NYCC ‘24 INTERVIEW-A-THON: Sweeney Boo & Soo Lee

Hi, this is Sui Lee, the comic creator of Carmilla the First Vampire and Dynamite's Chitara. And this is Sweeneyboo, the comic creator behind Harley Quinn and Over My Dead Body. And you are listening to the Oblivion Bar podcast. Welcome to the Oblivion Bar podcast with your host, Chris Hacker and Aaron Norris. Hello everyone. Welcome to episode 167 of the Oblivion Bar podcast. I'm your wielder of the Sword of Omens and the rightful protector of thunder, Chris Hacker.

And joining me this week is the sexiest former psychologist turned anti-hero jester. My co-host and BFF Aaron Knowles. Mr. J says hello. Welcome back everybody to the Oblivion Bar podcast. We are here for day two of the interview with on or yes. That's right. Where we are joined by two of the, mean, honestly the best people in comics. Sweeney Boo and Sue Lee join us today on the Oblivion Bar podcast. Aaron, you laugh there, but am I wrong?

I am only laughing because they are two of the most fun people to just talk to and shoot the shit with. Yeah. And you get that in this conversation. What you guys are about to listen to here in just a moment with Sweeney and Sue is probably one of our most relaxed conversations here on the Oblivion Bar. And it's how I wish the show was most of the time, right? Like it's just... Sort of a fun where we get off track and we sort of find our way back to the point eventually.

you know me, I'm very anal retentive and I want us to always stay on track, but I sort of just let us go crazy with this episode. And I think it turned out for the better. Isn't it bad that I'm the one that was like, we need to get on track like three times. Yeah, exactly. You were the one that actually brought us back multiple times throughout this conversation. And I think the listener is going to enjoy this quite a bit because hashtag Adderall. Exactly. Got to get that.

Got to get those those neurons firing off in your brain cells. Yeah, it's so great to have both Sweeney and Sue on the show. As we talk about in this conversation, they are best friends in real life, but also they are. And again, as we say in the conversation, two of the more two of the bigger rising stars in the, know, in the sort of the comic sphere, know, Sweeney's been on Harley Quinn for quite a while and Sue has been working in the comic sphere for a while.

But it feels like recently they both have been just sort of doing this and you guys can't see me because this is a audio medium, but the rising, right? So, and it's just great that they're, you know, not only again, best friends, but they're both sort of going on the same trajectory upward. I love the dynamic, the dynamic between those two. is such, and you can hear it during the conversation. Like it is, it's like talking to us.

Yeah. Two shorter, much more creative people, much more talented people than we are. We'll get in that conversation with Sweeney and Sue talking about Harley Quinn and Cheetar and over my dead body and Carmilla, the first vampire. But before we get there, Aaron, again, interview with on, this is the second day or gas gas fest of our interview with on our yearly. our yearly sort of celebratory week of interviews where we bring on creators every single day of New York Comic Con.

If you're listening to this right now, go back one day. We just spoke with the creator, the writer and artist of Zawa and the Belly of the Beast, Michael Dianos, one of our, again, one of our favorite people in the comic realm. Such a sweet person. Love him so much. Such a sweet person. Put us on the back of that Zawa book too. Thanks for the pull quote there, Michael. We appreciate it. And it was a great conversation. Hopefully everybody go and check that out.

Again today Sweeney and Sue, but tomorrow we'll be talking to Jeff Lemire. So if you're a lot of great creators in the pipeline waiting for this interview, a thon or guest fest, Aaron, tell the people how they can support the show. Well, if you want to support the Oblivion Bar podcast, consider checking out our Patreon for your support.

You can gain access to bonus episode each week called the grid grid grid grid grid a behind the scenes look at how we prepare each episode with episode transcripts. Patreon polls and a whole bunch of other exclusive goodies. You can give it a shot with a seven day free trial at patreon.com forward slash oblivion bar pod or check out the link in our show notes, which you get access to for free. That's right. Check those out. It means a lot to us. It's a good way to support the show.

All the money we get from that goes right back in the show. And yeah, that'll do it 110%. We don't we're no more, no more preamble. This is a great conversation with Sweeney and Sue. Let's go ahead and get into it now.

And now, this week's special guest. Joining us today are two of the most exciting double threat comic creators working today. One is the comic creator behind titles like Dynamite's Cruella De Vil mini-series with artist Mariana Puglia, the ongoing Harley Quinn series with writer Teenie Howard, Eat and Love Yourself, and the witchy OGN Over My Dead Body.

The other is the comic creator of titles like, speaking of Disney's villains, Dynamite's Maleficent, Thundercats' Chitara with artist Dominico Carbone and the queer vampire murder mystery, Carmilla, the first vampire with writer Amy Chu. It is our pleasure to welcome the founding members of what we have called the Boo Sue crew, Sweeney Boo and Sue Lee onto the Oblivion Bar podcast. Woo. Yeah. Hi. Boo Sue crew. Welcome. Thanks for having us on. Did we create that?

Or have you guys had that before? Have you heard that? No, but I feel like the gang that we hang out with Tyler and everyone like I feel like they came up with something once but I forgot what it was. I don't remember. Can we coin the boo-suker then? I'm already making shirts. Yeah, they're already on order. I want a cut of that. Okay, I bought a cricket. I bought a cricket. making them right now. Well, thank you both so much for being here on the Oblivion Bar podcast.

Thank you for joining us for our interviewathon day two. And Sweeney, I'm gonna start with you here. So you recently announced on your sub stack that your run on Harley Quinn will be officially ending with issue 43, or it has ended officially as of this recording on September 25th, which sort of seems hard to believe because you two have been on Harley Quinn with, you know, it's been over two years, but it seems far longer than that somehow.

So my first question for you is take us back to when you first were approached by DC for this opportunity and what were sort of your immediate thoughts? The first is that I remember when I got the emails like I don't have time but I have to do it because like you can't say no to Harley Quinn. And then immediately it's like, can I swear? Yeah, please. Absolutely. Please swear. I don't know how to talk without swearing. But immediately it was like, holy shit, how am I going to do that?

because, and it still feels like a, I don't know, I guess I learned this week that a fever dream is not actually like a negative thing. I thought it was like kind of like a trippy, I don't know. But I feel like this whole bit of like working on Harley is like, I remember it, but I don't, because it's like, it was just like, not an out of body experience for two years, but kind of. But yeah, it was mind blowing. It's been mind blowing the whole way and.

You know, we knew we were going to end the beginning of this year and it's not bittersweet. Like not everyone gets to say that they work on Harley. So just really excited. Yeah. I remember when it was initially announced. just, was, I was so happy for you just, you know, knowing you from the comic sketch art and doing the cons and being friends. Obviously I was like, holy crap. So when he's on Harley Quinn, this is incredible.

And, you know, Aaron and were talking a little bit before the actual recording and I'll, I'll sort of let him talk about this if he wants to, but you definitely left your mark. Definitely. from a visual standpoint for the character. think it's your look of Harley Quinn will go down in the annals of like one of more iconic looks. So. Don't know about that, but I appreciate it. It's very kind. It's not up to you. It's up to us. And we say, the fans, as fans of Harley Quinn, that's yeah.

Chris and I were having a good conversation about that. There's it's, you know, we're going to talk about it a little bit more in the conversation, but there's just certain looks. There's certain feels about certain characters that. set like milestones in their development over the years.

And honestly, like your representations of Harley Quinn now have been fun, mysterious, welcoming, but they've just set like a whole new bar for Harley as a character that I think a lot of people are going to remember for a very long time. She's not just this, you know, Batman, the animated series, Harley Quinn anymore, which is what she's been known for for so long, but she has like such a look now. And also we're You know, she's way different than the Margot Robbie Harley Quinn.

She is her own new version and we love it. No, totally. like, I mean, like this, it's really sweet, but I feel like everyone before us like paved the way for our book. When we were at DragonCon, Tinia and I got to do a panel with like Jimmy and Amanda. you know, I feel like Harley, even Margot Robbie Harley, like Harley wouldn't be what it is without them. So it's been so many creators just like moving the character forward.

And I'm really excited to see what's gonna happen with the next team, honestly. I think it's very exciting. Absolutely. And there's compelling argument to be made that no character has really evolved quite like Harley Quinn has in these last couple of years. And she is in some ways barely the same character that she was when Paul Dini and Bruce Tim created her for the animated series.

When building your version, Sweeney, of Harley, Were there any character defining like North stars that you and Teenie looked towards during your run together? I mean, I feel like both of us were really, we really wanted her to be, you know, raw in terms of her mental health and her struggles and the fact that she deals with it in some kind of like humorous way to not be too vulnerable.

so playing with like a very colorful setting around her and even her outfit and everything juxtaposed with everything she was struggling with. I think I'm not going to, I don't want to put words in Tini's mouth, but I hope this is exactly what she also wanted to achieve. I think we did pretty good. We have a term here on the Bleevee and BarrePod when things go well like that. We say nailed it. Nailed it. Nailed it. Nailed it.

Well, Sue, sort of transitioning over to you, I'll again, Erin, I were just talking about this before the recording here. What I really enjoy about what both you and Sweeney have done with your careers thus far is that not only are you guys playing in that IP sandbox with, you know, the Thundercats and the Disney villains and the DC universe, but you're also taking big swings with your career and works as well.

You Sweeney, like we mentioned there in the intro, you released Over My Dead Body back in 2022. you know, Sue, you released two volumes of Carmilla, the first vampire. which is your retelling of the classic vampire tale with Amy Chu. The second volume actually just came out earlier this year.

So I want to sort of set all this up with a synopsis of Carmilla, if I can, at the height of the Lunar New Year, an idealistic social worker turned detective when she discovers young homeless LGBTQ women are being murdered and no one, especially the police, seems to care. A series of clues points to her, I'm sorry, to Carmilla's, a mysterious nightclub in the heart of her neighborhood Chinatown.

There she falls for the next likely target, landing her at the center of a real life horror story and face to face with illusions about herself, her life, and her hidden past. Now this book centers around many things, identity, culture, gender, sexuality. Were any of those themes more important to you, when you guys were creating and crafting the story? I think for me it was all of it, right? Like it's very rare that I or many people get to work on a story that relates to their own culture.

know, like most of the times we're like remaking stories that fit like a mainstream, like audience and everything. And I think this was like a good time to actually be like, okay, let's focus on Asian culture, you know? And so like New York to town was very important for me to try to nail visually because like I grew up, know, visiting Chinatown and like being around Asian neighborhoods and stuff like that.

And I wanted to make sure that like that was the forefront, that this is like a story with Asian characters. It's about like Asian culture, but you know, we're not monoliths. like, you know, we have, we're just like everyone else, right? It's just telling a story like any other story just with Asian people, you know? So I wanted to make sure that I got as vibrant, know, closer as vibrant like of what Chinatown looks like to me and what it represents to me. Also just part of normal life for me.

Right. So I just wanted to make sure that I could translate that. You mentioned, I think in one of your interviews that there are two Chinatowns in New York. Erin, did you know that being in New York now, I know you probably know this, but I had no idea that there were two Chinatowns in New York. I actually didn't. Where's the other one at? I live here. Are you living in the other one? Yeah, yeah, I live in the other one. All right. And they're like one of the oldest.

Funny, I like went to Chinatown yesterday, too. And we were talking about like how old Chinatown is and what it means in like American history. But in New York, you know, the one in Manhattan is one of the oldest and like maybe one or two of the most original ones. think San Francisco might be the number one original, the OG Chinatown, but New York is like one of the oldest, if not the second one. And then it's like Chinatown, Koreatown. And that's also fairly, fairly old.

So it's like, like they're both historical. it's in relation. Queens. Okay. Queens. Okay. Gotcha. All right. Okay. Yeah. I was actually telling, I was talking to Chris about recently my wife and I, went to Chinatown in San Francisco. And she's taken me near the one, cause we just moved to Brooklyn about six months ago. So I'm still learning about the city. I'm sure I'll learn about, you know, both Chinatowns.

But yeah, was, cause as I was reading through Carmilla, I'm just like this, the way that it reads and the way that it feels and it looks, it feels like places when I visited Chinatown in San Francisco, it feels familiar. And so I enjoyed, like that was one of the things that kind of drew me into the story was it was the scenery and the feeling of it was built so like quickly and so smoothly. It's just an incredible read, just even from the beginning. Thank you.

I mean, that's like the biggest compliment I can get is because like I know New York and it of sounds like back of my hand. Like if I didn't know it and if it didn't translate well, I would be very embarrassed of myself. Yeah. Well, the interesting finding the gate. Like that's one of the first things that she does when she gets to San Francisco is find the gate. And that's the first thing that my wife and I did. So it almost felt like our stories were paralleling.

it was just, again, yeah, it was crazy. That, mean, Sweeney and I went to one in San Francisco too. And that was like an amusement park. I was like, my God, this place is like we done up, you know? Like this is what OG Chinatown looks like. It's so big. It wasn't ending. It's like. street after street where I feel like in any city that you go to, it's going to be like maybe a street or two. It's, you know, but now the San Francisco, China time was incredible.

To go back to what you said just a moment ago, I think it's so important as you know, especially in the comic book, you know, landscape in the medium. It's important, I think, for creators to go through the landscape. you're if you're telling a story about New York, right. And I think for a lot of time, for a lot of stories, New York is like its own character, you know. So I think it's so important. that you actually go to these places and experience them.

That way you can sort of infuse that into your work. And as Erin was saying, it's so evident in Carmilla especially that you're from there, you know? And it's, there's like a very deliberate effort to show the landscape. Again, as almost like New York is like a character within the story. Yeah. absolutely. That's why the colors were important too. I wanted to make sure it was like very ambiance, like heavy, but also, you know, reminds you of like a vintage photo kind of, you know, like not.

The colors are bright, but it's also very like schematic to what's happening or thematic. Did I say thematic? Schematic, thematic. think they're the same difference. Honestly, again, you deserve it. Nailed it because there's a scene in there where it feels like she is walking through a vintage photo of like the gates in Chinatown. thank you. Like again, like. Nailed it. And also I didn't know that I didn't know that Carmilla predated like a lot of the original vampire stuff. She's the O.G.

Yeah. I was going to say there's the Carmilla and then like with like devil stuff, people people always go to like Satan and they was like Lilith. Anyway, there's like a ton of stuff that people don't realize that predates a lot of these bigger stories that we tend to enjoy. But moving on, as we mentioned earlier, you each headline to solo miniseries for two of the most iconic Disney villains. with Cruella De Vil and Maleficent. Sweeney, let's start with you.

How did both members of the Boo-Sue crew end up on one of these books? And what notes, if any, did Dynamite, because we hear about this all the time, how the publisher generally gives out some strict parameters. What notes did Dynamite editorial staff have for you before you accepted taking on these two iconic characters? The way it happened, feel like Sue, you had been on it on your book for over a year before I came on to do Cruella.

Kind of happened out of nowhere, but knowing that Sue was already like part of that series, like that collection, I was like, yeah, that's like, want to do it too. That's fun. I think they were pretty relaxed with like the stuff that they gave me. And like they asked me about Cruella. The only big note was like, she cannot smoke because you know. There's no smoking anymore. I know, I know. And like it's fine. It's cool.

Like I don't care about when you're a kid and you see her like, you know, getting in through the door frame is just like cloud of green around her. It was so iconic, but it's just what it is. She literally puts out a cigarette on Roger like on it, like their sofa or something in the movie. So I'm just like that that did that. Like I kind of. Wait, like, you know, that made her an icon as far as a villain, but. And smoking is bad for you though. You can't make that see.

Well, you what's crazy is that no matter how bad smoke, and I've never been a smoker. I think smoking is terrible. It's disgusting. I've smoked a lot. It's undeniably cool, right? Like smoking is kind of cool. is. It does. Listen, children are not listening to this, mean, me tell you, when I first started smoking, I was in college. I was like very young, right?

I remember having dinner with a bunch of school friends and I went out after dinner and I lit up a cigarette and the first thing my friend said, so cool smoking. That's terrible, but it does look cool. Unfortunately, it's very true. It's very true. My first duty station was in Germany. And if you know like every German, like you're like they're born every European smoke. They're born with a cigarette in their mouth. You're like, we, we. You know, and so, but that's the funny thing.

It's like, we went from like everybody like, you know, smoking to smoking being disgusting and now everybody vapes. But if you ever, have you ever watched anybody who's like vaping? They always look like they're trying to hide it. Like- No, they're smoking again. You know, they're embarrassed about it. It looks like a toy. It's like you're smuggling your vape. Like, admit it. Just bring it, you know, accept it. They like take a toke and then they blow it other way. I prefer that.

I feel like that's more because you're not trying to blow it in people's faces. I've had people do it in like indoor areas. I'm like, come on, I don't want to smell your cotton candy. Yeah, your cotton candy. What? Yeah, you're green apple, whatever the fuck it is. are so off track. Well, I'm going to. Yeah. Can I expose Aaron? I need to expose you really quick because the one and only time I've ever smoked a cigarette was with Aaron. when we were in the army together.

We were so drunk one night doing karaoke and he was, he's a, I'm gonna expose you even worse here, Aaron. He likes to smoke when he drinks sometimes. Not a big deal everybody, gosh. Don't get on his case about it, whatever. I will. But anyway, one day I was drunk and confident. I was like, me one of those, smoke one. You know, give me, I'll do it. And I threw up everywhere. Like it was an immediate, just throw up. It's bad. If he's never done it before, it's the worst thing ever.

You get the spins. We were outside the bar and I'm like, Chris, you want a cigarette? You want a cigarette? No, you should never offer, unless they ask, you should never offer it. No. It's things to do. You want a chocolate and a cigarette? So back to the question though. Sue, how was it with you and Maleficent? I mean, I feel like for me, you know, there were a lot of like things you can't do, which is like obviously violence, sexual material, right? You can't, no blood actually.

You can't see her getting like hurt physically. It was like a little more different than the movie. Cause you know, you see the dragon getting stabbed, right? But we couldn't do any of them. But none of them. And the biggest issue was that forget the exist. can't, it can't be like, you can't mention the movies or the animated movie at all. So like, there was not really I can do because all the backstory was in the movie. She doesn't have anything else other than that.

But they were like, don't do that. They just like, just, you know, so I had to pretend like she always was a thing, you know? So I think for me, because of that, that like limit, I'll say, okay, well, I'm distort like an adventure story, right? Which is easier than I feel like Cruella, because you actually have an actual story based on a whole thing. me, she's just having adventures. So that was the easiest part. You know, it just like figuring out what that would be.

But once I got to it, it was like, was, you know, fairly, I feel like mine's was a little bit easier than Gorilla was. I will say I'm still the opposite, but no, go ahead. Sweet. I had a question. Go ahead. I'm curious. Why do think it was different for you? I just, I like a box where I can. break the walls a little bit where I feel like if I'm given too much of a wide range of like, yeah, you can do whatever. I'm like, I don't know what's new to any option. That's how I do. So kudos to you.

Well Sue, I really love what you did with Maleficent because it was almost like, it almost harkened back to like some EC comics where it was just like, who's going to challenge Maleficent this issue and see how she beats them in a very like nonchalant, lazy, you know, like she was just like, you know what? Was it like Rayland or Ryland, the boy who steals her staff? Raynaud, yeah. Raynaud, thank you. Yeah. And she's just like, bro, come on. I tried to help you out. I gave you the compass.

Now you're going to be a fox. Sorry about you. Like, yeah. I mean, they just, should be evil. Like she shouldn't have any redeeming qualities. And I'm like, I could do that. I could do that. Yeah. Well, Sue, she, you said that they kind of said that the movies don't exist. they specifically mention? Like all of the movies or were they saying like just the animated or are we talking about also the ones with Angelina Jolie?

They said print it like especially the Angelina Jolie one just an even don't even touch it. Don't even watch. I didn't even want it because I was like, I don't want to be influenced at all. I couldn't call her a fairy because she was a fairy in that one and I forgot. So I had to like rework and just kind of omit what she is. We don't actually know is still. She's not a wizard. She's just like an evil thing. Well, sweetie, is that why the Dalmatians don't show up in your story?

Is it they want you to pretend like the movie doesn't exist? No, it does take place after the movie, but it's not the 101 Dalmatians, kind of. It's more of like her. They get mentioned because it's the afterwards of like... At the end of first movie, she's like stranded on the road. with Horace and Jasper and she's just screaming at them and that's it. And we don't know what happened. So I just got to like pick her from there basically. Well, let's talk more about iconic characters.

Sue, over the summer, you started your run on Chitara with artist Domenico Carbone. It was announced at San Diego Comic-Con that you'll be headlining a minor threat spinoff series as well with a good friend of the show, Brian Michael Bendis. and you announced that you'll be writing and illustrating a Wizard of Oz mini series. Outside of the obvious, how are you going to possibly juggle all of this question? What can you tell us about these upcoming titles? Well, I have no choice.

It's like do or die, you know? And if I have that, do it, you know? I have no choice. No. Are you excited to write all day and every day for the rest of the year? Well, lot of is done already. I'm actually done with Chitaara and Wizard of Oz. So the harder part is drawing it. I mean, you know, they're hard on different levels. Like Chitaara is hard because I had to draw for someone else, right?

And I have one that once, I think it was actually for Maria for like a one-shot fairy tale for Vampirella. But that was like, you know, my two training wheels, right? And it was very giddy. And so Chitara was like, okay, I have to really, really like tighten up. I want to be a real writer and you know, I did my best on it. So that was hard. But then once I got to do it, I was like, I could totally do this. You know, for my, for anyone else, I feel like, you know, figure it out.

Well, Chris and I also kind of consider ourselves to be like super serious. like journalists, know, journalists here with the Oblivion Bar. We're at the really, you know, we're at the upper crust of serious journalism. So we have an important question that we need to ask. And that is like, who's a better kisser, Tigra or Snarf? Snarf is a baby. I actually don't know how old, I think Snarf might be older than all of them. In the cartoon he was. right.

Yeah. I don't know, Starp is like a baby puppy to me, you know? In that case, baby puppies give great kisses, you know? And then, right? Like, but obviously- That's a dog owner right there. We just, we had to get you with the gacha journalism, you know? Yeah. Well, you know, as a card holding member of the Sweeney Boo fan club, I feel it's important that we should reassure the listener here. You will not just be creating these Blythe dolls forever.

You know, you're going to eventually- get back to writing and drawing comics as well, right? So my question for you is, do you have anything that you can- If you think I'm intense, she has a, I don't have a hobby, she does. She has an actual life. And sometimes I just decide to my apartment for some freaking reason, because I think I the time, so yeah. Is that a new paint job behind you? No, no, but like for example, sometimes she takes me, she's like, what are you up to?

I'm like, I'm painting my stairs, and she's like, why? Yeah. Well, this is actual like this is actually like a like a true friendship right here. Yeah. I love it. The BOOSU crew. Yeah. It's not a facade, everybody. It's true friendship. Yeah. No, it's real. It's very real. Well, so outside of the Blythedolls, Sweeney, what else do you have going on? Is there anything you can share with us that's upcoming for you now that Harley Quinn has officially ended?

You always have a bunch of covers that you've been promoting on your sub stack and on social media. But what else you got? Well, I'm working on the second volume. body which is going to come out in a year. amazing. Thank you. Incredible. I'm hating myself for having way more characters. It's a lot. But I'm working on that right now and Kenny Garcia and I have a graphic novel that we're going to start working on next year which is about vampires in high school. It's really fun.

And I have something else that I'm working on that is still a secret, but that I'm also gonna write and draw. So yeah. You know, I know someone who's actually drawing a vampire story that can get you out to, like if you want to talk to them about your upcoming vampire story, if you need it. I thought, I was waiting for the name drop and I was, I was like, wait, wait. I was like, does this suit that you're talking about? But you seem so serious about it. I was waiting.

I was like, okay, who are we? Sue's like, who, I wanna know too. The dry humor doesn't come across as well via virtual videocast, apparently. This guy. This guy right here. Nailed it. Another nailed it. Well, I'll tell you, I'm very excited for Over Your Dead Body. Number two, is that the official or do we have a subtitle? not official. We're still working on it because I'm not sure if I wanna go, but it's TBD for now. Over two bodies. two dead bodies. All right.

Well, you know, like I said, I'm always excited. anytime that I have two, I think I have two creators anytime at my local comic shop when there's a new cover out, they know, put it in Chris's pool. And that's Sweeney and that's Christian Ward. So anytime that you guys put covers out, I've got like a treasure trove of just Sweeney covers over here in my, I like one short box because I don't really collect a ton of single issues anymore. I'm a dirty trade waiter.

now, but, you know, if I, if I get a cover, usually it's ward or water, boo. And now I get my lease, I can get my lease section all ready to go. It's okay. I'm not offended though. I have as nearly amount of covers as she does. So I'm, don't worry. Although I will still be offended if you don't buy them. That's true. I'm just a filthy window shopper.

I see all this beautiful art that, know, you guys are creating these beautiful stories and I'll buy all the comics that I can, but like, you know, Chris is, Chris is the art. connoisseur and he's got like a whole collection. go to, I visit his house so I can see all the beautiful art. Hey, that's fair. Look at you. Both of your houses, like you guys are like having like crazy collections. What are you talking about?

Yeah. Well, if I can share really quickly before we get into our last question, I had a great sort of experience with both you guys. So this is our first time meeting at San Diego Comic Con this last summer. We did a whatnot show. were actually- wait, wait. It was Chicago. C2E2. you're I'm so sorry. You're right. Yes, we did meet for the first time in Chicago. you? It was a brief. was a quick moment. was like a hi bye. It was like a hi nice to meet you. See you later.

I wish I wish everybody listening could be a fly on this wall. God, making me feel bad, Sue. Jesus. Well, we got to actually talk during San Diego Comic Con. And then obviously, Sweeney, we had a whatnot show at San Diego as well. I think they were both really fun. Sue, this was your very first whatnot show, correct? This last time at San Diego. Be honest, was it great? mean, one out of 10, what would you give it on a scale? 10 being the best, one being terrible.

No, actually, it was a lot of fun. It was actually a lot of fun. I could actually do it for, I mean, you know, we used to do live streams together, you know, with the crew and everything. So I think I've gotten used to being on camera, I guess, but it was a lot of fun and people were super, like the chat's always super nice. You were a great host, you know. And actually when you were the host, I was like, thank God. Okay, at least I know him.

Well, the contrary to that is that Sweeney, you're, and again, I said this earlier, like, this is not me trying to like put myself in your life or anything, but I think we're friends, right? Yeah, of course. Yeah. And for some reason during your show at San Diego, I just was bumbling over my words. I was sweating. Chris does not get nervous. Yeah. I don't know what it was. I think I just hit my social limit that day. My battery had to... officially drained, but I could not say the right things.

It was terrible. So I apologize for that. my God. You're fine. It didn't come through at all. And I'm pretty sure hours were like days three in the afternoon. had already been like, my God. You know, like starting an hour after the beginning of San Diego Comic-Con, if you tell me you're tired, I'm like, I understand. It's all good. We were doing like, Erin, think we, what I tell you, like we did like six to seven shows a day.

Chris was sending me like, Again, we're so distracted here, but I love the conversation. No, Chris was like sending me his updates of like his daily schedule and it was like insane, like probably five shows, four to five shows a day, like just, and then prep time. to be on. Yeah, always gotta be on, always gotta be on. I mean, this really is a big deal, so you should be nervous. is show time. What are you talking about? The one time that Chris could not make a convention.

I had to step in and do the whatnot shows because Chris was going through his first round of chemo. And so I went to the convention. was like, Chris, you son of a bitch, you're not here at this convention. I understand. But they were like, Aaron, you got to do the whatnot shows. And I'm like, fine. And that was the most intimidating weekend I've ever had with working with creators. But the greatest thing was that I had Chris. He was my man on the computer. was my man at the dismal Oracle.

And he was like feeding me all the information that I needed for all the artists that I was doing the work on shows with. And so I sounded like, I sounded so good just because of this. He made me sound smart. Is it because every text was followed with like, don't fuck it up? much, pretty much. He's like, you dare ruin my name. He's like, don't embarrass me. He's like, do not embarrass me. Every, he was show was do not embarrass me.

or like you ever watch Devils Wears Prada when Anne Hathaway's like characters like whisperings to her ear. Yeah. It's like that. Absolutely. Remember this is Sweeney. okay. Hello. No, I'm excited to meet you Sue. Sweeney is always a sure too. you're sure. Shocker. You're standing I know we look alike as well, but like we're both very sure we look alike, you know. I mean, you both wear your, job is just bitch hats and we can. That's just me. That's mine. Yeah. thought, I might have one too.

I think there's one on the wall behind you. My one is I'm just a little guy. See? I feel like I have to call you out just a little bit here because it's, it's too funny to not bring up on the show, but I think it might've been New York Comic-Con last year. So we're almost a full year past this memory, but at one point I was walking around losing my mind and I look over. and it's you and I see you looking up at somebody and it's Teenie Howard.

And to see you two talk to each other is like one of the craziest things. Teenie's probably six foot. Yeah, probably. my gosh. And yeah, I'm six foot. Teenie's not tiny. Yeah, no, Teenie's not tiny. But Sweeney's Teenie. And she's worked with Deenie. Yes, exactly. It's, you know, every time I like, one time I was at a con and I was hanging out with someone who's like, he was seven feet tall, basically.

And I was like, in my head, was like, I want to enjoy this conversation right now, but I know that everyone's looking at us. There's no way. No, it's not happening. My wife is watching this like current season of Dancing with the Stars and there's like this seven foot plus basketball star dancing with one of these like famous dancers. And that's the way it is. Like he literally picks her up and just like carries her around like one of your Blythe dolls on the dance floor.

I'm just waiting for that one time they're spinning and she just flies off through the roof out of Disney studios. But let's get back on track if we may. This is amazing. Before we let you both go though, we always like to end the conversation by asking our guests what they've been enjoying recently. And this can really be any medium. movies, comics, video games. Like what are you guys doing? What's your hobby? What's your go-to? What helps you escape the daily grind? What do you got?

Well, we both really enjoyed the interview with the vampire TV show. That's like the number one thing that we like. We talk about it when we're watching it. I got a shirt that she picked out and I'm currently in the midst of making another interview with the vampire shirt, a custom-made shirt. so we share that passion. I, I have no hobbies. I have no life. She, she's the one with all the fun ones.

We've been like, we, we definitely shared about, watching the TV with the vampire and, I got back into reading a little bit, or at least shaming myself into it. And I was starting, like, I was reading this one thing, like Alan Morris. I, I, I've kind of been doing the same thing as Sweeney. I've been like shaming myself back into. like reading actual books. I've been on this weird, I don't know what they call them, but like these spicy novels, like the- The harlequin novels?

Like the court of thorns and rose or whatever they are. apparently it is steamy. yeah, yeah. Like it's kind of odd as a guy to be like reading from like the female's perspective of like these hot, steamy moments. But at the same time, I'm enjoying it, you know? I'm on book three already, baby. It's good. would love to say that I'm surprised that Aaron's into smut, but I am so not surprised. No, no, no, no. Yeah, it's not surprising. I wear all of my kinks on my sleeve.

So. Well, sweetie, it's nice to hear that you're reading a saga Swamp Thing. I feel like that's something that I go back to at least every two years. And I feel like I read or see something new that I really love. It's just it's one of those iconic storylines that I feel like every comic fan if I ever you know approach someone and they asked me for sort of a character defining storyline How can you go any further than saga of swamp thing?

I think it's just I don't know if any creator going forward maybe for the rest of time When they get on a swamp thing book, it's gonna be in some way compared to saga of swamp thing. It's that character defining, you know It's also I like it's always I had never read it before.

There's a bunch of like those classics that you you hear about you've seen you've read pages here and there but like actually getting to spend time with the book and just like singing it was made like 40 years ago it's like it's pretty bonkers yeah absolutely well what a pleasure it has been to have both you here on the show together the subu crew all together you know i'll speak for aaron here and i'll see crew boo subu crew what did i say did i say subu switch

it around yeah i tried to put subu before boo you know what we're just gonna make both and then aaron i will wear each of them That way people will know. I'll speak for Aaron here. I'll speak for the listener, everyone listening right now. When I say such huge fans of both of yours, not only as comic creators, but just as individuals.

Like I said, throughout this conversation, it's always a pleasure to hang out with you both at these cons and to get to see you and to always hear about the new work that's coming down the pipeline for both of you. So as soon as we get these Busu crew, Nike crewnecks in production. Let's do it. We'll put a link in the show notes for everybody. You have to get one of each color. And before we head out of here, guys, is there anything you guys want to highlight or plug?

How can the people follow you? Sweeney, we'll start with you. Yeah, I'm everywhere on social media. SweeneyBoo, Instagram, Twitter, and whatnot. Not whatnot, just whatnot in general. Just a little whatnot. Yeah. But yeah.

going back to con it's going to be in new york i'm going to be at luca in italy at the end of october and thought bubble and swan are going to be in japan for tokyo comic con in december so lucky lucky man that sounds awesome sue how about you twitter is sue d lee and my name is sulee draws sulee draws.com i'm just trying to think if there's anything i'm allowed to promote That I'm not allowed to or am I allowed to say out loud? I guess not.

Except for Winter of Oz and the Minor Threats little mini that I'm doing with Brian, which I'm currently working on. So I'm very, very excited for that. Like I'm a big Brian and it's just kind of like a dream come true. And then I'll be working on more Christopher Chaos, Adam Frankenstein stuff. It hasn't been like officially announced, but Literally, they said it and I was like, okay, well, I'm just gonna they said it's if I talk about it So I'll be doing more Adam Frankenstein stuff.

So nonchalant. No, sir. Like, you know, whatever Yeah, maybe CBR we know you're listening. You just gotta you just got a drop right there All right. I'm super excited for the the Wizard of Oz series I've always been a fan of that like franchise and that fandom So I'm excited to see what you come up with on that one Well, it's kind of just a retelling of the movie, right?

I'm actually using stuff that didn't get made into the movie that I had the script for and then can't do anything with the book and stuff like that. But I rewatched the movie and you should watch it if you haven't watched it or if you haven't watched it in a minute.

It's actually really good and maybe I'm getting old and I'm I had a lot of like life things happen to me and it's just like I've you I've become like a mom now where like I just cry in a drop of a hat and it actually like the friendship scenes are so beautiful that like when they started to cry I started crying it's actually so lovely and like the metaphor of like everything that they're going through is just like unfiltered friendship and love and acceptance and it's just like

This was made in 1940, like in the 1940s. You know what I mean? And it's just like, if you haven't watched it, you should, it's actually really good. The first color movie too. Yeah. Yes. I have the 4k and I recently rewatched it and it is incredible. If you, if you ever just want like a great at home viewing experience of that movie, it's so innocent, an innocent like viewing experience.

I recently rewatched it as well because I went and saw I finally got to see Wicked in theater, or I'm not in theater, but in Broadway. I got to see The Wiz with Wayne Brady as the wizard and that was amazing. And then what was the other one? Have you ever, I'm sure you've seen it, Return to Oz? No, I have not. Apparently it's insane. And scary?

Highly recommend that that is one of the most terrifying movies that you will see as an adult or as a child that movie traumatized me There's the there's the the the troll king who is basically rocks There's the wheelers which are like the new version of the flying monkeys and they are at like you hear them coming because they Yeah, I mean they do that too. I was watching the when I was a kid I remember that that scene with the shoes and then like the socks coming up.

I remember how scary that was for some reason. mean, watching it, I'm like, you know, that's cool. The effects are amazing for that time. But I was I remember just being so creeped out by that. It's just so good. What a great movie, you have seen it, honestly. Man, if you were scared by that, I need to send you there's this like French movie of like Little Thumb. And it was made I think in like the 70s and it scared me so hard as a kid. The ogre and everything. It's creepy. You have to watch it.

It's amazing. The Busu crew is going to be a movie fan like fan group and we're just going to watch scary movies that terrify us. Yeah. We didn't mention during the conversation before we get out of here. Spill your guts. I'm so sad that that's not around anymore. It makes sense. You guys are so busy right now. It's hard to do that. Again, as podcasts, we can tell you how much work we don't just hop on as silly and organic as it seems. It's not as organic as you think, everybody.

You really have to prep and the editing and the promoting and all the things. So anytime the subu crew wants to get on here. Absolutely. Please. I would love love to. Come spill your guts. Yeah, I mean, I mean, it's, know, if whenever we're like we have time and the space for we'd absolutely would, you know, go back on to spill it's just like right now it's just like a hiatus for now, you know? Yeah. Well, we just left our hiatus. We were on a hiatus. you go.

So our first hiatus ever, Aaron, I think we're better than ever. So you need that sometimes. absolutely. Brian Kavon said it said it the best. Yeah. Yeah. Step away. That's right. Well, Thank you both so much again. We appreciate it. We will talk to you the next time you're on. Thank you. Thank you so much. All righty. There's that conversation with Sweeney and Sue again. Thank you both so much for being on the show. Always a pleasure talking to them again.

This is Sweeney's second time on the show. This was Sue's first time on the show. So we'll definitely have them back on at some point when they are available. Aaron, what were your thoughts on that conversation? Did you have a good time talking to the Boo Sue crew? God. I loved it. It was so much fun. felt I don't know. Like it was one of those conversations where it's so like natural and fun with these two like again, like you said at the beginning, rising star creators.

And I don't know if it's a, what is that called when you like imposter syndrome? I don't know if it's like, do you ever like it's going so well, you're like, I gotta be fucking something's wrong. Something's wrong here. Like why is this going so well? know, like I got on every first day, every like all my entire life, but no, they're just, they're sweet. sweet people and they're and they're like easy to talk to. They love what they do. They love what they create.

They're excited about what they're doing. And they're just I don't know. They're just passionate creators and and both Sue and like I said, that's my first time really talking with Sue ever. Sweeney, I've spoken to a couple of times and it's just they're just nice people and you love talking to nice people. Absolutely. Yeah. And we're very excited, too, for what they have coming down the pipeline. lot of cool stuff that they're going to be working on here soon.

And yeah, hopefully everybody enjoyed that conversation. Once again, this is interview with on Aaron. So we've got more episodes coming down, coming down the pipeline. We've got Jeff Lemire on the show tomorrow. So Jeff Lemire, do we say more? Right? Like that is Jeff Lemire, man. It's Jeff Lemire, man. Come on. Like you're going to listen and it's going to be awesome. Hopefully everyone enjoys that conversation, but that'll do it from us here on the oblivion bar podcast.

Episode one 67 is in the books. Aaron, please take us out of here. All right. Subscribe to our podcast, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Audible, iHeartRadio. Why don't you pre-record this? Wherever you listen to your favorite podcast, that's where we are. Okay, here we go.

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20 % is the bare minimum, folks. All right. Thank you so much. Hopefully you're praying for Aaron and I. currently at New York Comic Con. We need all the prayers that you can give us all the good energy. Give us a spirit bomb. Yeah. Give us a spirit bomb energy. Lend me your energy. Zenzubeen. All right, everybody. Thank you so much. We will see you for day three of New York Comic Con and Interview-a-thon and... gas mask. All right. See you, everybody.