Josh & Dean chat with Ted Hope (now with Amazon Studios), the producer of American Splendor. Hope talks about his own background in the business, the development of the film (including Dean’s key introductions), his favorite moments from the shoot, and premiering the film at Sundance. In a moving testament to authenticity in art, Hope explains why projects like American Splendor (both the film and the comics) have to exist.

Shout-outs to NYU Film School, Alex Cox and REPO MAN, Ed Burns, Hal Hartley, Todd Solondz, Ralph Nader, the New York Film Festival, Jim Jarmusch's STRANGER THAN PARADISE. the Cohen Brothers and BLOOD SIMPLE, Frances McDormand, Spike Lee, the old Cinema Studio, Ang Lee’s ICE STORM, Dylan Baker, Dan Clowes, Todd Solondz' HAPPINESS, Chester Brown’s YUMMY FUR, Terry Zwigoff & Crumb, HBO’s Colin Callender and Maud Nadler, Glen Basner (now of FilmNation), production designer Thérèse DePrez, Gary Leib and the "super-imaginative" title sequence, Judah Friedlander, James McCaffrey, costume designer Michael Wilkinson, and Ted's book HOPE FOR FILM.