Torunn Grønbekk is feeling festive: An interview about Catwoman, Jason Aaron, and Christmas in Norway - The Short Box Podcast Ep. 479
00:00
In this episode of The Short Box. It's impossible to be indifferent to the seasons in Norway. Like now it's so dark. You barely see the sun. I don't think we're going to see like a sunny day until February. We live with the seasons in a way that I like I find like very heartful. I know the Danish sort of term hykke has had a...
00:23
That's sort of like when the darkness comes and it gets really cold, we do tend to sort of automatically, we light all the candles and we do all the things to sort of stay warm, stay together in a way. Everything slows down a bit. So it feels like a sort of very quiet, lovely, joyous time.
00:45
intro music plays
01:08
Yo, Short Box Nation. Hello again, welcome back and thanks for pressing play today. If you're brand new, welcome to the show. My name is Badr and this is the Short Box Podcast, the comic book talk show that brings you the best conversations about your favorite comics with the people that put their blood, sweat and tears into making them. This is episode 479 and today we have comic writer Torunn Grønbekk joining us for a conversation about her life, her career.
01:35
As well as her new comic series, The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Shiver of Christmas Town. It's coming out in January through Dynamite Entertainment, and it's the first ever ongoing comic series set in the world of the beloved Tim Burton film. We'll talk to Torrin about that as well as her time writing on comics like Catwoman for DC, Spider-Girl, Carnage, and Thor for Marvel, and Red Sonya for Dynamite. But before we get into that, I wanna give a big shout out to the sponsors who make this show possible. I'm talking about Gotham City Limit Comic Shop and Collective Con.
02:05
Northeast Florida's premier anime, comic book, and pop culture event. And I can't talk about supporters of the podcast and not talk about the Short Box Patronies, aka the loyal supporters that make up the Short Box Patreon community. If you enjoy this podcast and you want more of it, or you just want to show your support for an indie podcaster like myself, consider joining the Short Box elite at patreon.com slash the short box. It's five bucks a month for the good stuff, but that $5 goes a long way.
02:33
and help me keep this show going and keep the lights on here at Short Box HQ. Podcasting is not cheap nor time friendly. It takes a long time to make a good show. But look, for five bucks a month, you'll get a bunch of rewards and perks like early access to everything I record. You get bonus episodes you won't hear on the main feed and you get a chance to win free comics and prizes every month with the monthly comic giveaway contest. Check it out for yourself at patreon.com slash the short box or hit the link in the episode show notes.
03:02
And one last shout out to all the existing Patronis out there. I love you guys. Now, without further ado, let's welcome our guest of honor today. Short box nation, let's give it up for Torunn Grønbekk. Hey Torun, how you doing? That was a lovely introduction. Thank you so much for having me. My pleasure. People may not know, I'll put this at the top. I'm recording here in Jacksonville, Florida. Everyone knows that. And you are recording all the way from Norway. You might win an award for longest.
03:32
Distance interview. I don't think I've ever recorded anyone further out from you. So you got that you got the bar pretty high All right. Yeah, this is a fantastic I love staying out here in the very edge of the world Feels nice sort of you know, it feels like when the world is will end we've one to go Maybe so I got a place to crash. That's what you're saying. The world comes to end Yeah, I could hit you. Oh, hey Torrin look the world's going to shit. America is definitely going to shit. Can I come out there?
04:01
Yeah, we'll give you some fish, some reindeer, and then, you know. Oh, reindeer, wow. That's my sort of go-to thing when people come over. I make them reindeer stew, and then I sort of look at them and hope that they eat it. Just sort of stare at them, waiting for a reaction. And I've had a couple of times where people go, is this the Rudolph animal? You know, and I'm like, yeah, we're eating Rudolph. You're like, the red nose is actually a fine delicacy in Norway, OK? It's packed with flavor.
04:29
Okay, color me morbidly interested, alright? I won't lie, I'm usually down to try anything food-wise. I'm not a picky food eater. So you say reindeer and I mean a part of me is a little sad. I'm going to be eating Dasher, Prancer and all of them. But at the same time, I want to send Lifetime an opportunity. But it is a tradition. I gave Brian one camomile with his family and I made them reindeer. uh And they were too polite to not eat it. Oh my god. Which was great.
04:57
Can you write about that? Can that be your indie comic creator? Create your own comic. Is Brian K. Vaughn being fed reindeers too? I'd love to read Desperately trying to be polite to a lot of people. Yeah. Can I ask you a stupid American question? I'm risking coming off like a stupid American, but I am curious about this. We are recording on Sunday, November 30th, which is Thanksgiving weekend. Thanksgiving for me was on Thursday. Have you ever been able to celebrate?
05:25
Thanksgiving. Have you ever had like a Thanksgiving feast? Have you ever come to like the States during Thanksgiving? No, but I did. I was I've been thinking about it, but I just want to it seems like such a good thing. And there are some people that would would host me if I sort of showed up at their houses. So I almost did it this year because Erica Schultz is a good friend of mine and she's too kind to say to just don't. And I was very close to just be like, hey, I just want to taste the turkey or whatever.
05:54
I just want to, like, I like to do the most American things. I like a good American parody. So if I go to an American diner and the waitress is sort of, she's a little rude and she's been waiting tables for four to five years, like that's the best day of my life. Oh yeah, no, the more angrier and maybe even more miserable that the server or hostess is at an American diner, the better the food's gonna be. I mean, you're gonna have to put up with an attitude.
06:21
I mean, that's why you tip, you know, they're out here working their ass off. She's probably working on her birthday. Matter of fact, it's her birthday when you went. But the food's going to be great. The food's going to be great. And I'm going to say something just stupid enough to be like, I'm going to over tip. I'm going to say some sort of, like I do that with my, like I do that with my dentist all the time. I'll say something that's sort of vaguely crossing the line and then I can't fix it because she said I was doing shit in my mouth.
06:49
And I sometimes do that with waiting stuff too. I'll make a bad joke and it's a linger in the air. And then I can't fix it, which is what I try to do. And then I think like, oh, that's going to be, it's going to be a good story at some point. It's not right now. You're like, shit, now I got a tip 20 % on this tooth extraction and they're already charging me an arm and a leg. Well, look, I have self invited myself over to your house during the apocalypse. So I guess it's only fair that I say that if you've ever find yourself in Jacksonville, Florida during Thanksgiving.
07:19
I will happily host you. My mom makes the best turkey in the world. And I put that up against anyone. All right. I'm here to say that. The thing is, Florida, never been. uh Seems like a place full of American parodies. Like that just seems like the best place in the world. I desperately want to go. I think that's our state motto, by the way, is Florida. We're full of American parodies. Yeah. And the thing is, I'm not making fun of you guys. I just want to make that because I do sincerely. Everyone else does.
07:48
Well, thing is, I feel like you're skirting on the edge of madness and all of, it's a bunch of nonsense right now. But having said that, I do love America so much and I love being there. I keep making it, like I made Jason Aron take me to Arby's at some point. It's true. Feel free to take this idea, just steal it. But I think a comic compilation of you and all of your
08:17
experiences of America through the lens of other comic creators like this Brian Kay Vaughan story, this Jason Aaron Arby story. I think there's something here, Dorin. It's just the patience of Jason Aaron looking at me while I'm discovering that when they do say all the meats or whatever the fuck it is, they do mean all of it. Yeah, except for reindeer. You won't find reindeer there. Oh, yeah, sure. But I would, I thought it would be like a symbolic tomato or something in there, like a symbolic piece of lettuce, like something. But it's just not, it's just, you know.
08:47
meat. That's what I It's glorious. he's very kind of take me to these places. Oh, God bless Jason Aaron, giving you the full American experience. I love it. I made him buy me a Twinkie because I never had one. I took one bite and it's disgusting. Like it's absolutely revolting. Right. And he was like, Yeah, I told you it's fucking disgusting. And so I was like, I'm gonna throw it away. He's like, No, can't throw away a Twinkie. And he had the rest of it. And it was just like, this is, it's just so beautiful.
09:16
love you guys so much. Yeah, yeah, but that's good idea. I was just eating with comic creators throughout the world. That's coming out on images 2027, folks. Be on the lookout for that. Yep. All right, Torin, I want to say real quick, last night, you know, I'm finishing up my research, you know, just scrolling stuff and I went on your Instagram and found myself in a pretty long rabbit hole just scrolling your Instagram and admiring how talented you are at painting. And this was completely new to me. So I imagine it might be new to...
09:43
some listeners that only know you from your comic writing, but you are a talented painter. Thank you so much. And your Instagram is chock full of hyper realistic oil paintings. I guess I want to leave with that. Like, where did you learn to paint? Are you like self-taught or did you like, are you trained? No, not even a little bit. No, I just started painting at some point and it makes sense to me in a way that drawing does not. I don't think I'm a particularly good drawer, that's the thing. Painting works for me.
10:13
And it's a it's a nice process. And I've been sort of over the past decades, I've been sort of going back and forth on whether I should do fine art as a sort of, if I'm going to be a fine artist and do that thing. um And I had, I've told this story before other places, I had a moment maybe 12 years ago or something, I was in New York and I had an exhibition, my first exhibition in New York with my art. um
10:43
I was sort of walking around the opening and interacting with the New York art people who are like, they're like, they are a parody of themselves, you know? There's no level of pretentiousness that they will not sort of barge through. And I love that. I think that's great. But it was still like, that was a lot. And I was feeling something. But I've scheduled the exhibition to sort of be the same week as New York Comic.
11:11
And I went to New York Comic Con the next day and I had a very sort of, oh, these are my people, sort of a feeling. I love the, I don't know, there's something about the comics people that makes sense to me. I think there is, when it comes to sort of quality artists, we have the best artists in the world. The elites, pretentious and best artists in the world. um So I always sort of landed on, I want to do comics. I agree with you there.
11:41
I used to work at a museum here in Jackson, Florida. It is like one of our nicer fine arts museum. It's got like tons of amazing paintings and portraits. I was a security guard. So I worked a lot of different events, a lot of private events, a lot of public events. And you're totally right. There is an air of pretentiousness that comes with like the fine arts community. And I think a lot of that has to deal with like just the amount of money, you know, that is being traded and bought and all of that. Like the, the, economy of, you know,
12:09
fine arts is ridiculous compared to like comic book, Like comic books, we're dealing with like starving artists, like sometimes in like a very literal sense. And I think that gives you a sense of like, I don't know, I feel like with comic book artists and professionals, there's a sense of like groundedness, like, you know, just like your everyday people. That's, I don't know, just refreshing. You feel like you can connect with these people a lot easier. Yeah. And I think there is something to sort of talk about this a lot, like sort of getting the joke of the
12:38
lives that we live. There is a sort of, at least to me, there's a level of humor in everything. And we do accept so many ridiculous things on a regular basis. sort of accept that, like a lot of things that we just kind of go, well, it is how it is, but we do see how ridiculous it is. You know? Yeah, yeah, that's a point. And I do like it when it comes to like, I think my, use this again as an example, and I wrote a four word for
13:08
the Garth Ennis book. um And there was a story there about how, because they get the joke, like Garth gets the joke everywhere. um And I think the same with the fine art people, like I think it's great, I think it's fantastic when people do quirky, wonderful thing and live in all sort of different ways. But during the opening, at some point I was introduced to someone who went, I need you to meet Mathilde, like she's...
13:35
the most amazing person, she's in their silent period. So they introduced me to a woman who doesn't speak. So I'm like, oh, that's interesting. Like, what do we do now? And I think that's funny. I think that's fundamentally funny. She didn't. Like she was like, oh, well, at least I don't think she didn't say anything. But it's still like, there's something to, like super potential spaces where I think you have to see the joke. Like you have to.
14:06
You have to join us in the humor or it's just going to be pathetic. know? an awkward. And if you do, you can do whatever the fuck you want. You just have to have a little humor about it. yeah, comics, comics people are easier. Comics people are wonderful. You know, you brought up Garth and to tie it back to your incredible painting skills, you did a cover for Battle Action, the comic series. is an anthology series that collects a bunch of war comic stories.
14:34
I think Garth Ennis is like uh he does like an ongoing story in every single issue. I don't know too much of the background. I just know it's an awesome compilation of great war comics. And you've got a story and I think issue like eight from last year. But you did a painted cover for this particular issue, which is in. Yes, battle action. Number eight came out last year. It's incredible, by the way. You've got a short story in there too called Nina Petrova and the uh fighting Russian. I read that last night, actually bought the issue from 2000 A.D. It's awesome.
15:02
And then I started going into some more of your other comics and I see a common through line, which is you write bad-ass comics. Thank you. I think you write action really well. I think you write like tough situations, but tougher people. I like it. Like how much grit you have. Like I was reading your Punisher, one of the Punisher one shots you did. uh Loved your like your voice for Frank Castle. And then I read like Catwoman and there's like a sense of like grit to her too.
15:29
And I'm curious, like, where does that come from? Like, would you consider yourself like someone that's like, that's got grit, that's like, that's tough? Do you watch like, I guess a lot of action movies? Like, where does this knack for telling tough stories come from? I think, I think it's, I don't know, I'm deeply interested in humanity on a sort of non-judgmental, through a non-judgmental lens. I like that we, like we are what we are. And I think,
15:58
you can sort of sanitize it and explain it and we have, you know, the good and the bad and everything. But I think there is, ah if you can get to a person and get their honest reasoning for doing whatever they've done and not judge it, just look at it. uh That's the most interesting thing in the world. So what I do is I read a lot of memoirs, little read a lot of like military history. That's been sort of thing. I started reading
16:28
I think it started with a biography of Potemkin um when I was like 11 or something. I was like a properly pretentious cunt when I was 11 through my teenage years, if we're absolutely honest, just revoltingly pretentious. um I started with the Russians and the Russians are fucking crazy, but they do sort of love to sort of lay around in the worst of the worst.
16:57
human misery in a way. And it's very interesting thing what we have allowed and what we do keep allowing to happen um and how we, what reasoning and motives we give. And I find it fascinating that we can be like so aware of our capacity for a lot of really awful things, while on the other hand, be very surprised every time something awful happens. ah
17:26
And I think there is a lot to learn in just looking at people and having in the back of your mind that everyone thinks that they're the hero and to a certain extent also the victim of something. And whoever you meet, like however fucking stupid you find them in their head, they think like, no, no, I'm the one who knows what I'm doing.
17:54
which I find fascinating. So I tried to approach like every book with the same sort of, I tried to have uh a certain extent of just, want realism in there. And that's sort of, I think like if you're gonna write a revenge story, it should always be about the fact that the person who is executing whatever revenge has a problem moving on rather than trying to actually
18:24
to make some sort of like about justice, I suppose. Because if you look at people who have really truly gone through the most awful things in the world, revenge is very rarely the thing that they think about. And I think that's one of the things that we do tend to get wrong a lot in pop culture. um I think we get a lot of things wrong in pop culture. And I think it's worth trying to
18:53
twist it back to feel more real in a way. Yeah. I mentioned a couple of the characters and titles that you wrote that you're writing currently and have written in the past and in the beginning. You know, I Catwoman, Carnage, Thor, and Red Sonja. I want to stay on those four. Which character would you say is most like you? Which one is furthest from you? And which one would you say taught you the most about yourself? That's a good question. I will say that I think
19:22
found writing Carnage and Cletus Kasady's like ridiculously easy. That was the one that came the easiest, which is sort of terrifying. Why is that? Why is that? Is it because you were just able to like tap into like these dark corners or bait, you know, pull from some of these memoirs and things? Well, thing is like when you write Punisher, one of the things like the great trick about writing Punisher is to kill people who everyone agrees needs to be killed. And there are a bunch of those people where you sort of
19:50
You know that there is supposed to be a justice and there's supposed to be a whole system and a, you know, a process. But we all know that people are just like, well, they can probably die though, but that they are probably, we could do without those fuckers. m And that's a sort of, it's almost harder to find the cases where you can sort of get the audience on board if that's what you want to do, which isn't necessarily the case when you're writing Punisher.
20:20
That's sort of the main challenge is just finding something that doesn't feel trite but still feels like something where the reader will go, yeah, I can see how we got there. But the carnage, you can just be fucking insane. can just do, because Cletus is absolutely batshit insane.
20:49
which is fantastic. and there is a sort of like, when I was writing Valkyries, I had Jane Foster and I had Runa, the two sort of Valkyries, and Jane will always do the right thing, you know, she will always do a good, like she will be, she will do the thing that you know is right to do. While Runa will do what I would want to do in that situation. And I think it's a clearness, he does the things that like, me at my absolute worst, I would
21:19
go like, it would be fun to light that shit on fire and just see what happened. That's what happened to Cletus. And Catwoman, I will say, she feels so like me in so many ways. I think there is a responsibility to bring out some aspects of her that we haven't necessarily well done earlier. And I fucked up.
21:48
I want to, as far as I can, try to give her as much complexity as we can. And I think it's been sort of, you have a lot of different ways of viewing Catwoman. And you have like a bunch of people who see her through the lens of Bruce, like as a love interest. And then you have a bunch of other people who seem to be very obsessed with her backstory and they want her to have been economically.
22:16
a prostitute because that gives them something. And I like to play around there a bit because I find it interesting how we look at women and how you can sort of take away a lot about a woman if you put her in certain situations. And I would like her to be able to be all of the things and still be a person. of, you know, she can both be horny and competent.
22:45
You know? Yeah. It doesn't have to be mutually exclusive for sure. Yeah. It happens. I mean, we all get a little stupid if we're too excited. I'm just saying. You know, we brought up Thor a couple of times. I've been dying to ask this question because I ended up learning that you were named after your father, who is also named Thor, after Thor. And I'm curious to know, like, how does your dad feel about your career, specifically, like, your time writing Thor? Like, I feel like it's a very interesting, like, full circle, almost like meta moment. I'm sure, like, that
23:14
It also dawned on you as well. what does your dad think about your writing career? My parents, I don't think they've ever read anything I've written oh ever, which is sort of a weird thing. they don't like, my dad has no understanding or concept of what I do and what's a big deal and what's not a big deal. oh But I did at some point because my dad used to um every morning.
23:42
during the weekends when we had a lot of time to have breakfast. I would climb up on his shoulders and he would tell stories about a giant named Ustegumpen, which loosely translates to the cheese giant. And he would send Ustegumpen out on different adventures and it would always be some sort of absurdity that would be half relevant to whatever we were dealing with.
24:11
And we would never sort of let the story end. So it would just be a continuation like week in after weekend. And I wrote that into Thor. I wrote that into Thor that Odin used to tell Thor stories about Osterkumpen and that when Odin finally leaves Mjolnir, he was in the hammer for a while, it's a whole thing.
24:38
when he needed to sort of, Odin needed to tell Thor that he was gone for good this time, like he was dead for good. And he told Jane Foster the ending of Ust-Ukund's story and had her tell it to Thor as a sort of way of saying goodbye and be like, now the story has ended. it turned into a thing, like it was a few like articles em about that thing. And I sent it off to my dad and he's like,
25:09
I don't know how to feel about this, it feels something. He understands that there's something there. I don't think he necessarily quite understands the magnitude of it. So your dad was making up these stories. This isn't basically some... That is badass. So that makes the full circle moment even more relevant. If your level of comics, it sounds like it didn't come from your parents, but definitely storytelling.
25:34
I guess, where did your love of comics come from? What was your first conscious exposure to comic books? Also, to add to that, what is the comic book scene like in Norway as you're growing up? Well, the things that we had, is a, this was a ties in to the entire thing really, because there is a Danish comic book creator called Peter Madsen. He's not the murderer, because there is a Peter Madsen who killed a- you for clarifying that, yeah.
26:02
He made a submarine and killed a woman on it. It's an awful story, ah but the other one. He wrote a comic called Valhalla where he takes all the old uh myths and twists them around. They're just the most delightful thing you've ever... I wish it was more widely available outside of Scandinavia. But my mom would tell us the North myths like they were real.
26:30
um And I grew up with them. That's the only mythology that I grew up with. All of me and all my siblings have Norse names. It's a whole thing. um So she would keep those comics around. So that was sort of my first exposure to them. And um my dad liked the far sides. Is you call them? Yeah. Far side, hell yeah. Classic. So they would always be sort of around.
26:59
And at some point I would start to sort of, I knew that I enjoyed comics and I would go to, we had like a few years later when I had, first of all, some money, a lot of money, just some money. And the moment I could start reading English with any sort of confidence, I would get into all of the other comics. I would buy things from Britain and a lot of like the 2000 ADs and Battle Action as we briefly touched on earlier.
27:30
And I would get these comics just out of order, of course. It would just be whatever someone had at some point given to the thrift store. We had one dude who ran the store who had lost all sort of will to live. So if we came up with like a stack of books, it would be like, it's a hundred-croner. And we'd go, we only have 10. It was like, oh, fuck it, just take it. Those are my favorite.
27:59
people to own a thrift shop, the ones that don't really give a shit about what they got. know, one of my trash is another man's treasure. Exactly. just, just the, he could just tell that he was just like, Oh, it's going to take me longer to put those fucking things back. I'm just going to, yeah. But I owe him a lot. Um, but we had a lot of comics from, from French and Belgium would, there would be a bunch of those translated. Uh, and
28:26
The comic scene in Norway is also quite interesting. are a bunch of very talented people with it, but we don't have the same tradition as in America where you have a writer and an artist and a whole process. Like you usually have people who sit at home and they make the entire thing and they present the book as a sort of like, is my book. So a lot of the time when I talk to other Norwegian comic creators, I have to sort of explain what I'm doing in a way. Yeah.
28:56
You know, was praising how talented you are in terms of like painting. Do you have any goals, whether they be future or immediate, to do your own, create your own comic from like top to bottom, writing pictures and all of that? Is there any, I guess? I couldn't. The thing is like, it's so hard. It's the hardest job in the world. And I think about it sometimes when we're in mid some sort of process and the pages come in and they look, you know, amazing. And then the editor will be like, hey, could you just tweet?
29:25
something there and the artist goes in and changes it. And I think like I would deal with those sort of things very badly, very poorly. I wouldn't like that at all. However bright they would be. um And it takes me too long to produce a page. It would be one of those. Yeah. On the topic of that, you are currently writing, and feel free to my form wrong, in terms of monthly comics, you're writing Catwoman for DC right now. You're writing uh Spider-Girl for Marvel.
29:54
You've got uh Nightmare Before Christmas coming up in January. Are you writing any other monthly titles? Am I missing one? Well, I I am writing some other things. But yeah, and the things that haven't been announced yet. And things like Nightmare Before Christmas, I think I delivered last script for that a year ago or something. oh, yeah. And I'm to the point where, because it's going back and forth between Dynamite and Disney and
30:23
And this is one of those projects where Disney has sort of the final word on everything. So all my bad jokes have been sort of weeded out with love and care by the Disney team. I sort of like, I've done my part and I hope that it's going to turn, I hope they're right in sort of sanitizing it. And they probably are because they do know the market well and it is supposed to be an all ages book. I think it's...
30:51
I think it's a good thing that you can sort of give it to a kid and trust that it'll be okay. Meanwhile, I have children and I just let them read whatever they want. All So, all right. On the topic of Nightmare Before Christmas, so you've now worked, you've done licensed comics, you've done creator-owned comics, you've done comics for anthologies, you've done comics, you are doing comics for the big two. But what I want to know is at what point
31:19
Did you start pursuing comic books full time? When did it become a reality that you could be doing this full time? Well, I never even considered writing things in the region. There were 5.5 million people or something, a tiny country. And I knew that whatever I was going to write, the market wouldn't be enough to just be here. And I think it started, I don't know how many years. I've been writing full time for six years, I think.
31:46
And I was doing a lot of projects before I went sort of full-time writer too. um But what I started to do, was writing something else. I always knew I wanted to be a writer. And while I was doing, because I'm a designer and I was huge tech person, so I developed a bunch of, you know, stuff like websites and I sold it to a media company for like a...
32:15
decade ago or something. And I started working for that media company, like with my website, but also sort of consulting for their everything. And I could sort of feel my soul being sort of sucked out every day that passed. And I am one of those awful people that are like, my self-worth is whatever I produce. Like I need to, I'm going to put my 200 % into whatever I do.
32:44
And if that's something, is something ridiculous and heartless and commercial, um it's just not as fun, you know? um So I started writing and I had a moment ah when I realized, because I was writing prose and I realized like what I really want to do here is to, I would like to have just a reaction panel. That's what I want. And I sort of like, oh, but can just write comics instead. And I started writing comics that night.
33:14
And I put out an ad somewhere on the internet being like, I'll pay you if you write or draw my superscript. And that's how I got started. So I did the thing, you know, everyone, feel like it's the best way to get started, just to make a bunch of comics, just get the experience to make comics, have great respect for the fact that the artist, it takes them longer than it takes you to write the page.
33:43
So you better find some money to pay them, make as much as you can, make short things that you can just feel like, like you can finish a thing and be like, I wrote that thing. And then I started doing a bunch of conventions and talking to people and sort of try to get myself out there and hope that people would pay attention, I suppose.
34:08
According to your Wikipedia, I got it pulled up right here. It says that you started your comic writing career in 2017 with the six issue Caliber comic series Ageless. And then it goes on. You did a series called Past, which was a web comic, and you did some self publishing. And then it jumps to 2020 where it says that Jason Aaron, says Grombeck was asked by Jason Aaron to co-write Jane Foster Valkyrie issue 8 through 10. So 2020. One, how did you connect with Jason Aaron? And then two, how does it feel to
34:38
know that you were asked by the Thor guy at the time. know, like when people think about all time great Thor writers, there's no way you can't mention like Jason Aaron. How did you get to connect and how does it feel to be able to say that you've worked and co-wrote alongside Jason Aaron on so many comics? It's nice thing. think it was, we're gonna blame John McCray because ah it was near Comic-Con a few years ago and John, I was meeting John and my friend. just needed.
35:08
like 10 minutes of silence after the con because New York Comic Con is fucking intense. It's a lot. It's overload in every way, like visually, audio, sensory wise, all AI failure. Yeah. And you get a lot of sort of oddly something creeps. you get into situations where you think like, oh, did that happen? Did that guy lick me? Did that really happen? Like it's the most absurd mindfuck of all times. So we were
35:37
Going back from the convention, John dropped off some stuff in my hotel room and he went down to the tiki bar, like downstairs while I just sat in silence for 10 minutes. And then I went down to meet them and they were with some other people, like John, my friend and some other people. And John was like, Thorin, you have to tell them the story you told me earlier. um And it's this exceptionally embarrassing story of something I did just a little earlier.
36:07
ah And so I tell these people this awful story and they laugh and it's a good time. And then we walk away and then John goes, that was Jason Aaron. And I'm like, oh, oh, great. That's fantastic. But I just, you know, that was my introduction to him. But apparently that worked because he was like, oh, that fucking mess. want to work with this one. So we met up later that night, I think, and we had a very nice conversation.
36:35
had a good time. And he is one of those. It's hard to describe how lovable Jason is. He's one of the kindest, most wonderful people you'll ever have the privilege of meeting. I loved him immediately. And I think what's so interesting is juxtaposed. So you got his personality, which I've had a chance to interview and meet him once or twice. Super approachable, down to earth, very kind. And then juxtaposed with what he writes.
37:05
Where does the disconnect here, Fadi? Where do these ideas come from? I think that's the beautiful thing, right? And he has such a sort of, it's most clear and wide and brilliant understanding of humanity. And I think we sort of connected on that a lot. And one of the things that he does, because that is a thing that I think it's very difficult, especially if you're a writer.
37:29
to get people to write your stuff or read your stuff. if you're nobody and you want people to read your stuff, it's a hard thing. Because when you pitch a book, it sounds stupid no matter what. So you can't be in a bar with your little iPad being like, hey, you to look at my book? Like that doesn't work. And I say that with love to all the people who have come up to me with an iPad. It doesn't send it over later, maybe. I don't know. ah But what Jason did was he...
37:56
found the webcomic and he read through it and he sent it to Vilmaas in Marvel and said, hey, I this woman. uh She's from Norway. We need a new co-writer on Valkyrie. Maybe we should give her sort of a chance. um And to me, like I'd already written a thing for DC that was never made. I wrote the script and then the editor quit. Like I delivered the script on Tuesday and she quit on Thursday or something. So it was just sort of disappeared into...
38:26
I was paid to write Batman, but it just was never made. was, oh, not like the full, I think it was an issue of Detective Comics. But the important thing is you were already prepared. You had like samples. You also had like this script with like, you know, with DC. I bet that went a long way in showing like, she knows what she's doing. Oh yeah. And I think the, I think there is a certain like,
38:51
When it comes to my job, I take my job very seriously, too seriously maybe. I wanted to be good and I found the, I think it was very kind of Jason, but I still wanted to make sure that I sort of pulled my heart. I did, um I took it as an opportunity to sort of show what I could do. um And one of things I really enjoy about that story and the Jane Foster story is when I read them now, it still sort of holds up and that makes me happy.
39:19
because that's not necessarily always the case. think it was a great first dip into Marvel. I still think I had Will Moss and Sara Brunstad were the editors, who are two of the best editors in the business. uh I just don't think I could have been luckier in my initiation into monthly comics. For sure. mean, yeah, when you look at your bibliography, it's like, OK, yeah, she was like,
39:49
doing the hard work of grinding, putting out independent comics, those anthologies I was talking about, web comics. And then all of sudden, it's like, as soon as you get in with Jason Aaron and Marvel, now we're talking about you doing Catwoman ongoing with DC. And the stuff you got with Dynamite, I totally agree. I think you hit the jackpot in terms of your entry into comic books. What do you think is the best piece of advice?
40:14
or lesson you got from working with Jason Aaron? When you think back at your time working with him that closely, what do you think was the biggest lesson you pulled out of that experience? Well, I think one of the things that Jason does better than I think basically anyone is that he will look at the rules of the world and the things that we know and think are facts. And then he'll be like, but why are they there? He will fuck around with the foundations
40:44
of the universe. And it's just the most delightfully creative thing if you can get into that mindset of just here's a square and then we can fuck around with it and before you know it, it's something completely else. uh And we had a lot of, I would ask him, can we do this? And he's like, you can do anything. Just if you look at it right, you can do fucking anything. And he was right. um So I always sort of.
41:13
I have like an inner Jason telling me just, you know, just fuck around with the loss of physics. Why, why wouldn't you? Love that. Everyone should have an inner Jason Aaron voice. That's like super calm, but also very direct and like brave. I like that. Now clearly, you know, you've worked with, know, it sounds like some amazing editors. You've worked with some of like, you know, one the best writers in the industry, but also I want to put a spotlight on the artists you've worked with too, cause you've worked with some
41:42
talented, comic ridiculous, just beyond. Right, OK, so Catwoman, you're currently working with Danilo Beirut, hopefully I'm saying that right. But also you've worked with Ka-Fu, you've worked with Raphael Pimentel, and then my favorite, personal favorite, Matea de Lulis. Matea is a fucking mad man of a person. He's doing, I think, issues of Absolute Wonder Woman.
42:09
But before that he was doing the Valky comic series with you and I think his stuff is like, I can't believe we get this level of realistic artwork in comics. It is so amazing. Who has been your favorite artist to work with? In terms of pushing you creatively or showing you new things that are possible within comics. Is there a personal favorite? I've been so blessed with the people I've been able to work with.
42:39
I know that's the ridiculous thing about working with for Marvel and DC is that they do hire the best of the best and you get to work with them. it's just so like Perry Perez on on carnage was a joy just because he would immediately understand what I wanted. And I would find myself like the script for the first issue was a little longer than the script for the last issue just because I knew that he didn't need a lot to be able to just take the ball and run.
43:09
ah But I think maybe like Nick Klein is the one where I was like, oh, I like, could, he wants me to kill him. ah And I'm not going to be able to do it. Like it's just, he has a way of, of like, whatever I would do, like whatever, like we're gonna, we're gonna morph reality. There's going to be a thing, we're going to have memories flying around like little fishes. And he's like, yeah, sure. Like what else though? Like give me something I can work with. Oh.
43:37
I'm going to fight like a shadow Thor. I don't know what he looks like, but I know they take, takes it and runs. Like it's just, he is just one of the most amazing, uh, not only just in his share sort of creativity, but it's just, he's so competent and it every little inch of all of the things he does is just thoughtful and brilliant. Um, so that was one of the times where I was just like, he,
44:07
I got the layout of the first story shoot and I thought like, Oh, I need to, I need to up my game here. I need to, to, give him some, some more nonsense to work with. Um, because I can and because he doesn't seem faced at all by the nonsense I just gave him. That level of exuberance or just amazement of seeing, you know, pages turned back and based on something that you outline or scripted and for it to like be perfect. I can only imagine.
44:36
that feeling of like, holy shit, this thing that I put, these words that I put on this paper have come to life exactly how my brain imagined. That's gotta be an insane feeling. Well yeah, I think the best thing is when it's just better. When it's like, oh, I didn't even, oh, and then I can sit back and be like, yeah, it's a plan all the time. It's such a brilliant thing. Is there anyone in the industry now that you,
45:00
Can't wait to work with. Is there anyone, whether artist, writer, that you appreciate their work and you're like, man, one day I definitely want to work with XYZ? I have a long list of people, like Steve Epting. Oh, good choice. my god, you and Steve Epting? I'm thinking Steve Epting, Captain America. Speaking about Garth Ennis, oh my god, what was the story him and Garth Ennis did? war story? Was it Nina? No.
45:30
That's my game. I think it was Sarah. Yeah, that's yours. I have full, I am very competent. I know all the characters. No, Sarah. That is one of my favorite comic books of all time, I think. It's just pure genius. You and Steve Epstein would go together like peanut butter and jelly. Yeah, I think so. And um Stephen Green's good one. Becky Cloonan I would like to work with. I don't know. The list is sort of...
46:00
sort of endless Jason Burroughs. I met him for the first time in Baltimore um a few weeks ago. And I thought like, we should clearly do something at some point. That would be fantastic. He's not going to be faced by anything either. He's going to come up with some really awful, beautiful nonsense. You're like, look, I got a bunch of dark thoughts I want to put on comic book form. Okay. Well, how about this?
46:29
I want to get to talking about your new comic Nightmare Before Christmas, The Shiver of Christmas Town. But first, I want to play you a voicemail. All right. This is part of a segment I like to do on these interviews called the Short Box Friends and Family Segment. It's where I shut up for a quick second and let someone else ask the questions. And this question comes from the guy that owns and runs my local comic shop. His name is Ben Kingsbury. He's the owner of Gotham City Limit Comic Shop here in Jackson, Florida. I told him that you were going to be on the show and he said, I have a question for her. So let's go ahead and play and let's hear from Ben.
46:59
Hey, Torrin Benkay from Gotham City Limit uh Comic Shop here in sunny Jacksonville, Florida. Thanks so much for taking the time to answer a question. So you've jumped seamlessly between Marvel's symbiote chaos and Venom and Carnage, DC's sleek intrigue in Catwoman, and Dynamite's sword and sorcery in Red Sonja. So what's the biggest challenge or thrill in switching gears between those wildly different worlds?
47:27
And do you keep the core of the protagonist consistent with any specific trait? Well, I'll let you answer. Thanks so much for everything you do. We literally couldn't do it without you. And remember, short box nation, we'll always take it to the limit. Peace. Big shout out to Ben. That was so good. The radio voice, everything. And thank you for all the very lovely things you just said there, Ben. That was beautiful.
47:55
He's going to love that you complimented his radio voice. That's actually good. And the thing is like, it's very hard to do the radio voice. I wish I had one. The biggest challenge between the different things, I think, I think maybe the thing that I, I wouldn't say struggle with, but the thing that surprised me the most is, um, there is a distinct difference in Marvel pacing and DC pacing. And it seems.
48:23
be sort of and with the sort of what kind of emotional beats valid sounds off. But you know what I mean? Like you can get away with things in a Marvel book that you wouldn't necessarily get away with in a DC book and the other way around. uh And I will say that like Catwoman, the scripts for Catwoman, it took me the first time I sort of blocked out time for one. It took me like an extra month. Like I've never worked more on a script in my life. And I realized, I thought like, oh, is this just
48:51
me not being sort of into it yet and I was so fucking into it but the next one too I was like oh it takes me two weeks to write a Cap'n script whereas like a Carnage script I can knock out in three days and I think it sort of comes down to the different expectations and pacing of the two not just like fandoms but just like the two publishers have different approaches.
49:16
And I'm not saying like one is better than the other. I'm just saying like for writer, it was different. And I'm not sure it's true in every book. I'm sure there are a bunch of differences between different titles too. to me, like writing Cat Booking felt different from any other book I think I've ever written. And that was a glorious thing though. I really, I think it's the most satisfying thing in the world.
49:46
when I get a Catwoman script, sort of right. But I will say, it takes me forever and there are so many little puzzle pieces. um And because especially like the first year of Catwoman, DC asked me to take her out of Gotham, uh which means that we had no other characters to rely on. didn't have any, um like you couldn't rely on the emotional impact of bringing in someone that the audience already knew. So we had to establish everything.
50:15
from the beginning, which is difficult thing to do and it takes a long time. But also insanely satisfying. So that's fun. That's probably the greatest challenge. And as for the character traits, usually when I approach a character, I try to figure out what my idea of the character is. And usually I have a sort of, if I take on a job, I'll have a pretty good idea what I'm dealing with.
50:45
But sometimes um I'll go and see what the fandom thinks about a specific character just to know what uh expectations are out there. And from time to time, it'll change my approach to the character. uh But I try to be very true to whatever I start with. I will hope to change the character throughout the story because that's sort of my job. ah But I do try to be as...
51:12
true. It should feel as realistic as humanly possible, as always what I'm going for. I want the characters to feel real and deep and flawed and all of the good stuff. Now, that's a really good answer. Is it safe to say your first step in getting a new assignment is research? Because you're saying, hey, go check out what do the fans think about this character? What are their thoughts and emotions and things like that? Where are you going to gauge?
51:40
fan, I guess, reception or thoughts on the character? Well, it's sort of, sometimes I'll read, not necessarily reviews, I'll be fucking read it. I'll try to figure out, especially if I react to something, if I like, oh, this is a little something that I really enjoy, I'll Google it and just see what comes up. I'll listen to podcasts a lot, like I will listen to fan podcasts and sometimes, uh like I'm this close to sort of calling in and be like, hey, thank you.
52:09
I you will find that. I just want to know where people are with the character. And say like for Catwoman, uh I know that there is a large percentage of the Catwoman community who is very, they're sort waiting for Catwoman uh and Batman to get back together. And it's sort of every time we do an issue where that doesn't happen, they're gonna be a little bit disappointed. And that's just,
52:39
I know it and then I try to keep it in the back of my mind and I have great respect for uh anyone's love for a character. Because I do truly feel like not to be like comics are the solution to everything. I think we are living in uh a time of, we need a little more empathy, right?
53:03
And I know we were at the point where people are discussing whether empathy is a good thing or not, which is downright ridiculous, but that's another thing. And one of the best ways of gaining empathy is to read about other people's experiences. And I think that's one of the most wonderful things about comics is you have a bunch of people who love these characters for so many different reasons. And they're so caught up in
53:33
in these fictional characters. it's sort of, need empathy to be able to do that. ah So I feel like if you have spent a lot of time emotionally bonding to a character and I'm do something you don't like, I'm gonna make sure that I have a good reason for it and make sure that I sort of, honor it. I know it and I might do something else, but at least I'm gonna honor it somewhere. I love that response.
54:02
That is a very good point about the empathetic nature. I mean, I think that's true across any fandom, whether it's someone that's a huge Catwoman fan or... And then also imprinting yourself on that person, seeing these qualities about them that resonate with you. I've been thinking about this lot just because we're talking about how people are reading a lot, but they're reading self-help books. And I do sincerely think that if you read lot of comics, that might be better for you in every possible...
54:32
And they look better too. Let's be real. All right. Imagine a self-help book with Matea de Lulis illustrating the inside. I would be a better person. Maybe I would read a self-help book. I would read anything Matea ever touched really. Yeah, I agree. All right, Torrent, let's go into the segment here. Let's get to talking about the Nightmare Before Christmas, The Shiver of Christmastown. It's coming out, issue one comes out January 7th through Dynamite Entertainment. You're writing it and you've got Edu Mena.
55:02
doing the art and interiors. Yeah, like I said in the beginning, it's the first ever, let me make sure I got this right. It is the Dynamite's first ever ongoing comic book series set in the world of the beloved film by Tim Burton, which is surprising. This is definitely, I feel like a property and a franchise, a movie that would work in comic book form. So I guess how does it feel to be a spearheading kind of like this first ever for Dynamite? How did the opportunity to write The Nightmare Before Christmas come about?
55:29
First of I'm not entirely sure it is because first of all, there was a graphic novel called um All Hail the Pumpkin Queen, I think. But that was a graphic novel. This is the first one. But this is also a mini-series. So it's just like, it's just four issues. ah But I will say it was delightful. I'm like, we don't do Halloween in Norway. We didn't use to do Halloween in Norway at all. But lately over the past like seven, eight years or something, it's sort of...
56:00
slowly started to become a thing. And I'm so there. I love Halloween. I think it's the most glorious thing in the world. what I do every year is that I'll project Nightmare Before Christmas on my barn, which is where I am right now. That's where my studio is. Yeah. So all the kids in the neighborhood will see that we are open for the nonsense. You should feel free to come and do whatever you want to really. I always try to get someone to do some tricks, but
56:28
They never do because we haven't quite gotten there in Norway yet. And I think maybe that Joe saw that on my Instagram once that I did the The Nightmare Before Christmas. So when they needed a writer for it, I think it was just like, oh, let's just get Torin because ah she obviously knows and loves the movie. And I think it's like to me, it was a big deal when it came out. um
56:57
in the 90s. I was a very sort of alternative gothic kid. And I think it's one of the first times we've ever seen that part, like a mainstream thing, where we saw sort of the dark creatures in any way without being mocking or like they took it seriously like Tim Burton has, can sort of tell that he loves what he's doing.
57:27
And I thought it was delightful. I loved the movie growing up. And I sort of jumped on the opportunity to do something in the world of it. Obviously now, like Disney has taken over the, or maybe they did, like, I don't remember if they were the one publishing it in the 90s, but I realized like it's a huge IP for Disney and they have games and they have a bunch of different things going on. But I don't think like this would be the...
57:56
like the second narrative written story in the universe, is like, it feels, it's a very fun thing to do. like a lot of, I don't know, like it's a strange honor in a way. And I felt like I couldn't, I didn't want to let myself down somehow. Like it would have been a huge deal for me. Yeah, I mean, for sure. mean, look, uh Nightmare Before Christmas.
58:21
I think it's an understatement to say that people love this franchise, this movie. You know, I mean, it's a Tim Burton classic for many. mean, if someone doesn't say, hey, my favorite Tim Burton movie is Nightmare Before Christmas, you're like, yeah, that's a very obvious, great choice right there. I'd say the 1989 Batman. But I totally respect someone saying, you know, Nightmare Before Christmas. And these four issues, what's the story? Like, what can fans of the movie expect from this? First of all, keep in mind that this is, we want this to be like all ages.
58:50
but we also wanted to work for the grown-ups who love the movie and everything. So the story is that Dr. Finkelstein ah is supposed to create a huge, awful, new sort of monster for Halloween, and he fucks up. So the monster that sort of comes out of his machine is tiny and cute. It's just a little cute bear ah and a failure. And I think there's something sort of inherently interesting about
59:20
being born as a failure, you know, like your creator thinks you're a failure. And there's something there that I find delightful. It sounded wrong, but you know what I mean. um So this little bear, Dr. Ficklesline needs to fix the situation and sort of leaves the bear in shiver um in the hands of Sally. ah But along the way, the bear is picked up by Lock, Shock and Barrel who are on their own little
59:50
trick-or-treating adventure. ah then, know, madness ensues. They head out on a journey, they piss off some ghouls, they try to bring trick-or-treating to Christmas town, ah but they're obviously not going to do it like... They're going to do it properly, because they are possibly the most fun characters you can ever have the honor to write, I think. Like Lock, Shock and Barrel, they're just sort of...
01:00:19
fundamentally off to no good. Yeah. it's just glorious. yeah, stuff happens. OK. Yeah, we don't want to spoil it. But I will say the thought of this creature's shiver, right? Where he's supposed to be at. The intention was big scary monster, but you get adorable, cute, almost like puppy bear. uh I think fits into the overall just aesthetic and theme of Nightmare Before Christmas, where on the outside, on the face value, it's
01:00:46
you know, dark. It's, know, just the aesthetic of it is, you know, really leans into the Halloween part of it. But then you have like this whole other part where, you know, Jack Skellington wants to bring, you know, in the original movie, it's him wanting to bring Christmas to Halloween town. And I think just that those two juxtapositions of like, you know, Halloween, scary, dark these this aesthetic here, but the spirit of like Christmas, the joy, the the gifts giving, you know, those two worlds brought together. That's that's why I like the movie is like this kind of seamless like combination of these two. And it sounds like you're kind of carrying on
01:01:16
that theme here in this new series? Well, I think one of the most delightful about the original movie is when they're trying to do Christmas and they just fail miserably because it's just like, I think, that's sort of the point. Like, and when Lock, Shock and Barrel takes Shaver to Christmas town, they try to do Halloween there and they obviously fail miserably because they are sort of sweetened. I hope.
01:01:43
It's a delightful thing that would delight both young and old. uh And if you ever sit around thinking, oh, like I've read towards stuff before, you would think that there would be a punchline to this scene that would be far over any sort of. Yeah. If that was what I wrote in the first place and then someone at some point went, no, that execution joke is that's one, one too far. it's, No, I hate this. Doesn't have to be highbrow. This could be just fun. And matter of fact.
01:02:11
I will say I have had a chance to I have not had a chance to read it or get a preview yet. But I imagine I mean you've got a track record of working with some of the best artists in the game. So I imagine it Umena has brought his A game to the series. But I can say though is there are some great and true dynamite fashion. I mean they always have some of the best variant covers out there. But the there's a Jay Lee cover of Daisy holding a shiver.
01:02:36
And I think it's fantastic. Jay Lee, his style with A Nightmare for Christmas is such a, it's like, yes, yes, that makes so much sense. think like Edu, who's on the interior, I think it's a difficult job to do because you have to do something that was like create something. We all know the art style and you have to recreate it somehow on the page without losing.
01:03:05
sort of the movement and everything. And he's done sort of an exceptionally good job at that. And in many ways, like his job was a lot harder than mine because you have to stay true to all of the environments that were in the movie and we were trying to get all of those things correct. And he's done just the most amazing job. So when I'm over here complaining about my stupid jokes, like Edu is the one who really, he, yeah.
01:03:33
And I think that's how it's always gonna be when you work with licensed, like I remember working on Warhammer, like a Warhammer book a few years ago. And you get to, like, that's the same thing, like every little thing needs to be correct. And I think that's how it needs to be, right? Because you don't wanna let down the fans and yeah. But he's amazing. He's done a great job and I hope people will see, kind of get the feel of the movie through the art.
01:03:59
Well, I'm looking forward to it. I said Daisy, I meant to Sally. know that there's some serious nightclub Christmas We all understood. Oh yeah. For sure. I don't want to get the Disney lawyers upset on this episode. Okay, Torrin, I got a question on the topic of holidays. You you mentioned that Halloween is not like the most celebrated, biggest holiday in Norway, but you celebrate it. I do know one thing about Norway is that they do Christmas, right? And I want to hear from you. What's Christmas like in Norway? Like I was doing some research. I came across like,
01:04:29
this special bread pudding that's like a thing there. I've seen some pictures of Oslo uh decorated during Christmas time and it looks fucking amazing. What is, through your perspective, what is like celebrating Christmas in Norway? It's impossible to be indifferent to the seasons in Norway. we have, because it's just like now it's so dark. We barely see the sun. And we know that probably we might get some daylight at some point.
01:04:59
I don't think we're going to see a sunny day until February. it is a sort of, we live with the seasons in a way that I, I find like, I disappoint my younger self by talking about the weather so much, just because it's just so ever-present. And you can sort of tell how like the, all of the food that we eat, like the traditional food, is obviously just like, we've been in a country where
01:05:28
for at least like eight months, nothing grows. So everything is sort of either pickled or we saved something or like it's all very, like it's sparingly done in every way, but it's also very heartful. And I think one of the things that we do, I know the day in the shorter term, hygge, it's become a thing over in America. That's sort of like when the darkness comes and it...
01:05:56
gets really cold, we do tend to sort of automatically, we light all the candles and we do all the things to sort of stay warm, stay together in a way, and everything slows down a bit. So Christmas is like we all, we eat a huge meal on the 24th, not on the 25th. And that's when we do the presents too. we sort of chuck everything in that one day. And then everyone gets off like you can't buy anything on the
01:06:25
25th of December, like everything's just closed for a while. So it feels like a sort of very quiet, lovely, joyous time. What is your favorite traditional Norwegian like dish that you eat during Christmas time? It would be pinnekjøtt, which I suppose like loosely translates to stick meat, which is, it's just like a piece of the lamb that's been uh brewing in salt for half a year or something.
01:06:54
And then half a year. I don't know. There's some nuts. Wow. That's a hell of a rhyme. The thing is that we spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to keep food okay in this nightmare world of ours. all of the food is just basins. They're desperately trying to keep things okay. So we have a little bit of salted fish and salted everything and we use all the parts of the animal because we were all dirt poor until we found oil.
01:07:23
after the war, which was good for us. But all our traditions are based on like, no one has anything anyway. yeah, which is really good. So yeah, the stick meat, that's my favorite. I love some meat on a stick. And I love lamb. know, Moroccan, my mom stays cooking some lamb and she can cook some damn good lamb. So sign me up for that. I'm going come to Florida. I'm going to find your mother and we'll go visit Ben and his comic shop.
01:07:52
Ben would lose. Actually, Ben would absolutely welcome you with open arms. Torrin, I have one last question. You said something earlier about knowing the place and time to share your work or getting how difficult it is to, as a writer, to get other writers to read your work. And especially like knowing the place and time. You shouldn't go to a bar or club and try to have someone like take time to read. So my question to you is how should an aspiring writer
01:08:18
approach pitching other writers to take a look at their work. What are some best practices? What works on you? If someone wants to share, hey, I've got this great story, Torin, I would love for you to read it. Give me some feedback. What is an ideal way of them approaching you for constructive criticism? First of all, not the bar. But be a person in the bar and make all the jokes and everything. And then come by at the convention the next day and hand over a comic, which I always think is a boring thing. I usually do. oh
01:08:47
like we will trade a comic. And I think that usually when people send me an email going, hey, can you read through this? And I will certainly do. I always feel little odd about giving criticism though. Honestly, I'm not used to it. I know what I like, but that's not necessarily an indication of quality is just what I sort of like. um But what can happen
01:09:14
of course, that if you do that to people and they do like it, they will keep you the back of your, or keep you in mind. And I think it's um like on TikTok now, there are some great comic creators, indie creators sharing their process and talking about their books. And I'm on TikTok, at least in the sense that I sometimes post uh videos of my fucking cat and maybe some really horny moose.
01:09:42
There are lot of moose and foxes. Did you say horny moose? Yeah. Did you? We had a cabin in the forest, in the Swedish forest. And it's in the middle of absolute fuck all nowhere. And we have a lot of moose. And I had the other, like a few weeks ago, there was a very horny moose ox.
01:10:04
walking around the cabin just screaming for this lady and I caught it on tape. So I keep posting shit like that on my social media. So that's where that viral moose sound came from. Thank you, Torn. We got you to thank. Very proud. It's my legacy. Just trying. I don't want to have opinions on the internet, but I do have moose. but anyway, is the TikTok, if you, and that's a, like it's a difficult thing to, to post videos of yourself and everything, but trying to be.
01:10:32
become a part of the community and sharing your work. uh I think it's such a natural, like, I know a bunch of people and I know their work and I follow their work now because I see how generous they are with their time for other younger creators. And I just become part of the community and people start paying attention. And it's obviously it's easier for artists because it's so easy to see if like, if you like something or not.
01:11:00
ah But leave a comic at the table, send a PDF with a nice note, you know? And just know that even though the writers work for cool companies, we're not necessarily the ones who hire people. But I will say the first time when I was hired by DC, it was because another person in the community retweeted something that I said.
01:11:30
uh some DC editor picked up on it and just went in and checked out the web comic at the time. And I think that's also vital. If you want to be a writer, make sure that there is something that you have written online somewhere. It doesn't need to be like a bunch of pages, just like a couple of quick little stories somewhere. So if you catch someone's interest, there is something there to be seen.
01:11:57
That is great feedback. I love that piece of advice. So in summation, be likable, network, and be a part of the community, and have some work examples online readily available in case an editor is checking out your stuff. That was really good feedback. And I think with that being said, ladies and gents, this is the Short Box Podcast. And we just finished talking to Torne Grombeck about pretty much everything she's got going on, right? Like she is writing Catwoman currently for DC. She's writing Spider-Girl for Marvel. She's got that Nightmare Before Christmas, The Shiver of Christmastown number one.
01:12:26
coming out through Dynamite on January 7th. Final order cut off, by the way, is December 8th. I think this episode should be up by that time. If not, then you gotta go pick up issue one of Nightmare Before Christmas, the shiver of Christmas town when it hits shops on January 7th. I will have links to Torrin's uh social media account. I think you should definitely follow her on Instagram. She posts some amazing paintings and horny animals. Who doesn't wanna see that? That also I'll post links to her Instagram and her website in this episode's description and show notes.
01:12:56
Give her a follow, check out that stuff. Torrin, is there anything else that you got going on that I did not mention any shameless plugs in the parting words before we wrap up? That was very good. I don't have anything that I can talk about yet. But if you want to follow along, Instagram for the horny boos and my newsletter for occasional updates about whatever I'm doing. All right, I'll have that linked in the show notes.
01:13:21
Torin, you've been great and I have never wanted a part two interview to talk about everything non-comic related. I just want to know more about your life and living in the woods in the wilderness of Norway. We'll figure out another time, but you've been great. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you so much for having me. This was really great.
01:13:40
There you have it ShortBikes Nation, that's the end of the show. Thank you for hanging out. Thanks for being here. And a special shout out if you made it this far. If you enjoyed this episode and you have some thoughts or comments that you want to share with us, write us at theshortbikesjaxx at gmail.com. And if you really liked this episode, help us spread the word, share this episode with a friend or someone you know that loves comics as much as we do. And don't forget to leave us a five star rating and review on Apple podcasts or Spotify.
01:14:07
or wherever you get your podcasts. takes two minutes tops and it would mean the world to us. So leave us a review. Now, if you want more content like bonus episodes or perks, like early access and commercial free episodes, and in some cases, free comic books, consider joining our Patreon community at patreon.com slash the short box. It's an easy and very affordable way to support the show and get rewarded for being a fan. Once again, sign up at patreon.com slash the short box.
01:14:33
Speaking of our Patreon community, want to give a big shout out to our current members, including... C. Gammett, BJ Kicks, Blake Simone, Blythe Milligan, Bo Evers, Brian Brumleaf, Chad Landenberger, Chris Hackett, David Morales, Greg Lichtaig, Hershel, Mac Jacobson, issue number three Brad, Jay Sinner, Jeff Fremid, Jerome Cabanatan, Jose Sepulveda, Justin McCoy, Corey Torgeson, Matt Godwin, Amanda Maron, Melissa Burton.
01:15:02
Nick Wagner, Ryan Isaacson, Steven Gammon, T-Mix, The Wait For It Podcast, Tony A. Uppie, Trey Namo, Walter Gant, and last but not least, Warren Evans. Big shout outs to the patrons. And with that being said, that's it. That's what I got for you this time. Thanks for listening. Tune in next week for another episode. And most importantly, take care of yourselves, read a good comic, and continue to make mine and yours short box. I'll catch you soon. Peace.
