 Alright, so we are here in an interview with, is it Shoning or Sconing? Maybe I should go get water. Alright, apparently it's neither there or yes. Alright, Dan, Dan. My headphones aren't backwards. I was listening to you guys. I was like, why is this so uncomfortable? Dan isn't. I actually labeled the sides right and left. We figured it out. Dan is your last name pronounced. Shoning or Sconing? It would be, yeah. If you went full German, it would be like that song, Donka Schaine. It's the same word except the ING added for English. Alright, so we are here on Come Again with Dan Shoning and Eric Burnham. Did I say that right? Close enough, sure. Alright. I'm Shoning. I'm John Weiss. And this is Come Again. And for those of you who don't know, these are the guys behind the Ghostbusters comics and IDW right now. Amazing comics. Yeah, very excellent comics. I've been reading them for the past few months now, just getting up to date and everything. Normally around here, whenever we get a comic book shop, it's very difficult for us to get Diamond to bring us comics. So it's hard to get IDW and Dynamite and all those. So... I would know. So let's just get started. How were you guys approached by IDW and other comic book publishers originally? I think that one, Eric, should start that one. If you didn't, you go ahead. I want to say first, before you go ahead though, I don't know if people will be able to see your shirts that you guys are wearing, but they're awesome Ghostbusters. I just wanted to point out that. Alright, go ahead, Eric. Alright, so the question was how did we get approached? How did we get approached for Ghostbusters or just in general? In general. Okay, well, my story, I'm going to give you the shortest version of the longer version. Dan's heard this before, but how I got into comics and it all dovetails into IDW was I worked in radio for a while, then lost that job and spent a couple of years of unemployment just doodling around online, meeting people and talking about comics. Eventually, we were like, hey, we should give this a shot. Actually, the true thing is we were complaining about stuff and thought if we could do better, we should put our money where our mouth is. We put out some indie comics and Tom Waltz was a part of that for a little bit. The company that I was in, which was just the group of us together, published his first miniseries. And when it was collected, that went through IDW and he connected with them in that way and eventually getting to know the people there became an editor. And he liked my stuff and asked if I would want to pitch to something that he was working on, which was the Gene Simmons House of Horrors anthology. So I pitched to that, I got a story in. And then he said, would you be interested in pitching for this, which was a tie-in for a toy? I said yes. And then there was some tie-ins to the A-Team movie. I said yes to that. And then it was during this time, he became the editor of Ghostbusters. I really wanted to work on that. I wanted to pitch something. And he said, okay, well, we've got a year's worth of one-shots, which was their holiday one-shots. We'll see if we can do something after that. And true to his word, as soon as those were over, he offered me the Infestation two-parter. I did that. It got a really good reception and he asked me to pitch the ongoing. So I mean, it was really just a matter of, you know, tripping upwards. Dan was involved with one of those holiday one-shots as well. So he was actually working on Ghostbusters before me. But yeah, so I mean, that's how I came to get from zero to Ghostbusters. And I think that holiday one-shot was the one that Dan recommended to me that had the boogeyman in it. Yeah. That's the one I wanted to read. No, the one he got initially was the Peter David one, which was, was that Sam Hayndan? Yeah, it was the Halloween issue. So yeah, which was amazing because it was kind of bringing together like actually four of my favorite things. Halloween, Ghostbusters, comics, and I love Peter David's work as well. So it was really cool to have that opportunity to do that. But my story isn't quite as interesting as Eric's. I fell backwards into it, not forwards. But I actually started out doing animation and I eventually kind of just found my way into doing comics. Before I did any comic book work, I did some animation work for DC. And that kind of led into me doing a whole bunch of chapter books that I did with DC and a company called Stone Arch Publishing. And they were kind of like based in that Bruce Tim DC animated style. And then, yeah, after that I had pitched, I can't remember how many issues it was with a writer named James E. Tok who did the Serial Geek magazine. And he also did a lot of the extra features on the Time Life real Ghostbusters DVD set that came out. I don't know if you guys are familiar with that. Maybe a little bit. John's got the entire collection. I have the entire collection. Oh, you do? Very cool. Yeah, no, he's interviewed in it and he wrote a fair bit of the behind the scenes stuff. So yeah, we pitched that and it didn't go through, but Tom did approach me to do that Halloween one shot with Peter David. And then I was very blessed and grateful when he came back and said, oh, do you want to do the pencils for the ongoing series? So it was a bit apprehensive at first because it felt like such a big undertaking to take something that I really love and do it monthly. But here we are. It was like six and a half, seven years now. Isn't it, Derek? Yeah, yeah, it was March of 2011 when the pitch went through and we were talking about getting the series going. So yeah, it's been six years. And you know, I think I speak for every Ghostbusters fan out there. When I say you guys do an amazing job with the Ghostbusters series, I hope you guys stay on it for a long time because it's like picking up another new movie of the Ghostbusters. I told John when I introduced him to Mass Hysteria that you had Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters 2, Ghostbusters is a video game which would technically be Ghostbusters 3, and then the Mass Hysteria comics which I see as Ghostbusters 4. Yeah, definitely. Thank you. That's all Eric's genius. Really, I just draw the funny pictures that go around. Well, I think it's both of you equally. Dan, you have a great way of drawing that really shows off the characters like that image of Peter and Dana, where Peter's telling Dana that she never has to keep him out of the loop. That was an amazing image. I love that image so much. Yeah, that was a great opportunity that they gave us to use those lupus as characters. Because at first Eric was correct that they didn't want us to use them, and then we were able to kind of incorporate them into the story, I believe. Yeah, for the first couple of years, that was one of the things that they asked us not to do, was to not use Dana, Lewis, Tully, or actually for a while they didn't want us to use Slimer either, but we snuck him in a little bit earlier. We just promised it wouldn't be like a goofy, like the version that was on the real Ghostbusters, like Pet. You know, they wanted to avoid that confusion. And I do like the way you handled Slimer in the comics. Very nice. Now, when you write the Ghostbuster characters, I know this isn't on the list, but when you write the Ghostbuster characters in your mind, are you, when you're writing their words, are you imagining the actors' voices on their page? Are you the real Ghostbuster versions? 90% of the time it's the live-action actors. Although every once in a while with Egon, I hear Maryslo March and Stan Mildremis. Same here, yeah. Because I've noticed a few times, like with Peter, it's almost like you've merged Bill Murray and Peter from the real Ghostbusters together, which I thought was very nicely done. Yeah, in my head I kind of go back and forth depending on the scene. And the Ghostbusters get real where you have Peter about ready to knock the other Peter out. That was A-plus. That was, yeah. Dan and I were talking about that before we got going on the series, and it was just the kind of thing that Peter probably wouldn't like himself, and it was just one of those fun things we wanted to work in. Yeah, it's so true. With the amazing dialogue that Eric wrote for it, I think it's also a testament to Lorenzo Music's acting talent for the show that him and Bill Murray are almost interchangeable, they're not exactly the same voice, but the mannerisms and his kind of nonchalant attitude about things and a bit of sliminess. You got Peter Venkman and you got Garfield, you know? Yeah, exactly. It's weird that the universe works sometimes. So how were you guys approached about doing the Ghostbusters board game? That Dan definitely was in on before me, so I'm going to let him take it this time. That's what I'm saying, that is an amazing game, by the way. Oh, thanks. I actually had an opportunity to play it yet. I have flipped through the business. It's really cool to see. I'm very humbled to see all the art made into 3D miniatures, especially the people that paint them too. It's pretty amazing work. I haven't had a chance to do that yet. I haven't had a chance to play it yet. It's a pretty expensive game, but I do plan on getting it sometime in the near future, that along with Ghostbusters 2. Yeah, I'll come over and play some. So that's good. As for getting that gig, it was the first time I was at San Diego Comic Con. I met an employee who worked at Cryptozoic, and unfortunately I can't remember his name, but he was very kind and was really digging the comic book, and he was like, oh, we got to get you to do some art for us, and we're doing a few Ghostbusters things. So it was like maybe about half a year later, they contacted me, or maybe it was someone from Cryptozoic, and they said, oh, we're going to be putting together this board game, and we'd like you to do the art for it. So I just started kind of rolling in and doing all the model sheets since I come from an animation background. I was quite familiar with how to rotate characters. So the 3D artists just used those directly and kind of modeled all the figures from that. And then they wanted to do a story. They wanted to create kind of a story line that's when they contacted Eric. So kind of that's the short story. And I also wanted to say quickly, too, is that I don't think the comic would be nearly as good without Lewis' talents as well with the coloring. Right. I just wanted to give him a shout out because he's constantly doing amazing work and just blowing me away, and I've forgotten how to color now, and I look at his stuff and I'm like, oh my God, it's just always impressive every time he sends me something. He says forgotten, but he doesn't need to remember because, yeah, Lewis is just, he's fantastic. And we really have gelled quite a bit as a team. It's difficult to put together the story in the same way without these two. I've written for a couple of other artists and it's just like looking at it and going, now this looks great, but it's not bad. You know. Did you want to take the next? I told Gary in Canada, so I had to get his proofs. Yeah, I just want to, as soon as I already answered the question. So is there a comic you guys haven't worked on yet, but you would love to? Like it's your grail to work on? You like your holy grail to work on? I'm going to let you go first, although you did get it cracked at one of your favorite properties. I know that. I'll let you run there. You did. Back to the future. That's right. Yeah. That was kind of a bucket list. And then I got to meet them. The cast. That was actually another question we were going to ask. Yeah. And I'll go into a comic I'd like to do. I would love to do something. Marvel or DC. It would be a lot of fun to kind of expand on a style that people may or may not know me for. More of a comic book looking style. I would call it because I think it's a particular character. The style I draw in is very cartoony, which makes a lot of sense because I come from an animation background. And we chose these designs because it really, for the Ghostbusters, it really separates from the actors because we're not allowed to draw them. Right. And it also really plays up the element that Ghostbusters is a comedy in its very essence and core. So having kind of funny looking characters really helps sell that comedy even more. So, yeah. I can't think of any specific type. It would be fun to draw anything from either of those two camps. I could call it. I could seem to score a point. I'd probably just take anything they throw at me. I would actually like to see your guys' interpretation of either the Phantom or the Shadow. I think that would be pretty cool. I think they could do a pretty good job with Fantastic Four too. That'd be fun. Yeah, yeah. I get a kick out of that. I got a little bit of a crack at the superhero world helping out a friend on some books a few years ago on Scarlet Spider and New Warriors, Chris Yost. And that was fun. I'd like a straight up proper, even a short story with Spider-Man would be fun to write. My longtime favorite. Other than that, I mean, I'll take whatever's thrown at me like Dan said. But that would be a fun one to work on just once. I'd like to see his Spider-Man. So, let's go ahead and skip ahead to the question those later on the list. Have you guys met any of the actors from the movies that you guys are creating the comic books for? Like from Back to the Future, Ghostbusters and whatnot? Oh, Dan sure has. I need nobody. I'm further out in the middle of nowhere than Dan is and he lives on an island. So, yeah, but Dan has met more people than I have and he's got some good stories about it because I've heard them. Yes, they are good stories. The first one, actually I'll start off with Dan Ackroyd. I heard he was coming to town thanks to the Ghostbusters of BC. He was coming to do one of his vodka signings. He sells the crystal head skull vodka, which is really, really good by the way. Yes, it is. And no, I don't get paid by them to say that, not sponsoring, but it is good. Yeah, no, he was coming to sign at a local liquor store that we have in town and they're also doing a charity to raise money for a young boy who was going through a cancer treatment. So, I had donated a whole bunch of art and comics to the auction in hopes of raising a bit more money and I was able to meet and chat with them for a little bit at the signing, which is fantastic. I brought my mom with me, which is amazing because if it wasn't for her, I don't think I would be that much into Ghostbusters because she took me to see the first movie in the theater when it came out and that was really cool and we chatted a little bit about Ghostbusters and he has a huge passion for the property and for the characters and everything and it's really nice to see that he's continuing to do that and I think that's the only Ghostbusters I've met when I think about it. The other ones that we had talked about that I kind of jumped the gun on was that I got to meet Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd and Leah Thompson at the Philadelphia Wizard World Comic Con last year so I had done an exclusive cover for the show so they flew me down and actually got to go and meet them for free which is amazing because they were it's pretty pricey to get photo ops with celebrities at some of the shows but I didn't get a chance to really speak with Michael J. Fox but I did chat with Christopher Lloyd and Leah Thompson and they're super nice very humble and just as awesome as you would want them to be so it was really cool. Another check off the bucket list and also we've Gail before as well who co-created Back to the Future and he's awesome and the first time I met him I was really kind of holding back my inner geek because I wanted to ask him so much about Back to the Future but I think I did pretty good. I was a bit more nervous than anything so I didn't want to say anything stupid. Yeah, I didn't meet too many of the folks but I did get to go down and visit Ghostcore on the Sony lot a few weeks back which was pretty awesome in and of itself so I got to play around with the Ghostbusters VR that's coming sooner or later and they got to laugh at me trying to dodge something that wasn't actually there and crew's around the studio back lot on a golf cart I got to check that bucket list so take that Dan. Did it have the actor Siren on the you know what somebody they had a golf cart that's made up to look like Acto 1 but somebody moved it they couldn't find it so we had to just jump on a regular one. I can just imagine someone finding it and they're like you can't park that here exactly it was moved it was supposed to be right up with the Acto cars but yeah no so anyway that was that was a real blast it was neat to to see the offices the head offices there and you know wander around a little bit but that's as close as I've gotten to two behind the scenes of the movies we have also met Kevin Eastman as well don't forget that's true amazing to meet him as well because that is a huge fan of Ninja Turtles growing up and having the opportunity to draw them with the Ghostbusters was a bit of my 8 year old self would have blown up probably you know what it's gotten to the point now where Kevin is making fun of me when I see him at the IDW booth so I tend to forget but yeah he is one of the nicest people I've ever met. What's the weirdest thing a fan has asked you to sign? Nothing weird although I always it feels strange to sign action figures on the figure itself I've gotten out with a couple of Ninja Turtles but you know nothing strange I mean props every once in a while I've signed some of those and hats I've signed but I can't think of anything that's just out and out strange it's strange for me to sign like an action figure but that's not strange in and of itself so how about you Dan? Having this vague memory of someone getting me to sign something that I didn't work on because I just didn't know what to say but I think it was that one of the local shows around town here and they may have not known who I was so I uh surprise it's me. I share a last name with the DC artist Chris Burnham and at a Chicago show a couple years ago he's right a few tables down for me somebody came up he holds up a Scarlet Spider comic and a Batman comic said which one are you? My name is on the banner right behind me if he would have just opened the book he would have answered his question I just I always just get a kick out of that that's a good one Speaking of action figures but you sign on action figures has anyone approached you guys yet about turning Dan maybe turning your Ghostbusters into action figures That would be nice, that would be cool Just the cryptozoic board game miniatures for now Yeah we haven't gotten a peep out of that but I consider that Okay fans so you heard it Let's go Let's get some of Dan's Ghostbusters into action figures I came first to buy them So The Narcissism I want to see the characters we've created pop out it just made me geek out to see the miniatures of the stuff that was original of the comic books in that first board game so that would be that would be a lot of fun Yeah it would be cool to have like a Ron Alexander figure Somebody made a custom of that last year did I send you a picture of that? It was neat Yeah so I mean people have made some customs of these and that's how it was a fun surprise somebody sent me some patches of the Ghost Smashers logo but something official merchandise with our characters other than oh wait there was a video game too Dan a mobile video game that had Ron and T that It was like a jewel game where you dropped it was like Tetris with jewels or something like that I had that on my phone Yeah see So I mean like I said this stuff is neat but I mean I'm circling around back to it would just be super cool to have an action figure you could put on the desk of something we made up that would be you know a nice little ego boost I'd really like an Ellen Gold that the nanny ghost If you lift her up there's all the kids you can hide all the kids under her dress That's kind of creepy Yeah it would be kind of creepy but it ain't no I think she's part of the second game though so you've at least got that Yeah we're halfway there we just need to go up a few sizes Did you want to take the next question John? Oh sure What's been your favorite comic to work on? Oh this Ghostbusters without a doubt Dan's going to say back to the future No I'm kidding I'd say I'm the most proud of the Ghostbusters work that we've done for sure Is it my favorite because of that? Well It's been the most fun again for me bar none and it's also something I'm really proud of is you don't often see in this day and age a creative team going pretty much unbroken there's only been three fill-in issues out of all the issues that we've done together you know several years you don't see that anymore it used to be pretty common and now it's just not but I'm proud that Dan and Luis and I have worked on this book and had a pretty solid strong run for gosh counting all the miniseries and the annuals we're getting pretty close to 60 issues That would explain all the gray hair I have now over the past six years That's right You've seen the scripts It's all those late nights I worked long hours so that's why I actually write into the script now Dan don't draw a background he does it anyway but I write it in there to you know use my own guilt Sometimes I don't draw open it but most of the time I do It's true Speaking of drawing in the stories and everything Whose idea was it to include you guys into what was it one of the annuals where Dan's doing research and then Eric I think you and was it Luis were interviewing Winston Yeah I came up with that I think because that story was actually written Shhh 2012 was when the story was actually written we were we put it together back then after bouncing the idea back and forth and it was me and Luis sitting there in the diner because Dan didn't want to draw himself in that much of the issue he was feeling a little bit of humbleness so I specifically wrote that in to have him running away from the ghosts Where's Dan? He's on vacation Yeah let's go with that Yeah I am proudest of the I am proudest of the little self deprecating joke there at the end that was a late edition when I was revising it So a little knock against myself but it made me laugh to write it so yeah it took a while for us to get that one in print but it was definitely worth the wait it was fun for sure the story overall the story itself was was all Dan's idea he wanted to he wanted to put that story together and the basic plot was all Dan he wanted to show what Winston was doing and the the the mother of the oh gosh now I'm blanking on their names I kept wanting to say the wrong name yes I know I'm just like blanking out on the Scolari brothers but yeah his idea to throw the Scolari brothers mother in there and so yeah that was all Dan and I just you know knocked out an eight page gig you know the egg fed mostly yeah the inspiration was Dan now watching Ghostbusters 2 I'm sure a lot of kids actually always wondered where Winston was during that because all you saw was in briefly in the courtroom and that was it I was just going to say that I think that's one of the things I'm most proud of about the work we've done with Ghostbusters is that we've given Winston more of a voice and I really wanted to that was the main drive behind doing that short story where he was during that courtroom scene because I always felt like where did that character go like he's just as important as the other three we need to find out what happened to him and even with just the little outline that I came up with or knocked it out of the park with the dialogue and just how it just worked out really well Do you want to take the next question? So were you guys doing your part in writing, growing up were you guys giving a hard time in school for this by other kids or bullied in any way? No, not for lichen or comics or doodling or anything like that if anything Dan might have the same experience with sketching I more often than not got asked to draw things then got bullied so not to say that there wasn't of typical bullying because I moved all around a lot but it never had anything to do with comics or art Yeah, no I can't say I remember anything related directly to that as far as usually everybody was really like oh cool you could draw that like oh you can why don't you draw this for me kind of like echoing what you just said Eric and who is that supposed to be or what's that and over time I just got a little bit more bitter to that question because I kept hearing it so often What advice do you guys have for aspiring artists and writers? Finish what you start is a good one because completing a project you know trains you to keep completing the project not completing a project trains you to you know not it's a weird thing to say but it's true so finishing it and getting to finish stuff you learn you grow you keep going and you have the ability and the mindset and the habit of finishing and that just makes it easier to produce work you produce more work and you will build an audience eventually I mean maybe a small audience maybe a big audience but you will find one if you finish your work produce it get it out there so hopefully also you'll improve from the repetition This is a huge key I always tell everybody that just do what you love and love what you do so if you have a passion for something then that is your purpose and if you follow it then I personally believe that you will be supplied with everything that you need to survive if you're following your passion so I've been very blessed and I haven't actually had to ever reach out and ask for work from anybody for the past maybe 10 years which I think is really awesome so just having that opportunity and yeah just for artists in particular draw everyday draw things that you find challenging to draw if you want to do comic book art it's really important to know how to draw cars and buildings and environments not just the characters and life drawing lessons are huge so I'm just kind of dipping my toes back into that again I used to do it a lot when I was doing animation because it was almost a requirement for the job but with just learning how to draw things realistically it was really important for you to take it a step further and distort that so definitely life drawing is good Have you guys thought about creating YouTube channels for like like Mark Crilly has his how to draw channel Have you guys thought about doing anything like that? No it's coming up with the content and editing my sister and brother are both YouTubers I've seen how much work goes into it and I can't imagine how I would fit it into my schedule so I definitely can't understand how Dan can fit it in That's 14 minutes of sleep everyday That's it It's true we'll have you down to 10 by the end of the year 10 minutes That's my goal People are like I'm going to keep that 10 pounds I'm going to keep that 10 minutes I think that's about what Casey Neistat gets for Do you want to take that? I want to mention though too for anybody who's aspiring to get into comics is that it's really good to take care of yourself as well and that's something that has taken me a while to learn but I'm starting to understand that more that comics and art is really important because not only will it offer you a chance to sleep which is fantastic it will also give you a chance to experience other things in life that you can then incorporate into your art and it shows a lot how maybe well traveled or well experienced you are in your art is how your visual voice looks Sure Now do you guys have any type of stories you wouldn't mind sharing? Be more specific because I can't think of anything off the top of my head that would be horrifying narrow it down Well like any like massive problems you've had during the process of writing or drawing or like people you've had to work with that you didn't I'm sure you can't really say their names or anything Right I've been pretty fortunate in that regard the only thing maybe that was that was awful was I I mean that came close to working was I had to rewrite a 22 page script from scratch in less than 24 hours so I mean that was that was a bit of a long slog but that was as close to nightmarish as I've ever had I've worked with great people I've had good experiences I've never had to deal with anybody testy either a collaborator or artist colorist or editorial all that's been good I can't even the quote-unquote negative fan interaction has been super mild it's the kind of thing where somebody comes up and it's a backhanded compliment they hand me a marble book and said I'm so glad you're finally working on something that matters and they don't mean it as an insult at all they're just excited because I'm working on something that they love and I understand that so I mean that's as close as it gets I never have anything awful happen That's a good one I've never heard that I've never heard that story I can't think of anything horrific when I was doing comics but when I was doing animation it was just I can't name names or places or anything like that I think I found with what I was doing before comic books it was very unrewarding because the art wasn't they just kind of wanted us to do it kind of quick and dirty and there was no real care put into there wasn't enough time to put in that care to make the art look really good so I eventually kind of just got worn out of that and that's when I started just doing freelancing but nothing as horrific and backhanded as that compliment that you got Eric and like I said even that wasn't too terrible so I mean I'll take that any day over some of the horror stories that I've heard in passing from colleagues What was your guys' favorite Ghostbuster story you've done so far? Dan I'm going to need more time to think yeah well I can give you two I'll give you two one of them was my favorite to draw which was the issue when they were in New Orleans I always wanted to go to New Orleans so the architecture and the energy in that place so from what I've seen and getting to draw that was amazing I had a lot of fun I loved the old style kind of French design in the building and as well as like all the foliage in this area of the world so one day I'll make it there but I really liked drawing that and got to draw some zombies in there and some kind of cool drummer ghosts and put a lot of research into that issue I think my second favorite would be the annual with the Sandman in it and I really I just really enjoyed that story it was just Eric always there's an amazing job but that one just really clicked with me that was a nice take on this ending I didn't hear that I didn't know that it stuck out okay well let's see I also enjoyed I've also wanted to go to New Orleans so that's why I wrote that story and worked in to draw it's just a love for the area that I've never gotten a chance to visit but let's see a couple favorites one of the favorites I had to write was was our second arc when Peter exercised himself I just had a lot of fun writing that particular scene just because it was weird and and also I think also I like there's a couple of just small moments that are coming to mind so it's not really one story but I mean it's just I like writing some of the smaller moments a little a little tiny aside a joke here or you know human moments there that are not super dramatic or super funny but they're just you know they make the characters human which makes the comedy play better I mean those are the kind of things that I enjoy writing most in there and their sprinkle all throughout yeah I think one of the best um the best types of that would be in mass hysteria where Venkman is talking to Walter Peck and he gets a call on the phone and then quickly he jumps on the motorcycle and rides away I think that's a very good example of that yeah even Peck he's worried about a family friend that we did in Ghostbusters International that was fun people didn't expect they're always surprised when Peck comes across as a human being which is a great deal of fun for me to put into the book because of that yeah you guys have done an amazing job turning Peck from the Pecker head that we knew in Ghostbusters 1 so like to a fairly likeable character well I don't know if he's likeable but he is understandable while he does have a heart it's true it's buried under all the marshmallow but that's right it wouldn't make any sense if everybody you know if there were characters running around the world they're human beings I mean they're jerks or any other things but they're all they're all human beings I think the closest thing we've got we've replaced Walter with Ron Alexander with just a total irredeemable character of a person is now Ron Alexander yeah he's a I'm not sure what to think about Ron I mean is there in the future could we be getting a Ghostbusters Chicago comic it's not impossible to maybe see a short story or one shot down the line if we come up with something good or if somebody comes up with something good and 90W and Sony all agree to it and see that there's money to be made and like the angle you know then yeah sure maybe it's not impossible I don't know how likely it is or it isn't at this point in time but I sure would like to do it I get a kick out of playing some of the same beats with fresh eyes with different characters so I'd like to see it and you know all this babbling is basically you know boils down to I don't know maybe be cool I really like how you guys took the rookie from the Ghostbusters video game and gave him his own Ghostbusters franchise that was a nice touch but he keeps the nickname the rookie yeah I like that it's good luck isn't it wasn't it revealed once that his name Tristan Jones who was doing the backups gave him a name and I kind of prefer to not know his name but I don't want to contradict with Chris and put in there either so I'm not going to contradict it but I'm not going to use it unless absolutely necessary so I mean just to keep the joke alive that he's always referred to as that but I mean as far as it goes he got a name from Tristan and that's what his name would be very nice I think it was a playoff of the actual person they modeled the character off of I think he was one of the art leads on their game yeah yeah I guess Ryan French was the actual guy's name maybe or maybe that's the one Tristan made up I can't remember I'm forgetting one of the names I think it's in my omnibus volume one I may have to go back and check but yeah it should be in there for sure is there a crossover story you would like to do that you haven't done so far like Ghostbusters and Spireman or Ninja Turtles or something like that a really good one today that I'm really stoked about would be the Golden Girls meets Elvira I saw that picture that would be pretty good because Elvira posted that picture to Dan that would be just amazing now I've made Elvira she is an amazing woman she's hilarious she's amazing yeah Tom Waltz came up with one a couple of years ago that would have been a lot of fun but is right now not possible for any number of reasons and that would be the Ghostbusters and the Fantastic Four would be a lot of fun and you know I mean if that ever does become possible I know exactly what we do and exactly how it would work and exactly that Reed and Egon would hate each other that was my first question is who is smarter? Egon or Reed Richards well Egon is going to think he is that's where his ego is going to come out but I would get a big kick out of doing that crossover I wouldn't mind seeing a real Ghostbusters with Filmations Ghostbusters team up there you go going back to the Fantastic Four I'm not sure where the rights lie for Filmation at this point going back to your Fantastic Four idea it would be a nice banter between Johnny Storm thing and Venkmen it's true it is absolutely true there would be plenty of fun actually I think would be more entertaining would be Ben and Janine hanging out that would be the most fun to write right there just totally over everybody's nonsense I could see Janine picking up one of Ben's cigars and puffing on it and just go to the local pub and just down they go up for a beer and say let me tell you something else he's got Johnny Storm's story she's got Venkmen's stories ok so what can we expect in the future of Ghostbusters for IDW aside from Ghostbusters 101 well that's kind of up in the air Tom and Dan and I have discussed a few different things but we're not sure quite yet what more will be there's a couple of irons in the fire a couple of ideas at least one of which would probably require Dan to take a six months vacation when it was done but right now I honestly couldn't tell you what's next I could not so I know it's one of a couple of possibilities and whatever gets the green light first is what it will be we'll find out I'm just finishing issue five as far as penciling is going and we should be wrapped up issue six within about four weeks maybe four and a half and then we'll see what is on the table lots of comics we'll know before Dan we'll know before Dan has to draw it won't just be the next day I know you guys can't tell us the ending of one on one I know you guys can't tell us the ending of one on one but is there a chance that we could but is there a chance that we could see a new joined universe between the answer of the call and the originals well the whole thing is one of Dan accurate's initial ideas for the Ghostbusters he wanted them to be multiversal you know the only thing we haven't gotten into as far as our run is straight up time travel but I mean we could always make that play is just another type of dimensional travel don't go into time travel because that was done in one of the earlier IDW Ghostbusters stories it didn't really turn out that great I didn't think we'd find our own unique spin on it but the whole point of it is that it will be a multiverse and I mean it's no spoiler to say things will get put back to the way they were and to the two worlds and the two New Yorks will be separate again but now they'll know about each other and our Ghostbusters do have a way to visit should they need to so I mean they'll be connected but separate maybe an infinite crisis for Ghostbusters have all the different Ghostbusters teams coming back to the future Ghostbusters crossover there you go that'd be nice Ben who's smarter Doc Brown or Egon I could I could see Doc Brown with a proton pack that would be guys all over the place I could see Doc Brown trying trepanation but um they need two drills one for Egon Doc Brown wants to dissect Slimer do you want to take the next one sure if you guys could be any character that you've drawn or written who would you choose if we could be any of the characters we are characters that Dan has drawn and I've written so it's all the answer it totally is let's see well go for it Dan I want to hear what yours is I'm still thinking you know I've always had a fun that's for Green Lantern so I was really excited thank you okay stuff with his ring and I would just be making cool stuff out of hard light all day I think we both agree with that we're both Green Lantern fans huge Green Lantern fans oh yeah there we go let's see stuff that I've written that I could conceivably be partly through Kane the Spider-Man clone just because he was so much fun to write with a very acerbic attitude and love to adopt in public but can't or or Jason from Galaxy Quest would also be a kind of a kick that'd be kind of cool I didn't finally watch that movie yes see I knew you would love it when the opportunity came for me to do a Galaxy Quest miniseries Dan was asked about drawing but he hadn't seen it yet sort of he passed and I was just like dang it would have been perfect it was a really good movie yeah so next time next time we'll get Dan in on the fun have you watched it with the alien language soundtrack oh gosh no I haven't actually done that give that a try I lasted maybe close to 30 minutes before I finally shut it off okay kind of sidesets step in Galaxy Quest now this wouldn't be much of a geek show if we didn't ask this one important question Trek or Wars I would be less likely to die in the Star Trek universe so I'm going to go with that out of pure self-preservation you're not wearing a red shirt to be perfectly honest I am I'm screwed I'm screwed either way it's yeah I grew up with a little bit more of the Star Trek earlier and more often and more heavily so I go Star Trek for that reason alone it beat Star Wars to the punch I grew up more with Star Wars so I got to go with the Star Wars you go I saw Empire Strikes Back in the Theater and my mom always tells the story about how when Yoda first appeared on screen I thought it was a great idea I was alive at the time that's for everybody and this does a packed theater too and I don't know where I got this idea from but I inspired other children to come up and do it too everybody was laughing yeah it was bizarre but I guess I just really liked Yoda I don't know why I did it I can't remember why but well Yoda is the best he's my favorite Star Wars character absolutely can't beat them up it's Frank Oz for the win go ahead what has been your favorite convention experience I think the most fun that I actually had at a convention was the first time I went to San Diego Comic Con in 2012 I got to meet Dan for the first time after we've been working with each other for about a year I got to meet Tom Waltz for the first time after we'd known each other for gosh it's been eight years I got to meet Louise I got to see this massive crazy convention and at the end of day two we went to a Mexican restaurant we sat around and chatted over too many tacos and beers that was fantastic I think that's going to go up there with my favorite off the top of my head that was this thing with too many tacos and beers not until you passed out when you had too many Eric was saying those are the most fun is when we are all able to get together in person we always have a great time and click together really well and it's like we've known each other for more than the amount of time we've been working together which is really cool so yeah San Diego is a great show with the team and with other artists as well and I would say as far as for a professional side as you could say I had an amazing experience at the recent Calgary Expo that was just a month or two ago they always made sure we were eating lots they had these amazing cookies and it was a fantastic time although I think San Diego might be a bit harder to get into alright now from what I've heard did you use Eugene Levy as a voice of Lewis' cousin in Mass Hysteria all around because he does kind of resemble Eugene Levy I guess I can't say for sure but you know in Ghostbusters too Eugene Levy was Lewis' brother in that movie they just cut his scenes it was one of the cut scenes when he actually Eugene Levy's character is the one that actually gets them out of Parkview Hospital and you can google that and see some photos I don't know if the footage is out it would be cool to see that's interesting I learned something new to me that may have been the inspiration when I was originally reading Mass Hysteria I saw that scene between Lewis and his cousin and I was like that has got to be Eugene Levy just spitting image so every time I read one of his dialogues I just got a new Eugene's voice also I wrote it as Dave Thomas so I don't know what you're thinking about I guess I'm not kidding Eric you kind of answered this slightly on twitter a couple weeks ago whose idea was it to merge Roland and Garrett from the Xtreme Ghostbusters into Garrett Parker for the 101 series and did you intentionally make him autistic or was that just a happy accident I did intentionally name him Garrett because Dan had a look that was very close to Roland and I didn't want people to start asking for the debut of the Xtreme Ghostbusters which they already have to a degree they wanted to see the whole team pop up ever since we started using Kyla we tried to throw them off or I tried to throw them off by a little Eduardo cameo I didn't want to bring in that whole team and rebuild them I wouldn't be able to use them because we have a lot of characters as it is I just wanted to throw out there that he's not Roland I just wanted to make it clear that he wasn't Roland and I thought the best way to do that and have a little wink was to name him Garrett I'm not saying that the characters don't exist somewhere in that world I'm just saying that this isn't him as far as autistic I didn't know if that was something that I could pull off I had it in my mind that maybe we would go that way with him but I wasn't sure that it would play so I just tried a couple of things and then would see if anybody tripped onto it or not it was very nicely done one of my neighbors is autistic so I caught on to that right away it's very nicely done I've been promoting the hell out of it because of the potential autistic ghostbuster very nice it could give some younger autistic fans someone not to read about someone to look up to very nice and I think Dan you drew it perfectly the way he didn't really quite make eye contact and you guys never really came out and said that he was autistic in the comic you just wanted to see if anyone would catch on and I think anyone who's familiar with it did pretty did catch on quite well you guys pulled it off amazingly thank you I also sensed in a lot of the dialogue when I was reading it that he was very sad as well so I really wanted to play that emotion up in the art and try and showcase that with his expressions it would be a challenging situation as well what he's going through a few folks now have come up and messaged me on twitter on facebook and so on and have talked about that little scene between Kevin Tanaka and Garrett and they've pointed that out as something that struck them again I'm super happy to hear it but I thought that maybe folks would not connect to it I was worried I asked Tom if I should cut it because I wasn't sure it would play sometimes there's a scene that I read but I'm not sure it will play and every once in a while they turn out to be the ones that people connect to so I'm kind of grateful for that nothing else well like I said you did an amazing job I'm glad you kept it most of the scenes that you said that you weren't sure if they were going to play I think we can pretty much agree we're glad you ended up keeping them very nicely done you just rasped the identities of the Ghostbusters perfectly every story is like watching another movie of the original Ghostbusters it's just fantastic how well you guys kind of link up with them thank you very much it really is and yeah compared to any that's it because so much work and effort goes into all three of the major motion pictures and the characters from the 84 movie are so ingrained into our culture now and it's just a real honor to have an opportunity to draw them and write them and be a part of the Ghostbusters in general it's amazing it's true I just let him get going when I hear he's about to say something because he does it a lot better than I do the words are there I don't always spit them out good usually I have to type and Dan is just very good at verbalizing them so you know I let him do that so I don't say something stupid my other side gig is I do Homer cards I don't have my sleep you know Eric I can really relate to you because I'm the same way I can't verbalize it that well if I want to say something important I have to type it type it out I usually I worry that I'm going to come off snarkier than I intend to which sometimes my word choice or tone will will lead me down that path unwittingly unwittingly but there you go I think you're talking more than I am just a simple fact I don't so I don't swear as much do you want to say number 16 now can anyone send you items to autograph for them or if so is there a PO box you'd like to give to fans or I used to have one but I closed it a while ago mostly because I had one instance where something I sent back got got damaged and I felt super guilty about it I kind of discourage it just because I don't know it's going to make it back in the condition it came to be in might but yeah other than other than that I mean I guess that's a no I find on social media maybe not so much in person but at least we don't bite on the internet so yeah they can just ask if they want to get contact like addresses or whatnot they have to give out a phone number but yeah you know I will say you guys have been you guys have been very accommodating on Twitter I know I when I share my share com again Ghostbusters reviews Daniel almost immediately retweet it and I think it's fantastic how you guys will really communicate with the fans and everything that's slightly unheard of in the industry nowadays sometimes people they won't talk to you unless it's at a convention or whatever or it'll be a one line or whatever on social media and that's it yeah it's kind of it's a best to communicate as much as possible and I think maybe speaking on behalf of other people that may not could also be that they just have lots of people commenting at once and with Twitter it can be a bit challenging at times because the feed goes up a bit so I completely missed it because other people commenting so not that that's my problem I'm just saying that could be someone else's it has a lot of followers but yeah I know it's our pleasure to interact and we love hearing about people's experiences with the comic and what they think of it good and bad and you know we just soak it all in and it's really really nice to hear it keeps the fire going right well like I said I hope you guys stay on Ghostbusters for a long long time yeah you guys really capture the characters they're a great team maybe the Ghostbusters should cross over with us again there you go maybe have the Ghostbusters on comic getting some time feel free to use our likenesses in like a cameo or whatever there's lots of requests for that we do our best doing the caricatures is actually one of the most time consuming parts of the comics if we're doing things that are paying homage to fans in general we're doing things that are paying homage to fans in general and we love to do it as much as we can but we can't get everybody we try our best so when he says we he definitely means him because I don't have to draw these pages I mean the royal we it's true the only person to blame here well you know you can always blame Louise too no he's too way too nice he put something up for me that's the last thing he needs plus he's into MMA so you know we don't know if he's gonna kick my ass he's a tough little guy lean main fight machine 100% do you want to take the last alright yeah now what conventions are you guys going to be doing this year like the rest of the year here that's a good question handle that one Eric we have a couple that we're going to be doing together but one of them is an announced get so I can't mention that the announcement will be coming soon and then we'll blast it all over social media we will be however appearing together for signings at San Diego this year in July that will be awesome and I will also be here in I want to say next month it's still May come come early July it just got put up today I'll be at Indian Popcon in Indianapolis so I'll be there and then San Diego later in the month and then our mystery convention that we are attending together yes I think that's true that's true you don't know where will be or how long how many days will be there you know if we'll be too tired to show up to our table you don't know now you guys be doing Wizard World Chicago this year and you know that's in my backyard so I mean it would probably if I'm not doing it it would be really crazy if Dan was but no I'm I'm not doing that this year I did C2E2 this year earlier and I enjoyed the heck out of that show Billy was there I've been to the Chicago Wizard World twice but I only go to shows that they invite me to so if if the fans want to see me at a certain show they could always contact the coordinators or what not and just mention it and yeah I would love to go again I really enjoyed Chicago it was nice something I think would be really nice since you guys did the Ghostbusters board game maybe having you guys at HeroaCon right here in Decatur, Illinois or maybe GenCon because we do there's HeroaCon here in town that it's a board gaming it was about a week or two ago convention that they put on yearly so that'd be really cool I'll have to suggest it to them I guess if you hit a cryptozoic maybe for the the next board game release the GB2 now do you know about when that's supposed to come out do you know when that second game's supposed to come out full-size game like the first one or isn't it expansion? Yeah it's pretty soon it's done it's finished it's right now it's just it's crossing the ocean it's in a ship I mean that was a couple weeks ago so it's probably just got a clear customs okay they're going to mail it out to everybody at the same time because last time I think they did it differently and this time they're going to do it all at once so that nobody's waiting for their board game yeah other than there's some stuff that we have to sign and we're going to be signing that at San Diego so I mean that might hold up we are because we had stuff that we were supposed to sign and this is going to be easier than them shipping it to us and us having to ship it back yes that's definitely a trip to the post office saved it's true it's a whole block for me so it's way too much time we've got a whole block that's why I said that oh yes well I think that's going to about wrap things up unless you had anything to add John just having stay stay true to what you guys are doing you guys are doing great love the books looking forward to this next board game that's for sure yeah I'm looking forward to playing the game all together well thanks so much for having us on it was great chatting with you and really enjoyed the questions and I had some great laughs it was a lot of fun yeah we really appreciate you guys being our first industry interview which was very nice of you guys like I said we've only been on youtube for a little over a year now almost two years no it's been a little over a year we started January of last year oh wow so we really appreciate you accommodating us and answering our questions and like John said keep doing what you're doing you guys sync well as a team you do great job on Ghostbusters we have I haven't read the back to the future comics yet or the Ninja Turtles I've read a couple of them they're really good so but as life long fans you guys are doing an amazing job with the Ghostbusters keep it up loving everything alright thanks very much well we'll go ahead call it now my camera is almost out of filming time so again thank you and we'll see you guys on twitter and in the funny pages yeah it's great as soon as you can probably see it and I can retweet it and we'll share it on social media we'll do sounds good thanks a lot thanks great take care guys you too