Kevin Schaeffer and Will Rose dive deep into the world of comic books in this episode, hosting acclaimed comic creator Robert Venditti. They kick things off by exploring Venditti's impressive portfolio, which includes titles like "Superman 78" and "Green Lantern," before transitioning to his latest work, "Ordained." This new comic, set to shake things up, revolves around a priest who finds himself entangled with an Irish mobster, leading to a gripping tale of redemption and moral dilemmas. As they chat, Venditti shares his journey into the comic industry, offering insights into the creative process and the unexpected twists that come with it. The conversation is a delightful blend of humor and geek culture, making it a must-listen for fans of comics and storytelling alike.

In a vibrant episode of Systematic Geekology, hosts Kevin Schaeffer and Will Rose invite comic book writer Robert Venditti, renowned for his work on Superman 78 and Hawkman, to share his creative journey. The episode kicks off with nostalgic reflections on Kevin's early days as a budding journalist, interviewing Robert amid the chaos of college life. This sets a light-hearted atmosphere filled with anecdotes of technological mishaps and the awkwardness of learning the ropes in the digital age, making listeners feel as if they are eavesdropping on a friendly reunion.

Diving deeper, the trio transitions to discussing Venditti's latest project, 'Ordained', a compelling story that explores the complexities of faith and morality through the lens of a priest caught in a tumultuous situation. Rob recounts his unconventional path into the comic book world, revealing how he began writing in his mid-twenties and eventually landed his first gig with Top Shelf Productions. His journey is not just about professional success; it’s laced with personal anecdotes that highlight how family, particularly his grandfather, shaped his understanding of storytelling.

The conversation enriches as Venditti discusses how his character-driven narratives often challenge readers to reflect on their own beliefs and moral choices. Rob's insights into the creative process are invaluable, as he elaborates on the meticulous work involved in crafting stories that resonate with readers. The episode culminates with Rob's reflections on the adaptation of his work for the screen, particularly with 'The Surrogates', offering a glimpse into the surreal experience of watching his stories come to life beyond the comic book pages. With humor, heart, and a wealth of knowledge, this episode serves as both an entertaining listen and a source of inspiration for aspiring writers and comic enthusiasts alike.

Takeaways:

1. Robert Venditti shares his unexpected journey into comic book writing, starting only in his twenties.
2. The surreal experience of seeing his first comic, 'The Surrogates', become a Hollywood film adaptation blew Venditti's mind.
3. Venditti's new book 'Ordained' explores deep themes of faith and redemption through the lens of crime storytelling.
4. The unique collaboration between Venditti and Derek Kolstad, best known for 'John Wick', adds a cinematic flair to 'Ordained'.
5. Venditti highlights the importance of storytelling and character development, drawing from his grandfather's captivating tales.
6. The podcast showcases how Venditti balances his career while navigating the comic book industry and creative writing.

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Systematic Geekology

Our show focuses around our favorite fandoms that we discuss from a Christian perspective. We do not try to put Jesus into all our favorite stories, but rather we try to ask the questions the IPs are asking, then addressing those questions from our perspective. We are not all ordained, but we are the Priests to the Geeks, in the sense that we try to serve as mediators between the cultures around our favorite fandoms and our faith communities.

Happy New Year. This is systematic geekology. And we have a very special episode for you today.

We are here with a friend of mine who's actually one of the first compa creators I ever interviewed back when I was in college. But Robert Venditti, you may know him from his work a lot at DC. Superman 78, Green Lantern, Hawkman, and then one of my favorites, Exomanowar.

He also has a new book out through Bad Idea called Ordained, which we'll talk about today. But Rob, really great to have you today. This will be a lot of fun.

N. Thanks for y' all having me on. I appreciate it. I, I remember that first interview going pretty well. So you were pretty good at it right out of the gate.

Oh, I appreciate it. Funny story about that, though.

I remember because, like, I think it was I was writing for, like, the NC Comic Con site just on the side, and I sent you. This was when I was terribly inept with technology, and I sent you, like, the Skype link. Like, that's how I was back in the Skype days.

But, but I sent you that, and I had trouble getting it loaded on my iPad. I was like, crap, he's gonna. Like, I think you got on first. And you were like, oh, hello.

Hello.

And I was trying to get on. So the interview itself went well, but that was my inept technology. I end up.

Well, I don't even remember that part.

So, so that, like, that was like in the before times, before, like, everybody got used to zoom and streaming. And here we are on YouTube and, and doing that I, I love.

Now I do it in my sleep because I work remotely and. Yeah, but, but, but, yeah, Sam, we've done panels at ComicCon, so it's been a lot of fun. So, Rob, thanks for joining us.

I am Kevin Schaefer here with my good friend, geekologist Will Rose. Will, happy New Year.

Happy New Year. Yeah. With Rob Vendetti. I'm pretty excited. I'm a, I'm a huge comic book nerd. I, I have my weekly pool.

I, I'm excited about his new book, Ordained says I'm an ordained Lutheran minister. I, I love and I love John Wick. And I loved Wake Up, Dead man, which there's a blend there and there. I, I, I.

If you want to keep going with those kinds of genres, Ordained is for you. I love the first this year, and I can't wait to talk.

All right.

Oh, no, no. But. But, Rob, we are glad to have you today. And, yeah, and so before we get started, if.

For viewers out there, if you want to support the show, just click the link in the description. You can find out more about us, find ways to support, like, rate, review, subscribe, all of that good stuff. But.

But we want to get straight to it today. Um, so, Will, I'll hand it over to you first to get started.

Yeah, you know, usually start what you're. What are we geeking out on? But we'll do that at the end of this. Right now, I'm geeking out on Rob being with us.

And I love asking, since I'm a big comic book fan, I love asking how the sausage is made, what's the process, what their background, origin story, that kind of stuff. So what was your kind of like? I mean, your work is so prolific in comics.

What.

How did you get your start in comics? What's your origin story? Where did it all begin for you, Rob?

Yeah, so I didn't grow up reading comic books at all. I started reading them in, like, my mid to late twenties.

I always wanted to be a writer, but comic books weren't something that were ever on my radar. And when I started writing them, I was doing fiction. I was in grad school for creative writing. I was writing short stories, things like that.

And when I read them, I decided, I want to try to write them. But I had no idea how to go about doing this.

So I started out by volunteering to work in the warehouse for a small press publisher named Top Shelf Productions. They've since gone on to become an imprint of idw, but they're publishers of Blankets Swallow Me Whole, the very famous March book series by. By.

Yeah, John Lewis. They called us Enemy by George Takei. Like, a lot of really good stuff. So I started out working there in their warehouse as their inventory person.

Moved up, you know, through things, you know, doing editorial, doing sales. I was the first employee ever hired by the company, so kind of wore a lot of different hats.

And while I was there, I wrote the script for my first comic book, which is called the Surrogates. And I gave that to Chris, who was the editor of Top Shelf.

And it was sort of a sci fi cyberpunk story, which was outside of what Top Shelf did, which is primarily, you know, kind of heartfelt autobio comics, things like that. And I was like, look, if you don't think this is for you, that's great.

But if you think it's good enough, you know, maybe you could introduce me to Vertigo or Dark Horse or something like that. But Chris really liked it. They'd always wanted to do something that was a little bit more, you know, genre.

And so they asked if, you know, if I wanted to publish it there.

And I was very excited to do so because I had a great relationship with them and I knew that it will be a really rare opportunity for my first book, especially to see it from the creator side and from the business side, you know, go through the whole ordering and it's in the catalog and all the way down to packing up books, my own book, and sending it to a retailer for them to sell, you know, and so they published it and that was how I got my start. That was my first book. Nice, nice.

And Rob, on that note too. So the Surrogates is like, hey, it's a really good book, but it was actually also adapted into a big Hollywood movie.

And so what was the feeling of that, like, for.

Because not only is it rare for, you know, a first book to actually go through a publisher, a lot of creators these days, you know, they might self publish something small, but you actually got a publisher and then beyond that, it got a big screen adaptation. So what was that feeling like?

Yeah, I mean, it was definitely wild. Like, I. I didn't think any of that would happen. My hope when I wrote Surrogates was that somebody would publish it.

I felt certain nobody would ever read it, but at least I'd have a printed copy that I could give to editors and use as a resume piece. This is the kind of stories I do.

This is how I develop character, this is how I develop plot and use that to get additional work, you know, So I wasn't thinking this is going to be a movie or, you know, I wasn't writing comics to make movies. I still don't any of those kinds of things. In fact, the book was timed to come out around ComicCon the year that it did.

And I was out there in my capacity as being in a play for top shelf, setting up the booth, you know, moving around pallets full of books and setting up the tables and putting all these stacks out of everybody's books. And this year, you know, I'd done this for years, but this year, mine happened to be one of the books.

And so I'm doing that all day Wednesday, I run home, back to the hotel to clean up, to come back in time for preview night, which I think starts at like 6. And I get back and the doors open and people are immediately walking up to the table.

There were producers asking me who controlled the film rights to Surrogates because they were interested in optioning it. And I had just been unloading the boxes like five minutes earlier. So it was definitely a surreal experience.

What year was that?

And so that obviously was a very fortunate thing to have happen because again, thinking it's Surrogates as a resume piece, for me, it was something that, whether you liked the movie or not, my name had gotten out there and the book had gotten out there.

And when it came time years later, when Valiant was looking for writers to relaunch the Valiant universe, the editor in chief over there, Warren Simons, he had read Surrogates when it had come out, and he remembered it, and he reached out to me and asked me to pitch for books, and I pitched for XO and got xo, and then that led to know Eternal Warrior, and that led to Green Lantern and, you know, on from there. So in the end, I feel like Surrogates did accomplish that thing I was hoping that it would do, which is be that resume piece to get into more work.

It just did it in a way that I totally didn't expect. That's a good.

That's a good story.

So.

So since then, in terms of, like, pop culture or things that you geeked out on as a kid that led you to want to do creative writing or movies, TVs, and then eventually get the comics?

Was there something that you geeked out on or that you loved a kid that led you to that moment to say, like, this is what I want to do for a living, is be a creator to create stories?

Yeah, there were definitely things I geeked out on.

I wanted to write stories ever since I. I can remember, like, second grade, first grade, you know, So I can't say what it was other than I liked reading and I was somehow drawn to it, you know, Also, my grandfather, my mother's father, who I was really close with, was just an excellent Verbal storyteller, you know, he would tell stories about his experiences in World War II or growing up in the Depression or any of those kinds of things. And I was always just fascinated. He was, like, listening to an old radio program, you know. He was just really good at telling stories.

So I don't know if it came from there. I just, like I say, I always wanted to do it. Things I did geek out about, though. Oh, man, one of these hurts to this day is a bunch of stuff.

Superman 2. I remember seeing Superman 2 in theater, you know, so the Christopher Reeve Superman things are huge for me.

Superman, even though I never read comics, was always like one of my very favorite fictional characters, which is weird that I wouldn't read comics. But I guess I thought of him more as a movie person, you know, than a comic. Than a comic person. In high school, I read a lot of Stephen King.

Was a big fan of Stephen King, which is crazy, because I can't tolerate horror at all.

Now, my good friend Brock McKinney, who you all know, a big horror guy, and he'll ask me if I've seen a movie, and I'm always like, no, dude, I haven't seen that movie. I've seen, like, maybe three horror movies in my life. You know, I. This drives him crazy to no end. I saw alien 3, then alien 4, then alien 2, then.

And then Aliens, because I always heard that the original Alien was scary and I shouldn't see it. So I saw that one last. So when I saw Alien 3, I thought it was a perfectly fine movie. I'd never seen any other Alien movies before in my life.

I'm like, this is great. They're in a prison. They're running around. This thing's trying to kill them.

It wasn't until years later that I watched the other ones and I realized what Alien 3 was to the franchise.

You did, like, the reverse order? You did reverse order?

I did, yeah. Yeah.

That's good.

Yeah, that's good. But thing I really geeked out about, I would say the biggest middle school, high school was Thundercats and Silver Hawks. And I'm not a big.

I'm not a big licensed property. Like, I don't really want to write Star wars comics or Star Trek or whatever.

But I always said the one thing I would love to do if it ever happened would be Thundercats or Silverhawks. And then, of course, Dynamite is doing it. And they. They went and got other writers whatnot. So I missed my chance.

But that was always a thing that I really wanted to Do.

Yeah, we did Hawkman. So you kind of got, like, you know, you guys had a hawk there a little bit.

A little bit. A little bit fun.

Hey, Rob, speaking of horror, I have to say, as a side note here, I'm sitting here with two of the stars of the horror movie Reptile, because if I don't know, Will has a cameo at the very beginning of the movie. Rob has a cameo at the very end, says, speak of Rob McKinney.

Yeah. You put your sluggle on the horn.

I think they just photoshopped me in there.

Yeah, that's funny. I didn't know we were in the same movie, Rob. That's kind of the opening scene in the. In the bar scene when the first scream closed in.

And our direction was, you're having drinks, she's being obnoxious. Give her the stink eye. And I'm like, oh, we can do that. And so Brockton lingered on us for, like, an extra second.

So I was very happy that, you know, I could.

I'll start my. I'm surprised we didn't bump into each other at craft services or something, you know? That's right.

I love it. And Rob, going back. So I know this story about how influential Superman 2 was for you, but.

But going back to that, like, can you talk about how that movie specifically then, you know, came full circle years later with Superman 78?

Yeah. So sort of the big joke about me, you know, I went on to work at Valiant, and then I did a lot of stuff for DC for years.

Green Lantern, Flash, Justice League, Hawkman, a bunch of stuff.

But the thing that was always kind of the joke about me was whenever somebody would ask me to pitch for a character, I knew nothing about that character. So, like, when they asked me to pitch on Green Lantern, I was like, I guess he's green and there's a lantern, but I'm not sure what the lantern does.

You know, I. I knew, like, the visual of Green Lantern from Super Friends or something, you know, but I didn't know, having never read comics. But the one thing. And it ended up being, I think, an asset to me because for better or for worse, the way I always say is, you can't fake stupid.

Like, if I had always read Green Lantern when they asked me to pitch for Green Lantern, I wouldn't be able to give him maybe a fresh take because I couldn't pretend I hadn't read all that stuff and already knew it. So all these things I pitch for, I pitch for from when they asked me to pitch a Valiant.

I was like, man, not only have I never heard of those characters, I've never heard of Valiant. I don't even know what that is. No. Because Valiant had come and gone before I started reading comics.

But the one thing that everybody knew that I loved was Christopher Reeve, Superman. And so Andrew Marino, who had been my editor on Green Lantern, Hawkman, Freedom Fighters, gosh, a lot of different things.

He had the idea to do a Batman 89 in the Superman 78 miniseries. And he reached out to me to pitch it, because I get, you know, he knew this was the one thing that I liked and the.

The continuity that I was familiar with. And so I ended up getting to write two Superman 78 miniseries, each one six issues. And that was great fun.

You know, that was not even really a dream project because it wasn't something I ever thought would exist. Because if there were going to be comics for Superman 78, it would have happened already. Right. And so.

Right.

I never sat back like I did with Thundercats and Silverhawks and say, maybe someday, you know, like, clearly, Superman 78, if there were going to be comics, it would have already happened, but they hadn't. So really was a dream project. Would love to do more of it someday if we get the chance.

Well, I like that. You know, we all.

When it comes to Superman and the movies, the one villain or the character that hasn't shown up yet, there's like, the big bad that we all want to see is Brainiac. And it looks like that's going to happen when James Gun universe.

But you.

You got to do that. You got to do that in the, like, oh, what Superman 3 would have been great with Brainiac.

And then you get, did you know anything about Brainiac or have to do any research or.

I did it that way because, you know, I've been in. Yeah, I'd been operating in the DC universe for a really long time.

And so I would read, you know, they send you every issue that they publish every month, and so I would read them. So I'm up on what's happening in other books and elsewhere in the universe and things. So by that point, I'd read some Brainiac stories.

You know, late new 52 forward was basically my DC knowledge, you know, so I understood the basic mechanics of Brainiac.

But the nice thing about the Superman 78 continuity is you can kind of take those basic things and then do with them what you want a little bit, you know, in the same way they did with Lex Luthor and all those things. I wasn't writing the DC Universe version of Brainiac.

I was writing what the version of Brainiac might have been, had Donner and Puzo, you know, non Brainiac. And so he was filtering it through that lens.

That version of Lois Lane, that version of Lex Luthor, that version of Superman, that version of Jimmy Olsen, you know, those kinds of things. And it was great fun to do. And, you know, that book we worked, the artist on that book was Wilfredo Torres, who's an amazing talent.

It was his genius to sort of cast Brainiac as David Bowie, which is amazing. I'm a huge David Bowie fan and never occurred until he did it. And I was just like, oh, man, that's what a great choice.

You know, you could totally see that. And so, yeah, one of the books I'm definitely proudest of in my career. I feel like I can hand it to anybody. And it's got a lot of heart thematically.

It's about a lot of the things that I like to have in my stories and so really, really happy, you know. Yeah.

Yeah, you should be.

That's. That's.

It's a great book and love getting it and reading it. And it's, you know, I think, you know, one of the first movies I saw with my family in the theater was Star wars, but also Superman, that.

That first one, and then we couldn't wait for that sequel. And then we see them kind of like, you know, we have. We have Zod and the whole whole family, like, powered up and doing. Seeing Superman at his best.

Not holding back with the superpowers was really a lot of fun then to see that continued in your older comic book reader. It just took me right back to that movie.

But also, you know, captured, I think, who Superman is and how Christopher Reeves portrays Superman to be in your comics. So, yeah, you should super be very.

Yes, I remember seeing on the Superman. I don't remember seeing the first Superman movie. I was too young. I'm sure I did.

I remember seeing American Graffiti for some reason, and I think that's older than Superman, so me. But I remember falling asleep during American Graffiti. But I do remember seeing Superman 2.

And it was a very formative moment in my life in terms of story, and I was just at the right age when I watched it that I thought Superman was real. And he came out of the particle chamber and he lost his powers. I didn't know what the world was going to do anymore.

And then he crushes Zod's hand and the score takes off, you know, and, you know, Superman had this. People don't.

People always say, superman's a boy scout, and it's not realistic that somebody would do the right thing because it's the right thing to do. And I find that to be such a cynical view of the world. Like, I. I don't see the world that way.

I think we're all inherently good people, not every single human being, but I think we're inherently good, not inherently bad.

And I think the most of us try to do the right thing, and we don't always succeed, but when we don't, we hopefully use that experience to learn to be better. And so in Superman, I always saw a character who could do anything he wanted, and he chooses to do the right thing.

And I always found that to be very inspiring and a great way to look at the world, and not really so much that I modeled myself after that, as I saw in that. A way that I wanted the world to be like something that I was already feeling inside.

But you don't really see so much in our entertainment, you know, but it existed there, you know?

And I think if you go and you read my stories, whatever those stories are, they always kind of have that theme, you know, this idea that people are inherently good. We never run out of second chances. We can always be better up until the time we die.

And no matter who we are, there's always a chance for us, you know, and whether it's Green Lantern or Flash or Superman or Hawkman or even something that seems more gritty in crime, like Ordained or something like that, you know, those themes run throughout, I would say, pretty much everything that I've ever done, you know, so.

And that's why I really like this. This newest Superman movie that. That gun did. I. I don't know. What are you creating Superman? Writing Superman and then going to see that movie or.

I've seen. I'm assuming you've seen it.

Like, what.

What are your thoughts of the newest? But you haven't. You haven't seen it. You're doing clays.

I'll be honest, I'm a little nerd. I'm a little nervous to go see it. Okay, I will. I'll watch it eventually.

But it's one of those things where, like, you know, I have to be in the wide mindset to watch it, you know, because I don't. I want to. I want to do its service, you know? Like, what's another example?

Like, if I was going to watch Saving Private Ryan, I need to be in the right mindset to watch Saving Private Ryan. I'm not just going to walk in and out of the room and watch Saving Private Ryan. Right. I want to give it the attention it deserves. Deserves.

And Superman being such a personal character to me, I could watch a Justice League movie or a Flash movie or a Batman movie or whatever, and I could walk in and out of the room and I don't care. But if it's Superman, like, I want to make sure that I'm really there and I'm present for it.

And I just haven't carved out the time, I feel like, to be able to do that, you know, But I've heard good things about it, you know, and also, it's the whole thing of, like, what you grew up with.

Like, I can't imagine whatever anybody does is going to be the same as Christopher Reeve, Superman to me because of all the reasons I just said, the age when I saw it, how formative it was for me, like, just nothing's going to supplant that. Right. And so I just haven't gotten around it yet. But I will, I'll go super fair.

I, the, the trailer, I, I loved and I like James Gunn's work, so I was there all in and, and, and loved it. But, you know, someone, not that long ago, I've shared this before, someone said, what's the last movie you cried at?

And I was like, oh, that, that superdog movie. They're like, what? I was like, oh, the movie about Crypto. Oh, and Superman happened to be there, but Crypto. Yeah, the crypto.

So I, I'm a huge dog lover and I loved how, how Crypto was and, and I, I, I love that movie.

So I, I know Kevin and I both recommend it and, you know, I'm looking forward to Supergirl coming up and what they'll do next in the DC universe with, with James Gunn. But, but yeah, that's here.

I can, I can imagine writing and creating Superman and then turn around and be like, you know, I got my stories, I got my love. I'll, I'll hold off and wait till the right moment. That's fair.

Yeah.

Sometimes too, it feels a little bit like work, you know, Like, I haven't seen a Marvel movie, I haven't seen a Marvel movie or TV show since Endgame. I guess the last DC thing I saw was probably Justice League. Think.

Yeah, you know, I was lots of TV shows or anything like that because it's like, it's hard.

Yeah.

First of all, when you're a writer, it's hard to watch Anything. Like, I could watch documentaries all day long. I can watch sports all day long because I'm not trying. I don't see.

I'm not, you know, sort of reflexively guessing what the plot turns are going to be. And here's the second act. There's the big reveal and whatever. You know, you see a lot of things coming down the track in the way that I'm sure a cop.

When they watch a cop TV show, it's like they can't just separate themselves and be entertained by it. They just default into the setting, you.

Know, and so, like, doctors want watching a medical show. I'm. I'm. I'm a pastor, so I. I stay away from all religious shows and movies. I did. I got. My daughter was like, dad, you have to watch the Good Place.

I was like, no, I'm staying away from that. I'm probably gonna be really judgy. I don't want to do it. But she's like, no, you're gonna love it.

And as I watched the first episode, yep, it's one of the best things I've ever seen. And I'll follow all the way through. It was my favorite. So I. I eventually was like, whatever, but I can understand, like, you're too.

When you're too close to something, you're like. Or you feel like it's going to mess in your headspace of. Of your creative process. Super fair. Super fair.

Yeah. So I'll give her.

Because. Sure. I was going to say I'm really curious to see what.

When we get to the end, what you're geeking out will be because we've talked about that before how, like, a lot of comic creators, like, don't really watch.

I mean, some do, but not all watch, like, the superhero movies and stuff like that for entertainment because you're living in this world from nine to five every day. But, Rob, that died. Well, I'm glad you brought up Ordained, because I do. We want to talk about this book. And there's.

And Rob, I'm glad you said too, that despite the different genres you work in and different types of characters, a lot of the themes in your stories are kind of across the border. So. Yeah, well, I know you got to read this one first, and I read it last night, really enjoyed it. But. But yeah. So let's get into this conversation.

Yeah. Rob, what was the. Was it your pitch? Was someone pitching to you where this come from?

Was this something you had in your mind you wanted to put out or, you know, where. Where did the Origin story for this particular story or comment come from?

Yeah, it was my idea. It's hard to say where ideas come from, you know, like, I don't know, like, all of a sudden there'll be an idea.

And there wasn't a second ago, you know, but I had this idea for. I'm Catholic, you know, so I'm familiar with the process of going to confession and all those kinds of things.

And I had an experience with my grandfather that I was talking about earlier. When he passed away, he was actually in the hospital. He was very, very sick. And this is he. He was in Florida and I was in Atlanta.

And my mom calls me and is like, you know, you need to come down and say goodbye.

So my wife drives me pretty much overnight to get down there and get to the hospital to see him, and by the time I get there, he's like, perfectly healthy. And the doctor is like, we don't know what happened. You know, like, we didn't think he was going to survive the night.

And now we're going to send him home on, like, Thursday.

And I'm talking to my grandfather and he's laughing and whatever, and, you know, I talked to him and I got in the car and I went back home, you know, and so, yeah, you know, I guess those kinds of things just kind of crashed together in my head in some way.

And I had the idea for this story of, you know, what if there's a priest who goes to a hospital to deliver last rites to a patient and a patient's request, he goes in, ends up finding out through the confession that the patient is an Irish mobster and confesses all of the stuff he's done up to and including murder, because he's on his deathbed and he's completely repentant. He's crying and he's scared because he's dying.

And the priest goes through his confession, absolves him of his sins, and then overnight, gangster makes a miraculous recovery. He's no longer going to die, but now he has to kill the priests that he confessed all the crimes to.

You know, and that was kind of the genesis of the original idea, kind of tying in with some of those themes which are expressed very openly. And, you know, in the first issue of the series, you know, it's never too late for us until we die.

You know, we always have a chance to be better people. We can always turn the corner and. And do better. And the story, you know, I wouldn't say the story is so much about religion as is about faith.

You know, like Father Roy, our main character, he believes in God.

Cormac Byrne, the mobster, he kind of believes in himself, you know, and his men, his men that work for him believe in him like he's their God, you know. Yeah.

And the cop that's trying to, you know, send Cormac burn to jail no matter what it costs, doesn't really believe in anything, you know, and so all these people have faith in certain things in different ways. And how does, how does that faith be the religious faith, or whatever it is, or absence of faith?

How does it impact their decisions and cause them to do things that keep the story moving forward? And as you go throughout the series, you'll meet additional characters that have those same things.

You know, they're looking at it from different ways. And, and, you know, I just thought that would be an interesting story to do.

It would give me a chance to do a grounded crime story, which I'd never had a chance to do before. I'm always looking to work in genres that I haven't worked in before. And then we added the extra element, so I had that idea.

And then it was like, but what else? You know, and the what else is you end up finding out that, you know, Roy wasn't always a priest.

He's his next Nasiel, who found his faith in combat and then became a priest. And so lost, the Irish mob is trying to kill him. He's a guy that can't easily be killed.

To the surprise of everyone, you know, nobody knows this about him. And so that's kind of our big setup for the series, you know. Yeah, I think you nail it.

I, I, you know, his piety, the traditions of the church, but also the kind of greediness of the characters around him and what he has to navigate as someone who has made hospital visits and being stopped being said, hey, I have a thought. Can I get your thought on this, or can you come pray with.

I'm there to see somebody else, but I get diverted because somebody wants to do something else, but then pulled aside or in a, or elevator conversation, really human elements in here that I, that I really enjoyed and resonated with. And you just know that, that Father Roy has a, has a deeper past, a past there that that will emerge.

I'm curious, how, how many issues were this first arc be? What, what do you got planned? What, what this of how.

Yeah, yeah.

The core story is three issues, but in between two and three is a zero issue about a character called the Machine, who is the big hitman that Cor McBurn, the Irish mobster is trying to get to go kill Father Roy, but he can't get him on the phone. Turns out even Hitman have a busy season. He's on another job.

And so it kind of tells the story of his day, you know, leading up to issue three, when now the machine and Father Roy are going to crash together. And the Machine is a very blue collar hitman, takes his work very seriously, adheres to his own standards and ethics and doesn't cut corners.

And you know, he's going to run into Father Roy. And that leads us to, you know, the big climax at the end.

So, yeah, there's no like supernatural element like that. It's not like demons are going to emerge from this, you know, that it's like, it is like a grounded crime. John Wick.

It is extremely grounded. Yeah, it's extremely around it. A lot of that kind of stuff. Yeah, none of that kind of stuff at all.

You know, I wouldn't say there's a lot of gun fu or anything like that, you know. Yeah. Wanted to keep it really grounded in that way because again, I haven't had a chance.

You know, I write Green Lantern and Superman and X Amount of War and whatever, you know, and even the other books I do for Bad Idea, you know, Planet Death is this, you know, World War II space story, you know, and so, you know, tend to do things that aren't grounded like that. And I love those kinds of stories. You know, in terms of television, I love things like NYPD Blue. Right. Or in terms of comics.

When I very first started reading comics, Gotham Central was one of the books on the stands. It's one of my favorite things I've ever written, ever read, you know, and so really, really love those kind of really grounded stories and.

But just hadn't had an opportunity to do them too many too much. And so saw this as an opportunity to do that. So when I pitched the idea to Bad Idea, yeah, they were really excited about it.

Saw the, I felt like, you know, every once in a while you have an idea and you feel like, I think I might have a good one here, you know, this might be a good one. Whereas most of the time you don't really know.

You know, this was one that I felt pretty good about and I had already had the pitch written and everything. Wasn't sure what I was going to do with it except to just shop it around.

And I have a really good relationship with Bad Idea and the people that work there. And so they were the first people I showed it to and was very happy when they. They saw the same potential in it that I did.

And we're on board with it. And so, yeah, very excited to have it out now. You know, I don't have a copy yet because my cops still haven't arrived, so I got mine, you guys.

Well, I'll take Kevin. Kevin read it digitally. I got a hard copy at my local comic store down in Wilmington. And they.

I love the, like, old school, like, newsprint paper, like, wig. I don't know if it was a bad idea. It's not, like, really glossy. It's like a newsprint from, like, the 70s and 80s.

Yeah. Yeah. So I heard that it was on newsprint, which I love because it's super me. It's gonna make it feel more gritty and pulpy.

You know, it probably has a smell to it, right?

So it's like there's like an olfactory kind of inkiness to it, you know, that you get it on your fingers, you get a little dirty when you read it, you know, and so I'm really excited about that, too. What's your stop at Wilmington? Is it Memory Lane?

It is his memory lane.

Yep. Yeah, tell us, guys. I will.

My. I'm in Chapel Hill now and, you know, go to ultimate here, but. But my first comic store I ever went into as a.

As a little kid was Memory Lane way back in the early 80s. And so I still connect with Jacob and go and pop in when I go down to see my mom down there.

So, yeah, I had a little mask. Right. Yeah, I will now.

Have you worked with this artist?

Hello. But I said, hey, too. I haven't talked to this, so I would tell him I will. Yeah.

Have you worked with this artist before with Valiant? A Trevor hair sign. Is that.

Yeah. So Valiant, I worked with Trevor on two issues of Exo, man of War.

In the very beginning, it was like, issue 11 and 12, maybe, or 8 and 9 or 9 and 10, something like that. It was the prelude to the big Armor Hunter storyline that we ended up doing.

And so I worked with him, and he's somebody I'd always wanted to get back to. And his style is so great for the story because he's very heavy with the inks.

And, you know, you get that all those blacks on the page, you know, give you that grittiness and, you know, that crime, that noir feel, but also doubly so when your main character's a priest and wears, you know, a black outfit with a white. Just a pop of White the whole time, you know, and so was really, really excited to work with Trevor.

And, you know, he's already finished with issue two. He's already drawn the zero issue with the Machine. And so a lot.

A lot of really good stuff coming up, you know, and it's nice because Trevor, he's very good with action, but he's also really good at conveying the conversations. And those are the moments that are really the most important to the book.

When Father Roy is talking with Cormac Byrne on his deathbed and you see the emotion in his face, or when he's riding in the elevator with the police officer and they have their conversation. And there's a scene in the second issue where Father Roy is riding in a.

In a car with a police officer and they have a discussion and just really love those things. And there's elements that he did. I. I don't have the comic or I'd hold it up. So maybe Will you can.

But, like, if you look at one of the early pages, I think it's page two, there's a big image of Father maybe page three, he's leaving the church, and the church is very big in the background. And Father Roy. Yeah, they're right there. Right. So. So the Father Roy is carrying his sacramental bag right now.

He knows he's on the way to the hospital. Give last rights.

And so what's inside that bag are essentially all the elements that you would see if you went to a Catholic church on the altar when you do communion, it has the host in it, it has candles, it has a crucifix, all these things. And that's what he takes to go do last rites on the road.

And if you look at the way that Trevor drew that, where he's holding on to the strap of the bag, it's like, is he holding onto the strap of the bag because he's protecting the contents of the bag, or is he holding onto the strap of the bag because he feels like the contents are protecting him? And it's like a security blanket, you know, it's like elements like that that he does to the art that. I don't write that in the script.

You know, that's Trevor bringing his own sensibilities to it. And really, the end result ends up being something much more affecting than just words on a In a word doc, you know, so.

Yeah, and Rob, one of the cool things about this book is I actually discovered it not on a comics website, but reading Hollywood Reporter. And this is when I reached out to you?

Because I was reading this article and, you know, saw a headline about a Bad idea comic being adapted and I was like, oh, that's cool. And then it says, you know, new book from Robert Van did he. I was like, wait, I know that guy.

And so, but this is a really cool thing because the comic is being made in conjunction with the movie version, which Derek Kolstead, who you've collaborated with before spearheading, he's one of the creators of the John Wick franchise. So can you talk about that aspect, how, you know, it's a great comic and also, you know, it's being paired with the cinematic element as well.

Yeah. So yeah, Derek Kad is creator John Wick SCREENWRITER for I can't remember which films, but I think the first three.

But the character John Wick is actually named after his grandfather. His grandfather's name is John Wick. I was working with him on Plan of Death, which is a.

The sci fi World War II type story that we're doing for a bad idea. I was co. Running that with him.

And so I'd gotten to know him and Ordained was already completely written and was in the process of being drawn and Bad Idea, you know, was like, hey, would you want to take a look at this? You know, we're, we're putting it out probably sometime next year, but we think you'd be a good fit for it. And he read it and he loved it.

You know, he read the script and actually absolutely loved it and so decided that he wanted to adapt it, which is just such a huge compliment. You know, Derek's sensibilities are so good. He's such a strong writer.

I remember watching John Wick and just being absolutely blown away by the mythology that he was able to create. The sense of world building, you know, and so much of it was genius.

It's one of those things you watch as a writer and you're like, man, I wish I thought of that stuff, you know, like the guys are coming and clean up after you kill them, and they got little squeegees and they're just like house cleaners, but they're cleaning up dead bodies, you know, and all these little things, the gold coins and all that stuff, you know, the hotel that you're not allowed to kill anybody in. It's their only safe place. And so absolutely loved all that stuff.

And so when he said he wanted to come aboard, such a, such a huge compliment, you know, and, and then from there, you know, he put together his, his treatment based off the comic and what we've done in the comic and you know, Bad Idea showed that to, to Colin Farrell and was I think the first actor we showed it to and Colin Farrell was very excited and has come on board to, to star as Father Roy. And so yeah, so it's moving, moving forward at a pretty good pace. And you know these things are very complicated.

A lot of things that have to happen for them to come together and ultimately get to the screen.

I know that from experience with surrogates, but we definitely have started out with you know, top, top, top people for this type of story that, that we're telling and they seem to be very enthusiastic about it and so it's a good place to be this, you know.

I hope he keeps his Irish accent. I hope they like lean into, they lean into Catholic. Irish Catholic.

We'll see those things happen. Above my pay grade. Yeah, we'll see what happens. Yeah.

Fun.

Well I, I really like it and can't recommend it enough and so I hope those, you know, tune in to the channel, listen to the pod, run out to your local store, library or digital, wherever you get digital comics and find it and I'll be, I'll be looking forward to see how it unfolds in this first story arc. And knowing that it be down the road, something I'm, I'm watching on, on the smaller big screen would be is a lot of fun too.

Like I say, I was there as beginning when it all began with issue number one.

It's a cool thing. And Rob, what are some other things you're working on now? Anything you want to plug?

Yes, I've got plan of death I'm doing with Bad Idea. I also do a story called Survive.

That's a bit of a espionage story about a Russian submarine that sinks at the bottom of the ocean and there's only two survivors. One is a Russian sailor and the other is the American saboteur who sank the ship.

And they go to war against each other in this 300 foot long submarine. So we've got that. I announced another project with Derek Kolstad. They'll be offering Bad Idea next year called Warbird.

That's more of a, I would say espionage sort of type story. It's about a, a mercenary type guy, a private contractor I guess if you will, who can drive anything and he gets hired to steal.

He gets hired by the American government to steal a high tech Russian fighter jet. So we're, we've got that, that we're doing. I'm trying to remember which Things have been announced and. Which haven't I have about.

Yeah, I don't think the other one has been announced yet. So those would be the ones that I could talk about for right now. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Are there any, like, characters or you. You mentioned, like, Thundercats. Are there other things out there that you're like. That would be my dream job.

I would love to write that character or if Marvel or DC or.

Yeah.

Images go with you.

And he said, yeah, yeah, dc. The two that I always wanted to do, I never got a chance to do was the JSA to write a Golden age JSA book with that original cast.

And you could see that I try to squeeze them in whenever I can. Yeah, yeah. And I ended up being able to do a Wesley Dodd Sandman story with Riley Rossmo. We did a six miniseries of that.

Which I really don't. You know, that book was beautiful. You guys did great.

Yeah.

Yep, yep.

So, you know, I would love to do Our man and Wildcat and all those guys. And also Nightwing. You know, like, I'm not a Batman person at all. Like, I don't. You know, Batman is too dark and too negative for.

I'm a Superman guy, not a Batman guy. Right. But. But I like Nightwing. I think Nightwing is kind of like the Clark Tant of the Bat family, you know, so.

And I would like to rest Nightwing at Marvel. I've always wanted to write Cap. Then what was the one somebody said to me the other day? Oh, the Fantastic Four.

I watched the Fantastic Four film, the most recent one with Pedro Pascal and all that, and I know this is cool. I think I could write this as a comic.

You know, I could write these characters, the whole idea of family and all those kinds of things, you know, and so I guess those would be the ones from those sort of mainstream universes. Cool.

Well, we'll keep plugging your work and. And tooting your horn and. And promoting Ordained as well. And maybe after that first arc is done, coming back on and. And once it's said and done or.

Or get ready for it, if there's any more development with movie and stuff, we'll. We'll have you back on to kind of promote and do that kind of stuff, too. That would be fun.

Yeah. I appreciate it. Whatever you guys need. Always happy to talk to y'. All. So thanks.

All right, so, Kevin, as wrap up here, what are we geeking out on? You know, we are the priests to the geeks. We are geekologists.

We. We.

Can think about it. But.

But what?

Other than Stranger Things? Because I know you're gonna say straight.

Out of that, yeah, of course, yeah. Other actors we know.

That's a given. That's a given. All right. What?

Yeah, no, it was fun. I actually got to see the finale. Well, at home first, but then in theaters on New Year's Day. That was a lot of fun.

We'll do our full breakdown of that later. But I've been going back to. Something is Killing the Children, which is a book I really liked by James Tinian and Worth.

And I'm never going to pronounce his name right, so I won't really try there. But. But that. But also kind of in the vein of Stranger Things.

It's a really good horror comic that has that kind of like the missing kids feel, monsters that only kids can see. I love the art, so I'm going to. That from the beginning.

Is that pitch to be like a TV or movie as well? Because I know the first issue is skyrocketing on ebay and which I had the first issue, I was like, I think I have that. And it's like 400, 500.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I have them all in trades. But yeah, they are developing it as a series like Rob was talking about.

I mean, you know, of course it takes a lot to, like, actually get it to. But I believe it. It might be. Netflix is working on that. I think I read about it, but. But it would be a great series if they. I mean, they.

They certainly need a good Stranger Things replacement, so it makes sense.

It would. It would. Cool. I like it.

Rob, what are you geeking out on these days?

Oh, man. Well, college basketball season just started, so I'm heavy into that. I watch college basketball pretty much not.

I graduated from University of Florida, so University of Florida is my team. Current reigning champions. Yeah. My second team is Providence College because all my family is originally from Providence, Rhode Island.

I used to spend my summers up there when I was a kid. The very first NCAA tournament I ever watched was the year Providence College went to the Final Four. And so big Providence College fan, too. So. Yeah.

So those. I'm reading Cormac McCarthy right now. I don't know how geeky that is, but I'm waiting for cars to you.

I'm reading Blood Meridian, which I'd never read. Yeah, yeah, it's fascinating. It's like every single sentence in the book is better than anything I'll ever write in my life.

It's crazy how he does it. Nice. So I'm reading that. What am I watching on TV right now? I read David Milch's book recently. He wrote a book a few years ago.

David Milch was the creator of NYPD Blue, Deadwood, a couple other TV series. And so I read his book. It's kind of about his life, but also a bit about writing. Then when that was over, I re. Watched all of Deadwood.

Just finished that last week. I guess that's kind of what I've been into lately. Yeah. Nice. Yeah. Yeah.

I. You know, I. I'm liking what. I'm geeking out on what DC's doing with DC KO I'm loving the tie ins. I'm loving that event is fun.

Loved.

Yeah, we had fun with Stranger Things, but.

But one, a show that city and I discovered is a Man on the Inside, which is Ted Danson as a retiree widow who is a turned amateur private investigator. It's Michael Schur, who's the same one. Same dude who did Parks and Rec and. And the Good Place. And as I was watching it, like, the.

The cut shots, the editing, the music, and just how much I love every single character on the show. I'm like. Like, I think this is my church. Because this is like a spitting image of. Of the Good Place. And sure enough, that's what it is.

And we just finished season two last night. And it really is charming. It's good. It's fun. I. I was like, all right, I gotta watch another.

I wanna.

I wanna see who did it. It's a really low fake mystery without, like, you know, all the. After watching Wake Up Dead man and.

And all those kinds of things, I'm like, okay, what's going on? And then. This was good. So I highly recommend a man on the Inside. Go, go check it out. It's a. It's an easy watch. It's a fun watch.

Yeah.

Cool. Well, that was fun, Rob. Thanks for being here. Yeah. And I'll let. I'll let Kevin do some plugs and sign us off here. He's the best at it.

Absolutely. We'll go check out Rob's books. You know, you can get them wherever. In your comic shop especially, or at bookstores.

Follow him on Rob, what's your Instagram handle?

I know I follow you, but Instagram.

Twitter is just Robert Vendetti. So you can find me there. You know, Great.

Awesome.

And yeah, just again, just click on the description here in the show to find out more ways you can support us. And thank you all for geeking out with us. Hope you all have a great week and happy New Year.

Appreciate it, guys. Thanks so much.

Peace.

Thanks, Rob, Sam.