Every Tuesday at the Peoples Improv Theater, Alexander Zalben and his friends, Justin Tyler and Pete LaPage, host a live show called The Comic Book Club. The content of the show is self-explanatory. They talk about comics. It's a very entertaining show with a variety of guests including industry professionals, musicians, and other comedians.
Their next show is this Tuesday night, March 31 at 8pm. Guests for the evening's show, entitled "The Marvel Assistant Editors Show", are Alejandro Arbona, Tom Brennan, Daniel Ketchum, Lauren Sankovich and Jordan D. White.
I got a chance to interview one of the hosts: Alexander Zalben.
Comic Book Club started in December of 2006, and has been running every week for over two years now. Yipes!
What kind of comics are you into?
Honestly, I love all comics. We tend to cover DC/Marvel superhero stuff on the show, because it's more universal, and, well, funnier. But I'm a big fan of anything that's good. Sounds kind of simplistic to say, but I'll read anything from Persepolis, to Manga, to Superman, as long as it's well done.
Who was your favorite guest?
Oh man, you're asking me to choose my babies. My favorite musical guest was clearly you, Corn Mo. But if I had to pick ... We did a show with Kevin Conroy, the voice of Batman from all of the animated series, and that was mind-blowing. Hearing him growl, "I. Am. BATMAN!" was a pretty big highlight for me.
You're very kind. Have you ever had problems with guests?
You know, I tend to think if there's a problem with our guests, it's our fault. Our (meaning me, Pete, and Justin, the other two hosts) jobs are to make the guests look good, and steer past any awkward moments. The majority of comic book writers and artists aren't performers, and don't need to be. So we try to make them look funny, charming, and comfortable on stage. So yes, there have been problems ... With us! We're the worst! This is what we like to call in interviews, "avoiding the question."
Did you ever feel nervous around a guest?
There's always a moment where, if we have a celebrity, or someone who is one of my favorite writers or artists on the show, when they walk in the room ... It's very weird. And then you have to sit on stage with them for an hour, and make fun of them to their face (to be fair, you don't have to do this, but I like to), so you get over it very quickly. I think they things I have been most nervous about are guests that have had something public and, say, negative. We had one of the producers of The Spirit (the movie, which was universally panned) on the show a few weeks ago, and I was really nervous about bringing it up. But I pushed through, asked him in a way that, hopefully, wasn't confrontational, and we had a great discussion about what went wrong, and what went right. In summary, people aren't nearly as intimidating, or as sensitive as I thought they would be before doing this show.
What's the coolest swag you've received?
Well, Midtown Comics gives us a sweet discount in exchange for sponsoring the show; and in return, we pump all of our life savings into the store. But I think the best swag we've ever gotten was getting quotes on "Locke & Key," and "Hack/Slash," which are two of the best comics I've ever read, so it's nice that we matter to them at all. Also, I have some amazing Cliff Chiang and Tim Seeley art hanging on my wall, and they're two of the best artists working today. Otherwise, most of our swag we just give away to the audience. No joke.
Did you go to Comic Con this year?
Oh yeah... We actually worked for Newsarama.com, doing video interviews for the website at this year's NYCC. You want to talk about nervous: I tend to not totally geek out about things, just because of the nature of what we do on the show. But there are a few things I do totally geek out about: Lost, Battlestar Galactica, and Joss Whedon shows. The Sunday of New York Comic Con, we had lined up to interview: Daniel Dae Kim (Jin from Lost); Tahmoh Penikett (Helo from Battlestar); and Joss Whedon. I was honestly worried I might pass out, but luckily, I only vomited on Joss Whedon a couple of times. So it was a win-win situation.
Did you like the Watchmen movie?
Watchmen, I'm very torn about, because there's a certain feeling in the comic community that if you trash it, you're telling people "don't read comics." But I honestly did feel like it wasn't 100% successful as a movie, despite some really excellent sequences (and some really silly ones, as well). Dr. Manhattan's origin sequence, in particular, was great and very faithful to the book... I think it's worth seeing, it's just not the "next level" of comic book films people hoped it would be.
Have you read Y: The Last Man?
Oh yes. Y: The Last Man is one of the best things ever.
If so, do you see their writing style on Lost (besides Hurley reading Y: The Last Man in Spanish) in the show?
BKV [Brian K. Vaughan] actually put in a lot of inside baseball comic book references in his first two or three episodes, so it was pretty obvious which ones he was working on. In his last two or so, he calmed down about that, but his style is so distinct, you could, say, hear Jack and Sawyer talking a little bit like Yorick or the Runaways. That's not a bad thing, by the way.
