September 25th, 2007

I possibly first met J. Torres as early as 2003, but to be honest I don't remember that meeting at all.  The only proof that I ever have of this possible meeting is that during recent rereadings of personal copies of two early J. Torres TPBs, I found a pair of personalized autographs made out to me by J. Torres.  Well, despite the fact that I may not remember meeting J. Torres until this year, I have been very aware of his career for a lot longer.  I first discovered J.'s work when a good friend slipped me a copy of the Sidekicks TPB, which was drawn by Spiderman Loves Mary Jane artist Takeshi Miyazawa, at a comic book convention in 2002, telling me that I'd really like it.  At the time, with all the conventioning going around me, the book went into my bag virtually unnoticed until I got home and found it amongst my loot, only barely remembering having been given it.  Picking up the book and not knowing what to expect, I was instantly captivated by the story of a group young superheroes struggling through both normal and abnormal high school situations.  Immediately I was a fan.  Following purchases of J. Torre's volumes followed including Alison Dare and Days Like This. I found J.'s books to be refreshing reads.   In a world of indie comics that were usually gritty, violent and overly sexual, J. Torres books were much different.  They were fresh, clean, inoffensive and suitable for all ages.  You could give these comics to your kid cousin to enjoy.  J. Torres was making comic books fun again. 

Evidently, I wasn't the only one who noticed.  When DC Comics was preparing the Johnny DC line that would be aimed towards children, they offered J. Torres the job of adapting the popular WB animated version of the Teen Titans to comics under the title Teen Titans Go!  Soon, as his popularity with that book grew, more and more projects began to find J. writing in the regular DC Universe and suddenly his mainstream super hero books were beginning to slip into my collection as well.

I recently met J. Torres all over again at the Toronto FanExpo in August 2007 where he agreed to set up an interview with us to talk to us about his career and his current projects.  J has had a busy year with DC where he hasn't only been continuing Teen Titans Go! but also writing a short Wonder Woman arch that's purpose was to bridge the gap between Jodi Picoult and Gail Simone's runs, as well as the Black Canary Wedding Planner which acted as the prelude to this summer's Black Canary and Green Arrow wedding.  Furthermore, September saw the debut of J.'s first DCU mini-series featuring the popular character Wonder Girl.  Meanwhile, between all of this J. Torres has been working on a series of Degrassi: The Next Generation graphic novels for Scholastic Press, and has been working on some other side projects with the Degrassi people. Suddenly J. Torres is in demand, and getting more and more popular every day.

It was amazing how much material me and J. covered in about an hour conversation.  From talking about his early days as a comic fan to his current part in the Degrassi legacy, we covered a lot.  So get ready fans to hear the story of a man I may not remember meeting, but will never forget again as

CONFESSIONS OF A POP CULTURE ADDICT PRESENTS

FROM TITANS TO TEEN ANGST:

 A CONVERSATION WITH J. TORRES

I spoke to J. Torres via phone in September 2007

J.  Torres:  Hello.

Sam:  Is this J. Torres?

J.:  Yup.  This is him.

Sam:  This is Sam Tweedle from Confessions of a Pop Culture Addict.

J.:  Hey Sam.  How ya doing?

Sam:  I'm good.  How are you doing?

J:  I'm good thanks.

Sam:  Well I want to thank you a lot for taking the time to speak with me today. 

J.:  Oh, no problem.

Sam:  Well, where I wanted to start is to ask you what your personal history with the comic subculture is.  How did you get interested in comics in the first place?  Did you start off as a comic book fan?

J.:  Oh yeah.  For sure.  From as far back as I can remember I've been reading comics.  My Dad was a comic book reader and would drive me to comic shops to pick up comics weekly.  This was when I guess I was in junior high or late elementary school.  And far back as I can remember there was always comics around the house somewhere.  My Dad was more of a comic reader.  He wasn't really a collector in that sense.  In other words he would read what was around if he came across it, or if it was handed to him opposed to me, who kind of became one of those weekly guys and had a pull list and all that kind of stuff.  I even worked retail for a little while when I was in college.  So I guess you can say I've seen all sides of the industry.

Sam:  I think that's great that you father read them while most peoples father was wondering why we were buying that "crap" and throwing our comics out.

J. :  Yeah, Well the thing is, I was born in the Philippines and my family moved to Canada when I was around four and the thing is that in the Philippines it's very common to be reading comics.  I remember one time when we were visiting when I was in grade school, my grandparents owned a kind of corner store and people would come up to the counter and pay a nickel to read a comic book while they were standing around waiting for the bus.  So you could not only buy the comics but you could read them for a nickel.

Sam:  So your grandfather wasn't yelling "this isn't a library" at them. 

J.:  No.  Not at all.  They kind of capitalized on it.  I guess there was a bus stop outside the store.  They would just saddle up to the counter, ask to look at one of the comics, and read it there like if they were at a bar and then when they were done they'd just toss a nickel on the counter and walk away.  This was just such a strange phenomenon to me but I guess it was fairly common.  But because people reading comic book was always around me I never really thought about it.  I sort of took it for granted.  In parts of Asia, including the Philippines and Korea and Japan, there is just a more casual attitude towards reading comic books.  You'll see business men on the bus reading comic books and buying them the way we do.  My wife is Korean and when we first started dating and when she saw my comic book collection her first question was why do I keep them all and I didn't understand the question and then she explained that in Korea they just rent the comic books like videos and DVDs. 

Sam:  Well the only question I've ever gotten from old girlfriends is why do I buy them in the first place.

J.:  Well I guess that I'm lucky that everyone in my family either reads comics or accepts them as the norm because it's a part of the culture that we grew up in. 

Sam:  I see, while here in North America it's more of a sub-culture.

J.  Yeah.  This is true.

Sam:  Wow.  Well I'm totally moving to Asia then.  So when did you start creating comics yourself?

J.  Well one of the very first comics I ever wrote, and I drew it myself, was for the school newspaper and I drew this visual, non verbal, no dialogue strip which was essentially about a bowling ball and some bowling pins and their conflict.  It was a four panel strip about this angry bowling ball knocking down these pins or whatever.  I'm sure it was very much inspired by Chuck Jones cartoons or something but that was my big debut.  But after that, when I went to high school I took art classes and I think I aspired to draw comics as well as write comics but then eventually when I hit college I discovered how much was involved to draw comics so I decided to focus on writing comics.  So I guess it was around the late 1980s I started creating something called The Copybook Tales which was essentially about a couple of guys trying to break into comics.  It was a small press mini  (Tim Levins and I) did six issues in a year and a half.  It wasn't a regular book.  We had both just graduated from school and starting our careers so this was sort of a side project and it was eventually collected by Oni Press.  That's the one most people are familiar with.  So it started as a mini comic and we sent it to editors, went to conventions and tried to sell them.  We would hand them out to any editors that we came across and see if we could get some interest.  We were actually looking for a publisher instead of just doing mini comics but what happened is that we had sent copies to Dan Vado from Slave Labor Graphics and this was just when e-mail was becoming more popular and available.  Well we actually received notice by mail via a postcard from Dan Vado that he would like to publish The Copybook Tales.  We had a PO Box at the time and we forgot about it and the thing was sitting there for about a week.  So this guy wanted to publish us and the post card was sitting for a while there.  So he agreed to publish it and we got our start from there.

Sam:  So when did you get involved with Oni?  Was it when they just started?

J.:  No.  They had already been out but they new my work from Copybook.  So Jamie Rich, who at the time was the editor of Oni, had worked for Darkhorse Comics and I was submitting things to him at the time.  So they knew my work and they said "oh, we'd like to work with you.  What do you have" and I just happened to say "hey, I got this idea for an all ages book called Alison Dare.  And just by coincidence Joe Nozemack, who was the publisher of Oni, was looking for all ages book for Oni to publish.  And he said, why don't we launch our all ages line with this book and I said "I'd love to do that."  So that's how that came about.

Sam:  And how long did Alison Dare last? 

J.:  We initially put out a one shot and then we did a another two or three issues.  I think we put all the issues out in a span of a year and a half and then myself and the artist, J. Bone, moved on to other stuff but we published and reprinted and repackaged Alison Dare since.

Sam:  Well Alison Dare was a fun little series and I think it was a fun idea.

J.:  Well it was essentially our version of a Nancy Drew or Encyclopedia Brown type series. 

Sam:  And then after that was Sidekicks ?

J.:  You know, I was juggling a few things around that period but, yeah, I guess it was around that time or shortly after Alison Dare. 

Sam:  Now what happened with Sidekicks?  It just sort of ended.  Is that a project you'll ever go back to?

J. :  Oh yeah.  (Takeeshi Miyazawa and I) have been trying for, oh, I don't know how many years now.  Essentially it started out with a small publisher called Fan Boy Entertainment which was C.B Cebulski's company before he moved on to Marvel.  So after that enterprise folded we moved the project over to Oni and we just reprinted the stuff that we put out at Fan Boy Press and we did a mini series, which was later collected, and around that time both Takeshi and I began to get more busy with freelance work and Takeshi began moving back and forth between Vancouver and Japan and I started getting more freelance work at Oni.  Then Takeshi started working on Spiderman Loves Mary Jane for Marvel.  So we tried to get together to do a mini series between all the stuff we were doing but we could never get it together.  And to this day we are talking about it.  People will see me at a con or see him at a con and we'll end up contacting each other even though we haven't spoken to each other for a while and say "hey, people are asking.  Lets try to get back to it."  And we try but it hasn't happened so the cycle continues so hopefully, eventually.

Sam:  Well Takeshi is back in Japan now, isn't he?

J.:  Yeah, he's back in Japan and I think he's finding some success and getting published over there.  So, again, he's busy and I'm busy so we have to just figure out a time to get back to it.  And we really want to.  We've talked about it over and over again.  I don't think a convention or a signing has gone by when one or two people haven't said "when are you going to do more Sidekicks." I think there is interest out there and we want to do it.  I think it's just a question of time. 

Sam:  Well, Sidekicks was how I first discovered your work.  It was a gift from a friend of mine who told me I'd love it and sure enough I got hooked.  So how did you get involved at DC?

J.:  Well they were recruiting for Teen Titans Go! and originally that book was supposed to be rotating creative teams like the current Legion of the Superheroes in the 31st Century or the Justice League Unlimited book is.  So the two editors on the book, Tom Palmer Jr. and Lysa Hopkins knew my work at Oni and, actually, years before that Tom used to work for Wizard and he had a column called "Palmer's Picks" and if I remember he used to essentially plug indie books in that column and one of the books he featured was Copybook Ttales so Tom and I go back several years.  Close to a decade now.  So they knew my work.  Particularly I think it was Alison Dare that caught their attention and they thought that maybe I would be good for Teen Titans Go! and they asked me to submit some plot ideas.  I think I submitted them five plot ideas and they ended up liking them all and ended up lining them up for the first five issues and they teamed me up with Todd Nauck.  They liked the way we worked together and said "forget the rotating creative team thing and let's just keep you guys on as a team."  So that's how I got introduced to DC and along the way I'd do a little outside of that book or with the Johnny DC books or even the DCU.  The first DCU gig I got was on a two part Legends of the Dark Knight story which, for me, was very exciting because here it is - Batman - and I remember loving that title when it first debuted and I remember that Grant Morrison arch that launched it.    So for me it was sort of a graduation to the big leagues but, by enlarge, it went pretty much unnoticed so I was sort of disappointed but every now and then someone comes up with a copy of those two issues and I'm glad that somebody saw it. 

Sam:  Now you've been writing the Teen Titans Go! book for the Johnny DC line, which is directed towards kids.  Now it seems that there is always talk about kids not reading comics these days, or comics not being assessable to them.  That the comic industry is now aimed towards adults and not towards children.  What do you think is the problem?  Is it the direct market or video games?   What is the problem that DC has getting kids to read comics?

J.:  The thing is that it is a very interesting marketplace or vantage point that I see.  On the one hand you got the Johnny DC comics that are aimed towards kids and you have the direct market and you got the newsstand and various bookstore distribution so most people that I know are only familiar with the direct market.  With the direct market you don't see a ton of kids coming into comic shops and the numbers on the books are slowly steadily declining so they aren't exactly selling like hotcakes.  Apart from that I see the kids at cons.  I see them when I do signings.  I see their family plus I know that the books are being distributed via newsstands and kids are buying them on-line from e-bay or have a subscription so the numbers we're seeing on the direct market aren't accurate in regards to who's reading them and what's out there.  So when people as me "what do we need to do to get kids reading comics" my answer is that the thing is, they are.  We may not be seeing it.  Not everybody has the sort of vantage point that I have.  Sure, I would love to see more kids reading comics.  I wouldn't say we've captured the market but it's not as bad as people might think.  Kids aren't ignoring us as much as some retailers or some creators believe.  I do feel we are reaching kids.  If you think about Alison Dare first being published six or seven years ago, I remember during that time there was a whole bunch of us in the inde crowd who were shaking our fists in the air and saying "we need more all ages comics and if Marvel or DC wont do anything we'll do it" and I guess there's was some truth to that but to this day not everyone is seeing that we have made some in roads and we have attracted a new generation of comic readers.  Again, we're not talking about hundreds and thousands or the millions of kids that potentially could be comic book fans out there as they were in the forties or fifties but I think we are making some progress in that area and DC, again, is trying another initiative to reach an even younger market with some new books that are coming out.

Sam:  Now what is the difference between writing the Teen Titans for kids compared to if you were to write the Teen Titans in the regular DCU.  How do you go about writing characters like Starfire, Cyborg and Raven differently?

J.:  The thing with Teen Titans Go! compared to Teen Titans DCU is that we are operating from a different bible.  The animated show had a different guideline for not only the look of the character but also the way they sound, the way they speak, what they can and can not do, what their powers are, what their origins are.  So there are limits to certain language and certain actions that you can do so essentially those guidelines have to be followed to make the Teen Titans Go!  book.  People ask me if its constricting or if I feel myself being held back and my answer is generally no because I guess my sensibility is skewered that way.  It's almost like I have more trouble writing DCU books and making them sound mature or I'll worry if "hmmmm, I wonder if this sounds too much like a kids book or to much like a cartoon or is it violent enough."  I have those questions lingering in my head when I write the DCU things.  I remember writing Wonder Woman and I put in all of these campy winks to the reader which I think a lot of people appreciated but when I was working on it, given the parameters I had for that book, I said to myself this is the kind of Wonder Woman book I'd like to write.  She'd be doing this or she'd be doing that and those are definatly influenced by Silver Age books or the Wonder Woman TV show.  So that made me wonder if I was making it too cartoony or young, although the Silver Age influence is definatly an old influence.  Different sensibility and different time.  So anyways I think I naturally write that way.  It may have to do with the fact that I have a certain fondness for the Silver Age.  It doesn't mean it's immature or being silly.  It just means that it's written to appeal to a broader audience, including younger and older. 

Sam:  Well lets go back to the Wonder Woman arch that you just finished writing.  It was part of the Amazons Attack story line which was written by Will Pheiffer.  Now how did having to write in the arch of another writer affect your job at writing those Wonder Woman issues?

J.:  Well I remember describing it to somebody as kind of a jam comic, or one of those composition assignments in grade school where someone starts the story  and you fill in the next chapter and someone picks it up after that.  So that's sort of what it felt like to me and being someone who generally works on their own, at the beginning it was very fun.  For me it was very collaborative and I was in touch with editors and writers and artists almost daily which wasn't a common thing for me.  So it was a lot of fun.  It had it's challenges because just like the serial stories you've got to pick up where someone else left off and make it work.  So it was a lot of fun but it was one of my most challenging assignments I've ever done.

Sam:  Now it seems that readers have been upset about Amazons Attack.  What do you think the general opinion on that is and why do you think readers aren't happy with it.

J.:  Well it's hard to say because...well, if it's like if your on-line sometimes it seems that the responses, at least, for that are overwhelmingly negative and people are not liking it but when you go to conventions everybody who approaches you is quite complimentary of it and want you to sign the book and can't wait to see  more.  So it's really hard to say.  There are people who argue that the people who post on-line are the vocal minority but then there are people who argue that nobody who hates you and hates your work is going to come and see you and say hi so it's really hard to say where people are coming from so I don't know how to answer your question.  I mean, what do you take at face value and if people are just being nice to you. 

Sam:  So your going from Wonder Woman to Wonder Girl and I know your not allowed to tell us a lot about that series because DC is very secretive about everything, but is there anything you can tell us at all about it?

J.:  Well it's a six issue mini series.  The first issue launches on September 12th.  Sanford Green is the artist whose work I love.  I've known Sanford for a number of years and I'm a big fan of his work for quite some time and I've glad to see him being introduced to a wider audience with his book.  As to terms of the story, it is an Amazon's Attack aftermath but it's really more about Wonder Girl.  It's more about Cassandra Sandsmark.  A lot has happened to her in the last year or two in other books.  In 52, in Amazons Attack, in Teen Titans, in Wonder Woman.  But we haven't seen complete resolutions or any of those things tied up in any other book so it makes sense to finally do this in one book.  To tie up all those loose ends and try to define the character little better and then send her forward and give her her own adventure.  So that's what we're doing so while it sort of pick up where Amazons Attacks left off, it then picks up in her own direction.  Part of it involves Hercules, there is a bit of a connection to what's going on in Countdown but at the same time it's still very much about Cassie and I'm writing it in such a way that, or I hope it translates in such a way, that you can come in and pick up the first issue with no knowledge of Amazons Attack or Wonder Woman or Teen Titans and still know what's going on.  OF course, if you were a Teen Titans fan or an Amazons Attack fan or reading Countdown then if you read it you'd be clued into more stuff but if your not you should be able to get a story from beginning to middle to end.

Sam:  Well lucky for me I'm reading all those titles connected to it.

J.:  Then your going to get all the references.

Sam:  Well I'm really looking forward to Wonder Girl, but, of course, the book I'm looking most forward to is the Black Canary Wedding Planner.  What can you tell us about that?

J.:  Well, I guess you can call it a prequel to the big wedding issue and the upcoming Black Canary/Green Arrow ongoing series and the focus of this book is to show the lead up to the wedding.  I guess the pitch is that we know the Black Canary as a strong character in a kind of a tough as nails sort of no guff personality.  Not what you'd consider a girly girl so if you consider somebody like that planning a wedding, what would that turn out to look like.  Now, obviously we had to resist making it some kind of goofy comic book because that just wouldn't work but at the same time it just lends itself to a lot of funny situations.  So this book is a bit more light hearted.  It has a sense of humor.  It has a little bit of sense of romance but we needed to throw in some punches in trying to throw it together in some kind of package.  So hopefully that's what's happened.  I mean, to be honest, I was surprised when I was told the numbers on the book as good.  I was like, "really?"  I was told that everybody at DC was happy with those numbers.  Personally my first question when they offered me that assignment was "whose going to read this?"  I mean I probably would but that's one.  Who else is going to pick this up? 

Sam:  Well, probably a part of the numbers is because I ordered seventy five copies.

J.:  Well then I know then that at least two of us that'll buy it.  But, yeah, I was frankly surprised that it did well enough for DC to be happy about it and I was thinking we may be part of that event but since we are leading off I guess people had no choice then to show up and see where this is going so hopefully we keep them reading because I haven't seen the art for the actual wedding special but I did read the script and I actually enjoyed it.

Sam:  Okay.  Now I will send you twenty dollars, a broken Lex Luthor action figure and a copy of Gene Simmon's Dominatrix #1 if you will tell me the ending.

J.:  That's a very tempting offer but I'd probably get in a lot of trouble if I did tell you the ending but I will tell you that it's a very entertaining read and my hats off to Judd Winnick because I was actually kind of jealous that he got to write the wedding but it's very entertaining.  I think people will enjoy it as well.  It's a fun introduction to the new series and, plus, for a few of us that have been around for a while there is a bit of fun nostalgia in there as well.

Sam:  So do you have any other projects with DC coming out?

J.:  Well, right now I'm focusing on Wonder Girl and at one point it looked like Teen Titans Go! was being cancelled but now it looks like it's not and we're just waiting to hear.  From what I've been told it's coming back in a different format or a different frequency.  It could be a monthly.  It could be a quarterly.  It could be twenty pages.  It could be a little more so I'm just waiting to hear what the plan is and I've told them that I'm down for whatever.  And I'm not sure if it was a direct result  of Teen Titans Go! almost being cancelled but I got The Legion of the Superheroes in the 31st Century as the ongoing writer and it looks like the artist is going to be Alexander Serra so I'll be juggling two Johnny DC books when this is all figured out.  Then we'll see from there.  We're talking about a couple of other projects but I don't want to jinx them by saying anything to early.

Sam:  Well let me ask you this then.  If you had a dream project at either Marvel or DC, what would it be?

J.:  You know, that would change depending on when you'd ask me but right now I would say at DC, I would probably would love to do something with the Global Guardians.

Sam:  Really?  That's interesting.

J.:  Yeah  I'll tell you why.  Number one, I've always had this thing for the Global Guardians.  I remember the crossover they did with the Superfriends in the 1980s but for some reason they sort of captured my imagination although we knew very little about them but there is something about the way they look and the fact that they were from foreign countries and they are a bit different from what we've seen before so I've had this desire to take those characters and do something with hem and I know DC is trying to diversifying their cast and trying to put more characters from different countries so I'm hoping the day will come when this project will happen.  And the other reason why, and this is totally selfish on my part, is that we haven't seen a whole lot of them and it'd be nice to do something that is outside the DCU, so to speak, so I wouldn't have to worry to much about continuity  or too much about all of these connections.  Working on Teen Titans Go! sort of spoiled me because we have our own continuity and have the all ages guideline but at the same time it's pretty much free reign because it's not connected to the Justice League or connected to what's going on in Countdown or anything else so we can just have fun with it. 

Sam:  Have you ever approached DC with this?

J.:  I've put it out there.  I've talked to a couple of editors  and they've seemed interested but, of course, there is a big picture with DC and what's going on with the whole line. 

Sam:  Well if Lord Havoc and the Extremists can get their own mini-series I don't see why the Global Guardians can't.  I mean, I remember when Geoff Johns killed off one of the Global Guardians off panel in JSA, I think it was Impala, the protest from comic fans was huge!  The Global Guardians have a cult following.

J.:  Well I hope so.  I mean there is you and I who know them and sort of have been following however we can over the years so I think it'd be fun so hopefully we'll see it.  Who knows.  Maybe I'll get to a point in my career where I could just say this is the project I want to do instead of just pitching and waiting. 

Sam:  Now, lets leave DC behind and talk about your Degrassi:  Extra Credit books.  Now I received one of them and I absolutely loved it.  I've ordered the rest of them on-line.  It not only made me want to read more but it also made me interested in watching the new Degrassi series which I've never seen, despite being a huge fan of the original Degrassi Junior High from the 1980s.  I mean, I own all the DVDs from the original series but never been interested in the new series.  How did you get involved with the Degrassi books?

J.:  I was recruited by an art director named Jennifer Lum.  She was working for a company to develop print projects for the Degrassi people. She knew my work from Sidekicks and Alison Dare so it comes full circle again.  She just basically e-mailed me and the e-mails was very simple and she asked me if I was a fan of Degrassi and I was looking at this e-mail wondering what was going on.  So I researched the company and did whatever I could to find out if this was a joke but it was legit and I told her I was a big fan, which I was and am and, like you I was more a fan of the original series and I knew the new series but I hadn't been watching it as religiously as the first series but, then, they provided me all the tapes to get caught up and I watched the whole three or four seasons, or whatever it was at the time, and I was hooked.  When we started pitching the stories ideas came rather easily.

Sam:  So have you gotten any feedback from any of the fans or the stars themselves?

J.:  Oh yeah.  The thing is we have hit the road to do signings and appearances with the cast to promote the book so we have gone to half a dozen events now with members of the cast to promote the books and met the fans and the producers of the show.  Everyone has been incredibly supportive and encouraging.  Everyone who has read the books seems to be enjoying them and people have been asking for more.  The producers of the show like my work enough to have me do some other stuff for them which is the best kind of compliment.  The actors I've gone to events have been great.  Again, they've read the books and they've enjoyed them and have been very supportive.  So it's been a great experience as well.  You know, going to events and signings is like being part of a rock entourage.  It's so much fun to experience a little bit about what the other side goes through with he limos and the security detail and the hordes of fans and the camera flash bulbs.  It's kind of scary because if you go on YouTube you'll see fan films that have been shot and you'll see me there and the screaming fans and it's just insane.  I don't know if I'll ever experience anything like that in my life so it's been just great.

Sam:  Now have you ever met Joey Jeremiah?

J.:  You know what?  That is a funny question because although I've been on set a number of times and although I've met almost everybody on the cast and some of the older cast, and, in fact, I'm working with Snake right now.  He's a producer and director on the show and he's my story editor on the stuff that we're working on right now.  The only time I ever met Joey Jeremiah was at a comic book convention in Montreal.  I was a fan at the time.  I was still in high school or college or whatever and he was appearing.  I didn't even see him at the convention.  I saw him at the hotel lobby at the convention as he was leaving and I just sort of said hi and he said hi so despite all these potential opportunities to meet him and what not, I didn't meet him on set or through the producers.  I met him in a lobby.

Sam:  Well let me tell you something.  I wear a fedora which I guess is sort of my trademark.  Anyways, I bought my first one when I was fifteen years old and despite what I've said in the past, the real influence behind it was so I could look like Joey Jeremiah. 

J.:  That is funny.

Sam:  Well I really really enjoyed the Degrassi book and it got me interested in looking at the show.

J.:  It is a really good show and I know some people dismiss it as a teen drama.  As a melodrama.  But it's a very smartly written show once you get into the characters and invest some time in it your going to find yourself hooked and it doesn't matter how old you are.  Now I'm not going to out anybody but so many editors and people working behind the scenes at Marvel or DC and men in their forties or older come up to me and whisper "hey, I'm a big fan of Degrassi too" and go running off before anybody else notices.  I'm telling you, people with pretty high positions at these companies and with the fancy business cards are fans of Degrassi but they don't want to admit that.

Sam:  So what your saying is that Neil Gaimen watches Degrassi.

J.:  Well I don't know about Neil.  But its funny, and I'm not going to name any names, but one guy comes up to me and lets just say that he has a VP in front of his title, and he says my wife and I are big fans of the show. He made sure he said "my wife."  He didn't want to flat out admit that it was just him but he only watched because of his wife.

Sam:  Well look J.  I want to wrap this up, but thank you so much for taking the time to talk with us.  Man.  I can't believe how much we fit into this.

J.  It's been my pleasure. 

All content copyright Sam Tweedle 2006.