Alex: [00:00:00] Hey, welcome back to the Comic Book Historians Podcast. I’m really excited to interview my good pal Joshua Sky, whom I met through a mutual friend, Roy Schwartz., Josh, thanks for joining us today.
Joshua Sky: [00:00:11] Thanks so much for having me, Alex. I’m really excited to be here.
Alex: [00:00:14] So, Josh, is the premier, master of the universe, mini comic writer. I actually discovered comics through the mini comics. So this is really exciting for me. And, you know, Josh, I want to go through some of your new projects, but also like kind of your history in, in comics a little bit. Now. You were born in 1986, from what I understand, you started reading comics probably in the early 90s. You have a sensibility toward 80 stuff. Tell us about that.
Joshua Sky: [00:00:42] Sure. So, um, so I grew up in Maui, Hawaii, and like finding collectibles was kind of tough as a kid because you’re always on a remote island. And also retail is just kind of handled differently in Hawaii. And that era of retail was really interesting because a lot of, um, great empires of the 80s when it came to like, you know, Star Wars and MOTU and stuff that had just been starting to be phased out. Right. So I’d find that stuff usually not at retail, but my, my, my, my, my, um, so I had to find that at like garage sales and swap meets or, you know, other collectors and stuff on the island. But, but for comics, my real gateway was, I remember very distinctly, there were two, two, two premiere moments. One was my father had brought back one of those poly bags that said like three comics for 199 or something like that. Right. And I remember him handing me this, this poly bag. And I remember looking at it and being just so fascinated and tearing it open. And, and I think there was like a legion of superheroes comic. And I think there was a Teen Titans comic and something else in there. I think there were DC books, maybe one Marvel. And I remember just being so blown away, like it was so visually explosive. I must have been 4 or 5, six of the oldest. And it was the perfect age because you were in it, right? You were literally in the adventure, you know? I remember doing a double spread and it was like, like opening up a double spread, and I could see all these superheroes flying towards the sun. And I was with them. Right. So I remember just kind of, you know, probably the following day going up to my mom and figuring out that where my father had bought these at like a Woolworth on Maui or something and said, can we go back to that store? And like, just she bought me a stack of these polybags and I would tear them open.
Joshua Sky: [00:02:30] And in it were three comics. And I think it was like a legion of superheroes, Teen Titans, I think maybe Marvel title and I must have been 5 or 6. And it was the perfect age to get this right. Because when you read a comic, you were really in it at that age. And I remember distinctly opening up a double spread and seeing all these superheroes flying towards the sun, you know, or some sort of battle. And I was with them and I was hooked from that moment. I remember tugging my mom’s sleeve and being like, can we go back to where dad bought this? And I think it was like a Woolworths. Uh, and so we, she drove me and we bought like a stack. My mom bought me a stack of these, you know, Polly um, these like three packs. And I remember opening them up and I remember I had my first comic collection and I remember I like piled them all, you know, I lined them up on the, you know, on the, on the, on the tile floor. And I would really look at them. And I remember another real distinct moment for getting into comics for me. And this may have happened even before my dad brought home that three pack in Kihei where I grew up in Maui. You know, trading cards were really popular in the early 90s. And I remember seeing these kids with Marvel Impel trading cards.
Alex: [00:03:41] Yeah, those are a big deal. I love those things.
Joshua Sky: [00:03:43] Yeah. They’re great. And I think I saw Captain America for the first time. And I remember thinking like, what is that? And I remember some of these cards also had like, you know, if not Jack Kirby art, certainly, certainly artists like Jack Kirby. And it was just so colorful and visually explosive. And even now, if you take like, you know, here’s an 80s comic book, right? Like even the printing, right? Like when you take these books, it just kind of like warps reality around them. I feel because it’s so colorful, it just kind of draws you in. Like they don’t even print comics the same way anymore. And, and printing is different now. And, and it just did that for me. It just kind of like, like everything kind of seemed to phase out and I just zoned in on that. And I just, I remember even as a kid, like trying to like open up my own, like comic book stand in the middle of nowhere and Maui and stuff. I must have been like seven and people, I didn’t have a big enough sign and people would drive by. But I just remember from an early age being very, very hooked. And luckily Marvel had had created its, um, its animation block with Fox with like Margaret Loesch and stuff. So X-Men, um, the, you know, X-Men and Spider-Man and Hulk and, and Fantastic Four, uh, all those shows really.
Alex: [00:05:00] Iron Man. They had Iron Man also.
Joshua Sky: [00:05:02] Iron man was great. I mean, and Rob Friedman, who was a story editor of Transformers, wrote the pilot for Transformers and G.I. Joe and the movies as well. Like he, he worked on Iron Man as a story editor. So like that was great. So I loved all that stuff. And also the toy biz action figures had hit. So it was just a really exciting time. And DC was doing a lot of cool stuff with his Kenner line. So it was just a very exciting time to get to really get into it, you know? And then the 90s was an amazing time on Maui. I think like I was very lucky to grow up in Hawaii, like in the 90s. Uh, but, but the thing that was hard to do was get vintage stuff. So that always has had a lure and allure to me. Uh, you know, 8080s and prior, uh, that era because it was just phased out by the time I started collecting, you know? So.
Alex: [00:05:50] So were there comic book stores on Maui at that point?
Joshua Sky: [00:05:54] Yeah, there were two. Uh, there are two main places that came to mind. So one was one was complete comics and that was run by Perry Margolin. And he, he ran it, I think since maybe the mid to late 80s till about the mid 2000. And that was the only comic book store on Maui. And he was based in Wailuku. And he was this guy who he looked literally like the guy from The Simpsons. Like he had the ponytail. He dressed exactly the same way. I mean, they nailed that character, right? So or that archetype. But yeah, Perry ran the store and he was always very kind to me and actually developed a really good friendship with him growing up. And I remember when I turned 16, he gave me a stack of science fiction novels and, uh, that he suggested reading and stuff, but, um.
Alex: [00:06:45] So you were reading like, like books as well as comic books?
Joshua Sky: [00:06:48] Oh, yeah. Oh, I still do. And yeah, I’m a big, um, I definitely collect a lot of, uh, science fiction novels and short story collections and anthologies, something that I think is actually quite overlooked by, um, by comic book readers. Unfortunately, I think comic book collectors, I think there’s a whole universe of incredible stories and, and collectibles and, um, history, honestly, in, in science, in science fiction that they kind of, um, miss. It’s covered in your book. I remember, I was really pleased to see you cover that in your book. Actually, when you talk about Gernsback, a lot of these, uh, a lot of these publishers, a lot of books seem to glean over that part of the history of how comics were really born out of pulps. And science fiction and comics are really closely.
Alex: [00:07:33] Like the ideas, the ideas for the stories, the ideas, the mechanisms, the stories like the visual, like how to pace it was from the strips. But the actual idea is for all that fun stuff that we love about it, the fantasy that comes from those.
Joshua Sky: [00:07:45] Oh yeah. Absolutely. I mean, also just the history. I mean, I mean Mort Weisinger and Julius Schwartz. They they were they were bona fide science fiction fans. They started the first science fiction club up in Harlem. Yeah. And they also they opened the first science fiction literary agency, I think Julius Schwartz sold Ray Bradbury’s first short story. So it’s.
Alex: [00:08:04] So cool.
Joshua Sky: [00:08:05] It’s it’s it’s super connected. So, um, you know, Marvel, of course.
Alex: [00:08:10] Jerry Siegel as well, you know?
Joshua Sky: [00:08:12] Yeah. Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster were, were super science fiction fans. Uh, they started their own zines and such. Uh, Marvel started off as a, as a pulp science fiction and pulp magazine before it was a comic book. I think those pulps are probably the most undervalued Golden Age items ever. Honestly, like right now in the market, there’s. So whoever’s watching this, please don’t go on eBay and like buy them.
Alex: [00:08:35] All right, we’re going.
Joshua Sky: [00:08:36] To.
Alex: [00:08:36] Create a price.
Joshua Sky: [00:08:37] Cut this part out. Yeah. Right right, right. Right. Now they’re, they’re, they’re reasonably priced. But but, but.
Alex: [00:08:42] I love, you know, like a lot of this historical stuff. I mean, that that’s so nice and refreshing and, and it just shows that you’re going into creating new stuff, you know, with the, with everything, you know, very four dimensional broad view of it. That’s really great.
Joshua Sky: [00:08:57] Thanks, man. I’m obsessed like you. I’m obsessed. You know, I am like you very much in the sense where I really think history is so important. I mean, your, your channel is awesome because I mean, the breadth of interviews that you have, I mean, you have like a seven hour interview or something with Jim Shooter. I remember just putting it on like all, you know, this long afternoon kind of listening to it and just, it was just, um, it’s really great. But, but yeah, I feel like that’s kind of an overlooked thing that a lot of fans I wish were more into is the history itself, because it adds just such a new dimension and context to everything that you’re reading. Um.
Alex: [00:09:30] Now, now, so you’re reading, you’re, you’re reading all this stuff and you know, you’re entering like, you know, basically your teen years and kind of your early 20s kind of take us through like, you know, what, what were you were doing the kind of stuff you were looking at entertainment wise as you’re heading into the The Daily Show. I think in like 2007 or so. And what you ended up doing for them.
Joshua Sky: [00:09:53] So okay, so here’s what happened. Um, I was always obsessed with science fiction and comics, uh, very early on. And I found another, I found the only real core group of fans at the time on Maui. Now keep in mind, you know, Maui has like not a huge population. I mean, at the time, I think maybe 80,000 people lived on the island at most maybe, you know, maybe a little bit more or less. But, but so there, and it was also a time where like, there weren’t fandom wasn’t what it was now. It was really niche back then. Like, I mean, I, I did another comic book fan was like a big deal on back, you know, for me at least as a kid. So I found this group of, of folks who played Dungeons and Dragons and they had their own group and they were really dedicated to it. It was like the Maui Dungeons and Dragons group. And they, you know, my parents ended up getting divorced. I had a very idyllic childhood until my parents got divorced. And that was like thermonuclear divorce. I mean, it was a really bad divorce. And so I kind of was I became kind of like a nomad on the island.
Joshua Sky: [00:10:58] My mom kind of, you know, my father left the island and my mom, you know, being a single mom, you know, really busted her butt to raise me and my brother. So, um, I became kind of a nomad, and this Dungeons and Dragons like gaming group took me under their wing, and I really, they had, they had really great libraries of science fiction and fantasy. And I even ended up, one of them worked at the library and I got me a job as like a shelver on the library. So like, I memorized the Dewey Decimal system and, but it was great because I had access to all the comic trades and like science fiction books I could get Ahold of and fantasy. I remember like back in the day, they’d have these old computer systems and I would like figure out which additions Frank Frazetta did art for for Edgar Rice Burroughs, and I would special order them from like, Honolulu, and they would ship it. And I would like read it just for the art and also because the stories were great. So this group really like raised me and they were incredible. Um, game masters. I mean, oh my gosh, their storytelling abilities, they’re just lost geniuses, I feel.
Joshua Sky: [00:12:01] And they’re still running their group today. And they didn’t care about their stuff getting published. They didn’t care about being famous. They didn’t care about any of this stuff. They just love being creative for themselves in that group. And I felt that was like something very special to be a part of and witness. And there’s so brilliant, I mean, really brilliant minds. But they didn’t care about being discovered or anything. And so this group really kind of raised me on this stuff and really influenced me. And I ended up, um, dropping everything. After high school, I graduated high school and I had my uncle lived in Brooklyn. And honestly, that was one of the greatest blessings of my life that my uncle took me in and let me live in New York City, right in Brooklyn. And he was a he had he he, his house was so interesting. It was like he had he had a wife and, and who’s my aunt, of course, and my cousin who was really great. And he had three dogs and five cats. Right. And even fish in this. So it was really kind of like a almost like a something out of like a Neil Simon play and yeah.
Alex: [00:13:04] Like Jumanji or something.
Joshua Sky: [00:13:05] Yeah. Something. And they lived in an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood. So it was just very different than like my upbringing in Miami, but I loved it. And, um, they lived next to Brooklyn College and I went there and, um, I majored in screenwriting and I remember my, um, the, one of the leaders of the gaming group, John Lattimer, who’s, who’s a life mentor of mine, he said, and he runs a little computer company called Q and A on Maui. He told me like he went to high school with someone who was the talent booker at The Daily Show. And, uh, it’s a long shot, but I could put my hat in the ring for an internship, so I did. I didn’t think I was going to get it. I got it, and it was really an amazing experience. You know, I got to spend some time in the writers room and I kind of like leveled up there. And that opened the door to being able to intern for other companies like Focus Features and New Line Cinema. And I remember distinctly one late night when I’m trying at while I was on the college grounds and like the computer lab, and I was trying to figure out like, what I was going to do before graduation. And this kid said he was in, he was applying for an internship at Marvel.
Joshua Sky: [00:14:09] And I remember just thinking, Marvel, how did I not think of that? Like, of course we’re in New York City. Like, why wouldn’t I apply to Marvel? So I applied and didn’t get in, and then I applied and I consistently, like, I got, I got, I, I started calling the intern coordinator. Like I had like a rapport with him. His name is Carl bowlers. And Carl took me on as his intern. And Carl was a, it was a comic writer in his own right. He went. He’s he’s written for a million things. He’s also. He was at valiant. He’s currently at Oni, so we still talk and he’s a really great guy and he’s like, I think these guys are nuts for not like having you as their intern, you know? And I busted my butt for them. And it was 2008 and 2008, of course, was the year of the recession. And by the skin of my butt, Marvel offered me a job opportunity to work in brand assurance, branding, and licensing. And I took the job and I learned a lot. And by the way, it was that or Starbucks, if I could break into Starbucks, that’s how bad the job market was at this time.
Alex: [00:15:13] That’s right. It was.
Joshua Sky: [00:15:14] I was I was very nervous. I remember the first day, my first day at Marvel Comics or Marvel Entertainment as an official employee, that they had issued a hiring freeze. So I was hired literally by the skin of my butt. Like they literally like it was like Indiana Jones, like, you know, like the, the, the, the giant had just closed and I grabbed my hat and stuff. So, so being at Marvel, I learned a lot about their licensing apparatus, you know, and I really wanted to write. But the thing is, like the the problem with history, right? And reading some of these history books and people’s accounts is that sometimes today is so different than then internally. And unless you work in those companies, you won’t necessarily know the reality on the ground, right? And so for me, my problem was I had read all these like how Peter David broke in and how all these people broke in in the building and stuff. And I didn’t realize that that world was gone as, as we knew it right under the I, Ike Perlmutter was the CEO. Yeah. I coming in okay.
Alex: [00:16:21] Yeah. So you’re, you’re, this is 2008, right?
Joshua Sky: [00:16:25] 2008, right?
Alex: [00:16:26] Yeah. So Disney had just maybe just bought it.
Joshua Sky: [00:16:30] Not yet. Sorry. Just before I was there before the acquisition. So so what happened was like, by the time I broke in, you had to be a best selling author, essentially, or somehow had a relationship with editorial to break in. And a lot of people always go, you have to network and, you know, um, it’s who you know, and I’m like, yes, but it’s also who’s even willing to know you in the first place. Like, you know, these are gauntlets.
Alex: [00:16:57] That’s a key point. And that’s really, I like the way you said that.
Joshua Sky: [00:17:01] Thank you. So, so what happened was when I got in and I, by the way, I had one alkaloid alkaloids that like, um, I won the, you know, I won, um, the top like I want to, I was presented with a screenwriting award at Bam and I won the television department at, at Brooklyn College, like gave me this big award. So I won like two writing awards and I got into Marvel. So I thought, whoa, I’m going to be writing blockbusters next year, right? Because I was 22 and arrogant as hell. Right? But what happened was when I got there, it was very eye opening because just the reality on the ground was so different. And, um, they and they were not into hiring internally for writers either at that time especially, and probably now still. So I didn’t realize what I was getting into. And, you know, Marvel really was an incredible battleground to cut one’s teeth on, you know, like that really toughened me out. I mean, because every second was really pre cited. They were really efficient. They really knew how to not only squeeze a dollar, quite frankly, but they’re geniuses at making money in licensing. So I learned about that and I learned about how to navigate corporate politics and characters and stuff like that. So I really.
Alex: [00:18:17] Like licensing, like just tell the audience so that that would be like, um, licensing out, you know, Spider-Man for a toy line or something like that. Is that what you mean by licensing?
Joshua Sky: [00:18:28] Yeah. So, so basically, and it was split into like different parts of divisions and stuff. But essentially what happens is you have, you know, you know, a company like Marvel or DC owns their library of characters or Disney. And there’s a, you know, there, there are all these companies that produce products, whether they be t shirts or action figures or book lines or all different sorts of lines of business. And they go, you know, I bet we could sell more units of t shirts if we had Mickey Mouse printed on it. I go, okay, well, I better, you know, but you can’t just bootleg Mickey Mouse shirts. That’s illegal. Right? So what they would do is they would call, you know, the licensing division at Disney or something, and they would or contact their licensing division and they would broker a deal and they would pay money for license to have permission with a certain window under certain parameters to use these characters. And Marvel had an amazing licensing division that was incredibly efficient. And, uh, you know, they had, uh, and what they did was, um, it’s part of its history is how it bailed itself out of bankruptcy. I mean, they, they literally were printing money, you know, by the time I’d gotten there with this licensing division. I mean, it was just incredible operation. Um, they were really savvy. One thing I should note that during my internship, I was cataloging characters. They had me go into this like vault of comics or their library comics, and I had to scan every barcode and help them index every comic, like ever. And that was really cool. That was also interesting to see what had been stolen from the library over the years, right? Like I was like, we’re all the number ones for like the Silver Age books, right?
Alex: [00:20:12] Oh, wow.
Joshua Sky: [00:20:12] You know, and I remember, I remember distinctly seeing, you know, they had these like, uh, I’m sure you’ve seen them before on like eBay and stuff, but they had these like hardcover volumes where like the spines have been cut, they’ve been glued in and.
Alex: [00:20:23] That’s from.
Joshua Sky: [00:20:24] There, right? Yeah. Kind of like makeshift omnibuses and stuff. And I remember when I was there, I remember seeing they didn’t own every book in its own library, which I found fascinating. And I remember I saw this guy come in, he was a designer and he had a, an original 1939 Marvel Comics, number one, that was CG. And they were cracking it open. Wow. And they were cracking it open because they were doing they were reprinting it, but they didn’t have that book on hand. So they wanted it back for their library, and they wanted to digitize it and clean it up. So I was like, how much was that? And he was like a lot. That’s all you need to know. And I said, okay. Right. So what I learned at being at these companies actually not just Marvel, but across the board and speaking to a lot of fans is that often some of these superfans are people like you and, you know, know more about these companies histories than they do. And sometimes they have to have a superfan come in and help them catalog and figure things out. Like I spoke to a guy, I think his name is Carson Metaxas, and he dealt with he dealt with Hasbro and he, he helped digitize their files and really organized everything for them because he just knew more than the people on hand. And sometimes fans have better archives of like the actual products than these companies as well. I learned, interestingly enough, you know, I ended up later working at I’ll reconnect this, but I ended up working at Disney later on.
Joshua Sky: [00:21:44] And I remember they had to have me come in and help them, you know, when they were like cataloguing things, they needed me to come in and answer questions like, what’s the battle of Yavin four? And I’m like, oh, that’s the Death Star battle, right? Like they bought star. It wasn’t that long after they bought Star Wars and Marvel. So they were asking me like all these questions, you know, like, why can’t we use Fantastic Four characters in some of these books? I’m like, well, didn’t you know, Marvel doesn’t really own the movie rights to them. So it’s like kind of a sensitive thing at the time. Now they do. Right? So, um, so anyway, I was at Marvel and I really wanted to write and it was just, you know, I, I interned under. I was on CB desk for a bit. He was a talent manager. They had just I, you know, I would read all the slush piles and try to help them find people. But like by then they were just not interested. They had just phased that out. Like when I was there, they literally decided, we’re not going to look for talent through the mail ever again. Right? Like that’s just not going to happen. And that was sad because like people like Jim Shooter, you know, and during those regimes really did look, you know, kind of kept that door open. So it didn’t matter that I want any writing accolades.
Joshua Sky: [00:22:55] It didn’t matter like how good you were. Like if you didn’t have those relationships or already like were best selling author. Like it was really, really hard. And I ended up writing some Avengers spec scripts and I ended up and this was around the time that the Avengers, sorry, I’m going too fast. I was there when the Disney acquisition happened. And that was fascinating. That was I remember opening up my email and I started just to make things clear. I really started from the bottom of licensing. Like I start in the sample room where we would get all these samples of different licensed goods. And then I move my way up to like coordinator and I worked in approvals. Right. And that was over the span of five years. So I witnessed a lot. And I was there from about Iron Man just before Iron Man one to about Guardians of the Galaxy was when I was there. So it was a very exciting time because Marvel became Marvel, you know, so I was so I was at The Daily Show. I was lucky to be at The Daily Show when it was this really hot show, like probably one of the hottest shows on TV to Marvel when they launched the studio and all its success. And I remember distinctly opening my email one morning when I was having my coffee and seeing Mickey Mouse on the email, and I knew instantly when I saw Mickey Mouse, we got bought because it was only like a week or two.
Joshua Sky: [00:24:11] I was telling someone, you know, a coworker, I’m like, isn’t it cool that we’re not owned by a major media conglomerate? I can’t believe it. Like we’re our own standing on our own. So rare. Right? So when I saw Mickey, I went, oh, damn, dude. Like they could hear me, like just kind of go, oh, you know, like, and and I love Disney as a company, but I just thought it was cool that we were, you know, solo. Right? So, so Disney had bought Marvel and they, they sent Ike pro. I mean, no, no, no. Um they sent Bob Iger to come speak to us. Right. And this was I was there, man. It was really a historical moment for this company. And I was nerdy. I wore like, like a suit. I don’t know why. Like, I just like wore suit the day, like Bob Iger came. And so I didn’t want my coworkers, like we dressed really nice and like Bob Iger came and he was so charming. I mean, I remember he was he was on he, you know, he’s on the main floor. And I saw Ike Perlmutter pacing around like this and like, really laughing nervously and kind of wringing his hands and stuff and, and laughing and being jubilant. And they always say, you know, like, I remember at the time, someone had told me like, you know, there’s a study and they say after like $70,000, you know, after the 70,000, $80,000 threshold. Your happiness is the same. It doesn’t go up after that.
Joshua Sky: [00:25:23] And I’m like, I don’t believe that because Ike Perlmutter looked really happy after making that sale, right? Like, I mean, this guy looked like he was going to, he was going to just explode with happiness and, and rightfully so. Right. So, so anyway, I’m like witnessing this. And, um, I remember like what Ike, you know, I looked around and he said, um, there’s someone looked around. Um, I looked around and goes, oh, I didn’t know so many people worked for me. And some smarmy executive went, you know, he was like, well, we could always change that, Ike. And then like everyone went, oh, right. Because everyone was so scared. And the guy was like, oh my gosh, how could I say that out loud? Right. And then Bob Iger came. When Bob Iger arrived, he kind of looked and everyone was so nervous, like, are we going to keep our jobs? Right? Because working in comics is so hard to break into, as you know. And it was 2008. So the recession was on. And and, you know, I was in my 20s and I was nervous. I can only, you know, early 20s. I can only imagine people with mortgages and kids and college funds and stuff. So. But Bob Iger kind of looked around and he kind of like, wiped his brow and just put us all at ease instantly and said, gosh, it’s so hot in here. The first thing we need to do is get you guys in office with air conditioning. Right.
Alex: [00:26:38] And that’s really nice.
Joshua Sky: [00:26:40] Yeah. And he basically, the whole speech was how he really believed in Marvel and thought it was incredible. And he, he opened up about how Jerry Iger was his relative and how he has providence. You know, he has family ties to comics as well. And Joe Quesada was there. And Joe Quesada was very like, you know, you know, like we’re all playing our roles, right? And so Joe Quesada was great. And Joe Quesada was like, by the way, Bob, like, we’ll be able to like, you know, the artist. It’s so important that we keep the artwork so we’re able to like sell and like, you know, survive. That’s important. Right? And Bob, Bob Iger just kind of smiled and didn’t fully answer his question. And like, you know, because everyone was feeling things out. Right. And, and artists did get to keep their artwork and be able to protect themselves.
Alex: [00:27:23] Well, that’s an interesting point because in the Disney like animations and all that, they didn’t, I don’t think they did that. So, uh, that’s, that’s.
Joshua Sky: [00:27:30] Kind of an unspoken, I think it’s an unspoken thing. I think it’s not policed. I think that it’s just so hard for artists to survive. And it’s so well known that for them to police that would just I don’t really know if there’s an official decree, but I think it’s to look the other way thing I could be wrong. I don’t even know if I’m, you know, just just to be frank, like, I don’t know if there’s an official rule, but I’ve never seen like Disney knocking on the, you know, an artist’s door like that because it’s so hard to survive as an artist, as a creative. So I feel like they do give them that silver lining, but look the other way because they know the reality, right? So, um, but what happened was I, I, sorry, Bob Iger did his whole speech and he basically said that like he didn’t want to change things. If it ain’t fixed, if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it. But they just want. I remember distinctly him kind of raising his fist and saying, we just want to shine a light brighter on that Marvel logo. That’s what we really want to do. So don’t change anything. Don’t go running. They didn’t want like talent to like jump ship when they were doing this also. And, um, that was about it. And honestly, we did get a new office and things did get a little better. We got silver passes to go to Disney and you know, it was cool. Like, you know, honestly, you know, it was, it was a, it was a tough environment. It was an environment that toughened me out. But it did open a lot of doors for me. And it was my first real break. And, uh, I’ll always be thankful for that, you know? So, um, but it definitely, and it toughened me out to be able to survive other environments, you know, for sure.
Alex: [00:29:03] Now what, what kind of stuff did you write there that ended up being published or, and also did that approach to the licensing influence the way you approach writing for licensed comic books?
Joshua Sky: [00:29:18] So that’s a great question and nobody’s really asked me that before. So. So here’s what happened. So having interned at a bunch of different film companies, scripts are kind of like the ugliest format on the planet. Like if you look at a script, it’s like, oh, like, what’s that? Right? So when I got to Marvel, they were like, you know, the, the, the, um, the people who edited, uh, the trades often would give away and also the editors, right? In general, they would get comps and usually they would give away their Marvel essentials, right? They’d just be like, ah, you know, it’s black and white. I have the color omnibus. I don’t need it. Right. But me coming from like all these, like, you know, places like focus, I’d be like, wait a minute, this has pictures in it. And these, these are beautiful. And you have like 20 issues of the run. And it was hard for me to get runs as a kid. Right? So like to get stacks of Marvel essentials. I would read them and I read them all from like volume one, and I really would study kind of the evolution of Marvel, which was really cool from a, from a comic book viewpoint. At the same time, what really got me into history was actually Shawn Howard. I was always into history. I always loved history as a kid, but what got me into the history of comics and where was I was at was Sean Howie’s book, Marvel The Untold Story had just come out, and I was friends with one of his friends who introduced us, and I ended up going to like, I ended up hanging out with Sean Howie once or twice, and he was a really nice guy.
Joshua Sky: [00:30:47] And I read his book and it totally contextualized where I was standing and I walked around, I realized so many people on so many levels didn’t read the history of where we’re at. And that like blew me away. And I was like, oh my gosh, this makes so much more sense. So working in licensing and had like reading all that material. Um, I just remember thinking like, I bet I could, you know, write an Avengers story that would like, really knock the socks out of any fan. And, um, I, so what I did was I ended up, uh, writing some specs for the Avengers, an animated series. And it was just when the Avengers movie came out and what happened was, and I had written stuff for Marvel before, I’ve written for marvel.com. I had written for like licensed goods. It was hard for them to even let me write a press release. Like that was like a big deal. And I remember asking one of the editors, hey, can I write some of the recaps for the issues? And I remember him just kind of like wincing. And I remember even asking like, hey, can I like pitch? But that just wasn’t they didn’t want that. They didn’t want to like open that door. And there is a fear that I have that because I didn’t start out because a lot of the editors and maybe this is in my head, but I wonder sometimes because I started out in corporate and not as a writer professionally. Do those editors still see me that way? And was it harder for me because I worked at Marvel to a degree than not? I think about that still sometimes.
Alex: [00:32:19] Like there’s some distinction in their mind, some wall.
Joshua Sky: [00:32:22] Like they saw me as a, as a corporate guy, like as a, as a licensing corporate guy, right. Who wanted to write you. Right. And now I am working professionally. But like, would that, does that open doors with those editors who I’ve known for a long time? Not necessarily honestly, not necessarily so. So what I’m saying is like, and we’ll get into this later, but the opportunities I got, I really had to fight for, I’ve always had to really fight, fight for, you know, and, and I did get lucky at times for sure, but also like to keep that luck going. You have to work your butt off, you know? Um, so when I was at Marvel, so the Avengers movie had come out, these Avengers specs were written and I remember sending them out to agencies. And I again, like I knew someone who knew someone and someone in an agency read the, um, someone at the agency read my, the Avengers spec scripts and I got signed. And the second I got signed, I said, okay, when are you moving to Los Angeles? I had a writing partner at that time, but that kind of fell apart because they just weren’t able to move to Los Angeles or do any of that. Right? So I was, I was kind of it sucked because I wanted to stay in the partnership, but it just wasn’t going to work. And it was a huge life sacrifice that I was going to have to make. Like they said, if you really want to pursue film and TV writing, you have to move to Los Angeles. I mean, I spoke to Jeph Loeb when he became the head of TV, and like, nobody really cared that I’d gotten this agent based on Avengers specs.
Joshua Sky: [00:33:57] Um, I tried to submit it to internally to, um, some of the team. It just wasn’t, you’re just, you know, you’re not Brian Kavon you’re not, you know, you’re not these big names yet. You’re not a name yet. And that’s what you’re competing against. And there’s a real and I can’t be mad about that. We have to actually look at it. The nice thing is I looked at I learned about business reality while I was there, which is something really important that creatives overlook. A lot of creatives, not all, but all creatives are really, you know, really thinking about business reality. And when I was there, the business reality was this best selling authors created sales. No name authors, quote unquote, don’t write. So if you, you have the choice between guaranteed sales or a great idea that no one’s going to read guaranteed sales was where they’re going to go. That’s just the reality. And, and I don’t like it just as much as anybody else, but that’s just how it was by the time I broke in or was there at least. So I realized I’m probably not going to be able to break into Marvel internally. I’ve given the company five years. I’ve learned a lot. Um, clearly I know how to write a Marvel story because I got an agent and I’ve written for I. To be fair, I did write some stuff for Marvel, like Marvel. What the. Which is a comedy web series they produced and a few other things. So are you going to say something?
Alex: [00:35:13] No, I’m just listening to. I think it’s great.
Joshua Sky: [00:35:16] And so what happened was, and I was always writing original stuff and my mom showed up. I ended up, uh, my mom ended up moving to New York for a bit, and I ended up spending some weekends upstate with her. I lived in Brooklyn. I would go upstate and like, pass the time. I would go to like the friends of the library or like the book, you know, which had like a used bookstore. And I remember distinctly finding this volume, uh, called like the, the, you know, the, uh, what was it called? It was called like the, uh, science Fiction Hall of Fame and it didn’t have its dust jacket. I mentioned this, I wrote a book recently and I mentioned this in the intro and I talk about the whole journey, which you guys should definitely check out. We’ll talk about that later. But so I found this book called Science Fiction Hall of Fame and it was like a retrospective of a lot of the best stories, from the Golden Age to the new wave of science fiction. And I bought it for like a dollar. It’s amazing how you can buy someone’s life work for nothing, right? Yeah. And, and I started reading these short stories and I’m like, oh my gosh, this is so incredible. And I love this art form. And I started learning more about the history of science fiction. And I started falling in love with short story writing because I said, oh my gosh, to write a comic short, you need like thousands of dollars sometimes just to like or, you know, and you certainly need thousands of dollars to do a graphic novel. And I mean.
Alex: [00:36:36] As far as like, you have to pay the artist to draw.
Joshua Sky: [00:36:38] You have to pay the artist, you have to, you have to pay the artist to make it work. Right? So I said, oh my gosh, I can write short story writing is like sketch writing on a universal level, and all you need is the reader and it’s really the state of the art, meaning like if it’s good, it stands on its own. And if it’s not, it doesn’t. Right? Of course, the reader’s proclivities influence that as well, you know, and whether or not they like your style, but that’s another subject. So but I really fell in love with this. And I started writing short stories, and those were the sorts of things I was writing. I was writing spec scripts, I was writing original pilots, and I was writing short stories, and I came out to Los Angeles. I dropped everything. When I got that agent, I came out to LA.
Alex: [00:37:19] And that’s in 2013.
Joshua Sky: [00:37:21] About 2013. Yeah, about 2013. And I came out here with nothing lined up. I was trying to get a job beforehand, but I realized it would just be easier if I was on the ground. So I moved in with my friends who lived in like Pico-robertson and I crashed on their couch and I was like, okay, I have six months to survive. I have to like figure out, you know, all these things. And my friend who’s Persian has a very, like stylish, business savvy Persian uncle. And I met with him. I met with him because he said, maybe he’ll hire you. I’m like, what does he do? He goes, he runs a telecom empire. I’m like, really? So I met with this Successful telecom tycoon. And I was in his office and he was like, Josh, tell me what you want to do. And I was like, I want to write TV and I want to write comics and film. And he goes, well, we don’t do that here. But I like your corporate experience and you look like a sharp guy. And he extended me a job offer. Like first he said how much I wanted to make, which was embarrassing. Low what I said, I said, I don’t even want to repeat it. It was so embarrassing because to me, that was a lot. I was a kid, right? And he laughed and he took out a calculator like a big calculator. And with his big finger, he started like punching out and showing me how much I needed to survive in LA. He’s like, you need a car, you need an apartment, you need a food. Right? And he said, I will pay you ten K more than you asked. And my head exploded and that was way more than I made at Marvel. Yeah, I like more than I like.
Alex: [00:38:45] I like how he sounds like Lorne Michaels in your story.
Joshua Sky: [00:38:47] Right, right, right. So he was I mean, he’s that guy is larger than life. His name is Oscar. He was great. So and he still runs his empire. So what happened was I worked there and I worked with the sales team and I and and, uh, the Wolf of Wall Street had just come out and the Wolf of Wall Street had this, uh, you know, uh, they had the whole sequence about cold calling and my job there was as a copywriter and I was writing the cold call sales, uh, scripts. So I remember watching this movie and thinking I should test out my scripts, and I bet I could get good at that. So I started testing my cold call scripts, and they had farmed out all their cold callers to like the Philippines, so they didn’t really speak English that well. And they weren’t like good at like building rapport. So I built out this like cold call script and I like, dude, I cracked the code. I cracked the code. They, um, Obama at the time had this program where like, they would pay for the telephone, they’d buy new telephone systems. They had some sort of program where they, they would upgrade non-profit telephone systems. Right. But we just cared about the subscriptions, right? So we were like, oh, we’ll like figure out the paperwork for them and donate the new systems to them. But we’ll sell them the service, which will be lower than their traditional one. Great. So what I would do was I would cold call all of the nonprofits, and it was better if they didn’t pick up.
Joshua Sky: [00:40:10] And I leave a voicemail and say like, hey, there’s a donation we’d love to make to your like nonprofit, please give me a call. Right. So then like, dude, by the time I’d come back for lunch, my phone would be exploding and all the sales guys would be like around my like desk, like sharks, like, totally like fascinated and stuff. But I feel like this is the sort of like, kind of like elbow grease that I learned at Marvel, right? Because Marvel was, was very resource conscious when I was there. So I became like, I totally like blew up there. But they really wanted to make me a sales guy. And this new guy came in and he and I didn’t really get along. Like I got along with the company owner and his son, but this new sales guy came in, he just wanted to make me a sales guy. And I was now taking care of my mom and family and stuff, and I just didn’t. I didn’t get along with them. So I felt I need to exit. So I interviewed at Disney and Disney needed people in publishing, and they specifically needed people who understood Marvel and Star Wars and stuff like that. So they hired me, and I was there for about two years, almost a year and a half, two years. And I made a lot of friends there. And compared to Marvel, it was a cakewalk. It was a cakewalk. People were like, there’s not enough sprinkles on my cupcake, you know, like sort of stuff. And I’m like, oh my gosh. Like, I’m like, I was lucky if I got a ballpoint pen at Marvel, right? Like, you know, we had to go outside of the streets and find cardboard boxes if we needed to box something up.
Joshua Sky: [00:41:32] I’m not exaggerating. Right. I’m sure you’ve heard some of these stories. They’re all, you know, a lot of them are true, but it makes you tough, right? So, so and but the thing that didn’t wasn’t great was coming from New York. There’s a blunt and directness that I realized was not working in California, that that did not jive. You had to kind of soften things. So I felt like, um, so I got along with people, but I felt I, I came off as very New York ironically, and I, I probably, I think that’s phased away because I’ve been here for a number of years now. But so from Disney, I was there for about two years. And again, I wanted to write and I bounced around. I ended up, um, at, I ended up at Fox. I ended up copywriting for gravillis writing like taglines for movie one sheets I worked on like the predator campaign and Deadpool two. And, uh, we, we pitched, but we didn’t get it for Infinity War and stuff like that. And that was really fun. And then, um, I ended up getting a, I ended up getting my first freelance TV writing assignments in animation. So, uh. Ben ten. Steve Segal a man of action. I’ve known those guys for a while, uh, extended like some freelance to me and I, so I wrote and I was in the room with them and that was really great.
Alex: [00:42:49] And then there’s then when you freelance for something like that, that’s not you’re not in the the the writers union or anything like that.
Joshua Sky: [00:42:56] No, you’re not, you’re not you’re not in the WGA. And remember, a lot of things have been like circumnavigated over over time, you know, because these companies are very savvy and also people are trying to save money and make as much money as they can. So animation had really changed as well. Like before, if you look at like an 80s or 90s animated program, like He-Man, it’s like 65 episodes, right? Or, or, you know, uh, you know, tailspin or, uh, you know, um, DuckTales, like huge episode orders. I mean, that would create an amazing ecosystem out here because you’d have a lot of shows that needed and you’d have live action and 22 episodes, right? So what happened was this created an amazing ecosystem in Hollywood where everyone could get work, right? Writers. What happens is a story editor would be, you know, a story editor in my mind is another word for like showrunner and animation. Right. So the story editor would get the, the show or create the show and go, gosh, 65 episodes. That’s a lot. I’m gonna have to farm this out. I’m getting my fees anyway from the episodes I do. Right? But really from story editing, right? Per week. So they would farm out that writing to other writers and those writers would turn stuff in and they would make money. Uh, story editor would make money. The, the caterer, you know, everybody involved in the production would make money. It was great. Right? But what happened was it changed where they said, oh, we don’t necessarily need writers rooms.
Joshua Sky: [00:44:24] If we have what are called board driven shows, which by the time I broke into Ben ten, it was like, okay, you’re going to write an outline, right? And the based on your outline is kind of almost like a Marvel method, like the, the board artists will break it down and then like, we’ll use your outline to script out the show versus like the traditional, you write a 22 page script, right? So, so a lot of shows have become board driven shows. By the time I’d gotten in, like Ben, ten was one of those. Um, but I wrote a few episodes and it didn’t, it didn’t really have a traditional writer’s room. You’d come in for like a day and you would break story, right? And so I wrote two episodes. I wrote the Monsters in Your head and big in Japan, and they’re really fun episodes. I really, I love working with those guys. And, um, I ended up on a show called Niko and the Sword of Light and Niko and the Sword of Light was just amazing. I mean, Rob Hodge was a story editor. It had like 12 episodes, which was a lot at that time and, uh, per season, maybe 15, but I think about 12. And what happened was the talent on it was top notch. Tom Kenny, who was SpongeBob and like, and you had, um, Andre Romano, who’s probably the greatest, uh, modern voiceover director.
Joshua Sky: [00:45:42] She directed like Batman animated and JLA and The Jetsons and on and on and on. Right. You, uh, The writers on the show were all the Top Gun Boys action adventure writers. They wrote for all those DC shows. You had Ernie Baker and Matt Wayne, you know, Patrick Rieger, who was like really starting to like climb up there and stuff like. So it was just so such a privilege to work with all these folks, but connected to what I was saying about episode orders. We weren’t reading the writing on the wall. Something had been introduced. So you had Twitter, but then you had like things like clips being introduced at that time into the social media ecosystem. These like 10 to 15, five, 5 to 15 second, 32nd clips that people started getting weaned on. Well, what happened because people were getting weaned on it? Well, people’s watch patterns were changing. They weren’t watching as long they weren’t watching as many episodes. So what happened? All the streamers got this data and they said, wait, people aren’t watching the same amount of episodes they used to do we need to order 22 episodes. Do we need to order 65? No we don’t. We don’t know if their interest is going to be there for this world for that long. So why don’t we cut the episode orders to like 6 or 10 or eight? So just as I was really burgeoning into like TV writing, those episode orders were cut.
Alex: [00:47:11] Yeah. So it’s like the demand was reduced.
Joshua Sky: [00:47:16] Reduced to the point of nuking the rainforest, my man. Like, what happened was when that happened, remember, everyone suffers. The writers, the directors, the caterers, the PA, like the whole ecosystem. And we’re seeing the effects of it through today, right? So so now what happened was, I was told for Niko and the Sword of Light, which was this, it was kind of like a Zelda meets dark Crystal sort of fantasy series, beautifully animated. They said that there’s no way we’re not going to get a season two because we won an Emmy. Well, Amazon didn’t care. Amazon wanted out of the kids business, so they canceled and they shuttered the entire division, including that show. So what when you when you are in a writer’s room, and I was I was a script coordinator and involved with the writers room there. What you learn is, oh my gosh, like after every show, every writer, every person on a production never knows if they’re going to work again. And you’re basically, you have to campaign to get to the next thing. And you can easily become what I call a creative panhandler, where all you’re doing is campaigning for work. And it’s a terrible way to live. Right, in my opinion. So, and some people only know that lifestyle, right? And I, I think it’s really unhealthy and can be very destructive. And I’ve met people who for years are campaigning and they don’t get anything right. So and there are people who are able to string it along, but they’re always really nervous.
Joshua Sky: [00:48:41] So I didn’t know what I wanted to do at that point. And I was like, oh my gosh, what’s going to happen now? And I started freelancing and I was writing a lot of advertising copy, and I was still writing my short stories and I was getting work and that was great. But then Netflix called me and they said, hey, you know, you temped here a while back. I’m like, I did. They’re like, yeah. And I remembered, I’m like, oh yeah. When I first like was in between work. When I came out here, I did some assistant work at Netflix. I covered like nine desks during a holiday season, but no one was there. So they basically paid me. I have a photo album on one of my old phones called Like Home Alone at Netflix, where I’m literally just getting paid to eat snacks and watch Robotech in their Beverly Hills building. It was awesome. And I forgot, I forgot that happened. Nobody was in the building, so they said, well, you got great reviews. I don’t know why. Right? And they said, um, can you come in? I’m like to do what they’re like admin. And I just was like, no thanks. Click. I’m a writer now. Right? So. So that’s it. I’m full time writing. I’m famous. I’m going to be a famous full time writer. Right? So that’s how I talk. Uh, so then what happened was.
Alex: [00:49:51] But it’s interesting that people keep wanting to do these kind of corporate type things.
Joshua Sky: [00:49:56] Yeah, I think it’s a theme in my career.
Alex: [00:49:58] I mean, that’s the theme I’m getting. I don’t know about now, but yeah, at least at that point in your story, it’s you keep like corporate. So it’s interesting and you have both perspectives. So that’s awesome.
Joshua Sky: [00:50:09] Yeah, yeah. So what happened was a temp agent called me and talked me into it. She said, Josh, Netflix is doing something really big. They’re opening all these buildings in Hollywood and listen, just go in for a day. And I said, I really don’t want to. I want to write full time. You know, this is my I really need to focus on this. And then they said the day rate and the day rate was way more than I had been paid for any gig for a day’s work. And I have family I’m taking care of. So I said, all right, I’ll go in for a day. And I’ve been there for over eight years now, right. And I Alex, when I got there, I thought I was a loser. Dude, I thought I was a loser, right? I got into Netflix and I thought I was a loser because I, I mean, Netflix is an amazing, amazing company and brand easily in terms of how it treats its people the best. You know, it’s an incredible company and they’re incredibly smart. And I have only good things. I have only good things to say about all these companies. But you know, Netflix really treats people, its people well. But I thought I was a loser, Alex, because all my friends are on Instagram, they’re on social being like, I’m on this show, I’m on this show.
Joshua Sky: [00:51:28] And I’m like, oh my gosh, I’m. But then so I took the job and I thought writing was dead. I thought it was over. I said, you know, I’ve got family now. I’ve got I’m engaged and I’m a wife. Right. Like so I was engaged then. We’ve been married for years now. But that, you know, my my my wife and I said, that’s it. I’m going to build a family and that’s it. But I kept writing. I just couldn’t like, stop writing. And I was writing these short stories and these short stories were getting published. And what happened was, um, heavy. I was doing interviews also like you write, but for magazines for like. And, uh, and I was writing my own, um, science fiction interviews and stuff like that with showrunners and such. And what happened was I, um, I started writing for heavy metal illustrated and they started publishing some of my short stories on their website. And someone at Mattel read a short story I wrote called basic. And this story seems to really resonate with people. And it’s before AI really took off or anything like that before, I haven’t heard of anything like ChatGPT.
Alex: [00:52:35] And what year was that when that happened.
Joshua Sky: [00:52:38] This was about five years ago. This is five years, six years ago. But about five years ago it really took off. But I wrote well, I wrote that story even further, but it took a few years for it to really get read by people. But it was about this. It’s about this dad who was raising his daughter in a world where AI and like neural technology had taken over and his wife died in the beta testing. So he refuses to, you know, to, to upgrade so he can interface with the machines and he becomes unemployed. And the whole story is about him just trying to find a job in this, like sort of AI age. And he can’t, and he has to make a choice between his, his ethics, you know, his beliefs or his principles or his family. And like, what’s more important, but the, the part about being unemployed is brutally honest and is actually based on a period of unemployment I had where like I almost went under while I was taking care of my mom, right? Because I really just wanted to write. And that was a brutal, bad economic decision, right? So what ended up happening was this story just seemed to resonate with people, because I think so many people in Hollywood and entertainment have stints of unemployment. And it was a very, like, realistic portrayal of what that experience is like. And it got me all these meanings. And I got a call from someone I know at Mattel and they said, would you be interested in writing for He-Man? And I was trying to write for Mattel for years and years, to the point where I was like, it’s just not going to happen.
Joshua Sky: [00:54:04] But I, you know, I like my friends at Mattel and it’s just not going to happen. Right? They said, would you like to write for He-Man? I didn’t even believe them. Alex. When they asked, I said, sure. Me and every like fat nerd under the sun would love to write for He-Man. They said great. A few weeks later they say, um, we’re going to do this meeting, so just log on. And it was during it was during Covid. So I log on to the meeting and I, I speak to, you know, essentially what’s the story Editor for He-Man at the for the comics. The senior copywriter, uh, really great guy. And, uh, they go, great. We need these 12 issues written by this, uh, you know, these 12 issues written over the course of the year and the first one’s due on this date that sounded oddly familiar and they logged off. And I have to tell you, it felt like someone had handed me keys to a Lamborghini when they logged off. It was so weird. And and they said, just don’t scratch her. So I said, okay, so the reason the date sounded so familiar was it was because it was the week I was getting married, but I didn’t want to blow the gig. So there are pictures of me, like during wedding rehearsal, working on my first story, like rise of the Snakeman for wave 11 for these motu action figures. And interestingly enough, I was collecting these He-Man action figures for origins before I ever knew I was going to work on the line.
Joshua Sky: [00:55:32] My father had died, and I remember walking into a toy store and I was just totally looking to escape. Right. And I saw all these, like, action figures that looked like they’re straight from the 80s, these motu action figures. So I was like, oh my gosh. So I started buying them. And so I was collecting the line. So it was just a very weird experience to be collecting something. And then all of a sudden working on the line actively. And I learned a lot while I’ve been there. I’ve written about 50 issues so far, and I was always writing short stories, but that working on He-Man and heavy metal certainly opened a lot of doors to other publications, and it’s kind of snowballed from there. And I’ve been doing conventions. I’ve been I’ve gotten flown to really cool places. I’ve gotten to writing for Forbidden Futures. Uh, there’s a couple other comic book lines that aren’t officially announced that I’m working on. Um, and, uh, my own original stuff. Uh, so it’s been really kind of amazing. And what I wanted to mention that was connected that was really scary was when the writers strike happened. I realized how dire things really were, and how I was actually really lucky to have a day job because a lot of people had to leave town. And a lot of people, though, they were showing that they were successful online. The economics just wasn’t really mapping out, and it was just a show. And I was really devastated to see so many writers wiped out during that time. Yeah.
Alex: [00:56:59] And the day job you’re, you’re talking about is the, is, is the Netflix.
Joshua Sky: [00:57:03] Yeah.
Alex: [00:57:04] Yeah. Yeah. And you’re still there.
Joshua Sky: [00:57:05] Yeah.
Alex: [00:57:06] Still there. Yeah. Cool, cool.
Joshua Sky: [00:57:08] Yeah. So I, so I realized, oh my gosh, I thought I felt like a loser when I started out, but I was actually smarter than I thought. And, but it also made me sad because again, hindsight is 2020. Like I was saying, when I broke into Marvel, I thought Marvel was like how I had read about it, but people were reading about Hollywood thinking it was like, like it was before or waiting for the day where it will be like that again. But it’s just a new reality on the ground. It’s a new world order. Things are changing and I feel like that’s been a theme also, I guess for me is just kind of realizing where are the state of things now and realizing that maybe I was supposed to learn the business side for a reason or accepting that more.
Alex: [00:57:50] Maybe there’s hybrid corporate creator is the best way to survive in that in this, in the industry the way it is, or it sounds like a superpower.
Joshua Sky: [00:58:00] Yeah. Or hopefully or hopefully thrive. Uh, but yeah, I would say like Joe Simon, they often say that Joe Simon was like lauded for not only being creative, but like knowing about the business. I don’t know enough about him, but I would hope that, like, I would like to model myself off of someone who could. Uh, Gardner Fox was a lawyer by day and writer by night. I felt like that was a smart route. I mean, look how prolific and influential he was, right?
Alex: [00:58:27] Oh, yeah. We just did. A panel. We just did a panel about him at Comic-Con.
Joshua Sky: [00:58:30] Oh, I gotta watch that. Was that.
Alex: [00:58:33] Yeah, it was on Sunday.
Joshua Sky: [00:58:34] I would love to watch that. I would love to watch that. I, I need to read. There’s a book on him I want to read as well, but I really admire his career path and relate to his career path to a degree. Um, so, so yeah, so that’s kind of the gist. Sorry, do you have any questions or.
Alex: [00:58:49] And then when everyone’s asleep, you can go to the computer and start writing your stuff.
Joshua Sky: [00:58:53] Yeah. Or on the weekends and stuff, but I, but again, I was really lucky to have that muscle to be able to do both because I worked in corporate for so long. Right. So people are like, how do you do it? And I’m like, how do I do it? I just kind of feel like, uh, I guess I feel like a pulp writer. I feel like a 21st century pulp writer without the alcoholism, right?
Alex: [00:59:13] Like without the smoking and alcoholism.
Joshua Sky: [00:59:16] Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, um, but the writing has really taken off, which is nice. And for Mattel, I’ve gotten to create characters and I’ve gotten a, you know, write some, you know, for some really cool action figure lines.
Alex: [00:59:31] So now on the He-Man stuff. So then, yeah. So, so what was your, do you remember what your first exposure to He-Man ever was?
Joshua Sky: [00:59:40] Yes. Uh, my first exposure was twofold. I, I was looking at a viewfinder. It was like the, uh, well, actually threefold. It was like a viewfinder. And I remember there was a He-Man commercial as like a really young age, like just when the show was probably being phased out from like being aired. Right. So I remember it was a viewfinder. I remember seeing commercials for it and watching it on TV. And I remember distinctly the most distinct memory was we had a neighbor had a mosquito figure, right. And the blood pumping action. And I remember being like, whoa, that is really cool.
Alex: [01:00:20] What? What year was this, you think?
Joshua Sky: [01:00:24] 1989. 1988.
Alex: [01:00:26] Cool. Yeah. So you hit He-Man? Like when I did, like around 3 or 4 years old then.
Joshua Sky: [01:00:34] Yeah, yeah. And I remember him having this action figure and asking him like, can I borrow it? He’s like, I don’t know, man. I’m like, please. He said, okay. So then I borrowed it and then he came back over and he’s like, can I have my mosquito back? And I’m like, can I borrow it for longer? He goes, you can just keep it. I’m like, are you sure? He goes, yeah, I don’t care. And I kind of felt bad about it, but now I just chalk it up to destiny. So to this day, like mosquito is one of my favorite characters because of that.
Alex: [01:01:00] So you basically got into it after he mania had basically popped and it had settled. And there was that New Adventures of He-Man on TV, which wasn’t that good.
Joshua Sky: [01:01:10] Um, which I never got to see on TV and I don’t, I wish it was better because I love the toy designs of New Adventures of He-Man and I love the design work and I love that world, but I. I wish the stories were better. I’ve spoken to Tim. I haven’t spoken to Tim Seeley about it. I’ve thought about talking to Tim Seeley about it. He works on the Dark Horse line, and I was like, man, it’d be kind of cool to do a one shot for new adventures. But I’m like, would anyone buy that one shot? I have no idea. Yeah, right.
Alex: [01:01:37] It’s not very celebrated. I mean, he also was kind of skinny. I remember when I first saw it because I, I encountered all this stuff in real time. And when I, when I saw it, I was like, mm. It, it didn’t quite fit. Hit my teenage, you know, I loved X-Men at the time. It just didn’t quite hit that scratch that itch.
Joshua Sky: [01:01:55] I wrote an adventure, uh, called, um, it was a part of a six parter for the mini comics and it said future tense. There’s a horde invasion, uh, uh, arc that I wrote that’s six mini comics. Someone actually adapted it. I could send it to you. They, they did into animatics and with voiceover. And it’s great, but there’s, there’s an issue called future Tense. And basically sorceress is telling He-Man, like you need to get a Star Armada to defeat Hordak, right? Because Hordak has just this insanely powerful, uh, Star Fleet, you know, orbiting Etheria and, and He-man’s like, where am I going to get a Star Armada? And basically it cuts to Planet Primus and it shows like He-Man, you know, arrives with, uh, the name’s escaping me, but with the device that lets him like, it’s from the movie where he can basically travel through different dimensions and stuff. So he travels to, to the new adventures world and he encounters new adventures. He-man. And he needs to recruit their, their, their fleet. Right?
Alex: [01:02:56] Oh, cool. So, so that’s a different dimension. It’s like a parallel universe.
Joshua Sky: [01:03:02] Well, in that, I think it was, if I recall a timeline, I think it’s like a future timeline future.
Alex: [01:03:08] Okay. Yeah, that’s what I thought. Okay.
Joshua Sky: [01:03:10] Yeah, yeah. So, so so, but you, you can, you can travel, you can basically.
Alex: [01:03:14] Travel through.
Joshua Sky: [01:03:15] Time, you know? Yeah. You can travel through time or at least in the adventure. He’s able to do it right. So he travels there, he travels to the future, and he recruits new adventures of He-Man and that star Armada. Right. But there’s this one of my favorite moments is where, like New Adventures of He-Man is, is kind of bummed. And he’s like, what’s wrong? He goes, you know, I thought I was the strongest man in the universe. And he just kind of had this shot where like he-man’s looking at the reader like, yeah, right. You know, it’s a great moment. I’m not doing justice, but you should definitely check it out.
Alex: [01:03:46] It’s really fun. I would like that.
Joshua Sky: [01:03:49] But I mean, it is pretty ridiculous. He’s rocking a ponytail for a new adventure.
Alex: [01:03:55] They were like 90s, you know, movie producers doing that, right? Peter. Yeah, was like doing that stuff. And, uh, even Jim Shooter, when he was at valiant for a while, he had that.
Joshua Sky: [01:04:05] Oh, I didn’t know he was rocking a ponytail.
Alex: [01:04:07] Yeah, he did the ponytail. Yeah.
Joshua Sky: [01:04:09] Oh, so this is like in between new adventures and the end of He-Man, which is, uh, this is the classic version of the. There’s an origins version now, of course, but, uh, and I wrote the mini comic for that one, but like, this is, you know, you know, laser power He-Man. But the thing is, this was just, I wish we had more adventures in general with He-Man rocking this, right? Or kind of in that pre-new adventures and, you know, end of the line He-Man, um, toyline in the 85. There’s a lot of interesting stuff that’s just bubbling up the powers of Grayskull. So they’re doing Powers of Grayskull now, and I’ve gotten to write some adventures, uh, which Riley Brown illustrated. That’s been really fun, but I don’t know, I just love doing it. I wish we could make a million more of everything, but, uh. But I have to tell you, working on He-Man has been really awesome and super fun and, uh, um, an education for sure.
Alex: [01:05:04] So when you started writing, uh, for He-Man, um, how much research did you do into like the original creators, the early development of He-Man? You know, Roger Sweet’s concept work, Mark Taylor’s designs. Donald Glut’s backstory material. Um, Halpern’s, you know, uh, kind of create, uh, creation, uh, that led to the TV show, some of that DC crossover stuff, you know, from, uh, tell me about all that. Like, did you kind of go back to that stuff?
Joshua Sky: [01:05:32] Yeah. So. The at my wedding. Right? At my wedding, um, in, in Mexico. So I got married in Mexico and the, and, um, ironically, like, so we had a rabbi that we flew in from California to officiate the wedding. And the rabbi is like looking at what I’m doing and he’s like, what are you, what are you, what are you working on? You know, you’re getting married here, right? And I’m like, I’m working on this He-Man adventure. I got this thing. I don’t want to blow it. Like, this is an opportunity of a lifetime. And he, you know, and so he goes, He-Man. He goes, actually, no, the original Bible writer. I’ll put you in touch. I was like, okay.
Alex: [01:06:16] That’s so random. That’s crazy.
Joshua Sky: [01:06:18] So random. But he knew Michael Halpern and I got to hang out with Michael Halpern, and he lives will live pretty close to me. And we’ve, we’ve had phone calls. Uh, we, we’ve had coffee meetings. And he told me his whole take on He-Man. And it was fascinating. I also know Ron Friedman who, who they’re friends. Unfortunately, both these amazing creators passed away. So Michael Halpern, as we know, wrote the original Bible for He-Man and the 2000 X and ten of the original minis and developed many, you know, and helped story edit the original series. I mean, he was really, um, an amazing talent. And, uh, he’s very opinionated, right? And, uh, very wildly creative. So I got to hang out with him. I’ve got to meet Don glut and, uh, a number of these creators. I’ve gotten to meet a lot of the original surviving creators, which was really cool. Uh, um, I never got to meet Alcala. That would have been really cool. I his name escapes me. I can’t believe his name is escaping me, but the guy who did the original box art for Grayskull. Oh, Rio Bravo. I got to meet him and talk to him. So I try to read all the interviews that I can. Larry Houston I’ve gotten to hang out and talk with, and we’ve done lunch, so I tried. The nice thing about living in California is that, especially in LA, is a lot of these folks who worked on the pyramids are still here, right? So.
Joshua Sky: [01:07:36] So I’ve gotten to hang out with them and befriend them. And that’s been really a privilege. And to learn what their take is on He-Man. And I’ve read extensively, but remember He-Man laws a lot. I mean, there’s quite a few episodes across all these series. Uh, there’s the mini comics, there’s the dark horse line, there’s comics, there’s the DC comics line, there’s the newspaper strips, there’s a lot of stuff. There’s the classics, back cards. So what I try to do is whenever I get an assignment, I try to just do all the homework I can on a given character. And, uh, I try to distill what I think is the truest version for the mini comics. Based on that, the mini comics have also changed drastically or changed not drastically, but to a to a pretty nice degree since they were originally, you know, created, you know, a lot of the creative process is the same. But of course we have access to these new technologies. But, you know, like email, but, but the thing is, um, they had more pages back then. They had more pages. So I only get about six pages, eight if I’m lucky, but generally six. And I think we mentioned this before, you know, a lot of people were like, oh my gosh, like six pages.
Joshua Sky: [01:08:51] That’s nothing. But I really again, because it was hard for me to break in and because I really had to work hard to get any opportunities, I really treat every single opportunity like the opportunity of a lifetime. And I, you know, and I love short stories and because I wrote and read a lot of short stories and I collect them. It was really a danger room to sharpen those sorts of sensibilities. And as we know, a lot of the original comic book characters that we love started in comic book shorts. You know, Batman was, you know, started in detective 27 as a six page short. And Spider-Man started as a short. Superman was a short. So all these characters started in shorts. So I felt that six pages was enough to really prove something and to tell a good story. So, uh, so yeah, that really kind of prepped me for that. And that’s been my attitude through today on it. It’s amazing. Even even, and even if it’s not He-Man, even if it’s my own original thing, I really try to treat it that way. And with that attitude, I think attitude is really important. So, um, but yeah, I’ve written a collection of short stories. I’m still writing short stories. And, uh, I also, uh, wrote, um, do original comic shorts and I try to really just try to make them as great as possible.
Alex: [01:10:12] So now, um, you know, the, the original He-Man concept, you know, had some Flash Gordon, some Conan the Barbarian in it kind of space fantasy with kind of like this magic, uh, and kind of this ancient stuff with new stuff, you know, you, because it’s such a weird, which I love about it, but this weird hodgepodge of like different things that creates Eternia. Um, how, how do you stay in such an eclectic mindset when you write that stuff?
Joshua Sky: [01:10:48] Well, okay, here’s my take on on MOTU. To me, MOTU is the ultimate collision of fantasy and science fiction, right? So Star Wars is the reverse. Star Wars is the ultimate space fantasy, right? But MOTU is the ultimate fantasy first science fiction, second, right. So it’s sword and sorcery with, like, laser pistols. It’s so cool, right? It’s visually it’s visually explosive, visually explosive, unbelievably just incredible in terms of the pantheon of artists who’ve worked on it. And it has an incredible message, which is about which is ultimately about empowerment. You know, like, I have the power. We have the power who has the power, right? So, so, um, that being said, I like fantasy and science fiction quite a bit. And I think that is something you need to work out when you’re writing it is or creating, you know, working on it is that finding the right mix, finding the right blend of both those things. But again, luckily, there’s such an incredible library of art and writing that exists in this that you can really build on it. What is strange is there have been times where I’m working on MOTU And I realize I’m at the edge of the universe where like, there’s a character or some sort of thing I’m writing about where I’m like, I am literally this is, you know, if the, if the universe is a table, I’ve reached the end of the table and I need to build on the table somehow. Right? Yeah. So what I try to do is I try to build on it logically.
Joshua Sky: [01:12:24] That honors the creators of the past, but gives something new for readers to enjoy. That makes sense and is true to Mo, too. You know, nothing is worse as like when you watch something and you’re like, oh my gosh, someone. Why is this person working on. They don’t love this at all. Right? Like they don’t get it. They don’t care about it. You know, I really do care about it. I really want it to be great, you know? But like what I learned in film and TV, like in comics, that it really matters who you’re working with, especially when it comes to that artist. Right? So luckily, like me and Riley Brown have really good rapport and he’s a really, he really cares about Mo too. And, you know, I feel like I really enjoy the adventures we’ve worked on together and I’ve worked on. I’ve enjoyed all the adventures I’ve worked on and all the artists. But. But those I really have enjoyed. And I have to say that, um, everyone I’ve encountered who works on who really cares about it, you know, that there is a generational difference. And I wonder if there’s more mysticism was engendered from the original era of MOTU because of the generational difference. For example, you know, Don Glut and Alcala and, uh, Mark Taylor and Halprin, like those those folks grew up on loving Flash Gordon and Robin Hood and, you know, Errol Flynn sort of sort of stuff.
Joshua Sky: [01:13:46] Right. And Tarzan, they didn’t grow up actually liking the thing they were working on. Right. So to them, they were pulling things out and they, they, a lot of things were kind of left unfinished. And that unfinished aspects of MOTU are. Some of the most have hold the most mystique and interest for fans, ironically, right? Yeah. And Axel Jimenez, who’s the box artist, who’s kind of the Frazetta in my mind of like currently of box art for motu, like his stuff’s incredible. And he we’ve talked about this. Uh, and he’s developed like 60 original characters from motu and a lot of powers of Grayskull. Like he’s really been influential on. Um, so for me and folks like Tim Seeley, right. Like we grew up loving this stuff. We can’t believe we’re working on it. But like, Larry Houston was like, by day, I was working on G.I. Joe as a board artist and director. By night, I was doing these mini comics, right? It was a gig to him. They didn’t know if it was going to be a flash in the pan, because they also worked in what I call the embryonic years, right? Which were like the 70s, 80s, and 90s where you could come with an original idea and Hollywood would be like, maybe we can build this together where now it’s like, do you have an IP that I can immediately exploit that already has a huge fan base, very different mindsets. Mhm. So, so, um, uh, does that answer your question?
Alex: [01:15:11] You hit the edge of the universe and you add to it. Is there ever any feedback like, well, we can’t do that.
Joshua Sky: [01:15:19] Um. There’s editorial feedback and editorial is, uh, I really appreciate when I do get editorial notes and, uh, the really smart, you know, uh, Melissa Carlin is a copywriter and she also is a writer in her own right. And she’s an editor and I think she’s an excellent editor and she’s excellent in all three. Uh, she gives me notes sometimes. And, uh, the really story notes sometimes, you know, uh, rarely have been told, like you can’t do this. Um, because my goal in MOTU, it’s because I also think I auto correct in my own mind, like I’m not my goal in motu isn’t like haha, I’m going to make motu the motu universe. You know? Like my goal is to build something that people hopefully care about, build on something that people care about, but build new things in it that they also care about. Um, and I’ve reached that goal sometimes, you know, like, uh, Rio Blast, I wrote an adventure for Rio Blast that fans seem to really glom on to called, uh, star Marshal. And I had read, for example, uh, in one of his UK adventures. There’s like, like, I think 100 UK motu adventures that comics that were written or something like that and maybe 80 to 100. And I read in his adventure that like, he came from a planet called star band and like half the planet was destroyed.
Joshua Sky: [01:16:38] And, and I thought, oh man, wouldn’t it be cool if on the remaining half there were star marshals like him? And like, what would it be like to be a star marshal on the on, on the band. And, and, uh, you know, I wanted to build out that star marshal part of motu, and I created a character called like Chromo and Mad Man. Like he was like a prime marshal guy. And, you know, just, uh, and I created these characters, uh, and like a kind of a wolf, a wolf character, a dog wolf character called, uh, I forgot his name escapes me now, but I created this kind of crew, and, man, people were making costumes out of these. They loved it. Right? So, so one of my favorite marks for like, okay, people are liking this stuff is when they start making customs of it, right? Like I did a, a snake man, uh, in an adventure and, um, people made customs of him and his mount. So that was really cool. So, so I guess, um, so I, you know, people at Mattel are really great and they really care. And, um, I think I’ve been pretty lucky in the sense where I’m not, but I don’t try to really go out of my way to tear up the motu, you know? Yeah. You’re building.
Alex: [01:17:47] What came.
Joshua Sky: [01:17:47] Yeah. Tim Seeley said, we’re here to make toys, not break toys. And I agree with that. Yeah.
Alex: [01:17:51] Yeah. Right.
Joshua Sky: [01:17:52] Um, yeah.
Alex: [01:17:53] So, uh, you know, those early mini comics, it was kind of different where it was. It seemed like post-apocalyptic, uh, barbarian story. Uh, Grayskull was, you know, almost like this ominous place, you know, man at arms. Like, where does that even come from? You know? Later they add that Prince Valiant type of, you know, world to it. They, they incorporate it into it to kind of civilize it, uh, a bit. And that’s, you know, leads into the, some of the DC stories and then the, the Filmation cartoon. Do you, I think they’ve retconned that to where those early stories are like King Grayskull or something like that. But, but is would you consider it is those early stories, does that maintain any of that post-apocalyptic, almost like Beastmaster movie type flair? Does that does that stay. Uh, you know, when that Arthurian stuff gets incorporated.
Joshua Sky: [01:18:51] I think a lot of it is, is artist dependent, to be honest, because remember so much fidelity. And like the look of of those comics was Alcala, right? Yeah, it was really Alcala. And I would say that for, for the adventures I’ve been writing, I definitely, you know, one challenge has been this. There’s so much lore that when, when I’m like going to write about a character, I’m like, okay, which version of this world is the truest. Is it the original mini comics? Is it as the mini comics developed? Is it the ones that came from Dark Horse? Is it the newspaper strips? Is it the UK comics? What about the German comics? Wait a minute there. German radio plays, right? Oh wait, there’s the He-Man 87 movie. There’s the Filmation series, the 2000 X series, The New Adventures of He-Man. There’s Revolution, revelation. They’re the comics that come. So it’s like, whoa, there’s all this lore, right? There’s all these looks and there’s all these takes. But what I’m most interested is like the mini comics take, right? But even the mini comics have evolved where, you know, we don’t really do storybook styled ones as much as we used to. So even that evolution, and not that we can’t go back to that or will or won’t. Right. So what I’m trying to do is for that story itself and that character and that moment, I’m really just trying to make it truest to the mini comics and the feel of it, but a lot of it is artist dependent, too.
Joshua Sky: [01:20:18] It’s jazz. You can write a great script, right? And that says all these things you want in it in terms of the style, but it’s really going to be up to that artist to really bring it to the touchdown line. Right? In terms of it, and you know, what I’ve learned is no matter how great a script is, if that artist doesn’t deliver, doesn’t matter how good the script is, no one cares, you know? And so it’s really a marriage of those two things. Um, but I just, I wanted to feel my goal with all the minis is just to tell a great story that people care about and emotionally move them because if emotionally move them, they care. And if they care, they want to hold on to it and it matters, right? So I often think in terms of the mini comics, a He-Man toy without a mini comic is like a Hershey’s bar without chocolate milk chocolate in it, right? It just doesn’t taste right. The other thing, right. The other thing I want to say is that the for the minis, I want it so that anyone who finds it in a pile reads it.
Joshua Sky: [01:21:20] And I like took them there, especially a kid. Right. And I want the adventures to matter. And I’m interested in helping them expand the worlds in their minds in a way where things are left out in such a way that they want to fill in the gaps on their own and create their own adventures. So just just this thought is that what I’m really trying to say is I’m fascinated. There are multiple levels of story going on with every motu toy, right? So you’ve got, you’ve got the you’ve got the packaging art, which will hopefully transport you on an adventure right in your own mind. And it’s pulp like really continuation of the pulp tradition in many ways. You’ve got the copy, right? You’ve got copy written on this, uh, you know, evil Technomancer sorcerer. Sometimes there’s more copy with story, and then you’ve got the mini comic in it, which is an adventure, and then you’ve got the toys and the adventures that the collectors build themselves with their kids, or maybe the kids on their own. I often wonder how many lost sagas are there for MOTU fans that we never saw, because they made it up on the playground and they forgot about it, you know? Anyway, so that’s my wax poetic on that.
Alex: [01:22:33] So do you get free toys? Uh, with doing this?
Joshua Sky: [01:22:37] Free toys? Uh, I’ve gotten free toys. Uh, but not every time.
Alex: [01:22:41] Not every time. And then, you know what? You’ve done a lot of you’ve had a lot of environments that you’ve worked in staff work, freelance animation, short stories. You know, mini comics, the corporate stuff. Which environment do you enjoy the most?
Joshua Sky: [01:22:58] I, I mean, honestly, I’ve grown to love them all. I really do love my job. My day job is really amazing. And I love the team that I work with. And I learn something new every day. And what I’ve learned is that, like, life is really what you make of it. And that’s a form of creativity of itself. And business is its own form of creativity that a lot of creatives overlook. And I, I really encourage other creatives to study business and specifically the business of any field that they’re in. Uh, especially like the giant deal, if you’re in comics, you know, read comic wars, read, read your book, you know, read, read, um, Roy’s book, read, read as much as you can because you’re going to learn a lot and it’s going to influence how you conduct yourself in business. Um, read about Gardner Fox. You know, like he was a genius dude, like he would always take out Julius Schwartz for lunch, you know, and never let him pay once. And Julius knew what he was doing, you know. And, uh, but he knew about how to court editors. Right. So I guess what I would, but there is something really magical. And I think, uh, hopefully one day I’m able to do it every day for the rest of my days. But when it’s late at night and I have a cup of coffee and it’s just me in the story, I really, really relish that, that, that to me and I’m in it. I’m literally you’re in the zone on the story that that is one of my all time favorite feelings for sure. Yeah.
Alex: [01:24:25] Um, all right. So last question, what are you working on right now that you’re most excited about and I, and what have you released that people can go out and enjoy?
Joshua Sky: [01:24:36] Sure. So you guys can follow me on Instagram at, uh, Joshua Skywriter. Uh, feel free to drop me a line if you, you know, feel free to check out any of my stuff. I’m, uh, I post a lot about MOTU, but also a lot about science fiction, comics, history, collectibles, all that sort of stuff. Um, and, uh, what I’m currently working on right now is I just came out with a book called Nervous System, which is a complete retrospective of all my short stories, nearly all my short stories. Uh, they were able to the publisher is called Forbidden Futures, and they’re even able to get rights for stories that, uh, are owned at other places. So it was just really great. So starting from when I was about 22 through today, it’s just a really great snapshot of, uh, my best work. So I would definitely, uh, check that out. I have an introduction called from Maui to Attorney that really walks through growing up on Maui through breaking into He-Man and, uh, offers a lot of great, rich details in it. Um, so that book just came out.
Joshua Sky: [01:25:36] It could be pre-ordered. I can send you the link. Uh, and then I also am writing for heavy metal, so look out in number in issue six, there’ll be an article about the Renaissance in, uh, uh, the Renaissance. It’s called, um, plastic art and Eldritch Lore, the Renaissance and dark, uh, fantasy action figure making. So it’s about toymakers making really like, you know, people like, um, Savage Crucible and, and mythic legions who are kind of making, um, high end fantasy action figures. So that’s been really fun. Um, I also have, um, a project about starfighters with Battle Quest that’s going to be officially announced soon. I don’t know if I should mention that. And then, um, there’s also a graphic memoir I’m working on called Aloha, which is about how comics and, uh, and faith and different things helped, uh, helped me get through my parents divorce when I was a teenager, a nomadic teenager in Hawaii. So that’s like a special project to me that I’m working on. Uh, that’s been really fun. Um, there’s more, but I feel like that’s enough for now.
Alex: [01:26:43] Okay. Last thing, what would you rate the Masters of the universe movie? The new one from 1 to 10.
Joshua Sky: [01:26:49] That’s really tough, man. I work on mode two. Uh, I loved it. I thought it was really fun. I thought it was zany. Um, it was very different. Um, what I’ve noticed about Moe too, is that a lot of stuff that some people don’t necessarily immediately glom on to ends up becoming a cult hit, like new adventures like Shira, like, um, you know, uh, the 87 movie people really didn’t like it at first, and now they love it. And it’s got like multiple Blu ray cuts. So with this movie, I really enjoyed it. Uh, it’d be hard to give it a number. I would say maybe like, I don’t want to give it a number, but it’s high, you know, it’s high. I, I, I really did enjoy it. I really liked it. And, uh, I will buy it on Blu ray and I hope we get a sequel.
Alex: [01:27:38] So yeah, me too. I feel the same way. I loved it, I love the music. I love the whole thing.
Joshua Sky: [01:27:42] Oh, the music was great. The music was really great. Uh, and I loved I mean, the casting was great, casting was great, and it was visually incredible. Uh, and it was, it was really fun, you know? Um, also, I just feel that everyone has their own version of Moe too, right? And I feel like the trailer of the movie made it look like Lord of the rings meets Die Hard, where the movie itself was much more like the Filmation series. Right? Totally. So but yeah, I thought that I thought they did a good job on it. I, I hope we get more. And, um, the nice thing is it seems to be really doing well on streaming. So hopefully that means there’ll be way more content coming out.
Alex: [01:28:22] That’s what I want. Well, hey, I really appreciate you doing this. This was a lot of fun. I’m glad we connected the way we did. Uh, I enjoyed it. And I love that you love the past, uh, past in pop culture as you’re helping pioneer the future of it. And thank you for being on today.
Joshua Sky: [01:28:38] Thanks for having me, Alex. It’s really an honor, man.
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