In this episode Erica Schultz talks dinosaurs and cheese.

Topics include She-Vengers, vigilante fangirling, crossover magic, velociraptors, sneaky nods, impossible reference photos, irate paleontologists, poppycock and the King’s English, star crossed lovers, fierce dairy competitions, pearl clutching, Pearl Jam, and casually winning awards.

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Transcription:

Matt: Kara, we’re back in our podcast lair in San Diego Comic-Con. Welcome-

Kara: Welcome, Matt.

Matt: -once again.

Kara: Welcome to our fabulous guest, Erica Schultz.

Erica Schultz: Hi.

Matt: Award-winning. Award-winning guest.

Erica: It was like one award from like three years ago.

Matt: We can still say that forever.


Kara: It was like one award?

Matt: I would always say that. Don’t you want to brag?

Erica: I guess.

Kara: You’re just like, “No big deal.”

Erica: I’m serious. Unless I’m getting an Eisner or an Oscar, I’m like, “Yeah, it was one thing.” That’s it.

Matt: I would hold on to that. It’s like getting your Doctorate, and you make people say you’re a doctor.

Erica: I don’t even have a Masters.

Matt: Who needs it? Nobody needs it.

Kara: You’re fine. You’re fine. You’re a talented, talented comics creator. You’re fine.

Matt: You have various books on submit. “Swords of Sorrow” is something that we love. We talked to Gail Simone in Chicago.

Erica: I love Gail.

Matt: She’s a hoot. Swords of Sorrow is amazing because I love it. It’s all women making this huge crossover event, and it’s getting new people to try different books from Dynamite, which I love. How did you fit into the Swords of Sorrow gigantic plans? I love that you call it “She-Vengers.”

Erica: Gail started calling us the She-Vengers, and then I came up with this idea. I was like, “We should get T-shirts,” because it’s not like I don’t have enough stuff to do. I drew up a logo, and I talked to a friend who works at a screen printing place, and I had T-shirts made for us. We’re going to be sporting T-shirts this weekend, too.

How did I get involved? Gail? I don’t know how, but Gail was familiar with my work. She had contacted me saying, “I’m going to be putting together this group of women to do this big crossover for Dynamite. Would you want to be a part of it?” I said, “Yeah.” I didn’t know really at the time, the genre. I didn’t really know what characters we were going to get.

Then, after everybody signed on, she gave us more information, how it’s these portals are sucking people from different dimensions, from different time periods. It’s a playground. The amount of stuff that you can work with is just ridiculous. I didn’t know, at first, if we were going to be able to choose which characters we had, but I wouldn’t trade the four that I got for everybody.

I thought the Kato/Masquerade was great because Kato is so rooted in reality and then Masquerade has this awesome, mystical ability, and she spent 70 years in Pandora’s urn. How funky is that? You have these two women, the Lady Zorro and Black Sparrow, these two Spanish ladies that both come from different times.

It’s like without Lady Zorro, Black Sparrow wouldn’t be able to do what she does. It’s like going back and meeting the first feminist, the suffragettes kind of thing. I don’t know if you’ve read the Black Sparrow/Lady Zorro book, but people are saying it’s a funny fangirling moment.

Kara: That’s the word that I used to describe it. We actually talked about that book on our weekly podcast.

Erica: Awesome.

Kara: It was one of my picks the week that it came out, and I did talk about that fangirling moment where Lady Zorro was like, “Wait, why are you just doing what I say?” Black Sparrow’s like, “I would fight for you any day. This is an honor.”

Erica: “I would crawl from my grave to fight by your side.” I’m almost positive that was the line. “I would crawl from my grave to fight by the side of Lady Zorro,” or something like that.

Kara: It gave me chills. I had goosebumps.

Erica: That’s awesome. Thank you.

Kara: She was my introduction to both of those characters, actually. I felt like it was a really good introduction, because I got a real firm sense of each of those characters and what motivated them.

Erica: Alex de Campi did a great Lady Zorro miniseries that you should check out.

Kara: I did.

Erica: You did? Awesome.

Kara: After reading the issue that you did, I went back and definitely read my way through that entire thing. I was like, “She’s awesome. Why doesn’t she have an ongoing?”

Matt: We talked to Alex when we added Dark Horse to the platform. Every book she talked about, we wanted to read immediately after. She has a way of describing a series.

Kara: I downloaded her entire catalog.

Erica: She’s great. I read that to bone up on Lady Zorro and her personality and stuff. It was really well-written, and it gave me a really good sense of her voice. That helped a lot. I believe it was Victor Gischler did “The Shadow,” which introduced Black Sparrow. I had read up some of that, as well, to get Black Sparrow’s voice. She skirts the edge of criminal.

Matt: Vigilantism.

Kara: She’s in a little gray area.

Erica: She’s gray. She’s gray. It’s OK.

Matt: How have you seen the response to what Dynamite has spearheaded with all women on this crossover? How’s that been for you guys being a part of it and then the response from other female fans?

Erica: Fans are loving it. We could not be more excited about how people are embracing it. I’ve had people come up to me and say, “I don’t do any crossover, and this is the only crossover even I’m picking up every single book.” Gail’s six-issue arc throughout is phenomenal. I’m lettering the whole series, I’m very, very lucky.

I get to read everybody’s scripts ahead of time. I can just say I’ve read almost every single script for it, and it’s amazing. Between Gail’s work, and Marguerite, and Leah, and Mairghread, everybody. It’s just amazing, amazing work. You can tell we’re having fun doing this. I think that’s important.

You can write and do your work for a paycheck, and that’s one thing. There’s nothing wrong with that. We’re really enjoying this, and I think that really comes out. I think the fans enjoy seeing that.

Kara: Let’s take a turn for a minute…

Erica: Uh-oh.

Kara: …and talk about “Winston Churchill”. We’ve been dying to talk about this book.

Erica: We can introduce Crackers.

Kara: Crackers is headbutting the microphone.

Matt: We’ll attach the selfie that we took after this interview to this interview and get really time travel-y.

Erica: Gina D'Angelo made Crackers for me. She actually made a Churchill for Claire, as well, for Claire Connelly.

Kara: Crackers is a Tyrannosaurus Rex?

Erica: No, he’s a raptor.

Kara: One of the velociraptors?

Matt: The velociraptors.

Erica: He’s one of the velociraptors, yes.

Matt: “Winston Churchill, the Unauthorized Bio of” was something that we stumbled upon in Submit. Winston Churchill, his team uncovers, way down underground, this time-travel machine from HGW, I think, were the initials on it.

Erica: I didn’t know if I was going to get sued for that, that’s why I just put the initials. I was afraid.

Kara: It was a cute little nod.

Erica: It was a nod. Before I had looked that up, I thought, “I know some of his stuff is public domain, but not all of it, I’m just going to put the initials. The people that get it are going to get it.”

Kara: I thought it was really cute.

Erica: Most people get it.

Kara: It was Winston Churchill, World War II, trying to figure out how to beat those gosh darn Nazis. Goes in the time machine. The scientist is like, “You know, you should really listen to these instructions,” and Winston’s like, “Poppycock. I’m going ahead. An Englishman made it. It has to work.”

Erica: Any script that I can get the word “poppycock” into, that’s awesome.

Matt: He uses the time machine, and he just does not listen to the scientist at all. He’s smoking in it. I would just be crapping my pants seeing someone going into a time machine just smoking.

Kara: Puffing away at a cigar.

Matt: It freaks me out. I always remember The Simpsons episode, the Halloween “Treehouse of Horror” where Homer goes and wrecks anything. He just says, “Screw it, I’ll just deal with…”

Erica: That was actually some inspiration.

Matt: That’s a great episode to draw it from. He gets there.

Kara: He’s going back in time to assemble the finest military minds, and something’s off with the time machine. He wakes up with a different sort of creature to face. Velociraptors.

Matt: Not only that: intelligent velociraptors. The preceding time traveler had already been there, and they can speak English. They’re domesticated.

Kara: The King’s English at the time.

Erica: “You took me for a Cockney? No, no, no, no.”

Matt: They work together. They put a plan in place to bring some velociraptors back, and he agrees to work with them to fight the T-Rexes, I believe.

Kara: The Tyrannosaurus, correct.

Erica: With their stomping and waving of their little arms.

Matt: Their adorable little arms.

Erica: There’s a little parallel between Nazis and Tyrannosaurs. Watch, I’m going to have some paleontologists be like, “Tyrannosaurus Rexes were not Nazis.”

Matt: Some paleontologists’ ears just raised.

Erica: Perked up.

Matt: Yeah, they were walking around.

Kara: There has to be someone in here.

Erica: Great.

Matt: I thought it was great, too, how they do that and then Winston’s like, “Everyone in the time machine,” and three Velociraptors come with him and fit into this small thing to go back to present day.

Kara: It was beautiful. The ending, I’m not going to spoil it for people who haven’t read it. Honestly, if you haven’t downloaded this book already just while listening to us, I don’t know what to do with you. The end was so good.

Matt: What made you want to choose Winston Churchill as your protagonist for this? Or antagonist, depending.

Erica: The quick thing was I worked with an artist who is very reference-heavy. He’s always being like, “Erica, find me reference for this. Find me reference for that.” He said, “Find me a photograph of a dinosaur.” I said, “You mean a photo of dinosaur bones?” He said, “No, a photo of a dinosaur.” “I can’t find you a photo of a live dinosaur. It’s not going to happen.”

We kept going back and forth. I kept thinking to myself, I was like, “You know what? I’m in the mood. Let me just poke and see how far I can push this.” He just screams, he’s like, “Jurassic Park.” I was like, “Yeah, but that’s not a photo of a dinosaur. I want you to admit to me that’s not a photo of a dinosaur.” It was this whole back and forth.

I teased Claire, and I said, “Next thing you know, he’s going to want a photo of Winston Churchill riding a dinosaur through 18th-century Parliament.” She did that as a commission for me. Once we had the commission, it was Free Comic Book Day a couple years ago. I picked up the commission from her.

Her sister Paige, who’s also an illustrator, said, “You guys need to make this into a comic.” I’m like, “Hm.” Claire said, “Yeah, we can call it the ‘Unauthorized Biography of Winston Churchill: A Documentary.” It’s the goofiest thing ever. It was like a two-hour drive back from Free Comic Book Day.

I had my phone out, and I was speaking into my phone the storyline as I was driving at night. I got home, and I typed it all up. The next morning, I shot an email to Claire, and I was like, “Do you really want to do this?” She’s like, “Yeah.” She worked so quickly. I could not believe how quickly she put those pages together, but she put it together.

We got a book out in like eight weeks. Who does that?

Matt: Nobody.

Kara: You.

Erica: Marvel and DC don’t do that. No, they probably do. Watch, I’m never working for Marvel ever again now.

Matt: Their ears just perked up, too, right next door. They’re with the paleontologists right now.

Erica: Oh, God.

Matt: What is “Cheese”? You submitted a new book.

Erica: We submitted a new book. It’s called “Cheese: A Love Story”. Everything that I work with has to have colons now in it, apparently.

Matt: I love it.

Erica: It’s with Claire. I adore Claire. She brings such a fun sense to everything. Cheese is about star-crossed lovers. It’s about Ray the Goat and Jenny the Cow from two rival dairy farms, and they fall in love.

Matt: Rivals.

Erica: They’re not supposed to be in love because Ray’s younger sister is the top milk producer of the goat farm, and Jenny’s the top milk producer at the cow farm. They’re not supposed to love each other.

Matt: That same old story.

Erica: It’s the same old story.

Matt: It’s as old as time.

Erica: It’s Romeo and Juliet. It’s as old as time. Am I breaking out into that song from “Beauty and the Beast”?

Matt: Let’s just do it.

Erica: It’s “Romeo and Juliet” meets “Animal Farm” meets this one particular episode of “Twilight Zone” from 1963.

Kara: That sounds amazing.

Matt: It is.

Erica: You flipped through it.

Kara: We did take a quick look.

Erica: It’s not a children’s book. I’m just going to say, because it’s animals, it’s not a children’s book.

Matt: I heard whispers of something that happened on the last page. I haven’t looked at it yet.

Kara: I had to put it down. I needed a minute.

Matt: It was mere whispers.

Erica: He heard a gasp.

Matt: An audible gasp.

Erica: She was clutching her pearls. It was that kind of moment.

Kara: I’m actually wearing pearls right now, that works.

Erica: She is actually wearing pearls. You will see them in the selfie that we post later.

Matt: That’s right.

Kara: Yes. So excited. I can’t believe that you have an actual little velociraptor with you.

Erica: He’s propped up on a Starbucks cup.

Kara: Everyone needs their morning wake-up.

Matt: What are your plans for the con? We were walking around looking at Star Wars stuff, but what’s on your list to do at the convention?

Erica: This is one of the few times that I get to see my friends that live on the West Coast and all over, because everyone converges here. It’s basically just dinner, and lunch, and breakfast with friends that I haven’t seen since last year. Meeting new people. Hustling, pitching stuff out. Meeting with some editors and hanging out and stuff. Just having a good time, enjoying.

We had discussed before standing in line for ridiculous exclusives, and that’s not something we will ever do ever again.

Matt: You just have to experience it once and then that’s it. Maybe you don’t even need to do it once.

Kara: If you think about how much you paid for your badge and your hotel room, and then you realize that you’re just standing in line all day. Some people might not want to do that with their time.

Erica: People get really excited about Hall H, and that’s great. That’s fantastic. The only time I ever spent the night overnight in line was for Pearl Jam tickets back in 1993, and I’m not 16 years old anymore.

Matt: You know, I think they’re about to announce a new North America tour.

Erica: I might sleep overnight in line again.

Matt: I just saw that they tweeted a picture of a New York subway, and they said, “Stay tuned.” I almost lost it.

Erica: Oh my god. I love Pearl Jam.

Matt: Me too.

Erica: I’m the kid who went to high school and college– in that 10-year period, I got high school and college–I’m wearing a plaid, flannel shirt right now.

Matt: You were probably listening to them on the way over here.

Erica: I was on my iPad.

Kara: My first and probably, only introduction to Pearl Jam, was when they were referenced in an Archie comic that I read when I was a kid, but they were called Pearl Jelly.

Erica: That’s awesome.

Kara: That’s like the only thing I know about them. I’m so sorry.

Erica: I think the only reason I fell in love with my husband is because he loves Pearl Jam. My husband, he’s many things, but one of the things that he is is a musician.

I remember I had bought him a guitar for one of his birthdays, before we were even married, and he started out playing the opening to “Yellow Ledbetter,” and I thought to myself, “This is a man I’m going to love for the rest of my life.”

Matt: Melted immediately. What’s your all-time favorite Pearl Jam song/album?

Erica: Ten, “Alive.” “Alive” has got an awesome guitar solo. Ten was the first album that I really…like, sophomore year in high school. Rommy Shy had a copy of it. He had a CD player and I didn’t, he made a tape from the CD player. I went home, and I put it in, and I listened to it.

I grew up on the Rolling Stones, and Led Zeppelin, and the Beatles, but I didn’t know music could make me feel this way. It was just awesome. Then, when I met my husband, and my husband loves Pearl Jam, I was just like, “Wow.” He played “Yellow Ledbetter” for me.

Matt: And then that was it.

Erica: And then that was it.

Matt: He was a rival cow. He was the lead cow and you’re star-crossed lovers.

Erica: I joke because he’s originally from Cleveland. I said, “You’re from Cleveland and I’m from New Jersey, we’re from two places that get made fun of a lot.” There you go. We have that.

Matt: You have that going for you. Next time we start a Pearl Jam podcast, we’ll invite you back on.

Erica: I would love to be on the Pearl Jam podcast.

Matt: We’ll start it this week.

Erica: That would be awesome.

Matt: We’ll go through every album, and there’ll just be 15 episodes.

Erica: There was a great song that came out recently, in the last year, called “Pendulum” that I had to download.

Matt: Fantastic album.

Erica: It’s haunting.

Matt: It was strange. I heard “Swallowed Whole” on Fox football games. They played that as the loop behind the third…

Erica: The third quarter or something?

Matt: Yeah, they played that song. I was like, “Wow, I don’t think I’ve ever heard a Pearl Jam song on commercial sports television.”

Erica: Interesting.

Matt: It was really interesting for that album. They did some different things for marketing, and I guess it paid off. It was a great album. Maybe we should stop Pearl Jam talk for a while.

Kara: Take it back to comics real quick.

Erica: Oh, I’m sorry.

Matt: No, it’s OK.

Kara: No, it’s cool.

Matt: We appreciate you taking the time out.

Kara: Yes, thank you.

Erica: Thank you very, very much for having me.

Matt: We’ll have links to your books in the show notes, and we advise everyone pick them up ASAP. Erica, thanks again.

Kara: Thank you.

Erica: Thank you so much.


(Source: SoundCloud / comiXology)

Sep 04, 2015 11:51am
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