This episode is brought to you by Endless Comics Games and Cards. Whether you are a dedicated Wednesday warrior or looking for the latest drop of TCG and sports cards, Endless Comics Games and Cards has you covered. While Endless is known for their large collection of both single issue comics and library of graphic novels, not to mention their monthly comic book club, they also stay fully stocked with singles and sealed product for Magic the Gathering, Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh! and many others.
What's the best part? You can set up your pull list online at endlesscgc.com and they will send your new books to you. So head on over to endlesscgc.com or check them out on social media at endlesscgc. Hey there, this is Tim Seeley, writer of Hack Slash, Local Man, Revival, and the new Godzilla comic from IDW, and you are listening to the Bolivian Bar podcast. Welcome to the Oblivion Bar podcast with your host Chris Hacker and Aaron Knowles.
Joining us today are two of the spearheading creatives behind the upcoming Kai Sei era, which launches an all new Godzilla-centered shared universe at IDW Publishing. One is the editor of the entire Kai Sei Communique and the fan favorite IDW hit, Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees, from good friend of the show, Patrick Horvath. The other is the Eisner Award nominated writer of the aforementioned Godzilla number one with artist, Nikola Sismezha.
as well as fan favorite series like Hack Slash, Local Man, Revival, and Money Shot. He is also headlining the upcoming Masters of the Universe mini series, The Sword of Flaw, with Dark Horse Comics in the fall. It is our pleasure to welcome Jake Williams and Tim Seeley onto the Oblivion Bar podcast. Yeah. Welcome. Welcome Jake and Tim. So glad you guys are here to talk about all things Godzilla.
When IDW first reached out to us to talk to both of you gentlemen about this brand new universe over IDW, I was pretty excited, but I knew as soon as I mentioned it to Aaron, who is the, I think maybe biggest Kaiju fan that I know, at least in my friend's circle, I knew that he would be even more excited. I'm excited, but I know that he is even more excited to have you both here today.
And I would love to start with you, Jake, actually, before we even get into a lot of the larger Godzilla conversation. Jake, I want to ask you, because I think, and this might be a loaded question, but I think a lot of comic readers don't really understand what goes into being a comic book editor. And I hate to put you on the spot here, but can you put together sort of a brief overview of what goes into being a comic book editor in 2025?
And how did you end up leading the charge with this brand new Kai-Sai universe? Yeah, so being a comic book editor can really change from uh company to company to person to person to book to book, right? It's a very fluctuating situation. But the way I look at it is it's similar to like a producer of a film, right?
So it's my job as the person who's running Godzilla to first of all, make the hires, do the casting, figure out how many Godzilla books we want a year, kind of figure out the general direction and tone we're looking to aim for. And then I reach out to writers I want to work with, Tim, for example, I reached out to Tim, I solicited a pitch from Tim. We did like a round of notes or feedback on that pitch. I bring it to Toho.
And then from there we do like, you know, it's just kind of a project managing and giving notes and feedback along the way. So I give notes on the script and the art and the whole thing. And then I bring in other people to do the kind of the sister books and I make sure it all fits together and it's aiming in like kind of the right direction. So it's very just like. top level tone setting and then like nitty gritty project managing is the kind of the combo of the job.
heard that project manager sort of titled usually in conjunction with being an editor. Cause yeah, it's a lot of pieces again, sort of all aiming them in the correct direction. And Tim, I'd to hear from you also on how you ended up kicking off this all new Godzilla universe. What was that initial conversation like with Jake and IDW and how did you ultimately decide that this was going to be the very first entry in this brand new universe?
oh I've worked with Jake on Godzilla versus Chicago and because Jake correctly surmised that if he did a comic of Godzilla attacking Chicago and he didn't ask me, I would be so fucking mad. oh So Jake made the right choice and we actually, I wrote and drew that story uh and he and I had a lot, I think we had a pretty good time working on it together and there's not many editors like Jake where you can work with them, throw things back and forth. He puts the time in that's necessary.
He pushes you, but he doesn't push too hard. And so I think we, you I was just like, this kid is, this kid's got it going on. And then, uh, yeah, he had called me and said, well, we have more Godzilla possibilities if you're interested. And he just threw out the idea of, um, Godzilla shared universe and explained kind of the two other titles. And, uh, that just immediately set off. you know, I. I grew up watching Godzilla movies. In my 20s, I watched all the Godzilla movies again.
I've always been very familiar with Godzilla. So as soon as he started throwing out, you know, we wanted to, and he said the magic words, which is, I want it to be comic booky. And that was like, I got it. I know what this has to be. And so, you know, this idea of doing kind of a team, like a G-Force, but like through this American filter and Jake had this idea of bringing in essentially a kid with the ability to punch Godzilla.
And so we came up with Jason Braid and uh we just kind of kept rocking it back and forth until we, I think we found something that, you know, felt unique, even though it felt like it was part of this larger, you know, a tapestry that has been, you know, 70, 80 years of Godzilla movie. So uh I think this one becomes the sort of, I don't want to say main book, but it's the flagship book because it centers the most on Godzilla and the relationship that these characters have with Godzilla.
So the other books have characters who are peripheral to the world of Godzilla and Godzilla appears of course as Godzilla should. But this one is really, it's Godzilla doing Godzilla shit and the people who are charged with reacting to that and also their history with Godzilla specifically. And our big sort of goal was to make it human and personal and honest and in a way that I think We'd seen in Godzilla movies before, uh but sometimes it's something that gets lost in the spectacle.
So that was our goal. And from my perspective on why Tim, it was like, was just this thing where we worked with him on God's Deliverance of Chicago. And Tim is just, he's such a great writer and he's such a veteran of comic book writing, but he's also just so kind and so cool and so enthusiastic. So like when we reached out to him for God's Deliverance Chicago, ah I think his like response was just like, hell yeah, let's do it. It's just like enthusiasm for doing this.
That's like so infectious and so fun. And also. When it comes to the shared universe, I needed to find a writer who was like game for collaboration. If you look at what Tim's done before with like Batman Eternal and Grayson, like he is a very collaborative writer. And also some of the other people we're working with on some of the sister books are these really new voices. They're new to the industry.
So having Tim as this anchor, this person who's done before, knows what he's doing is such a strong backbone. As the old man. he's the... He's the lone wolf and we're like his cubs following him around. But as the backbone of the whole thing was so important and it's really felt that way working with him. So it's been just fantastic to have him on the team. Sure. Now, Tim said earlier, you guys needed to do some Godzilla shit. That's a quote.
He also said that, uh what was the other thing that you mentioned? Something that Jake wanted, Tim, he wanted Godzilla shit and he wanted something else. Comic bookie. So let me ask you this. Thank you, Aaron and Tim both. When you say comic bookie, yeah, when you say, you know, Godzilla shit, what do you mean? Or at least what are you envisioning when you ask for something like that? Yeah, Jake, what do you envision when you ask for Godzilla?
I can talk a lot more on the comic book-y part of it. The comic book-y part of that thing was the Kaisai era is this whole comic book line that is attempting to really utilize what the comic book medium has to offer when crafting a Godzilla story. I think that a lot of times with licensed comics they can just turn into these like I don't know, these reproductions of what you're seeing on the screen, these approximations of the film. And I was like, I don't want to do that.
I want to just make the most comic book version of a Godzilla story possible. And that means leaning into the tropes, leaning into the spectacle, leaning into that we have super stylized artists across the board. You know, you're not going to see anyone trying to approximate reality as far as Oliver Ono or Pablo Tanuka or Nicola Shizmezha. But it's just these really fun. vibrant stylized things. have these freakish characters that you would never see on the screen for a Godzilla thing.
know, Tim, I love whenever Tim mentions the powers that our main character has. He always describes it as his powers that he can punch Godzilla, which I love. A very specific power set that you need in order to punch Godzilla. punch Godzilla. Yeah, exactly.
But yeah, so that's the whole thing is we wanted to create these like characters that could only really exist on a comic book page that can replace the kind of more standard human characters that you see and get kind of bored of depending on what the Godzilla film is. Like we want characters who can directly interact with Godzilla and the other kaiju and because it's a comic book we get to do that in a way that you can't do on a TV screen or a film screen.
So That was kind what I was asking for and Tim knocked out of the park if he wants to take it from there on how he delivered. I think one thing we kind of agree, the Godzilla shit part of it I guess is that there's so many films that are part of this and they have different tones. There are sort of comedic Godzilla films and there are dead serious Godzilla films and there are really sci-fi Godzilla films.
There's all these possibilities for that and there's all kinds of different bits and pieces that kind of always appear like G-Force and you know. uh certain kaiju and stuff. uh And so what Jake wanted, I think, was let's make it feel like those movies, but it feels like a remix, which is kind of the way we approach it, which is it doesn't, it's not beholden to any specific movie or sort of version of a continuity that you've seen, but it feels like all those things.
all, you know, it all feels relevant. It all feels like it feeds into this larger picture. And being that I kind of came from a lot of familiarity with it, it allowed us to kind of cherry pick this stuff that we felt would really work inside this world. But also, you know, this is the first time you've seen like, you know, a continuity in which Godzilla has been around for this entirety and changed the world.
Like our world in this universe is, Godzilla showing up in 1954 made this a different world of Earth than you live in. And so it's got all this sort of world building that we have to do because we made up essentially a new place. uh What happened to America? What happened to Japan in this time? And everything in between. So it had to feel Godzilla, but it had to be new. So I think that's kind of the edict. And that was the most fun part.
It's essentially doing a big fantasy sci-fi world as if you made it up from scratch, except you could be like, also one time, The reason this place is like this is because 50 years ago Angur has knocked it over. Yeah, you get to see what Godzilla's destruction creates, which is such a fun, you know, part of that. Yeah, no, I absolutely love to get the second and third order effects of this monster coming out of the ocean in 1954.
But what I'm kind of curious about, and I really want to get into the a little bit more of the synopsis in a second, but I got to ask you both and Jake, I kind of want to start with you on this one as the editor. When it comes to kind of The Godzilla, Godzilla in essence, it has been used in so many different mediums and in different installments. mean, you've had the CGI versions that are on Netflix.
You've had the, it 2000 and was it 2003 or the, or was it 98 where it was Matthew Broderick and Godzilla, know, and then obviously all of the classics, the crossovers, like, did you guys feel, you know, like, was there any pressure and, you know, creating like almost again, your own iteration, your own universe with such a substantial group of characters. Yeah, so for me, what really takes the pressure off is that I hire really good people to make it.
So maybe Tim feels a lot of pressure, but I just believe in Tim. it works out. And part of the fun of comics is that. You get to be really generative and really weird with it. And at the end of the day, it's not like a movie. When you put it in a movie, there's such a marketing campaign behind it that so many people go to see it that if that goes bad or it's bad and people hate it, you really hear from them.
Where when it comes to a Godzilla comic, if people hate it, that kind of just means they didn't read it. The eyes just weren't there. So the best thing we can do is get more people to read a Godzilla comic than ever have, which is... which you can only do if it's good. So it's almost like there's a lot of upside to this and very little downside.
And, you know, I see Godzilla as a character that it just works in a lot of different contexts, you know, it's not something it's an idea so big that we can't mess it up, you know, like, that's. And the essence of Godzilla is very much presence and present in all these books. So we just give it a new context to destroy a new world around it to knock down and.
because of that it just feels like the core is still so baked into what we're doing that honestly no very very low pressure and it's just been really fun the whole way and all the creatives we brought on to work with have added so much that it just felt really perfect you know it just felt really good and cool the whole time so i don't know if tim if you have different thoughts on that So Jake has no pressure, but Tim might. uh Man, I don't know.
I've worked on the things that you get the most shit for. I worked on Nightwing for Christ's sake. You can't. I wrote Rogue Savage, like, what are you going to do to me? I always feel a little nervous about messing with old legendary well-beloved properties like this. I do feel a little bit of pressure, but I also think like...
I'm a genuine fan of this stuff and I feel like I understand what makes this work, which I think that's the job, is that you go back through and you say, why is Godzilla beloved? Why is Godzilla important? And the thing that Jake and I kept coming back to is the idea that, know, Godzilla is a sort of metaphor, obviously, for, you know, the earth slapping back because humans messed with it. And that's... Even the sort of, you know, silly or Godzilla is where he talks and stuff.
Whatever, you know, or has a kid or whatever. It's a manila is the real baby Godzilla. But, know, that if you keep that core, if that's what it's about, I think you you're doing it. You're doing it right. You could still live within that space and explore different versions of that. But. So we kind took that as that's, know, humans tried to change the world to their, in their way, the earth collapsed back.
And then as humans will do, they tried to take advantage of the power that was just used against them, which is what humans would do. it's, know, keeping that as our sort of guidepost, all the characters that live within the world kind of have to react to that reality. When we made up a new bad guy. we went back to that idea. Godzilla is the Earth's vengeance upon us. And so what is the bad guy, right? So I think we figured out some pretty interesting ideas.
But the core of it has got to be, you just have to good character stuff. You have write good people stuff. And they can live in a world full of monsters, but if the monsters attack and you don't care about the people, the monster doesn't matter. And so there are great Kaiju movies, and there are bad ones where you don't give a shit about any these people, and you just kind of And we try to go on the version of like, we have to make the great one.
We have to make the one where, yes, you get awesome monsters and killer fights and jet jaguar punches, the Godzilla and all those things. But you have to care about the people that are around those. features. I always love the fact that, know, primarily in these, in these Kaiju films, it's the humans that are the real monsters at the end of the day.
Well, let's, let's talk about this first issue of Godzilla, which hits store shelves July 23rd and where the universe uh really picks up with this one. here's a synopsis. It's 1954 and an experiment with a mysterious energy source called Kai Sei has awakened Godzilla for decades. Humanity has endured an onslaught of monster attacks while Japan views these unstoppable rampages like natural disasters. The United States G force is attempting to fight these seemingly immortal Titans.
Now they found a boy who wields the power of Godzilla. While will he save the world or bring about its doom or will he just punch him really hard? That's such a what a killer summary of this world. That's it right there. It sounds like somebody in here may or may not have written that exact synopsis. I don't know.
Well, Jake, with Godzilla escape the dead zone and Starship Godzilla coming in the fall, what were your first steps with all the creators when laying down like really just laying down the directional foundation of the shared universe? know you said make it comic booky, but was there anything else that you kind of like walked in there and was like, this is like the roadmap? Yeah, so I wanted to explore different kind of like the archetypal like comic book genres in this, right?
So I wanted to do a super hero-y kind of like ultimate X-Men style book, which is the one that Tim is doing. That's Godzilla, right? It's just people with powers fighting massive kaiju. And then outside of that, uh I had this idea for this like I was calling them like outside the wall and inside the wall books and that wall became the physical wall of dead zone. And we, I had this idea for uh like a dystopian world.
And I knew I wanted there to be kind of like a wandering Ronin who goes from town to town and that connecting these like different kind of like destroyed Kaiju infested areas. I think initially I was like, there's like one continent where Kaiju first attacked and that's kind of like our savage land. We want like a character who goes around that. It was very like.
very loose synopsis and I met uh Griffin and Ethan, the supple boys from Matthew Rosenberg's podcast at San Diego Comic Con and I invited them to pitch ideas to me and they sent me a bunch of different Godzilla ideas and I basically was like, hey, instead of doing one of these, do all of these and put them in this world.
So like basically we've created this like mix of Mad Max and Over the Garden Wall where we're having this cast of characters starting with this half kaiju, half human, this mutant hybrid, which again, that's such a comic booky thing that works in the comics. I don't think you're gonna see that in Godzilla minus two. You know, I think that's very much. That's some Godzilla shit right there. Fingers crossed.
So we have this character who's going from town to town and all these stories that the boys have been talking about are now like episodes, know, they're the issues. That's what's happening to him. He's meeting these new characters and having these interesting little interactions. like I saw Godzilla as our superhero book, even though that grows and changes in so many ways. Like Godzilla, the book that Tim's writing is going to be so many different cool things. That's just how it starts, right?
And then it evolves from there. And then I see Dead Zone as sort of our wandering Ronin, our Vertigo book, our walking dead book, right? It's goopy, it's weird, and strange stuff is happening over there. And then Starship Godzilla, I didn't solicit the idea for that at all. That was a book ah that Chris Gutch pitched to me. as a much weirder book when it first started. initial take of this book was like thousands of years into the future and it was actual Godzilla.
So like Godzilla itself had been turned into a spaceship. Yeah. So one thing when it comes to pitching is I'll send my rep at Toho, name's Aaron John Gregory, he's one of the coolest guys in the business. I'll send him something and I'll be like, do not show this to Japan yet, but can you just let me know how off base we are or what is a version of this that we could do? And Aaron was like, you can make it Mechagodzilla. There's no chance you can do it as regular Godzilla.
So I went back to Chris. I kind of pitched the Keisei era to him. I told him I'd want this to be involved in that. And from there I was like, I think you should just take space. Like taking your idea to have a Godzilla spaceship. Let's make it Mechagodzilla. We'll call it Starship Godzilla. and then up in space, just connect that world. We'll keep everything, uh all the simians and the zillions, like that's your world to play around with, all the space kaiju will exist up there.
So for the start of this era, everyone's very sequestered off, right? So Dead Zone is literally walled off from what Tim's doing, and Starship Godzilla is light years away. And then we're kind of right now as we talk about like... phase two second story arcs. right now, Tim and I were talking today about having a meeting with the Dead Zone guys to talk about kind of, you know, universe evolution from there. No, I love that. It sounds like, um, what's his name from?
It's always sunny in Philadelphia. He's like pointing at the wall with like all this string in the pictures. Charlie. Yeah. Um, well that actually, that's funny because, you touched on our next question, which, has to deal with Toho. Cause we wanted to know, like, like Tim, like what is your creative relationship look like with Toho or is it just Jake? The, are you only repping with them? Um, and, and how much, and, and do they have any creative involvement in all of this?
I mean, yeah, Jake, this is one for you, because so far all I know is like, these guys are so cool. They just let us do so much shit, but I know you have to do a lot more work than I do. Tim, have we had to really tell you no yet? Like has there been a thing that you were like you couldn't do? as far as not yet. Godzilla rules. Yeah, I don't think so.
In fact, Tim and are talking about arc two right now and The thing we're looking at right now, I kind of can't believe we're going to get away with if we end up with that route, but Toho approved it and it's absurd. It's absurd what we're looking at. And that's kind of my fun thing. The fun thing too is right now, I love ARC 1. I love where ARC 1 is going. It's introduced in the world. It's introduced in the universe.
And it seems like what Tim is building with ARC 2 right now is going to be like... Oh shit, that's where you guys were going. That's what you meant by power of Godzilla. That's what that's what's happening. So there's so much fun stuff there. But my relationship with Toho and I worked with a lot of licensors, but Toho specifically, they're just they're so collaborative. They really understand that.
And why we did the Kaisaiya specifically is because Godzilla itself, it's not a character in a traditional sense. It cannot grow, it cannot change, it cannot have human emotions. Godzilla is a force of nature. As long as you keep Godzilla as a force of an ultra powerful, colossal force of nature, you can have any context around it that you want. And they just say yes, they don't tell us no. So when Tim creates a new Kaiju, that new Kaiju can do really crazy stuff.
And you're going to see at the end of issue one that these new Kaiju do things you've never seen a Kaiju do before. And that's really exciting and fun. And my relationship with them, it's always like, if they have to say no, it's always like, no, but. And I think you saw it with the Starship Godzilla comment, right? It's like, can't be actual Godzilla. You guys are being insane. But it can be Mecha Godzilla.
And in general, when they say no and put up these guide rails, I find it as like, it typically helps. It helps us find like a better solution around the thing. And typically they're just saying no, cause they're like, hey guys, Godzilla's an established character. And if you're making comics about Godzilla for a reason, and part of that is because Godzilla does do this and it doesn't do these things, you know? So it all makes a lot of sense to me at end of the approach.
You know, Jake, have to give you major props here because we've already sort of talked about the the cast of creative teams that you've sort of assembled for this entire new universe. know, again, Tim, one of our one of our great current writers, you know, is are nominated. You've got the supple boys, Ethan and Griffin, both who I think are some of our best young writers coming up with, of course, Kill Your Darlings over Image Comics.
And, you know, of course, Chris with Utaro last year was insane, like insanely good. And this is no slight to Oliver or Pablo or even Nicola at all. But I think the writing team for each of these installments is incredibly impressive. And I'm just so excited to see what everyone does with this universe going into the latter part of this year. And again, I think it makes sense that Tim would be the first person to kick all this off. Yeah, thank you, man.
And I mean, yeah, the writers have been incredible. They've all been so fun to work with. Tim and Tim and I have another project we'll be announcing soon. ah Tim is so sick because he is just a writing machine. You can give. It's so many things all the time. Dutch. He's just, he's. the comic book writer. And you can feed Tim a couple ideas and be like, think it should maybe look like this. And Tim will be like, great, here's a script that's perfect. And it's like, oh, perfect. I love it.
And then it's really fun working with the Supple Boys. And I think they're moving away from that branding, but it's so hard not to call them the Supple Boys. But with Griffin and Ethan, because they, you really just feel that like young writer hunger with them. like I said, like when I solicited ideas from them, they sent me like 10 and they were all, they were all great. And the stuff that they're bringing to the table in Dead Zone is just absolutely absurd.
It's so crazy and it's so fun and it's so weird. And it's just exactly the type of comic book I want to read. And then, you know, Chris Gutch is just a genius, as you know, from his top shelf graphic novels. He's a genius. He understands characters so well. He, The book is like, it's so fun because Chris is just, he's so good at the soap opera part of it. He's so good at like the human element. And sometimes I to be like, Chris, this is perfect.
If you don't give Oliver more action to draw, I'm going to kill you. But he's such a genius and the book's so sick. And yeah, I'm so proud of all of them. But I will say the time that I really breathed a sigh of relief was Pablo. I think Pablo was the last artist to sign on. was either Pablo or Nicola. And at that point I was like, these are going to be good. These are going to be fantastic. All three of these artists are so good that like, this can't be bad now.
The book's going to look beautiful, which is most of what a comic book needs to do. So yeah, just incredible creative teams all around. So just between, you know, just between this little group, it won't go anywhere. But you can be honest with, you know, Ethan and Griffin. Yeah, at least they had at least one crappy idea. You can be on three. certainly. Yeah, I mean, here's the thing, I never want to say this, they sent me 20 ideas and 10 were just dog shit. Yes!
You hear that, Ethan and Griffin? Suck it. We should put a quick disclaimer out here. We're actually really good friends with both. Yeah. I actually, I roomed with, so before the Kill Your Darlings, actually two years before Kill Your Darlings, Ethan, myself and Griffin all roomed together at San Diego Comic Con. So we've been friends for many years before they even went off to Image Comics. And not only are they two of my favorite creators, Kill Your Darlings was my favorite book.
That was two years ago that that came out. favorite book of that year. uh One of my favorite first issues, maybe just like I wouldn't say ever, but just like in recent memory for sure. And they deserve all the praise that they're getting so excited. They're getting all these opportunities. uh But Tim, I want to, I want to sort of branch over to you really quick. I want to noodle on an idea here.
Cause you said something earlier and it made me think of all of us sort of have a Godzilla, a version of Godzilla we appreciate and enjoy more than others. I wanted to sort of talk about your longstanding relationship with the character. You know, many folks listening probably already know that Godzilla was originally created as this representation of Japan's perspective on the atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
you I'm curious, you you mentioned that you were a fan of the films when you were much younger and probably even still to this day, but like, what is your North star with this character going into this brand new universe? I mean, 54 for sure, the original Godzilla, because of that, it's a horror movie. And I'm a horror movie guy. But you know, I also recognize that there's so much value in making Godzilla a character for kids, you know?
And I also recognize, you know, I'm not like precious about stuff. Like I think there's totally ways to do good versions of everything. But 54 is definitely my favorite. And then my favorite of the, H.A. era is the, is Godzilla versus Destoroyah. That one's amazing. uh That one is the great one where you get this like emotional thing when Godzilla's son is killed and it's, you know, spoilers, but ah it's awesome. It's such a good movie. Yeah, that was great.
ah And then, I mean, Final Wars is so insane. I can't help but not love it. ah I don't know, you know, I don't think I put it in the same category as, as sort of the quality of. something like Shin Godzilla, which I absolutely love. then, you know, man, I think Godzilla minus one is probably the second best Godzilla movie. I can't believe that that's the most recent one. It's just so good and so well done and so personal.
they set the standard for human character interacting with Godzilla, right? How do you make a movie about a giant monster, but we also have to care about a person? And you give this sort of failed, you know, Suicide bomber. mean what a what an idea, you know So it's yeah, so, you know, but but I can also just sit and watch, you know Godzilla versus Megalon, which is so dumb and so fun and so, you know silly and I need the Mothra movies I could for some reason Mothra just really appeals to me.
I'm not sure exactly why It's such such a silly beautiful idea, you know It's just like it's not one that's easy to translate. Guzzle's easy to translate to the US, but like, you know, if you've seen them, the moth recycle movies, like you brought that over here, you'd be like, I don't know. I don't know that. I don't know what that was. So yeah, but so, you know, but I think there's value in just about every, you know, I really like the legendary ones too for very different reason.
ah But I think they're, well done. I I think they're They're spectacle, but they're like, you know, amazing designs and stuff. The guys love Kong stuff. I love that stuff. It's what you wanted when you were a kid, but done like with sincerity in a weird way. Yeah, big lizard punches big monk. Yeah. Yeah. No. How do you beat that? I mean, it doesn't have to be any more complicated than that.
And I think they've sort of figured that out at Legendary and Warner Brothers is that like, we just want to see big monk, big Liz go up against another big something. We don't care what it is. And honestly, I think they just recently announced the title for the new one, Aaron.
I don't know if you remember what that is off top of your head, but some people speculate that we're to get our first, you know, out of space Kaiju someone that comes to earth to fight, which I think was it Godor is technically from space, but like I think he was, was he an ice at the beginning of the movie? can't remember. But point being is that they're fun. Is that what I'm trying to say? Yeah. I hope we get Space Godzilla. That is my favorite. Oh, I do design.
It's Godzilla with giant crystals on him. Crystal boob shoulders It's got like shoulder pads in there. healing, healing courses. don't know. It's awesome. I love that design so much. It's a, yeah, it says white woman's Instagram, Godzilla. uh Well, know, Tim, I don't want to deviate.
guess I am going to deviate uh purposefully away from Godzilla because I have to ask you, you know, having you on the show, I would feel really, it would feel odd not talking to you at least a little bit about revival, which has its first episode coming out next week over on sci fi. June 12th, that first episode comes out.
I'm not sure how much you can or even really want to talk about this, but I'm just curious, like, what has been your experience with, you know, that show being made now coming out, you know? How has this all been for you as one of the original creators?
Well, this one's a weird one because I am very actively involved in this TV show because the deal that we did originally, I told you guys some of it before, like what happened with Hack Slash where I sold something to a studio and then I'm not part of it, you know? And so with Revival, was like, I'm not going to do that again. And so I took a big risk, but instead of going with the studio, Mike and I decided to deal with a small production company here in Illinois.
So they're like in Champaign, which is, you know, not Hollywood at all. And that was, you we developed this with them. Um, the director producer, Luke, who became the show runner, um, you know, shepherded this thing for eight years to get it done and, you know, relied, uh, a lot on our input and our, our feedback. so this one is weird because it's, it's, it's not like I wasn't part of this. This isn't like, like, Hey, they made a show. Cool. Here's my check.
Uh, you know, it was like, This was like being involved. This was going to the meetings, meeting investors, like doing stuff that I felt I should have just been doing the entire time because, you know, taking a check and looking the other way just didn't work for me at all. Um, so, you know, this is, it's seeing the, primarily it's the work that Luke did. Like Luke was work. I worked on a revival for five years every day. Luke has been working on a revival for nine years every day.
Uh, and you know, so he's worked on it more than I have. Um, And so seeing this like finally, like one, it's such a, I'm so glad he's getting to see this brought to, you know, to everyone's television box. Uh, and you know, for us, it's, this was a risk. It was a crazy idea and it, we, it worked, uh, you know, so hopefully people get to enjoy the show and, uh, it pleases the fans and, but it brings in lots of new people too. What's your plan for the premiere of the first episode?
Do you have some kind of launch party or something that you were planning on doing? moving to the woods with my family camping, so I won't know. I don't even know. I'm not going to see the internet. I have no idea what people think of this thing. I've seen a bunch of episodes already. I was there for the filming of last one. We were going to do... We did... At my house, we had a little barbecue and watched it with the producers and stuff and got drunk.
But yeah, we haven't done like a big event and then I'm going I'll be in the woods next week in Michigan somewhere. So so whatever happens if it tears the internet up or you know, if no one knows no one watch I won't know. I'll just be sitting around a campfire farting and hot dogs. It'll be great. You'll be having your own revival. oh Well, okay. One more adaptation question. I just need to know when the heck are we going to get a local man live adaptation? That's what I need in my life.
Not that no, no disrespect to revival, but local man is by far my favorite thing that you've ever done. And I, that just feels so uh presently, it would work really well, I guess in 2025 is my, is my question. we signed up with the guys who did Ravada. really? OK. So, Nice. All right.
Well, I mean, think that's kind of a lot of the questions that we have for the body of this this interview, but we always like to ask our creators before you go, we like to ask our creators one last question, which is, uh what have you been really enjoying? mean, be it comic movie, TV series? Well, I mean, we know Tim's choice in TV series, prose novel, podcast, album, whatever. What have you been obsessing over? We'll start with you, Jake. Yeah, I've been reading a lot of manga lately.
That's kind of been a big thing that I've been doing ever since. I've been reading so much manga the last couple of years, I don't think Tim realized I was a comic book fan when he first met me. There's a weeb. Yeah. But I just read through Death Note for the first time ever. that was one that I was just flipping through. was loving it so much. um As far as comics coming out, I am the biggest Department of Truth fan. think Department of Truth is one of the best comics ever.
I think it's such a brilliant premise for anyone who doesn't know. It's X-Files, but in a world where public belief shapes reality. I think it's just fantastic. And I don't think I'm watching any TV shows right now, so that might be a movies. love friendship. So lots of lots I went and that last week too. Very good. Very funny. Yeah. Tim, how about you? Let's see, um comic wise, I've been reading Tank Girl uh of late.
ah I'd read it in the like in the 90s and I bought the came with these new color collections. I kind of wanted to steal some of the vibe for our Godzilla book. But also I just want to see like where this came from. And it was interesting when I was reading my daughter, my five year old came up and she was like, Hey, is that the gorillas? Like she recognized the style of Jamie Hulett somehow. Whoa, that was incredible. Um, yeah, that's I've been enjoying the hell of that.
And then, uh, I just watched last night and it kind of, uh, destroyed me as I don't know if you guys have seen the rehearsal, which is Nathan Fielder. The first season of that show is incredible because it's, it's essentially, uh, he tried to make one show and it was completely derailed by the pandemic. And then he comes back in the second season and you're like, well, how do you top that? And he does, uh, it is the craziest. I think it might be one of the. craziest TV shows I've ever seen.
Because the premise is essentially a comedian, Nathan Fielder, discovers in real life that the cause of many plane accidents is that the pilot and the co-pilot don't talk to each other. So he's going to bring this to Congress. And the entire season is about him figuring out how to communicate, how to rehearse for this revelation, which is true. And then it just ends in the most just... Devastating emotional way you can think about it.
So if you haven't ever seen that show watch both seasons uh It is it is if you're not if you're like have a cringe problem this might be not for you, but uh I I I bathe in your cringe I'm rooting for you, but it is it is almost as shocking as that Okay. Yeah. I've heard that that Nathan actually got in a little bit of hot water I'm sure I mean this makes sense to a lot of people but he got in some hot water with the FAA because of the series I mean, there's a reason.
The thing that happens at the end, you're like, that's why. Okay. All right. Yeah. I've heard nothing but incredible things. So I'm very excited to check that out. I've been binging nothing but a love on the spectrum and it is crushing me, but also like for some reason making me questioning a lot of uh my life and my mindset. I'm like, man, am I on the spectrum?
Aaron has been talking about Love on the Spectrum, I think for the last three episodes in one, whether it's a quick reference or if it's like a 10 minute, like, you know, recap of the most current episode. So, Well, my biggest problem is when I was a kid, like, you know, I'd watch stuff and I'd be like, I could do it. I could do that. Like I used to binge watch all of X-Files and I'm like, I could be an FBI agent. And so like now, now I'm watching Love on the Spectrum.
I might be on the spectrum. So it's like, I got to stop watching these shows. Like next time I start watching my, my, you know, 600 pound life and I'm just going to start eating pizza, you know, like I could do that. If you're obsessing about autism, do not watch rehearsal season two then. uh Yeah. Aaron's like, I'm going to take down the FAA. Just one random day's gonna come in and be like, we're taking them down.
Well, know, Jake, Tim, what a great pleasure it was getting both of you guys on here today to talk about Godzilla and everything that we talked about here. The Kai'sei era, everything IDW. Once again, that first issue of Godzilla from Tim and Nicola comes out on July 23rd and FOC is actually on June 9th. So everyone that's listening to this, this episode should be out before June 9th. Call your local comic book shop right now. Azure listens conversation with Jake and Tim.
Go ahead and pre-order that first issue. and I have had the pleasure of reading that first issue early and we could tell you this is a great first installment to this brand new universe. If you have any, again, as we talked about at the beginning of the conversation, Aaron, a giant Godzilla fan, me more of a passive fan, but still an enjoyer of that, you know, that overall franchise. I can tell you we both enjoyed it on a very high level. So, make sure you guys go pre-order.
pumped since, you know, reading the free comic book day, the Godzilla, the new heroes and just the art. Everything was so like enthralling and like the art, every single like style of art that is in each of these stories looks fantastic. The characters are engaging. The writing is phenomenal. Of course, the big bad in, in, you know, Godzilla has to be an American general who's going crazy over a new source of power.
But I'm just so, I'm just so excited because it has this almost like my hero feel, you know, with like new, you know, new heroes coming out and this kid just coming out of nowhere. It's just the most bad-ass origin story where some kid gets blasted by a guide, Godzilla, you know, power blast. And he's just like, well, got a punch Godzilla and he's flying out of the air. And I was like, this is going to be incredible. So I'm so excited for what you guys have in store for us. Thank you.
it's absolutely this is a book that we hope that all comic book fans love. You don't have to be a fan of Godzilla. We made it just for comic book people. Yeah, hope you love it. I hope you call in pre-order because I want Tim to write a hundred issues of this book. oh Before we let you go, Tim, I'm gonna hand it off to you one last time. uh How can listeners follow your career? Is there anything that you wanna, any upcoming work that you wanna sort of plug or anything else before we let you go?
You can follow me on bluesky at timsealea bluesky and I'm still kind of on Twitter and Instagram, uh timsealea on Instagram. I've always got some shit going so check it out. Yeah, we didn't get to talk about Rogue. We didn't get to talk about Master of the Universe. We didn't get to talk about like a lot of the other seven titles that you're currently working on. So that we have to get you back on for that at least. And then Jake, over to you as well.
Obviously, you're not writing any comics, you know, currently. But how can people follow you if they if they want to know more about the the case? I can't say it now. I say say. Yeah, I'm on Instagram and Twitter and bluesky at Jake underscore B Williams and yeah, just buy comic books buy any comic book and my name sometimes in them uh that last message. cool. Yes, that's right. Well, again, thank you, Jake. Thank you, Tim, so much. We appreciate it. Thank you.
We'd love to have both of you back on again eventually at some point, whether it be together or separate. But we appreciate you being here today. oh Thank you.