Marvel Marketing, LA Party Wars, Punk Rock Principles — Franki Chan of IHEARTCOMIX

We’re back in Sydney from Japan (still mourning the bidets) and we have a special guest in town from LA — our friend Franki Chan, founder of IHEARTCOMIX.

Franki started IHEARTCOMIX in 2003 throwing parties with Steve Aoki in the indie sleaze era, with the Cobra Snake taking photos and MySpace making it global. Within a year of that first party, Franki went from living in his car to being a global DJ. He and Steve Aoki had a very public and very competitive split — Cinespace Tuesdays vs. Check Your Ponytail, same night, same scene — “there’s a limited series in it” — but the competition helped make LA one of the most important music scenes of the 2000s.

Now 22 years later, IHEARTCOMIX is a creative marketing agency behind campaigns for Marvel, Olivia Rodrigo and Johnny Depp. Franki literally built a park — trees, grass, the whole thing — for Olivia Rodrigo’s album campaign. He’s producing the first US premiere Toho has ever done for Godzilla in 65 years. And he came up on a political DIY punk scene, which is what makes his arc so interesting: the guy who wouldn’t sell out is now working at the biggest scale in entertainment. His take: “As the internet happened, we won. Why are we fighting the old fights?”

We also talk about the philosophy of nightlife, how every major relationship Franki has ever made he met by being out, including the time he randomly sat next to a stranger at a South by Southwest after-party who turned out to write all the modern Spider-Man films. Plus: Franki gives us his honest advice on where Weirder Together goes from here — and why being based in Sydney is a bigger advantage than we might think.