Secrets Of X! Mutants Unleashed! Wolverine! Cable! 01:14:51

Today we uncover the secrets of X. There's those storylines and those stories that never quite made it to publication. They didn't make it to press. They didn't actually make it to the page. But that doesn't mean that the authors didn't want you to know about what they were doing.

Today, we look at two alternate paths that both the X-Men and X-Force could have taken as I share with you what longtime X-Men maestro author Chris Claremont had planned and what your host Rob Liefeld had planned for X-Force and what would have occurred next.

had he not left and started Image Comics with his badass compadres. We cover all the secrets of X on an all-new episode of Robservations.

Hey everybody and welcome to another edition of Rob's Observations. I am your host Rob Liefeld. If this happens to be your first show with us, let me introduce myself by telling you that I have been making the comic books for 40 years. My feet are standing across five decades. I have written comics, I draw comics, I publish comics,

And I love comics. And we discuss all things comic books here on Rob's Observations. And we talk about the incredible...

Just industry, the global industry that comic book superheroes have become. I will always prefer them in their comic book form because that is where they are at their most pure. That is where the ideas that come across to me are the most sincere from tremendous minds, tremendous minds.

incredibly talented individuals, many of whom I got to encounter as a fan. I've talked here about going on a train with my dad to San Diego in 1982 and meeting all of my comic book idols, the writers and the artists that made the work

that I love so much and just being in absolute awe. And then I never looked back from store signings to convention appearances. I would try and meet as many comic book creators that would come to Southern California at a time when I was growing up. And when I was breaking in that the comic book industry, both Marvel and DC were, uh,

They were located, housed, and focused in the Big Apple in New York City. They were both part of the New York publishing empire. And for many years, you had to live there.

in the city in order to get the maximum opportunities. But as I was breaking in, overnight delivery, FedEx was exploding. And so I was able to join in and become part of these publishing companies that I love so much. I eventually launched alongside of six other tremendous individuals. We banded together

launching Image Comics, which is still the number three comic book company. I've created Deadpool, Cable, Domino, Shatterstar, X-Force, a ton of characters that you've seen, that you've heard of, many of whom now have faces cinematically, which is exciting. And at Image Comics, they have Youngblood and Prophet and Brigade and Bloodstrike and Evangeline and so many exciting titles. So watching the comic book industry grow is

with these incredible talents, watching them write and create stories that I loved as a kid, having them be adapted on the big screen and be accepted in a way that quite frankly, they weren't when I was a kid. And I've talked about that often now, hiding the comic books because the comic books made you seem childish. If you were reading a comic book and you were 14 years old and you were reading it, sitting on the fountain in the city of Orange in the park, somebody who

who would look at you or come by you would be, you know, give you that kind of childless look like, oh, when's he going to grow up? Because trust me, my parents told me many times, when are you going to grow up? But my dad actually was super supportive. I don't know what, how he was able to just kind of

Get me as well as he did, but he did and I know he thought I was a weirdo, but he still got me. Okay, so Yeah, I I was uh, I was a bit of an alien, uh bursting out of the chest, uh to to to to both my folks my dad knew how to uh To to just manage it better. He understood the inspiration and he understood the the Sheer joy that comic books gave me and how could you not? uh

When I was growing up, I was at the tail end of the 20 cents a copy movement. That's five comics books for a dollar. Within months, it went to a quarter, but that's still four comic books for a dollar. And like I said, I could mow lawns. I could do chores. Everything was funneled into me buying more comics all the time. Now it's twice a year annually. I make my sojourn

Back to Anaheim, back to what I call the four corners, what I call the crossway that found at Magnolia and Broadway, where the Pizza Hut still is. There used to be a Stater Brothers across from that. Across from that, there was a liquor store. And across from that, there was a 7-Eleven. The 7-Eleven jumped streets in the 80s and took over for the liquor store when they bailed.

But the liquor store, 7-Eleven, and Stater Brothers, the grocery store, had just a ton of comic books. And I couldn't get enough of them. DC comic books, Marvel comic books, it didn't matter. I ended up liking more Marvel comics than I did DC comics just because of the way they were made. Today, one of the topics that we're going to talk about is clearly as timely as it's ever been.

The episode is Secrets of X, and we're going to talk about some of the history of the X-Men that didn't occur, but that didn't stop from the creators. One of them is your host, from talking about the plans that they had prior to leaving the books behind. And the most important plans were the one from the maestro of the X-Men. The X-Men, of course, you have been seeing all day.

summer long exploding since July with Wolverine, with Gambit, with Cassandra Nova, with Juggernaut. There are so many different X-Men featured in Deadpool Wolverine. Deadpool is a character that I brought you through a spinoff book called New Mutants 98. He is not a mutant per se, but he has always been part of the fabric of the X-Men since I introduced him in the 90s.

And he has had many adventures alongside Wolverine, alongside the X-Men over time. So it was great to see those adventures once again revisited on the big screen for really what is technically the fourth outing for Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool, if you count Wolverine Origins, and I do, even though he offed himself at the end of the credit scene in Deadpool 2. But it's Deadpool, Wolverine, just a tremendous romp.

through basically the X-Men universe, very much steeped in the Fox parts of the X-Men universe. And just what a blast, what a blast that movie is. It has refocused the attention on the X-Men in a way that,

I don't think people were quite prepared for. And I have heard from stores and, and, uh, I mean, the theaters are just like this movie just continues to make money for us. All of the popcorn buckets and the specialty items, the, the, the sippers, the action figures on the straws. I mean, they help make the, the, uh, cinemas much more.

And we need to make them richer because we like the cinemas. We want to go to cinemas. We want to be able to go to those super recliner seats. My daughter goes to a cinema.

There are several here in Orange County, but the one that she loves has the heated seats. She digs the heated seats where you can recline and warm your seat up. And all of that costs a bunch of money. All of the different ways that these theaters have implemented all this different new technology, 40X, PDX, 3D, some of these incredible screens and functions and the recliners that

They need to be accounted for in the budget. And one of the ways that the theaters help is when we buy their specialty items. And it's not just enough to buy the popcorn. Now you have to buy the expensive popcorn bucket and the special...

Deluxe cups, sculpted cups. I saw all of this stuff coming out of the Vegas Con, which is in April. CinemaCon, which is held in Las Vegas, which shows all the distributors, all the stuff that's coming. They show all the new technology and they show the stuff like the cups and the deluxe products.

popcorn bucket holders. When I saw that baby pool, when I saw the baby pool, the guy pulled it out and said, this is the one is going to be such a big hit for the chain that has ordered it. And sure enough, he was. And I mean, they're like little mini statues. Mine looks like a little mini statue. The sculpting, the production is amazing. And so all of that money goes to keep our theaters open. And if my daughter wants to go and be at that, uh,

theater with the warming seats and that's where she and all her friends go and see. That's where they saw It Ends With Us. That's where they see all of their romantic comedies and the stuff that they're into. Hey, that stuff, again, it costs money to keep the lights on at these cineplexes. So I am more than happy that the X-Men and the surrounding merchandise went to keep cinemas

open. And I also know from comic book stores, the comic book stores have been the beneficiaries, of course, of

So, so much of the swell of interest that Deadpool Wolverine has brought in. The excitement about the X-Men is absolutely renewed. This gentleman that I'm going to speak of is the maestro. He is the man who kept the X-Men at the top of their game for over a decade. He worked with incredible artists, John Byrne, Dave Cockrum, Paul Smith, Mark Silvestri. And in the time that I was coming on board, there was a changing of the guard and it was Jim Lee,

and Wills Portacio, who just so happened to share a studio at this time, and had combined their forces under one roof. They called it Homage Studios, and the two of them were going to take the X-Men into all new heights. I had a first row seat to this because I was on the New Mutants, transforming the New Mutants into X-Force at the time. And

Chris had been on the X-Men, as I said, since 1975. So in 1991 with the 16-year POV, I think he was reasonably confident that things would not change, but the marketplace was changing and artists wanted to control their input more, have more say in what they were doing. And I've mentioned that the superstars that me and my peer group, the ones that we grew up

And the ones that we grew up really elevating

and getting as much of their work as we possibly could, or guys who took control of their careers began not only drawing the comics, but creating the stories that they drew. So that the stories that they were giving you were the ones that they wanted to present in their mind. And we wanted to favor and we wanted to reflect that from John Bernhard, Chaykin, Frank Miller, Jim Starlin, Walt Simonson, we wanted to follow in their footsteps. So when

When Jim and Wills come around, they want to have a little more input in regards to the story, and I believe it was the beginning, and Chris has talked about this at length, of an uncomfortable dance for him because he had complete control of the reins, and even with his first...

year with Jim, he had a lot of influence. Jim was illustrating his stories just as everyone who had worked with Chris had. I did one issue of the X-Men. It was full script. It was what they call a full script of

is everything, including the dialogue, is included in the story that you are drawing. There is no dialogue to be included later. It is airtight. Alan Moore worked full script in the 80s. Chris Claremont was working full script so that you know exactly the words that are being exchanged in regards to the emotions that you convey, even to the choreography and the dictation of the action.

a traditional plot is more loose and gives you, the artist, more room to wiggle with. But if you're supplying the plot, the plot is the story. The plot is the story. When Daredevil, the first issue with Frank Miller on Elektra, he introduces the fact that Matt Murdock had a young love named Elektra that he met at college. And at the same time, there is a

A female, kind of a ninja, who is emerging in New York City in his present day, and he is encountering her. And so we're going back and forth in that story from past to present as Matt Murdock realizes that the ninja that he is facing off against, the most formidable foe, opponent that he has faced...

is in fact Elektra, his former love. They both team up in the end of the issue to take out a mutual threat, but then they go their separate ways with a bit of danger and consequence hanging over the situation as Matt is now very uncomfortable about the person that Elektra has come. That is the story.

That doesn't matter if there's dialogue on that story at all. That is the story. Frank Miller created that story. He drew that story. That is what he was supplying for himself at that point. In that way, that is what I was starting to do, did on New Mutants and then through X-Force. And Jim Lee wanted to exert more of his ideas and his story with a guy who had really been controlling so much of the X-Men for so many years.

So this made for a difficult divorce when Chris Claremont leaves X-Men after three issues when the book is relaunched in 1991 and it is the most popular comic book of all time, selling the most copies of any comic book of all time. Chris talks about, in The Secrets of X, the name of this episode, Chris talks about the plans that he had had he and Jim not split up, had he not left the X-Men. And

And Jim stayed on with, I believe it was Scott Lobdell sharing script duties, John Byrne scripting over Jim Lee's. That didn't last long, but it was certainly interesting. But Chris Claremont talks about, after 16 years helming this book,

The things that he had planned for X-Men that he would have done had he stayed. And one of the things, and here's the irony, is that not only Chris, but everybody else who was replaced during that time, everybody else who was removed, there was a young editor-in-chief. He had a gleam in his eye. He knew that these books could do better than they had been doing. And then they could focus on the things that the audiences of that day wanted to

And one of them was, you have to understand, the movies that Jim Lee and Wills Portacio and I are coming out of during that time are Predator and Robocop and Die Hard and Die Hard 2 and Terminator 2. And there is a new action aesthetic happening in cinemas from incredible visionary directors like Paul Verhoeven, James Cameron, John McTiernan.

These are incredible action directors with very, very accomplished talent.

And that's the stuff that was exciting us. And we wanted to put that stuff on the page. And maybe Bob Harris saw that there should be a little more action than what had been going on. Certainly, Chris, over time, as a fan, I never missed an issue of X-Men. It was my favorite comic book. If you've listened to only a handful of Rob's Observations episodes, teenage Robbie Liefeld felt the same way as nine-year Robbie Liefeld did as 20-year-old

year old Robbie Liefeld did. Okay. I love the X-Men. It was my favorite. Chris had not just drawn, Chris had not just written the X-Men. He had written some of the early spinoffs, the Wolverine miniseries with Frank Miller that they jammed on early in this podcast. If you go back,

to season one, four plus years ago, I talk about how Wolverine came together. Frank Miller was tearing it up on Daredevil. He didn't need to combine and work with anybody. But Chris enticed him because he wanted to combine and work with Frank Miller. And we're so thankful that he did because we got that incredible Wolverine miniseries out of it. But it combined elements of the most popular book that was coming out of every bookstore at the time, which was Shogun, which was made into the

Shogun miniseries. I walk you through all of that. It's not just opinion, it's fact. A lot of how he approached getting Frank is from his own words, from the different forwards and the interviews that he's given over time. But I want to share with you that that episode is as resonant as it is many years later. I've told you, Chris, as a writer, knew that his craft always benefited from being with the best people

illustrators of their time. And here he is with Jim Lee, a seminal creator of his time, about to do some of the most popular work they would ever do apart or, you know,

in unison. And, and, and so, so he knows what he has in Jim because he's worked with Paul Smith and Dave Cockrum and John Byrne and Mark Silvestri and these incredible artists. But Chris also did spinoffs. You know, he, he did the very first regular series spinoff with the new mutants. Chris did multiple, uh, uh, you know,

Kitty pride Wolverine, which was a de facto, um, sequel to the, the Frank Miller Wolverine. And, and I think that mini series I've talked to other people. It was the one that gave people the, the, uh,

the courage that they too could draw comic books. That's a tricky one. Kitty Pryde Wolverine's a tricky one. We'll get to that someday. Bottom line, Chris was writing not only the X-Men and when the X-Men went biweekly, which it did in the 80s, because what is Marvel like more than a book that sells at the top of the charts every month? A book that will sell at the top of the charts twice every month by being every other week. Chris was incredibly accomplished. When you ask me what my favorite

X-Men stories are Chris wrote them. Chris wrote X-Men.

Dark Phoenix, that incredible year-long saga. He wrote Gaze of Future Past. Both of those are in conjunction with an incredible storyteller named John Byrne, who again, I have copious amounts of praise for. Just peak John Byrne was the best thing that ever happened in comic books since Jack Kirby. And boy, my childhood is tremendously thankful and was a beneficiary of the magic that John Byrne and Chris Claremont made together.

There's even a, you know, I've talked about it, there's a dedicated, I think I was calling them Rob Topsy's, where I take you through the summer and the fall of 1978 when I think the X-Men were absolutely peaking, the savage land.

saga which lasted several issues that stuff is written by chris along with john so i am all the way in on chris claremont's incredible legacy but at this time when he was coming on to join with jim lee things were changing things were changing drastically things were changing quickly because artists were absolutely taking control here let's let's read um

Chris's own words, because Chris spoke about this in many of the same amazing heroes and wizard magazines and comic scenes that I've been reading to you from in the last couple of weeks. Sidebar, I was actually looking to see if Jim Lee was going to speak about

at any length about some of the plans that he had after he left to go and form Image Comics. And what I want to tie up here and reemphasize is shortly after we took over, we all left and did Image Comics. And the people that got replaced...

have constantly, especially during the 90s, they wanted to remind every interviewer and people that they knew, like, I was replaced for a group of people who only stayed about another year after me, and I had given decades. And I understand that point of view, but also there's a time to be swapped out, that there's a time for the number one pick in the draft to replace the legendary quarterback. It's time for Aaron Rodgers to replace Brett Favre and Green Bay.

As difficult as that was, we all saw how that played out, immediately rewarding Green Bay and getting them another Super Bowl championship. Nobody likes to be replaced. The point guard doesn't like to move down to the bench. The center doesn't like to split time with the up-and-coming power forward who will not call himself a center, even though he is playing the center position. Hi, Tim Duncan. So anyway...

Chris Claremont was talking about his time after he left, and he shares very openly that the plan, according to Chris Claremont, the plan was he was going to write both X-Men books, one penciled by Mr. Jim Lee, one by Mr. Wills Portacio. And this is going to start with Uncanny X-Men issue 281 in 1991. And he talked about

the dearth of characters and writing a dozen characters, splitting them up on two different teams. As you know, they were called the Blue and the Gold. The Blue and the Gold team, that is specific to this time, and that is how they divvied up the teams. And they're kind of doing something similar right now in the pages of the X-Men as the comic that is illustrated by Ryan Stegman.

has a different lineup than, than the other X-Men books. So they're kind of returning to this, uh, uh, splitting them up in, into very distinct separate units. And Chris talks about how, uh, how, how,

His original plan for X-Men number one was after this Danger Room sequence that he even says there's the Danger Room sequence, which I think is fantastic, which is in X-Men number one, which was released in 1991 and sold 8 million copies.

That after that sequence that he had he had scripted a slightly different sequence And I can see why it didn't make the cut it was it was much more detailed of the stuff that we were seeing in the danger room was all Kind of a program being played back and storm was going to walk through it all and and isolate out what was working or what wasn't working and then discuss with Scott and

how they were going to split the teams. This is all in Chris's words. He says right here, a 12-man team is unwieldy. You need to have six people on two teams. Who's the best mix? And it says here Storm was going to be on the floor as the X-Men appeared to be fighting the Brotherhood of Evil. Storm wanders around in the middle of it. She's taking notes. They freeze the program.

displays appear assessing everyone's performance and what Scott and storm are doing are running scenarios of how they're going to mix and match the different teams. So we didn't get quite that in X-Men number one, but when I went to see if Jim Lee had any ideas about what was going to happen, what were he to leave? Well, what would happen instead is I got all of these Chris Claremont, what he, what was going to happen if, if he was going to stay. And, uh,

So he was talking about how they wanted the first issue of the X-Men to be extremely easy in regards to this is your first issue of the X-Men to understand the concepts and the characters and how they interact in the world that you are about to experience. He really wanted to be friendly to the new readers that came in. But here's where things go bonkers and go crazy. And in Amazing Heroes, number 188.

uh, Chris Claremont spoke of the, the, uh, his idea in regards to what would have happened. And these are worth visiting because I'll tell you why I, one of the things that bugs me. So this is going to, Ooh, I'm putting myself out there when people come out of the theater and they immediately start talking about what they would want to see in the next one. Because I feel like, why aren't you just enjoying what you saw and let that wash over you and let that, you know, completely, uh, uh, just, just, just, just, just kind of, uh, uh,

inspire what you just saw with your own eyeballs, the excellence of whatever it is you just saw. But people love to project and they want to, their desire for more, and I get it, their desire for more is so much that they just can't stop projecting about what was going to come next.

And I'm like, just enjoy what you got. Especially as I get older, I think it is a byproduct of becoming older and maybe less youthful energy. I'm not going to say I don't have kids in my own family who don't do the same. What do you think they're going to do next? And now I go, I'm just going to enjoy what's here. But in the world of comic books, why I become obsessed with what could have been is I'm familiar with the very individual styles of all these artists.

And how they would depict this. And yes, Chris is writing, but had he continued to work with Jim Lee, I see this in Jim Lee's style because Jim Lee doesn't draw.

like anybody else. John Byrne had a style unique in and of himself. Walt Simonson had a style unique in and of himself. I imagine what these look like in their styles. So I can, when John Byrne talks about, and we shared it here a few episodes back about what he would have done had he stayed in this epic conversation, I'm sorry, this epic confrontation where

With a conversation, not sure that I would have been interested in that. This epic confrontation between himself, between Wolverine and Sabretooth upon, as we revealed, John Byrne said he was going to have Sabretooth kill Logan, Wolverine's love, Mariko. And Wolverine was going to hunt him down and kill him. He was going to, you know...

exact his revenge and the X-Men were terrified about the death of Mariko and how it was going to affect Wolverine and how he was going to snap and ultimately Sabretooth confides and shares his true origin and their true connection and

The entire time I'm reading this, I can see John Byrne drawing it. I'm more interested in the what, the coulda and the shoulda and the whatas in comic books because I can see stories that I didn't see and I can imagine how they looked because I am synced up with that particular style. Because again, Alan Davis doesn't draw like Walt Simonson, doesn't draw like Frank Miller. Rob Liefeld doesn't draw like Todd McFarlane, doesn't draw like Jim Lee, doesn't draw like Eric Larson. We have individual, very individual styles. When I think of directors and actors assembling, I'm not always sure that the style is...

is something that I can differentiate. And there is a point in time where some of these cinematic movies have become more house style. There is a certain approach that the MCU godfathers want to take to making this stuff happen, and so they make sure that the movies look a certain way. But in comic books, it's fun to think of this. So I'm thinking of Wills and Jim Lee as they would have drawn this.

And what Chris goes out of his way to share here that he would have done differently had he stayed is he was going to establish Wolverine as the villain, as the nemesis of the group. This was about to happen fast when I kept rereading this thing. Are you serious? It was going to be this quickly. So according to Amazing Heroes 188 in X-Men volume two, very early on,

The X-Men were going to go up against the Wild Boys, a group of sadistic young mutants who wanted to thin out the fearsome Hellfire Club for not being ruthless enough. Shinobi Shaw, one of the Wild Boys, who had been introduced in X-Fractor number 67, was head of the Wild Boys. Chris says, I had a whole arc built up before leaving, and it was going to lead up to Uncanny X-Men 300.

And Chris talks about this in the pages of Wizard number 85.

It would take Wolverine through moderate degrees of hell along the way, making him a more natural character, just because this is one of the things that always bugged everybody, myself included. If he was going to have claws and all these abilities, why not make them natural for no other reason than it would save us a ton of explanation every three or four issues when you got letters saying, how can he do that? The way it was supposed to be in my head was that Wolverine, this is Chris talking, that Wolverine would die and be resurrected somewhere in the late 280s.

Wolverine would be a villain for the better part of a year and a half, 16 issues, culminating in issue number 294, where they finally get him back.

He said, I was planning Wolverine's death for X-Men 3. I told you it was early. He was going to kill Wolverine with X-Men 3. I can see Jim going, he's my favorite character. Wolverine actually sells the book. We're not killing him at this early junction. Claremont continues to inform Wizard in their X-Men 30th anniversary episode. He says that Bob Harris, the editor who had brought us all together, said, what are we doing with the rest of the Wolverine series? And Chris said,

Look, he admits that his solution, in his words, was easy for him to say, but probably not as easy as Wolverine writer Larry Hama to absorb and execute. Because now you're doing two full years where Wolverine is the villain. And the stories will be how you deal with it because he is the villain in his own book. But Chris immediately gets to what he would do. And he said, I would have a situation where the Avengers came in to take down Wolverine. And they would win. They would beat Wolverine. He says...

of course, the hero would then lose in his own book. And he said, or the hero can win in his own book. That is actually the sentence. He says, of course, the hero would then lose in his own book or the hero would win in his own book. But that means that bad guys win. Lots of possibilities were there. I would have thought it would be very fun. Chris says, you go into these relationships, why Charlie always felt

that he himself was integral to the X-Men, why he was the first one contacted, what is his past, his present, his future. Claremont continued in the Wizard 30th anniversary by saying, it floundered on the fact that it was too disruptive to the ongoing continuity involving the Wolverine crossovers. He said, yeah, Marvel Comics presents the Wolverine stories that we've talked about here, the stuff that John B. Sema did, the stuff that Sam Keith did, the stuff that Barry Windsor Smith was doing.

He said it ultimately proved to be too absurd. He said, but he argued, I write the X-Men, Larry Hama will write the Wolverine book. He said Bob Harris would shake his head and act as he could not deal with this person anymore. He said that in X-Men 2, so now he's moved it up to X-Men 2. In X-Men 2, I was going to kill Wolverine. He says, I would have had Lady Deathstrike rip his heart out.

She was going to die. He was going to die. Except he isn't going to die because he has a healing factor. And he has these followers of his within the hand. And they grab his body. They resurrect him. And he comes back as the master assassin of the hand. And for two years leading up to Uncanny X-Men 294, he would be the X-Men's greatest foe, their greatest nemesis. And he said the stories of Wolverine battling the X-Men were going to range from Uncanny 294

and X-Men and back and forth again.

He said along the way, an interesting thing that was going to happen was that Wolverine's healing factor was going to go into ultra high gear after he was killed. It was essentially rebuilding his heart. What would have happened is had he been left alone, his arms and legs would probably, and this is really disgusting. And I'm going to tell you right now, this is so weird. His arms and legs would have rotted as his heart healed. His conscious mind would have been in total suspended animation. Everything about him would have been geared towards keeping his sentient, his sentiency alive.

intact and repairing his heart. Everything else would have been left to go. So assuming no scavengers came in and started to eat him, you would find his partially decomposed body with a fully healed torso, at which point the decomposed bits would begin to heal. One of the side effects to this, Chris says, is the healing factor is purging all non-organic matter, which means the adamantium

was going to start to leech out of his skin. And here's where I go, I'm not sure how this would have looked. This is one of those, Chris, you had me. I'm so into this. But he says there was a point where Wolverine would look like the Silver Surfer with hair. He'd be this blinding, shining creature with killer claws. Ultimately, the adamantium would just be part of his hair. He would look like a silver porcupine. Okay? So,

That is Chris going out of his way to share with you what he had happened. And I'm not, you know, there's always been this debate over the many years that Chris was doing him because he kept putting Wolverine further and further back in regards to the X-Men story. And-

It was always wondered if Chris resented Wolverine and resented his popularity. And Chris seemed much more interested in Jean Grey, Madeline Pryor, Scott, Scott Summers, Rogue. He just seemed more interested in many of the other X-Men than he did in Wolverine. John Byrne is the one that says I brought Wolverine to the fore. Dave Cockrum didn't even like him that much. He favored Colossus and Nightcrawler over Wolverine. John Byrne came on and said, we're making him the focal point of the book.

And you can't argue that the book did not completely benefit from it because fans, myself included, went crazy for him. When Vindicator, and that's what his name was at the time, not Guardian, showed up to reclaim Wolverine in the pages, I believe it's X-Men 109, and he battles...

the X-Men to reclaim Department H's asset because they believe Wolverine is their asset. They made him in Department H, part of the Weapon X program. I flipped out. It was a completely Wolverine-centric episode and my love for the X-Men probably doubled or tripled. I mean, you guys, I can go back to, I purchased that book and read it on the stairs at my grandma's house.

And then they had a cool den and I went to the back of the den and I just kept rereading the issue. Who was this Canadian character and these guys in this van, this support team that was ready to take Wolverine, take him back. John Byrne.

We'll tell you that that focus and that thrust came from him. So it feels as if maybe this is a way that Chris gets reengaged with Wolverine is by making him the villain. And certainly one thing about Wolverine is he would have known so many of their weaknesses. And had he been as ruthless as Chris wanted to portray him, it certainly would have made for some great showdowns.

Eventually, some of you who are aware, Wolverine did become a nemesis of the X-Men in an Apocalypse story, the 12. I actually drew an entire double-page issue where Wolverine and Cable battle, and Wolverine is most certainly the bad guy in that showdown. Wolverine became one of the horsemen of Apocalypse. And we know that some of the adamantium did come out of Wolverine's skin later on in the 90s in stories drawn by X-Men.

adam cubert so so some of these ideas did take take root they they uh you know that they they took flight without chris with other authors so certainly he had some very very bold ideas uh he said the hand would uh he said that scott

was trying to figure out how to take Wolverine down when he becomes a villain, Claremont says. And Charles Xavier is unmovably adamant about the need to save Wolverine, salvage him and bring him back.

Jean Grey wanted to go in and try and rescue him and end up becoming his evil babe. No, no, it said Jean Grey would go in and try to rescue him and end up becoming his evil babe, though not really. She would be faking it this time. She's trying to tap into Wolverine while he is buried underneath the spell of the hand. At some point in the storyline, he said Colossus and Wolverine would have a giant fight and it would have this great cover and it would be a black background with a spotlight.

In the center of the spotlight are two sets of claws with the housings just as if they had been ripped out of Wolverine's arms and one of the claws was broken. What was going to happen in that issue was that Colossus was just going to pull the claws straight out of Wolverine from their roots. So then, of course, the hand would have to give him artificial claws and they would work or not work as the case may be. This is, again, I'm reading directly from Chris, but as part and parcel of the healing process.

Gradually, he would realize that he was growing something brand new and that there is a natural element in a body that just gives him claws over and over and over again. And over the span of six issues, you saw them grow and they would be growing faster than normal because of the accelerated healing. These are the bone claws that we would eventually see around 1994, 1995. So Chris's, uh,

Plans, abandoned plans, you know, there's no denying that many of them saw the light of day, just not in the timeframe and under the same circumstances that Chris had.

He said, when all is said and done, it would come down to a major league fight between the X-Men and Wolverine. A major component of the fight was going to be Wolverine's battle with himself, the goodness within his soul, the warrior of his soul, fighting this demon that he had become, and he would win. The adamantium would flake off, and eventually he would be standing himself reborn as a totally natural being. His bones and claws would be virtually unbreakable. They could be broken, but they could also heal.

But because of the incredible stress that he had been under for the past two years, his healing factor is like, I'm tired. Let's not do this again. Not for a very long time. When all is said and done, Chris says Wolverine is not only more vulnerable, he's not going to butthead his way through walls because it hurts.

And why would I want to hurt myself? Why don't I just use the key to open the doors? Or I could get Colossus to do it. Wolverine was to come face to face with his own mortality and realize I am too old for this shit. We can find a better way. That is just an inkling.

of what Mr. Chris Claremont had in mind. 16 issues, nearly two years. It would have affected the regular Wolverine title, obviously disrupted Marvel Comics Presents. You know, it's funny when I, I just know from my own experience, because we've all been so trained to think about how things affect continuity.

When Marvel asked me to do what would become Deadpool Bad Blood, do an original Deadpool graphic novel, first thing I asked is, can I do this? Can I do this? And they said, Rob, we really view Deadpool as out of continuity. I've covered this in other podcasts as well. They said, you can just do whatever story you want. It doesn't have to fit into what's going on in the regular series. And I'm seeing more and more and more of that across Marvel's entire publishing line.

So I think if this were to happen today, they would just say these Marvel Comics Presents Wolverine stories were happening in a different kind of a different timeline and or before or after or they'd fit it and make it work. But certainly in my head,

I actually saw Mark Silvestri issues of what I just shared with you. I saw Mark Silvestri illustrated shots of Logan with his robes addressing the hand as their leader, the very sinister side to Wolverine. I saw Jim Lee illustrating Colossus ripping Wolverine.

Wolverine's claws out of their housings. I see that cover in my mind that Chris described. Chris was very ambitious. He had some big ass ideas. We will never know how that would have affected the X-Men, how you, the fans, would have reacted. All you know is that I shared with you his recollection of what he would have done. Secrets of X, untold stories. Would we have loved them? Because I've read this a couple times.

And the third time when I read it out loud to you right now on this podcast is when I loved it the most. And I saw it the most clearly through the artistic lens of Jim Lee and Will Sportaccio and Mark Silvestri. And having Wolverine become their nemesis, having them become the villain. I like the idea of the Avengers stepping in and maybe taking him down momentarily. All of that stuff is super cool. And because I can see it in the style of the artists that I really enjoyed and enjoyed

enjoy as a fan, inspire me as a fellow artist. I can't help but think that I would have loved to have seen that. And I think I probably would have maybe enjoyed that story more than

than I would have cared to admit at the time because it would have been hyped and I think some of the hype would have created some backlash. But if they were done to the letter of what he just said and Jean going in and faking her way as his bad lady. Oh, I don't know. Sound pretty good to me. Secrets of X, untold stories of X from the maestro himself before he left. Chris had a very short run on that backstab

brand new X-Men, I just think. And he's expressed, he just felt like he had been driving the car for very, very long, so very long. And now it was hard to share it and be a co-pilot again. And I understand that. And when he and the others throw rocks at how fast we left within a year after, hey, time passes, things change. Okay.

The four most important words that you can possibly imagine. Time passes, things change, and sometimes we don't get the stories that we thought we wanted or the stories that turned out may have been better than what we were getting in the first place. As we keep rolling with Secrets of the X, I was...

Supposed to draw the entirety of the New Mutants 6 annual, the New Mutants annual number 6. It's got Franklin Richards hovering. The New Mutants have been subdued. The Sentinels are behind him. It was a killer Days of Future Past-styled story upon when the adult Franklin from the Days of Future Past died.

future, came back and the storyline ran through all the annuals. I ended up only doing the cover to that issue. I actually drew the first three pages, realized I couldn't make the deadline. We talked and the incredible Mr. Terry Shoemaker took over instead. And what a fun storyline. I was along for all of it. And

My only other significant contribution to that very annual was a pinup in the back, a double-page pinup that talked about the vision that Rob Liefeld is bringing to the New Mutants. It's the first time you saw Shatterstar.

And some different costumes that I was planning to give everyone. Cable is there in a costume I only gave him once for that specific pinup. But Warlock is with the team. Magma is still with the team. I'm formulating exactly what I'm going to do. But Shatterstar is there front and center to the right of the pinup, very much resembling somewhat what he would eventually resemble. I just hadn't put the boxer's kind of headgear on his face yet.

The protective headgear, the facegear. But otherwise, he's very reminiscent of the Shadow Star that you encountered. But there is also another character, Ileana Rasputin, Colossus' younger daughter, is in that picture. Magic coming out of her portal. And she is wearing a very specific black and white costume. And...

In line with the vests and the tunics that I was giving all the other new mutants as I was redesigning their fashion and their looks. And this was the storyline that I wish I had told the most. It was there for a reason. When Cable emerges and transforms new mutants into X-Force, Ileana Rasputin is gone and she's gone for quite some time. This was the proposal. This was the idea.

And what was going to happen had I stayed on X-Force. I've mentioned this somewhat, I've mentioned this a couple of times, but to go further into it, what was going to happen had I stayed on X-Force was after the Executioner song, which was being built out while I'm leaving with Image, with Jim, with Wills, everybody. It was at that retreat that we were exiting. And just as I was not

as excited to be a part of extinction agenda the crossovers completely grind the stuff that you really want that you're itching to do in your own book down while you service the larger story and everyone's going to have bigger highlights in the extinction agenda the new mutants always got the shaft there was virtually nothing interesting going on it's why i only did layouts uh

To the two issues that I was involved with I just did light breakdowns did not invest my full penciling or inking Time on that book because I wanted to get to new means 98 99 100 and kind of start my life start the real good stuff So I was just already so excited to be coming out of executioner song even though executioner song is completely centered around My story with cable and strife and everything that I had set in motion Once that was done once that was settled

Cable would have been sleeping in the middle of the night, tossing, turning, and suddenly he would have seen a vision. He was hearing voices, and this vision when he sits up is of Ileana Rasputin bound by...

demons, creatures that are kind of these separate demon creatures are forming like a harness, like pinning her to the wall. So little mini creepy demons and she's screaming, help me, help me, Cable, help me. And Cable is so disturbed by this and he feels it's so real and he reaches out and then she vanishes. But he felt as if Ileana had reached out to contact him. He can't shake it the next day.

And Domino and Cable welcome Dr. Stephen Strange to the mansion. Cable has contacted him asking him to come by and consult what he has seen. And the cool part is you would have seen that Dr. Strange and Cable had had a shared past as well. When you create a character who's a time traveler and who you've revealed has been jumping back and forth through time,

contacting so many Marvel characters along the way when he was younger, when he was in summits, when he was older, just jumping back to the past. It was always fun to show the nature of those encounters. And so we would have established that Dr. Strange and Cable knew each other previously, and they have a warm understanding. Cable asked him if he could help him

And he explains this and Dr. Strange warns how dangerous this is, but he opens up. Eventually, Dr. Strange taps into his incredible magic and sorcery and through multiple portals,

They are able to view Ileana, but the demons that are guarding her turn around, see that Dr. Strange and Cable are watching, and they jump through the portal and they attack Dr. Strange and Cable and Domino. These demons suddenly lunge, you know,

into into the x-force base and are furiously just savagely attacking domino and dr strange and cable and that's where you get a lot of the action as cable grabs for all of his different weapons and domino you would have seen essentially you know a great example of how she can evade her her luck at at on fleek on in in high gear as she evades and puts down a few demons of her own

Dr. Strange ultimately closes the portal with Ileana screaming behind him, and we get a glimpse of Sim, S-Y-M. Chris Claremont had introduced the Sim character, which was a reflection of

of his love of the independent legacy legendary book, Cerebus and its creator, Dave Sim. The character of Sim is like a giant eight foot demonic twisted version of Cerebus. And if you're just learning that now, Hey, another one to grow on, but everybody loves Cerebus in the eighties. It was just a seminal work by Cerebus.

All involved because it was not a comic that was done by just one incredible force.

You see, Mr. Dave Sim was not alone. He would many times only draw Cerebus. And if you didn't know, Cerebus is an aardvark. He had been portrayed in all manner of different situations. But in the earliest version, Dave Sim was super influenced by Barry Windsor Smith and the work that he had done on Conan. And so Cerebus is a little...

Conan-styled aardvark, yes, he's super cool looking, but a man named Gerhardt, and Dave Sim was very generous. Gerhardt was the man who was contributing all of the different backgrounds and environments, and they worked hand-in-hand. Dave wrote it, he drew and laid it out. Gerhardt created the environments, the backgrounds, and Dave provided you the characters, most prominent of which was Cerebus.

People love this book. I love this book. I don't talk about it enough. It's time will come. But Chris Claremont made this nod to Cerebus in the pages of X-Men with Sim, who was part of the crew in hell that was led by another character who was another reflection of the devil. Marvel has many of them named Belasco. And right before the portal closed, you would see Sim looking back, you know, approaching the

And then looking back through the portal. And the end of the issue was going to be a double-page splash after Cable has gathered the new mutants and told them the stakes. That, in fact, Ileana is being held in hell against her will by Belasco, by Simm.

and that they're going to go blast her out. It was X-Force goes to hell. It was a three-part story. And the second issue would have been Doctor Strange casting that spell of that portal with all amount of crazy warnings, but they would have journeyed into hell. Of course, they would have been dropped off so much further. The spot that they landed was going to be so much further. It was my opportunity to put Cable and the New Mutants in a fantasy setting.

Think of Tolkien, think of the different valleys that Samwise and Frodo were journeying through on the way to Mordor, except demons jumping out at them and all manner of different creatures as they move towards the target, which is freeing Illyana, who has been there for all this time, being tortured, being held against her will.

And it would have been great to see like super science against supernatural. And this was going to bring all of Cable's really smarts and genius and special weapons to bear here. And it would have put everybody else through their paces. You'd have gotten to see Shatterstar and Domino and everybody, Feral on the team, really cut loose. And in a fun fantasy setting, I think the fans would have totally dug it.

And it would have ended with, of course, Cable extracting Ileana with now a new target on his back. Because Belasco and Sim would have revenge on their mind. And in one year, they would have cycled back and come through and just devastated. Because look, I've told you, I think one of the greatest crossovers the X-Men ever did, I think it's my favorite, it's my top tier, is Inferno. And that has Sim and that has...

all of these uh demonic components and they would have come back specifically with x-force on their mind wrecking x-force a rematch with cable i had all manner of crazy stuff uh planned but i loved iliana i love magic i wanted her in the book i wanted her spark i wanted her uh because boy her relationship it would not have mattered that cable had saved her she would have brought

Her very specific ideas of how she sees the world and how she sees X-Force and she would have never backed down from Cable and it was going to be able to provide some really great dynamics and friction within the group because also the kids who knew her before who have now obviously grown up a little more like Sam.

Cannonball is wondering if maybe there's some darkness growing inside Ileana and we would have been heading towards an ultimate kind of, are we doing Dark Phoenix all over again with one of our precious members of the team has been corrupted or is she just dark now and she has to fight against it? Those are all the things that

that were on the plate that would, had I not gone and given you Youngblood and Prophet and Brigade, and I had stayed and given you another year or two on X-Force, that is the story. That is the big storyline that would have changed everything, that would have given a more supernatural bend to the book and put a brand new target. Because I just, I love those characters. And I think that they were not...

serviced as well as they could have been given their appeal of fans. They were so good in Inferno and we weren't getting any more of them for a very long time. And so I also, again, like the giant super science, all the big armaments that cable, you would have seen the biggest guns he's ever carried. He would have carried into hell, but X-Force,

crashes hell in the interest of extracting Ileana Magic, who would have become a major player in the book. That was the plan, and I didn't get around to it because I was needed elsewhere.

Secrets of X is a series we'll always revisit. Everybody had some great X ideas along the way. And as I was telling you that story, you were probably seeing it in the way, my style, the way I was drawing X-Force and New Mutants at the time. And that's what I'm talking about. In comic books, we see styles.

And styles are so very distinct. And when I think of something that Walt Simonson could have done on Thor, I see it as he would have illustrated it so magnificently, so brilliantly, so very distinctly in his style. Claremont, some crazy ideas. Liefeld, some crazy ideas. X-Force, X-Men, Wolverine would have had different fates.

Had we hung around? So there you go. Secrets of X. Hope, as always, that you enjoy the woulda, coulda, shoulda, bens. And please accept my reasoning for why these are so much more interesting than where a movie's going next. Because specifically the style of what you're getting and how you can imagine it. And maybe what your favorite artist would have done with it.

There will be more secrets of X to come as we continue to mine this. X-Men is my favorite franchise. I know through the years it's been so many of yours. So we'll continue to scratch this itch and go deep into the vault and bring you some of the really good stories that didn't happen.

I just wanted to once again say thank you to all of you for all of the enthusiasm that you bring to this show and all of the tremendous energy that you express to me across all the different platforms on social media, on live streams. And we are thrilled that you did the show.

Thank you so much for the reviews that you sent us and the interactions and the ways that you kind of share and spread word of mouth on Rob's Observations. Many of you take to writing reviews of the show and sharing them, and I could not be more just thrilled each and every time because they carry me. These really do...

Show in real time the enjoyment that the show can bring so many of you and that's why the show was made We don't we're not selling anything here. There's no there's no advertisers. We don't have commercials It's just a pure show made out of love. This is not my job, but I do so much enjoy sharing comic books with you and I and I enjoy that we have Been able to have all these incredible dialogues when you give reviews of this show. I

And so many of you put them on the Apple platform. I read them at the end of each and every show. And today I am going to share with you. It is not often that I get a review from Germany, but here is a review from Germany left just days ago. It says it is from Mr. JK27. Mr. JK27 writes, he says, simply great gives us five stars. He says, I am a long-term comic book fan forever.

from Germany to improve my English. I was looking for a podcast and I came across Rob's observation. Oh boy, boy, this made me go sideways fast. Not only did I improve my English, but I also learned a lot about art and artists behind the comic books. Thank you very much for that. So here we are, everyone. Seriously, Mr. JK27.

I just want to thank you for pulling out that keypad, writing up that review and sending it in. This really touches me. Everyone, we are helping the world know English. We are helping teach. And this man, Mr. JK27, just confirmed that his English improved. It improved. He said, not only did I improve my English, but I also learned a lot about art and artists. So, hey, we're teaching comic books and books.

English here. Okay. Don't forget that this is the good that this show can do. Thank you so much for that review. Very kind, very sweet. When you leave the reviews for us, it helps elevate our visibility on a very competitive platform. It helps us get more attention. I appreciate it. I appreciate you. When you jot down those reviews, you can bet I will find them and I will read them here live on the show. I am thrilled to let you know that I have a brand new comic book

out in comic book stores and I guess on some digital platforms. I'm not exactly certain how all that works anymore because Comixology is now on Kindle, but I know there's just all sorts of different manners that this stuff makes it out there digitally. But the comic book is called Deadpool Team-Up. Deadpool Team-Up number one turned out, I think, to be harder to obtain than I had anticipated.

We are in a weird time in comics and, uh, I just, this, this week received numerous, uh, reports. I, I, I put them on, on, online to show that when I go on my live stream, you guys are the ones that tell me that the, uh, three stores in Virginia didn't have them, that the two stores in Connecticut didn't have them, that the stores in Texas sold out, that the stores in Tallahassee, uh,

sold out that five stores in los angeles sold out it's we want our work in your hands and so it always makes me sad when the books don't reach the intended audience i hope very much that you're able to get a uh a copy of deadpool team up number one i'm really exceptionally proud of it uh deadpool team up number two i think is actually even better deadpool team up number one is a setup for the story that's to come i bring back a very uh

obscure true d-list character that had only appeared once prior the uh dragon lord

RAL DORN from Fantastic Four Annual number 16. When I was 13 years old, I dug him. I thought he was cool. I decided to build an entire story around him. Wolverine's in it. Chris Starr, a former licensed toy property with Marvel is in it. It's really fun. I very much hope that you can check it out. It runs five issues. It's out in stores where you can find them now. So thank you in advance.

uh if you already picked it up not in advance in advance for picking up the series if you're going to grab it and thank you to all of you who showed up at the stores and and had them disappear flying off the shelves i appreciate you so much i wrote it i drew it uh it's it's it's a whole lot of fun and this is my last deadpool work my last marvel work as i kind of move towards what i what i think is like the last five years of a comic career and and look to uh to to to

do a few more projects of my own before kind of winding it up and winding it down. So thank you. Check that out. It's out there on social media. You can always reach out, find me when the podcast isn't on. I am lurking. I am on the platform formerly known as Twitter.

And we're still tweeting, but it's called X now. I am at Robert Liefeld, R-O-B-E-R-T-L-I-E-F-E-L-D. That's a mouthful. Blue Check tells you that I am a genuine article, the real deal, legit. And you are absolutely speaking to the real Rob Liefeld. Robert Liefeld is my handle over on X. I love reading your mentions, your comments, all of our back and forth. I just love hanging out with you guys and talking to you guys in real time. It's such a fun conversation.

fun way to interact and connect with people. So, so, so check me out on X, follow me at Robert Liefeld for the latest and greatest over on Instagram. I am at Rob Liefeld got, got the preferred moniker. Uh, another blue check tells you you're legitimately talking to me and, uh, and, and,

I love reading your mentions, your replies, all of your comments, even your DMs. And Instagram is my preferred. I love it the most because I can show you pictures and images of where I'm going, what I'm doing, the time that I'm spending with my family, my friends, the work that I'm doing. I try and give as many sneak previews and share posts.

some of what's going on on my drawing board and what's coming on, what's coming up. I try and share as much as possible with you. Thank you for following me on Instagram at Rob Liefeld is my handle. And I look forward to seeing you over there again, reading your comments and your replies and your messages. Thank you so much for all the interaction that you guys.

uh, provide over on these incredible social media platforms. Facebook. We have a group Facebook. We have a group called Rob Liefeld, Marvel extreme and beyond. We'd love for you to hang out with us. Really good group of people. We keep the vibes super great. Uh, it's really fun.

Uh, no, no, no, no, no tension, no escalation allowed. I treat it like it's my family room. Just like I'm going to mention my live stream in a minute. I treat the Facebook group and the live stream the same way. You're my, you're my family room. It's my room. You're coming in. Uh, the TV's on, uh, the, the, the, the popcorn is ready. The drinks are being served, but please don't put your feet up on the table. Don't put your cigarette out on my couch and don't throw up on my carpet. Okay. Uh, that's all we ask. Come on in Rob Liefeld, Marvel extreme and beyond is my Facebook group.

Terry Sala is my co-administrator, co-moderator. He may be the one that clicks you on through. He also runs our regular weekly art contests, and then the winner of those art contests is determined by our votes. We have tremendous talent in that group, a lot of great discussions. Each and every episode of Rob's Observations gets its dedicated post for people to discuss in longer form. So it's many of the topics that we cover here regularly.

We go a little deeper on over there. So join us. Rob Liefeld, Marvel Extreme and Beyond is the name of the Facebook group. And we will look forward to seeing you there. I am on an app called Whatnot. And Whatnot is where my Deadpool team up number one exclusive is. It's not going to be in your stores. And here's the thing that you got to understand. And I try and tell people, I am a fan of comic book storytelling, which means I'm doing 22 pages a month, not including covers and just all the other, you know,

applications of storytelling. I have to fill up a page, 11 by 17 from left to right, from a blank page, put pictures, movement, storytelling, different camera angles. And so I have to do that here at the house. I have largely pulled back from comic books and comic book stores and the way that you can get

interact with me and get comic books from me because I'm not coming to Montana. I'm not coming to Idaho, to Illinois, to Arizona, to Texas, to Florida, to Michigan, fill in the blank. I'm probably not even going to New York Comic Con this year. The way to best interact with me is with all the signed exclusives and variants that we offer in our WhatNot store. Get the WhatNot app, follow Rob Liefeld. You'll be alerted when my shows go live. I

Lately, they've been twice weekly, and we launched this week with a giant exclusive. This is the only place you can get the Deadpool team up, number one. Rob Liefeld exclusive variant is from me through my whatnot.

And we have been moving a giant amount of them. So we have about half our inventory left in just a matter of two shows. We almost cleaned it out. I invite for you to jump on. We have signed custom foils, comics, variants, stuff you're not going to see at your comic store because we have so many covers and variants that are specifically only on the Whatnot store. A new Mutants 98.

uh, what not variant, a Spider-Man, what not variant, a Captain America, what not variant, Youngblood. Uh, Last Blood is my comic book, my entire comic book that I'm only offering through the what not live stream experience. So it's a lot of fun. Hope that you can join us, get the app, follow Rob Liefeld, and you'll be alerted when we go live with all our sweet exclusive swag. You'll learn what a chisel signature is, a, a, a drop shadow chisel and a

uh bloody the the the uh the blood chisel okay these are all really fun custom signatures i also sign toys funko pops all sorts of items we've been doing all the different popcorn buckets and stuff all all year all all through the season really have a good time over on the whatnot uh app

get it, follow me. And I hope to see you on that live stream, which is very much like this podcast. We are talking back and forth in real time. People, they tell me they're having a good time. I choose to believe them. And I think you will, I think you will as well. I also have a Patreon or as I say, a Patreon. I said, my son told me I say it wrong. Patreon, Patreon, Rob Liefeld over on Patreon. There's some, uh,

exclusive podcast material. We'll continue to load that up for the Patreon members and you get sneak peeks. A lot of behind the scenes artwork stuff from my sketchbooks is shown on the Patreon. So jump on that if you get a chance.

Deadpool team up in stores. Good luck. I hope you can get one. I made it for you. I literally made it for you, the audience, and I hope that you can enjoy it. Thank you for listening to this show. At the end of each and every show, I want to reach out and make sure that you are doing well mentally, spiritually, physically, and emotionally. Okay? We are all struggling. Crazy. It's just crazy. Life is getting...

Stranger, weirder, possibly more difficult. Certainly than at any time when I was growing up, we seem to be a polarized country. The media is intent on just creating dissension at all times. It's up to you personally to find your peace, to find your happiness. And I'm telling you, get with the people who get you, who know you, who love you, who you can trust, who are going to do right by you.

Look for those friends, those relationships, those family members. Be tolerant of each other. Be understanding. If I didn't have the grace of others towards me, and if I didn't offer grace, it would just all suck. Grace is what we need to offer each other in greater ways.

quantities than ever before because things are tough and burdens can be really heavy and the grind can wear us down. And my hope for you is that you find a means with which to get off the grind and spend some time with your loved ones, your family, the people you trust. Have a great meal. Have a fantastic experience.

with your friends and family. Read a great book. Read a great comic book. Watch a great streaming show. I'm going to tell you this summer, this weekend is when I will get a little emotional. The end of summer crushes me. It is just, I have a romantic relationship with the summer.

and I just have since I was a kid. Maybe some of you feel the same. You just can't seem to let it go. The transition to fall is always a little more difficult to me because I just love the freedom of summer. This summer was crazy, crazy busy. One of the most crazy busy summers I've ever had. It certainly had its ups and downs, its burdens, its weirdness.

But I will, Labor Day is always a little bit of a sad time. But my wife and I, we're going to get out. We're going to go to the street fair. We're going to go try all the crazy food. The Orange Street Fair,

is a blast. I have been going to the Orange Street Fair. We used to break down our church. They called on the youth group in 1978, 1979, hop in a truck, and we would help break down each of the different streets. There's four different streets at the Orange Street Fair, and it is such a blast. And you know what? That'll help me transition a little.

as we head into fall. And so enjoy this last week of summer. Enjoy this last week of summer. Make sure you get that extra long period of the day and watch that sunset. My son took off out of the house the other day and I said, where are you heading? He goes, I'm chasing the sun. Before the sun sets, I'm heading down to the beach with some friends. That's how it should be. That is how it should be. I wish you nothing but the best. Thank you for listening. I am so,

uh, thankful that I have the audience that I have, because I have met so many of you in real life, in person at San Diego and Vegas, uh, in the past in New York. If I, if I happen to, it's, it's, it's, it's not looking good. Uh, just time-wise that, that, that, that if I were to see you in New York, I know that so many of you would mention the podcast and I just appreciate you so much. And I'm rooting for you. I hope that you're doing well. I hope you continue to do well.

Let's say goodbye to summer with a great weekend, Labor Day weekend. I'll be a little sad, but I'll get over it because I'm sure there is more exciting things to come. Thank you again. Do not leave me behind. Do not leave me here alone. Come back. See me. I'll be right here. We will absolutely, most definitely, inevitably talk again real soon.