So much good stuff on GGR this week: Julian recaps his time at this year’s New York Comic Con; our Rioters tease Invincible Fight Girl and Philip chats with executive producer Juston Gordon-Montgomery; Sherin and Alex share their love for Shrinking S2; and our fifth PBS Renegades Aftershow celebrates Brad Lomax. Dive in!
PBS Renegades Aftershow #5: Brad Lomax: Creating Communities of Care
The fifth episode of Rioter Day Al-Mohamed’s PBS American Masters series Renegades celebrates Brad Lomax, a member of the Black Panther Party and the founder of the East Oakland Center for Independent Living. Lomax had multiple sclerosis and used a wheelchair; his push for disability justice laid the groundwork for the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act.
Rioter Renee and guest host Mariette Largess sit down with the episode’s director/producer Markus Essien and writer/producer Cara Reedy to talk about what drew them to this project, the scenes that stood out to them, and how difficult it was to find information on Lomax while doing their research. You can stream the episode ‘Brad Lomax: Creating Communities of Care’ on PBS now.
Invincible Fight Girl feat. Interview with Juston Gordon-Montgomery
Our Rioters are cheering on the new Adult Swim show Invincible Fight Girl, which follows Andy, a young Black girl who dreams of becoming a wrestler. Sherin, Alex, and Philip tease why they can’t wait for you to see it—and Philip also chats with the series’ executive Juston Gordon-Montgomery about the show’s inspiration (scroll for the transcript), Andy’s hard times, and the anime influences and hilarious wrestling references peppered throughout.
Shrinking S2
From one love to the next: Shrinking is one of Sherin and Alex’s Soothing Shows and they’re here to tell you why. They tease the second season, digging into their favorite characters and telling Philip just why he needs to watch it (even if he’s being as stubborn and curmudgeonly as Harrison Ford’s character Paul).
Julian’s New York Comic Con Adventures
Julian is still recovering from the pop culture whirlwind that is New York Comic Con, where he attended the Shrinking and CROSS panels, the Dune: Prophecy fan experience, and a whole lot more. Listen in as he tells Sherin about his highlights and observations about the big publishers, indie artists, and comic dealers. From adaptation trends to webtoons to cosplay fixes, there was a whole lot to see and Sherin and Julian bring their wealth of knowledge of the creative and entertainment industries to give you a peek behind the curtain.
Invincible Fight Girl Interview with creator Juston Gordon-Montgomery
Promo: Step into the ring with Invincible Fight Girl. It’s showtime.
Philip Jean-Pierre: This is Phillip Jean Pierre with Justin Gordon Montgomery, the executive producer of Invincible Fight Girl.
Let’s start this off. Like Dusty Rhodes said, you put hard times on Andy. From episode one, would you say that they kind of mirror some of your experiences as part of your evolution?
Juston Gordon-Montgomery: Yeah, yeah, I think they definitely mirror mine. I think I also Was drawing quite a bit from what I was hoping was maybe just a little bit more of a universal truth What it was like what it’s like to pursue something you’re passionate about.
I understood You know, I’m someone who’s kind of lucky to be surrounded by a lot of people who are passionate about different things that are, you know, pursuing them. And there are things that are very different than what I’m doing. And I think something that was kind of a really interesting eye open moment for me was sort of just seeing just how universal the struggle is for anyone who is trying to do something that Really means a lot to them the the battle is truly like uphill, you know and I think there’s something about kind of where we are right now in the zeitgeist where I think a lot of people are grappling with the sort of question of like how much Can a person invest into a thing versus the return that they get from it?
And so those felt like questions that I kind of wanted to pose in Andy’s journey. I’m making it just really, really hard for her and making it so that every win she got really, really. Truly felt earned.
Philip: Yeah. On that same note, even when she does not necessarily win, there’s always growth in her journey.
Like she gets better for every experience, good or bad, especially how she starts off. Then the fact that she kind of grows into who she becomes by episode four, you’re just like, you will not be stopped at all. So I appreciate that for me personally, I was getting some Naruto vibes from the Shippuden era and especially Joseph Campbell’s idea of the hero’s journey.
And I think it especially embodies that. And you spoke a little bit about this, like as part of her journey, besides your personal experiences, what external forces or influences inspired you to come up with Andy’s journey?
Juston: Sure, yeah, I think, I think you’re, you’re kind of right on the money. Naruto was really big for me growing up.
I felt like I had never seen a show like that, that so beautifully balanced a character’s growth with adversity, with them making sort of Incremental, you know, discoveries along the way, but at the same time, balancing that with their need to sort of personally go back and refine their attitudes about the world.
And so that was, that was a really big one for me. My other thing too, that I also tell people a lot is a lot of this, I was thinking about Pokemon, but like early days.
Philip: Oh, yeah. Yeah. I would ask for started his road to become the greatest.
Juston: Yeah, and I, and I think that there’s something a little, I don’t know if anyone still watches it, but there’s something a little bit different from what it is now, where I think there’s, there’s more of a, there’s more of this idea that this thing is going to probably keep going forever, so we’re just kind of coming up with new fun stories.
But I think when it first started, it seemed like it was a little bit more finite. Things felt more consequential, you know, when Ash lost, he really took that loss. Yeah. And he really kind of went back to the well and was like, dang, what did I do wrong? But, and, you know, and when he would overcome the thing, it was never just magically, he got better.
There was a lot of self reflection that had to. Had to happen for him to be able to make adjustments. And that, that sort of storytelling, making things feel like they’re very consequential, like they matter, making it [00:04:00] so that your characters feel like any progress they make is deeply and truly earned. I think I was looking at a lot of media that I felt did that.
Okay,
Philip: that’s awesome. Growing up, did you yourself want to become a professional wrestler? And if so, would you be a face or a heel?
Juston: I, I didn’t want to become a wrestler because I thought it was real. I thought, you know, I thought Undertaker was like really a dead guy. So I, uh, the, the thought of like actually getting in there and fighting terrified me.
I do think I would be. Because one of my favorites was Kurt Angle. And yeah, I noticed that from the ankle, right, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so I was like, oh man, he’s like the hero. Like he’s going to stop all the bad guys. But yeah, no, as a kid, I, I was, I erotically was into a lot of boxing, even though that was, you know, Also as violent it again.
I I thought wrestling had supernatural shit in it So I was like, well, at least you can just fight like I don’t you can’t do anything against the Undertaker He’s like a dead guy. He’s gonna be
Philip: speaking of the boxing Yeah, I don’t talk to you about the section about the tenderizer distance and the beef puncher family Was that inspired by Biggie’s?
Promo of big meaty men slapping meat, or were you just, I’m going to just do this for this one neck neighborhood. No, it wasn’t, it
Juston: wasn’t inspired by that though. That is a really funny reference. It sort of came from this idea of, you know, this is a wrestling world. A big part of the sort of fun of that was like, well, what are all the ways that wrestling has been integrated into daily life?
And so that felt like a very, you know, Easy and obvious direction to go to. Oh yeah. Like people do this thing as, as a profession, but then it also has very obvious applications to when they wrestle and it might actually even make a whole wrestling style out of it. And so it kind of started to naturally flow from there.
Philip: Okay. Um, so one last question and you touched on this a little bit. So from watching the four episodes that you, they gifted us, the one thing I most enjoyed about this was the fact that from episode one to four, not only is there growth, but the maturity level in someone having to go through that journey is pretty, it’s pretty drastic.
When people watch this, what would you, uh, what other things would you like them to take from it? Besides if you’re going to fight for your dreams, you can, but at the same time, you have to be real as well.
Juston: Yeah, I think I would also hope that people have empathy for people who choose to follow their passions in that way, because, you know, as, as, as you know, there’s an episode, episode two, I won’t give too much away where we talk about what happens when that doesn’t work out.
I think as a show, we’re not interested in sort of being prescriptive and telling people, you know, you should follow your dreams or you shouldn’t. It’s, I think we feel that that’s a personal decision that people have to come to and a calculus that they have to make based off of what they’re willing to sacrifice and what they’re willing to give up for it.
But I think that the meditation on that is that people think about, and I hope that they have empathy one way or another for people who either do decide to follow their dreams or don’t.
Philip: Cool. No, thank you. Thank you very much. I truly do appreciate the time you gifted us. And again, this was a great show and honestly really enjoyed the actual, the kind of universal truths that you put out in it.
And I think a lot of people will as well. Thank you. Appreciate it.
Promo: Invincible Fight Girl, two episode series premiere, Saturday, November 2nd at midnight on Toonami, next day on Max.
