- For like more than half of the interview he talks about his backstory, career, sex criminals, Howard the Duck, a little bit how the industry works, etc.
As someone who's a trivia nerd, frequently follows behind the scenes stuff etc I was aware of basically everything he said, but if you're not very familiar with it or simply wanna know about more about Zdarsky, there's some interesting info there.
But what I found Interesting is that he talks about his whole career, how he got from one point to another in detail, but doesn't mention how he got the job at PP:SSM.
- He says he turned down a lot of work from Marvel, DC and other publishers simply because he just does what he enjoys. Time and if he thinks he can do said book well also plays a part but it's mainly if he'll enjoy it, so he has a preference for light hearted books. He says that if he can't enjoy working on the book, wanting to do it, then he won't take the job, even with the possibility of regretting it later.
- Zdarsky says how he likes character/stories that are more fun and happy all the time, thus when there's a dark story it hits much harder. Not only that but he mentions how his own personality is like that. Like, when the silly, jokey guy gets serious it hits much harder. Naturally, he says that Spider-Man (the character) is the perfect example of that, and mentions how he intends to do something like that on the book. He also believes Kraven Last Hunt worked as well as it did because of that.
- As I said, Chip mentions how he will try and do this "happy and jokey mostly, but when things serious..." thing with Spectacular, he says the start will be happy and jokey (this podcast was before issue 1 officially came out) but by issue 3 or 4, stuff will start to hit, things will get more serious.
- According to Zdarsky, Adam Kubert is very excited to be working on Spider-Man.
- He says he studied what made a really good Spider-Man story in the past and work on it from there. He says that his stories will be lighter than the previous years, more jokes, more bad jokes, but he also wants to give the high stakes story that the readers want and that made him come back for more as a kid.
- Zdarsky talks about the boundaries of certain works in the industry, then goes on to mention PP:SSM. When he got the job, there were notes from the higher ups of things the book wanted to accomplish (I imagine the classic stuff) and what he could/should do or not,… What characters, stories etc to possibly bring in/reference, which ones to not. Chip says he likes the boundaries, helps him focus.
Then he says the book focus on new and old readers, inject some things from previous years and suggests throwing in certain characters. Basically, there are bit of pieces of characters and rules that made the work easier for Chip. From the way he speaks, most if not all of this was all optional, it seems Zdarsky just chooses to follow it.
- Zdarsky says that if someone thinks Spider-Man's out of character, his approach to it is like “Well like, look at the years of the story, with all that’s happened to him he should be on a mental institution, if one of the things happened to a regular person… Game over”
- Zdarsky says that the more a character learns with time, he'd become too perfect, the “Superman/Cap” of the universe and you can’t have those, just one or two. So he says Spider-Man must screw up because of that. There are elements you can/have to get back on, he can learn but not learn too much to the point he’s not interesting.
He continues and says that if we’re gonna be more logical with all the years, Peter should be highly respected and the smartest person on the Marvel Universe. But says that’s not a good plan on long-term, you can do a story or two with it but where do you go from there?
- Despite what we already saw of his writing on Spider-Man, Zdarsky says he is holding back the jokes, his personality, etc to work on the book. Man, can’t imagine if he wasn’t then… <_<
- He says he’s got 20-30 issues planned so far. (… You’d have to listen to it to truly get it, but from the way he speaks, and from the behind the scenes stuff he talked about, seems he's positive that he’ll stay on the book. Oh boy…)
- This one it’s the host who says, but Zdarsky agrees. He says that maybe readers don’t even know what they want, like they say that they want Peter to be married, happy, the most successful man in the world, all which he probably could be, but that does not make an interesting story. As I said Zdarsky agreed and mentioned Claremont’s run on the X-men as an example, how he consistently didn’t give the readers what they wanted. He says that when Claremont did what they wanted, shortly before his departure from the book, Zdarsky wasn’t interested anymore because basically there was no conflict, with everything good, all the favorites together, só he didn’t follow the book anymore.
- Zdarsky says he tries to differentiate himself from the other Spider books.
-He also says he loves Slott’s work. (And I don’t think anyone doubts this, but Zdarsky confirms that it’s Slott who calls the shots, defines the status quo, the biggest things will happen on ASM, etc.) Zdarsky jokes and says Slott does all heavy-lifting for him, he says he can have the fun thing happening on the side. Chip mentions that there still will be big stuff on his book but the difference between it and ASM, is that in PP:SSM the big things will be around Spidey and in ASM it’ll be on Spider-Man himself. Lastly, he says it’s possible there’s a point where they’ll crossover and plan things together.
- He says he likes the challenge and process of creating plots for Spider-Man, especially leaving things for the future and working with the previous ones. He says that it’s a fun nature of comics, and mentions some examples of it. Basically fixing things and creating new problems, leaving things for the next writer, etc.
- Zdarsky actually mentioned that he was going to explain Teresa’s backstory in issue 2 (Again, interview before issue came out) so readers didn’t have to pick or google ASM: Family Bussiness. Well, too late I guess lol.
- He makes the point again how Peter would be in a mental institution a long time ago with all that’s happened to him. Zdarsky also says that Peter Parker, who’s supposed to be an everyman, it becomes hard to see him as such with all that stuff.
- He says that Dan was playing with the idea of reintroducing MJ a bit more (:O), she and Peter talking more, so he went and followed that up. He says he likes the idea of them just chilling out, being friends etc. He mentions how people wrote to him how they thought MJ was OOC, saying how could they be casually joking about their relationship when there’s so much history, pain, heartbreak etc but Zdarsky once again just brings up the “if they actually felt all that’s happened to them... Mental Institution”.
Then he stops focusing on Peter/MJ and goes more all around, saying sometimes you gotta sidestep and accelerates some things, look over it a little bit in order for something to work, exist in the pages. Zdarsky agrees with what the host said that it’s a 'you gotta joke not to cry' sort of thing, especially with Peter/MJ.
- He continues talking about this, saying that if you stop to think about that all those supporting characters have been murdered and brought back, or been a villain, or either happened to someone close to 'em. Zdarsky says you can’t dwell on that stuff too much or else there’ll be no stories, but that you also have to acknowledge it. He says everything falls apart if you do treat them like real people, check their history etc. Because again... Mental Institution. lol
- Due to his love/inspiration from Soap Operas (he mentions in this interview), he often thinks that Marvel characters should start aging. This point is brought up because things gotta change there and can’t always reset like comics since actors age, die, change jobs etc and it’s what differentiates it from comics, you can’t make these characters in the same position forever due to that, you can't hit the reset button like in comics. If that were to happen he says Peter can be on his 70's and retire, and Miles can be Spider-Man (Is this indirectly saying Miles isn't hehe
) ((Chip, Morales would be old as heck too LOL))
- Lastly he mentions the Spidey's senior citizens rogues and jokes about it with the host for a bit… I guess he was
dying to put that line in the book. LOL