39: In honor of Half-Way to Halloween, Ariel, Stefanie, and their guest, Dan Connor, dive into the enchanting world of the comic series The Nightmare Before Christmas: The Battle for Pumpkin King. They explore the beginnings of iconic characters Jack Skellington and Oogie Boogie, shedding light on their transition from friends to rivals. Join them as they discuss how the graphic novel captivates die-hard fans and new readers, perfectly capturing the spirit of the beloved franchise.

Summary
 
Summary of HPOE39 

• 00:00 Introduction: Introduction to the episode, greeting, and a brief overview of what will be discussed, including Dan Conner’s work and the focus on “The Nightmare Before Christmas: The Battle for Pumpkin King.”
• 03:24 Dan Conner’s Background and Achievements: Introduction of Dan Conner, discussing his career, notable works, and his role in creating “The Nightmare Before Christmas: The Battle for Pumpkin King.”
• 07:15 Origins of ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’: Discussion on the inception and cultural impact of “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” setting the stage for the deeper exploration of the graphic novel.
• 12:20 Deep Dive into ‘The Battle for Pumpkin King’: Detailed exploration of the graphic novel, character development of Jack and Oogie, and the themes of rivalry and friendship.
• 19:34 Creative Process and Challenges: Insight into the creative process of adapting the story into a graphic novel, challenges faced, and the collaboration between artists and writers.
• 27:50 Storytelling Techniques: Comics vs. Manga: Comparison of storytelling techniques in American comics and manga, as seen in the graphic novel.
• 34:18 Educational and Therapeutic Applications: Discussion on how the themes and characters of the graphic novel can be used in educational and therapeutic settings.
• 40:45 Engaging Fans and New Readers: Strategies for engaging long-time fans of “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and attracting new readers to the graphic novel.
• 47:30 Conclusion and Where to Find the Book: Closing thoughts, where listeners can find “The Battle for Pumpkin King,” and upcoming appearances by Dan Conner.

Transcription
 
Ariel Landrum (00:00)
Hello everyone, welcome to the Happiest Pod on Earth. I’m Ariel, a licensed therapist who uses clients’ passions and fandoms to help them grow and heal from trauma and mental unwellness. 
Stefanie (00:09)
And I’m Stef I’m an educator who uses passions and fandoms to help my students grow and learn about themselves and the world around them. 
Dan Conner (00:15)
And I’m Dan, I’m a cartoonist. I wrote the Nightmare Before Christmas, The Battle for Pumpkin King, and I work on a lot of comics. 
Ariel Landrum (00:24)
Beautiful, beautiful. And here at Happiest Pod we dissect mediums with a critical lens. Why? Because we are more than fans and we expect more from the mediums we consume. 
Stefanie (00:33)
That’s right. And everybody, as we have a special guest here on our podcast, what are we discussing today? 
Ariel Landrum (00:39)
Exactly that Nightmare Before Christmas, which this is the opportune time simply because we are halfway to Halloween. So Dan, can you tell us a bit about your comic? 
Stefanie (00:46)
That’s right. 
Dan Conner (00:50)
Yes, it’s a prequel to the Nightmare Before Christmas movie. And the premise is that it starts off when Jack and Oogie Boogie are friends. And there it’s not really much of a spoiler. There was a former Pumpkin King named Edgar who is coming to the end of his tenure. And so Jack and Oogie have to compete against each other to see who will be the new Pumpkin King. Of course, if you’ve seen the movie, it’s not a spoiler that you might not. 
You might know who that is, but this gives the background information to how that happens and how the rivalry between Jack and Oogie begins. 
Ariel Landrum (01:24)
And did you write and do the artwork for this comic or graphic novel? 
Dan Conner (01:29)
No, I just wrote it. It was originally five comics that were collected in one graphic novel. 
Ariel Landrum (01:37)
Hey, beautiful, beautiful. 
Stefanie (01:38)
Yeah, that’s awesome. I mean, I remember Ariel emailed it to me and then I saw the PDF. I was at work. And then I realized that I did not go back to my task for like 30 minutes because I just kept reading it. And I’m like, this is so fantastic. I love, I love me a good prequel story. And I love seeing characters when they’re younger because I think it’s so fascinating. I’m surrounded by kids all day and. 
Dan Conner (01:53)
I’m sorry. 
Yeah. 
Stefanie (02:05)
when you have a character as beloved as Jack and as Oogie Boogie, seeing them in their child form, I think is so playful and fun and it just gives another dimension to the character. So I was immediately hooked. 
Dan Conner (02:17)
Very cool, yeah, that’s really fun about it. I love the different character designs that you see, Sally with the pigtails, Jack with kind of like the schoolboy uniform, so yeah, that’s really fun. 
Ariel Landrum (02:30)
and even Lock, Shock, and Barrel as babies. That was adorable. 
Dan Conner (02:34)
Yeah, yeah, I’m glad you think so. 
Stefanie (02:35)
So cute. Yeah, everybody loves a baby version of a character. I think that kind of ties to like when we saw Grogu and seeing him as a baby first, that’s why everybody went baby Yoda at first, just because we were like, oh, obviously that’s just a child version of Yoda. And then we started doing like that calculation meme. We were like, wait, is that really him? But yeah, I think seeing kids or seeing characters in like… 
Dan Conner (02:56)
Yeah. 
Stefanie (03:00)
all stages of their life is so interesting, especially with a character development so rich as what we were given in the Nightmare Before Christmas. It was so interesting to me to see how playful he was even when he was younger and even how playful Oogie Boogie was, even though it was a different type of playfulness that we saw when he was singing and when he was doing his vile things. This was a different type of playfulness and I think… 
that that was really interesting to see how they interacted with each other because all we knew was just the struggle between the two during the movie. So how did it feel for you to create a story with a new story with such beloved characters? Was it difficult? Was it hard? I mean, was it something that you’ve already thought about? 
Dan Conner (03:49)
That’s a good question. Yeah, it felt really good. I mean, Nightmare Before Christmas is my favorite Disney movie for sure. And getting to be involved with the series is amazing. Getting to write one of the comic series graphic novels was just unbelievable. So when I was able to work on it, the outline was already done. And so… 
That was of course by DJ Milky and Sean McLaughlin and they weren’t able to write out the whole thing and script it out. And there were some changes made to that one as well. So it was brought to me and then my task was to write the book. That went really well. I was able to try a few different things, try a lot of different things that ultimately just about everything worked out. 
Ariel Landrum (04:44)
I’m curious, were you ever attempted to create new characters in the Nightmare Before Christmas sort of like world or universe? Was that even on the table for discussion? 
Dan Conner (04:54)
So the former Pumpkin King Edgar, he was a character that we c...