Robserecaps Eighteen – episode 50 Robert Kirkman
by Joe
A first for Robservations, a one on one interview with a creator the Rob has heaped tons of praise upon, writer of Invincible, the Walking Dead and so much more, Robert Kirkman!
- The Rob credits Kirkman for getting him interested in comics again, cites his work at Image got them back on track as a publisher
- Kirkman stars the interview with a joke, “You know it’s hard to get one of your closest friends on the podcast”
- Kirkman loves the podcast as it gives the fans a look at the private the Rob
- Kirkman first approached the Rob to get him to read Battle Pope, which the Rob declined immediately, but loved everything about Invincible
- While at the printer for the 2000’s Youngblood run, Kirkman’s Brit was also being printed, BUT the guts of the book were tossed out, and the Rob crawled in the dumpster to get the uncut eight page proofs of the book
- The Rob states his destiny is to ink a Robert Kirkman drawn cover
- Kirkman’s first comic was a Captain America book from around 1987, but has very little recollection of it, but the first impact comics had on him was his dad buying him a stack of Iron Man books (Armor Wars 2 era) thinking Iron Man was a spin off of Metal Men, a book Kirkman’s father read in his youth
- in his little Kentucky town, the only “comic store” Kirkman had access to was a Marvel only spinner rack at his local Wal-Mart, from there Robert was on the lookout everywhere, gas stations, grocery stores, to find any comics
- Kirkman didn’t see his first comics store, Comic Interlude in Woodland Park, KY, until 1992, where he first saw DC, Vertigo and Image comics
- in 2006, while working at Marvel still, with the Walking Dead coming out, Brian Haberlin, the head of McFarlane’s studio, reached out to Kirkman to write Spawn, which got Robert his first meeting with Todd McFarlane
- at their meeting, Todd was barefoot and his feet looked very worse for wear. Todd has flown and done meetings with major film studios bare foot.
- to announce Haunt, Kirkman pitched him being a plant in the audience for a McFarlane panel, pretending they never met before
- the Rob chastises the ‘Harrumph Harrumphs’ who say Squadron Supreme and Legion being echos of other comics are OK because those guys are friends, but when the Rob does his own version of Ka-Zar in a Youngblood Yearbook, that’s thievery
- The Rob likens the original Image crew to David Lee Roth Van Halen and the Kirkman Image to the Sammy Hagar (known for his song You Can’t Drive 55) Van Halen
- Kirkman tells a story of attending the Marvel Retreat that spawned World War Hulk. Robert wasn’t working on a ‘center of the universe’ book (was working on Ultimate X-Men and Irredeemable Ant-Man), but he was flown into New York. At the meeting, Brian Michael Bendis and Dan Slott tore the World War Hulk concept apart and Robert kept his mouth shut.
- After the Retreat, Joe Quesada (then editor in chief) emailed Kirkman how disappointed he was in his performance, didn’t speak up, etc. and felt they wasted a flight on him. Robert apologized, offered to fly himself out for the next Retreat, but was never invited back.
- Silver lining to the Marvel Retreat story, when AMC was developing the Walking Dead, Robert’s contact said he could submit one script, he flew himself to Hollywood, pitched a ton of stuff, which all got used on the show and ended up moving to Hollywood at the start of season two to be in the writers room full time
- The Rob begins to tell a story of a dinner the Rob & his family had with Kirkman’s family before the quarantine, which Robert interrupts to include the Rob going up to random people’s tables saying “that looks good, what is that?’ and giving Robert’s son grief for ordering a veggie burrito which caused the Rob to shout out ‘BORING!’
- Kirkman feels the best writers are ‘writer/artists’ even if your art is rudimentary at best
- Kirkman’s favorite licensed item from his properties is a McFarlane Toys Michonne statue, inspired by the Star Wars Unleashed toys
- Robert would love to have the Transformers or Death Race 2000 licenses at Skybound
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