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Yah, it's going doing very well. How are you doing today? I

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am good. Thanks so much for
having me. Absolutely, you have created

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your own verse, your own world, and it starts with that book cover.

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Please tell me that you had a
lot to do with that cover,

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because it excites the imagination. Oh, I wish I could take any credit

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for it. It's just the amazing
work of the artist, and she did

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such a wonderful job. It's really
it's it's hypnotic. Do you find yourself

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getting the artwork done first, or
is it after you've created a story and

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brought it to life. I think
in the case of this book, the

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artwork was kind of happening as I
was writing the book, so it was

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really inspirational just to see it come
together for the cover, and that fed

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into the pros itself. So it
was kind of really collaborative. So to

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go from being a fan first to
actually physically writing a story that you've now

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released out to us who love Marvel
books, I mean, it's like this

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had to have been one hell of
a journey for you. Yeah, it

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was a thrill. I mean,
I have vivid memories of picking up my

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first Spider Man comic as a kid
like maybe seven, six or seven years

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old, and you know, now
I'm watching my own six or seven to

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my seven year old son read Spider
Man comics. So it's really been you

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know, yeah, coming full circle
in many ways. But you know,

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being able to add to the mythos
is so exciting. Yeah, and the

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continuity of it all. I mean, I bet you have to do a

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ton of research because you know how
those Marvel fans are, they want it

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their way. Yeah. No,
I mean it helped to be a fan,

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but obviously I had to do I
went back and reread some of my

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favorite Spider Man twenty ninety nine books
and some of a key appearances. But

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I also wanted to just evoke the
iconic version of these characters. So it

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doesn't really cancel anything that came before
or or negate anything, but it fits

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in pretty seamlessly. I think as
well. I love the way that you

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you you've placed the book inside the
year twenty ninety nine for you to envision

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that and now sell it to us
as the reader. How did you bring

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that world to life? I think
the key for me was to read,

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you know, the past interpretations of
twenty ninety nine and especially the Spider Man

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adventures and see see what they got
right in terms of what the future held,

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but also added my own little predictions
for what I thought where things are

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going in, you know, under
the umbrella of the Spider Man's story.

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So that was that was neat,
And you know, you always you always

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want to present the compelling and interesting
future. You know, when it comes

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to to Marvel, we always think
of the comic books. Your your book

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is all words, so you to
me, you step right into that world

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where the imagination has got to get
its own interpretation and follow that story along.

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Thank you. Yeah. I think
when you're writing comics, you you

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get to collaborate with the artists who
brings your words to visual life. And

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with a novel, the responsibility is
on the author to give the reader those

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little cues for what they can create, you know, in their mind's eye.

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So that was that was interesting,
you know, being a comic fan

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and having read a lot of Spider
Man comics as a fan and also written

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my own fair share. Um,
it was interesting too to do that.

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The subliminal message here is the arana
A Brooklyn team realizes new strength, new

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abilities, and I think that readers
are going to go. I want to

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know what my hidden strengths are,
what can I discover about myself? Yeah,

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the story Spider Man twenty one and
nine Dark Tomorrow is about is a

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coming of age story for radas she
discovers these abilities and learns to balance,

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you know, the bands of teenage
and high school life and how do you

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how do you do that when you
have this other added responsibility? And I

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think that's really relatable. Even you
know, even though we live in a

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world unfortunately where we don't have Spider
abilities, we all have our own kind

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of hidden responsibilities that we have to
carry out. So I think that's really

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something that readers can connect to,
don't you think in a really cool way.

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We all think we can fly like
Spider Man. All all we have

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to have is just a little bit
of ability. Yeah. I mean,

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I'll tell you it was really a
huge moment for me as a kid to

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pick up Spider Man twenty ninety nine
and see another Latin X character as Spider

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Man. And I think that's that's
the core of Spider Man, that it's

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very relatable and we can all connect
to that character in different ways. And

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I think that this book really shows
that, Oh my god, you bring

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up. But it's such a great
point because we are we are in this

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generation that has had so many different
Spider Man's. And the thing is,

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though, is that we're accepting the
Spider Verse. We we want that,

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we we it's almost like we're commanding
it. Yeah. I mean the Spider

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Verse reflects the world. It's it's
diverse, it's welcoming, it's it's so

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many different characters doing different things.
And I think this book is really an

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example of that. In terms of
a novel. It's it showcases these characters

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in fun ways and how they play
off each other and how they're they're part

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of this bigger tapestry of characters.
So did you go through a split personality

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change when you when you invited two
Spider Verse heroes together in the same story.

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I wouldn't say it with split personality. I think it was just an

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opportunity to showcase these two characters in
very different points in their quote unquote superhero

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career, and but also showing you
can you can learn from from other characters

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no matter how old you are,
no matter what point you are in your

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life or your career. Ronney is
starting out and in need of a mentor.

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But she also brings a lot of
experience and excitement, and that's what

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re energizes Miguel Spider Man twenty ninety
nine, who when you start the book

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you realize he's quit, he's given
up the role of Spidy twenty ninety nine,

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and so he gets reactivated just by
seeing this young character doing the things

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that he has now kind of taken
for granted. Well, see, I

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totally understand that because in the everyday
world, I mean, we see that

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all the time. We're mentors,
you know, are like that, we

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feel like that, we're washed up. But then all of a sudden,

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somebody finds interest in something that you
know about. Boom, it's it's all

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over again. Here we go.
Yeah, You're like, oh wow,

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this is why I love what I
do, and this is why this is

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important to me, and this is
why I needed I mean, she basically

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shows him you're Spider Man, people
are counting on you. Yeah, did

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you when you when you write a
story like this, do you see real

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people when you're writing or are they
animated figures? Um? You know,

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in the case of this, where
it's a comic you know, comic book

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character is in a different medium of
prose, I visual as I experienced them

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as a reader, whereas you know, with my own kind of crime novels,

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I'll cast people in my mind.
Yeah, yeah, all right.

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Do you find yourself going to some
comicons? I do. Yeah, I

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go to I usually go to San
Diego Comic Con, your comic con.

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I'm doing a show called Horrifficon in
Connecticut in July, so yeah, I

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try to get out there and really
meet up with the fans, and the

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excitement is kind of what keeps you
going as a creator. It's a universe

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all its own, isn't it?
It really is. It's fantastic. Just

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the pure fandom enjoy that these these
readers bring to the experience is wonderful.

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Well, now that you're part of
that circle and you continue to grow with

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this circle as as as a writer, how does that change you in the

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way of so that you you know, it's like when when Fleetwood Mac release

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Rumors, you know, their biggest
challenge was to make sure that they didn't

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make another rumors. How do you
go and keep growing with with that possibility

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of of you know, the changing
of the story. I think you you

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balance the wonder, like it's a
huge wonder of adding to this great universe

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and being a part of this,
but also the responsibility you're you're you're taking

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these characters that are beloved and have
been around for so long, and you're

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adding to it. And I think
you want to do that fairly and also

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do it in a way that respects
everything that came before, but also brings

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your voice into it. And I
think that's that's the challenge. But that's

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so that's the fun of it too. So what happened in your writing space

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when when you knew in your heart, okay, that's it, I've now

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I've now finished the story. I
need to send it to my editor.

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Was was it a grand moment?
It just felt really important. It felt

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like, you know, I've gotten
this great opportunity to write these characters that

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I love as a reader, that
you know, you you know, And

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it's the same thing when I wrote
a Star Wars novel that you get to

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add this little note to kind of
this orchestral movement of story. And so

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it's it's really, it's really amazing
and it's something I'll really cherish as a

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as a writer. See that's what
I love about what you're doing with these

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stories with Star Wars as well as
Spider Man is that you know, being

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out here when you first receive it, and then to become a part of

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it. There are so many young
adults that are sitting in their rooms that

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that have stories and ideas for books
like this, but they don't set them

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free. They just hide them underneath
their bad Yeah. I think for me

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as a reader, it was really
important to read stories with characters that I

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could relate to, and so I
keep that in mind as a writer that

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somewhere out there there are kids or
younger readers at that age who are experiencing

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these stories, and I would just
suggest, you know, tell those stories,

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you know, being engaged and open
your mind to you adding to these

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kind of legendary stories. In putting
this book together, did you write it

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out long form or were you right
there on that computer? Oh my handwriting

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is too terrible. I had to
type it up. I'm a leftie.

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Oh my god. Oh yeah,
no, I typed it up. I'm

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an outliner. So I crafted the
outline and kind of built from there,

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and yeah, that's how it came
to be. Well, do you agree

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with the term that lefties are usually
more creative than writes. Oh, I

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don't know. I think that's just
kind of like a generalization. I think

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there's so many creative people out there. I don't think you can just put

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them into kids like that. How
about a story that puts you inside of

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a Spider Man adventure, me personally
and the actual Spider Oh yeah, I

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mean that that's like that'd be like
a like one of these little murder mystery

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books. I want to put the
author up on that on that stand and

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ask them questions about the crime,
just like, well, you know what's

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funny. I think that's what really
makes the Spider characters so compelling is that

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they're relatable to readers. I know, as a kid reading Peter Parker's stories

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in high school, I was like, oh, yeah, he's he's like

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this bookish kid like me, and
I could really connect with him. And

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then to think he puts on this
Spider Man costume and swings around and saves

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the day. That's really that's a
huge, huge idea for kids to embrace,

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and I think that's what keeps them
connected to these characters. So what's

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next or can you talk about that? Yeah? Next, for me in

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terms of books is Alter Ego,
which is a sequel to Secret Identity,

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which was my comic book Murder Mystery
that came out last year and won the

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La Times Book Prize, and that
comes out Alter Ego comes out summer next

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year. To become a writer,
people have to grow into that pair of

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shoes. When did you know that
you were a story teller? I think

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at a really young age. You
know, when I was reading comics,

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reading stuff like Sherlock Holmes and client
fiction, I would start kind of coming

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up with my own ideas. I
think it's a kid, You're like,

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Okay, this is a story,
but what if this happened. I didn't

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realize until much later that that's what
writing is. You know, you're creating

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your own stories. But at a
very young age, I was thinking about

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the idea of adding to these kind
of mythologies. Yeah. Yeah, yeah,

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it's just amazing that you've got this
book just in time as we get

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closer and closer to the summer months, because kids need something to read.

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Yeah, and I hope they enjoy
it. I think I think it's written

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with the young reader in mind,
but I think it's also you know,

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any age if you're a fan of
these characters, you'll find a bunch of

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fun easter eggs. You'll fund little
nods to the mythos. But I think

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at the end of the day,
I wanted to write something welcoming that could

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bring in new readers and show them
why these characters are so compelling and fascinating.

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I'll tell you one of the things
that I love about the book,

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and I took note of it right
away. I love the size of the

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font. Some times that funt gets
way too tiny and too many words are

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placed on a page. You did
really well with that funt. Yeah,

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00:11:07,080 --> 00:11:09,200
I wish I could take credit for
the typography. But yeah, the readability

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is super important. So yeah,
because that's part of the storytelling, because

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it's got to create a conversation so
people go on and buy their own version

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of the book. Yeah. Yeah, whatever brings people in to read and

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engage with the story is great.
So where can people go to find out

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more about you? Your books,
your journeys, your tours, everything.

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Sure, you can find all my
info at my website Alex Sigura dot com

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and I'm very active on Twitter at
Alex underscores Segura and Instagram Alex Sigura Junior,

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Man, I can't wait to talk
to you again. Dude. You

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00:11:37,639 --> 00:11:41,039
got to come back to this show
anytime, anytime you want me. I'll

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be here all right. Man,
you'd be brilliant today. Okay, thank

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you, take care,