Buggin' Out with Garrett Gunn!

Mar 28, 2024

Hey Friends!

New interview drop! Check it out!

SCOTT WILKE: First off, gotta say, love your name. The alliteration makes me feel like you’re a superhero and this is just your secret identity. (eyes you suspiciously) Anyhoo, for those who might not be familiar with you, introduce yourself and some of your writer/creator credits.

GARRETT GUNN: Ha, I wish. Sadly this is the name I was born with. My father used to tell me I was named after a “Knight of the Round Table”, but suspiciously, he also worked for a company called Garrett Air Research. So sadly, I think they ran out of time and threw a dart. My name is Garrett Gunn, and I’ve written some of the wackiest stuff you’ve probably never heard of, including Good Boy (with co-writer Christina Blanch), Warcorns, Little Red Ronin (with Bad Bug all-star Kit Wallis), Cold Dead Hands, and Franklin and Ghost.

SCOTT: Tell us something you’ve never mentioned on another interview/podcast.

GARRETT: Man, I’ve done a bunch of these (tries not to sound like he’s bragging), so I’m not sure how many secrets I have left. I’m a huge fan of hip-hop, and when I lived in Chicago after high school I recorded a rap album with a friend. It was terrible.

SCOTT: I like to time travel with my interviewees. Tell us about young Garrett.

GARRETT: Young Garrett was a nerd, man. I tried desperately to be into anything that would make me fit in with the “cool kids”, but really, I just wanted to collect Pokemon cards, play video games, and be a porn director when I grew up. It goes without saying (but I still will), I got bullied a lot.

SCOTT: Alright, time traveling again. Garrett just finished his FIRST script. Which book was it? What was your hope for it at that moment? Did you want to take it to Marvel or DC? Pitch it to Hollywood?

GARRETT: My first script was actually a writing exercise from a Behavioral Health specialist when I was deployed to Afghanistan. It was sad, terrible, and definitely not intended for consumption by anyone other than a trained professional, but, eventually it morphed into a book called Days to Come. At that point, I couldn't have imagined that I was less than 2 years away from retiring from active duty and writing comics professionally full-time.

SCOTT: Success stories are all well and good, but people like the EPIC FAILS. Tell us about one of your failures.

GARRETT: Unfortunately, I’ve failed a BUNCH. But, that's why I think I’ve gotten to the point I have. Let’s see…I had $8k stolen from me on my second book ever, from a “Professional Marvel Artist” because it was “industry standard to pay 100% upfront”. Does that count?

SCOTT: So, I’m a big John Wick geek. I often tell people I think John Wick 1 is a perfectly constructed film. I stand by it. That being said, when I saw your Good Boy story I was equally excited and pissed I didn’t think of doing that spin on the story first! Tell us a bit about what went into creating that smash hit and what are your plans for that universe?

GARRETT: That book was born from the budding friendship between Christy and I. When we first met, I’d never seen any of the movies, and she told me we couldn't be friends until I had. I went home and watched the first two immediately and fell in love with them. The best part about those movies is that they have all the ingredients of a TERRIBLE movie. Like, that movie seems like something from the $5 DVD bin at Wal-Mart, but it's perfect. PERFECT. Anyway, I like to write dumb comics that often put ridiculous spins on already ridiculous ideas. So, I pitched this idea of the dog being the mercenary to Christy and she loved it. We only ever planned to do one volume, but here we are, we just wrapped Volume Four, and hope to continue to around six volumes in total.

SCOTT: So, let’s say you could make a wish right now and write for ANY character you wanted. It could be for film, television, comics, etc. Who would it be and why?

GARRETT: The FAN in me wants to say She-Hulk, but I don't have it in me to ruin that character for myself. So, I would probably say Howard the Duck. I would only ever want to write something terrible, which is probably why Marvel and DC have never called me back. I pitched a Suicide Squad-style book with Hanna-Barbera characters to DC. It was about Yogi Bear going on some hellish rampage, and a team of characters had to stop him. I also pitched Marvel on a Howard the Duck story where he gets a “rejected Hammer” from the God of Hammers, and tries to save Beverly, who's been consumed by an evil symbiote. No callbacks on either, unfortunately.

SCOTT: You and Christina Blanch have worked on a lot together. How did you two meet? Also, tell us a bit about what it’s like writing with her.

GARRETT: I think it has a lot to do with the story I’m writing. There is lots of stuff she wants to write on her own, and the same goes for me. But, I think there are a lot of circumstances when it's beneficial. It kind of comes and goes with me and the headspace I’m in at the time. For example, I’m writing some really dark shit right now, and definitely don't want anyone, especially people I care about, rooting around in my brain while that's going on. But with me and Christy, it’s awesome. Typically, she lets me get in there and muck about, and then she comes in and makes things coherent, and tidies up. She finds things I miss, expands on ideas that are lackluster or dumb, and pulls me back in line when I’m getting a little too rogue for my own good.

SCOTT: Love ‘em or hate ‘em, cons are the lifeblood of comic creators. Tell us your favorite con experience and your least favorite con experience.

GARRETT: Favorite experience was Fan Expo Dallas, right after Good Boy v2 had come out. A wonderful guy came up to my booth. He was very quiet, and didn't really let on that he was a fan. He bought a couple things, and right before he left, he told me (very quietly) that he’d lost his dog the previous year, and that Good Boy really connected with him, and that it brought him some joy in a time when things were pretty dark for him. I asked him for a hug, and he agreed, and we just kind of bonded there in this spontaneous embrace. It was beautiful.

Worst experience: Todd McFarlane was a dick to me when I was a kid at a show trying to get my Spawn #1 signed.

SCOTT: Looking over your work, it seems like 90’s action films influenced you. Is that the case? What else inspires you? What would you recommend we check out in the world of comics, television, and movies?

GARRETT: Dude, anything Edgar Wright. I’m a huge fan of anything he touches, and I try to bring a similar energy to my books that he does to film. But yeah, 90’s action films were my lifeblood as a kid. We lived in the mountains from the time I was like 8, until I graduated high school. Before I could drive, I had no access to streaming or anything, but my folks had a huge cabinet of VHS tapes that were all WAY too mature for me. But I used to watched those all the time. Beverly Hills Cop, 48 Hours, True Lies, Point Break…

SCOTT: Our good friend, Editor John (John MacLeod), demands we ask this question with every guest. What is the Gunn Writing Session Soundtrack?

GARRETT: Excision, Major Lazer, and Black Tiger Sex Machine. I can't do anything with a lot of lyrics while I write. I’ve got the attention span of a squirrel on coke.

SCOTT: Appreciate you being an awesome sport with this! Why don’t you take this time to tell everyone what you got going on right now? What’s in the pipeline for Garrett Gunn?

GARRETT: We launched Good Boy v4, and I just finished writing a one-shot of Con Artists for Ryan Kincaid. Also, I’m working on more of the XXX title Murder Bukkake for Blissful Pixels Media, and MAYBE have some Bad stuff in the works for people who like Bugs. See what I did there?

***EDITOR’S NOTE: Check out Garrett’s latest title on Kickstarter***