Latest / The Breakfast Club / INTERVIEW: Axel Alonso Talks ILLuminati: A Thriller Where Hip-Hop & Comics Collide, Marvel, Charlamagne Collab + More

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INTERVIEW: Axel Alonso Talks ILLuminati: A Thriller Where Hip-Hop & Comics Collide, Marvel, Charlamagne Collab + More · The Breakfast Club

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Wake that answer up in the morning. The Breakfast Club Morning.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: Everybody's DJ Envy, Jess, Hilarry Charlamagne to God. We are
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: the Breakfast Club. Laura Laosa filling in for Jess. And
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: we got a special guest in the building this morning. Yes,
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: indeed we have Axo Alonzo.
• 0:16
  Speaker 3: Welcome, Thank you. How are you feeling this morning?
• 0:20
  Speaker 4: I'm tiring, I'm good.
• 0:21
  Speaker 3: You got a long week.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: In Comic Con all weekend long and is they expect
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: what over hundreds of thousands.
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: Of people there? It's the biggest can now, it's the
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: biggest con. Now.
• 0:30
  Speaker 5: Actually, you've been in the comic book business for a
• 0:32
  Speaker 5: long time. You was the former editor in chief of
• 0:34
  Speaker 5: Marvel Comics. What got you into the comic book world?
• 0:38
  Speaker 4: Well, I got into the comic world on a FLUKEI
• 0:41
  Speaker 4: I interviewed a DC Comic Books for an editor position.
• 0:45
  Speaker 4: I sent in my resume and the editor called me
• 0:48
  Speaker 4: in and said I wanted to meet you.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: I said, why's this?
• 0:50
  Speaker 4: And he says, I read an article he wrote for
• 0:53
  Speaker 4: the Daily News about the use of the cannapis leaf
• 0:56
  Speaker 4: and hip hop culture. And I'd interviewed the agent and
• 1:00
  Speaker 4: the editor chief High Times magazine, and uh, the High
• 1:04
  Speaker 4: Times magazine edited stolen the guy's girlfriend. He had a.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: Gripe the High Time.
• 1:11
  Speaker 4: He said, I love you. You want to want a job?
• 1:13
  Speaker 4: I said, all right, So I got into DC Comic
• 1:15
  Speaker 4: Books at Vertigo.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: Oh no, so you got a job because somebody stoles
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: my girlfriend.
• 1:18
  Speaker 4: Yes, pretty much.
• 1:20
  Speaker 6: He never I mean you were qualified, but yeah, yeah, very.
• 1:24
  Speaker 4: I took a big pay cut.
• 1:26
  Speaker 6: What made you do that, though, because the New York
• 1:28
  Speaker 6: Daily News you were? Were you working in a newsroom?
• 1:31
  Speaker 4: I worked as a freelancer, worked at multiple publications, and uh,
• 1:36
  Speaker 4: and I love comic books. I grew up reading comic books.
• 1:39
  Speaker 4: I love them. Amazing art form, as you know, amazingly
• 1:42
  Speaker 4: taught me to read, and I just thought I'd have
• 1:45
  Speaker 4: an impact, so I went. I went to Vertigo Line,
• 1:48
  Speaker 4: which did an adult oriented material at DC Comic Books,
• 1:51
  Speaker 4: and had a good career there with books like Preacher
• 1:53
  Speaker 4: and one hundred Bullets. And then Marvel came a knocking
• 1:55
  Speaker 4: at two thousand and I went to them when they're
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: in bankruptcy and the company was in dire straits. You know,
• 2:02
  Speaker 4: I had so much fun. They give me Spider Man,
• 2:04
  Speaker 4: the Hulk, what's not to like, you know, do.
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: You think comic book is? I guess a form that's
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: that's dying. And the reason I asked it as a kid.
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: I know you're from California, but in New York, every
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: bodega had comic books. Every store had comic books. When
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: I went grocery shopping with my mom, she would go
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: get groceries and I go to the comic book section.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: So but now I don't see it as much as
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: almost feel like it has to be a destination spot.
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: It has to be a Barnes and Nobles, it has
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: to be a comic book store.
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: Do you think it's dying?
• 2:33
  Speaker 4: And how do you That's a distribution problem. That's not
• 2:35
  Speaker 4: a problem with the art form. The art from itself
• 2:37
  Speaker 4: is inherently amazing. It's only as limited as your imagination
• 2:40
  Speaker 4: and your talent and your guts. So the art form
• 2:44
  Speaker 4: is going to evolve. They'll be more digital use of
• 2:48
  Speaker 4: the medium. So again for me, it's a distribution problem.
• 2:50
  Speaker 4: Like you, I met comic books. I read comic books
• 2:53
  Speaker 4: because my grandma would pick me up after school, take
• 2:56
  Speaker 4: me to the dime store, not by comic book off
• 2:58
  Speaker 4: the rack, you know, on a Friday. So it's a
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: distribution problem. Once you solve that, there's no stopping in.
• 3:04
  Speaker 5: The comic book market is projected to be a twenty
• 3:07
  Speaker 5: one billion dollar business by twenty twenty nine.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: Like it's still making billions of dollars.
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, there's digital help or hurt. The reason
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: because you know, it's I'm still a guy that.
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: Likes to hold the paper man, you know, I mean
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: it's complementary. I mean what it comes down to is
• 3:20
  Speaker 4: like for me, I all my music, I listen to MyPad,
• 3:23
  Speaker 4: you know, my MyPhone. I don't own see these anymore.
• 3:26
  Speaker 4: But with comic books, I select some things that we
• 3:29
  Speaker 4: dig delete. But the stuff I have to put on
• 3:30
  Speaker 4: my shelf. You know, you just have to, like, Illuminati.
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  Speaker 3: How many how many shooks do you have? How many
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: comics do you have?
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  Speaker 4: Me? Too many?
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: How much is too many? Just if you could just
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: round about oh man.
• 3:40
  Speaker 4: Man, uh, probably about two thousand. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but
• 3:43
  Speaker 4: it's from my own as a kid, you.
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: Know, some investments then yeah, yeah, exactly what you.
• 3:49
  Speaker 5: Tell your wife by the Yeah, before we get into
• 3:52
  Speaker 5: a w A and the Illuminati, tell them some of
• 3:54
  Speaker 5: the things you did at Marble, some of the groundbreaking
• 3:57
  Speaker 5: things that people will remember.
• 3:59
  Speaker 4: Well, the thing I'm most proud of is that in
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: twenty fifteen, I'm hip hop head, and for me, I
• 4:05
  Speaker 4: was just really tired of seeing the lack of hip
• 4:08
  Speaker 4: hop and comic books when hip hop is giving so
• 4:10
  Speaker 4: much love to the forum, like all from Green Lantern
• 4:14
  Speaker 4: to Johnny Blaze, iron Man, you name it, ghost Face.
• 4:18
  Speaker 4: To see all this stuff happening in you know, hip
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  Speaker 4: hop giving so much love to Marvel comic books and
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  Speaker 4: Movel being silent, I thought was inexcusable. So I did
• 4:27
  Speaker 4: the hip Hop Variant Program where we did one hundred
• 4:30
  Speaker 4: and twenty eight covers. They were based on classic hip
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  Speaker 4: hop album covers the span thirty years, everything from like
• 4:38
  Speaker 4: Ultimagnetic and CS and school E D the og Stuff
• 4:42
  Speaker 4: to Future and Drake, and every single cover was an
• 4:46
  Speaker 4: homage to a classic album cover done by an amazing artist.
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  Speaker 4: And it just showed how many people drawing and writing
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  Speaker 4: comic books your bobbing had hip hop when you're doing this,
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  Speaker 4: not the Beatles.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: That's dope. Yeah.
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  Speaker 5: And also, you know they used to call you a
• 5:01
  Speaker 5: diversity superhero. You are diversity superhero at Marvel Marvel, and
• 5:05
  Speaker 5: during your five years at Marvel, correct me what I'm
• 5:09
  Speaker 5: wrong about?
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: You created, miss Marvel.
• 5:11
  Speaker 4: There were a lot of things involved. Mass Morales might
• 5:14
  Speaker 4: watch Kamala Khan The Female Black Panther, and we did that.
• 5:18
  Speaker 4: Everyone said, who wants that that?
• 5:20
  Speaker 6: I remember seeing that?
• 5:21
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean when I did the Female Black Panther,
• 5:23
  Speaker 4: people were like, what's it about? Who cares about that?
• 5:25
  Speaker 4: Now it's a whole movie. It saved the franchise. Save
• 5:28
  Speaker 4: the franchise. I mean, what's not to like about a
• 5:30
  Speaker 4: female black panther. You did a female female thor which
• 5:34
  Speaker 4: also lack Captain America two thousand Isaiah Bradley's Black Captain
• 5:38
  Speaker 4: America because I didn't buy the origin story of Captain America.
• 5:42
  Speaker 4: I don't agree. I don't believe that Uncle Sam in
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: nineteen forty would have experimented on white boys.
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: That's right.
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  Speaker 4: I I took of Robert Morales, the writer, he was
• 5:51
  Speaker 4: a journalist. He said, I agree, I'll write this. We've
• 5:54
  Speaker 4: got Kyl Baker, iconic artist, to do the series. It
• 5:57
  Speaker 4: was about a man named Isiah Bradley who was the
• 5:59
  Speaker 4: first guy who's experimented on with the super Soldier serum.
• 6:03
  Speaker 4: So the first Captain America was black. Now that got
• 6:06
  Speaker 4: me death threats.
• 6:07
  Speaker 6: I was about to ask you what was your pushback
• 6:09
  Speaker 6: in your life like because you early in the DEI.
• 6:11
  Speaker 4: Tons tons Yeah. Well I'm a Mexican and my wife
• 6:13
  Speaker 4: is Korean, so I gotta be you did the Asian
• 6:16
  Speaker 4: Hulk on Day Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I did that
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  Speaker 4: to Day's Show as well. My wife is Korean, so
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  Speaker 4: my my nephews were amazed by that.
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  Speaker 5: The thing I do, the mind, the thing I enjoy
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  Speaker 5: about all your characters, all of them have made it
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  Speaker 5: to the TV, a big screen at this point.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: You know, Miles mo Rales, we know how those movies are.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: They're great.
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  Speaker 5: The Miss Marvels a Disney Plus show exactly female Thor
• 6:35
  Speaker 5: was in the movies, you know, sure he is the
• 6:37
  Speaker 5: Black Panther now in the movie I'm a Day's Show
• 6:39
  Speaker 5: is coming to Marvel Now isare Bradley is in the
• 6:43
  Speaker 5: TV show Captain American when it's Soldier and he's gonna
• 6:45
  Speaker 5: be in the movie.
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  Speaker 4: Well, I feel validated because for me, I'm a young
• 6:48
  Speaker 4: Mexican kid and I'm looking at the superheroes. Where's the
• 6:50
  Speaker 4: Mexican superhero?
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: Thereeight none?
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  Speaker 4: I like Black Panther the most. Why because he had
• 6:55
  Speaker 4: the best costume on Earth. Yeah, I was disappointed when
• 6:58
  Speaker 4: he was black. I wanted to be Mexican.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: And you signed write the Black Panthers.
• 7:05
  Speaker 4: Serious, Yeah, Reggie Hudlin before him with Black Panther for
• 7:08
  Speaker 4: six years. He reinvigated the character. And then and then
• 7:11
  Speaker 4: Tannhessee Coats came on and did an amazing run as well.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: Also was a legend. Yeah, happened.
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: I wanted.
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: I wanted to ask, since you created a lot of
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: these characters, do you get I guess, equity in these characters,
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: like when these because like I mean you you created
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: these and like you said, some of these characters are
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: saving the franchise, making movies and all that.
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I wouldn't say I created them.
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  Speaker 4: I wouldn't say I created them so much as I
• 7:32
  Speaker 4: was involved in their creation. In the case of the
• 7:35
  Speaker 4: Black Panther Shuri, Reggie Hudland said to me, let's pick
• 7:40
  Speaker 4: things up, Let's put Cherry in the costume. I said,
• 7:42
  Speaker 4: I'm down, Let's do this. It makes perfect sense to
• 7:44
  Speaker 4: us to do this. It's about time we did that.
• 7:47
  Speaker 4: Amedias Chow was the same thing. I thought, how about
• 7:50
  Speaker 4: we have a new Hulk optimistic fun not you know
• 7:55
  Speaker 4: gloom and Doom Banner amidis cho you have a creak.
• 8:01
  Speaker 4: So for me it was a necessity. I want to
• 8:02
  Speaker 4: see characters like myself when I was a kid, So
• 8:05
  Speaker 4: I can imagine people want to see themselves seeing Spider
• 8:09
  Speaker 4: Man peel back his mask and you see a black faces,
• 8:13
  Speaker 4: it's seismic.
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: How did you look up with Charlamgne? I know, we
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: don't have much time because we got we get this
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: on that. How did you hook up with Scharla Mane.
• 8:19
  Speaker 4: Charlamine start talking with my partner some years ago his
• 8:23
  Speaker 4: interest in promoting black artists.
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: Did you have a too?
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: I have not.
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: I've seen that in the picture.
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: I think.
• 8:31
  Speaker 5: Wolverine tattooed on my arm with a microphone and the
• 8:34
  Speaker 5: saying but I got it when I was sixteen seventeen
• 8:35
  Speaker 5: years old.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: It looks terrible, it looks look ahead.
• 8:39
  Speaker 4: I'll check it out later.
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: WHOA Okay? But the episode? How did you get it?
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: So you and said this is what you want to do?
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: And then how did you come up with the franchise
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: and Illuminati and all that other stuff and which you
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: wanted to call it?
• 8:49
  Speaker 4: When I undersod what Shulaman's goals were, I said, I
• 8:51
  Speaker 4: just so happened to this amazing pitch called Black Illuminati
• 8:54
  Speaker 4: by Brandow rud Hill, filmmaker and comor book writer. That's amazing.
• 8:59
  Speaker 4: It's about the number one conspiracy the other day. The
• 9:01
  Speaker 4: ur been legend. I mean, you see Mega Platinum start
• 9:05
  Speaker 4: going like this on TV. Someone shows up in pants
• 9:07
  Speaker 4: with sigils on it. P Diddy's mansion's rated. It's a conversation,
• 9:14
  Speaker 4: who's out there. It's the most enduring urban legend. This
• 9:17
  Speaker 4: story leads hard into that any resemblemans to characters living
• 9:21
  Speaker 4: her dad is coincident telling us you don't want it.
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: To be a man may not be based on a
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: true story. That's right.
• 9:25
  Speaker 5: So when you see these DJs getting aired out by
• 9:27
  Speaker 5: some of these executives and they look a little similar.
• 9:29
  Speaker 5: They have names on DJ jealousy, don't think that it
• 9:31
  Speaker 5: has anything to do with anybody.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: Are you fighting with baby Oi? What are you talking about?
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: Don't worry about it. You'll see if.
• 9:39
  Speaker 7: You the special force field of I'm about is she
• 9:49
  Speaker 7: laying a baby oil?
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: This is the co tell me about baby oil.
• 9:53
  Speaker 4: It's a supernatural thriller.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: Oh, her body is Tea.
• 9:57
  Speaker 4: A young woman travels to Los Angeles after the death
• 10:00
  Speaker 4: her sister. The cops said the sister dead of a
• 10:02
  Speaker 4: drug overdose. Sister does not.
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: Believe this is the case.
• 10:05
  Speaker 4: She investigates and then finds out that there's a secret
• 10:08
  Speaker 4: society that sneaks to the cords of power and the
• 10:11
  Speaker 4: currency is fame in fortune. They'll give you famine fortune
• 10:14
  Speaker 4: for a price. You don't want to know what that
• 10:16
  Speaker 4: price is, you want to pay it. So the sister
• 10:19
  Speaker 4: believes her sister paid the price, and she investigates. So
• 10:23
  Speaker 4: it's a supernatural who done it? Wow, that's right, We've
• 10:26
  Speaker 4: got Dennis the iconic. Dennis Cowen is the artist found
• 10:29
  Speaker 4: of Milestone Comic Books and Bilsin Kevich Industry icon covers
• 10:34
  Speaker 4: for Rizza, EPMDA, you name it. These guys are legitimate.
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: Sam for Green from South Carolina. He did the cover art.
• 10:41
  Speaker 6: Isn't the name like, is there some sort of homage
• 10:44
  Speaker 6: to Imatic more or less?
• 10:46
  Speaker 4: Yeah?
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah?
• 10:47
  Speaker 4: Ill Illuminati?
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: Yeah yeah yeah.
• 10:49
  Speaker 6: And the writer who or the guy who created the
• 10:52
  Speaker 6: pitch is he just like a NAS fan or like,
• 10:53
  Speaker 6: what's the.
• 10:55
  Speaker 4: Well the concept for him wasn't so much rooted in
• 10:57
  Speaker 4: hip hop as the conspiracy theory. He wanted to write
• 11:00
  Speaker 4: a book about the conspiracy theory supernatural murder mystery, and
• 11:05
  Speaker 4: again it has to be set in the world of
• 11:08
  Speaker 4: hip hop out of necessity. So again that's really where
• 11:11
  Speaker 4: it came from, not so much inspired by nos or
• 11:14
  Speaker 4: any particular artist. That's just the whole milliare you.
• 11:16
  Speaker 5: So, Lauren, Like you know, every day we wake up,
• 11:19
  Speaker 5: there's a new conspiracy theory. You go on YouTube, people
• 11:21
  Speaker 5: go down these rabbit holes and they talk about you
• 11:24
  Speaker 5: know what may or may not be happening in the industry.
• 11:26
  Speaker 5: So once again, this may or may not be based
• 11:29
  Speaker 5: on a true story. Okay, And you can go to
• 11:31
  Speaker 5: Kickstarter right now and if you type in ill I
• 11:35
  Speaker 5: L l U M I N A T I are
• 11:37
  Speaker 5: you typing Charlemagne? You can you know, get a copy.
• 11:41
  Speaker 5: And we got all types of stuff. We got merchandise
• 11:42
  Speaker 5: you see actual wearing the hat still hat, and.
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: You got to hoodies.
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: And today you're going to be a comic con right,
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: what time you'll be in a panel?
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: Correct?
• 11:50
  Speaker 5: Forty five, three forty five, will be in room one,
• 11:53
  Speaker 5: COEO three, myself, Axel Alonzo, Dennis Cohen and The Good
• 11:58
  Speaker 5: Brother Rob Markman will be my rating. So we'll be
• 12:01
  Speaker 5: at New York Comic Con today at three forty five pm,
• 12:04
  Speaker 5: Room one, COEO three. Myself did his coin, The Good
• 12:08
  Speaker 5: Brother axso Orlonzo and Rob Markman will be moderating.
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: So we'll see you there today and.
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: We appreciate you for joining us, and definitely check out
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: ill it's the.
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: Name of It's just I ill Luminati.
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: El Illuminati, Illuminati.
• 12:20
  Speaker 4: Twenty four hours to go, twenty four hours back now,
• 12:22
  Speaker 4: back now.
• 12:23
  Speaker 5: Yes, you run a kickstarter right now, you got twenty
• 12:25
  Speaker 5: four more hours to order our copy and then when
• 12:27
  Speaker 5: we dropping.
• 12:29
  Speaker 4: Uh, it'll it's fulfilled within six months.
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: Yes, filled within six months. Okay, wake that ass up
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: in the morning Breakfast Club.