: Why did you have to be on the road? Did you have to be writing for the performers’ live stuff?

[11:23] Anthony: I was a writer's assistant. My time there, I was never a full-on writer, but I just always have to be there. As a writer's assistant, I'm printing out the scripts, and they're changing the scripts constantly. So, I need to make sure the copies are updated, and then give them to whoever needs them. I'm running around arenas I've never been to, finding copiers, and it was really stressful, but really fun. At the end of the day, I wasn't doing as much writing as I wanted to, and I was also only just starting there, but it was less of a creative job than I anticipated, I guess. It felt like grunt work, most of the time, which was fine. I'm an assistant, and that's how I'm starting off, but again, some parts of it were just a little bit too frat house, I want to say. It didn't feel professional, sometimes, and I'm not talking about wrestlers themselves. Those dudes were actually pretty cool, most of the time. Some people working there just made it a miserable experience. So, it's hard to commit to it.

[12:18] David: I can imagine a wrestling business environment might have a little bit extra testosterone, maybe, compared to other work environments. John, little known fact, the one writing contribution that Anthony did have, in his time as a writer for wrestling, was he wrote a little thing--You probably haven't heard of it, but it is notable--He wrote, “can you smell what The Rock is cooking?” I don't know if you've heard that before, John, but that was Anthony's bit.

[12:49] John: That's a nice one.

[12:50] Anthony: I wish.

[12:51] David: Anthony, you mentioned the struggle of trying to get writing work, basically. I think, John and I have talked a little bit about that, in that, if you're a writer, especially for comic books, writing comic books is not the only thing you're writing, or not the only thing you're doing. In fact, John put it really beautifully the other day, on one of our episodes, where he said, “the win and lose state of comics is exactly the same,” in that if you're successful in comic books, you write for other media, and if you're not successful in comic books, you write for other media. I know you’ve got the IT gig, but obviously, you're trying to do other stuff. So, what have you done to try to break out, break in, break through?

[13:37] Anthony: So, not specifically comics—Like I was talking about before, sketch comedy, I've tried to do that. So, I made some YouTube channels in the past. I made a couple of those, and was doing a sketch a month, basically. I would also film it. Some of them, I would edit. So, I was all-in, creatively, on those, but again, that's not a gig that I would get paid for. It's just something I'm doing independently with friends, and that's just been the trajectory, so far. I mean, Superguy #1 is my first comic—technically, second, because there was the one-shot before it, but my first full-length comic—and that only came out this year. So, that's April 2025. So, I am very fresh to the comic game, despite how much I've written prose and stuff, in the past, and as much as I've been a comic fan, I'm still only really dipping my toes right now. So, as far as that goes, I have Superguy. I just finished a script for an anthology for Zombies. That would be my next little thing coming out.

[14:39] David: Is that from a publisher, or is that for a Kickstarter, or what's that for?

[14:42] Anthony: That's for a Kickstarter. Off the top of my head, I don't even remember what the name of the anthology was, but it's Zombies, We’re Human Too, or something like that. I think that's what it's called. It's fun. They've had a couple out already, and each one has a different--it's just, I guess, following a larger story, but the survivors of what's happening with their zombie apocalypse, are just telling each other stories, and that's what each story in the anthology is made out of.

[15:08] David: How many pages did you get for that one?

[15:09] Anthony: So, that one, we had a little leeway. So, I went with 10 pages. The Superguy one-shot, that's also a 10-pager. Superguy #1 is 28 pages. I definitely wanted to make as big of a book as possible for my first one, but in terms of work, again, I'm just only starting out. So, I am always looking for more opportunities. Anthologies are always usually the ones that pop up. Even for Superguy, that was how it started. It was an anthology opportunity. That story became a bigger story that we published ourselves on Kickstarter, me and Joey Murphy, but I don't really have any prospects. I'm hoping that with Superguy, and then these other small projects I'm doing, I'm just building up a reputation, showing that I could put work out there, finding an audience for that work. So, really, right now, it's just whatever opportunities come my way, and I could do it. I entered a 2-page talent search this week. Two pages was actually harder to do than anything else I've done, so far. That was a lot more difficult than anticipated, but I still did it. It was fun. So, I'm just on the lookout for things like that.

[16:14] John: That's one of the funny things. 28 pages is way easier than two, in its way. I've always thought that when mainstream Marvel and DC page counts dropped from 22 to 20, writers were the ones that got hurt by that, because it's harder to write a 20-page comic than a 22-page one, and you get paid two pages less for it.

[16:35] David: Yeah, I agree.

[16:36] John: I always admired the people that came up through 2000 A.D. in the UK, where they had to start off writing these 5-page stories to break into that, where--I mean, Alan Moore did a bunch of those, and stuff, and he's like, “man, that's hardcore training of setup-story-payoff in five pages.”

[16:52] David: I've never considered myself a writer. So, I'm writing now, but I was always coming from it from the arts, but even from the art side, two pages--that's tough to tell a story in two pages, for sure. So, let's talk a little bit about Superguy. What was the inspiration or impetus for that?

[17:11] Anthony: So, Superguy started off as a 10-pager in an anthology called Unknown Heroes. That was back in 2024. The response we got from that was incredible. A lot of people who read the anthology would tell us, that was their favorite story. A lot of people, I just sent it to, once the anthology was in place--I would send it to anyone really willing to read it for free as a digital version, and I just felt inspired. I was like, “all right. There seems to be at least some audience. Maybe not a huge one, but people seem to like the idea of Superguy.” The artist, Joey Murphy, was 100% on-board to work on it more, and that's all I really needed to hear. So, as long as he was down for the commitment, I was willing to go as far with this as possible. We mapped out a 28-page story. We have four issues planned. So, we already are in the works with our second issue. That's going to come out in a few months on Kickstarter, but really, the response we got from everyone just propelled us to work on something longer, and really make this a series that we could have as our own. I'm not even thinking about pitching it, or anything. I just want to have a complete story before I try to put it out further than that, I guess. If someone likes it, and they want to have a conversation with me, awesome, but again, I'm really just trying to prove myself right now. Joey's the same way. He hasn't done comics before. These are his first comic works, as well. I'm assuming it's going to be a really hard sell, if I'm like, “hey, here's my only comic. Give me work.” I want to show that I could be consistent with it, that I could actually do a complete arc.

So, I don't want to even say this is experimental, but it's just the story we landed on, and that we have a lot of ideas is for, even past four issues. I also feel like Superguy is a book, first and foremost, that I don't see on my shelf. Throughout time, there has been a lot of books that have comedy in it, and things like that. I could definitely think of--even though I haven't read it, like The Tick. There's some DNA of The Tick in Superguy, for sure, but I feel like there's not enough comics like The Tick, or comedy, in general. I really appreciated, you sent me over Sugar Bomb, and that was hilarious. That was a breath of fresh air, too, where it was genuinely funny. Raunchy as hell, but genuinely funny, and not that that takes away from the humor. I love raunchy stuff, too. I feel like, sometimes, in comics, it's promoted as something funny, or they want us to really believe it's funny, and it's just not. I know comedy is hard to write. I'll be the first to say that. I feel like maybe a lot of things are hard to write, but comedy is very specific. If you think you're funny, that's a different thing than being funny. Maybe you made your friends laugh, and that's cool, but I don't know if that automatically means you should be writing comedy, or doing anything with comedy.

[19:54] David: I think comedy in comic books is particularly difficult, because comedy is so much about the timing, and it's very difficult to control the timing of the reader in a comic book. You can do it. There's things you can do, but it's hard.

[20:07] Anthony: Yes, I agree.

[20:08] John: It's weird, though, because I mean, for--I don’t know--40 years, probably, most people's encounters with comics were comedy comic strips in the newspaper. I agree with you. I totally agree with what you guys are saying, but it's just a weird thing that there's a huge history of comedy in comics, but I 1,000% agree with you, Anthony, that most of the time when you read a funny comic, it's funny the way a Subway TV commercial is, where it has the cadence of a joke, but it doesn't actually have a joke built into it, or like you said, David, the timing comes off, and that's especially true in Marvel/DC stuff, because you've got these artists that are good at cool poses and fight stuff, and then also may not speak English very well, and then are coming in, and some of it, I think, probably comes down to something like that, where it's just like, “I would have drawn the joke if I knew it was a joke,” and tough to have an artist that can match it, and if you're just writing it, I mean, have somebody that can match the timing, and really do it.

[21:07] Anthony: That's a big part of it, too. The story, again, it started off as an anthology, but Joey was the artist that I picked, because we were friends, but I saw his art on Instagram, and it definitely has this Calvin and Hobbes-esque feel, and I wanted to play to his strengths that I saw. Superguy just matched that. I don't think Superguy would work with just any artist. It definitely has to have a silly feel. Not that his art is silly, but like you're talking about, a cartoon strip that I would read in the Sunday morning paper. I do want to have some of that feel, too, and I think that is one of the best ways to add humor into a comic, just the way it's paneled, and I think that's how you get the timing. A character's just single-panel reaction to something that the other person just said, and again, this is new to me, too. So, I've written comedy. I’ve written sketch comedy, but there is a challenge to get that translated from the script, in a way that visually just makes it work just as funny, but that's why I think I was so lucky to team up with Joey, because he gets it. We're so creatively on the same page that it's not even really a worry that I have.

[22:16] John: Yeah. When you see the comedy really working in a mainstream book, it usually establishes some rhythm to it, the way Nightwing with Tom Taylor and Redondo, or Hawkeye with Fraction and Aja.

[22:26] Anthony: Yes. Oh, that's one of the funniest.

[22:28] John: Yeah.

[22:29] David: You got me thinking about that newspaper strip, and the 3-panel gag thing, and I wonder if it's just that audiences are more sophisticated these days. The 3-panel gag doesn't pay off the way it did 50 years ago. Far be it from me to say that people are more educated today than they were 50 years ago, because it might not necessarily be true.

[22:51] John: I don't know. A lot of humor is built around that kind of thing, except you're seeing it buried in the algorithm on Facebook and Instagram. I mean, the comic strip’s disappeared, because of newspapers, or they migrated, because of newspapers.

[23:03] David: Berkeley Breathed, he's just as good at his craft today than he was, let's say, 30 years ago, and his humor is, I think, still on-point, but I think his stuff 30 years ago was so much funnier then. Now, maybe that's just an age thing for me, the age I was, at that time, and the age I'm at now, but it just doesn't hit the same as it once did. I don't think he's lost a step, but I feel like, me, as the audience, has grown or shifted, or changed, or evolved, in a way that doesn't allow for that stuff to work as well. I don't know. It's got me going down a rabbit hole. So, anyway, back to Anthony, back to Superguy. So, I don't know that you know this, Anthony, but getting an artist to complete a story, especially when you're first starting out, is not an easy task. So, congratulations on finding an artist who would actually work with you, and actually complete something. That's amazing. Did you have it complete before you took it to Kickstarter?

[24:01] Anthony: That was a big thing, too. I’ve backed a bunch of Kickstarters, and personally, I don't mind if it's not complete when I'm signing up for it. I have enough faith in the people I'm backing that I've never had an issue with Kickstarter. I know there's horror stories, but not my experience, but for me--and again, going back to, this is my first comic, it was especially my first Kickstarter campaign--I wanted there to be no doubt that what you were backing, you were going to get, as soon as the campaign was over. So, I had that book out to everybody by June/July. It was complete. I had copies printed sooner than that, just to make sure everything was okay, because yeah, I didn't want that doubt that, even for myself, like, “oh, no. There might be four pages left, but you never know what happens in someone's life, and then maybe he couldn't have finished those four pages,” and that's the exact same plan I have for Issue #2. Currently, Joey's right now up to page 19 or 20, penciling, out of 28 again. So, we're getting ready for launch in February, March, the latest.

[24:59] David: Is he doing the colors for it this time as well?

[25:02] Anthony: Yeah. So, Joey Murphy does the inks, the colors, the letters, the cover itself, the main cover. So, it's just a 2-person team.

[25:10] David: You had a couple of special guests for your Superguy cover artist guests. You got anything planned like that for the next Superguy as well?

[25:18] Anthony: Oh, yeah, absolutely. So, even if, right now, anyone listening went to the Kickstarter page for Superguy Issue #2, you'll see that we already announced a couple of variants, one of them being from Ahmed Raafat. He did a variant for us for the first issue. He had a book come out this year from Dark Horse--Well, a couple books, actually. Who Are The Power Pals, and also Quick Stops with Kevin Smith. So, that's how I saw his art, Quick Stops. We talked online. We've become friends since, just talking a lot. We like to talk about Batman Forever. I've had him on the pod to talk about that movie, specifically. Pretty much every artist I hook up with, I try to maintain and create some relationship that's not just working, but something that we could just talk, like normal, and it's not stilted, because I think that's where the best creative things come out of. I don't want it to feel like “I'm just telling you to draw this.” I give them so much freedom, because I'm only asking them to do this because I admire their work, and I don't want to direct how they do that work. Just like, “hey, this is the idea. Show me what you’ve got, if that works for you,” and I haven't been let down, at all, since then.

[26:27] David: I think that's smart, Anthony. I think creating relationships, that's what comic books are about, largely. I think being good at what you do, of course--you have to be good at what you do. You have to actually be incredibly good at what you do, but you also have to be fostering those relationships. I'm a perfect example of somebody who's somehow managed to kiss enough ass to get where I am, because I certainly didn't do it on talent. Do you feel any pressure, with Superguy and the Kickstarters, and stuff, from the Comics and Chronic side of things? Do you feel like, “I’ve got to deliver, because I've been talking sh!t over Comics and Chronic for five years, about what I like and what I don't like in comic books”--do you have any pressure around that, or do you keep those things separate, and you don't worry about it?

[27:11] Anthony: I don't know if I keep them separate. That's a great question. Myself, admittedly, I feel like I don't talk a lot of sh!t. I feel like I try to make my criticisms as valid as possible. Although, I know my co-hosts, they definitely go wild with what they think about certain books. I really always try to see--unless a book is really bad, we probably wouldn't even talk about it on the show, to be honest, but I really always try to find something that I like in a comic. I guess the most sh!t I'll talk is going back to, I don't think there's enough good comedy in comics anymore. So, that's where I feel the pressure. I feel like if I'm going to say that, I need to back it up, as hard as possible, and don't get me wrong, there still is good comedy. Off the top of my head, I will always say Mark Russell writes some of the funniest, smartest comics I've ever read. He's one of my favorite writers, and if there's anyone I could “emulate,” or just be as good as, in the comic form, it's him. He just always hits, for me. So, I know there are top dogs in comics that are tackling comedy, but I feel like there's not enough silly comedy, I guess. Yes, the president is Superguy's main archnemesis, but I'm not overtly trying to be political. I have my political opinions, of course, but it's not even really what the book's about.

I'm just trying to be as silly and funny as possible, because even going back to your point about the comic strips, they were called funny books. There's something that's still there, at the core of comics, that I think a lot of modern comics just are missing, for whatever reason. We could say maybe it's hard to write comedy, or people don't know how to market it, or editors, they're not comedians or could say what's funny. They might know a good comic, but comedy is a little bit hard to judge, too, and then, we live in a meme culture. If every joke is a meme, that's stale, and it doesn't stand the test of time. With my comedy, I want to make as many people laugh as possible. I love references, but I don't want to include references as part of the comedy. I just want it to live on the page and make you laugh as you're reading it.

There are deeper ideas I have for Superguy, but where I feel the pressure is just to make whoever's reading the comic laugh, even if it's just once throughout the whole first issue, because if you don't find it funny, then I don't think it's going to work. It's a superhero comic, but I really think of it as a comedy, first and foremost. If I'm picking a line, if I'm choosing an action, I just want it to be the funniest possible choice, over everything else.

[29:49] David: You were kind enough to share a PDF of the first issue with us. I did back your Kickstarter, by the way. So, I actually already did have a copy of the book, but it was nice to get the PDF. I have to say, after reading it before, and rereading it since you sent the new PDF, here's the thing. Superguy's an asshole.

[30:06] Anthony: Oh, yeah.

[30:08] David: He's really a jerk. It actually does hinder the comedy for me, because I am actively rooting against that guy the entire time.

[30:16] Anthony: Honestly, that is what I wanted, and maybe it doesn't work the way I wanted it to, but the idea was, yes, the comic is called Superguy, but it is really Robotguy's story, his sidekick, and that's definitely the character I want everyone to root for and side with, because in my own way, I am trying to subvert the superhero genre a little bit, to as much as my ability, and maybe that's too much of an undertaking for my first comic, but that was the whole idea. Superguy is totally--you could call him an anti-hero, but he's just an anti-superhero. Yes, that is what he is, but he doesn't do anything that you would expect your Superman or run-of-the-mill superhero to do.

[30:58] David: Definitely not.

[30:59] Anthony: So, part of that was like, “well, I don't want him to be likable.” It is something I want to build towards. That's baked into the story, where eventually he might do some things where you're like, “all right, maybe he's not 100% an asshole,” and then he might become more of a fan favorite, but really, it was all about just subverting what you might expect, even from seeing the title, Superguy.

[31:22] David: He's got a lot of learning to do, for sure.

[31:23] Anthony: Yeah.

[31:24] David: I'm definitely rooting for Robotguy, for sure. So, you mentioned Mark Russell as somebody here you're really digging right now, and I know with Comics and Chronic, you talk a lot about comics, all the time. So, what stuff are you jamming on right now, outside of Mark Russell? What are the Big 2 comics you're enjoying, or indie comics that you're enjoying right now?

[31:47] Anthony: Sure. From the Big 2, the Absolute Universe from DC has been killing it. In the past few months, I've just been reading all the first volumes, and there hasn't been a dud in the bunch. I really like what they're doing with that new universe. Fallen off Marvel a little bit, but the Ultimate Universe is, in the same way, really doing some cool things. So, I was sad to hear that that's ending--I don’t know--prematurely, but definitely sooner than I expected, but this year, I think the two best books that I read were Spectators from Brian K. Vaughan and Niko Henrichon, and Drome by Jesse Lonergan. Those, just visually, story-wise, two of the best comics, hands down. Nothing for me is really competing with that, except maybe, I would say, from the Absolute line, probably Absolute Martian Manhunter. That was just another comic that was just so different from anything out there. Beautiful. Great story, and those are all different. I will read any comic, and I don't even want to say as long as it's good. I'll just read. I love comics. So, I like to find my own tastes. I wouldn't call myself an influencer or tastemaker, but I do still like what I like, even though I'll read everything. Sometimes, I'm surprised by what is the comic that I landed on, but this year, those three. It's not hard to pick anything else.

[33:11] John: Yeah. I haven't read […], yet. I'm excited to do that, though.

[33:15] David: I'm coming around to Jesse Lonergan. He was not on my radar, and then, John, you had a guest on, or maybe you were talking about one of his books recently, and I'm coming around. I see the appeal, for sure, now that I've looked at it. The guy that's blowing me away right now, and I talked about it a little bit before, is Jake Smith on RoboWolf from Dark Horse. Holy moly, that guy can draw the hell out of everything. I don't even know how he's doing what he's doing. It's the most densely detailed artwork and coloring that I have seen in a long time, and it's just fantastic, 80s action cop, bad B-movie on paper. I'm loving it so much, but those are good choices. The Absolute line, I agree, is really fun. I haven't looked at Deniz Camp's Martian Manhunter, yet, but Deniz Camp on Ultimate Avengers is really good. I really like what he's doing over there. Deniz Camp seems like, I guess, he's already blowing up, but he seems like the next guy. He's going to have an event book from Marvel or DC, either one of them, in the next year or two. There's no doubt that he's going to be that guy. He's got it all there, and his creator-owned book—

[34:28] Anthony: Assorted Crisis Events. I haven't read that, yet.

[34:31] David: Thank you. The sixth issue just came out. I read the first two issues, and then I put it away, and waited till I had the whole thing, and I just read the whole thing. It's really good. I really enjoyed it. Deniz Camp, he's the next guy, if he's not already that.

[34:45] Anthony: Yeah.

[34:46] David: And John and I have both talked about Absolute Wonder Woman.

[34:48] Anthony: Oh, I love that one. Yeah.

[34:50] John: Yeah, Martian Manhunter, Wonder Woman, and Batman are just so amazingly cool, and Deniz Camp is--or Dennis Camp--I don't know. I actually don't know which one it is. I thought it was Dennis, but man, the art on Martian Manhunter--and it definitely feels like a “hold on to your hat,” to keep up with that art. There's stuff going in there that you--I don't care who you are. You can't have expected that to come in on a mainstream comic if you turned in a script on that.

[35:17] Anthony: I totally get that.

[35:18] John: I'm actually not up to date on it. I'm trying to get caught up. When we left off, I'd missed an issue, and then I wasn't reading it, and then I got the issues that I was missing, but I'm not fully caught up yet, but just the idea of making the whole thing in his head, the whole thing psychological, the whole thing being a--I don’t know-- playing up that part of Martian Manhunter, that's smart. That's cool. It makes it feel new, and the art and the writing is just so good. Yeah, I agree. Good stuff.

[35:49] David: I think we did a good business, John. You got any other questions for our guest here, or anything you need to get off your chest?

[35:54] John: No.

[35:55] David: Anthony, give us a couple plugs. Shop your wares. Where can we find Superguy? How can we get a hold of Comics and Chronic?

[36:02] Anthony: Again, I'm Anthony Iannaccio. You can find me anywhere on social media, as MrTonyNacho. I would say that, recently, just last week, or so, I put out Superguy #1. It's now free, digitally. I wanted to make sure, by the time Issue #2 was coming out, everyone had a chance to read, whether or not you were on the fence or just didn't want to commit to the Kickstarter, or any of the million ways I've tried to push this book, and put it in people's hands. Now, it's totally free. You could DM me for a free digital copy, or just go to GlobalComix. It's free on GlobalComix. I just added it to, actually, the ComixOne app, as well, which is very similar to GlobalComix. I feel like it's just a little bit more limited, definitely more indie focused. Just DM me, MrTonyNacho. I'm everywhere. Comics and Chronic is also everywhere. We have new episodes every single Thursday. We're going into the new year. We already have some episodes recorded for that. We're a comedy podcast, first and foremost, just like Superguy is a comedy book, first and foremost. We talk about comics, and we're trying to make you laugh. We're very silly. I know we're not for everybody, but we're also not just for stoners. I always like to throw that out there, too. Yes, we're Comics and Chronic, but by no means have you ever needed to take one puff.

[37:12] David: And it is not part of really--I mean, it's in the title, but it's not really a thing that you guys talk about or focus on, in any way. It's a comic book podcast, 100%. I really enjoy it. I really appreciate you coming on, because I am such a big fan of the podcast. You guys do a great job. You keep it fun. You keep it light. It's exactly the thing I want to hear while I'm driving to work or walking my dog.

[37:35] Anthony: Oh, thank you so much.

[37:36] John: Well, thank you for coming on. Thanks, everybody else, for joining us. Thank you. We'll be back next week, probably. I don't see why not.

[37:43] David: Yeah, no, John, we're not taking any time off. There's no probably. All the other podcasts, these lazy other podcasts, they're taking time off during the holidays. Not you and I, John. We are committed to our 5 fans. We are committed to those 5 people. We are not going to let them down, John. We're going to be there.

[38:01] John: It's too late for my family, for my kids. There's no chance of me not letting them down. Might as well try to not let the fans down.

[38:08] David: This is your chance, John.

[38:10] John: Cool. Thank you very much. Bye.

This has been The Corner Box with David and John. Please take a moment and give us a five-star rating. It really helps. Join us again next week for another dive into the wonderful world of comics.