| In celebration of the famed second volume of The Amazing Joy Buzzards hitting trade paperback in June, the footnote’s own dynamic duo of Dustin Grovemiller and D.J. Kirkbride rocked a tandem tag-team interview with the tremendous Joy Buzzard team of word guru Mark Smith and pencil pimp Dan Hipp…
 Was there any particular band that served as a real-life inspiration or model for The Amazing Joy Buzzards?
MARK: Nope. It's probably a combination of a few of 'em.
DAN: I'm going to say no, but visually there are certain archetypes that any “band of all bands” is going to have (like a mythical Mexican wrestler, obviously).
Do either of you have any kind of practical background in music that you draw from for the comic?
MARK: Um, I can play “Chariots of Fire” on the piano, does that count?
DAN: Umm, Mark can play “Chariots of Fire” on the piano.
How physically powerful is El Campeon? "Incredible Hulk" strong? "The Tick" strong? Or is he more like those big guys that pull buses with their teeth? I guess the real question here is, will he help us move next weekend?
MARK: He's Hercules strong in that he can pick up two cars or a heavy pillar. So in comic book terms he's "The Thing" strong. If you give him donuts he should be more than willing to help you move.
DAN: Mmmmmm, donuts.
What’s his favorite kind of donut? Any brand loyalty?
MARK: He will eat anything you stick in front of him. Custard filling is good.
DAN: Mmmmmm, brand loyalty.
Name five unusual items that would be on the AJB contract rider if they were touring.
MARK: I think it changes all the time. A Barista cart with a Juan Valdez look alike. Lobster dinners to die for. Fizzy water. Peanut M & M's with the chocolate taken off. Four Dozen custard donuts for El Campeon. If they messed it up they'd have Dalton (the AJB’s mysterious manager) to deal with.
DAN: A full size maquette of KITT from Knight Rider, the trunk filled with chocolate pudding. The complete third season of LOST (Dalton knows somebody who knows somebody with DHARMA). Maybe some Orangina, because it's bubbly and delicious.
If AJB were ever to face off against the British Invasion era Beatles in a Battle of the Bands, who would win? Or would the sheer power of these two forces simply cause the universe to come to implode?
MARK: I think the latter. It would be a fight that would go on for weeks, with battling guitars and kung fu chops.
DAN: Yeah, I think time would freeze for us common folk, while the mighty bands would stray out of thought and time, stars wheeling overhead, every day as long as a life age of the earth.
In the scope of their adventures, is there a line of unrealism that you're simply not willing to cross? Say, having the guys fight zombie puppies on Uranus?
MARK: I don't know, I think anything is pretty much fair game as long as we like the idea. Sometimes the stories are more realistic ones and other times they're more out there. I like that though, and it makes it more surreal.
DAN: What's this "unreal" you speak of?
Is it safe to assume that Stevo doesn't contribute many lyrics for AJB songs?
MARK: Yeah I'd say it's safe to assume that.
DAN: (nods head)
Speaking of Stevo… Drag race: Speedracer vs. Stevo. Who wins?
MARK: I think Stevo would win, what with being able to get rid of a Swarm of KILLER VAMPIRE ROBOTS (!!!) and all.
DAN: (nods head with vigor)
If you had the chance to live like a Joy Buzzard, would you?
MARK: In an instant!
DAN: Believe it.
Does the artistic style of the book match what you conceptualize the musical sound to be? That is, do you "draw in rock"?
MARK: I don't know. Dan, do you?
DAN: I don't know that it translates so literally. I will say that I'll specifically listen to certain types of the rock and the roll while putting together individual scenes. Though it's probably more accurate to say that the artistic style of the book matches what we conceptualize the musical energy to be. We don't really like defining the "sound" for anyone. You bring what you will to it.
Assuming the band survives their adventures, will they retire from the scene gracefully or spend their later years working the casino circuit?
MARK: They'll probably retire gracefully.
So, not to spoil too much, but upon reading volume two, one gets the impression that you two have a fairly relaxed take on bestiality. Is that a fair assumption?
MARK: Well it's not bestiality if you're in love. So Yeti-human relations are fair game but that's about where I draw the line, blech! It got us Stevo Vargas, so it's worth it in some cases.
DAN: Who are YOU to label someone in love?! Animals, vegetables, Hasselhoff -- love is LOVE! I mean sure, everyone loves to play a little squat tag in the asparagus patch, but that doesn't mean I'm going to marry a vegetable!!! Who's with me?!! Guys?.....
Have Gabe and Betty, you know, done the wang dang doodle yet?
MARK: No not yet. They have a pretty puppy love relationship right now at this point that's honest and simple.
Could Betty develop a thing for the tougher Stevo, creating a Cyclops/Jean Grey/Wolverine-style triangle?
MARK: Hopefully no crazy love triangle. There is a Spiders (AJB’s arch enemies) love triangle, though.
Any truth to those pesky Biff and Paris Hilton rumors?
MARK: Um, I think Biff is shallow sometimes but not that shallow to go anywhere near her. She looks like an alien to me and needs some stack in the rack, so I think the ideal girl for him would be in a band and have mad talent and smarts and be able to give him a run for his money and outmaneuver him on all fronts.
DAN: Yeah, I think that maybe you were confused because the guy had really green eyes in that video (you know which one, perv), but that's just a camera effect of shooting in the dark. Biff lovvvves the ladies, but he wouldn't touch her with a ten foot pineapple after he saw the episode of South Park in which she guest-starred.
This second volume differs from the first one most noticeably with the short stories featuring guest artists. Why the change up? And how did you choose the drawin' folk?
MARK: I had a few early stories lying around for AJB, and I wanted to try them out, so it felt like a great way to break up the story into the next chapter with the plane ride. So Dan and I set out to do it as more of a challenge. He wrote and came up with the bumper bits on the airplane, and I did the stories in between. The drawin' folks were friends of ours, and I think it's fun to do some experimental stuff and try new things out. I was really pleased to get to work with Mahfood and Crosland on Vol. 2 #4, and they came through. I've always looked up to those two.
DAN: What Mark said, plus the next story arc is pretty fantastic and momentous, so it didn't hurt to have a bit of fun before things get crazy.
Though the story always seems really freewheeling, there seems to be an overall arch developing amidst all the chaos. Will things come to a head in Vol. 3?
MARK: Yeah, you might say everything hits the fan in the next Volume. I don't want to give away two much, though, but it is getting down to nuts and bolts.
DAN: It's exciting stuff, that's all I can say. Guacamole… I can say that, too. Guacamole.
Say a big Amazing Joy Buzzards fan bought Volume 2 in singles. What's in the trade to entice him/her/it to double dip?
MARK: There's an buttload of bonus stuff, including 32 pages of new story that details the first meeting between El Campeon and the Amazing Joy Buzzards. Plus a three page Lo Fi Magazine story, super sexy pinups, and the Image Holiday Special story.
DAN: It's a totally separate package, so you can pick up both and be equally pleased methinks. Nothing beats picking up the singles and following the story beats as they were meant to be laid out, but the trade is the Special Edition DVD; it's full of rad extra stuff that every AJB lover is going to want.
About that Lo Fi story, what was it like to see the boys all glossy and in glorious color? Any plans to go that route with the regular series, or is black and white the way to go for their street cred?
MARK: I'm really happy with the way that story came out, and Dan did a smashing bang up one on it. I like color. I think Dan prefers black and white. It would be a lot more headache to do the book with that extra element of color, but say around Vol. 5 I'd like to give it a shot.
DAN: Color would be swell, but I love black and white, too. Some day it would be great, but that day is not yet upon us, good people.
Throw caution to the wind and tell us something you've never told anyone.
MARK: (suspicious silence)
DAN: I'm a Transformer (insert transforming sound effect here).
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