GBBP 222: J. Michael Straczynski

This week, we welcome the legendary J. Michael Straczynski to the show. For many fans, Straczynski is the author of several seminal runs in both the DC and Marvel universes. For other fans, he’s the genius behind Babylon 5. For still others, he’s known for co-creating Sense8 with the Wachowskis.

And for nerds like me, he was one of the original writers on He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. And, oh yeah, he co-created She-Ra: Princess of Power.

Legend.

But Straczynski has a new memoir out now – Becoming Superman: My Journey from Poverty to Hollywood – that chronicles his horrifically difficult childhood and how he SOMEHOW made it out alive. His father was, as he says himself, “the sampler platter of evil” – which somehow still manages to underestimate the depths of his awfulness.

The book is a riveting page-turner that will leave your jaw gaping open every chapter. It’s the story of a determined kid who would stop at nothing to escape the life he was born into – and how he found success (and escape) with words, crafting new universes into existence. Truly, Straczynski’s life feels more like fiction than some of the actual fiction for which he’s most well known.

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