MONDO EXTRAS

On how accessible Comic Book Men will be to non-geeks:
'Thankfully the work's been done for us. For over 15 years The Simpsons have had Comic Book Guy as a character. People kind of understand the language of that world. The short hand is already established.... It's called Comic Book Men, but it's not just about comics. If you grew up anywhere near the age we grew up -- like the 70's, 80's or something -- you're definitely going to see stuff on the show that you had as a kid, and it's like an instant time machine. It's crazy. Like when you're watching the footage and suddenly somebody comes in with a mint-in-the-box fucking Bionic Man. And you can look through its eye and it still has the rough skin with the fucking chip in its arm. It took me right back to opening one on Christmas morning, man. It's like that moment in Ratatouille when Remy eats that fucking ratatouille and he goes back to childhood -- same thing. You're watching the show and you'll be like, 'I had that doll,' you know? Suddenly you're running to eBay. It's pretty awesome."

On whether the male-dominated show will appeal to women:
"I watched every episode of Sex and the City and I know that show wasn't made for me. There'll just be [audience] crossover by virtue of the fact that some people, even though they feel it's not gender-oriented to them, will be interested in it. The fact that it's called Comic Book Men doesn't mean there's no chicks in the show. It's just the reality of this comic book store is that these are the people that work there. Now, originally, when we did the presentation, AMC was like, 'It's a fucking sausage party, get a chick in there.' So we were like, 'Well all right, let's find a chick.' We found a chick, we brought the chick in, we shot, it was great. But then AMC, God bless them, they watched it and were like, 'well, that's not the reality of the show; let's just keep it to the boys.' Now, we could alter the reality in season two, God willing if they pick us up, and add a woman to it. Or, even better, create a brand new show where we find four chicks or five chicks running a comic book store somewhere and go franchise off in that direction. Hopefully, if this works, we open the door to something like Comic Book Women."