This week I interviewed Charlie Ridgely, who works at comicbook.com. Ridgely is a Linganore alum who graduated in 2009. He went on to attend Carson Newman University in Tennessee. He majored in business administration with an emphasis on marketing. Now he is happily married and writing about everybody’s favorite comic book characters.

Comicbook.com is a news source for virtually all comics. Ridgely writes articles about all kinds of comics, although his main job is to help with The Walking Dead podcast on comicbook.com. He also writes many articles for the The Walking Dead, which is part of Image Comics. You can read Charlie’s stories here.

Eddins: How long have you been working for the current website?

Ridgely: I started freelancing this time last year. It turned into a part time job in September of last year. It then became a full time job a couple weeks later the first of October. I haven’t spent too long at this place, but I really like it.

Eddins: Did you ever work for a different comic book based store, company or website?

Ridgely: I wrote for other websites, but I was never an official employee of any other site.

Eddins: Do you think that Image Comics and Dark Horse Comics deserve more spotlight?

Ridgely: Absolutely. I love the Dark Horse and Image Comics, such as Hellboy and the Walking Dead. I definitely think they deserve more of a spotlight.

Eddins: Who’s your favorite hero or villain from Marvel or DC?

Ridgely: I think I’m partial to Wolverine because Logan just came out. I don’t know. Punisher’s probably up there. I like the anti-hero a lot. I like characters that have that evil force in them but try to work for good. I think that villainous aspect makes them more interesting. So I really like guys like Wolverine and Punisher.

Eddins: Who do you think would win? Wolverine of Punisher?

Ridgely: Wolverine. Because he is a mutant and has a healing factor. Punisher is really cool but it is no competition.

Eddins: What got you interested in the comic universe? How long have you been interested in the comic universe?

Ridgely: To be honest, I’m like a lot of people in the comic industry. It started when I was living in Maryland, after I graduated college. At that point, I’m 22 years old and I really never was into comics. A comic shop opened in Mt. Airy that seemed interesting so I started going to that. I started talking to the cashier at the shop there and started getting into it. I started reading Marvel stuff and got into that. When I came to Nashville I started to stray away from the comics, but then found this job. I actually started working on podcasts. It set the ground work for me.

Eddins: If you could start your own comic book business like Marvel of DC, would you?

Ridgley: If I had the opportunity, I think I’d be able to. I feel it would be a lot of fun. I think I’d have fun creating characters like Spider-Man. I’m watching Valiant rebuild this giant universe.

Eddins: What kind of advice would you give someone who wants to start their very own comic book business?

Ridgely: Go on websites and submit your own works. Just get your work out there because there are a lot of sites that will publish you.

Eddins: What are your plans for the future?

Ridgely: At the moment I don’t see myself leaving this place because I do really like this job. however in the future I would like to create for myself and write my own stories.

Cooper: One final question what what do you anticipate being your favorite comic book movie and which one do you think will make the most money?

Ridgely: In terms of my favorite, I had Logan held to a really high standard and it did not disappoint at all. I really enjoyed it. Its making every other movie I see seem not as good. Money wise, I think that the Justice League can either pull in a whole lot of money or totally flop. Spider-man however will make money either way, Justice League as potential to beat it, but I don’t see it happening. No movie is going to make more than The Last Jedi.