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With Great Power #306... 22 Panels with Joe Illidge · 22 Panels - A Comic Book Podcast

0:03
Tad Eggleston: Oh, because… because… okay. I was waiting for it to tell me that we were recording, but because we were recording on your end already, it didn't tell me we were recording, so… so now we're starting completely in Media Res. This is gonna be the coolest intro to an episode ever.
0:20
Joseph Illidge: Oh my god.
0:20
Tad Eggleston: about whether or not we're recording. Now I'll say.
0:24
Tad Eggleston: Good evening, everybody! Welcome back to 22 Panels! My guest tonight, returning, is Mr. Joseph Illage, recently off of, of, being part of the team that brought us the, the, the new history of the DC Universe, the milestone…
0:42
Tad Eggleston: incident?
0:43
Joseph Illidge: the Dakota incident.
0:45
Tad Eggleston: CODA incident, that's right. Which was fantastic.
0:52
Tad Eggleston: I haven't actually read the rest of…
0:55
Tad Eggleston: the… the new history of the DC Universe. I read, like.
1:00
Tad Eggleston: The first issue, and didn't dislike it, but didn't like it enough to, like…
1:04
Tad Eggleston: Make a priority out of reading every issue when it came out.
1:08
Tad Eggleston: But… but the milestone one was… was on my list to begin with, and then when Marcus said, oh my god, this was great, it's like, okay, gotta read it now. And I finished reading it, and I'm like, okay, gotta email Joe.
1:21
Tad Eggleston: Alright. So…
1:22
Joseph Illidge: The funny thing is, though… The teases…
1:27
Joseph Illidge: for Milestone's integration into the DC Universe began in New History of the DC Universe.
1:34
Tad Eggleston: I'm aware of that tangentially.
1:37
Joseph Illidge: Yes.
1:38
Tad Eggleston: I've been told that, I haven't actually read it yet.
1:41
Joseph Illidge: Okay.
1:42
Tad Eggleston: Are you telling me that I should pause the recording and go read it, or do you think.
1:45
Joseph Illidge: I'm not telling you that, I'm telling you, I'm telling you, check it out afterwards.
1:49
Tad Eggleston: I would…
1:49
Joseph Illidge: you'll…
1:50
Tad Eggleston: I will. You understand the whole process.
1:52
Joseph Illidge: process in reverse.
1:53
Tad Eggleston: I liked it enough that I planned on reading it, I just, like, I read the issue, and I'm like, okay, this is something that I can read together when it's done, rather than…
2:04
Tad Eggleston: Must-read when it comes out, you know?
2:07
Joseph Illidge: Which it is, it's now collected.
2:09
Tad Eggleston: It is.
2:10
Joseph Illidge: So… Yeah.
2:11
Tad Eggleston: spring break. It might get… might get squeezed in. I got C2E2 as well, though, so, you know…
2:17
Tad Eggleston: Gotta, gotta balance everything.
2:20
Tad Eggleston: Tell me about the Dakota incident.
2:24
Tad Eggleston: I mean, I… Open questions!
2:26
Tad Eggleston: Oh, you gotta.
2:26
Joseph Illidge: Can we get a bit more specific?
2:29
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, I was about to say, how'd you get involved? But, I mean, that's a dumb question. Anybody says milestone, and, like, there's a little light bulb that goes off, and it's like the bat phone.
2:41
Tad Eggleston: Like, you'll be in your office, and somebody says Milestone in, like, Jakarta, and you have a light flash, and you're like, Milestone? Milestone? I'll help!
2:52
Joseph Illidge: That's funny, that's funny. So, it was a little…
2:55
Joseph Illidge: more detailed than that, but really what happened was…
3:00
Joseph Illidge: I did the Shadow Cabinet miniseries that came out from November of 2024 to February 2025.
3:10
Joseph Illidge: And that was the culmination of the four years of stories of the Milestone Returns relaunch that started in print in 2021. And so…
3:24
Joseph Illidge: Some months later, like, about…
3:26
Joseph Illidge: two months later, Marquise Draper, editor at DC Comics, who is basically the editorial shepherd of Milestone, reached out to me.
3:37
Joseph Illidge: and said, hey, I have this germ of an idea.
3:43
Joseph Illidge: for something I'd like to do for next year. And…
3:48
Joseph Illidge: Reggie, Reginald Hudlin, and Dennis Dennis Cowan, who are the producers and caretakers of Milestone Now.
3:55
Joseph Illidge: said that they really loved what you did on the shadow cabinet, so anything with Milestone going forward, if you're available, they would love for you to be involved.
4:04
Joseph Illidge: And so, I said, listen, that's great.
4:07
Joseph Illidge: we had a great time with Shadow Cabinet, so count me in. And this is… I have no idea what it is… yet. And so then…
4:16
Joseph Illidge: A few weeks later, he basically assembles the writer's room for this, and it's myself, writer Stephanie Williams.
4:27
Joseph Illidge: Morgan Hampton, and Nicholas Draper Ivey.
4:31
Joseph Illidge: And so he brings us together to be the writer's room.
4:34
Joseph Illidge: For what will be the Dakota incident. Right. And he lets us know that it will be an offshoot of Mark Waid's new history of the DC Universe miniseries.
4:49
Joseph Illidge: And so that's pretty exciting, because basically, now we know
4:53
Joseph Illidge: milestone is integrated into the DC Universe. They're part of the single continuity.
4:59
Joseph Illidge: and… In the early conversations, Mark Waid was there with us.
5:06
Joseph Illidge: Cool. As was Brittany Holzer, senior editor, she runs the Wonder Woman office, and has a really clear awareness of the new compressed continuity of modern DC stories.
5:20
Joseph Illidge: And so… That was how I came into the project, and that began… The process of…
5:29
Joseph Illidge: Building out this story…
5:32
Joseph Illidge: and having to navigate through the DC Universe, which is both exciting, and it's also work.
5:39
Joseph Illidge: Right? So that was how it began. That was how I got pulled into this.
5:45
Tad Eggleston: I mean, you said writer's room there, which is a term that I hear way more often in television than comics. I mean, sometimes you'll hear about the Writer's Summit, but then people are going off to write
5:57
Tad Eggleston: 20 different books, not one book together. What's it like to have four people, five for part of it, get together and write one book together? I mean.
6:10
Joseph Illidge: Yeah.
6:10
Tad Eggleston: The results were fantastic, but it's gotta be a slightly different process.
6:14
Joseph Illidge: Thank you so much. Well, you know.
6:17
Joseph Illidge: You really have to have the right people in the room, honestly, because everyone has to be collaborative.
6:22
Joseph Illidge: Right, and as you pointed out, writers, rooms, that is a convention that does come from television.
6:30
Joseph Illidge: Right. And so… The good thing is, we all had a collaborative mindset, and…
6:38
Joseph Illidge: we all loved Milestone, and so we were committed, and we're all DC fans in a number of ways, so we were committed to the goal, and as someone who has built
6:47
Joseph Illidge: writers' rooms before… You know, when you have the right people in there, there's just an energy.
6:54
Joseph Illidge: Right? And what you don't do is you don't put any shackles on it. It's like you let the energy flow
7:02
Joseph Illidge: And… Part of the natural inclination of creators is
7:08
Joseph Illidge: to start throwing things against the wall and seeing what sticks. Like, how much can I get away with? How much fun can we have here? How much can we… can we really dig into the DC Universe? And so…
7:23
Joseph Illidge: it was an egoless room, right? Because…
7:27
Joseph Illidge: Basically, we all came there to say, okay.
7:30
Joseph Illidge: We're doing this together, we're a team.
7:32
Joseph Illidge: Best idea wins in any situation.
7:37
Joseph Illidge: Right? Doesn't matter who it comes from, best idea wins, and…
7:42
Joseph Illidge: let's all platform off of one another so that someone drops a great idea, how can I take advantage of that? From my perspective, how can I help set that up, since I wrote the first chapter, and from someone else's perspective, how can I flow from that?
8:01
Joseph Illidge: Right? So, that's when things really start to become fun, when
8:07
Joseph Illidge: You start zeroing in on the idea, and you know what it is.
8:14
Joseph Illidge: And right there is where you start building the outline.
8:18
Joseph Illidge: And once the outline is agreed upon from everyone in the room.
8:22
Joseph Illidge: then the individual writers went and started writing their scripts. So myself, Stephanie, Morgan, and Nicholas, we were writing our scripts at the same time. And it was a matter of.
8:33
Joseph Illidge: Who got theirs in first, and then, okay, you would read that, and then that would help you vibe.
8:39
Joseph Illidge: to kind of…
8:41
Joseph Illidge: Use it for your story, and so on and so forth, and then, you know, because we're all seeing it from the 10,000-foot view, we're able to go back and forth on the timeline.
8:53
Tad Eggleston: I know it's sold out, and the second print
8:58
Tad Eggleston: hasn't hit the streets yet, so I don't want to get too spoilery.
9:03
Tad Eggleston: Which is…
9:03
Joseph Illidge: You might as well get pretty spoilery, because…
9:06
Tad Eggleston: I mean, we can get some… okay.
9:09
Tad Eggleston: Spoilery.
9:09
Joseph Illidge: I mean, the book came out, it was in stores for 5 days, and if you're getting to second printing, we won't spoil it, you know, we won't destroy the experience for you, but it's like, it's the talk of the town!
9:25
Tad Eggleston: Well, okay, okay, you convinced me.
9:28
Tad Eggleston: But before we go full-on spoilery, talk to me about… give me the front counter pitch. I mean, obviously, the bare-bones front counter pitch is,
9:43
Tad Eggleston: you know, you're enjoying new history of the DCU, grab this offshoot.
9:49
Tad Eggleston: But…
9:50
Tad Eggleston: But give me the pitch as if you're not reading New History of the DCU. As if you're taking the milestone… as with me, you're almost taking the milestone as your… as your gateway to the other… other work.
10:03
Tad Eggleston: Like, like, you just gotta, somebody at the counter that you think will like it, how do you pitch it to them?
10:09
Joseph Illidge: You know, I would say the story is about the rise and fall of a new generation of multicultural superheroes, and how one incident
10:20
Joseph Illidge: puts them in opposition with the United States government, led by the administration of President Lex Luthor.
10:29
Tad Eggleston: Which… like, Lex Luthor has, as president, has been a concept for more of my life than it hasn't, but I still, like, get shivers every time I think about it.
10:42
Joseph Illidge: I mean, I remember when it happened. I was in.
10:44
Tad Eggleston: I do too.
10:45
Joseph Illidge: editorial when it happened, right? Because it happened basically at the turn of the century.
10:49
Tad Eggleston: Right.
10:50
Joseph Illidge: So, I was… we were wrapping up No Man's Land, and we were deep into the year 2000 relaunch of the entire Batman line, and over in the Superman office.
11:00
Joseph Illidge: Lex Luthor became the president, It's a thing where it's like… because…
11:07
Joseph Illidge: People have been conditioned, or at least at that point in time.
11:11
Joseph Illidge: were conditioned to believe that that was not going to happen. It was brilliant that DC did it.
11:19
Tad Eggleston: Right.
11:19
Joseph Illidge: rate.
11:20
Joseph Illidge: Because then, it's like, now all bets are off.
11:24
Tad Eggleston: Right.
11:25
Joseph Illidge: And now we're gonna find out what happens
11:29
Joseph Illidge: when the person with the power, right, has been the enemy of so many. And so, it was brilliant in that.
11:40
Joseph Illidge: It went for 4 years in real time.
11:44
Joseph Illidge: And we saw different aspects of the man. I mean, before that happened, I think there was this one shot called Superman Y2K, which was written by Joe Kelly.
11:57
Joseph Illidge: And…
11:58
Joseph Illidge: illustrated, I think, by Butch Geist, God rest his soul, because it was the last thing he did before I pulled him over to the Batman office to be the artist of Birds of Prey. And…
12:09
Joseph Illidge: It was just such a brilliant portrait of the origin
12:14
Joseph Illidge: of Lex Luthor, and I think it was the first time that we got the idea that Lex Luthor is a person that, in his…
12:23
Joseph Illidge: Mind is the hero of the story.
12:27
Joseph Illidge: of the world, right? We would see further expansion on that in Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo's
12:37
Joseph Illidge: Lex Luthor miniseries.
12:39
Tad Eggleston: Right.
12:40
Joseph Illidge: So… you know.
12:42
Joseph Illidge: we got to see different aspects of Lex Luthor, and also, this was a Lex Luthor that tried to protect the Earth during our Worlds at War, which was a big intergalactic crossover at DC Comics. So…
12:57
Joseph Illidge: It was very interesting to say, okay.
13:00
Joseph Illidge: That's the guy we're gonna play with.
13:03
Joseph Illidge: So he's the guy.
13:05
Joseph Illidge: That from the perspective of the heroes, he's the enemy. But still in the back of his head.
13:11
Joseph Illidge: He thinks he's the savior.
13:14
Joseph Illidge: Of the human race.
13:17
Joseph Illidge: And it's interesting, right, to think about him
13:20
Joseph Illidge: that way. So, you know, I think what we did was…
13:25
Joseph Illidge: We showed, like, that guy with the power
13:30
Joseph Illidge: But in the back, he's like, you know… He's a politician.
13:36
Joseph Illidge: He's a… he's a brilliant negotiator and strategist.
13:40
Joseph Illidge: Right? And he's going to put forth a narrative that this is for the good of the people. And so, it was very interesting and dramatic.
13:50
Joseph Illidge: To be able to incorporate that presidency into our story, as well as having the quintessential Suicide Squad.
14:00
Joseph Illidge: from the John Ostrander, Luke McDonald series of 1986, which…
14:08
Joseph Illidge: I mean, that's a seminal book. That's just a seminal book in superhero comics, not just DC comics, right?
14:13
Tad Eggleston: And still a hole in my reading history, so I need to fix that.
14:18
Joseph Illidge: Oh my goodness. Well, there's a Suicide Squad omnibus with your name on it.
14:22
Tad Eggleston: I, I, I, I know.
14:24
Tad Eggleston: I know, there are only so many hours in the day, Joe.
14:29
Joseph Illidge: I don't know what you're talking about, dude!
14:32
Tad Eggleston: Because I'm here.
14:33
Joseph Illidge: I'm here living 72-hour dates.
14:36
Tad Eggleston: Ow! Like, let me in on that.
14:41
Joseph Illidge: Hey, man.
14:42
Joseph Illidge: When you, when you love what you're doing…
14:45
Tad Eggleston: Oh, I know.
14:45
Joseph Illidge: Yeah, it goes.
14:46
Tad Eggleston: I totally understand. How did you come up with the… the…
14:55
Tad Eggleston: And this is… this is where I have to acknowledge my own, lack of… of…
15:04
Tad Eggleston: knowledge about the overall project that Mark Waite is doing. So maybe it was because you needed to make the gap.
15:12
Tad Eggleston: But… but the framing… Where you're, you're essentially taking Virgil… Virgil's… Nephew.
15:21
Tad Eggleston: Right?
15:23
Joseph Illidge: Yeah, Beacon.
15:24
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, and… And Virgil's already in retirement, so essentially we're… we're, we're… we're…
15:33
Tad Eggleston: we're living in a post-static world as we enter this book. Like, how did we come up with that as the framing device that, like…
15:43
Tad Eggleston: was that part of the… and I realized that I could be asking the dumb question, and, like, I should know that, like, all the powers went away, but… was that something that came from your side, from Mark's side?
15:58
Joseph Illidge: Yeah, it was really, I think, the brainchild. I think…
16:02
Joseph Illidge: It was a number of things. So, number one, it's not a post-static, non-powered future. It's…
16:10
Joseph Illidge: The Batman Beyond future with an adult static.
16:14
Tad Eggleston: Okay.
16:14
Joseph Illidge: in which Superman is around, Thanagarians are around, there's a Green Lantern around, and so it's actually established in a miniseries that's going on right now called Batman.
16:28
Tad Eggleston: That's fantastic, that I've read the first three issues. I'm deeper into that than I am with…
16:34
Joseph Illidge: That's where Beacon was introduced, right?
16:37
Tad Eggleston: Okay.
16:37
Joseph Illidge: And so then people are thinking, well, that's Elseworlds, right? Because it says in the branding, it's Elseworlds, right?
16:44
Tad Eggleston: But then we're like, well…
16:47
Joseph Illidge: Well, let's… let's not make it in Elseworlds.
16:49
Tad Eggleston: Okay.
16:50
Joseph Illidge: Right? Let's make it.
16:52
Joseph Illidge: the future.
16:53
Tad Eggleston: So, so, so this is, this is…
16:55
Joseph Illidge: erased.
16:57
Joseph Illidge: Right? Or, like, and then… That story matters more to you, because that's where Beacon came from.
17:06
Tad Eggleston: Right.
17:06
Joseph Illidge: and… It's dramatic, because now, this guy is alone.
17:12
Joseph Illidge: He's alone… At sea, in the time stream?
17:18
Joseph Illidge: And he's trying to get back to something.
17:23
Joseph Illidge: Right? So he's…
17:24
Tad Eggleston: Right.
17:24
Joseph Illidge: He's a detective, he's going through the timeline, and he's like, okay, and he's watching
17:30
Joseph Illidge: Everything change into a history that is not the history that his mother told him, or that he read about in any of the history books.
17:40
Joseph Illidge: Right? And now he's got one chance to restore it.
17:45
Joseph Illidge: So for him, there's an urgency.
17:48
Tad Eggleston: Right. Right.
17:49
Joseph Illidge: And that's what you want in stories. You want there to be a sense of urgency. I feel like…
17:56
Joseph Illidge: I feel like because…
17:58
Joseph Illidge: The comic book industry and even the superhero genre, which is just one genre, is so high volume and content.
18:07
Joseph Illidge: That urgency is not necessarily the underpinning of a lot of stories.
18:12
Tad Eggleston: Not always, no.
18:14
Joseph Illidge: You know, and we wanted to make sure that it was in this one.
18:18
Tad Eggleston: And this, this, this is, absolutely wish-casting, but not just for myself,
18:27
Tad Eggleston: will we get more now? I mean, now that we've established
18:33
Tad Eggleston: That, this, this tie-in to, to the, to the world, now that, that.
18:38
Tad Eggleston: We've sold out a fantastic issue.
18:42
Tad Eggleston: we're making people want to go read Bat… Batman Beyond Static…
18:46
Tad Eggleston: that much more, Batman Static Beyond. Yeah.
18:52
Tad Eggleston: Does that mean that maybe we'll get more milestone…
18:56
Tad Eggleston: Or is this outside of your purview?
18:59
Joseph Illidge: So it's a… it's a good question, and it's a big question, because… with…
19:06
Joseph Illidge: the history of Milestone, with the exception of the very first
19:10
Joseph Illidge: publishing iteration that ran from 1993 to 1997,
19:16
Joseph Illidge: no further iterations of Milestone have had ongoing series.
19:21
Tad Eggleston: Right.
19:22
Joseph Illidge: Which is a concern.
19:23
Joseph Illidge: Then there's a larger concern, which is static.
19:26
Joseph Illidge: So, static is… A character first published in May of 1993 in Milestone Comics.
19:34
Joseph Illidge: Static became a globally known character.
19:38
Joseph Illidge: In the year 2000, when Warner Bros. Animation made the Static Shot cartoon, which ran from 2000 to 2004.
19:48
Joseph Illidge: So, static is a character that is known to two generations, and static
19:53
Joseph Illidge: Has inspired a lot of people.
19:56
Joseph Illidge: Right. Personally, professionally, they saw themselves as a hero for the first time when they were young.
20:04
Joseph Illidge: And it gave them possibility. It was inspirational, right?
20:10
Joseph Illidge: But somehow, and static, as an intellectual property, as a character, as what he represents, is the ancestor to Miles Morales.
20:21
Joseph Illidge: of the Spider-Verse.
20:22
Tad Eggleston: Oh, absolutely.
20:23
Joseph Illidge: very popular character.
20:25
Tad Eggleston: Yep.
20:26
Joseph Illidge: So, then the question… That's begged is…
20:30
Joseph Illidge: Why has there not been a static, ongoing series?
20:34
Joseph Illidge: Since before the character… Even appeared in animation.
20:39
Joseph Illidge: And it's a question that has frustrated fans for some time.
20:44
Joseph Illidge: And so, with the integration of the Milestone Dakotaverse of superheroes into the DC universe.
20:54
Joseph Illidge: This is basically happening during a time in which the fans are reaching the end of their faith.
21:01
Joseph Illidge: and their interest.
21:04
Joseph Illidge: And if they don't have their faith met, They will walk away.
21:12
Joseph Illidge: They will walk away.
21:14
Joseph Illidge: And right now, there is an internet campaign called DC So White.
21:21
Joseph Illidge: Which has indicated that it has been over 1,100 days.
21:26
Joseph Illidge: since DC Comics has had an ongoing series with a black lead character.
21:33
Joseph Illidge: Last year, A meme began circulating on social media called…
21:40
Joseph Illidge: Discrimination comics, which basically said that DC Comics only pulls their black heroes out in February and then puts them back in a box.
21:49
Joseph Illidge: at the end of February for another 11 months.
21:53
Joseph Illidge: Right? And February was a large celebration of the legacy Of milestone across numerous podcasters. So…
22:06
Joseph Illidge: What happened was, in light of that.
22:10
Joseph Illidge: I wanted to get to the heart of things.
22:13
Joseph Illidge: And so, I created something called the Dakota Incident 100K Challenge.
22:19
Joseph Illidge: Which was a call to action for the community, to…
22:24
Joseph Illidge: sell 100,000 copies of New History of the DC Universe, the Dakota incident.
22:31
Joseph Illidge: Because by doing that, you would show a level of demand for a static ongoing series that could not be ignored.
22:39
Joseph Illidge: You cannot ignore 100,000 copies of sales, because the only title that is regularly pulling that off is Absolute Batman.
22:48
Joseph Illidge: So if you can pull that off for this one comic book to show the demand for a static ongoing series.
22:58
Joseph Illidge: That is viable. That is possible. That's business.
23:03
Joseph Illidge: Right. That cannot be… Ignored.
23:08
Joseph Illidge: Okay? And so… everyone came together. I mean, myself and the other writers, we…
23:16
Joseph Illidge: Started, really talking to the community about this comic.
23:22
Joseph Illidge: Before the end of the pre-order period, so that people could get in their advance orders, so that the comic shop owners would know the demand up front for this book.
23:35
Joseph Illidge: Then, when the book came out.
23:38
Joseph Illidge: It's sold out in 5 days.
23:40
Joseph Illidge: worldwide. It dropped… And then it was gone.
23:45
Joseph Illidge: And DC saw that, and they didn't expect that.
23:48
Joseph Illidge: They didn't think it was gonna perform like that, but it did.
23:52
Joseph Illidge: And it did because of a collective effort from myself, my fellow writers, the podcasters that we called in favors with, and the communication of what the Dakota Incident 100K Challenge means, and now we're going to second printing.
24:11
Joseph Illidge: The second printing is going to be in stores April 22nd, but the pre-order date…
24:18
Joseph Illidge: End pre-order date is March 30th.
24:22
Joseph Illidge: So that is the more important date. That's the date by which you have to go to your.
24:27
Tad Eggleston: Final order cutoff, March 30th.
24:30
Joseph Illidge: Yes. But final order cutoff is Greek to most people. They don't know what that means. I know. That's inside baseball language, so I'm being very.
24:38
Tad Eggleston: Well, but at least I don't say FOC.
24:41
Joseph Illidge: Yes.
24:42
Tad Eggleston: So…
24:44
Joseph Illidge: So, it's pre-ordering the comic in advance, so.
24:48
Tad Eggleston: And it's not completely inside baseball to my handful of listeners, because I explain it
24:53
Tad Eggleston: literally every week on the regular episode before going through…
24:59
Tad Eggleston: here are books that are on final order cutoff, not Monday as in tomorrow, but a week from now. This week, get to your store, tell the…
25:10
Joseph Illidge: That's awesome. That's awesome that you do that every week, so thank you for doing that, because.
25:14
Tad Eggleston: I mean, it's a weird business model, but as long as it's the weird business model, like.
25:21
Tad Eggleston: You gotta drive those sales.
25:23
Joseph Illidge: It's the business model we have.
25:25
Tad Eggleston: Right.
25:25
Joseph Illidge: Right? It may not be the one we want, but it's the one we have.
25:28
Tad Eggleston: No, I mean, honestly, I think… I mean, an ongoing static series is essential, but I think equally essential is, as much as I love, you've got them behind you, I've got one right on my desk, because Marcus, Ted, and I have been doing…
25:44
Tad Eggleston: the, the, the Milestone Book Club for more than 2 years now,
25:54
Tad Eggleston: I want to see more of these stories in… smaller.
26:01
Tad Eggleston: additions.
26:03
Tad Eggleston: I mean, I was happy that… I was happy that Static got a compact, and that's good, because those have been selling like hotcakes. Right. But…
26:12
Tad Eggleston: But, like, somebody who wants to go back and look at some of the best superhero comics of the 90s, and, like, I am regularly embarrassed and have to remind myself that I grew up in a very white Midwestern town, that I didn't…
26:28
Tad Eggleston: no static when it was coming out, because anytime we happen to look at what it was coming out against, I'm sitting there going, okay, there are a couple of Vertigo titles.
26:39
Tad Eggleston: But after that, it's, like, hands down better than all the other books that came out.
26:45
Tad Eggleston: In the month, 5th.
26:47
Joseph Illidge: Listen.
26:48
Tad Eggleston: I mean, it's, like, not even close.
26:51
Joseph Illidge: the Milestone comic books were very innovative, and, you know, to your point.
26:56
Joseph Illidge: part of what has happened with the success of the Dakota incident is…
27:01
Joseph Illidge: There has been a major uptick in sales.
27:06
Joseph Illidge: Right. For not only the milestone compendiums, Past trade paperbacks, and back-issue market.
27:15
Tad Eggleston: Right.
27:16
Joseph Illidge: A lot of issues are now really spiking on the back issue market. Milestone comics are being pulled out of dollar boxes. So, what we have accomplished here…
27:28
Joseph Illidge: Is this phenomenon of renewed peak interest in the entire catalog, the entire legacy. And so, with that.
27:43
Joseph Illidge: the positioning for Static to get an ongoing series has improved.
27:48
Joseph Illidge: Right. The Dakota Incident 100K Challenge continues, and so that's why people need to go to their comic stores.
27:57
Tad Eggleston: Go to your comic shop, tell them that you want the second printing of the…
28:02
Joseph Illidge: newest.
28:02
Tad Eggleston: New history of the DCU.
28:04
Tad Eggleston: Dakota incident?
28:06
Joseph Illidge: It will come out April 22nd.
28:08
Joseph Illidge: We're looking for that to sell out.
28:11
Tad Eggleston: While you're at… Right, you might ask… Is this third for the compact edition of the static?
28:18
Tad Eggleston: Yup.
28:19
Joseph Illidge: Buy new history first.
28:21
Tad Eggleston: Well, yeah.
28:22
Joseph Illidge: Then you can buy the static.
28:24
Joseph Illidge: Or get them both.
28:26
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, no.
28:26
Joseph Illidge: I have…
28:27
Joseph Illidge: I have the static compact.
28:29
Joseph Illidge: Right here, too, this is what it looks like.
28:33
Joseph Illidge: Static Season 1, the Compact Edition, it's really great. DC has also put out a static trade paperback.
28:42
Joseph Illidge: That, I think, has the first 8 issues of the original series.
28:45
Tad Eggleston: That's the one that I meant, the DC finest static playing with fire. Yeah, yeah.
28:50
Joseph Illidge: So there's that.
28:51
Tad Eggleston: So they haven't gone compact with the old one yet.
28:54
Joseph Illidge: They have done… There's this?
28:56
Tad Eggleston: And for that matter, there's at least…
28:58
Tad Eggleston: Right. At least one static in their young adult universe, too.
29:03
Tad Eggleston: I mean…
29:03
Joseph Illidge: Yeah, I think it's called Static Playing with Fire.
29:07
Tad Eggleston: That… no, the Playing With Fire is the DC Finest.
29:10
Joseph Illidge: Oh, okay. That's the, that's the… All night out.
29:14
Tad Eggleston: Or up all night, something like that.
29:16
Joseph Illidge: Yeah, yeah, that's another static.
29:19
Tad Eggleston: It's fantastic.
29:21
Tad Eggleston: Yup.
29:22
Joseph Illidge: Yep. But this is…
29:25
Tad Eggleston: by Lamar Child.
29:26
Joseph Illidge: Reverse.
29:27
Joseph Illidge: Right?
29:28
Tad Eggleston: The static upload? Yeah, new history?
29:30
Joseph Illidge: And the second printing, there'll be two covers, one with this stunning cover by Dan Mora, who is the quintessential DC Comics artist right now. And then this cover, but the logo will be a different color.
29:45
Joseph Illidge: So those two covers are what's gonna come out on April 22nd.
29:49
Tad Eggleston: Well, I encourage people to buy that, I encourage people to read it. I encourage people to go discover the universe, because, I mean, I just… I can't…
30:00
Tad Eggleston: Can't emphasize enough… how much…
30:05
Tad Eggleston: like, going through month by month with Marcus and Ted, reading the static compend… er, reading the milestone compendiums, going through that original universe in order, has been… not just eye-opening, but just a pure joy. I mean, they're just really, really fucking good comics.
30:24
Joseph Illidge: Yeah, you know, when you're talking about comics.
30:27
Joseph Illidge: Comics are an art form, and one of the things I say regularly is, the art brings you in, and the story keeps you there. Right.
30:35
Joseph Illidge: And so it was very important for everyone involved To deliver the best story?
30:42
Joseph Illidge: and the best art. So that on every level, this book fires, and also, it's… Good introductory book.
30:55
Joseph Illidge: So, if you have no exposure to the Milestone Dakotaverse of Superheroes.
31:01
Joseph Illidge: This is a great entryway for you.
31:04
Joseph Illidge: If you do have exposure to them, then you're going to see some remixing with the mythology, because of how we had to integrate into the DC Universe. And if you're a DC Universe fan.
31:16
Joseph Illidge: then… There are things here for you, too, because again.
31:21
Joseph Illidge: We're talking about taking things from the mid-'80s and the turn of the century
31:27
Joseph Illidge: in this timeline, and these familiar touchpoints are things that DC fans will recognize. So, I mean, listen, I'm a big fan of the DC superhero universe, too, and so…
31:40
Joseph Illidge: Being able to… do this story on that large landscape. That was a thrill.
31:50
Tad Eggleston: How was it, I mean, because you are a big fan of the DC Universe, like…
32:00
Tad Eggleston: The Trinity had a, a, a, difficult part in the Dakota… Incident.
32:10
Tad Eggleston: Issue, where they were… they felt more on the government side as they were… and they were conflicted, but how was that for you?
32:19
Tad Eggleston: Was it fun writing that? Was it… was it… was it, okay, this is what's right for the story, but I hate putting Superman through this grinder?
32:29
Joseph Illidge: So, I think… yeah, I think there are a number of things. Number one, thankfully, I didn't have to write that chapter.
32:34
Tad Eggleston: There we go. I…
32:36
Joseph Illidge: I wrote Chapter 1, which basically dealt with the rise of…
32:44
Joseph Illidge: the heroes, the rise of milestone heroes, and the incident that changes everything. Stephanie Williams dealt with issue two, which was the United States government and the Suicide Squad attempting to take Dakota by force and having to fight the milestone heroes. Chapter 3
33:02
Joseph Illidge: which dealt with the Trinity…
33:04
Joseph Illidge: and the negotiations with two of the milestone Heroes and President Lex Luthor, that was written by Morgan Hampton.
33:13
Joseph Illidge: And then Nicholas Draper Ivey, Wrote the.
33:17
Joseph Illidge: prologue.
33:19
Joseph Illidge: with Beacon in the future, and his timeline being erased.
33:22
Joseph Illidge: epilogue, which is Beacon taking his one last shot to save the future, and what that involves. Right. So, I didn't have to write that, thankfully. Now, I was, of course, part of the planning, and…
33:34
Joseph Illidge: As far as I'm concerned, Superman and Wonder Woman and Batman were put through nothing.
33:39
Joseph Illidge: Okay. They were put… they were put through nothing. I mean…
33:42
Joseph Illidge: The story, I think, actually shows their impotence.
33:47
Tad Eggleston: Well, no, absolutely.
33:47
Joseph Illidge: Like, Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman have no agency.
33:53
Joseph Illidge: Right? And part of the reason they have no agency is because they don't understand the situation, because they've never been to Dakota.
34:02
Tad Eggleston: I, I was super…
34:04
Joseph Illidge: And, you know, Superman… Superman will not go against the United States government.
34:10
Joseph Illidge: Wonder Woman is technically the ambassador of Themyscira.
34:14
Joseph Illidge: Right. She's not going to go against the government.
34:17
Joseph Illidge: Batman's a vigilante.
34:19
Joseph Illidge: So, even if Batman is in disagreement with the United States government, he's not gonna engage in war with it. This is not Frank Miller's Dark Knight version of Batman, right?
34:31
Tad Eggleston: And, and, and, and…
34:32
Joseph Illidge: This is a different Batman.
34:34
Tad Eggleston: Right, and I guess I meant the question in a more meta sense. I didn't mean what you put them through in the comic. I meant as somebody who does have…
34:44
Tad Eggleston: a deep history and love of the DC Universe. What did it… Yeah.
34:49
Tad Eggleston: how did it feel to take the Trinity and give them no agency? Which is not something that we see very often.
34:58
Joseph Illidge: Yeah, well listen, the primary goal is the story.
35:03
Tad Eggleston: Right.
35:04
Joseph Illidge: Right? No matter what our affection is for these characters at different stages, the story is the most important thing, and the story will tell us.
35:13
Joseph Illidge: Your story will reveal to us.
35:15
Joseph Illidge: Where the characters are on the stage of this drama, and so… You know, like.
35:22
Joseph Illidge: We did what needed to be done. We did what made dramatic and character sense.
35:29
Joseph Illidge: and… There's something symbolic about a city under siege
35:35
Joseph Illidge: That didn't have its own heroes.
35:38
Joseph Illidge: And then receive their own heroes.
35:41
Joseph Illidge: Their city is attacked, their heroes are attacked.
35:45
Joseph Illidge: And then in the last 2 minutes, here comes Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman.
35:49
Joseph Illidge: And it's like…
35:54
Joseph Illidge: You can't do anything here. Like, you don't mean anything to us. And that's something that heroes have to reckon with.
36:04
Joseph Illidge: They have to reckon with… Sometimes being impotent.
36:10
Joseph Illidge: Right? Yeah. And that goes back to…
36:13
Joseph Illidge: a comic book I edited.
36:17
Joseph Illidge: in the Batman department in the late 90s called Batman The Hill, written by Christopher Priest, in which Priest has Batman go to a neighborhood in Gotham that he had never been to before called The Hill.
36:29
Joseph Illidge: In which the black and brown people lived.
36:32
Joseph Illidge: And when he went there, they weren't afraid of him, because he had never been there, his legend didn't mean anything to them, and so he had to spend time there among these Gothamites.
36:45
Joseph Illidge: So he could understand them, and now we're talking a social drama, right? So I think the Dakota incident is both a superheroic drama and a socio-political drama.
36:59
Joseph Illidge: Okay. And that's in the…
37:00
Tad Eggleston: That's definitely how I felt.
37:02
Joseph Illidge: That's in the.
37:02
Tad Eggleston: Definitely how I felt.
37:03
Joseph Illidge: tradition of Milestone comics, period.
37:05
Tad Eggleston: Oh, absolutely.
37:06
Joseph Illidge: Always operated from a more naturalistic perspective.
37:09
Tad Eggleston: Well, I, I was, I was gonna mention, we, we, we…
37:13
Tad Eggleston: We slid off in this direction, and it was a wonderful direction, but, like, when you were talking about,
37:20
Tad Eggleston: static, birthed Miles Morales. While I wholeheartedly agree with that, I would say that Milestone actually birthed… Ultimate Marvel.
37:32
Tad Eggleston: one of the things that made Ultimate Marvel special, particularly Ultimate Spider-Man, was… That it was just more…
37:42
Tad Eggleston: grounded in… in… Something that felt real.
37:47
Joseph Illidge: Right. Yes.
37:49
Joseph Illidge: Yes. I could definitely see that.
37:52
Tad Eggleston: You know, it was the real world with superheroes, rather than… rather than the superhero world where… I mean, what made Marvel special initially…
38:01
Tad Eggleston: way back in the 60s, you know, when you compare Marvel and DC Comics, was that, like, oh, we've got a superhero universe where… where…
38:11
Tad Eggleston: their… their alter egos actually act like real people, but it still didn't feel like you were in the real world with superheroes. You felt like…
38:23
Tad Eggleston: You were in the superhero world, but there were a few real people.
38:27
Joseph Illidge: Well.
38:28
Tad Eggleston: You know what I mean?
38:29
Joseph Illidge: Yeah, well, so, 60s Marvel…
38:32
Joseph Illidge: 60s Marvel, let's say from Fantastic Four One to Fantastic Four 100, right? That was supposed to be the world outside your window, in the sense that
38:43
Joseph Illidge: The conditions of the world that they were dealing with at the time, like the space race,
38:49
Joseph Illidge: Scientific discovery with, different forms of energy.
38:55
Joseph Illidge: Right. You know, the… the…
38:59
Joseph Illidge: the aftermath of, like, the Korean War, going into the Vietnam War, right? It's like…
39:06
Joseph Illidge: these things were in the world fabric, and Stan Lee and the different collaborators, Jack Kirby, Bill Everett, Steve Ditko.
39:17
Joseph Illidge: You know, they knew the mission to paint
39:21
Joseph Illidge: an amazing world that people recognize to some degree. And that Marvel Age of Comics…
39:29
Joseph Illidge: was the North Star for Milestone in the.
39:32
Tad Eggleston: Oh, absolutely.
39:34
Joseph Illidge: it was cited in the Milestone Bibles.
39:37
Tad Eggleston: Okay.
39:38
Joseph Illidge: And so…
39:39
Joseph Illidge: The Ultimate Universe was basically the 21st century version of the 60s philosophy of Marvel, so interestingly enough, from Marvel to Milestone to the first Ultimate Universe is a straight line and a.
39:53
Tad Eggleston: Absolutely.
39:53
Joseph Illidge: time.
39:54
Tad Eggleston: Speaking of the Milestone Bible,
39:57
Tad Eggleston: Like, the teacher in me, the academic in me, wishes so much that things like that
40:05
Tad Eggleston: saw the light of day more often? Is there…
40:09
Tad Eggleston: I mean, the biggest question I have is, do you know if there are any that are still in existence? Because that's the first step to there ever being, like, a…
40:23
Tad Eggleston: Artist Edition, or whatever, for geeks like me that would happily pay $150 to be able to see what?
40:33
Tad Eggleston: What all the creators worked from.
40:37
Joseph Illidge: Well, I mean, some of us have physical copies. I have a physical copy in my house. Dc Comics has the digital files.
40:44
Tad Eggleston: Okay.
40:44
Joseph Illidge: So…
40:46
Tad Eggleston: If they've got the digital files, they could.
40:48
Joseph Illidge: it's not impossible that there could be a version. I mean, listen, we have… the…
40:54
Joseph Illidge: guide of the whole Z. Luis Garcia Lopez DC licensing guide, which was created in 1982. We never thought that was going to see the light of day, but now it's a book. Right.
41:09
Tad Eggleston: Well, I mean, cause…
41:10
Joseph Illidge: So, I mean… So, so… Nothing is…
41:13
Tad Eggleston: Who'd love it?
41:14
Joseph Illidge: of the.
41:14
Tad Eggleston: medium.
41:14
Joseph Illidge: That's…
41:15
Tad Eggleston: That sort of stuff is gold.
41:17
Joseph Illidge: Yeah, it is, so nothing is impossible, But…
41:21
Joseph Illidge: if that saw the light of day, I'm thinking higher than 150.
41:26
Tad Eggleston: Well, I mean, I get it, and I might… I mean, I don't know how big it is.
41:30
Joseph Illidge: They.
41:31
Tad Eggleston: I don't know how big it is.
41:32
Joseph Illidge: It's… The Milestone Bible… For the core 7 titles.
41:38
Joseph Illidge: Probably clocks out at 200 pages.
41:40
Tad Eggleston: Okay.
41:41
Joseph Illidge: It's… it's no joke.
41:44
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, yeah.
41:44
Joseph Illidge: It is the gold standard. When I went to work in Batman Editorial, Batman Editorial had a Bible.
41:53
Joseph Illidge: it was not as big as the Milestone Bible. I think it was about 75 pages. I mean, it's one of the best Bibles I've ever seen, but the Milestone Bible is the best Bible.
42:02
Joseph Illidge: By far.
42:03
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, no, I mean…
42:04
Joseph Illidge: I've seen in North American superhero comics, and I've seen.
42:07
Tad Eggleston: I have… there's exactly one creative Bible out there that I have…
42:13
Tad Eggleston: anywhere near as much interest in as the Milestone Bible, and that's Jodorosky's Dune Bible.
42:22
Joseph Illidge: Oh my god.
42:22
Tad Eggleston: Bitch.
42:23
Joseph Illidge: Listen.
42:24
Tad Eggleston: Which… which they actually, like, I had to, I had to, like…
42:29
Tad Eggleston: I came across it, like, as recently, they made a very special edition where, like, the cheap end… the cheap end was, like, $1,500, and I had to make myself forget that it existed, like, scrub it from my internet history.
42:44
Joseph Illidge: Because that's, that's, that's bonkers.
42:46
Tad Eggleston: Because I'm sitting there going.
42:47
Joseph Illidge: That's your way.
42:48
Tad Eggleston: I have enough room on my credit card?
42:51
Joseph Illidge: Yeah, that's… that's a test.
42:53
Joseph Illidge: A $1,500 price tag for the Hodorusky Dune Bible. That's a test.
42:59
Joseph Illidge: Right? No… not many of us should try to fit it on our credit cards.
43:05
Tad Eggleston: Well, but that's the crazy thing is, like, that was the, like, plain version. There was, like, a $5,000 version and a $10,000 version, too.
43:16
Joseph Illidge: Well, listen, There are people out there with money, they will pay for that.
43:20
Tad Eggleston: There are…
43:20
Joseph Illidge: That, then we'll pay for that.
43:23
Joseph Illidge: So that they could say they have it.
43:25
Joseph Illidge: they may.
43:26
Tad Eggleston: Rather than to enjoy it, and that's the sort of thing that annoys the fuck out of me.
43:31
Joseph Illidge: They have it. Well, you know what? It's the world in which we live, man.
43:35
Tad Eggleston: It is. It is. But, like, I would pour over… I mean, like the Milestone Bible, I would pour over that book.
43:42
Tad Eggleston: I mean…
43:43
Joseph Illidge: It's a joy.
43:45
Joseph Illidge: The milestone Bible is a joy, and it's truly educational in how you do it.
43:52
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, so, so, and now I know you have a copy, so, like, the next time I'm in Brooklyn, I'm gonna, like, Joe? Joe, can I come over? I'll bring a sample.
44:01
Joseph Illidge: But which part of Brooklyn am I in? You know what I mean? It's all a mystery. Am I staying in Brooklyn, or am I leaving? Am I leaving Brooklyn tomorrow? Who knows?
44:14
Tad Eggleston: You can bring it to Bulletproof.
44:15
Joseph Illidge: Oh, no.
44:16
Tad Eggleston: Look at Art and… I promise Hank won't steal it from you.
44:20
Joseph Illidge: No, it should… it should never leave this house. It should… it should not get to the garbage can. It should not…
44:31
Joseph Illidge: Well, no, don't…
44:32
Tad Eggleston: Nowhere near the garbage can, Joe. Nowhere near the garbage can.
44:35
Joseph Illidge: It shouldn't be exposed to sunlight or any of that stuff.
44:41
Tad Eggleston: So, you're telling me bring vinyl gloves…
44:46
Tad Eggleston: And, and, and… I'll bring you…
44:47
Joseph Illidge: Nothing, because I'm not bringing it. Bring… you… you have no need.
44:51
Tad Eggleston: You won't let me touch it. You won't let me see it.
44:54
Joseph Illidge: Oh my goodness.
44:55
Tad Eggleston: I thought we had a special bond, Joe.
44:58
Joseph Illidge: That's why we're talking now! Anything else would lead to disaster. There are days when I have meetings, and I say to myself, I'd really like to get a hamburger and fries right now, but I'm like, you know what? Anything could happen out there.
45:14
Joseph Illidge: Have the meeting first, so you don't miss it, and then go get your burger and fries.
45:19
Tad Eggleston: That's… that's fair, that's fair.
45:22
Tad Eggleston: What else do you have going on lately? I mean, you're one of the hardest working men in comics, so, like, I know this isn't the only thing you're doing.
45:31
Joseph Illidge: Well, first of all.
45:33
Tad Eggleston: I mean, you did your spawn thing.
45:35
Joseph Illidge: I'm just really grateful to everyone that's really embraced our book, The Little Engine That Could. And, you know, I'm happy to see the people who are gonna discover it in second printing.
45:45
Joseph Illidge: And who have already discovered it, and want to continue to be
45:49
Joseph Illidge: part of this, and want that Dan Moore cover, so… that's gonna be awesome, so thank you to everybody. You know, the next thing that I have coming up is the…
46:00
Joseph Illidge: collected edition of the Image Comics Todd McFarlane series that I did with Tim Seeley and Christian Rosado called Bloodlet Letter.
46:09
Joseph Illidge: Which is a 5-issue revenge mission story about an ex-CIA agent who's now a mystic.
46:17
Joseph Illidge: Who, for very good reason, once spawned dead.
46:21
Joseph Illidge: And it's a revenge.
46:22
Tad Eggleston: I haven't actually read it yet. Like…
46:25
Joseph Illidge: Well, is that yours?
46:26
Tad Eggleston: Your name on a Spawn comic made me go, I need to read this, but I don't read a lot of Spawn. Like, I have to have certain people involved, and…
46:35
Joseph Illidge: Yeah, good enough.
46:36
Tad Eggleston: I haven't.
46:38
Joseph Illidge: comes out the first week in May, and, you know, part of the beauty of.
46:42
Tad Eggleston: So not quite in time for Free Comic Book Day?
46:46
Joseph Illidge: Not quite in time for that.
46:48
Tad Eggleston: That's a shame, because I have to do a quick plug. I'm now the event coordinator and consult on buying for Modern Age Comics in Algonquin, Illinois, owned by the…
47:00
Tad Eggleston: from Psycho Comicology, who are amazing, and Tim Seeley is going to be there for Free Comic Book Day, but apparently not signing Spawn yet.
47:10
Joseph Illidge: Oh, nice! Well, listen, unless they have some of the original issues of the five-issue miniseries, which are hard.
47:15
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, we might have to see what we can do.
47:17
Joseph Illidge: Yeah, so.
47:19
Tad Eggleston: I mean, he's got 2 free comic book titles, so… so they're… they're…
47:24
Tad Eggleston: There won't be a shortage of things for him to sign.
47:27
Joseph Illidge: No, there won't. He's a… he's a…
47:30
Tad Eggleston: Wouldn't be cool to add the…
47:33
Tad Eggleston: The spawn, too.
47:34
Joseph Illidge: Yeah, so, you know.
47:36
Tad Eggleston: I saw him in a movie on Wednesday night, too.
47:39
Joseph Illidge: You saw Tim in a movie?
47:41
Tad Eggleston: In a movie.
47:42
Joseph Illidge: In a movie?
47:43
Tad Eggleston: Jim Terry made a movie.
47:45
Tad Eggleston: And Tim was in the scene.
47:47
Joseph Illidge: Alright, I'll have to call Celie and ask about that.
47:51
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, it's called, ugh.
47:58
Tad Eggleston: Skank.
47:59
Tad Eggleston: And, and…
48:00
Joseph Illidge: Okay.
48:01
Tad Eggleston: or shank, I'm sorry, shank. It's called Shank.
48:03
Joseph Illidge: Shank, okay, very different than.
48:05
Tad Eggleston: Yes, yes, yes.
48:07
Joseph Illidge: two very different.
48:08
Tad Eggleston: Yes, it's called Shank, and the way I described it to David Walker last night was, was, imagine…
48:17
Tad Eggleston: Jim Jarmouche and Kevin Smith got together to make an action movie on absolutely no budget whatsoever.
48:28
Joseph Illidge: That's pretty compelling.
48:29
Tad Eggleston: I loved it. I loved it.
48:32
Tad Eggleston: So far, it's screened once, and who knows if it'll ever screen again? I hope so. I was asking Jim today if there's any plans to have any sort of, like, let me buy a DVD.
48:47
Tad Eggleston: or a digital copy, or frankly, I mean.
48:51
Tad Eggleston: what it feels like it should be is a VHS tape, but then I'd have to find a VCR.
48:58
Tad Eggleston: It might be worth it, though. I'd have a VCR just to watch this one movie.
49:03
Joseph Illidge: Okay, that, that would be something.
49:06
Joseph Illidge: Oh my god. But, so, you know, the thing about Bloodlet Letter is that we made it new reader accessible, which I think is just the way, you know.
49:17
Joseph Illidge: Every comic book is somebody's first comic. You know, I think I remember Denny O'Neill telling me that years ago, God rest Denny's soul. And so…
49:25
Joseph Illidge: you know, We made it so that
49:28
Joseph Illidge: if you've never read a Spawn Universe title, you can come in through Bloodlet Letter. And if you have.
49:35
Joseph Illidge: blood letter means something entirely different for you, right? And so…
49:42
Joseph Illidge: you know, Volume 1, it's gonna be $14.99, which is a very affordable price point.
49:48
Tad Eggleston: It is.
49:49
Joseph Illidge: People work hard for their money, they get the fact that you gotta make decisions, but…
49:54
Joseph Illidge: This is an easy buy, it's 5 chapters, and it's just really… it's mean, man. It's a mean…
50:04
Joseph Illidge: revenge story, and, you know, we're so proud of it. And listen, getting to introduce a new character into Todd McFarlane's Spawn universe, I mean, come on, that was fun.
50:15
Tad Eggleston: Right.
50:17
Tad Eggleston: So, so we got Bloodlet Letter, we got New History of… The DC Universe, Dakota?
50:24
Tad Eggleston: incident.
50:26
Joseph Illidge: Yep.
50:26
Tad Eggleston: Anything else? I mean, I, I know…
50:28
Joseph Illidge: That's all I can talk about right now. Well…
50:31
Tad Eggleston: Well, I mean, there's one other that's been announced.
50:35
Joseph Illidge: There's 2 others that have been announced, but that's, like, 2027 and 2028. Okay.
50:42
Tad Eggleston: So that…
50:42
Joseph Illidge: No one.
50:42
Tad Eggleston: They're that far down the road.
50:44
Joseph Illidge: those yet.
50:45
Tad Eggleston: I know, but Marcus is a friend, so I was hoping to get you to plug him.
50:49
Joseph Illidge: So, okay, so let's talk about that quickly. So, we're doing a… so, Marcus and I… Did a…
50:56
Joseph Illidge: A middle grade graphic novel on the story of Harriet Tubman.
51:02
Joseph Illidge: And it's just coming along amazing.
51:06
Joseph Illidge: And so, that's going to be just over 200 pages. That's going to be out in 2027.
51:14
Joseph Illidge: In 2028, a Harlem Renaissance graphic novel.
51:19
Joseph Illidge: About a love triangle between three teenagers, called the Wren.
51:26
Joseph Illidge: is coming out through Macmillan, their adult graphic novel imprint called 23rd Street Books. I love 23rd Street. The other thing that I have going right now, actually, is…
51:37
Joseph Illidge: a Harlem Renaissance crime noir story that takes place in the 1920s called The Winterfields, which I co-created with Criss Cross, who's drawn all the major characters and started his career at Milestone on the blood circuit.
51:52
Tad Eggleston: Right?
51:52
Joseph Illidge: And so… We have been putting that story out in serialized form through a crowdfunded
52:02
Joseph Illidge: comic book anthology called Noir is the New Black, which is published by Fair Square Graphics. The first two issues came out, through Kickstarter.
52:13
Joseph Illidge: And then the third issue, the campaign is about to begin.
52:17
Joseph Illidge: So that campaign will begin in early April, and that'll be for the third and final part.
52:24
Joseph Illidge: Well, I…
52:24
Tad Eggleston: I would love to talk to anybody who's involved in Noir's New Black, so let them know that if they're doing podcast rounds, they can hit me up.
52:32
Joseph Illidge: I will let the publishers know, yeah.
52:35
Tad Eggleston: Yeah. Because… I have the first volumes.
52:39
Tad Eggleston: I.
52:40
Joseph Illidge: Yeah, I did that. Thank you. We first introduced the Winterfields in the expanded edition of the first volume, because the first volume, the first printing of 5,000 copies sold out.
52:51
Joseph Illidge: And so then, the publisher decided to do an expanded edition and add some new stories, and one of those was the six-page introduction to the Winterfields that Chris and I did that came out in 2024.
53:04
Tad Eggleston: Who's the artist on the… the love triangle? The red?
53:08
Joseph Illidge: So… oh man, I don't remember his name, it's been a while, he's an Italian artist. This is amazing. Like, it definitely feels in a number of ways. It has the aesthetic of, like.
53:21
Joseph Illidge: a Disney cartoon from, like, the 1930s. That's very close.
53:26
Tad Eggleston: Whoa.
53:26
Joseph Illidge: Absolutely. It's coming along beautifully.
53:29
Joseph Illidge: Very cool.
53:30
Tad Eggleston: We'll be all over that.
53:32
Tad Eggleston: No, I love 23rd Street. They, they do…
53:35
Tad Eggleston: I mean, 1st, 2nd, I mean, because they spun off from 1st, 2nd, and 1st, 2nd does amazing work as well. 23rd Street, I love,
53:44
Tad Eggleston: I mean, they finally put THB in a collected edition. Yes.
53:50
Joseph Illidge: That's right, that's right. And I think, you know, just… as a writer.
53:55
Joseph Illidge: it's great to be able to go from comic books to graphic novels, and to write for different age groups. Right. So with the Harriet Tubman.
54:03
Joseph Illidge: You know, while anyone will be able to read it, it's really primarily for, like.
54:09
Joseph Illidge: 6-10 year olds, and so that way, it can really be part of the library circuit.
54:16
Tad Eggleston: Right.
54:16
Joseph Illidge: You know, which is really a great opportunity. So…
54:21
Joseph Illidge: Those are… those are some of the things.
54:24
Tad Eggleston: On the horizon, things to bring you back for, things to bug you for once there's PDFs, because God knows I like reading stuff ahead of time.
54:34
Joseph Illidge: Yes, yes, yes.
54:35
Tad Eggleston: There's a thrill to it.
54:36
Tad Eggleston: Okay, I now…
54:38
Tad Eggleston: I now have two closing questions. So there's the one that you know already, but you're gonna answer a closing question for the first time.
54:49
Tad Eggleston: That I'm actually really looking forward to your answer, just because of all of the different places you've worked with… worked, all the people you've worked with.
54:57
Tad Eggleston: You know, I've, I've…
55:01
Tad Eggleston: I've been doing this podcast for a little less than 5 years now. I'm in my 5th year, and I feel like I've entered graduation.
55:07
Joseph Illidge: Nice.
55:08
Tad Eggleston: Thank you. I feel like I've entered the Twilight Zone. I feel like my life has become magical in so many surreal ways, it's not even funny. I mean, to use an example involving you, I hung out with you in the attic of a comic shop looking at original Gabriel Del Otto art.
55:27
Tad Eggleston: As it was opened.
55:30
Joseph Illidge: Yes, you did.
55:30
Tad Eggleston: Yes, you did.
55:33
Joseph Illidge: The collection of Gabriel Del out of work at Bulletproof Comics. Yes, he did.
55:37
Tad Eggleston: I watched the package open. Yes. Yes.
55:43
Tad Eggleston: I've found that it doesn't matter how long people have been in this business, it doesn't matter who they are, how big they are.
55:52
Tad Eggleston: all of us have surreal moments, surreal experiences, things that, like, we think about and go, oh my god, did I really get to do that? Like, pinch ourselves. So I started collecting the stories. Tell me some… some experience that you got to have
56:09
Tad Eggleston: Purely because you chose comics as… as…
56:15
Tad Eggleston: A thing to devote a part of your life to.
56:19
Tad Eggleston: That, that, like, you sit back and go, wow, I got to do that.
56:26
Joseph Illidge: Shortly after I left DC Comics in the year 2000, one of the inkers that I worked with quite a bit, named Aaron Sod, became, I think, an artistic director at Stanley Entertainment.
56:39
Joseph Illidge: So, myself and two of my business partners at the time traveled to California for a week for a series of meetings, and we went to Stanley Entertainment.
56:51
Joseph Illidge: And I got to meet Stan Lee.
56:53
Joseph Illidge: and meet him and shake his hand, and I said, Stan.
56:58
Joseph Illidge: Spider-Man is my favorite superhero in comics, and he said to me, kid, you got good taste!
57:07
Tad Eggleston: I love it! I love it!
57:10
Joseph Illidge: That would be a surreal moment that I experienced, because…
57:14
Tad Eggleston: Completely surreal moment. Yeah.
57:17
Tad Eggleston: And good Stan Lee oppression. Thank you. So…
57:24
Tad Eggleston: This one you've answered before, and you always give me a good answer. Tell me something you love, preferably a comic, but we don't really have rules. Preferably storytelling, but again, with the rules, but something that you love.
57:35
Tad Eggleston: That not enough people around you have experienced?
57:38
Tad Eggleston: And you really want them to, so you have more people to talk about it with.
57:42
Joseph Illidge: The Human Target, written by Tom King and illustrated by Greg Smallwood.
57:47
Tad Eggleston: So good.
57:49
Tad Eggleston: required.
57:50
Tad Eggleston: So good.
57:51
Joseph Illidge: fire.
57:53
Tad Eggleston: Yeah.
57:54
Joseph Illidge: My apologies to the letterer that I don't know your name.
57:57
Tad Eggleston: That's gonna be… that's gonna be…
57:58
Joseph Illidge: It…
57:59
Tad Eggleston: That's gonna be Clayton Coles. Clayton Coles is Tom's Tom's personal letterer. Wonderful. He hasn't had anything
58:06
Tad Eggleston: by anybody but Clayton in years.
58:09
Joseph Illidge: One of the best letterers in comics.
58:11
Joseph Illidge: Hands down, one of the best letters in comics. The human target is required reading. I'll give you one more. I'll pull it off my bookshelf. I don't think it's gotten enough recognition.
58:26
Joseph Illidge: Rorschach.
58:28
Joseph Illidge: Yep. Tom King, Jorge Forenz, Dave Stewart, Clayton Coles.
58:32
Tad Eggleston: Yep.
58:33
Joseph Illidge: required reading.
58:34
Tad Eggleston: Yep.
58:35
Joseph Illidge: Do not think you know what this is.
58:38
Tad Eggleston: Oh, no.
58:38
Joseph Illidge: I do not know what this is, and you must read it to the end.
58:44
Tad Eggleston: I, I, I, I, tom is…
58:50
Tad Eggleston: Probably my favorite writer in superhero comics today.
58:55
Tad Eggleston: He's amazing.
58:57
Joseph Illidge: And I'm gonna give you one more, because you didn't ask for it.
59:01
Joseph Illidge: Also required reading.
59:04
Joseph Illidge: Wonder Woman The Historia by Kelly Sue.
59:07
Tad Eggleston: Oh, yeah!
59:09
Joseph Illidge: Phil Jimenez, Gene Ha… Nicholas Scott.
59:15
Tad Eggleston: Bless God.
59:15
Joseph Illidge: And the rest of the team. Required reading.
59:19
Joseph Illidge: quintessential graphic novel.
59:22
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, no, I got to talk to Kelly Hsu about that.
59:26
Joseph Illidge: Yeah.
59:27
Tad Eggleston: Have you read her current book, FML?
59:30
Joseph Illidge: I have not.
59:31
Tad Eggleston: Oh my god. Oh my god, is it good.
59:36
Joseph Illidge: Well, I mean…
59:37
Tad Eggleston: Yeah.
59:38
Joseph Illidge: I mean, she's baller.
59:40
Tad Eggleston: Oh yeah, Kelly Su is fantastic. Well, Joe, as always, it's a total pleasure, and for a change, we didn't go down a Mazzicelli rabbit hole, so we'll have to…
59:53
Joseph Illidge: We did not.
59:54
Tad Eggleston: We'll have to do that next time.
59:56
Joseph Illidge: You can do that.
59:57
Tad Eggleston: I think that's… I think this is literally the only time you've been on that we haven't gone down a deep Mazzicelli rabbit hole.
1:00:04
Joseph Illidge: Oh, Alyssa, we gotta shake it up sometimes.
1:00:06
Tad Eggleston: Exactly, exactly.
1:00:08
Joseph Illidge: Mazucicelli knows I still love him dearly.
1:00:12
Tad Eggleston: I hope he does. So, for 22 panels, this has been Joe Illage, and we will see you after the next page.