David Dastmalchian chats with THR at San Diego Comic-Con and dishes on joining the comic book publishing world. Plus, he recalls the moment when Margot Robbie and James Gunn supported 'Count Crowley,' joining Jim Lee's panel for DC and working on 'Creature Commandos.'
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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