Late Fame tells a story of an artist who is finally "found" later in his life. Throughout the film, the lead character, Ed Saxberger (played by Willem Dafoe), must navigate the modern art world. The same group of artists yearns for the times that Saxberger comes from and the artists who existed in the circles in New York City at that time. In Late Fame, we see director Kent Jones navigate modern New York and its inhabitants. We were lucky enough to chat with Kent Jones about the film. Listen to our interview here.

Kent Jones explains why Dafoe was essentially the only viable choice to play a poet-lead since Dafoe genuinely performs poetry and previously played Pasolini. He ties the thought together by tying it back to a Robert De Niro line about Brando having "the poetry of his whole being." The conversation moves into the film's love-letter-to-New-York quality, with the director talking about decades of watching the city change, the presence of the past haunting the characters (especially in Soho, tied to Dafoe's own history with the Wooster Group), and how gentrification and the "attention economy" have reshaped what it even means to try to make art in New York now.

Sean Gordon Murphy and Dan have a conversation about the upcoming The Last Driver. The conversation focuses on the echo chambers and division that have separated people. We dive deeply into many topics, including the accusations he faced related to ComicsGate. The topics explore different things touched upon in the book, which uses humor and over-the-top action to tell a very human story. We, of course, also discuss cars because there was no chance we were having SGM on and not talking about cars.

We also talk about the publishing choices Sean made for the book, including publishing it in a widescreen aspect ratio rather than the standard portrait orientation used by 99% of comics. The different range makes for a much better experience for a book so heavily focused on driving and the freedom that comes with it. He discusses the influences on the book and how he developed his cyberpunk capitalist wasteland to tell his story. We also talk about the plans for the series' future and for Sean's other big book, Batman: White Knight.

Today on the podcast, we're joined by writer Che Grayson! Best known for their work on Dark Spaces: Good Deeds from IDW Publishing and Exquisite Corpses from Image Comics. Che is currently writing Absolute Catwoman for DC Comics and the recently announced Absolute Cassandra Cain: The Shadow's Hand, both of which we're chatting about today.

Absolute Catwoman #1-2 are currently available, with #3 out August 26th.

Absolute Cassandra Cain: The Shadow's Hand #1 releases September 9th.