Christopher Daniels Gives Update On AEW Comic Books, Talks SWERVE Film Short

By Jason Ounpraseuth

AEW star Christopher Daniels of SCU was on today's episode of The Wrestling Inc. Daily podcast where he chatted about a short film that he stars in along with his fellow SCU members Frankie Kazarian and Scorpio Sky. The film is called "SWERVE" and Wrestling Inc. Managing Editor Nick Hausman asked Daniels how he got involved the project.

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"A couple of years back, a comic book writer by the name of Jon Judy contacted me," Daniels recalled. "He knew that, in addition to being a wrestler, I'm also a big comic book fan. I've been a comic book fan since I was 10 years old. He was like, 'Yeah, I've got this comic book that I'm writing. It's coming out from Arcana called SWERVE.' He let me know about it.

"I picked up the first issue and immediately thought it was great. It's about the Texas independent wrestling scene in the '70s, but that's the backdrop. It's more of a crime drama. It's about this young guy coming up who gets involved in drugs with wrestling as the backdrop. It's a six-issue miniseries that came out. So I read all six issues. I thought it was great, and that's the last I thought of it.

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"A couple months ago, Sean McArdle, who directed the short that you just watched, he let me know that he was looking to try to adapt the comic book into a film, and so he wanted to make a scene, the opening scene of the actual story and use that sort of to drum up some interest in hoping to make this a feature film. So when he let me know that this was happening, I called Frankie, I called Sky [and] I called Eric Watts. I told them that we could help him film the wrestling part of the opening scene, and the end result is what you watched man."

Daniels said that the short film was an adaptation of the first issue of the mini-series. He said the goal is for the short to be picked up by an investor so that a feature film can be made to adapt the rest of the comic book series.

"This is the opening scene of the first issue of the comic book, and it sort of sets the stage," Daniels explained. "One of the characters that's in there is one of the main villains in the entire series, but I thought this was a really cool — when I read this scene in the comic book, I thought it was a really cool set up for the entire story of the series, and the idea of making this sort of snippet that they show potential investors to try and make this into a feature film, I thought it was a great idea.

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"Sean did a really good job of capturing the feel of the comic book in the short, and hopefully, he finds people that are interested in this. I think the good thing about it is wrestling is a part of it, but it's not the main part of it. I think there's a great crime story there. There's some great characters in here. There's some real meat on the bone when it comes to story, and so I think this is something that if they can find some people that are interested in this sort of story, I think it's going to find a big audience out there."

Hausman noted that not only is Daniels a big comic book fan, but he is also a comic book writer. Daniels discussed the comics he has written with Kazarian before praising Jon Judy and others who have written full-length series comics.

"I wrote a couple comic books with Art Baltazar and Franco [Aureliani], the AW YEAH COMICS guys, and there's still an issue that has yet to come out, but Art and Franco are so busy with their own stuff," Daniels noted. "We're hoping that it still comes out, but yeah, I've been involved with comic books. I've had the opportunity to write some stuff, but I'm not as prolific as some of these guys and certainly not as prolific as Jon, who wrote the original series, so I tip my hat to those guys that write full series and full-on series. That stuff's difficult, and my hats off to them. I enjoy all their work."

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Hausman also pointed out how remarkable it is that Daniels can now use his reputation in pro wrestling and bring that to the comic book world. Daniels then reiterated his desire for the creators of SWERVE to see their creation on the big screen for everyone to see.

"Yeah, absolutely. I think the fact that Sean took it upon himself to try and get this made into a feature film, I think it's great for Jon and Dexter, the artists of the original series, to sort of get that notoriety," Daniels said. "I hope that fans get a chance to see this in a movie theater in the near future. It would be great for Jon and Dexter to sort of have their work brought to life on the silver screen. Yeah man, it's just cool. It's cool to see wrestling fans that are also comic book creators sort of put their fandom on the page, and then take that fandom and put it on the screen. I think that would be awesome."

Daniels later admitted that he does not know if AEW President Tony Khan is a fan of comics or not. He joked that he might have to bring in some of his trade paperbacks for Khan to read.

"We haven't yet. I don't know what Tony thinks of comics," Daniels admitted. "I'm sure he'd appreciate SWERVE. He's got a real love for professional wrestling, and like I said, that comic book's got a real, gritty '70s Texas feel to it. So I think he'd appreciate that story, but I don't know if Tony's a comic book guy or not. That would be cool if he was though. I'll have to bring some stuff, bring some trade paperbacks his way."

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Daniels also discussed the partnership between AEW and DC Comics noting that both TNT and DC Comics are under the WarnerMedia umbrella. Daniels later teased that there might be an AEW comic book on the way, but he noted that Dynamite is the main priority for AEW right now.

"Yeah, because TNT has ties with Warner Bros. who also has ties with DC Comics," Daniels noted. "We did a little bit of a thing especially because we did our Revolution PPV earlier this year. It was a part of C2E2, which is the big comic book convention in Chicago. It was great. We had some DC artists, Ramon Villalobos and Howard Porter, did some great cover art of some AEW stars. There was some great shots of Cody, and Chris Jericho, and Nyla Rose and they did an SCU piece that I really dug. It was very cool.

"Because we've got that tie, we're looking into doing an AEW comic book I'm sure. I don't think there's been any movement on that just because of the stuff that we're doing with the television show right now that takes precedence, but we're always in the market to sort of find new ways to get new fans to get their eyes on the AEW product."

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Christopher Daniels is featured in the new short film SWERVE which is now available to watch for free on YouTube. He can also be seen every Wednesday night as part of AEW Dynamite and can be followed on Twitter @facdaniels. Daniels' full interview aired as part of today's episode of our podcast, The Wrestling Inc. Daily. Subscribe to get the latest episodes as soon as it's released Monday – Friday afternoon by clicking here.

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