Broken Frontier

Jesse Blaze Snider chats with BF about his new gig writing Toy Story for BOOM! Studios, and more.

Not content to be just another child of a famous rockstar, Dee Snider’s son, Jesse Blaze has been building quite the impressive list of writing assignments over the last few years. From starring in the reality TV show, Rock The Cradle, to rocking out with his own band, Baptized By Fire to appearing on series created by HBO and MTV and doing the occasional voice-over job. Phew. Somehow he’s also managed to write a few comics along the way, beginning with a prequel to his father’s film entitled Strangeland: Seven Sins. More recently Snider produced the 6 issue mini-series Dead Romeo, with artist Ryan Benjamin and DC Comics, which offered a mature take at vampire romance. Now Snider is the new writer of the ongoing Toy Story series from BOOM! Studios. Along with artist Nathan Watson, Snider is creating new adventures for Woody, Buzz and the gang of the popular franchise.

BROKEN FRONTIER: Has your Dad read any of your comics work?

JESSE BLAZE SNIDER: What am I wood? Does your father read your reviews? Figure you'd get this one out of the way first, huh? Usually, people slip this kind of thing in the middle to give the illusion of interest in what I'm doing. But alas....=) The truth is my father has read and edited every script I've ever written, for going on 10 years or so. My dad is a writer as well as a musician (Which is another form of writing anyway) he's a great idea man and usually speaking he sees my scripts before anyone else does. Most people rarely see a genuine "First Draft" of anything I write, because those go to my father and four close friends of mine, once I get it back from them I usually make some adjustments and the grammar is usually improved as well.

My father got me into comics in the first place, when I was like 10 or 11 he bought me a copy of The Thing and a subscription to The Amazing Spider-Man! I never actually READ any of those books though. I started reading Bedrock's dialogue in Youngblood, because as a kid I thought he was funny and then one day I saw that Bedrock was making an appearance in The Savage Dragon, so I picked that up to read his dialogue. A few pages in it became readily apparent that SD was making BR look like a total ass. Going into that issue I was 11-years-old and Bedrock was my favorite comic book character, by the time I finished, I had a new favorite...The Savage Dragon and for maybe 5 years or so, The Savage Dragon was the only comic book I read, month in, month out, cover to cover, over and over again. It was my favorite.

Then at age 16, I got a job at a 7 Eleven and we carried a few comics including Deadpool, which I had heard was pretty funny. Joe Kelly's DP became my new love and my gateway drug into the Marvel Universe. Joe Kelly went to X-Men and Marvel Knights launched and I became a Marvel Zombie. Years later a friend got me into Batman and that was my gateway into DC. Started working at a comic book store and I've been reading around 100 comic books a month ever since. But if not for my father, I wouldn't have ever started reading and never would have ended up writing them.

So, to answer your question, yes he does read my comics and he is REALLY excited that my Hulk one-shot is finally coming out from Marvel, because the Hulk is his favorite character!

BF: From Dead Romeo to Toy Story is quite the leap. Did it take a while to convince BOOM! that you were capable of such a different series?

JBS: Not as long as I thought it would. But it was a pretty simple thing, we met and I expressed a lot of interest in the Muppets. Anyone who talks to me for more than a minute can see that I am a HUGE Muppet/Jim Henson fan and I think they were immediately convinced that I at least loved this "kid stuff" and that I was just a big kid myself. Then after receiving my first few pitches and outlines I think it was readily apparent that I had some good ideas about what to do with the characters. Though I was a bit surprised, pleasantly of course, when Boom Kids! editor Aaron Sparrow asked if I had any ideas for Toy Story or Monsters, Inc.!

It so happened that I was in fact a HUGE Pixar fan, but that seemed like a stretch to me, you know the writer of Dead Romeo writing for Pixar Properties. At least the Muppets had always had a bit of an edge, Pixar was very sweet and wholesome and family friendly and most intimidating of all...consistently BRILLIANT! I'm not sure how Aaron knew, but I guess he just sensed that despite my past work, which had been assigned to me, I was the type of person who could tell these types of stories and I think we're both glad he did.

BF: Now that you're writing Toy Story does it remind you of your youth or were you more of a He-Man, Transformers and G.I. Joe kinda kid?

JBS: Well, when Toy Story came out, I was older already. I was 13 and "growing out" of that kid stuff, except I WASN'T cause I was still reading comics and playing with super hero action figures (which I STILL do to this very day)! Anyway, seeing Toy Story in 1995 reminded me of my youth, because in 1986 a Jim Henson produced TV movie aired called The Christmas Toy and blew my 4-year-old mind. It was a very similar premise to Toy Story and after watching it, I started consider the feelings of others for the first time in my life. Mostly the feelings of my inanimate toys, but consideration is consideration. Anyway, I loved The Christmas Toy and Toy Story 1 & 2 just brought me back to that. I immediately got into it and I have been following Pixar to the movies ever since! I was fortunate to marry a fellow wo-manchild and she's been going with me for 10 years now, fortunately we now have a 9-month-old daughter and an excuse to see "kid's movies." And to answer you question fully, I was and still am a He-Man & The Masters of the Universe kinda kid!!!

BF: As I was reading it, I could hear the distinct voices of the toys from the film in my head. How did you find the voice for each character so perfectly?

JBS: I don't know, but I'm a voice actor myself. I do commercials and promos for TV channels, like I was the voice of Pizza Hut for two years, voiced Gamestop's first couple years of spots, Cheetos, Burger King, Showtime, MTV, Smithsonian Channel, Toyota, lots of stuff. But through doing that, I've gotten very good at spotting voice, especially of actors. I love going into animated films not knowing who is "in" it and picking them out over the course of the film. I do that with TV commercials too and I'm rarely wrong. I think I just have a little voice checker in my head that tells me if the voices sound right. Then again I may have just gotten exceedingly lucky with the first issue.

Also, it certainly doesn't hurt, that I am a huge fan of all the voice actors in the movies! Tom Hanks, Wallace Shawn, Tim Allen, Jim Varney and the rest. That helps. It's funny though, I wasn't too familiar with Don Rickles outside of TS and I knew that he got cast because the film makers were fans of his stand up, so before I started writing Mr. Potato Head, I listened to a few hours worth of his stand up and roasts, which made ME a big fan of his. "Research" has never been so fun. But while I watched and listened, I took notes on subtle inflections, things that he says a lot in passing, how he says things and that helped me get a good bead on him. But I usually don't do that, most of the characters just come from past knowledge of TS (Which I've been watching a lot) and other films that the voice actors have been in.

BF: After Toy Story wraps, what else can we expect from you?

JBS: Well, Toy Story is ongoing and I AM its ongoing writer, so hopefully it won't be wrapping anytime soon! But I think that there is a very good chance that you will see some Muppets in my immediate future, as well as some other Pixar ventures. Plus, I've got one promising venture in the works with both Marvel and DC...respectively! Plus, I've had a passion creator owned project green-lit at Image for 6 months now, but I haven't had time to work on it. Working on said project is my New Year's Resolution, so hopefully you'll hear about that before the end of next year! So, 2010 should be a big year for me! Plus, look for my Dead Romeo Trade Paperback and issue #1 of Toy Story in January! My Hulk one-shot and the launch of my second Toy Story story arc in April! And the digital release of my Strangeland: Seven Sins comic online...PLUS definitely more from BOOM!

Toy Story #0 by Boom Studios is out now, with #1 being released soon. The Dead Romeo TPB from DC Comics will be released on January 13.