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