Jordan, Jesse, GO! - Bike Guy, with Brian Bendis

Episode Date: January 15, 2026

On today’s episode, we welcome comic book legend, Brian Bendis, to the show to chat with us about getting older, landing his dream job, the shift in comic culture, and much more.On today’s episode, we welcome comic book legend, Brian Bendis, to the show to chat with us about getting older, landing his dream job, the shift in comic culture, and much more.* Follow Brian on Instagram. *Read more about Brian's return to the Marvel Comic Universe with Avengers#34! *Pre-order Jordan's new Web of Venom comic. *Say hello to Jordan at Pasadena Comic Con on January 25!*Check out Jesse and Judge John Hodgman LIVE at San Francisco Sketchfest.*Catch Jesse and Judge John Hodgman LIVE for Night Court at the Bell House in NYC on March 6th and 7th! * Celebrate 25 years of Bullseye!* Order Jordan’s new Predator comic: Black, White & Blood!* Order Jordan’s new Venom comic!* Donate to Al Otro Lado.* Purchase signed copies of *Youth Group* and *Bubble* from Mission: Comics And Art! ~ NEW JJGo MERCH ~Get  Bronto Dino-Merch!Get our ‘Ack Tuah’ shirt in the Max Fun store.Grab an ‘Ack Tuah’ mug!The Maximum Fun Bookshop!Follow the podcast on Instagram and send us your dank memes!Check out Jesse’s thrifted clothing store, Put This On.Follow new producer, Jordan Kauwling, on Instagram.Thank you to Engineer Valerie Moffat!

Give a little time for the child within you. Don't be afraid to be young and free. Under the locks and throw away the keys and take off your shoes and sucks and run you. It's Jordan Jesse Go. I am Jesse Thorne, America's Radio, sweetheart. Jordan Morris, going into 2026. Skin tag free! Wow.

All ready for this. Is this what our show is now, Jordan? Are we going to talk about having a hard time urinating as well? Yeah, why not? prostate problems Now I wake up twice a night to pee. Where did you have a skin tag, Jordan? They were all over my face.

It's nice of you to pretend like you hadn't been noticed the disgusting excess skin flaps coming off of my face and eyes for years and years. But I did it. I got them removed and I'm feeling great. Went to the dermatologist for an eczema issue and they're like, while you're here, do you want us to burn off them tags?

And I'm like, why not, right? you know? I got the moneymaker gesturing to the face. You know, everything's pivoting to video these days. We were talking about it off, Mike, pivoting to video. It's happening. And I just want this thing to be as pristine as possible. So the nice dermatologist, who I found on Zoc Doc, do they sponsor the show anymore? I don't know.

I found them on Zock, they're great. A nice dermatologist said, we'll burn off them tags. And they had a machine. And I kind of thought it was going to be, like, getting a wart removed. Have you ever had a wart removed? Do they, like, freeze it off? I thought that was going to happen, but it's really a red-hot needle that hurts a lot. The warp removal is fine. I've done it before. I'm a pretty warty guy in general, so I'm used to it.

I've always said you were warts them. Thank you. I consider that a compliment. Daddy warty, they say under all my Instagram photos. Daddy warty. But they have this superheated needle that is terrifying. It is connected to a box. in the wall that powers up and goes, you know that? Yeah. You know, like a sinister is powering up. They just plug it into the wall. Yeah, and it's like that beige color that the,

you know, all the equipment is on spaceships in the aliens franchise. Yeah, I'm familiar. This is a color that is specific to medical equipment and computers from 1989. Yeah. And so, so the guy post. tag one and it hurts so fucking bad and I clearly made a face like I was an awful pain and he's like do you want us to numb your face and then I I felt like a big baby because he didn't like offer the numbing initial I'm like well they don't I assume this is just

something that big boys do you know get them tags off so I'm like no no no I'll I'll be fine just how many got three more and he looks at me and he goes I'm gonna numb your face. I just said it. I had such a cowardly tremble in my voice. He knew he had to numb the face. So the face got numb. The tags got burned off. It still kind of hurt a lot, but I'm tag free and I'm feeling good. I got to tell you, I had a very similar dermatology adventure. Yeah. Or let's say, narrative, which is I had like, I had a mole that my doctor wanted me to have a, you know, take to the dermatologist. Yeah.

So I'd never been to the dermatologist before. And I had always had either no health insurance or managed care. Right. But five or so years ago, it got to where my children had a lot of very specialized needs and managed care was a real nightmare to deal with. So we just took all our money and spent it on the fanciest PPO insurance that Max Fun offers. So, you know, we have to send them all our money, but we can go to any doctor we want. And I didn't even know that was a thing before. Like literally, I don't know, my therapist or somebody

said, you know, you have PPO insurance. You can just go to any doctor you want. I was like, really? They're like, yeah, as long as they take insurance. And I was like, oh. So anyway, they sent me to the dermatologist for this mole or whatever. They cut this mole out. And when you go to the dermatologist, apparently what they do. And this was like, this was not a Gwyneth Paltrow dermatology practice. You know what I mean? Like, this was a mole. room. This was a room of people beset by growths. Right. Yeah. I think I've been to, like, definitely when I lived in West Hollywood, I went to a few dermatologists and I'm like, oh, you do tits. Yeah. Like me, me pointing at the weird thing under my armpit, um, that is not typically

what you do. You are, you were there for, to do tits, but, um, yeah, uh, yeah, but so I know what you mean. Now, I go in there, they, you know, they have to like, biopsy this mold. It was not cancerous, thank goodness. But then they're just like, well, while you're here, and you're like, what? Well, I'm here. That's a big dermatologist thing while you're here. Yeah. And they just started shooting me with freeze rays all over.

Yeah. And then the next thing that happened was they're like, I like went to pay, you know. And again, this is like a factory farm situation. This is not a fancy room that I'm in. But I went to pay and they're like, great. So we'll see you in three months. And I was like, I don't know. Okay, sure.

I don't need a referral or something. You probably have more growths by then. Yeah. So I just signed the thing and, you know, picked a time, and I've just been coming back every three months since. And they'll just shoot some shit with freeze rays while I'm there. Hell yeah. It's the best.

Do you want to introduce our guests and see what kind of skin issues he's had over the years? That's what people want to know. Man, health and wellness is where this is where this podcast industry is headed. and we're just following the trends. Health and wellness means you just list growths you've had, right? That's what a health and wellness podcast is. Yeah, yeah. Call us Goop.

We're ready to jump ship at Max Fun. We're coming over to the Goop Network. Our guest on the program, a genuine legend of comic book writing. He's celebrating 25 years of his legendary comic book. Powers at Dark Horse Comics. Then he is also headed back to Marvel to write a comic book called The Avengers, which is, I don't know if people are familiar with Aero Man, but he's one of

the Avengers. They're sort of like an American Alpha Flight, Brian Michael Bendis. And I famously murdered Alpha Flight off panel. So my wife's Canadian, so you can figure out what I was going on there. But anyway, thank you guys. I'm so happy I can be additive to this conversation as I do believe, if I'm wrong, I, I may be, I have some years on you. I might be slightly older than both of you. So I'm here to tell you that you think it's messy now. Wait to get to your 50s. Holy shit. What kind of growth do we have to look forward to? It's just like me and I've quite a few friends, some people in our industry who are of this similar age. And we are, um, as a group stunned,

that nobody warned us. Like, you, you heard, like, things about your 40s or things about just being old, but, like, 50s is messy because you're not old, like, emotionally or physically, but parts of you have ground to a halt. Like, my food metabolism is just, it's just gone. Like, you know, we were joking about, you know, listening to Doe Boys as if it was some kind of thing.

Because I can't eat that shit anymore. Like, you know. When you have stomach issues, listening to the doughboys podcast. It's like watching a saw movie. Yeah. Or the sexiest thing you've ever heard because you can't be part of it,

but, you know, he doesn't want to hear them. It's an erotic film featuring a thing you'll never do. They were talking about some shitty I-Hop menu item, and I was really like licking my lips going, no, I don't want that. It's just, anyway. It's bad. But you want to imagine a world where you can go in

and eat, you know, Sonic the Hedgehog branded me. Yeah, but just the physicality of being in your 50s. Like, you can do everything you can do in your 40s, but just that everything hurts the next day. Just like hurts. Yeah, like, oh, my leg won't move right now. Okay, I'll just sit here. So, yeah, that's what's coming.

Enjoy your skin tags. I have a sizable growth in my inner thigh. Ooh. That really had gotten to extraordinary proportions before I noticed it because it's in the crease between my, intimate area and my leg area, there's an area that does not see the light of day. Like a herbaceous cyst or something? Goodness only knows. I got to show it to my dermatologist and see what they have to say.

Herbacious cyst was my favorite member of Alpha Flight. Also, they opened for the go-goes. Right, that too, yes. When I was a younger man, I had herbaceous cyst near my knee, and I got to go to the doctor. and the doctor was like, we can do local anesthetic, and if you want, you can watch the surgery. Like, you can just sit up and watch us do it. I'm like, yeah, I don't want to do that.

And it was larger. It was a little bit of a golf ball. It was just, just crap. And they did it, and I couldn't feel it. And they were just cutting my skin right in front of me, just cutting it open, this big. They pulled out the golf ball. And I remember I could see my bone of my leg.

I could see my femur. What? And I was like, oh, I'm, I'm going to lie down now. Like this is like, and also not being able to feel it kind of made it worse. I am perhaps not as metal as I thought I was. Yeah, no, like, good night. You do the rest.

I trust you. Yeah. And I wondered if I was going to have a history of those, but it never happened again. When you say herbaceous, is it covered in this stash? I don't know. I don't know. Is this like the salad you get with your falafel? It could have been a Stanley word I made up or something.

I don't know. But I remember that's what they called it. You can let us know in the comments. I actually, I was concerned that in order to show the doctor this growth that I have now, I'm going to have to be fully nude. And I haven't had really occasion to show a medical professional my junk. Right. Oh, really?

Yeah, I'm just not at that point. I've never had any junk problems. Well, welcome from the future. Here it comes. I'm definitely going to have to do some of those... He's going to have to do some of those medical six-seven motions with my scrote coming up. But I realized I'd have to be nude.

And it reminded me that Jordan, now that Maximum Fun HQ is in downtown Los Angeles. Yes. This is where I'm speaking to you from now. Now that Max Fun HQ is in the jewelry district, we are like blocks away from the Los Angeles athletic club. And so I like wandered over there and they gave me a tour and gave me some passes. And first of all, maybe I'm just like a guy that hangs out at the athletic club now. I don't know. It's a little bit expensive but not as expensive as I thought it would be. Like it's more than the why, but it's not as much as something else. And they have like on the tour, they were like,

oh, poke your head in the locker room. You can see how nice our locker room is. And I looked in and I'm like, oh, look, there's a television and a sofa. You know what I mean? That's pretty nice. This is a lot nicer than the Y. But then when I used my pass, I brought Frankie, my youngest kid. And we went swimming and then we went back into the locker room.

And it's like a labyrinth of air. Like there's a cold plunge and a sauna and a, you know, a steam room and a hot tub and a, you know, whirlpool and all these different things. But they all are just full of balls. Right. Right? Like it's... Full of balls.

And because it's the athletic club and not like, you know, a fitness club, you know, it's not Gold's Gym or something. The balls are largely elderly balls. Yeah. Goes to Christmas Future balls. Yeah. And I, I, you know, we've talked about this on the show, Jordan. you as a swimmer have had to to some extent embrace the old man balls lifestyle because you're in locker rooms when you're at the swim club you're at the Y or whatever for me I didn't even have

locker rooms in middle in high school because I went to art school we'd change in the bathroom stalls if we had to change for dance class or whatever and so it is completely new to me. But maybe I'm ready for that part of my life. Yeah, I think, I think now's the time. Brian, do you go into a locker room with any irregularity? No, God, no. I did when I was younger. I grew up in Cleveland, part of the Jewish community. So we had the, you know, the Jewish community center where I saw my fair share of old man balls. And so that was enough for me. I'm also, I'm not a I'm not a gym guy. I don't like the energy.

It's just not me. I'm a big believer in moving around. If you learn anything with Jane Fonda, just keep moving around. Like that's the key, the longevity. I ride my bike everywhere. I'm a bike guy. So that's how I do.

I just keep the heart pumping. But yeah, other than that, no. I got to tell you, you join the athletic club, you don't necessarily have to exercise. Oh, yeah, no, it's a vibe. I have friends that are into the gym culture. I get it.

It's just, yeah, I don't want to have those conversations. I don't, I've tried it. I'm not, I'm not being, I'm not poo-poohing it. It's for other people. It's not for me. I think it's a place to read books. As far as I can tell, it's a place to read books and magazines. So, Jesse, you could go in there.

It sounds like they have a TV. You could just go in there, whip it out and watch, I'm going to guess, tracker. I know. trackers always available. As much college football as I need to watch with my balls being aerated is available to me. They have a comedy night, Jordan. We could be doing stand-up comedy at the athletic club. Wow.

People we know do this comedy night. I didn't know that. Yeah. We could be doing our Zooms over there. I'm excited for your next chapter. Yeah, it's going to be a lot of fun. This lasts a long time, this one. This is good.

I think they ask you to put your... You never age out of this once you hit this. Right, right. It's this till the end. My godfather lived in Washington, D.C. And he was a member of a racket club in Washington, D.C. And I visited him once, and we went and played squash. And I had never played tennis or racquetball or badminton.

I had played no racket sports in my life. I was probably 20. And squash, you like wear superhero goggles, something you would know about Brian, trying to make this relatable. Thank you very much for talking in my language. You wear these superhero goggles, and then you go in this room that looks like what an insane asylum looks like in a movie. Mm-hmm. Like four white walls surrounding you completely and weirdly high ceilings. And then you just smash this little ball crazy hard.

And this is an activity that my godfather did until he was like 86 or something. You know what I mean? Just these wiry old men smashing balls. It is incredible. And when I went and did that with him, I was like, is this old me? Maybe. It could be. Do they have, is that available to you at the athletic club?

They got that at the athletic club. There's like 12 stories at the athletic club. It's in a big old building. It's been there since 1910. I get, because I have kids of a variety of ages. that I'm raising and I also teach college. So I am faced with my real age often. Like no matter how I feel about myself in the world

and also like remembering like when we grew up reading Frank Miller's Dark Night Returns, you remember like Batman came back at the age 55 and I remember going, that's insane. Right. And the joke was, look how old Batman is. Yeah. Oh my God. Now I am older than that, and I'm like, oh, you can be Batman for a day and a half. Sure, he's fine. Just, you know, the weekend will suck.

But you can be Batman. And, but it's remembering what that sounded like to me when I was 20, what this age felt like sounded like through. I have to constantly remind myself what that is. And it's spun out because like my kids are my kids and they're all of an age where I actually like to be like educated how they perceive things and how they perceive the culture, more than like, you know what I mean? Like my 14-year-old daughter watches Gilmore Girls religiously

and listens to the killers and I'm constantly going, do you know how old that song is? Like I'm like, she like, and they don't. They have no idea if it's a new or old song. It's just song from TikTok, you know? And that fascinates me to no end. But I am teaching,

I teach comics writing over here in Portland State. And when we get to like breaking down like three-act structure, like the most structurally structured conversation and I always dive to the original Star Wars because it is the most unapologetically three-act structure, right? So I'm like, hey, let's let's talk, and everyone's seen it. And then, but this year, for the first time ever,

one of my students goes, do you mean the old Star Wars, the old independent British Star Wars? I go, independent British, and I go, no, the Star Wars, so Luke Skywalker, yeah, the old British movie. I'm like I go who here who?

Yeah. And I go, What did he think you were talking about? I know. I said no. And I go, Kind hearts and coronets. Who in the class hasn't seen the original Star Wars

and they all raised their hands? None of them had seen it. And they had seen like a star, like someone goes, I've seen a Star War like that someone had referred to it that way. And like none of them had seen it. And I go, oh, why haven't you seen it?

And I go, so I'm at 20, I'll see it eventually. It came out like 50 years ago. Like it's on my list. We'll get to it. Yeah. On my letterbox. I just haven't gotten to it. And I'm like, all right, everyone puts their heads down.

We're having quiet time now because I need the process. Can you just take up a class to show it to them? Is that within your power feature? I do really give them a lot of things to read and watch and listen to and from all generations. But like class time is so precious. Like you don't want to like use any of it to show. Like I even like show a clip from adaptation where like Robert McKee let's Nicholas Cage have it. Right.

and even that seven minutes, I feel like I don't want to waste their seven minutes showing them something. But yeah. So I did. I need to pivot away from the skin tag. No, no, no. It's an age thing. We'll get back to body horror. Oh, yeah.

But it's an age concept that I am processing all the time. Like I'm thrilled on this age. Like I'm like, oh, great. Made it. Fantastic. But like nothing about the culture or how people perceive the culture. or what comic books turned into is anything what I thought was going to be.

Like, none of it. And I think about it all the time. What's different about comic books? Well, that they're everywhere and that there's a base knowledge of the Marvel universe, particularly that the culture has. I remember during the pandemic,

like during Wanda Vision, like Jimmy Wu was trending. And I was like, everyone knows who Jimmy Wu is. People know who Groot is. Yeah, Groot. I mean, they're like, Like Leslie Jones does group bits.

Like, you know, and like it's, it is so entrenched in the culture what would have been, even for us, the hardcoreest of minutia. I love it, but I'm stunned. And it's also nice to be part of that mostly positive conversation. You know what I mean? Like it's like my kids aren't embarrassed by what I do. It's like something people have heard of, you know? It's incredible.

But not also like when I was coming up, not to be, he all old-manded, but like I, I, I, I, I remember what my dreams. I talked about skin tags, Brian. Feel free to old man it if you want to. But I remember what my dreams were. Like what my goals were as a comic book creator. And none of them involved TV or film or games or any of this. None of this existed.

None of it was even like a concept. And it all kind of grew around us as my generation of creators was marching into mainstream. And I kind of got to ride right along with it. But none of it was the goal. So when I'm talking to younger creators today, and now we're maybe two or three generations into readers who now only see it this way, you know, fascinating.

And that's just American comics. I talk to my students about their manga reading habits, which can be very intense. And my favorite is one, like, they'll say, I read like 75 chapters of this before I bailed on it. I'm like, oh, there's not an American creator in the world that would be, ugh. It's like there's a lot of Marvel comics.

There's a fucking lot of manga. No, but like I assume we have about six, seven pages before they bail on us. Like if you don't bring it, right? But with manga, I'll give it 147 volumes before I decide if I like it or not. Ah, jealous, envious. Brian, you mentioned your kids not being embarrassed of you and that being a nice story. Well, you know, not for that. For the profession thing.

For the profession thing. I'm a loud Jewish father. There's a lot that I do that embarrasses them. Jesse, where are your kids at with podcasting? That's an interesting question. My 12-year-old and I had a conversation about Judge John Hodgman and Jordan Jesse Goh and Bullseye. And she did not seem to know what my job is. I had one of those recently, too.

I talk about it a lot. You know what I mean? like my kids complain about my habit of if we're watching yogi bear the movie, I'm, I'll say, oh, that's our friend Andy Daley. Who I think is a genius. Oh, of course, of course. Absolutely. All right thinking Americans know Andy Daley is a genius.

But like, you know, if I see Rob Hubell in something, I'm excited to see Rob Hubell and to the point where my children will mock me for it. And yet my 12-year-old did not seem to know, she knew I have a show. You know what I mean? Like, she was aware that a show, she's seen it before and didn't remember anything about it. That's where I'm at with my children. Okay. We did a show at the video store, videotech, with our friend Luce.

A lot of fun. And Gracie came to that, and she had a really nice time. And she got to see Jordan, you and me be funny for an audience. and the audience enjoyed it, and she thought that was pretty neat. But, like, in general, like, even there was a period where all Scarlett, my 12-year-old could think about was basketball. And, like, I had a basketball, all-star Demar de Rosen on Bullseye, and, like, he made a little video for her, like, just to hi, you know, keep up the good work kind of video.

And it made no impact. It was as though DeMar de Rosen had chosen to do that. as an unimportant to her hobby of his that had nothing to do with me. He just, like, he just says random kids' names and makes videos. Yeah. Like, they are utterly baffled by, I think if I could get them to come to a Judge John Hodgman show or something. Do your kids, Brian, ever, like, look at the comics that you write? I go out of my way not to overwhelm them with anything that's going on in my life.

I couldn't imagine anything less cool than me just constantly talking about myself as a dinner table when I'm honestly not even interested in doing that. And also I've just learned through all kinds of friendships and stuff. It's better if they find it on their own. Like it's better. And then you go, please read this and tell me you like me, is not fun. But my oldest is an adult and she has entered the industry. She just graduated at film school and she is on her path.

And she is when we communicate with each other. It's very, you know, very career idea, like what a career in Hollywood is. And, you know, what, and she's in a much different lane than me. So we can completely enjoy each other's spaces. And so that, that conversation is tremendous. And I love it. And she's very aware of, like, the things that have landed well for us and stuff, like, you know, and how special that is and how unique it is.

and my two teenage daughters right now have that beautiful... Conan O'Brien said it. He goes, the most healthy indifference to anything going on in my space, which is exactly how they shouldn't care. But they've also had some over-the-top moments in our life. We get invited to some stuff every once in a while.

Like, it's not an everyday or a regular thing, but I got to take my two daughters to the Wakanda Forever Premier, which was a real cultural event. For those who don't know, like Rihanna was there, like sitting near us. I bet there were past appetizers. I bet that's how cool it was. You know, it was also like my daughters, both of them are African-American and one's African. And there's, you know, the biggest struggle in that is me bringing as much culture to them as I possibly can do.

And then it's always like the thing I'm worried the most about. And then being able to take them to events like this or spite of that ended up being real events about black excellence. I mean, there's Ruth Carter and Michael B. Jordan and Rihanna are there. Like, there's, you know, Ryan Cougler, they were celebrating some of the great voices of this entire generation. And I get to show them that. So that's cool. And they love it.

They love when we get to do cool stuff. And so, and also, again, any word out of me like, this sounds bragging, I don't mean it to be. I always made it to be more inspirational, aspirational for other creators, like, do your work, this might happen kind of thing. All of it surprises me, but I got to go to Italy a couple weeks ago and take my kids, and there was an outsized reaction to our appearances there. And literally you could see my daughter going, what is happening? Like, because I'm like, that guy who's in his boxers all day, like, I'm in my sweatpants.

You know, just. You did do the appearance in your boxers, right? No, but our daily life is normally very quiet, and I don't leave the house, right? And so, except when we do leave the house, we go to Italy, and there's all kinds of cool people yelling at us in Italian. You live in Portland, Oregon. Like, it's not like... Yes, and all of their aunts and uncles are combo book creators, and it's very much, like,

the normal state of, you know, their aunt is Kelly Suddiconic. Like, they're, like, the person they go to for things like that is Kelly, right? And so they have a weird relationship to all of it. Like, we have a room in our house that is all paintings David Mac did of them. Like, it's a gallery of portraits of them. And now they just got to an age where they went, oh, this isn't really special that we have this. I'm like, yeah, when you're an eight, you couldn't have known that. But now that you're older, you would.

My point is that I got, it's oversized sometimes. And then I got to sit them down. I go, I don't care what you do for a living. But the lesson here that I was told when I was younger, but now that I'm experiencing it as an older person is that the energy you put out is the energy you get back. And I don't care what you do for living.

I don't care what your passions are, but you've got to put good energy out to get good energy back. That's what's happening. And you don't know when it's going to come. You don't know what form it will come, but it absolutely comes back to you. So I got to literally,

I hope that lands as a parent. We'll see to be continued. But that's, I got to not make it about my work, but make it about that's what you just experienced. I have a similar thing where we have a room at our house that is all portraits of my children that were painted by Joe Rogan. And I just feel like at some point, they're going to understand what that really means. You know what I mean? Can I ask a question of you, Jordan?

Yes, please. Jordan, what does your son think about Jordan, Jesse go? Brian, excuse us, I don't know how many episodes you've listened to, but you've wandered into a run-in-in-in- You have some of my favorite people on. We're mutual pals of Jason. Cody Ziegler is a pal of mine. A little Zigg. Yeah, you and Zigg work together.

And I'm wearing my two-timers jacket. This is my second time on the show. That's true. I'm glad we had those jackets made up. It was worth it. Sorry. We'll have it let out. We can set it back.

We'll let it out. But yes, you've wandered into a running bit where Jesse asked me how my, how my, you want to set it up again, Jesse? Yeah. Do you mind if I, I'm just going to, Wow, wow, wow. Okay, the tip of the tongue, the teeth, and the lips. Okay, I'm ready.

Yeah. Jordan, what is your son think of Jordan, Jesse Go? Hey, Jesse, I got to get a son. I'm working on it. There we go. Jordan's working on it. Okay, let's take a quick break. We'll be back in just a second on Jordan, Jesse Go.

It's Jordan Jesse Go. I'm Jesse Thorne America's radio sweetheart. Jordan Morris Boy Detective. Jordan, what are you got going on? Jesse, I got a couple of things I want to let our listeners know about, mostly in the realm of comic books. First of all, I've talked about it on the show. The URL bit.ly slash cool fight.

That's where you go if you want to pre-order a signed copy, signed by me, copies of Predator Bloodshed, the new Predator miniseries from Marvel Comics and Me. It's going to be a ton of fun. Five issues of the Predators, Slice and Indes, and Dunders. Dyson people in an underground fighting tournament should be a lot of fun. I'm looking at some art that's coming back from Rory Coleman, Roland Boshi, two great artists who are working on this thing. It's looking gorgeous.

That predator looks awesome. Can I give the predator some advice? Sure. Watch out for yoga guys. Watch out for who? Yoga guys. Oh, yeah. If you're looking in, sure, if you're in an underground fighting tournament, there's

going to be a yoga guy, and he's going to be a little stretchier than the other guys. Anyway, this thing's gorgeous. I'm really proud of how it's turning out. I hope folks check it out. Maybe let us do more. I don't know. Bit.ly slash cool fight if you want to order signed copies or just ask for it at your local comic book store.

It comes out February 25th. I just got my Jordan Morris issue of Predator, Blood White. Oh, Black White and Blood Number 4. That's the anthology I contributed to that I think I did a good enough job in to get the miniseries. I just got it at Revenge of Comics. I was at Revenge of Comics with my kids in Eagle Rock, California. And I was asking this nice person at the store about which X-Men I should get for Frankie, my 8-year-old. Oh, Frankie's into the X-Men.

Frankie's like X-Men. And, you know, they told me what wanted to get. And then they very nicely said, excuse me, can I ask, are you Jordan Morris? They like you were Jordan Morris? Yeah, and I said, well, basically. Yeah, go ahead. Pretty much. It's fine.

Say you're me. Sign, sign stuff. Yeah. And then I said, no, however. However. Do you have my friend Jordan Morris's Predator comic book? There you go. They had it.

And they had it. I bought it. Well, Black, White and Blood number four, still in maybe some dollar bins around town. Predator Bloodshed, it's a mini-series. It's coming soon. hey I got another URL. They charged me full price. Did they charge you full price?

Yeah. Well, maybe it was a variant cover. How's the cover? It's variable. Well, there you go. Bit.ly, cool fight. That's where you go for Predator Comics. There's a new URL, Jesse.

Bit.ly slash cool goop. Oh, cool goop. That's where you order Venom. I went there to order a crystal egg for my pussy. No, I'm sorry. That's just goop. That's Gwyneth Poutro's Goup. is where you go to order Web of Venom, the Venom one shot that I hope is more than a one shot.

If people pre-order it, maybe it will be. This is a secret deep-cut Marvel character that's inside the Venom suit. Who is it? All will be revealed in Web of Venom coming in April, where you can pre-order that signed copy, bit.ly slash cool goop. And I don't think anybody's guessed it yet who's in the suit, but this is. I know it is. I'm just going to say.

Who's it? Spider-Man. Jesse. It's Spider-Man. Good guess. Peter Parker. Spider-Man. Good guess.

No. He pretends to be a camera photographer. Uh-huh. But secretly, he shoots jizz out of his wrists. Well, I don't know. A metaphor for Jiz. Maybe you should maybe go back to Spider-Man. Sounds like you're maybe half remembering some of these stuff.

He shoots metaphorical jizz from his wrists. Bit. Bit.ly slash cool goop. He's adolescent. That's where you get web. of venom. It's a, listen, we love, we love the booster golds and the firestorm, the nuclear man's of the world.

I think this issue is a love letter to that class of character. Ah. I'll say that. The little weirdo, who you kind of half remember from childhood, bit. Bit.ly slash cool goop. And I'm going to be at Pasadena Comic-Con on January 25th. So come on by. It's a one-day con.

Should be a lot of fun. I'll be there in Artist Allie. Come say hi, Pasadena Comic-Con on the 20th. 5th, okay. I'm done. Okay. Yeah, I am, uh, got Judge John Hodgman show coming up in San Francisco, California, at San Francisco Sketchfest. We hope that we will see you there. And if you're in New York City, go to maximum fund.org slash events because you come see Judge John Hodgman at New York City. New York City. Our new show, Judge John Hodgman, colon, night court. Okay. Okay. Really? Please don't sue us. Is it sexy?

Yeah, it's going to be, it's, it's an intimate new version of the Judge John Hodgman podcast. So if you've seen the Judge John Hodgman podcast before and you're like, well, I've seen it. This sounds like this is a whole new ballgame. Yeah, and it's going to be two different shows too. We've got two nights at the bell house, two different shows. So I hope we'll see everybody there. Okay. We'll be back on Jordan Jesse Go in just a minute.

It's Jordan Jesse Go. I'm Jesse Thorne, America's Radio Sweetheart. Jordan Morris, boy detective. Brian Michael Bendis, Starfleet commander. Let me ask you guys a question. I got an important question. But before you do, I have to, I skipped a child in our last segment. If they ever hear any of this.

You can't skip a child. You cannot skip a child. Please acknowledge the child, Brian. So my youngest, I have three older daughters, and I've been a girl dad for decades. And then my youngest is a boy. And I did when my son was born, turned to my wife and go,

just so you know, you would have hated me at 13. Like as much as you adore me now, at 13, it is a different, I'm just to let you know. I'm not guessing what boys are like, I know. But the good news, for me at least,

is that he's absolutely one of us. He loves comics. He loves all. things nerd. He seems to be a comedy nerd. I see him literally like writing down jokes to, which we know means, uh-oh, you're cooking. When our mutual pal, Jason Manzukas and Hadesgamev came to town, we got to say hi. And immediately my son pitched him a Pimento from Brooklyn Nine-Nine spin-off show that he had created that I did not know he had done. And, uh, he had a deck and everything. He had a lookbook. Pretty close.

He had season by season premise cases. And I was enormously proud of him. And then Jason said, you know what's really weird? That's not far off from something we were thinking about doing. Okay. Good instincts. Good instincts on this. Great. So I'm enjoying watching whatever is happening with him because I see literally the young version of me alone in my room with my comics trying to figure out where I am in this.

Suns sound great. I got to get a son. I'm working. on it. I gave you to their audience. And again, I'm sorry for jumping in that way, but I've been parenting long enough to know. You have to acknowledge the sons. No, no child left behind. I did manage recently to impress my 12-year-old. In fact, this was earlier today. I impressed my 12-year-old. She, again, I'll take her backstage at a concert. She doesn't care, you know, just didn't care about any of it. But I did, I did forward her the 11th. electronic Christmas card or holiday card that I got from Weird Al Yankovic. Very good.

You have to be made a stone, not to be impressed by that. I was like, oh, that's right. She's a 12-year-old nerd. This is Evergreen. So here's my question. Yes. The same now as they always were. Yeah.

Here's my question based on the last segment. Yeah. How many days do you guys think you could Batman? Great question. Days or hours. Either one. And in what armor depends on... Yeah, Jesse, what armor?

How much protection am I? Come on, man. You got to think out these questions a little bit better. Yeah, what are my armor options? I mean, you got... Well, you can go all the way from Adam West to full battle armor, transformer, you know... Does Batman have a mech suits? Yes.

Batman's had a mech suit? Yeah. Oh. Yeah. There's a Batman encyclopedia that will take you down. that rabbit hole. I'm taking Batman Meksuit off the table. Okay.

But you need a separate license. So are we... Like even Joel Schumacher and Nipple Batman is, you know, pretty much armor. Yeah. I mean, I'm going to give you like a light body armor kind of deal. You know, like a movie Batman. You know, the movie Batman's in general. And I'm going to say that while you have to get

Batman responsibilities taken care of, you can't just take time off from being Batman, you can, like, prioritize the Batmanning that is best within your reach. You know what I mean? Like, you don't have to just, you know, like sometimes Batman just spends the weekend beating guys up. You don't have to do that. Like, you could put off beating guys up as long as it's reasonable and work at the bat computer for a few days. But even that Batman still has to go out there and do some stuff. Do that make sense?

It does. No, yeah. You want to, like, are you beating up Killer Croc? Or you're doing fiber work in the Batcave? Sure. You're very, very different skill sets. Fiber work? Fiber work.

You're talking about like textile art? Yeah, there's a lot of carpet fiber analysis in being Batman. A lot of people don't give an Anni Albers situation No this is any 90s episode of Law and Order There's fibers Oh okay I see what you're saying They're joking their first Charlie's Angels

Like there's fibers I was imagining making Wall hangings That'd be nice Sure I think I could Polishing your giant dinosaur Narrative quilts

Yeah sure You gotta move the giant penny around See where it looks best I think I could Adam West Batman for a long weekend, but it wouldn't have any fighting. It would just be being the father figure to a boy ward. Oh, yeah.

I could do that. I could do a pretty good job of that. Yeah, I could spend the weekend arguing with Jason Todd. Yeah. Do you? Jordan, do you have a boy ward? No, I don't have a boy ward. I got to get a ward.

I'm working on it. I'm just hanging around the circus, waiting for a kid's parents to fall. Yeah, you know, just like Batman, just hanging around the circus, looking for teenage boys. Yeah. But it's so funny, when I went to D.C., they were shocked. I did not want to write Batman. Like, it wasn't on my to-do list.

Like, my immediate to-do list. Like, everyone goes to D.C. and they're like, here's my Batman project. And I was all Superman. And they were like, really? And like, genuinely surprised. I wasn't coming with my Dark Night Returns pitch of some sort. You're like, I'm doing Superman and Fractions

got a Jimmy Olson thing. That's going to be... Yeah. Yeah. And I ended up doing a Batman run that I'm really thrilled I ended up doing with Nick Derrington, but their reaction would delighted me. I'm doing a workplace sitcom with Mr. Mitsopitlittler.

That'll be fun. Kind of grounded, more grounded. Yeah, it's just kind of like a grounded, more grounded. It's about like, ultimately it's about his metaphorical family. Yeah, it's like northern exposure, but with a mix of blick. Yeah. It's a lot like that. I mean, just, just FY, that pitch has gone out a couple

times. It's been around town. But you know, it's a different world now. Yeah, yeah. Different owners from Warner Brothers. Everybody gets up. Everybody's fired. You can just pitch the same thing again. Yeah, not because you got a look. I mean, I got that guy from Northern Exposure and sex in the city, that guy, the hunky radio guy. I got him. He's on board. He's attached. He'll be great. That's very funny. Can I bring back his kid? It actually, I should explain. You say, is it a sort of Northern Exposure type thing? It is actually a Northern Exposure,

spin-off slash reboot. We've just folded in Mr. Mitsau-Pittalik. I believe this is where our culture is going as a whole. Yeah. Yeah. There's going to be,

it's going to be like, cheers, but with turtles. Yeah. You know, there's going to be a lot of that. Exactly. Speaking of the mysteries,

like the ones Batman solves, we have some mystery telephone calls to listen to that have not been screened. This is kind of fun. I can, I can, I can, vouch for the fact that none of us have heard these.

We have not heard them. Including the producer, so this could be really something. Yes, our film producer, Val, has not heard the calls. What lies within these puzzle boxes, I must wonder? Move, play, press play, we shall. And upon doing so, learn. Yes. Hey, Jordan, Jesse, and guest.

This is Scott in Omaha calling in for your famous segment, Psychic Encounters. So I was listening to your most recent bonus content episode, the Gracie's Game Gauntlet, about the Wayne's World video game. And pretty soon in, I felt like, I know all this. I can predict all this. I know this bad gameplay. I know these complaints. It wasn't until about 30 minutes in that I checked the episode description and figured out that it was a really. rerun from 2024. So yeah, it turns out, no, I'm not a psychic. I'm just an idiot.

And you guys are assholes. All right. Thanks. Bye. Thanks, Scott. That's a much a question. Yeah. Thanks, Scott.

Thank you for calling us assholes. But yeah, just, you know, that's a good, that's a good tip for listeners. Just forget the episodes and then re-listen to them. No, there's a, like, a creative, like, hole I went into. There's a book by John Cleese from Monty Python called On Creativity. And in it, it's an excellent book for anyone in any creative field. Highly recommend it, particularly for us adults who are wired to pay the bills, but you have to be creative at the same time. That's what the book's about.

It has a full chapter about the peccadillos of Spaniards. The unusual peccadillos of Spaniards. Yes, that's right. Cancel Culture is coming for you, John Cleese. You were right all along. but in there he's got that great bit about how he was sitting at his desk writing a Monty Python sketch and typing away and having the best time and it was just flowing out of him and when he was done typing he pulled it out of the typewriter and looked at him was oh shit this is a this is a goon show

sketch I saw when I was younger Peter Sellers wrote this sketch I'm not creating I'm remembering it and that sent me into a spin like oh no because that for our us comic book people, that easily could be something that we do. Like, you're writing, you know, you're writing something new for Marvel. And all of a sudden you're like, wait a second. Roy Thomas wrote this 45 years ago. And I did hit my editors up with, hey, if I accidentally ever do that, please immediately flag it.

Don't just let it go or think I'm a maimaging. I'm not doing it on purpose. But I got, like, paranoid about it. What a Spider-Man had a very silly walk? Yeah. Brian, this is something I've run into recently. I've been, this is a problem I'm blessed to have. By the way, I am blessed to have this problem.

What an exciting problem to have. Have you ever tried to name something new in a Marvel comic? Like a new guy? Oh, well, yes, I put some toys in the toy box, but naming stuff is really, really hard. It's so fucking hard. All the good names are taken. Every good name is taken.

A lot of the bad names are taken, too. But I will say that my solve became a writing prompt for me. And the embarrassment is how long in my career it took me to get here. But around the time of Miles Morales, when there was a lot of back and forth about what his name should be, it hit me that no one names themselves. Like you get named. Like someone names you,

like your parents or your guardians give you a name. And that by doing that, by like saying, okay, what would Miles's parents name Miles? And then lets me get to know the parents. Now I have to find out what, would they name it after a grandparent? Would they name it after something culturally? Why?

Why not? Who are they? So you get to like world build your character, just discovering what the people in their lives would name the character. And if the character has renamed themselves and given themselves a name, well, that's a story too. Because most people don't do that, even if they hate their name. They keep it, right?

So, like, anything around a name is actual story and development of character that could be very helpful and unique to the overall. So wherever I land, I land on that. But I was always trying to, like, come up with, like, Willie Lohman, like, a name that, like, literally speaks of what the character's psyche really is. Like, I grew up thinking that's what you should do, right? So, like, Christian Walker or Maria Hill, they were all, like, attempts at, like, like, like character saying what the character is trying to be. True. Colorman.

That's good writing advice. I should take it to heart. I feel like I just sit there going, okay, what's a cool word? Raith. Nope. Torment. Also, I'm a big believer that some of the greatest

iconic like superhero characters at both companies have a little alliteration in their name. Clark Kent, Peter Parker. So I would do Jessica Jones, Miles Morales. Like I would, like, I want them to be like even subconsciously considered as legit, so they would have that legit, you know, alliteration. And then I've started run out of letters. What kind of characters do you think are suggested to you as the parents of spider ham? Oh, no, they, I believe that is all very much in the comics. Whatever the uncle and

were, I believe they had a beloved ham. I believe that continuity is locked. Got it. We have another mystery call. I hope that's not spoilers for the new Spider-Verst movie, but yeah. We have a new mystery call. Let's play it and see what names this caller calls us. Hi, Jordan. Hi, Jesse.

Hi, other Jordan. And I'm going to guess David Bory. I am calling in for your segment. I see your fear. I was listening to a Jordan Jesse Go episode, and you were talking about dreams. and Jordan mentioned that one of his recurring dreams was getting stuck in clothing, like trying to take a shirt or a sweater off and not being able to and it getting stuck.

And I have that exact recurring dream like once a week, and I've never met anyone else who has had that particular nightmare or stress dream. So I just feel very seen and very appreciated by hearing someone else having that dream and particular set of anxieties. Thank you so much. I love the show. Bye. We're getting very close to stop podcasting yourself's segment,

which is Dave Schumpka having boring dreams, such as the time he had the dream that his travel agent retired. But I had never had. You know how like a famous kind of dream is all your teeth fall out? I've had it. I've had it. Yeah, most dreams are control-issue dreams. Yeah, I had never had a tooth dream, but the other day, two weeks ago maybe, I was eating

some potato chips, and I chipped one of my molars. Just a hunk of tooth came out thanks to the potato chip I was eating. What brand? We're talking? Oh, just generic. That sounds like a nuts. Sounds like a nuts problem to me. Thorn family tooth.

And I went to the dentist, and I had to be. had to get a crown on that tooth, which I had never had a crown before. And then two nights ago, I had a dream that my crown fell off, but it was a different crown on the other side that I didn't realize I had. So the dream was, it was specific, it wasn't like I had a crown fall off in the wrong place to be where my actual crown is. It was in my dream, I knew I had the crown. I had the crown. that I actually have. But a crown on the other side fell off that I don't actually have. And that's how I found out that I had a crown on that tooth.

It was like a revelation like, oh, I have a crown on each side? A mystery, a mystery crown. That's an anxiety you have, apparently. He's not knowing what's going on in the mouth. I know. I got to stop chewing double bubble and start chewing trident. Brian, recurring nightmares. Do you have them?

Do you have a thing that keeps popping up? I got to say, like, I used to have them a lot when I was younger, not like nightmares, but like very vivid dream. But I clock that as I've gotten older, I don't know. There's something about like the way I've wired like all the daydreaming that goes into our work. Seems to be like that part of my brain. And then what my dreams, which are few and far between that I remember, are all very related to some kind of, Not unlike the breaking of the tooth, it's like, I'm trying to get somewhere and I just can't get there, or I'm trying to get something done and it's just not happening.

And I know this is all the same dream of some kind of control or some kind of like I'm frustrated about something not taking too long. We're all Hollywood babies. There's always a hurry up and wait scenario that we're in somewhere. And maybe it's that, maybe it's something. And also because you do so much dream work, dream logic, think about. your character's dreams and stuff, you kind of like start to go, oh,

oh, this dream is about that. Like, like even in my dream, I start going, oh, I'm having one of those dreams where I can't finish my thing.

And then I wake up. Like, I'm annoyed at myself in my dream from my lack of imagination in the dream. You're doing story analysis on your dream. Yeah, I wake myself up and go, you can,

you can, this is first draft at best. Let's wake up and start over. Yeah, yeah, I get a lot of notes that my dreams need to be more grounded. They say it needs to be more grounded.

I don't know. Yeah, I keep finding myself telling my subconscious self that if there's a problem in the third act, it's actually a problem in the first act. And I had like an editor once hit me with, I wrote a dream sequence in something and editor just said, you're better than this. And I went, oh. And I was like, well, I think maybe I'm not. And number one, but number two was like, all right, maybe, yeah.

But I never saw a dream sequence is like lesser than. Like I was like if it's, you know, because some people have. have really powerful experiences waking up and really changing their life, at least for the moment, right, because of something they dreamt. Like, that really does happen. But it can be quite corny or, if not well earned, in a comic book. You know what I mean? And the artists can draw a bunch of cool stuff.

That's all, you know, listen, you want to put dinosaurs into any situation. This is how you do it. I only have two kinds of powerful dream. One of them is a horny dream. And in my horny dream, I'm not having some kind of fantasy sex. I'm just horny. It's just that by Hornyers. Just like my real life horniness slips into my dream state.

But instead of expressing itself metaphorically, it just expresses itself as horniness. I'm just having a dream where I am horny. That's the only quality of it. It's not even like a narrative. It's not like I'm at the county fair. and I'm horny. It's just a dream that is me asleep, but horny. Okay.

What's the other kind of recurring dream? Found something really good at the thrift store. Okay. Which I would argue is the same dream. That's the same story engine. Yeah, I mean, I kind of go around the thrift store, sticking my dick and stuff and see how it goes. Listen, why don't we take a little break?

Stick our dicks and some piles of old VHS tapes. Maybe some t-shirts. Somebody gave away from a fun run. Yeah. And come back for a little bit more. We'll be back in just a second on Jordan, Jessica. La, la, la, la, la. Say, what's the trivia show where dreams come true?

It's got to be go fact yourself. Legend in the house. We quiz celebrity contestants about topics they love. Then bring out surprise experts. To delight and amaze. And then finally tell us why you know and love the lyrics to the song, knocking boots by Candyman. Joining us tonight is a rapper and producer.

It's Candyman! This is among the greatest moments of my life. This is one of mine, too. I love it. That's go fact to yourself. Twice a month, every month. Here on Maximum Fun. Since 2017, after every Max Fund drive,

we've held a sale for Max Fund members where all of the proceeds go to a nonprofit. In December, donated $43,000 to Transgender Law Center. 43,000. Thank you to all the Max Fund members who made this possible. Transgender Law Center champions the right of all transgender and gender non-conforming people to live freely, safely, and authentically.

A mission that everyone at Max Fund supports. If you'd like to learn more or make an additional donation, go to transgenderlawcenter.org. And for anyone who needs to hear this, you belong here. You deserve to be able to be yourself, and we love you. It's Jordan Jesse Go. I am Jesse Thorne, America's Radio, sweetheart. Jordan Morris, boy detective. Brian Michael Bendis, pet detective.

How many days do you guys think you could be pet detectives? Oh, well, I have two chihuahuas. I believe I'm a full-time pet detective. I have a question. A lot of fibers. Do you think Batman is the world's greatest pet detective? No. Not even close.

No? You think Ace Ventura? Yeah. Earned. Yeah. He found a dolphin, I think. Yeah. And the Super Bowl ring.

And the Super Bowl ring. And the problematic ending to what would be... Yeah, and some jokes that haven't aged great. A comedy classic, if not for the last 10 minutes of that movie. Yeah. So he found the line. He found the line, which we think something hasn't aged well. Well, Jordan, you know, I would be remiss if I didn't ask how you're, how what's going on with you.

We share a comic book and graphic novel space that is a constantly evolving publishing world that moves in constantly around us. And you and I are both trying to luxuriate in all the different spaces we can find. our work to be in. Yeah. How are you enjoying your Marvel stuff? How are you enjoying your graphic novel work? Brian, thank you so much for asking. I am enjoying the fuck out of it.

I'm so happy every time I sit down. Had Marvel to do the Marvel stuff? Totally. Absolutely. It's such a thrill. I was doing it before we jumped on the call. I was working with some unannounced stuff that I'll tell you about when the thing comes off.

And yeah, it's just so fun. I think like you, I, dreamed of doing it when I was a kid and then you get your dream and there's challenging parts about it but it's also fucking cool you know I think in a weird way I think sometimes we're trained to think that like oh if you get

you get the dream and then you're going to hate it right like the thing happened yeah that's not true like it disappoints you sometimes and there are hard things about it but like naming something for instance you ever try and think of a new fucking name for a guy anyway but yeah it's just so cool I'm just having so much fun

and comics folks have been so nice and welcoming. And everyone is just a lovely sweet nerd who you would want to hang around. And yeah, it's just so cool. It's so cool to hold a physical comic book that you helped make. And yeah, I think about your book a lot,

Words for Pictures. I think I said this to you before, but it's a, you talk about that John Cleese book. I think the better book on creativity, I've not read the John Cleese book, but I really love words for pictures. Thank you. I think about it a lot.

I wasn't fishing, but thank you very much. No, everyone who does a creative thing or loves comics should read it. It's fun to think of yourself as like giving giving that artist something cool to do and like giving that artist something to shred on, you know, rather than like, how can I, I just think about that concept a lot in all creativity, not just like, how can I, you know, sing the song of my heart, but in which, you know, you want to do, but also like, how can I give these other awesome people I'm working with something to shred on? And it's really cool.

I really like approaching creativity like that. And yeah, I've gotten to work with some of my favorite characters. And I'm just happy to be here. Have you Jordan gotten to meet Firestorm the Nuclear Man yet? Jesse, you know, I have worked for in comics. My only big two work has been with Marvel, but I have gotten to write some episodes of Teen Titans Go for DC for the TV show. Did you get the firestorm?

Did you firestorm it? I promise you I'm pitching firestorm, Jesse. I'm in there every day pitching firestorm. And they shoot me down. I'm like, that was definitely like of an age. That was one of the best origin comics of that generation, for sure. Like, this is a good idea.

You know, like I loved it. It's a parable about racial harmony. Yeah, no, everything about it. It just was, yeah, it was cool. I liked it. I don't know if it aged well. I can't tell, but I haven't looked in a while. But yeah, I love Firestorm coming up.

It's aged really well like John Cleese. Yeah, and also like this graphic novel space that we're both in as well, wasn't really there when I was coming in. I freaking love it. I love it, love it, love it. We've finally moved past, you know, there was that weird, like everything's got to be like Dog Man and Raina. Like, oh, those are hits.

to make everything look like that. And we are past that, and that's great. Like, they kind of figured out that's not the way to go. And so I'm, I, the boy, it's exciting. Like, and also it's exciting that graphic novels are in the curriculum of all my kids' schools.

Like, you know, it's amazing, yeah. I feel that way about Sally Ford. Just someone in your backpack before you're in school. Yeah, I just want to hold it. Brian. Well, I'm thrilled to hear it. I just, you know, I love this medium and I love, there's a cross-pollination between how you guys do this kind of work and what kind of work we're doing and publishing.

And I just am fascinated by it because I'm coming at it from the different angle. So I'm thrilled that you're having such a good time. Brian, was Superman the character that you got to work on that was your like, I can't believe I get to work on this? Or was it somebody else? Oh, no, they're all, all of them. I mean, even from my walking at Marvel was, you know, probably. to my first published work at Marvel, me and David Mac used to drive around the country, hawking our wares, just talking about Frank Miller's Dairdiville all day.

And then all of a sudden they call us to go, you two do Daredavel. I'm like, you know, it's an incredible feeling. And then the next call was, hey, you like Spider-Man? I'm like, yeah. Who's that? No, but not only- Spider-Man, everybody like Spider-Man. You get to do Spider-Man, but hey, what do you think about starting them over from scratch?

you pick. And so it was a dream job beyond measure. So I knew right away based on some of my peers and their books and editorial stuff that I was insanely lucky and privileged by what had landed in my lap. I had low-key the best job in comics with Ultimate Spider-Man. And so every job since has been, oh my God, I got to do Moon Night. Like I grew up with Moon Night. Like everything made me excited. but as I as those decades went by at Marvel and I was like oh will I ever leave or will I you know will I do what so many of my heroes when I was a teenager Walt Simonson George Perez John Byrne they all went to DC at one point

they all left Marvel after some kick-ass thing and then did something at DC I'm like oh will I ever do that I wonder and then just that the fact that that wasn't the goal but then it happened was cool. And then, yeah, I'm a little Jewish boy from Cleveland. Anytime anyone in my temple was trying to relate to me, they'd be like, you know, Superman was invented here. Like two Jewish boys just like you.

So it was very in my DNA of, like, this is part of our legacy and culture as Jewish Clevelanders. Literally, I went back to Cleveland for my brother's wedding, and they had a Superman exhibit at the library that I used to like, live in and I walked in and went, all right, I get it. I'll write Superman. It was a gift that I got to do it. And yeah,

so it was just something for a long time, I never gave a moment's thought to that you didn't think it was ever happened. Thrilled I got to do it. Thrilled beyond measure. If I was a Clevelander, 100% my legacy would be, you know,

the story of my people, with my people being my fellow filing clerks at the Veterans Administration and funny things that happened to them. Yeah, Harvey Peekar. No, that was another lane where it's like, I'm sitting in Cleveland going,

how do I get from here to there? And then Harvey Peaker's on Letterman, right? And I must say one of my favorite things that's happened the last couple years is that, you know, Harvey Peaker, you can Google this, it's on YouTube. Harvey Peaker would go on Letterman and raise hell.

Just like really go at Letterman. And Letterman was at a phase of his career where he would not put up with it. And it was great television at the time. unlike anything you've seen, but the reality was Harvey Peirker was a brilliant writer, and none of that was shown on television. Like, none of that was,

he was just like another whack packer, another like brother Theodore that was a coming on Letterman and Raisin Hell and being a misfit. And just a couple of years ago, Lennon was on Stern or Africa of where he was, and he goes, anything you regret, he goes, you know,

I didn't understand at the time that Harvey Peacar was one of the great literary minds of our time and I never spoke to him in that way. If I could do it over again, I would dedicate a whole episode to my Netflix show to just interviewing Harvey at the level of which he was creating and I didn't do it. I couldn't believe

Letterman got there on his own. I couldn't believe it. Incredible. Because I was the only thing Letterman never did back then, I went like, oh man, I wish you'd treat him like a real person. He's, you know, he's really good at this, you know. I don't know if we found them when we were doing 25th anniversary of Bullseye stuff,

but I guess now 20 years ago, Harvey Beacar came on, then the Sound of Young America now Bulls Eye two times, both by phone, and could not have been a sweeter uncle on the phone with this, you know, 23-year-old dipshit. just like the most the nicest, most insightful, encouraging person this legendary grumpus. Yeah, no,

I got to go to a couple book events in Cleveland like, you know, when he was, you know, hawk in his wares, like, it was not,

you would, that was not the guy who saw on TV at all to the point where like, oh, man, I hope one day and it never happened.

If no one knows what we're talking about, there's a movie called American Splendor, it's literally free on YouTube. right now. It's really good. Like really, really good.

Jesse, I think you and I would see that together in college. Yeah. So my favorite, Jesse's favorite comic book movie. Yeah, it's up there. It's, yeah, it's Paul Gimati. Sorry Morbius. Sorry, Valerian. Sorry, Valerian in the city of a thousand planets. Brian, when this comes out, we will either be a little bit before or a little bit after your first Marvel book.

in years coming out. Yeah, that's kind of amazing to me. Kind of cool. I'm just as someone who's been a reader of yours for, you know, decades, I fucking can't wait. What can you say about it at this? You know what? Like, it was one that I left because you have to leave eventually. Like, it's kind of being a cast member in SNL, no matter how good it's going, it's not a

forever situation. I did Kenan Thompson it pretty hard, but it was time to, it was time to move on. to some other things. And so, but I, I did. I go, I wonder if I'll ever come back for any reason. Like, I wonder, right? And then last year, Sibi, an old friend of mine who is editor chief of Marvel. He called me up with a handful of things that he wanted to run by me,

some of which have not been announced yet. The main reason I came back has not been announced yet. But he came back to me with a couple of things. And I'll just tell it for younger creators out there, if you're lucky enough to have an editor call you and off you something, don't make the noise I made on the phone with CB called me and said, hey, we have this idea for you. And I went, because there's no negotiating when they hear that good little nerd noise come out of you. That means I'm going to do this no better what you pay me. So I have a few things coming our way over the next couple years. The first one ended up being something that wasn't on the list, which is Avengers 800. which is coming out in January, and it's me reuniting with my ultimate Spider-Man partner Mark Bagley, which alone would be a very emotional situation for me.

I started my Avengers run on Avengers 500, so to come back at 800 and just to celebrate how much I love these characters and what this book means to me, and also have the extra added bonus of being reunited with Mark Bagley, who literally came out of retirement to kill. I will send you what he did, because when you see it, you're going to be like, holy crap. It's something really special. So very, very, very, very, very.

And I'm so kind of keeping an eye on how I felt about it as I was going. And I really had a good time. So I'm excited to share this with everybody. It's just a love letter. It's just something I really just wanted to say, you know, with some perspective. Brian, what a joy to have you on the program. If folks out there aren't comic readers, Brian, a genuine, a genuine legend in the field, an actual legend in the field.

If this was filmed, you could see my eyes rolling, but I appreciate your... He's making a jack-off motion, he's... I appreciate that. I'm sorry, I'm not wired to hear it. I'm just talking about your old man balls. Yeah, those are legendary. Legendary bowls. They're in the Eisner Hall of Fame.

Those are some balls in that Hall of Fame. Valerie Moffitt on the boards this week. Thank you, Valerie. Jordan Cowling back home, producing. Our theme music is Love You by the Free Design. Thanks to the free design. Thanks to their label, Light in the Attic Records. Thanks to everyone who joins us on Reddit at our slash maximum fun and on social media.

We're on Instagram at Jordan David Morris, at Jesse Thorne, very famous. We are on Facebook at facebook.com slash Jordan Jesse Go. where Jordan Jesse Go Pod on Instagram. And I've been very active on Blue Sky lately. Jesse Thorne, they're on Blue Sky, and having a nice time on there. Jordan Jesse Go also on Blue Sky. Jordan is on Blue Sky, but can't remember what he's called.

Hold on. I'm going to bring it up. I'm going to bring it up. It's Jordan Morris.Besky. Check me out on Jordan Morris. That B. sky. Okay. What is that B-Sky?

Something like B-Sky. Was that one of these beast guys? Yeah, it's a beast guy. There's a new Marvel name. Okay. They haven't done that. See? Let it happen.

Don't worry about it. It'll come natural. We'll talk to you next time on Jordan, Jesse, go. I'll hug you and kiss you and love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you.

Maximum fun. A work-roled network of artist-owned shows. Supported directly by you.