Mike and Paloma are joined by comic creator Asia Simone (Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur: Wreck and Roll!) to talk comics, the MCU, One Piece, and more!
Mike and Paloma are joined by comic creator Asia Simone (Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur: Wreck and Roll!) to talk comics, the MCU, One Piece, and more!
Find Asia Simone online:
Check out Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur: Wreck and Roll!: https://scholasticlibrary.digital.scholastic.com/9781338785524.html
Timestamps:
Music provided by Infinity Shred. Find them on Bandcamp.
IRCB Avatars by @ICELEVEL
IRCB Logo by Kyle Rose
Producer: Mike Rapin
Prooflistener: Brian Murray
Editor: Zander Riggs
This is the I Read Comic Books podcast, the very best podcast for regular comic book fans.
I'm your host Mike Rapin, and joining me this week, the sound of falling leaves and the crisp winds of autumn sweeping across the northwest. This week I am joined by the one and only Paloma Deerfield.
Hello hello hello
And our very special guest for this week's episode, Asia Simone.
Hello thank you both for joining me this week.
I'm so excited to talk comic books with the both of you mostly because it has been an incredibly long week and I read so many comic books over the last 24 hours.
I just had to get caught up, so I guess before we get into all of that we have very special guests and actually I have a quick announcement.
I want to shout out to our friend Keith who found the IRCB in issue number 30 of Ice Cream Man, Keith, you combed through the pages and you found the very secret intricate, tiny little letters that Martin Morazzo left for us in that issue.
I'm so pleased.
I showed this off to the guy at my local comic bookshop that I went to yesterday and he couldn't believe it.
Like he was running up and down the aisles with excitement because he's like artists never do that.
Um, so he was very, very pleased by it.
But um shout out to Keith who found it.
I've already sent you an email.
You're probably going to get a free comic book for something, but we have special guests here this week.
Asia, you are here on the show.
Thank you so much for joining us for the folks that maybe don't know you.
Could you tell us a little bit about yourself and what you've been doing?
Yes, well, hi, everyone.
I'm glad to be here.
I name is Asia Simone.
I'm a comic artist from Philadelphia.
I currently live in California in Anaheim.
I teach full-time.
I teach high school digital design. Um and I've been kind of making my way into comics for the past couple of years now.
And I my first comic book deal was with Marvel and scholastics doing the Moon Girl and devil dinosaur reck and roll graphic novel, um that came out this April, um, aligned with the Moon Girl TV show. Um and now that that's out, I' got some other stuff I'm working on some of things coming up.
So I'm excited.
Yeah.
No, it's fantastic.
I'm very excited to talk more about what you're going to be working on after and what you did to make Moon Girl and Devil dinosaur work, but we have a legally mandated thing that we have to do on this show and that's talk about comic books.
So I have two mandated questions that I have to ask and that is how have you been?
How have comic books been?
Paloma, I'm going to kick it over to you.
Well, Mike, I've been great, really excited to be here with Asia beyond the podcast again.
I'm pretty dang stoked.
I'm in a similar boat with you where I too, was like, I need to catch up on my pulls.
I desperately need to catch up on my pulls.
However, the comic that we talking about today is not for my pull list.
It just caught my eye on the shelves of my local comic shop and that is dog days, by Kumsuk Gendry Kim and this author had previously written some maybe more like heavier topic graphic novels.
There's a graphic novel called grass that I believe she wrote. And that's, I think, been really well received.
Dog Days is from drawn and Quarterly, so you know they publish really cool stuff.
Yeah.
This book is kind of like the author uh getting into like semi-autobio comics where we follow a woman named Yuna and her husband who adopt a cute little corgi named Carrot and kind of like exploring life as dog owners who move from soul out to the countryside and just kind of seeing the treatment of dogs from like city folk, young city folk to kind of like older generation out in the country who maybe grew up under like a different lifestyle.
So it's like the author kind of reconciling what she's seeing in the countryside as she's like getting getting like she gets a second puppy named potato.
And then eventually a third dog who they named uh Chaco, they were almost going to name it onions, so I got a little conf I forgot for a second, but I mean, you got to keep it on thieves.
Exactly.
But it was like it was pretty moving.
How could it not be when it's about dogs?
All the dogs that um you our main character has they are all okay in the end, but the line art was like gorgeous.
It's just black and white, beautiful inks.
The dogs' faces are so expressive and we get like the inner commentary of our main character just trying to like reconcile with like, oh, I can only take care of so many dogs, but I don't want to abandon you.
I just highly recommend if you if you like dogs, just beautiful beautiful little work of art and an in like cultural insight into how maybe like other countries like handle pets in their view on pets.
Yeah.
Interesting.
How did you you so you came across this at the at your local comic bookshop?
That is it seems like a very like slightly out there pull if only because drawn in quarterly, I feel like is uh is like a publisher that only gets like pulled into comic bookshops because like a book is like an award winner or something like that.
So it's so cool that your shop is like pulling these books just like regularly just because maybe they sound interesting. But yeah, this this looks amazing.
Just looking at like, just some of the the cover art looks incredible.
I I always worry with books that are about like pets and stuff, whether or not they're going to be like super sad.
This doesn't have like a super sad turn to it, does it?
No, not a super sad turn.
I think there's like the general sadness of being like, oh, some people out in the country don't treat their dogs very well and maybe use them for other things. Um but otherwise no, not not a sad turn and there's a there's a pretty like short and sweet like informative author's note um because the author did she does have a dog named Kara and a dog named potato and then the dog chocolate.
Those are actually hers.
Oh, that.
But she had talked about her fear of like writing this about this kind of like theme because it's just such a negative stereotype in like East Asian countries and like the relationship with dogs. But she felt pretty proud of herself to tell the story.
Gotcha.
Gotcha.
Very cool.
Well, I'll have to look this up um beyond that.
But Asia, let's talk about what you've been up to.
How have you been?
How have comic books been?
What have you been reading?
I've been pretty great. Um, you know, just kind of got finished with my convention tour for this year, my first time doing convention, so uh it's been great. Uh meeting a ton of.
Yeah, it's been awesome.
And then turn up what I'm reading. Um so I'm actually reading the principles of ancromancy by uh Jackson Lansing and Conlly Kelly.
And I was first introduced to it when I first met both Jackson Lansing and Cal Kelly at Kelly Gicom just a few weeks back. And they had owned their table, and you know, I was looking at it.
And artistically, it's not my usual thing.
You know, if you look at my art, I'm very like cuty animation , eccentric.
And this is very gritty and gruesome and just very much like artistically, not usually my thing, but story wise I very much into I am into horror and in psychological horror.
So it's this this story of this doctor that has claimed to be immortality and that is turning people into monsters.
And the kind of psychological horror that is being dealt with in this story.
It's so impressive and fascinating. Um very much up my alley.
I very much loved like psychological horror. Um you know, the art is just absolutely stunning.
It's uh done by Iman Winkle.
And that was that was what first caught me was kind of looking at the art and seeing how well it was done and how intentional like the compositions were. Um and one thing that Jackson said that I thought it was really interesting, you know, he said, like, it's very glory, but it's not gory for Gory's sake, like it's not this kind of like almost like criticization of goryness.
It's very intentional to the story.
And I felt like I could tell just looking at the panels.
So I was just pretty much like, okay, I think I'm going to get this.
And then I read it and I was like, oh, now I'm going to tell everyone about it because it's absolutely amazing.
It's so fascinating.
I've only read the first issues I have to get the rest, but it's just been a great time.
I really love it and it's something new in my my catalog, so I'm excited.
Yeah, no, that's just I was looking at some of the preview pages and this book looks gorgeous.
Oh my gosh, like I see the gore on the cover alone.
It's it's it seems like you know what you're kind of getting into, but um yeah, wow, this looks incredible.
Holy smokes.
It's very, very beautifully done.
But yeah, I think I don't know what issue I was looking at the first time I I saw it, but there was just like this wonderful, like long, very elongatedanda of these two people talking across a a cell cellars.
And it was like two panels of be characters.
You just get this nice elongated shot.
Everything about it was like, oh, you can tell this person, like, this just putting so much effort into the quality of art that they're putting out and that's what impressed me.
Dude, we love to see it.
We love to see it.
Well, let me let me talk about a book that I've been reading.
I guess, as I said, at the I think I was saying this before to you guys before we started recording.
I went to a concert this weekend and my hearing is uh a little rough.
I was I went to go see Black Dahlia murder and dying fetus um in Philadelphia, um which like, I I sometimes like to see very heavy metal bands.
And uh, yeah, it was a great show um except for for like the last three songs of Black Dahlia said, I took out my earplugs, um, and I'm really starting to regret it. But nonetheless, incredible show, incredible time.
And uh yeah, so I did sit down and read some comic books finally.
It's just been like a whirlwind of like Halloween stuff, Black Dahia murder and just I went to the framing store and I got my framed Martin Morazzo excuse me, Martin Simmons, a page from Department of Truth finally back.
It looks gorgeous.
It's going to go up on my wall right over here.
And uh, yeah, so I finally sat down, read some comic books.
We got this book in from Abram's comic arts.
They have like this imprint called um Kana, where they're starting to bring over some manga from maybe smaller publishers in Japan.
And so we got this book called Leviathanant, volume one.
It's written and drawn by Shiro Cruo.
It's a space horror about the last days of a group of students on a traveling vessel from a colony back to earth.
All we know is that this ship has been lost for a long while and the only record is a journal kept by one of the students on the ship, so it's very like, uh-oh, what's going on here?
We get through this one kid's lens, like what happened to the ship?
And there is a little bit of a question of the like reliableness of the narrator here, which I like because there you're kind of putting that in question as we flash back and forth between the salvagers who have found this ship and are reading through the journal going like, this kid must have been making this stuff up.
There is no way that that actually happened, and then you see some sort of variation on what was just described to us in real life. Really, really interesting.
It's begging the question what actually happened over and over and over.
And I thought this was going to be a really simple story because I think when it was pitched in the email from Abrams, they said that, oh, this is like a just a leviathan.
That's all it's called.
But it realized it's volume one.
So I thought the story was going to be simple about like, oh, something bad happened.
Everybody turns on each other and that's the end of the story.
But as the story progresses, it gets more and more complicated.
It reminds me of like the ridiculous like amp up of something like a death note where like for some reason, the story gets unnecessarily complicated every single chapter, but I like it.
Like it's you know where you know where the end of this story is going.
So like at the end of it, we know that the ship is lost in its salvage, but there is a big huge question mark at the center of the story that gets revealed at the very beginning that by the end of volume one does not get answered and I'm so hooked on this book. Like it was 99 pages.
I blew through it. In a sitting and I'm totally into it. Um The art in this book is incredible as well. Uh Co's art style is like heavy heavy hashing and shading.
For inst so like the first couple of pages we get these very beautifully painted color pages that like show off the ship in space, like totally flexing like this artist of muscle in terms of creating texture and like the kind of like openness and horror of space.
And then the rest of the book is just in black and white, but the amount of detail on some of these pages is just it floored me.
This This must be like a monthly comic or something in Japan because there's no way you're pumping out this level of detail and just beauty and sheer inky, like the amount of inks on some of the pages were just overwhelming to me.
So really, really like this, um the major beats of this story they put like every single stroke down intentionally in such a beautiful way that like you can see where they cared more about a page than another page because it's like so intense what's happening.
And yeah, so if you're looking for like another manga that's not just like a shonin series, this book, while it feels very simple, because it's kind of like a simple space horror, really threw me for the loop by the end of the first volume.
I was like, I don't know how this book possibly ends in any way that is satisfactory, but I must know.
I must know more so looking forward to the next volume, but this this Leviathan volume one is super super good.
The art looks amazing.
I know, right? , can't recommend it just to look at it.
Yeah, I've never seen such a clean cross-atching in my entire life. Very, very neat cross-atching.
Yeah, yeah.
That was the thing that impressed me.
It's just like the first chapter alone is just like so detailed.
I was like, just blown away by it.
I had to at least see where the story was going to go.
So, yeah, I mean, age, I guess if you're looking for more like psychological horror stuff, this one could be for you.
Very much.
Yeah, listening to him I'm like, okay, I like this.
Well, let's move on.
Let's talk about comics that are on the top of our pile, whether they are new or old or just something you're trying to get off your bookshelf.
I want to shout at some of the people that are listening live with us today on our discord reading a bunch of thehest is reading saga0.
I reading saga number 70.
Emmett is going to be reading cordial Maltese ballad of the salt Sea by Hugo Pratt.
Brian's going to be reading the Hungerk volume one.
Oh I really need to reread that story because it's so good such good fancy.
And Peyton is going to be reading berserk volume one in two Godspeed to you,ton. Good luck.
Have fun.
Please let us know how that is.
But let's let's kick things back over to you Asia.
What is on the top of your pile?
What are you going to be reading next?
Um, well, so I I had started something is Killing the children by, yeah, theinian. And uh I've been told it's just like an amazing series, and so I got the first one and I started reading it.
I just have a bad habit of like starting stuff and not getting anywhere.
So I got to get back to reading it, but I'm just I'm very impressed as someone who like wants to also start writing and become an author as well. Very impressed with like the pacing of the book and how well it read and how much information we got through and in just like a few chapters.
It very much feels like the first time watching Stranger Things.
And I get a lot of that energy from this book, which I absolutely love and I love like the coloring and just how much everything about the art adds to the atmosphere of the book and and the mystery and it almost has this like sense of like badassory to it as well.
Like there's just so much about it that's like so so fun.
So I'm I'm super excited to get back to that.
And then obviously I got to finish or I got to get the rest of the principles of necrands.
I got to get the rest of those, so I've going to see the first issue.
And I feel like, oh, and I wanted I didn't get started on yet, but the last thing I just wanted to start was a what is it, the oh, I'm not gonna get it mixed up.
I want to say, is it justiceademy?
I'm not making I'm not messing this up, right?
Is it Strange Academy?
No. For the DC series.
Oh, is itam Academy?
No.
I was Academy.
Now we're all.
Yeah, I mean I'll just say like, obviously like there's so much of I't there's so much of DCM.
I' not read.
So I'm like I saw all Yeah.
I saw Titans Academy and I was like this up my alley, so I wanna get into it but I haven't I haven't even touched it yet, so I want to start that.
See you put the word Academy on like any title of anything and I'm like a a story about kids in school?
Because I'm immediately drawn to that for some reason, right?
Like Strange Academy was exactly like that where I was just like, hm, oh, it's a bunch of the weirdos of the Marvel universe who use magic.
I'm in.
Count me hundred percent thousand percent.
I mean it turns out that book umbrella Academy, right?
Turns out Strange Academy rules.
It's start to finish.
It is incredible.
And it breaks my heart that there isn't more of it.
It's only one.
They're getting runaways treatment you guys remember the whole runaway series and it's like anytime the runaways would show up, it was just like a one shot during events.
And that seems to be what's happening with Academy and it breaks my heart because I just love those kids so damn much. But okay, something is killing the children, Titans Academy.
Those sound like great books to be starting on mostly because something killing the children.
I know is like this huge thing to the point where they've got the House of Slaughter books.
So you've got some really good stuff ahead of you, I think, Asia.
Well, for me, I'm looking forward to this brand new book that's dropping uh drop last week drops this week. Uh FML, this is by Kelly Sue DeConnick, art by David Lopez, colors by Chris Peter and letters by our good pal Clayton Cowles.
I mean, it's Kelly Sue DeConnick, so of course I'm going to pick it up.
Her name is on the book.
I must own it.
That is just how these things work.
I don't have a choice in it and I really wish that I did. But the solicit for this book is interesting.
Riley is a teen that sketches out his heavy metal future with a ballpoint pen between monster movies and band practice, but musical startup needs to compete with high school, the temper of a former riot girl mother, the morbidative sessions of a Goth sister and the ex eccentricities of bandmates that threaten to drive him and everyone around him ins saying, the balance gets harder after a ritual during a party in Portland's forest park causes them to wake up one day to discover that the creatures witchcraft and metal world that he has been obsessed with may be a bit closer to home than he preferred, and you know, I just love a good story about magic and fantasy or supernatural things just come into life. Um I don't know what Kelly Sue and David Lopez are going to be doing with this book, but I'm in.
I mean, it's an eight issue miniseries.
This is going to be a banger.
I don't know what to say if you're not picking this up, what are you doing with your time and your life?
It's Kelly Sue DeConnick writing a comic book everybody, come on.
But I'm very hyped.
I love the premise of this love this creative team.
David Lopez did some work on X Men blue and all new Wolverine, so I'm immediately in because love the look of those series.
And yeah, like I said, it's a miniseries, so I'm I'm totally all for it.
I don't know if you guys are hyped about this book at all, but I'm like one in.
To be honest, I'm looking at the cover I'm like, oh my gosh, these are gorgeous, so you're such a pretty fun looking like story.
It also gives like, obviously, I haven't read it and it's not that it's the same like genre per se, but it's someone coming from like my love for like giant days with theudios.
I love like the kind of like fun teen energy that I'm getting from this.
I'm like, it feels like that plus like Scott B. I'm like I'm just getting a lot of the fun energy.
So I'm excited.
absolutely. . Yeah, you see characters with those nice round mouths and screaming and like big expressive eyes and you're like, man, this is gonna be fun, isn't it?
Yes, yes, exactly.
Cool.
Well, uh Paloma, why don't you wrap us up here?
Why don't you tell us what is on the top of your pile this week?
Top of my pile is Night Wing 119.
It's the kickoff issue for like the new creative team of Dan Waters and Dexter Soy.
I read all the I think 40 issues of the Tom Taylor night wing run that kind of bet some previous things for the character, got him in a good spot in the DCU.
I I enjoyed the run.
I don't know how many people liked it, but I I thought it was a good like resetting of the status quo after he lost his memories and became Rick Grayson.
So I feel like it was maybe a necessary run.
But this this one sounds cool.
It's kind of just back in like the blood haven status quo for all like the gangs have been shaken up.
And so I think Nightwing is going to have to uh redefine what he's like um capable of doing or what he needs to do to save like the city.
So I'm excited to see this like new art style uh Dexter, so I think I has done some stuff with like red hood, uh green lanterns.
I think he's really good with like action stuff and this feels like very action packed. Some stuff.
Yeah, Dexter soy is not to be trifled with like that guy's art is incredible.
He does he he makes really, really cool looking superhero comic books.
So yeah, I'm sure this will be good.
Dan Waters is also pretty fun too.
So now now you've given me the sign off to say, Mike, you can go read Tom Taylor's entire night ring run because now it's done, which is great.
I can jump into my DC universe infinite and I can just blast through 40 issues.
That's great to hear. Um Asia, are you are you a big DC fan or Marvel fan or I know you said you haven't read a lot, but I do you have one a preference over one or the other?
I mean, I feel like I'm going to annoy someone, I'm an MCU fan. That's.
Yeah, I very much fell in love with the MCU starting from Iron Man. Um and technically before, like I've watched the Hulks and stuff when they came out. Um but I'm a big MCU fan and like I know it's cool to hate on MCU, but I still got hope out.
I'm still excited about the projects.
I'm out because I'm I'm very much like an open-minded like also as someone who comes from like, I always tell all myself, but it doesn't the one who comes from like a love of fan fiction.
Like I'm always just here for like trying new stuff and like, let's put these characters over here.
And so like, I'm always like I'm always still invested even if things aren't always the best.
I'm like, that's okay.
We'll just see what happens next time.
We just can't wait to see if it comes down next.
So, but in terms of comics, again, they're so little that I haven't read enough yet.
But, you know, in meeting one more artists and seeing things that they've been working on, I'm like, oh, there's a lot of things I'm very much am interested in.
Like so, yeah, so I don't know.
I don't really know on the comic side which I have a preference.
I will say the double trouble series for Marvel has my heart.
I'm so obsessed with uh Thor Loki double trouble.
I like uh, it's like the best thing I've ever read.
So anything that if I could get more of that in the superhero space, I would definitely be very happy because I think it's so fun.
I mean, they did a did a Spider-Man double trouble, right, with Peter Parker and Miles Morales, so, you know, also an option. But I mean, you know, and that's totally fine.
So were you a big fan of the what if series then?
Did you watch all that are you excited for the new season that they're , that's neither did I watched a couple episodes because I was don't this is me, but I'm just just trying to like, you know, poke and I just want to see where you're things.
But I like okay, a lot of I feel like a lot of my answer is going be I started this thing and I need to try and like get back to it, but I started watching X Men 97, which I thought was absolutely amazing.
It just didn't finish it, but very much amazed by it, like from like episode one or two, I was like, oh, I can tell this is amazing.
So I'm just excited about a lot of projects I need to get to Aga all along.
I haven't started it yet, but I want to.
So, you know, yeah, I would say like I'm very invested on like that side of MCU animation and in the movies and the shows.
Like, I'm just excited to like consume more.
Yeah.
Gotcha, Gotcha.
Well, then, I guess in that case, um outside of the newer stuff and it's okay.
We're we are huge proponents of like everybody's got to backlog.
We're all behind.
No one's up to date.
Like Pom and I both said we're still trying to get caught up on our pull list.
So I 100% understand.
Do you have like a favorite, I guess we're I'm just diving right into blind questions that I did not prep put any planning for.
So I hope you're ready to just answer on the spot.
But do you have an MCU property that you you love the most then?
I guess is there like you said you like Iron Man and stuff, but is there like a movie that you prefer one over over anything else?
That's a good question. Uh Yeah, I'm very much a big fan of like Iron Man One, but I'm also a very huge fan of the first Loki series. Um Yeah.
Anything involving Loki, I'm pretty ecstatic about, which is why I also love the Thor Loki double trouble um issue so but I would say I am in number one, the the end game and um what's the what's the one that came for an end game?
Okay, that's what I thought.
Infinity War. Those are always like easy to go back to and just enjoy.
I would say those are probably my tops because they're the ones I would I'd want to go back to the most are those movies.
Yeah.
Cool.
Cool.
No, that's that's great.
I mean like, as someone who is like very hit or miss with a lot of the MCU, it's not like I haven't watched it all, right?
Like it's not like I'm I'm not like secretly obsessed with it all because I must know, right?
Like I've been on this journey since 2009 or whatever.
I have to keep going.
I'm a comic book fan.
I just can't stop being connected to this thing.
Like, um with the exception of things like Xen where I'm just like frustrated.
But that's a that's a totally different subject. Um But so you said you watched a little bit of X Men 97, I guess like I have to ask, what did you like about it?
Would you have the characters that you like more than others in that show?
A question.
I would say what I liked about it.
I was very impressed by the which I guess is very common for like maybe Xen, but I was very impressed by like the kind of social political commentary that was going on in the show and how almost simply it was being spoken about um while still being articulated so well. Um like I was very like fascinated by the moment between, um, of course, I'm going to get name Storm and um what's her name?
Um fireworks Girl.
Oh, and Jubilee Jubile?
Yeah I think it was, oh, you know what?
It wasn't Jubilee.
It was uh, the other name?
No.
Yes, yes, yes.
It was Storm andan.
They were talking.
Yeah, that that conversation I was I was just very much impressed by the writing.
I was like, oh, I can't believe I was just shocked at how good it was.
And you know, I'm kind of young, but I never watched like the original series, so I don't even have like a lot of like the context of like, you know, other people have.
So I didn't know what I was getting into, but I heard a lot of good things and I started watching and I was just so impressed by the storytelling and the characters are so fun.
And I will say if someone I'm I'm again, I'm those people or one of those people who come from a lot of like the movie context.
So like I I'm only just started now to see like the different variations of characters and and to see the X-en done in this way that feels very different from the movies. Was was nice to see and nice to explore.
So I was just like, like Wolverine, you know, wolverine in this show is like so much not the same thing as wolverine.
And I like it, though.
I was like, oh, is this is fascinating and it' it's nice to to see how these characters are reacting to kind of like these older backst stories that have been being like uh created for a while now for years and decades now.
So I'm just like, I'm new here and I'm having fun is how I feel.
Good, good, because usually the X-en makes people so frustrated they leave and they never come back.
I mean, I don't know.
Brian in the chat is saying that anytime we have someone on on the show and they mention X- Men, I use it as an excuse to just talk about X Men.
So I'm going to put a a purposeful stop to that and ask the questions that I actually meant to get to today.
Um So you said you're you're a little bit newer to some of the comic book stuff or or maybe like the MCU and and everything.
But um how did you get started in comics?
How did you go from just like a person who hangs out in life to you know teaching and now you're making comic books?
Yeah.
So um well, I graduated um from a University of the Arts in Philadelphia um in 2020.
And so for the whole year after I was, you know, now obviously out of school and you know, I'm like trying to I'm living with my parents.
I'm trying to figure out how to make my way as an artist.
And my big goal at the time was I really wanted to get into animation and I just recognized pretty quickly after graduating how my art just wasn't kind of like up to par with where I think it needed it to be to get in.
And so I started like completely like redoing my entire portfolio.
I started like redrawing and redesigning and like I'll draw something and draw it again the next day and then draw it again like a week from later.
Like I just kept redrawing until I thought things were up toart.
And I think funny enough that put me in a sweet spot for the Moongrow the dinosaur series becauseolastics reached out and because I was putting stuff on Instagram.
They're, hey, you wanna do this Marvel book?
And I was like, yes, I do want to do this Marvel book.
That is so awesome.
Yeah.
Yeah, I was like, thanks for asking.
So that was like a year after I graduated and that was my first comic book deal ever and it's the only comic book I've done up to that point.
And so I got I was working on that for three years.
I was working on that for like a long time.
And and then it came out and then now I'm in the industry, essentially.
Like I was my first book deal with scholastics and Marvel and it came out and now I'm doing other I have other things coming up, so I'm just now I'm in the comics industry, which is awesome.
I love it.
That is so cool.
I wanted to ask for the Moon Girl and Devil dinosaur book.
The writer was Stephanie Williams.
What was that like collaborating with her?
I've read like a few of her comics.
I think she's done some of the living single, but it's like the superhero spin on it.
So all was that like as like your first forayer work with like such like a cool author?
Yeah, I got to say I'm very lucky.
I mean, I feel like she's just been holding my hand as I make my way through the industry, like she's just been such a pillar.
Well, I, you know, since I've been here and, you know, as I'm sure you might have heard from many other artists like working on the story.
I didn't have any communication with her.
I was just kind of like got some of her notes.
But the thing that I where I knew I was in good hands was when I have a few characters in the story that I had to design from scratch.
And to get their skin tone, she gave me the Fenty foundation numbers. And I was like, oh, perfect.
I was like, whoever this is is amazing.
So, um but then as like, you know, after the series was fun, I reached out and me and her kind of became friendly and you know, she kept giving me so much insight on the industry and things that she's working on and how she navigates.
And I feel like I'm she's just such an amazing person.
I mean, she's just so talented, um she's such a hard worker.
She's very kind, so it's been amazing uh, because like that was my first essentially connection, especially to an author in the industry and it' it's probably one of the best ones I could have had.
So that's incredible.
So I I'm curious.
So Moon Girl and Devil dinosaur wreck and roll um is fun little story.
I read it I read through it a little while ago. Um I'm curious.
Are you a roller derby fan or was that just have you had you experienced roller derby before before getting into the book or something?
Because I feel like that's like a it's a very niche thing. Um but like it's done so well in the comic book.
So I guess what was your experience with that?
So I don't have any connection to roller Derby.
I very much have a, I guess somewhat of a background and like skating, like, you know, like doing skate birthday parties was the thing when I was a kid.
So I yeah, I've been to a lot of skating rings and I used to do inlines, which has been a while and I want to get back to it.
So I definitely have like some connection to skating, but I've never had a connection to a rollererby in particular.
But it was a lot of fun.
Like I love doing the research and and looking at like kind of like clothes and like trying to like bring it to life, especially with the main team, um the sleigh train is the name of the group that I had to design and I had to design their outfits and it was just such a good time, um very much doing this blend of roller derby, but uh kind of like tech futurism to get their their outfits.
And so, yeah, just learning about the the um sport and and as a lover of fashion, anything fashion related makes me happy.
So, you know, just being able to like bring those things into the store look a lot of fun.
Yeah, and they they look really like the outfits for for that team in particular, especially when they're in their like, they're what do they call, second or backup gig or whatever, you know, outfits is like, it's very high-tech and cool.
Like it's very fun.
Yeah, I I really enjoyed that part of the book, um, just like the the big back and forth.
I mean, I was, you know, it's it's a book aimed at and younger audiences, but it's still like very fun to kind of see it all coming and just be like, oh, no, what's she going to do?
Like it's such a such a fun little story with that.
And I feel like action sequences in the book are really cool.
Like you get the like the speed lines and stuff.
It looks it looks very, very well done.
I appreciate it.
Yeah.
I feel like it's it's funny.
I don't like naturally gravitate towards a lot of action related stuff.
But it's almost like it is where I come from in terms of like a student in a sense of like, for me, it's more like Looney tunes is where I get my sense of like actions and stuff stuff..
But what I get to do, like action related things is always a fun time.
Like it's just so much fun, like seeing how far you can push the human body anatomy and like create these like really like fun uh experiences, you know.
Yeah, that's great.
And so speaking of things like like Loony Tunes, I guess like when you're when you're working on books and you're reading things and you're taking inspiration, I guess like what do you toward typically gravitate towards?
Is it all like cartoons and animation?
I mean, clearly you know, you're reading some slightly darker stuff as well.
So like, where do you where do you go to for inspiration?
Yeah, I very much pulled from both animation and a comics.
Like again, my my biggest thing I always have in the back of my head is kind of giant days.
That's kind of like my big inspiration.
Yeah, I know.'s, chefs.
Love that.
I mean, talk about like uh physical comedy.
Like what a what a wonderfully drawn comic book. So coming from that, coming from Scott Pilgrim, coming from Stevie Universe, Gravity Falls, Wander overonder I can name cartunes for..
Yeah, so like I try and pull from both of those things and even like other comics I've seen on like web tunes and just like out of box type things. Uh And I think I think I'm just I feel like I'm very much a student of um kind of slapstick cartoon era.
And I would also say like my most favorite thing is expressions and I take a lot of inspiration from one piece, um my favorite anime of all time.
Yeah.
Okay, so we're all immediately we're all best friends.
It's fine, great.
I'm glad we solidified this relationship today.
Yes, I am the biggest, like one well, I'll say one of the biggest one piece fans.
But like I'll absolutely adore the way EG all that plays with expressionions and it's something that kind of like initially uh fostered my love for one piece. Um And so I take a lot of inspiration from like how the stretch and pool expressions as much as I possibly can and you kind of like see that at my work.
That's amazing.
I mean, so were you like just like gone have you gone crazy since like the revealed the latest gear, like the big giant Nik god Luffy up in the sky?
I mean, like who basically becomes a living cartoon character?
I mean like, is that the greatest reveal in the world for you or what?
So it's actually funny because like when it first was happening, I was kind of like, how I feel about this?
Because I think I heard some criticism of like, you know, maybe it's like too goofy, but I was just like, no, but it's so fun.
It's so much fun.
I'm raid I like I have that development and just the way they play with it the animation.
It was very much like a heart racing moment.
I was like this is why I one piece is my favorite anime of all time because I always feel like I'm constantly on the edge of my seat, especially with its sense of storytelling and and a character development.
And so to see him kind of gained this new height. Was super impressive.
I guess I just need I want to know more.
Like I I got to egghead Island.
I'm like almost done and then I didn't I got to get back.
I have to get back to everything I've ever started.
So like, you know, I just feel like I would like I would like to know more about Luffy and and and gear five.
And like a part of me is like a I feel like I have like a I don't want it to get too mystical.
I don't know.
It's like I don't want to st one piece already completely strays away from like being like down to earth, you know what it's storytelling.
But like I it's almost like a I would just like to know what we mean when we say God.
I like, what is what does this mean?
Like how much power are we being given?
You know, like I just want to make sure we're not going too out, because at that point it doesn't feel like one piece anymore.
It feels like we're kind of outside somewhere else.
But yeah. There feels to be like a we're this is a one piece podcast now.
This is um but there there feels to be like a there is a groundedness.
Like I hate to like like you said, it's not like realistic, but there is like a uh an understanded like thing where everybody is still fallible, right?
Like everybody can be defeated.
And so, yeah, I totally know what you mean by saying this this God status thing kind of puts us in Dragon Ball Z territory where you're kind of just like, ah, well, then then you're like in this infinite power scale thing that doesn't feel right.
And well, one piece clearly has an a power scale that we're getting to and like Kido was an entire thing that felt like the next step up, right?
Um, there does need to be like a limitation on this um that to to keep it a little bit grounded for whatever that means.
I totally am right there with you.
Man, okay, good. You know, I like this.
We're on the same page about this.
I appreciate it.
I appreciate that. Um Paloma move us away from one piece or else.. Um Asia earlier, you mentioned like what makes you like the MCU or like being open to like the MCU changing things up is because you enjoy a fan fiction.
May I ask what fan fiction do you gravitate to?
What are like the series or like pop culture properties that you're like, this is some good fan fiction.
To be honest, it's like 99% MCU.
Incredible awesome awesome.
It's like sometimes I'll dabble outside and do other stuff, but it's mostly marvel stuff for some reason. Um I'm trying to think there's just anything else that I gravitated because mostly is mostly marvel.
I can't even remember the other things I read because that's almost everything I read.
So Any particular characters?
I'll name one person and I'll say Iron Man and we'll . That's.
I love playing with characters that are very intelligent, whether that's on the scale of like, chaotic or chaotic ego or whatever.
I just love exploring the mind and and how far we can, you know, we're pushing people and what people are willing to do.
I don't know, I just I love reading anything about Tony Start because there's so much you can do with them as like an intelligent person and same thing with like a Loki, love just the crazy stories and concepts people come up with for them.
It's just so good.
Well, there's a run of uh, I think it's Loki as well as like young Avengers.
I don't know if you haven't read it, but by Kieran Gillen.
I could send you some links.
You want to see Loki being the cleverest, most trickststeest guy you've ever seen.
I think you would like those runs second. You know, I'll I'll I'll send you a list or something after after we finish recording.
But so, okay, you love Tony Stark, um, thoughts then on the other big brains of the Marvel universe, right?
We've got Professor X. Technically, I mean, not in the MCU, really, but we've got Reed Richards and eventually Dr. Doom, who will technically probably maybe be iron Man gone bad. Uh curious, what are your thoughts on the on the other big brains then in there?
I mean, I guess Bruce Banner also win that line too.
Okay, so I will say I'm a big Bruce Banner fan.
I think he's a fascinating I think fascinating from like a psychological um I don't I say, like mental health standpoint.
I really I'm interested in in banner and how it's explored, how he himself emotionally is dealing with his own essentially monstrosity and all that I love that with a banner, but then with the other ones, to be honest, I don't know, they don't do enough for me, I guess I don't know how it would describe it.
I don't want to call myself an edge word because that's not true, but like I think they're just not they're just not cheeky enough for me.
I think like like I'm fascinated, like it's cold or smart, but they're not. They don't okay, I'll say that as someone who's also not read a lot of them.
So that with that being said, I don't want to actually have like as much context with them.
No, no, no.
I think you're nailing it.
I think you're nailing it.
Okay, because even like I like I don't have a lot of the context of like Tony Stark and the comics, which I've looked into a bit and I was like, damn, he's this bad.
But in the at least in the movies, I'm like, but there's so much heart and he's so cheeky, so fascinating.
He's so fun and like the same thing with Loki, like he's so cheeky and like mysterious, and, you know, the what is it?
What's the term looking?
I don't, but it's just like the chaoticness of him.
It's so much fun to me and like I don't get that with the other ones.
I'm like, you know, you're smart, but so what?
It's not that interesting alone.
They need to have a little bit of like a smart Aleicess to them, right?
They need to be a little bit of a smart ass and also pretty smart at the same time, right?
And then anyone who's too lawful good, I'm not the biggest fan of, I gotta say.
Like I'm kind of I'm kind of a.
All right, well, we' stop the show now because I feel like no, I'm just kidding.
No, that's great.
That's really, you know, and I totally can understand that.
I feel like it's going to be very interesting.
This is the MCU speculation corner now to see where they take this Dr. Doom played by Robert Donny Jr., which I know has been like mean to death, but also like, how is he going to approach this?
Is it just going to be a really smart bad guy who's got a like a smart mouth?
Is that what we're going to get?
I'm not mad about that a little bit.
I'm like, I'm a big Dr. Doom like fan in general and I feel like the superior reigning lord who is just higher than thou persona is not as fun as like a I'm smarter than you and also the bad guy vibe.
I really like that.
Agreed.
And I and I got to say like I'm I'm a huge fan of like Robert Jr's acting and I just feel like, regardless of what we get, I have a hard time believing he's going to mess it up.
You know what I mean?
Like I if things around it aren't so great, that's one thing, but I just I have I have faith, so I'm I'm excited to see it as well.
All right.
When all these new movies come out, we're having you back and then we're going to retrospect and I'm so excited. , you have any last questions I think here before we wrap up, I've got one more that I want to end us on.
I think I almost set on my questions.
Got my good fanic answers.
Good, good, good.
Well, then, I'm curious, Asia. For folks that are curious, what is the project that you're working on next or if it's too underground or under wraps?
I mean, that's understandable.
What are you working on anything next that people could look out for?
So I am, but I don't think I'm allowed to say anything yet.
I haven't even gotten as far as like signing things yet.
So like things are very early, but it seems like there's things to go.
I will see it's too bigger things.
So it's definitely exciting to look for.
I'm trying to think if I can even, yeah, I probably shouldn't say anything.
I feel like it's so early, but um we'll be seeing them if everything goes well, should be seeing them, probably the end of next year or maybe not too long after.
So not too long from now.
Yeah, but things are just getting started, but I got some good stuff coming, so it's exciting.
Awesome.
Hopefully, like not a three-year wait, like the last one, right?
I don't.
That's great.
That's great.
Well, this has been an absolute blast.
I guess for other folks that are curious, where can they find you on the Internet if they want to reach out if they want to follow what you were working on next?
Yeah, if you want to follow me, uh check out what I'm feeling out, you should definitely follow me on Instagram.
My name is Asia underscore Simone or5.
I could tell you other places, but honestly, I don't do much on anything else.
So you should probably just find me on Instagram. If you yeah, if you want to reach out, feel free, my DMs are open, but also email, you know, id for whatever reason, people want contact, you can do that, yeah.
Sure.
Yeah, well'll make sure to put links to your website, your Instagram, uh and the show notes and stuff.
But this has been an absolute blast.
I'm so so glad we got to get into the mind of Asia Simone, taught comics and everything.
But I'll say, I guess, thank you to everyone listening live.
This has been a blast.
Thank everyone on discord.
Thank you everyone listening out there on the Internet.
Brian was a proof listener.
Thank you for doing.
Thank you to Zander, our editor.
Next week's episode is a pre-recorded episode that I'm pretty sure is maybe going to be, oh no, couple weeks we're have a transformers episode that may be the most controversial thing we've ever put out.
But um next week's episode's going to be really good. Uh It's got uh, uh Danny, Kate and Renee are going to be talking about an a manga that they all read, so that's going to be fun.
But I guess we'll wrap things up here I'll say thank you to everyone out there.
You're all fantastic human beings.
But until next time, comics are good and so are you.