00:00incredible legend named Mark Hamill did the voice of the Joker answering my
00:05phone for me and I think what he did with that voice is to me as iconic as it
00:12gets. He's in the basement I should know I bound and gagged him there. That's what
00:15it goes like and then he just laughs and cackles and it's very loud and
00:18obnoxious and I love it and I'll never delete it.
00:22Hey I'm Aaron Couch with The Hollywood Reporter here at San Diego Comic-Con
00:27with actor and comic book writer David Dismalchin. How are you doing? Amazing.
00:31This is day three for me of San Diego Comic-Con 2024 and it is been literally
00:39like one mind-blowing experience after the next. What I love about what you are
00:42doing here this year is obviously you're you've been in a lot of movies very busy
00:46actor but this convention actually started as a comic book convention and
00:51you have many many comic books that you're kind of ready to unveil to the
00:55world. I mean what are just a few of them I know they're probably too many to
00:58mention but what are a few that you are you're here kind of talking about?
01:01Thank you for saying that. It is a huge honor for me that I'm now part of the
01:04comic book publishing world and it's a dream of mine come true. I've been doing
01:07Count Crowley for Dark Horse for several years. We've got a new volume in trade
01:12paperback form coming soon for volume 3. I'm also writing a new series for DC
01:17Comics. I get to helm their Creature Commandos series which I'm so excited
01:22about and then Todd McFarlane's been overseeing a project that I wrote and
01:27created and is about to come out from Image called Knights vs. Samurai. I also
01:32got to do some horror panels for some of the one shots I've been doing for Dark
01:35Horse DC and other publishers so it's a really exciting crazy nerdvana time for
01:40me. It's it's quite a you know a next chapter for you because I you know one
01:44story I love that you've told you know you were a nervous kind of first-time
01:48comic book writer on the set of The Suicide Squad and you would deliver the
01:52first issues of Count Crowley to Margot Robbie who's also a big comic book geek
01:56and kind of wait to see what she's thought about it and then I think out of
02:00the blue what what happened she tweeted something about it or what that's how
02:03you found out she liked it or what? I was with my wife Eve at I think I want to
02:08say in Applebee's in Georgia near where we were filming The Suicide Squad and
02:13all of a sudden my phone blew up and they were like oh my gosh look at what's
02:16going on and Margot had tweeted when she was still on Twitter or whatever it's
02:21called now I just read Count Crowley and I love it and and I ah it was it's crazy
02:27I'm very lucky James has been a big supporter and fan of my comic book
02:32creations and I'm and he wore a Count Crowley shirt the last day of filming on
02:36this bit of my last day of filming on The Suicide Squad and I'm surrounded by
02:40really amazing people who've been so supportive. Yeah it's amazing you you
02:45didn't know how people would receive this and now what's this five years
02:48later when you're on set or four years later you have seven eight come you have
02:52a lot of comics yeah yeah I think this year I have my my writing pen in the
02:58process and almost to be published somewhere between we have eight
03:03different comic projects that I am working on and I'm getting to work with
03:06some of the best publishers in the world some of the best artists in the world I
03:10am I just yesterday got to be on Jim Lee's panel for DC and then he unveiled
03:17the cover he did for my new Creature Commando series which we got to sign
03:22prints of I'm sitting there in the middle of the floor at comic-con at the
03:25DC booth signing prints of my comics first cover with Jim Lee it's it's wild
03:32a lot of people don't realize this I didn't actually realize this until
03:36people like you told me when you are on it when you're on a film set there's a
03:40lot of downtime and how do you spend your downtime you're writing right I'm
03:45either writing or I'm watching old horror movies I always like to set up
03:48like shutter or you know one of my streaming services on my trailer and
03:52bring old blu-rays and DVDs that I've been collecting and then and I say old
03:56like old movies that are now transferred and have really cool 4k editions and
04:00then I'm writing so I there's a lot of downtime you're waiting for the next
04:03set up you're waiting for you know the crew to get everything ready and it's a
04:08patient process and I find it to be an incredible way to pass the time as well
04:14as to feel like I'm getting to use all this creative energy I'm taking from all
04:18the artists I'm working with and funneling it into telling a story do you
04:22you know when you're at home do you have you have an office a place where you
04:26know keep your mementos are you also writing there is that how much of this
04:29is done at home how much is on set I love writing at home my office is so
04:33cool even I have this very strange house in Los Angeles and I've got a big
04:37open-air office that's at the top of this weird flight of stairs it looks
04:40like it's in like an old church maybe I don't know how to describe my house
04:43other than to say it's very weird and it's totally us and it's surrounded by
04:47all the old black-and-white glossies I've collected of you know Vincent
04:51Price and Christopher Lee and Lon Chaney and then toys I've collected monster
04:56toys and superhero toys and then I've got just row after row of my long boxes
05:00of comics so whenever I'm devoid of inspiration I need a little boost I just
05:04look around me do you would you say do you or your kids have more toys would
05:09you say at this point in your life me yeah okay completely do they do but are
05:14they hands off for them or they can I try to be cool about it because it's
05:18like I don't want to have everything in like you know hermetically sealed and
05:22kept away from it's not a museum although I get a little agitus
05:25sometimes like I I have a spinner rack next to my work desk and it's filled
05:29with old vintage issues of creepy eerie magazine famous monsters of film land
05:33and once in a while I'll find an issue in like my kids room just like creased
05:37weird or folded funny and I'm like I remember like they're just things and
05:41they just carry such wonderful memories and I think it's awesome that my kids
05:44would want to like peel through those pages I want to go back to creature
05:49commandos so James Gunn his new universe the first thing out of there is going to
05:55be an animated show and he's entrusting you him and Jim Lee are entrusting you
06:00with the comic it's unrelated right you kind of get to create your own yes Jake
06:03yeah James is animated by the way I was on the panel yesterday when they
06:08surprised us all with a bunch of footage from creature commandos it was pretty
06:11awesome James's series is wholly in the universe that he is building you know
06:18and it is incredible I it's it's funny how I learned that he was making an
06:25animated series he and I were on our way up to his bachelor getaway before he got
06:30married to Jennifer Holland and I he said what are you working on in the
06:35comics how's count Crowley going I said it's great guess what I'm getting to do
06:38creature commandos for DC goes look and he had already like some animatics and
06:43footage from his animated series I was like oh my god and you know I was afraid
06:47maybe the that my comic series would get canceled because it's a different
06:50it's a different creature commandos than what James is doing and he said no no
06:54no it's totally fine it exists and publishing is its own thing and and so
06:58mine is a very dark dramatic horror military story about a group of
07:04disparate outcasts who have monstrous abilities that have been recruited by
07:10this doctor who really does care for them but also is on a very very thin
07:16razor's line between sanity and something else and she's trying to help
07:20them find purpose in their lives and the government may or may not be exploiting
07:24them for their abilities and the fact that they're monsters might make it
07:27easier for them to get away with some stuff that they wouldn't maybe want say
07:30the Justice League to know about the the line between the razors line between
07:35insanity and maybe something else or sanity and maybe the sanity is a dr.
07:41Barbara West's character I got to create for this new world and she has
07:45just been doing all this incredible work and she believes you know it's all
07:51scientifically explainable of course we would look at it and say this seems a
07:54little supernatural but she's found a cool technology that helps to activate
07:59monsters superpowers let's say when they're going into battle the problem is
08:02once say a werewolf turns wolf once a vampire goes full vampire it's hard to
08:08control them and say they're in the field with fellow soldiers so that is
08:12what hasn't been tested yet and yet General Wade Eiling who's a DC you know
08:16longtime character who isn't always the most scrupulous general he kind of
08:20pushes them into a mission that they may not be ready for and things go a little
08:24bit sideways they did let me get very violent bloody and gory with this series
08:28so I'm excited for people to see the pages just splattered and you got to
08:32create a DC character that's pretty cool and I get to play with DC characters I
08:36mean I get Zatanna Zatara's a it makes an appearance very soon into the story
08:39and she becomes a really important element in the story and and other
08:44surprises well let's go into the Deadpool and Wolverine popcorn but being
08:50of superheroes oh boy here we go okay maybe three questions out of here okay
08:56here we go I'm I'm nervous I'm reaching into Wolverine's mouth oh I got it I got
09:02I got something I guess I have very big hands I'm sorry Wolverine I have a very
09:05big hands okay I've gotten this question since the first Ant-Man movie I did and
09:12it's a great question and I always choke on the answer okay sorry this isn't
09:17gonna be your favorite answer if you could have only one superpower what
09:20would it be if I could have only one superpower what would it be I know I
09:26know every time I screw up or me or like get somebody's upset with me that
09:33I could say I'm sorry and then they immediately forgive me and move on that
09:37would be a great superpower I'm so annoyed sometimes when I want people to
09:40just move on and they won't okay number two what is your all-time favorite
09:51cinematic universe ooh interesting in Marvel the MCU the DC and the DC you
09:59know yeah so you and there are many other cinematic universes as well
10:03there's the Kaufman cinematic universe of course the toxic Avengers and the you
10:07know sergeant kabuki man universes but I would say my favorite thus far in the in
10:13the pantheon of cinema would be the MCU
10:20all right last question let's see who is the most iconic voice in an animated
10:27series that comes to mind well if I had my phone on me I would pull up my
10:32voicemail if you ever called my phone and gotten my voicemail okay so no well
10:37it's a pickup for me I do of course Aaron I see you calling it's come hello
10:41so if you get my voicemail my poor mother may she rest in peace she it
10:45drove her crazy because it's very long but I did a film called sushi girl when
10:50I first moved to Los Angeles and one of the stars that movie was an incredible
10:53legend named Mark Hamill and since I couldn't attend the wrap party or get
10:56his wrap gift he said what would you like and I said would you do my
10:59voicemail for me so he took my phone into his trailer and he did the voice of
11:02the Joker answering my phone for me and I think what he did with that voice is
11:09to me as iconic as it gets I have no idea that's that's incredible
11:15come to the phone right now he's in the basement I should know I found him gagged
11:20him there that's what it goes like and then he just laughs and cackles and it's
11:23very loud and obnoxious and I love it and I'll never delete it and your late
11:26mother suffered through it she would listen and she'd always go David when
11:31are you gonna change that message it's so long it hurts my ears and I go sorry
11:35mama just just if I don't answer don't don't don't stay on the phone text me
11:40how does texting work all right well David does falchion thanks glad you had
11:46a good comic-con Thanks Hollywood Reporter Thank You comic-con
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