FRANCO FRIDAYS | 13th Dimension, Comics, Creators, Culture

Feb13

NINJA KAIJU: A Book Only for Those Who Love Fun

Posted by Dan Greenfield on Feb 13, 2026

NINJA KAIJU: A Book Only for Those Who Love Fun

FRANCO’S FREE-FOR-ALL FRIDAYS… By FRANCO I’ve had a long-term working relationship with my pal Scoot McMahon and we have a new graphic novel from Papercutz hitting shelves Feb. 17 — Ninja Kaiju! So, we sat down for a chat about it — and are sharing some EXCLUSIVE, never-before-revealed pages: Franco: So let’s talk about how I make you work with me all the time. How does that sit with you? Scoot: Ha! It’s fun, that’s the main thing. It doesn’t feel like work. It’s kind of like being in study hall at school and we’re just messing around drawing and talking. Definitely doesn’t feel like work. Franco: OK, gotta admit, if we were in study hall together, we would probably get in trouble Scoot: Well, I feel like my experience in study hall was they let me draw and create so I wouldn’t get in trouble. But that’s the fun of it too — there is this element of childlike energy that we were able to tap into for creating stories for kids and adults. Or, we would get in trouble if the teacher saw what we were doing and then they would want a copy of the homemade comic we were making. Franco: So not a burden working with me — that’s good! How did Ninja Kaiju come into your life? Scoot: You called and asked me about putting two things together like Ninja and Kaiju — talked about all the silly things that would happen. It was a funny idea. I did some drawings, you did too. Franco: I knew when I first had the idea, I said, “I gotta call Scoot!’ I knew your cartooning and designs would be the perfect fit for the tone of what I wanted the story to be. Scoot: Yeah, we really wanted to stretch the limit of silliness. We went totally silly with zombie fish, polar bears and kaiju powers. Just be as silly as we could. Franco: What’s your favorite part of the book? Scoot: I like Chapter 2! The Kaiju is fighting the robot that can’t be defeated and then the Kaiju discovers what he eats will change his powers — so that is my favorite part! It was fun to draw but also fun and a different sort of power we haven’t seen with this kind of...

Feb06

The Tale of the AW YEAH UNIVERSE

Posted by Dan Greenfield on Feb 6, 2026

The Tale of the AW YEAH UNIVERSE

FRANCO’S FREE-FOR-ALL FRIDAYS! By FRANCO One of my earliest memories was going with my father to a corner newsstand in the Bronx, where he would get his newspaper and occasionally buy me a comic book. I was a struggling reader and I learned to read because of comics. My love of art is because of comics. They have been with me my entire life. At one point, before all of this, I even opened my own comic-book store. I was so excited and then crestfallen when it failed miserably. And people thought I was crazy when I voiced opinions about the possibility of opening another store. I pursued a career in writing and artwork, and when I thought that wasn’t going to work, I pursued a career in education, where again, I brought my love of writing and artwork to students. I worked really hard at both of these and I was successful with both my career in education and in the comic-book fields. The one thing I was told throughout these years was that I couldn’t possibly do both. That I would have to give up one or the other. I thought about this but questioned, why? One thing that really gets my ire going is telling me I can’t do something. It gets me riled up. Why? Who are you to tell me I can’t do this? Why? That is the question that was my general answer. So I went back to the one thing that I had done and failed miserably at: What if I opened another comic book store? It took a few years and, I will admit, there was a confluence of events that steered things in the direction I wanted to go, but it happened. It was about 14 years ago, and in conversations with my friends and partners, Marc Hammond and Art Baltazar, we would open Aw Yeah Comics. Shortly after the launch of our first store in Skokie, Illinois, we would kick off a comic-book series with characters like Action Cat and Adventure Bug in the pages of Aw Yeah Comics. (Are you sensing a theme yet?) To shorten a story that took years to unfold, we opened Aw Yeah Comics in Harrison, New York, with even more partners (and now lifelong friends), and expanded into Muncie, Indiana, with Christy Blanch....

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