Fireside Chat with a Garbage Time All-Star
Stink. I was all excited to start our first ever Fireside TRIPLE Chat, but it was the biggest failure to launch since … well, Failure To Launch. On the positive side, one half of the Garbage Time All-Stars dynamic duo, Josh Frankel, was able to make it. We talk comics, Kings and tourneys while waiting for Mark Haven Britt to show up. Fun was had by all. Except Mark.
Josh: Hey Jeff.
Pete: How goes your day off?
Josh: Pretty hectic actually. Hopefully it will get more relaxing!
Pete: Let me be your first step to relaxation.
Josh: aaaahhhhhh
How’s it going with you?
Pete: Fine, thanks. Excited about the first-ever 3-way Fireside Chat. Mark typically an on-time kinda guy? Do we have time to talk behind his back?
Josh: He’s usually punctual. If he doesn’t show up soon I can call him.
Pete: ‘K. How did you guys meet, anyway?
Josh: Mark used to live in the Bay Area too, and he briefly worked at Comic Relief in Berkeley, which is one of the best comic book shops in the country. I met him there. We both had lots of comics projects going so we were just in the same circles too.
Pete: Anything posted online from those days?
Josh: I don’t know if any of my stuff from back then is up. Probably not.
Mark was already working on his graphic novel Full Color.
Pete: I get the idea that it’s rated at least PG-13.
Josh: Oh definitely. It’s for more mature audiences. It’s awesome. Mark put a ton of work into it.
Pete: I imagine so. Does he do that full time?
Josh: He always has a lot going on, so no one project is full time. And he’s had design and PR office jobs too over the time I’ve known him.
Pete: Hmm!
What comics were you into back then? I was into Spidey and Silver Surfer. :p
Josh: Cool. I actually was not reading any of the mainstream superhero books. I read a ton of independent, self-published comics, zines, art books, humor comics …
Pete: An original, were ya?
Josh: Ha, no, no, nothing wrong with Silver Surfer and that stuff, but at some point in college I started learning about all of this cool underground work and it really opened my eyes about the medium of comics. That it can be used for anything.
For example, some of the other comics I do are these wordless portrayals of marine biology.
Pete: That’s out there.
Wordless comics — makes me think of your recent Celtics strip on GTAS.
Josh: Yeah!
Sometimes the words just get in the way.
Wordless is a natural for the marine biology stuff though. Here’s a sample page spread of one of those comics.
I’ll call Mark.
Pete: Thanks.
Josh: Ha, OK, no Mark. SORRY! He thought it was 12 pacific time.
Pete: Can we spend the next half hour sniping at Mark? j/k
Josh: Haha. You know artists.
Pete: Haha. Yeah … No.
Josh: Soooo, should we officially start?
Pete: Sure. How do you guys work together? Him being in Jersey and all.
Josh: Yeah, it’s very modern. When we started the strip we both lived in the Bay Area, so we were able to actually meet up. Now it’s all via email, IM and an occasional phone call. We also keep shared documents with ideas, scripts, that sort of thing.
We both write and draw our own comics, but for GTAS I write the scripts (with feedback from Mark) and he draws them (with feedback from me). We are always chatting back and forth about basketball anyway, so ideas come out of that as well.
Pete: I like that one you did of Derrick Rose.
Josh: Oh thanks!
Yeah, I’m trying to do some little extra comics like that for our own site to have some special content apart from the strip we run on Ball Don’t Lie. We’d both love to do more of that stuff.
Pete: Cool! Any sneak previews for Pete Marasmitch readers?
Josh: Hmm … we don’t work far enough in advance to give very good sneak peeks. We really work up to the deadline so that strip topics are current.
I can tell you that this week’s strip is about Dwight Howard and the dunk contest. Should be on Ball Don’t Lie in the next few days. [Pete's note: It's up now.]
Pete: I like it already. I’ve got my browser set on Hype.
Josh: Haha, I know you’re always there to hype us right away on BallHype!
Pete: I stake out my spot on BDL, just waiting for GTAS to be posted…
Speaking of BDL, how did it come about that you guys got picked up?
Josh: We were big fans of The Basketball Jones. They were one of the first sites we wrote to when we started doing GTAS on our own. Just “hey we like your podcast, maybe you’d be into this thing we’re doing.” And they linked to us a couple times from their site.
Skeets at some point became the editor of the Yahoo! NBA blog, and invited us aboard.
I guess that’s not a very exciting story. It happened really fast! Does that make it any more exciting?
Pete: Uh, yeah?
Josh: We got a really great response from the blogs when we started. I’d been reading these sites as a fan for a while so it was pretty cool when we started our own thing to get immediate feedback from these people we knew and respected.
Josh: Heh. Clark Kent job.
Pete: Clark Kent is the alter ego of a skinny Croatian guy (Roko Ukic).
Josh: Heheh.
Pete: He’s our backup PG of the future. In the present. He’s not getting a lot of burn right now. [Whoops! Spoke too soon.]
He’s being “developed.”
You got a pet favorite on the Kings squad?
Josh: Well, Kevin Martin is obvious, and I’m excited to see Jason Thompson develop.
The sad truth is I don’t see a ton of Kings games either … zero nationally televised games this year. So I basically see them play the Warriors, or whenever I happen to be back in Sacramento.
Pete: Hmm. So in California, you’re not able to see Kings games, eh? A travesty!
Josh: No, I mean the Bay Area is a different TV market than Sacramento. I could get league pass of course.
Pete: Ah. Sorry. Being a canuck here.
Josh: I get to watch lots of Warriors games though!
Pete: What’s going on there? They’re trying to make some hoopla. Talks of trades, trades and more trades.
Josh: Well, the Warriors are definitely looking less disastrous than they did early in the season.
Pete: Is Monta Ellis the Golden State Savior?
Josh: I don’t know about that. He’s good though!
It’s a pretty crazy roster when you look at it though. Everyone needs shots, a lot of streaky shooters. Andris Biedrins basically alone guarding the basket. Jamal Crawford is the point guard?!?!
Pete: One center. Nine swingmen. It’s the premise of some reality show, no?
Josh: Yeah. Or a Broadway musical. Nellieball, the Musical.
Pete: Something’s got to give there, right?
Josh: For a lot of the season it looked like a totally incoherent team, plus there was a lot of grumbling, Nellie abdicating defensive responsibilities to his assistants, etc.
It seems to be evening out a bit though. Some of the talent is shining through. Stephen Jackson has been amazing lately.
Pete: Who’da thunk it!
Stephen Jackson is “amazing,” all right. (via All NBA All Basketball)Josh: Yeah, right? He’s such a cagey vet with ice water in his veins at this point.
They’re fun to watch now at least. They can put up points in a hurry. Not as many rookie/D-league mistakes. C.J. Watson has also actually been really good. He’s kind of an under-the-radar guy I’d imagine if you’re not watching all of their games.
Pete: Really? I haven’t heard much about him.
Josh: CJ has been very stable. Handling the ball fine and when he gets an open shot he makes it. Anthony Morrow is also looking like a good pick-up. And Anthony Randolph also is starting to show some of his potential.
Pete: You think the Warriors management will shake things up?
Josh: It’s a young team, so there are a lot of bonehead mistakes, but they’re at least starting to get some confidence.
Maybe management will make a move. Word is that they’re coveting Amar’e.
There seems to be a confilict in management now though … it seems like the ownership is listening to Nelson rather than Mullin.
Pete: And Chris Bosh?
Josh: Is Bosh likely to be moved this year? I didn’t think that was the case. I’ve heard that the Warriors (and a host of others) are after Amar’e NOW since it looks like things are unraveling fast in Phoenix.
Pete: Bryan Colangelo says no to moving Bosh. He’s never been publicly untruthful, so I believe him.
I wouldn’t mind Bosh going, at the right price.
Josh: Yeah?
Pete: Yeah!
Josh: I haven’t seen enough Raptors games this season to see what the problem is, but I mean, what do you want instead of Bosh?
Pete: Well, the Raptors are thin, weak at the wings, not deep at all. Looking to move JO’s big contract.
Josh: Yeah, that would certainly make sense.
Pete: I’d better ask you more GTAS questions before we run out of time.
Pete: I’m thrown off, too. *shakes fist at Mark*
Mookie (A Stern Warning) has some questions for you:
Do you have a favorite player to draw?
Josh: ODEN. That guy has an amazing face!
Greg Oden, the Amazing Face. (via Sneaker Files) Pete:
Another Q from Mookie:Back in the good old (pre-internet) days, I used to see Michael Jordan / Shaquille O’Neal themed comics getting around. I loved those things. Is there any chance of them doing some retro features on famous stories in NBA history from the Dream Team era? Any story with Barkley, MJ, Stockton, Malone, etc., would be classic and appreciated!
“Michael Jordan / Shaquille O’Neal themed comics” — haven’t seen them myself!
Josh: Yeah, I’d like to see those!
I’m sure that Mark would love to do some retro comics as he’s an old-school Celtics fan. It would be pretty fun to just document awesome anecdotes from back in the day in comic form. Good idea!
Pete: That would be cool.
You guys plan to draw in the offseason, when there aren’t any NBA stories?
Josh: Well, nowadays the NBA news is still pretty heavy in the off-season, with the draft, contract stuff, summer league, international play, etc.
We’lll see how it goes. Last season we took a break after the Finals that lasted until this season. It was nice. We both have other projects to work on that get neglected during the basketball season, so we got to catch up on that stuff. Meet our families again too.
Pete: Yeah, I guess that’s necessary.
Do you have a favorite GTAS strip, one that maybe wasn’t the most popular (i.e. aside from the LeBron/Serpentor one)?
Josh: I really like a couple of the ones we did before we started appearing on Ball Don’t Lie, which fewer people saw.
Pete: Links, please!
Josh: We did one about Chris Webber’s ill-fated signing with the Warriors that I like a lot. It was a western setting and it was a sort of Butch Cassidy/Sundance Kid thing where these old guys were getting one last chance at the big score.
Pete: “You ready, kid?” That’s your BallHype profile photo!
Josh: I love Nellie in the tiny, tiny cowboy hat.
Pete: Or is Nellie’s head gigantic?
Josh: Yeah, giant head + tiny hat = big laughs.
Another older strip that I like, that’s also a movie reference is the one about Sam Cassell’s arrival in Boston. Sam is the alien who bursts out of Eddie House and then starts eating Rondo’s lunch.
Pete: I may have to start raiding your archives.
Josh: Yeah, I brought those ones up because not as many people saw them. But you know I LIKE ‘EM ALL!!!
I like anytime we do something with the Spurs so that we can get accused of being biased by ragey Suns fans.
Pete: Hahaha. You said in the Tim O’Shea interview that you don’t get crazy letters. Ragey Suns fans don’t count?
Josh: I guess maybe we forgot that … yeah, they inevitably show up in the comments sections.
Sorry Suns fans! It’s nothing personal! Your team is just a mess right now!
They don’t look that ragey… (Rob Schumacher/The Arizona Republic) 
Josh: Yeah, my team is one of the worst in the league. I don’t expect to read a lot of nice things about them either.
Pete: Let’s start a bad-NBA-team support group.
Josh: Yeah! “We’re not bad, we’re rebuilding!”
Pete: Good motto.
You looking forward to the all-star weekend at all? I’m kinda “meh.” [Except for the big 3D event locally, of course. Heh.]
Josh: Yeeah, I’m never that into the actual all-star game. The dunk contest has been sort of fun lately, but at this point the hype is exceeding the product.
I guess I’m saying “meh” too.
Pete: What do you think of the new addition, H-O-R-S-E?
Josh: I think it’s a cool idea but I’m skeptical that it will actually be cool to watch.
Pete: I agree. Even in the days of Maravich it was kinda dry.
Josh: I think of all of the events they’re doing I’d most like to watch the rookie/sophomore game, since I don’t get to see enough of those players on a regular basis. And it seems like they play that one with more of a sense of pride?
Pete: Me, I’m still waiting for 1-on-1 or 2-on-2. I think all basketbloggers should start some sort of petition for that.
Josh: Yeah, it would be cool. Not sure how to get it to happen though.
I think some sort of mini-tournament would be cool too.
Pete: Like what Skeets got going on BDL?
Josh: Ha, yeah!
Pete: I maintain that I gave him the idea.
Josh: Haha.
Pete: Yeah, the NCAA tourney is the tops. I can only imagine David Stern’s reaction to re-doing the sked, though.
NCAA-like sked = whiter hair, bigger ulcer (from Thumper Newman – NBA Talk)Josh: I don’t really watch college hoops anymore, but there’s something about that format that gets casual fans excited. Probably the betting on brackets.
Pete: Ha. And draft-pick watching.
Josh: Yeah, that too.
Pete: Well, I guess we oughta wrap up.
Josh: OK, sorry Mark couldn’t make it. I hope you can use some of this. I hope I wasn’t too boring.
Pete: Ha, no. You’re a good sport.
And informative.
Truly delightful.
I give you a ten out of ten.
Josh: Haha, please, stop!
Pete: ‘K.
Josh: Well, thanks for supporting the strip and being interested!
Pete: Hey, my pleasure! Keep up the good work!
Josh: You too. I was just getting caught up on Pete Marasmitch. Good stuff!
Pete: Thanks!
February 25th, 2009 at 1:02 pm
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