Jacksepticeye Talks New Comic Book, YouTube Landscape, and More (Exclusive)

YouTuber Seán 'Jacksepticeye' McLoughlin is launching a new comic book and he, appropriately, sat down with ComicBook.com to discuss it. Jacksepticeye is one of the biggest YouTubers on the planet with over 30.5 million subscribers. While he's largely known for his gaming content, he has used his platform to successfully catapult himself into other business opportunities. He has been in films like Free Guy, he's launched a coffee business, and now, he's entering the world of comics. In collaboration with comics publisher Bad Egg, Jacksepticeye has created a new comic book series known as Altrverse which is based on characters that have existed on his YouTube channel for a number of years now. The comics will focus on the likes of Marvin the Magnificent and Jackie-Boy Man. The issue titled Void Silver is written by Alejandro Arbona and art by Suzi Blake and the issue known as The Somewhat Incredible Jackie-Boy Man! was written byJames Asmus with prologue story art by Connie Daidone and main series art by Megan Huang.

Altrverse will release on November 22nd, 2023, but fans can pre-order the comic between October 20th and October 23rd on Bad Egg's website. During this pre-order period, there will be a variant foil cover and there will be additional variant covers after the pre-order window. ComicBook.com sat down with Jacksepticeye to talk about bringing his creations to a new medium, his appetite for things beyond YouTube, the landscape of content creation, and much more. 

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

ComicBook: How did this comic book come to be and what is your involvement in it?

Jacksepticeye: I had these characters sort of on my channel for the last few years, and I think since 2016, we've kind been building out this sort of universe and it started building itself at one point, and then I was like, "Okay, I'll take a foray into this and do it a bit more legitimately." I started doing short films based on it. I did a thing last year where we made a game, and people could play it live through YouTube chat, and then we had pre-recorded stuff in that universe. So I was just trying to think of other ways we could incorporate characters into it, and tell their stories without just doing the same type of media all the time. Comic books have always just been really cool, and I never really had a story to tell for a comic book, so I was like, "Well, I'm not going to do one."

Now we have two characters, Marvin and Jackie, that I really thought that they fit the sort of comic book tropes, if you will, one being a very stereotypical sort of superhero story and the other one being a magician. So I thought it would be a cool way to flesh out their stories and give a bit of background on them and get people into their characters a bit more, a bit easier, because some of them is very flashy and very over the top, and I'm like, I don't really have the budget or the time to be able to film this in live action right now. So just a way of tapping into those characters a bit more.

My involvement in it is that we created the characters and gave them all the information, all the background, all the sort of lore that we had on them, and then we teamed up with some writers to flesh out their stories a bit more, and people who knew the comic book space a bit better than I did, and some artists who are... I mean, I'm not a writer or an artist, so I delegate to people who are much better in those spaces than I am.

We found some really good partners in that, and then they've been developing it over the last few months, and I've given feedback every now and then with some of my partners to see if the story's going in the direction we wanted.

And I assume you're very happy with how it turned out?

Yes, very, very happy.

It seems like the comic book medium is expanding in such a big way. Paul Dano, who played the Riddler, just wrote a Riddler comic. It seems like everyone is kind of coming in and putting their own stamp on all these characters and stuff. Is there anyone who already exists that you would like to do something with?

Not really, because I feel like any of the ones that I would be into are a Batman or a Spider-Man, like the two that have been done to absolute death. So probably not that. I think right now I'd like to just tap into my own characters a bit more and flesh those out and see where they go and what they can take on. It gives me a bit more free reign to do whatever I want. I am fascinated by manga and graphic novels and just being able to tell stories in that sort of medium. I think it's a really cool thing to be able to do. So I wouldn't say I'm exclusively just on my own characters forever. I'm sure some other ideas will pop up into my head that will fit a bit better for something else. But yeah, I just think it's a cool thing to be able to do and I'm glad that I'm able to tap into it so readily.

You've done YouTube, social media, music, games, comics, and even coffee. There's so much going on. I'm curious, do you have aspirations for other things? I feel like that kind of hits all the boxes. I don't know what other mediums or industries that are left to hit.

I do more than I realize I'm doing half the time, because until you ream it off that I'm like, oh yeah, I have tapped into all those different types of things. But I think right now, I'm trying to just focus on the ones like a comic book. I would like to do a narrative podcast at some point in that same universe, and a movie TV show style of thing is always on the table for me, because I just love live action. I love directing and cinematography and that whole space. So I think those are the ones that I'm most keen on right now. Maybe tap into a video game here or there, make something in that universe as well on a smaller scale.

But other than that, not really. I've done clothing, the coffee keeps me really busy, and I'm trying to be better about not taking on everything just because I want to do it, and actually focus on the ones I am doing and try and do them well, and not half-ass those and then take on a bunch of other stuff and half-ass that. I think we've got a good balance going right now and I don't really want to tip it.

I've never had coffee, but how did you enter that business?

Well, first of all, you're missing out if you've never had coffee.

I've heard.

I was really into the idea of doing something kind of out of the box, because everybody had kind of done merch and clothing and stuff on YouTube for a while, and I was trying to think of other things that I could do that weren't in that space. I really like coffee. Ever since I played Alan Wake on my Xbox years ago, I really started enjoying coffee and watching Twin Peaks and they were all about it. I was like, "I'm going to force myself to like coffee," and then I did. So after a while I was like, "Well, I would like to do something else." We threw around a few ideas and coffee kind of stuck with me. Then I came up with the name Top of the Morning for the coffee, because that's my slogan and an Irish thing and everything. So I was like, "That's just way too perfect to not at least try it." So we started talking to vendors and people who could help out with that, and it all just sort of snowballed, and now we just hit our third birthday a couple of days ago. It's been going very well and I'm very happy with it.

I like how you're like, "I saw people drinking coffee, now I want to drink coffee," and some people are like, "I saw my favorite movie character smoking a cigarette and I wanted to smoke cigarettes." 

[laughs] Yeah, thankfully it's a much better vice than some other things. I watched Breaking Bad and I got really into meth.

[Disclaimer: This is just a joke]

Have you always had an appetite for these kinds of different mediums and being creative? I'm curious what you wanted to do as a kid growing up before you did YouTube and stuff, and maybe how that has evolved.

Yeah, it's interesting, because I'm someone who gets overwhelmed really easily, so you would think that the types of things that I'm doing would be... I mean, it is hard to get me on the phone sometimes for these projects. My brain is just frazzled with it all. But I think when I was younger, I just really liked games and I liked movies and I liked universes and worlds and stories and all that kind of stuff and really getting into Dragon Ball and different anime like that. So I think the idea of telling creative stories was always kind of in my brain. I didn't know that I was going to be the one trying to tell them, and I think because I got so lucky with YouTube and I was able to tap into any industry that I want and I have a built-in audience and I'm very lucky to be able to attempt a lot of different things. I think it just opened up the doors for me to be able to try a bunch of different types of mediums and see what works and see what doesn't.

I've lucked out in that I'm able to try the ones that I'm really into, but I'm not going to chance my arm at stuff if I'm not into something, you're never going to be able to get me to do it. So I am trying to only do the ones that I'm really into, and even then, it's hard to get me to focus.

Do you still get excited by these kinds of massive opportunities or does some of it almost feel kind of normal now? And do they also allow you to prevent yourself from burning out with the variety?

Yeah, I think it's kind of like a 50/50. I think it's more what you make of it, because you can get really burnt out on doing it, and I have had that in the past where I took on too much, and half of it I didn't want to do, and then I got burnt out. I think now, consolidating everything down into more manageable things and stuff that I'm really passionate about makes it a lot easier. I think it can become really normalized if you allow it to be.

I think I am the type of person that always tries to remind myself of where things started and what I had before and thinking about me as a kid and things like that. So, when I think about stuff now, I try to still get excited about it. I still get excited about games that are coming out and movies that are coming out and that kind of stuff really fascinates me. I think with any of these projects, I try to keep it fun, instead of trying to make it too much like work. If it's just work, then it does become normal and it becomes a bit boring to do and then I won't do it to the best of my abilities.

I can empathize with that. As someone who writes about video games, it is a very strange blend of hobby and career.

It's like even recording YouTube videos. I get to play video games as my job, and that's like the dream. I have a lot of friends who do it kind of like an office nine to five job, and I see that and they kind of get burnt out on it. So, I've tried to learn lessons from things like that to still enjoy what I'm doing. I was definitely in that rut for a few years a while ago. Hopefully, I'm in a better space now where it is just fun to do, and trying to capture that initial feeling with it.

Do you see yourself moving away from content creation to pursue some of these other mediums, whether it be comics or something else in a more steady manner?

Eventually, probably yeah. I think it's hard to imagine myself still doing the same type of content creation I've been doing when I'm in my forties, which is just over six years from now. But I also didn't think I'd be doing it 11 years into what I'm doing now. So I don't really know how things are going to change. It's kind of up to me whatever I want to do, but whatever is the most fun to do at that time. I think I'm the type of person that's never going to get sick of video games no matter how old I am, but whether I want to keep recording them, whether YouTube changes and let's plays are just not as fun to do anymore or whatever, I just go wherever my passions are. So if that ends up not being content creation anymore, then maybe I'll move on from it. I'll always try and do stuff that the audience can pivot towards and still interact with them and still be on social media and interact with people that way. I think I'll always be creating and always making things.

I think a lot of people would ask someone like you, "Oh, can you give me some tips on how to make my channel bigger, and how do I get started?" What advice would you give to someone who has had success? I think it's a lot more rare than someone who doesn't make it.

I think that's a good question. It is true that whenever I go on tour or a meet and greet or something like that, it's always like, "How do I get started?" And "What do I do to get bigger?" And things like that. But now, people have talked till they're blue in the face about how to do that kind of stuff on YouTube these days. And people like Mr. Beast have made content creation a lot more accessible in terms of how things work now and what does work and what doesn't. So when it comes to being a big creator and how you manage that, for me it came with a lot of trial and error, a lot of practice, a lot of experience. But I think I've gotten very good at pumping the brakes whenever I feel like I need to, and that I think not being afraid of your audience is one thing, and not being afraid of disappearing.

Obviously I'm in a much more privileged position, because my channel was pretty massive by the time I started doing that, and not a lot of people can afford to actually take a break from that grind. So for me, it was just realizing that I'm burnt out, figuring out what I want to do about it, taking some time off, going to therapy, getting certain things like anxieties and depressions and ADHD and all that stuff figured out and medicated. I think just trying to understand myself a bit more helped me come back to my channel a bit stronger and deal with other people. If I can't even handle myself, how am I going to handle an audience of 30 million people?

So I think just knowing your limits, knowing your boundaries, setting those for yourself and for the other people who are watching you, and then taking that time away when you need it and not sort of being a slave to that grind all the time that people seem to think. Working yourself until you're dead is not healthy and it's not smart to do. When you do start off, it's really easy to think, "I'm just going to work all the time because I have the time and I have the energy," and that's great, but you will burn yourself out eventually, so you need to prepare for that or get some barriers in place so you can kind of stem the flow of it a little bit.

You had a somewhat rapid rise on YouTube. Do you think that's still a viable thing or have things become a bit more saturated now. I'm not saying that was common before either, but is it even harder for something like that to happen now?

I think, technically, it's probably easier than it's ever been. I think there's just so many more people doing it that when it happens, it's less noticeable. I think when it was happening to me and Markiplier and PewDiePie and all those people of that generation, I think it was just so much more noticeable because there were way less people doing it, way less people of that size doing it. And when stuff was growing, it was almost like people just flocked to the bigger channels, and then they didn't really go outside of that, because they're like, "I'm just going to follow the thing that's getting really big and stay there. And if everyone's playing the same games anyway, why would I go anywhere else?"

I think these days, it's gotten a lot better because there's a lot more diversity of people doing it. There's way more types of content, there's way more styles of content, the budget and the production value and everything is way higher. It's just a different space now, I think, with the amount of people who are growing. I think there are people who are still growing to that size, if not faster, but they just kind of blend in because there's so many people growing at that speed now. I remember when I was at a million subs, I was in the top 50 channels on the platform, and now if you have a million subs, you're probably not even in the top 2000. There's so many people hitting that milestone all the time. It's kind of crazy to think that when you hit a million subscribers for some people now, it's not even that big a deal to most people. It's still a huge accomplishment to be able to do, but when someone hits a million, it's like, "Yeah, whatever."

But you still have channels hitting tens of millions every month all the time. I just think there's so many that it's hard to keep up with it.

Yeah, I mean, like you said, a million people seems like no big deal. You look at TikTok, those numbers on that platform just across the board are so inflated.

I know. I remember when getting a million views on something was considered the pinnacle, and that was huge. And now if you get a million views on TikTok, it's like, "I did okay." Unless you're getting 20 million views on TikTok, that's when you go viral now. But going viral years ago was like 400K views. It's crazy.

Are you able to truly process the idea of 30 and a half million people? I've always told people who are smaller and only bring 10 viewers in on Twitch or whatever. I'm like, "Imagine 10 people in the room with you." Now, 30 and a half million, I'd probably not tell someone that. 

That's a big f**ing room. No, I think after the first couple of hundred thousand, I think it was like 600K or something, it all started to not make sense to me. I think because I've always been sort of a heavy metal person growing up, so I've been to a bunch of concerts. I watched Green Days' DVD from Milton Keynes and Avenged Sevenfold at the LBC and things like that, so I was always aware of how many people were at those shows. And you think of things like Woodstock or that massive... There's a Pantera concert and a Metallica concert from years ago that just has a massive sea of people. And then that's like, yeah, that was 500,000 people. And it's like, I don't understand any of this anymore.

So I think at a million, it was crazy. And then 3 million and 6 million, and then after 10 million, it all... A million people versus 3 million people kind of feels the same from my end. So it's kind of hard to wrap my head around that. And then you start doing panels that packs that have a thousand people in the room, and that's already just a crazy amount. And then I went on tour and I think the most we did was like 3,500 people in one room, and that was more people than I've ever seen in one place personally. So I have no idea what it's like to have 30 million people in one place. That's a country. It's not a channel.

What do you want to see from the future of YouTube and other creators on the platform going forward?

The only thing I want to see is that homegrown factor not disappear. Maybe that's just a really old school mentality to have, and maybe it's better off that it's not like that, because like I said, the production values and the type of content that's being produced nowadays is just, it's crazy. People are making full television shows and full movies and everything and documentaries just on their own with home cameras. It's wild to see where the platform has come.

When I started YouTube, the idea of someone in their bedroom making content and it being able to reach millions of people was always a really cool aspect to why YouTube worked the way it did. That sort of direct connection with people and the fact that you can watch something on Netflix or TV or go to the movies or something, and it's hard to find that sense of community when it comes to that content, and you kind of have to go somewhere else for it.

But YouTube was just creators and communities sort of melded together and that one, or that two-way street, being able to chat with each other. I really liked that aspect of why YouTube takes off, and being able to chat with people. And I like the sort of normal person vibe that YouTube can have, and it would be a shame to see if production values and everything kept skyrocketing and kept going up and up and more networks and more channels started growing substantially. It would be a shame to see that kind of disappear. I don't know if that will happen or not. Things usually go in swings. You go from big phone to small phone and now we want big phones again, and same with watch sizes and iPads.

So I think when it comes to YouTube as well, before I started, it was kind of like people were rising, they were homegrown, and then it hit a peak, and then it got back to a more honest place, and now it's hitting a peak again. It'll probably go back to a more honest, genuine, homegrown space again. Who knows? But again, I need to preface this now. Every time I say something, that's just what I think.

It's just the way things are, and if it doesn't go that way, I don't really care one way or the other. That's just what I like about YouTube, and that's what made me start in the first place. So I would like other people at home to still be able to see that and think, "Hey, I can do it as well." But if you're watching somebody that has a team of 50 people who are making stuff that costs 4 million dollars to make, it's kind of hard to relate to that as a person just watching the channel.

I think Rooster Teeth and stuff like that has always existed and they're a company, but those were almost the exception. That was kind of something that came from something very small and grew into something very big. But now it definitely feels like there are things that start as 'We are a company first,' which seems not as great, like what you're saying.

Luckily, YouTube is such a big platform that both things can exist at the same time. It's such a diverse ecosystem that we can all kind of do whatever we want. There used to be a misnomer years ago that it was like, "Well, if somebody does something, then I can't do it, because they stole all the views," and that's just not how the platform works at all. So thankfully, there's room for all of us to be able to grow and do our own thing at the same time.

The Five Nights at Freddy's movie is a few weeks away, I just wanted to get your general thoughts on that. We've probably seen everything they're going to show now at this point.

I'm cautiously optimistic. I would love for it to do well. I would love for it to be a great movie, because I think that that success story is such a fun thing to happen, and we've been hearing about a Five Nights at Freddy's movie for five years, and now it's finally happening, and it would be so sad if it was just boring.

I was talking to my friend Ethan about it on our podcast that we were like, "I think it's going to be bad." From my point of view, I think it's just not something that I'll vibe with, but I really, really want to. I want to go in and have it be either so goofy that I just have a great time, but I am that type of person that loves intense horror, so I would love to see it a bit more intense. But Five Nights at Freddy's is a game designed for teenagers and kids and stuff like that, so I understand why it is the way it is. I just hope it's not bad. Actually, if it's bad, that's at least still something. If it's bad or it's great, it's something. But if it's just in the middle and it's boring and it's just full of cliches, then that's going to be the saddest fate for it. But it's going to do numbers. It's going to be huge at the box office and all the FNAF fans are going to watch it and they're going to love it, and I think that that's why they made the movie.

I think then it's a guaranteed success. It was probably shot at a very, very, very, very low budget. It'll make its profit by a large margin.

Yeah. I think they said that it was just 20 million dollars to make, and they've already made that back with the pre-sales. We're probably getting the sequel green-lit as we speak. Two and three are probably in the bag already.

Then you can go and direct it. You can go put your own spin on it.

Hell yeah, I'll direct something stupid. I'll run it into the ground real quick!

Any other movies and games you're excited for the rest of the year? We're closing out the year here soon. 

From a comic book point of view, we have Spider-Man 2 coming out. I got to play two hours of it a few weeks back as part of a preview event, and it was incredible. I watched the initial footage of it and I was like, "Yeah, it looks fun. I'll play it,". And then when I actually had it in my hands, I was like, "This is phenomenal." I can't go back to the first one now because it feels so slow and clunky. The second one is so much fun.

But on top of that, Alan Wake II is coming out, and like I said, that's the reason I started drinking coffee. I love Alan Wake, even though I'm fully aware that the first game is a repetitive mess, but it's so near and dear to my heart, and I never thought we'd get a sequel. And now it's a survival horror game that looks so intense, and I'm so excited for it. I think despite Spider-Man 2 being the bigger game, I think Alan Wake II is my most anticipated one, because it hits all the boxes that I love, and I just love Remedy. They're such a fun developer.