Keith Giffen

Leo Pond: What are your thoughts on some fans asking for Jason Momoa to be recast as Lobo?

Keith Giffen: He’d work. He’d work as the character.

The hosts introduce Keith as the co-creator of Lobo, Rocket Raccoon, Ambush Bug, and the Jaime Reyes version of Blue Beetle, along with his work on Legion of Super-Heroes, Justice League International, and animation storyboarding.

Keith immediately says he hates Star Wars, then pivots into a broader point: after decades of making comics full time, the last thing he wants to do for relaxation is watch another superhero movie. He says he would rather watch a horror film and names Cabin in the Woods as his all-time favorite.

On seeing movie versions of his own creations, he is similarly blunt. He says his daughter had to drag him to a Guardians of the Galaxy movie because of Rocket Raccoon, and he says Blue Beetle’s movie mainly matters to him insofar as “Blue Beetle paid me.”

Keith tells the story of trying to break into comics while working as a hazardous materials handler at Hoffmann-La Roche. He took a week off, brought a portfolio to Marvel, and left it there without any contact information.

When he came back, the receptionist immediately chewed him out because Marvel had been trying to find him. An editor had seen his samples and wanted him quickly for a backup feature after another artist left the assignment.

Keith identifies Bill Mantlo as the person responsible for helping him get his Marvel break, mentions Flo Steinberg at reception, and references Ed Hannigan leaving the backup feature. The exact editor name in this section is garbled in the transcript and should be checked before reuse.

Keith says Ambush Bug is essentially an alter ego character based on his own sense of humor and view of life.

He contrasts that with Lobo:

> “Lobo was a reaction. I was seeing all these characters coming out like Wolverine and the Punisher… and I thought, that’s horrifying. Let’s make fun of it. So Lobo was meant to be a direct comment on and a bashing of those characters.”

He says it bothered him when readers embraced Lobo straight-faced rather than as satire. He names Lobo: The Paramilitary Christmas Special as his favorite Lobo story and says Simon Bisley’s art kept him engaged.

Keith also explains that writing Lobo required him to go to a very dark mindset, and that once the character became a monthly-book property with toned-down expectations, the excitement was gone.

Keith says he eventually left Justice League and Legion for the same basic reason: he had run out of stories he personally wanted to tell with those characters.

He then talks about wanting to do horror versions of superhero archetypes. He references a DC Halloween special where he did a Superman-related horror piece before Brightburn arrived, and he describes a Batman story built around split personalities and a Joker reveal.

When asked for his all-time favorite non-mainstream comic, he names The March Hare, an obscure independent one-shot about a hitman haunted by the March Hare.

Keith remembers Ed, Edd n Eddy more vividly than The Real Ghostbusters. He says Ed, Edd n Eddy was fun because the team let him loosen up before editing things hard, and he could still recognize his own sequences in the finished show.

He ultimately says storyboarding was never really for him because comics gave him more control, while animation meant constant oversight from directors and producers.

Keith says one of his goals with Jaime Reyes was simply to create a Hispanic character who was not built out of stereotypes.

He says:

> “I wanted a Hispanic character who’s just… a normal kid.”

He credits Geoff Johns with introducing Jaime in crossover material and says he did the first six issues with John Rogers. He also says he was surprised Blue Beetle became a movie before Lobo, and he notes that Paco and Brenda were, in his view, two of the most important supporting characters omitted from the film adaptation.

This is the strongest sustained segment in the episode. Keith says Hollywood keeps making the same mistake with Lobo by trying to turn him into the hero.

> “You approach Lobo the same way you approach Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees… Lobo’s the bad guy.”

He says the villain should drive the piece and even pitches the kind of structure he would want: Lobo trying to assassinate the president, or another character being introduced specifically to oppose him.

He is open to Jason Momoa in the role physically, but says Lobo’s humor cannot be broad. The lines need to be tossed off flatly and allowed to land later, almost as delayed disgust rather than obvious punchlines.

He also says he would prefer an unknown actor to a marquee star, and that any Lobo movie has to go far enough visually and tonally:

> “It’s gotta be the first splatter superhero.”

Keith rejects the idea of a Justice League International movie and says some concepts are simply made for comics and should stay there.

When asked about a Legion of Substitute Heroes movie, he jokes that the problem is you first have to explain the heroes they substitute for.

He then turns toward a broader argument about the state of comics: physical comics are too expensive, the business no longer functions as cheap impulse entertainment, and comic-book movies do not meaningfully raise comic sales.

He points to Superman, Justice League, and The Avengers as examples of movies that may create movie fans but do not convert those viewers into comic readers.

Keith says both superhero movies and horror movies suffer when audiences are expected to do homework before the story starts. He praises standalone movies like Jaws, Oppenheimer, and the first Matrix, and says he does not want to “get a degree” before watching something.

That leads into Scooby Apocalypse, which he describes as one of the most fun books he worked on because it was free from continuity pressure. He highlights working with Howard Porter, jokes that the book was gleefully dumping on Donald Trump before it was fashionable, and says one of his favorite issues was the hospital story.

He also gives one of the cleanest craft lines in the interview:

> “That’s the key to doing a good comic. If you’re having fun, the readers can tell. And if you’re just grinding it out and you hate it, they can tell too.”

Keith says he hates conventions and especially panels because he believes the work already contains what he had to say.

When asked what his mindset was on a specific issue of Justice League, he cuts past romanticization and says the answer was simple: he wanted to make money because he had bills to pay.

He also says he prefers to tell the truth in interviews and at conventions because it is easier than remembering a lie later.

Keith mentions the Not Dead Yet podcast, says his son-in-law runs it, and notes that he had recently done a Lobo/Ambush Bug-themed episode there.

He then reveals himself to be a serious gamer. He names Fallout, Dead Island, Diablo, and BioShock among his favorites, says he plays on Xbox, and makes clear that he prefers single-player games to co-op or competitive online play.

His broader standard is the same one he uses on comics and movies: he wants something self-contained, surprising, and fun rather than repetitive or grind-heavy. He applies the same taste to horror fiction, saying he prefers older, harder-edged splatterpunk-style horror.

The hosts close by calling it one of their most honest interviews.

## Public-Use Guidance

– Best quote source for public use: the Lobo movie section around 22:19 to 22:45 – Safest support lane: Scooby Apocalypse and the “if you’re having fun” quote around 43:25 to 44:08 – Highest-verification-risk section: the Marvel origin story around 05:19 to 08:10