Amy Chase Interview - Fixation

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[00:00:55] - [Speaker 2]
Hello, and welcome to Comic Book Yeti's Cryptid Creator Corner Podcast. I am one of your hosts, Jimmy Gasparro, and I am here with one of my favorite guests. It is her third time on the podcast, and, I could not be more excited because she has a brand new series with IDW's crime line. It is called fixation. It is going to be out September 9.

[00:01:20] - [Speaker 2]
So if you are listening to this episode the day it comes out, that's right. Tomorrow, you can go to your local comic book shop, and you can ask for a copy of fixation. It's with art by Savannah Mayer, colorist James Fehner, letter and designer Sandy Tanaka, editor Riley Farmer, and the logo designed by Darren Robinson. I've gotten to read the first issue. I cannot wait to talk about it.

[00:01:44] - [Speaker 2]
Please welcome back to the podcast, Amy Chase. Amy, thank you so much for coming back.

[00:01:50] - [Speaker 3]
I just can't stay away. I love love love talking comics with you. I'm so excited to be here and talking about my first ever miniseries. I feel like, you know, just every time there's something something totally new, and I'm so excited.

[00:02:05] - [Speaker 2]
Yeah. I I mean, I think the first time you came on and I was we were talking about this before I started recording. It was just kinda funny that I because this episode is coming out September 8, the day before fixation. So, like, September's your month, I guess, because your episode came out September '23, September '25, now September '26. But I think when you were first on, we were talking about some of the work you were doing with Archie.

[00:02:29] - [Speaker 2]
Yeah. That would have been

[00:02:30] - [Speaker 3]
about welcome to Riverdale time.

[00:02:32] - [Speaker 2]
Right. And then and the pops chocolate horror.

[00:02:36] - [Speaker 3]
Right? Yeah. We hadn't yet started the the sequel to that. We'd we'd just done the first pops and welcome to her.

[00:02:43] - [Speaker 0]
Okay.

[00:02:43] - [Speaker 3]
And I think that was when I was working on my little pony as well. So all the, like, single issues.

[00:02:49] - [Speaker 2]
Right. Right. I think it yeah. Think it might have been. Yeah, you've done some my little pony work, which my Charlotte had read my some My Little Pony, but then Penny, who's nine now, has taken up the mantle of some My Little Pony.

[00:03:03] - [Speaker 2]
So Aw. Is it the it's the, what, the can can Bucky derby? Is that it?

[00:03:09] - [Speaker 3]
Bucky roller derby.

[00:03:11] - [Speaker 2]
Right. Yeah. And then, when you were, on last year, we talked about a buzz, which was phenomenal. Your take

[00:03:18] - [Speaker 3]
on a lot one of just my favorite discussions about a project ever just because of how how excited you were just also to talk Shakespeare, which doesn't come up often in my daily life. And so I was just I was so excited about it. Like, you of all the people I think that have, like, read the book and and expressed their their affection for it, I think you got what I was going for some of the most out of anybody just because of your your familiarity with it. So I was like, oh, that was so exciting.

[00:03:48] - [Speaker 2]
Oh, yeah. I I loved it. I just thought it was I thought it was it's such a wonderful book. And, yeah, I I still tell people about it when they're like, they mention graphic novels, but I absolutely loved it. Yeah.

[00:04:01] - [Speaker 2]
And I I did Much and we talked about it. I was I was Claudio in a production of Much Ado, after college. And so, yeah, I just I really I was shocked that nobody had done it yet, and it worked so well. Thank you.

[00:04:17] - [Speaker 3]
But, yeah,

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now we're here to talk about fixation, the IDW crime line. I think it's what is it? Three oversized issues for this miniseries?

[00:04:27] - [Speaker 3]
Yeah. So it'll be a 100 pages total of story, split across the three issues. It's, 40 pages, 30 pages, 30 pages, plus any of the cool, you know, like, back material and and cover galleries and stuff. So, yeah, you're getting the same amount of miniseries as you would a regular kind of five issue. But also, each issue is only $4.99.

[00:04:47] - [Speaker 3]
So, I mean, like, the math works out really nicely on that.

[00:04:51] - [Speaker 2]
Oh, absolutely. And, yeah, I thought it was I loved it. I I loved the first issue. I thank you for sending it over. I I one of the perks of this job is that I get to see things for the general public.

[00:05:03] - [Speaker 2]
Sorry, listeners. Sorry, general public.

[00:05:05] - [Speaker 3]
Hey. But they don't have long to wait.

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That's true.

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This is this is going up.

[00:05:10] - [Speaker 2]
Yeah. They don't have long to wait at all. If they're listening to this, they'll be like, oh, it's it's gonna be it's gonna be out tomorrow. I'm just I'm really excited with, a lot of the stuff IDW is doing. You know, they still have their, like, licensed properties.

[00:05:25] - [Speaker 2]
Like, Chris Cantwell was just on to talk about Star Trek. But, you know, with their IDW dark line, which is still some licensed stuff, but which the IDW crime line and I just love a lot of the creators, you know, that are, that they are working with. So we'll talk more about the issue, but why don't you just tell listeners what is fixation all about?

[00:05:50] - [Speaker 3]
Yeah. So, as you mentioned, we're part of the IDW crime line, which is we're the third of the launch wave titles. And it's really cool because so far, all of the IDW crime books are not licensed properties. These are all original ideas. And so fixation is a toxic fandom murder mystery story.

[00:06:08] - [Speaker 3]
Each of the the crime line books also kind of touches on something that's very topical, relevant to the modern world, and so we wanted to take a look at fandom culture. And so specifically, this is set in a world where one of the, you know, dominating teen vampire romance franchises is called Blood Mountain. It was a series of books before it spawned a series of successful movies, and it's got quite a big fan culture around it. And with any big fandom, you're going to have people who have their disagreements, and it's not just, you know, who do you ship Lucy, the main character with? And so we're going to be following, fangirl Taylor and her best friend Kara, and they get the opportunity to go to this big movie reunion.

[00:06:50] - [Speaker 3]
It's the tenth anniversary set in the town of Vale where the movies were filmed. And so they are getting to live out this fangirl fantasy of, like, look, there's the, you know, the coffee shop where this happened. There's the scene where this happened. But all the while, we have a serial killer lurking in the background who is part of the fandom in some capacity, and they have a taste for killing fangirls. Their MO is also specifically fangirls who look like the main character of the films.

[00:07:16] - [Speaker 3]
And so a lot of that gets, you know, very complicated then as we have this convergence of hundreds and hundreds of fans in this small town that both, you know, thrives on the notoriety that it got from these films, but also, like, some people kind of resent it because it's just, you know, crazy vampire fan tourism. And when fans get too obsessed with something, you know, they're they're overstepping boundaries, they kinda don't know where to draw the line, especially when they feel entitled to the actors and and the world of these movies. And so that's kind of the long form version of it. We're going to have a murder mystery if someone is someone is killing the fangirls. I that would be my dream, like, crossover, like, parody homage covers.

[00:07:58] - [Speaker 3]
We had a something is killing the children variant, something is killing the fangirls. But yeah. So ultimately, to boil it down even quicker though, it is a story of when someone becomes too obsessed with something and they cannot distinguish the act of loving something from the act of cruelty and how that kind of combines. But we're with a character who you know, with with Zoe Tannell's book, you know, you've got the detectives who are very competent and coming into this locked room murder mystery in Seven Wives. And then with Joey Esposito's book, killer influences, you've got a hyper competent serial killer and a very savvy, influencer in the true crime podcasting space teaming up together.

[00:08:36] - [Speaker 3]
But I think our main characters are, like, the absolute least qualified people to be in a crime book because they don't think they're in a crime book. They are living a a gothic vampire fantasy in their real world as, an escape from that. But, like, we have, like, the least qualified protagonists to be in a crime story, and that's exactly why they are our leads, because they're going to be the lens through which, you know, we watch your love of something also kind of overtake your better senses of like, how how badly do you love these movies and need this moment when the evidence starts stacking up that, like, there's a serious problem going on.

[00:09:10] - [Speaker 2]
Yeah. I mean, I I like, it's, Taylor and is it Kara?

[00:09:16] - [Speaker 3]
Kara. Yeah.

[00:09:17] - [Speaker 2]
Kara. Yeah. I I really like both of them, and I liked how, you know, you saw their love of this of series. And, you know, they were so knowledgeable, and and Taylor has won this contest. But I I thought it was smart.

[00:09:33] - [Speaker 2]
You you see the the kind of the difference between them and, like, the fans who are kind of rising to the level of threats and and being aggressive, and you don't have, you know, that with with the two of them yet. Like, it's a really good lens for the audience because I think everyone has maybe not everyone, but I think most people who are involved or who like any type of genre, you know, fiction, you know, to be you don't have to be obsessed about it. Mhmm. And I think you it's easy to kinda get into the lens of this of something that you really, really love. It's harder to kinda get into the mindset of somebody that is so obsessed about it that they take it to that next level.

[00:10:15] - [Speaker 2]
Not not necessarily the the serial killer level. Hopefully, that's not easy to wrap your head around. But

[00:10:20] - [Speaker 3]
That was the hardest part of the book for me was was that element. A lot of the fandom stuff, you know, was very near and dear to my heart and especially, like, Taylor and Tara. But, yeah, the the serial the killing, the murder, and the crime is always, like, the hardest part for me even when I did New Bern with with Chip Zidarski and Chip. Yeah. Harper Lele was the artist on that.

[00:10:40] - [Speaker 3]
Allison O'Toole is our editor. And it was one of those things where I was like, well, I know how to do dungeons and dragons. I don't know how to rob a police station. But we're gonna see if we can make that work somehow.

[00:10:51] - [Speaker 2]
I just thought reading it, I got a kick out of it, in particular, because I I felt like having talked to you a few times before on the podcast following you on social media, I I felt like there were elements of it that were very you. I don't know you I don't know if you're, like, a a twilight fan, but definitely know that you're, like, a buffy fan. I felt a

[00:11:12] - [Speaker 3]
little bit of that. Also I had a twilight phase. I did. Oh, okay. I was younger.

[00:11:17] - [Speaker 3]
That was, like, my that was middle school, but it didn't last long because I didn't like how the books ended. And then I was just kinda like, but, like, that when that first twilight book dropped, that was all me and my friends talked about. And and funny enough, my best friend in school was named Taylor. And so I was like, okay. I have to kind of pay a little bit of tribute to her there.

[00:11:38] - [Speaker 3]
I we yeah. We had a crazy Twilight phase. I bought her a cardboard cutout of Rob Pattinson as Edward that she hated. She hated. Like, that it got dressed up at Christmas.

[00:11:48] - [Speaker 3]
Like, there was Christmas lights and Christmas hat, but, like, he was so creepy. And she's like, what do I do with this full size cardboard cutout of a man that that now lives in my bedroom? And if I close the door, I'm like, oh my god. There's a man standing there. But that's the kind of thing you did.

[00:12:00] - [Speaker 2]
I was like, oh my god. She's gonna love this. She She didn't. She she did not. Oh, well.

[00:12:07] - [Speaker 2]
I mean, look. You live and learn, I guess. And just because I you know, I don't know if this was in its DNA at all, but just because this was something that I loved when I was a kid and, you know, being older, there was an element of Taylor and Kara when they're part of the contest. They they get to stay in, like, the Lucy Mallard, like, house on set. Part of it for me remind like, reminded me a little bit of, like, Scooby Doo.

[00:12:38] - [Speaker 2]
Like, if Shaggy and Scooby won a night in one of the haunted places, And I just I really love that, like, element of it. I, I don't know why I thought that, but I just kept thinking

[00:12:51] - [Speaker 3]
I love that.

[00:12:52] - [Speaker 2]
It just also, you're you're dealing with, like you said, these this fan culture and, like, toxic fandom. And the other thing I love about it that I that I I felt was very you is you still have those touches of, yeah, humor in it. I mean, I think there's, like, the the the serial killer or, I guess, the suspected serial killer we see kind of like a look. There's a coffee mug that says, what? Final girls finish last, I think.

[00:13:23] - [Speaker 3]
Yeah. Final girls finish last.

[00:13:26] - [Speaker 2]
Yep. Yeah. And you there's a there's a pun or two, I think, thrown in there with the name of the town being Vail because Cara has, like, a crush on Miguel, and there's, a wedding Vail joke. And

[00:13:38] - [Speaker 3]
Oh, yeah. Oh, there's I mean, it's me.

[00:13:40] - [Speaker 2]
There's a lot.

[00:13:41] - [Speaker 3]
Movie puns. Yeah. It's gonna be well, and it's very interesting because when this was presented to me because IDW actually did have the bare bones of the pitch, and, actually, a lot of it changed from what they originally approached me with. There was always gonna be a vampire movie franchise, and there was always going to be Taylor. But it was very interesting because at one point, in one draft of the script, Kara was the Internet friend.

[00:13:59] - [Speaker 3]
Because I wanted to pay tribute to, like, you know, the long distance Internet fandom friends where you can meet each other, you know, through a shared connection but not have, you know, the proximity. But then Yeah. You know, Riley did a really great job at helping to, like, forge the story and and also kind of pushing like, well, what if we did this and what if we did this? And so at some point, it was like, okay. Well, then Kara's coming, you know, across The States, like, whatever this whatever the terms of this contest, you know, you always get a plus one.

[00:14:24] - [Speaker 3]
But it is also very interesting because originally, a lot of the movie cast wasn't part of it either. They were this kind of, like, untouchable like, it was really more on the ground level of, like, Taylor in Vail exploring this quiet town that didn't have a lot happening, but it had the history of the movies behind it. And then as, again, as we discussed these elements and wanted to push that fandom element further, it became natural that it was like, let's just turn this into, like, the media circus epic ten year anniversary reunion. And then it also gave us opportunity to comment on, like, the actors and and how fan culture affects those people. Because, again, instead of just thinking they're these unattainable, you know, oh, you want your their autograph at a con, but, you know, or you waited in line all day to see a panel and you could only sit in the back of the room, but there they are.

[00:15:14] - [Speaker 3]
Bringing them a lot closer evolved it too. But it but it is very interesting because since IDW has been so successful with their IDW dark line, despite the fact that this is obviously, like, based around a horror franchise, it's, you know, it's more of a teen romance with a little bit of supernatural element to it. We wanted to keep the distinction clear that this is still a crime book, and so it has the grounds in, like, you know, breaking laws and breaking boundaries. And, I mean, the issue the preview pages even reveal are are, like, my kind of, like, almost tribute to scream with, like, the fake out final girl first where it's like, we have a murder in the first three pages. But even then, her introduction to the story and and outroduction of the story is like, someone has broken into this house that otherwise is, like, the very excited, like, we're gonna stay here.

[00:16:04] - [Speaker 3]
And and it's funny you mentioned Scooby Doo because I don't think I was explicitly thinking Scooby Doo. But speaking of Matthew Lillard, I don't know if you remember a couple years ago to promote when the Scream movies were coming back, the the when they hit the fifth one. They actually Airbnb'd the Mocker House from and so that's where actually a lot of this comes from is the fact that, like, one, you can go see Buffy's house in Torrance, but the owners are like, please don't come up to our door. Like, we live here. And the the Mocker House is this, like, far remote place in Northern California that is, like, the apex of that first Scream movie where the house party happens and a lot of murder takes place.

[00:16:42] - [Speaker 3]
And so Yeah. You know? And I had wanted to, obviously, me and a million other people tried to get the reservation for the Airbnb. I think they only ended up renting it out to influencers though, because I think it was kind of a publicity stunt. And so I wanted to also play into that where it's like, okay.

[00:16:57] - [Speaker 3]
Well, you know, are these experiences for fans only reserved for the content creators and the influencers or, like, you know, that's it's part of the reason why we play a lot with Taylor, especially from other fans being accused of, like, well, why is she so special? She's not more special. We don't clarify whether this was a raffle or whether she had to, like, submit a video or something because it's not important to me. It's important what everybody else thinks about however she won this contest because it doesn't matter what she did. It just matters that she did win the contest, and other people are not happy about that.

[00:17:29] - [Speaker 3]
And you're the most famous house in the films. Like, everybody knows where you are. Like, oh my god. Like, that element is like, that's terrifying.

[00:17:36] - [Speaker 2]
Oh, yeah. Absolutely. I I kept thinking about the, you know, my lawyer brain. I kept thinking about, like, the liability logistics of it. I'm like, there's there's no way they would just let two people stay on this film set.

[00:17:50] - [Speaker 2]
But but, lawyer suspension of disbelief aside. Yeah. I I really like the cast of characters, and it was funny when you were talking about, like, some of the the earlier elements of the pitch. And I was it instantly brought to mind another comic that I really like from a few years ago, Autumnal. What mom,

[00:18:11] - [Speaker 3]
if you ever read Autumnal.

[00:18:13] - [Speaker 2]
But yeah. It's like, you know, mom and daughter move back to town after grandmom dies, and it's like folk horror. But it's very much like small town, the fam you know, mom and daughter exploring it, and then all the creepy terrible stuff happens that leads to, you know, the terrible conclusion. And this could have been something similar, but, like, with, you know, exploring where the the place the the area where it was filmed and still have the serial killer element. But I love all the cast of characters because it's it's more complicated.

[00:18:52] - [Speaker 2]
It's messy. It's Mhmm. Anyone could be a suspect. You know? You now have so many people flooding the town.

[00:19:00] - [Speaker 2]
And, yeah, it's not just a horror book. Like, you do have this more specific, you know, crime element to it. Like, with the Mhmm. In the opening, we see what happens. We see two cops or detectives, like, talking about evidence and talking over the crime scene.

[00:19:18] - [Speaker 2]
So I I love the cast of characters. I love that it's a bigger cast than maybe was first anticipated because I think it can bring out a lot of those elements that, you know, you discussed. And Yeah. Yeah. I I I really like that.

[00:19:32] - [Speaker 3]
I'm I'm so glad because so much of that also comes from Savannah Mayer's amazing character designs. Like, again, as we were growing the cast and going, like, what kind of people are in this film? One of the other challenges that we both had was, you know, we're devising the narrative and the iconography of a franchise that doesn't exist, but we have to get people to care and understand. But, like so we had to make sure there wasn't so much Blood Mountain lore that a reader would have to actually read Blood Mountain to understand what the hell is happening in fixation. But, like, Savannah and I had a fun time riffing on that and and Riley too because Riley's Riley's also a fan girl of of many other properties.

[00:20:10] - [Speaker 3]
And so we all kind of brought some of shared knowledge and went, okay. We're gonna create this kind of blenderized version of so many different vampire franchises without ripping any one of them off because we also didn't want it to just feel derivative. Obviously, I think the biggest inspiration is clearly Twilight, but, like, I wanted to make sure that it didn't just feel like me doing Twilight fan fiction.

[00:20:34] - [Speaker 2]
Yeah.

[00:20:34] - [Speaker 3]
But, like, Savannah's character designs, they had to also, like, create so so one of the icons that you see coming up in that first issue a lot is the fortieth or not fortieth. Oh, god. That's too many years. Tenth anniversary Tenth. Yeah.

[00:20:49] - [Speaker 3]
Cover. Tenth anniversary cover of the book. And and, you know, that goes along with the movie. And then we also had like, oh, crap. Was this book or movie?

[00:20:58] - [Speaker 3]
Or or all the layers got a little weird. But so Savannah had to create this cover, and that cover image is very significant. And then the idea of like, okay. Well, what are some of the, like, shorthand logos that, like, know, someone's wearing a a Blood Mountain t shirt. Like, what's going on that?

[00:21:11] - [Speaker 3]
And, you know, then designing the the whole look of the fang board. Like, that's that's also such a very older piece of Internet culture. Like, we didn't want them just going on, like, Tumblr. You know? We wanted them to have this unique space for their fandom.

[00:21:25] - [Speaker 3]
And so, obviously, the fang board has this very kind of retro look. And I think that also speaks to, like, the fandoms that we pulled from are kind of late nineties, mid two thousands. Like, there's a little bit of archaicness to them. Ten years later, you know, this would probably be like we don't set a specific year. It's kind of supposed to be like now times, but it would be like, you know, like a 2018, twenty '19 tenth anniversary

[00:21:49] - [Speaker 2]
Right.

[00:21:50] - [Speaker 3]
Thing. And so but Savannah's character designs are so brilliant, and, also, their design for Kara was part of the reason why we were like, Kara has to be in every scene because we love her so much. Like, her design is so cute. But, yeah, having the, like, uptight, you know, PA production liaison who has been trying to keep these actors together for, you know, a decade. And and then one of my favorites was was David, our lead vampire actor who plays Kane.

[00:22:19] - [Speaker 3]
I was like, I want him I don't want him to be an Edward Cullen. I don't want him to be an angel or even a spike. I asked Savannah if they could base him off of Billy Worth in the lost boys because I think Dwayne is the hottest lost boy. He's got, like, the eighties rocker hair. And then, you know, how that evolved into, like, ten years later, he's got, like, you know, a goatee and a man bun.

[00:22:40] - [Speaker 3]
And, like, you know, there's you know, you're still making royalties off your vampire mullet. Like, just having those kinds of evolutions of the characters because then also being like, well, ten years later, you know, they cast 30 year olds to play high school students. So, like, the actors are in their, like, late thirties, early forties, mid forties. And so, like, also playing with that where, like, Taylor and Cara are in their twenties. There's a huge gap between them and the actors.

[00:23:03] - [Speaker 3]
And and just having all these these fun and unique character designs that feel familiar to, like, the roster of a vampire movie franchise. Like, we have the guy who plays the werewolf and, like, that kind of stuff. Yeah. But, like, yeah, once once Savannah started doing those look sheets and the outfits, I I kind of, as a writer who's very visual, had a much clearer idea of how people moved and fit throughout the space. And, we have this funny picture of of Lucy, which would be actress Summer as Lucy, the character.

[00:23:35] - [Speaker 3]
Because then we also got Lucy, Summer, Taylor, all but Taylor has modeled her whole look after Lucy. She already kind of looks like Lucy, but, like, we have this cool, like, side by side in the in the character art where it's like Lucy embodies her outfit and her style very well. Taylor's wearing clothes that are a little bit big too big for her, and so it looks like very clearly she's put someone else's life on top of hers, and she doesn't quite fit into it. But, like, that's the style she wants to be. And I think that's like, it's so fun, so interesting.

[00:24:05] - [Speaker 3]
And Savannah is phenomenal. They've only professionally done Return to Sleepy Hollow before this, so for the IDW Darkline. And so watching them get to go loose on, like, a modern franchise that still has kind of that fun gothic element to it has been phenomenal. And also, like, I think it's already been announced, but they're doing Marian Heretic with Teeny for Hello Darkness, Teeny Howard for for Hello Darkness with Boom Studios. Like, you guys need to keep an eye on Savannah after this because, like, fixation is just the start of, like, some really cool stuff coming up for them, and I'm I'm obsessed.

[00:24:39] - [Speaker 2]
Oh, yeah. That's awesome. Yeah. I I really like Savannah's work. I really like the character designs.

[00:24:46] - [Speaker 2]
There's a scene where Taylor and Cara sit down to, like, watch Blood Mountain, and then there's, Savannah does I I like, kind of, like, a a full page, which I interpreted to be, like, scenes from the movie. And

[00:25:04] - [Speaker 3]
Yeah. Exactly.

[00:25:06] - [Speaker 2]
It is it's very, very well done. Like, when it happens in the in the book, it's like a kind of like a nice break, but it looks phenomenal. I also, colors of that are are wonderful too. It's a really beautiful base.

[00:25:23] - [Speaker 3]
It's crazy. And then, again, yeah, to speak to James, like, I recognize James' work. When when Savannah did their cover, which is the b cover, which has so much detail, I actually really want IDW to release, like, a black and white version just because of how much there are, like, probably no fewer than, like, 60 references to other vampire franchises in the pictures that are on Taylor's wall. But some of it gets lost in the colors, but the colors are brilliant. But I recognized when we got the colored version of that cover in, I was like, oh my god.

[00:25:55] - [Speaker 3]
The colorist did the cover for let her be evil, that anthology. And and and James Fenner's artwork is everywhere. He's done a lot of book covers. He's done a lot of other stuff. But I was like, oh my god.

[00:26:06] - [Speaker 3]
How is that gonna translate to the interior pages? And so he's I I mean, it's so beautiful and atmospheric. And with those punches of the neon color when we're in the film world or when something a little more, you know, sinister is happening, one of my favorite effects that keeps coming back, and so pay attention to when it happens, is when the gutters start to darken and when the gutters become blood splattered. That was something he came up with completely on his own, and it is so cool. And so, like, it even happens in the preview pages where it's like, okay.

[00:26:34] - [Speaker 3]
When we're in the scene of, like, the murder, like, the gutters are black. And when when Laura, our our first girl, you know, gets murdered, like, the the gutters get splattered until until it slowly fades out as, you know, the production team is covering up what happened that day. But he's he's just doing some beautiful painterly work. All the scenes that are just in kind of Pacific Northwest, you know, America are just so nice. And even though they're kind of a little gray and a little dismal, it's still so vibrant.

[00:27:06] - [Speaker 3]
But, yeah, I actually found myself after that first issue writing in more scenes where we get to see the movies because I was like, I want you to do that again. I wanna see you know? And and the movie is an important part of the story. We didn't want it to overtake anything. And obviously, again, like, Sayana and I came up with continuity that will never make it to the page that's not important for the plot, but we know how, you know, Blood Mountain and all its sequels go.

[00:27:30] - [Speaker 3]
But I, like, intentionally was kinda like, I wanna see a few more pages with, like, the movie just to watch James do those colors again.

[00:27:37] - [Speaker 2]
That that's awesome. That's one of the great things about comics. Like, you're writing a book, you just you you write a book. But, like, with comics, when you're doing it, like, issue by issue and you're collaborating and, you you know, someone like Savannah, they're they're doing their art or James with the colors, and then you start to see it after issue one and can kind of change and adapt and write a little bit to it. Like, oh, wow.

[00:27:59] - [Speaker 2]
Yeah. I I I figured out Savannah really excels at this, or I really like the color of, like, the movie scenes, and let's figure out a way to sneak a bit more of that lore that we've come, you know, come up with. I think it's just one of the amazing things about why I love comics.

[00:28:18] - [Speaker 3]
And even in that, you know, it's it's a lot more subtle, but Sandy is even color matching and doing some really cool stuff with captions. We're very sparing with captions in this book. Also, very sparing with, like, point of view changes. Like, we do get a couple of moments where we're with our masked or not masked, but hooded killer. And but those are very rare and very sparing because everything else we do see through Taylor and Cara's eyes, and that was very intentional, to make sure we're not getting away from them too much because we also don't want the reader to be too omniscient.

[00:28:47] - [Speaker 3]
Not that we don't want you to figure out the mystery because even if you suspect you know who's doing it, like, there's a lot more context to the story, and that's not like the prize of the book is not like, congrats. You figured it out. Like, it's there is, like, a whole adventure to it. But, like so we were very sparing with, like, the captions and stuff. But even then, like, there are still some cool scene introductions and moments where Sandy is is matching those neons that James is doing and even adding some of the, like, deer antler imagery to the caption boxes and and place and location and time.

[00:29:21] - [Speaker 3]
And that's that stuff comes to a head. The the deer imagery, like, comes to a head in issue two, which I'm so stoked about. And if you're listening to this listening to this now, you can pick up issue one tomorrow, but FOC for issue two is September 21. So you're just gonna wanna go ahead and tell your local comic book story. You want the whole darn series.

[00:29:40] - [Speaker 3]
Because again, it's 100 pages, you know, by that by that second issue, you've got 70 pages of the story. And so yeah. I mean, it's just again, there were things that I was, like, excited to write because I was like, I wanna see how, you know, gross and messed up Savannah makes this. But again, never going too far into the realm of, like, implausible supernatural horror. You know?

[00:30:04] - [Speaker 3]
We got some creepy cool stuff in, and and it's going to happen because you're, you know, dealing with a vampire movie franchise, and you're in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. But at the at the root of it, there's crime. There's a lot of crime happening, but I couldn't resist, like, a couple of, you know, small horror movie homages or just, like, things that I thought would be really creepy. And so it it inspired a few covers for issue two, but if you've never seen or or heard of what it means when a a deer sheds its velvet, not sheds its antlers, but sheds its velvet. That's after they've shed the antlers, the antlers grow back in.

[00:30:38] - [Speaker 3]
They're covered in soft fuzzy to protect the deer's head, but all that soft fuzzy, which is delivering nutrients to the antlers, has to come off at some point, and that stuff is basically flesh and blood. So that's all I'll say about that. But, like, it's I that's a real scientific phenomenon that I was like, that'd be really effed up in a horror book set in the Pacific Northwest. Let's do it. So light light spoilers for issue two, but, that's that was part of, like, when I was like, okay.

[00:31:03] - [Speaker 3]
Well, when we have to pick, like, something that's iconic for the franchise, I was like, a deer, you can get so much use out of that. Right. So I love that. That I'm so excited about that one.

[00:31:14] - [Speaker 2]
Look. I I thought it was a great first issue. I I I really like the you know, there's a lot there are nods to horror and vampire movies, but, I I get the crime element of it. I love the cast of characters. I I love Savannah's art.

[00:31:30] - [Speaker 2]
Like I said, the colors, the lettering, it's it's all so well done. A couple of things that just, I wanted to to point out that just, again, that I I really enjoyed. I already mentioned the coffee mug. So at one point, there's a character, Patrick, who shows up to deliver a pizza to Taylor and Kara. It is a it is a gluten free with pepperoni, hot honey, and extra garlic.

[00:32:00] - [Speaker 2]
Patrick says to ward off, the vampires. And so not not that groundbreaking that it's a pizza in a comic book, but I'm I'm assuming it's done by either the sauce or the hot honey. There's a there's a pentagram drawn on the pizza.

[00:32:17] - [Speaker 3]
And I was like actually that's actually based on a real pizza that I had that I sent a picture of to Savannah. There's a place in Long Beach, California called the fourth horseman, and they have, like, horror themed pizzas. And they've got,

[00:32:29] - [Speaker 2]
like Oh.

[00:32:29] - [Speaker 3]
They've got one with, like, a charcoal crust, and so it's black. And they've got one called death to piggy, which is a a lord of the flies reference. But they have, like, a a slayer pizza, and it was it was like a garlic and it was actually vegan. It was an entirely vegan pizza. I'm not full time vegan, but I was like, I would love to try this this crazy Slayer, you know, vegan pizza.

[00:32:49] - [Speaker 3]
And it had a hot sauce. It had like a chili lime hot sauce pentagram. And I was like, that would be really fun. And and it would be a gimmick that like, know, if if Vail, you know, again, with the tourism aspect, you know, you kinda get the sense from like going to the coffee store, like, the barista's kind of over it. This is probably the seven hundredth time today she's had to say something, you know, like, I I know you're here because you love Blood Mountain.

[00:33:11] - [Speaker 3]
Like, let's get it over with. Right. And so we don't we don't delve too much into it. It does come up in the second issue again, the town's reaction to, like, what this has brought, you know, to their town. Because it it is a place that thrives on the tourism of the films.

[00:33:26] - [Speaker 3]
But, again, other people then observe, like, just how people keep stepping over boundaries. Like, hey. You know, this is a high school. This is a, you know, coffee store. Like, please, sir, this is a Wendy's.

[00:33:35] - [Speaker 3]
Like, you know but people feel like, I know this place. I've been here. I lived here in my head and breaking down those boundaries. I will say though, I I don't know if you caught it in the PDF view because the PDF was a little lower resolution for the preview than it will be in full glorious print. But Savannah and I also went back and forth on the the pizza store's name is on the lid of the box when they, like, turn the box and they can see it.

[00:33:59] - [Speaker 3]
And that one's called from crust till dawn.

[00:34:02] - [Speaker 2]
I didn't I I did not catch that. Again, tremendous work.

[00:34:10] - [Speaker 3]
You know? And and you know what? I have to shout out Savannah because in the script, I wrote a couple of the, like, coffee drink names. And so, like, Cara gets the

[00:34:18] - [Speaker 2]
Yeah.

[00:34:19] - [Speaker 3]
Mean white mocha. Right. Savannah wrote most of the other jokes on the board. If they weren't in the dialogue, Savannah was writing those down. I think the only other one I contributed was once more with Darjeeling for for our buffy shout out.

[00:34:31] - [Speaker 3]
But Savannah came up with super massive black coffee and chai's on fire and the loca mocha. And and they turned in that page, and I was like, goddamn it. You're so funny. Like, I didn't know how much

[00:34:40] - [Speaker 2]
of the

[00:34:40] - [Speaker 3]
of the menu we would see. But, like, again, it just comes from, like, Savannah and I were perfectly fluent in each other's languages for, you know, what kind of references and and things we wanted to make. And again, the humor doesn't hopefully take away from the crime element for people, but the humor element is also there for the people who've ever been deeply entrenched in a fandom like this and going, yeah. Okay. I know exactly.

[00:35:03] - [Speaker 3]
Like, there's a there's a coffee store in Hollywood that I stop at, you know, whenever I'm out near Burbank, and it's called Horror Vibes. And all of their drinks are themed after slasher movies. And so, like, it's just one of those things where it's just like, I love that, and I'm infusing, like, real genuine things that, like, I've done as a fan and, you know, a devotee of of of these pieces of media. Some of this even, you know, speaks to my experience at HellmouthCon, which is the Buffy convention that takes place at Torrance High School. And so just, again, putting putting that authenticity into it, not that anyone needs to verify my cred or Savannah's cred, like, to believe us, but also then to hit those touchstones where people can go, I understand what is being referenced here.

[00:35:45] - [Speaker 3]
And so I don't have to do, like, a lot of emotional buy in to a concept I don't understand because I think that would keep people away from understanding the crime and then the idea that, oh, someone is inspired by these movies to do a crime. You know? And and I and I wanna make clear, and I'm sure people would would get this, but the crime is not being a fan of something. That that is not the crime of this book. Again, the crime is when you think that your love entitles you, you know, to do cruel things, to cross boundaries, to forget that there are other people on the other side of the anonymous chat messages you're sending or the comments that you're sending to a celebrity's page.

[00:36:27] - [Speaker 3]
You know? Even I wouldn't put it on par with the same, like, message of obsession, but the movie obsession this year. Again, like, I wish someone loved me more than anything in the world. Okay. Well, then you see what happens when that's the mentality, you know, that's been forced on Nikki.

[00:36:42] - [Speaker 3]
It's like she loves him more than anything in the world. She will overstep every boundary. Yeah. And so that's kind of the analog version. No one wish willow here in fixation.

[00:36:51] - [Speaker 3]
It's just someone's cold hard passion turning into, you know, a string of dead bodies.

[00:36:57] - [Speaker 2]
Right. Well, just to talk about the what you said in terms of, you know, no one needs to check you or or Savannah's street cred on this. But the what you do bring to it, what both of you do bring to it is, like, a level of authenticity. Like, reading it, it doesn't feel like somebody dipping a toe into this world and said, hey. You know what would be interesting?

[00:37:21] - [Speaker 2]
I've read a lot about hate online and and and toxic fan culture. Let's write a crime book about it. Like, there is an authenticity that I think both of you and really the whole team and IDW in particular, bring to to this story and and bring to the book. Because you you you take such care with Taylor and and Kara. And and even, you know, some of the other characters who maybe aren't major players or you would not think about being involved in the fandom like the is it Mary, the PR kind of

[00:37:57] - [Speaker 3]
person? Mari?

[00:37:59] - [Speaker 2]
Yeah. The, who you wouldn't necessarily think being, you know, a part of it. Like, you'd think of the actors, and you'd think of the fans, and you think of, like, that interplay. But, you know, you do have all these other people that kind of are involved in anything that grows that big that there's books and movies and a tenth anniversary taking over a town.

[00:38:20] - [Speaker 3]
Yeah. You know, it's actually really funny because it hopefully, you know, this doesn't spoil anything for if you if you can guess the mystery by me saying this, then holy crap. But, like, in the third issue, we do have Taylor looking into her book and seeing, like, the author's name. And it was very interesting because in different drafts, I was like, I almost wanted to have varying degrees of the author being involved in some capacity, but then, like, was no there was no like, she was not part of the story narratively, like, in any important way. But, like, I was like, oh, we should probably, like, put the author's name somewhere in this just so people have a full picture of, so, anyways, I wrote that in, like, as a as an afterthought.

[00:38:57] - [Speaker 3]
But, otherwise, yeah, we wanted to have a lot of empathy again and and again to look at all of the different elements that go into being, you know, a fan and and in the fandom. Because, again, when it was just Taylor in a very isolated setting, like, it was a very different story. But as we started to put more of these characters in and and all of that, there is sympathy for the the PA, which I'm actually I'm using PA as shorthand. Like, Mari's, like, the production liaison. She's the cat wrangler.

[00:39:27] - [Speaker 3]
Like, she's also a PA when we meet her in a flashback. And so I'm like, I don't know how job progression works, but she she's she's high up enough that she demands respect, but also is playing, you know, you know, second fiddle to the the the producers at the top that we don't ever see. You know, the people who for them, this is the money machine. And so there's an empathy for her, and then she cares about the actors, but she also doesn't love every element of the fandom. And then we have the news reporter who's just kind of looking for her story on, like, the chaos that's come to town.

[00:40:02] - [Speaker 3]
And again, the actors where it's like, how would the actors feel unless they're like, I love this. And, like, we kinda we kinda get to see that Miguel, like, loves the attention that he gets from being part of these films. But, like, like, when they make fun when when Anya kinda makes fun of David still cashing checks on his vampire mullet, it's like, how do you how would you feel if that was the one thing you were ever known for as well? Like, we don't, you know, know what other opportunities they may or may not have had after these films because these films have just dominated their lives for ten years. And so, yeah, I I we wanted to, as it grew, give a more holistic look at the fandom.

[00:40:39] - [Speaker 3]
And I'm not an expert in any of those, you know, spaces, but I can still take an attempt at, you know, this is what I think would happen in the world of Veil and the world of Blood Mountain because of these things happening. And I and I'm glad that Riley allowed me to kind of push the story in that direction as well. At some point, I was like, can I can I add a dash of scream to, like, the twilight influence of this? And so it is, like, a twilight meets scream, which are two, again, very formative pieces of media for me, and adding the complexities of all those characters and, again, the ways that people at different levels experience fandom. It's not just the fans, but it's also the people on the other side of that.

[00:41:19] - [Speaker 3]
So I'm really glad that that resonates. And, again, it made Savannah, you know, have an opportunity to have a bunch of really cool and various character designs and really shape the world and the visual language of the book as well. And it's and it was fun as once I got over, like, keeping track of who was who, because also all of the actors have the character names they played, and that got a little crazy. Even if it, like, barely comes up, like, are some more scenes in the movie universe where, like, they say the names. Once keeping track of that got under control, it was a lot of fun to just have all the different voices and everybody's different reactions to, like, are they happy about this?

[00:41:56] - [Speaker 3]
Are they not happy about this? Do they just need the paycheck? Are they, you know, trying their best to to be excited about it? But, you know, it's it's difficult. Especially with, like, Summer, our lead actress.

[00:42:06] - [Speaker 3]
Like, we get to see her reaction to, like, Taylor trauma dumping on her really fast. And that was our way to get Taylor's backstory, like, delivered. But also, like, that's there's a real human person who, like, if you're like, oh my god. You know? Like and this is not to make light of it, but when people are like, I was gonna kill myself until I read your book.

[00:42:24] - [Speaker 3]
It's like, that's a lot to put on somebody else. Like and so we wanted to also acknowledge that with Taylor where it's like, she's not perfect, and this means a lot to her. But there's another person on the other side of that who takes it with grace, but also, like, that's a lot to put on somebody. And it's like, okay. But, you know, what you see in fandom also is like, and part of Taylor's journey in this is is what you see in the characters you love.

[00:42:48] - [Speaker 3]
Some of that's something you see in yourself, but it's easier to see it in another character or another thing that is separate from you than to say, I too am a strong person or I too, you know, deserve compassion like these characters do. And so, again, that that's part of Taylor's journey throughout the whole arc of the series. A little less so, Kara, because unintentionally, not as a comment on this, but, like, the cast is a lot of white people as a lot of those properties were. So there are fewer characters who look like Kara, but that doesn't mean she doesn't love it and identify with characters. But, like, with Taylor and Summer Lucy, we have, like, the one to one where it's like, I identify with you almost body and soul.

[00:43:32] - [Speaker 2]
Right. Yeah. I was gonna say that that you Matthew Lillard has already come up once. But Yes. Just just to bring Matthew Lillard up again, there and to shout out something else that I really like if listeners aren't familiar with this, but I don't know if if you're familiar with mythical kitchen.

[00:43:51] - [Speaker 3]
Oh, yeah. The show. Yeah.

[00:43:53] - [Speaker 2]
Yeah. So Matthew Lillard was on. They they do last meal where

[00:43:57] - [Speaker 3]
Oh.

[00:43:57] - [Speaker 2]
For listeners, if you don't know mythical kitchen, I think you can find it. I don't know. There's a TikTok and just YouTube, I think.

[00:44:03] - [Speaker 3]
Yeah. I think it's on I watch YouTube when I do watch it.

[00:44:06] - [Speaker 2]
Yeah. So last meal, they have a a a guest on who says what their last meal is, and then, the the crew makes the last meal, and I think it's chef Josh is his name. But Matthew Lewin was on. It that's a great episode, but talking about one of those things, like, get it going to conventions and meeting fans and having fans come up and say, like, this meant so much to me, or I was at this dark place, and then, you know, this happened. And that's I mean, you can see when Matthew Lillard talks about it, and I'm sure that it it's happened to others.

[00:44:40] - [Speaker 2]
That's just the first one that came to my mind because his name came up already. But you can see how emotional he gets taking Mhmm. On all of these things that that that people want to share with him. And he he it he does seemingly take it very, you know, gracefully or take it with with grace.

[00:44:58] - [Speaker 3]
Yeah. Yeah. That that's

[00:44:58] - [Speaker 2]
a lot. That's a lot. You sit there at a convention to get a couple bucks, and you fare for, like, eight hours and to have people come up and, you know, some interactions I'm sure are very,

[00:45:10] - [Speaker 3]
like souls.

[00:45:11] - [Speaker 2]
But, yeah, some people are really do that who are are really touched by, for whatever reason, a a book, a a TV show, a movie, a comic, a performance, like, whatever it might be. And that that is an element that I thought was actually beautifully captured in that in that moment. Because that's hard when you're sitting there and you're signing autographs and somebody comes up and they're like, this meant the world to me because I, you know, I watched the fur the first two movies while my mother was dying. You know? And that's Yeah.

[00:45:42] - [Speaker 3]
It's a lot. Well and, you know, as a fan and and as a comics, you know, from going from a fan to a professional, I had a moment like that with Jason Aaron over his over his Jane Foster run because that was still very early in that run, but it meant meant a lot to me, and it it did come after a traumatic period in my life. And I have a similar story with Brian Michael Bendis' alias. I forget exactly which issue it is now, but there's there's an issue that has a cold open where Jessica is in a convenience store when a gunman comes into the store, and it was very similar to something that I experienced. And I've I've never gotten to meet him in person at a con.

[00:46:19] - [Speaker 3]
But again, I have to think about, like, am I gonna tell him that story? Like, I don't know. Maybe he listens to this podcast. But it's like, I don't wanna, like, put that on somebody, but also like, it is really weird when you see yourself in a work of fiction where it's like this Yeah. This thing that happened to me that was traumatic was very alienating.

[00:46:33] - [Speaker 3]
But again, to see that, you know, a writer could imagine it and an artist could draw it. And and if, you know, it wasn't so unremarkable or it wasn't so remarkable that it couldn't happen to Jessica Jones as well. Like, it it is it is a weird feeling, but, like, again, to god. I say again a lot. I know that is my that is my, like, let's bring it back to the point word.

[00:46:55] - [Speaker 3]
But I mean, you want me to just

[00:46:57] - [Speaker 2]
go in you want me to just go through when I edit and just take out all the agains?

[00:47:01] - [Speaker 3]
Or put a little tally over my head. That'll be really embarrassing. No. But to bring it back to Matthew Lillard, I also saw this week there you know, I guess at some convention, someone came up to him and was like, dude, you were really shitty to me one time. And it was like, because this guy had come up with a a I and I'm maybe misrepresenting it.

[00:47:24] - [Speaker 3]
But, like, he came up with a story. Yeah. And so he was like

[00:47:28] - [Speaker 2]
I I I saw it. Yeah. He he came up at a convention and he asked him, like, he had some theory about scream being connected to, like, another Drew Barrymore film. And Matthew Lurk's response Both

[00:47:40] - [Speaker 3]
characters were named Casey. And he's like, oh, is it the same girl? And Matthew jokingly was like, oh, what were you smoking to come up with that? And the guy got pissed because he's like, how dare you take this thing that I was taking very seriously? You've lost me as

[00:47:52] - [Speaker 2]
a Yeah.

[00:47:52] - [Speaker 3]
But, like, that's that's exactly also the the dark flip side of what we're addressing in fixation is like also Yeah. You can meet someone and they're having a bad day or it it's not the moment that you pictured perfectly in your head. I've had it happen with comic book artists who I wanna get a signature from. And they were either either really tired, maybe didn't have lunch or was just kinda having a bad day. And like the interaction was really kinda curt and cold, and I was like, oh, oh, that makes me feel weird and kind of embarrassed about, you know, liking that.

[00:48:22] - [Speaker 3]
But then sometimes I see them in another convention, they're all smiles, and it was much better. And it's like, they could've just been having a bad day. But but Right. Very interesting that They're they're on the People Matthew Lillard. Yeah.

[00:48:32] - [Speaker 3]
They're they're people. But that's how some people could take their ideas and their their headcanons so seriously. You know? And and the way people I it's very interesting to me. And and the way that fan fiction and fandom are also kind of seen as derogatorily feminine things sometimes.

[00:48:51] - [Speaker 3]
There there's the masculine realm of, like, being, you know, super knowledgeable and really intense about something, and you even see it in, like, sports. But, like, when it comes to fan fiction and, like, romance stories or shipping characters because they didn't end up together and you thought they should've, it gets a lot of bad rep for being feminine and girly and immature. But as I always say on these podcasts, if I did not write fan fiction all throughout college, I don't think I would be half the writer I am today. And maybe some people would look at my writing and go, oh, yeah. I could tell she writes fan fiction.

[00:49:20] - [Speaker 3]
I'll say to that, I've written for my little pony. I've written for dungeons and dragons. I've written for Archie comics. I've written for critical role. I've written for ghostbusters.

[00:49:28] - [Speaker 3]
I've written for Wednesday on Netflix. I've written for miraculous ladybug because I know how to tone match and write character voices that aren't the characters I created. So there's nothing wrong with fan fiction.

[00:49:39] - [Speaker 2]
Nothing at all.

[00:49:40] - [Speaker 3]
My hottest take is that I don't care how much you love a Scott Snyder run on Batman. He's writing professional fan fiction. He didn't come up with Batman. He is writing professional fan fiction. No disrespect to you, mister Scott, Scott Snyder.

[00:49:52] - [Speaker 3]
I I revere fan fiction highly. You know? It's it's work that people do out of the love of their hearts. And I love if I can make another recommendation for a book, I love Mary Sue from Boone Studios, Megan Fitzmark and Lisa Lisa Sterl.

[00:50:05] - [Speaker 2]
Megan's been on the podcast. We talked about Mary Sue. I love Mary Sue. Lisa Sterl, I I I don't think has ever been on, but I love Lisa's work.

[00:50:14] - [Speaker 3]
Well and she did the, the the one in 10 incentive variant cover for fixation, which again, like, amazing, amazing cover. It's the one with, like, the bloody hand streak across the television set. That was one where Riley was like, hey. Did you come up with names for all the other movies in the series of Blood Mountain? And I was like, I actually did.

[00:50:33] - [Speaker 3]
And so those are actually on the cover of Lisa Sterle's book. But, like, I was so honored that we got a Lauren Knight cover because she did some of my favorite vampire she did some of my favorite Buffy issues in the Boom Studios run just like a couple of, like, one off stories. Lauren Knight

[00:50:47] - [Speaker 2]
who did wait. Lauren Knight who did

[00:50:49] - [Speaker 3]
Synch Your Golden Ridge? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:50:53] - [Speaker 3]
And she's doing sync your teeth in with Zoe Tinel of Seven Wives IDW Crime. Yes.

[00:50:58] - [Speaker 2]
Yeah.

[00:50:59] - [Speaker 3]
So I was super stoked that we got Lauren Knight on covers and then Lisa Sterile from Mary Sue doing you know? And then it's like, they're making Blood Mountain fan art, or they're making fixation fan art, I guess. But, like, you know? Yeah. Just just layers of of that all the way down.

[00:51:13] - [Speaker 3]
Like, the book just feels like a perfect celebration of all of that. And, there's a little bit of gritty murder and and, you know, the dark side of things.

[00:51:21] - [Speaker 2]
But, like,

[00:51:21] - [Speaker 3]
Yeah. As a professional and a fan, it just feels like the perfect celebration and encapsulation of of my career up to this point. And I can't wait to see where I get to go after that. But, like, I am just having so much fun, and I can't wait for people to actually have fixation in hand. Because so far, it's just been living with us and the few people who have been privileged to read it in advance.

[00:51:42] - [Speaker 3]
But, like, I I want it out in the world for better or worse. I'm scared of when it once it's out of my hands and in the world, but, like, I'm so excited for people to check it out.

[00:51:51] - [Speaker 2]
I think people are really gonna like it. I really like what IDW is doing with the crime line. I thought it was a a fantastic first issue. I love that it was 40 pages. It really it went fast.

[00:52:01] - [Speaker 2]
I mean, I'm also a fast reader, but, it it just it felt like a lot of story. It felt like I was getting a lot. It never feels slow. You're never bogged down by exposition and which is kind of a a a feat because you do have a lot of lore. You do have a lot of stuff packed in here.

[00:52:21] - [Speaker 2]
You do have, like, you know, more than two, three characters that you are kind of trying to, like, spotlight. And Mhmm. It really has a nice pace to it. And yeah. Thank you.

[00:52:33] - [Speaker 2]
Thoroughly thoroughly thoroughly enjoyed it. It also felt very you, which I I also I also loved.

[00:52:42] - [Speaker 3]
Thank you.

[00:52:43] - [Speaker 2]
And, also, I can't wait till the next time I go out to California because now I pulled up the website. I wanna go to the fourth horseman.

[00:52:53] - [Speaker 3]
Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. Fourth horseman or horror vibes coffee. I'm not sponsored,

[00:52:59] - [Speaker 2]
but, like,

[00:52:59] - [Speaker 3]
that's that's the it's like, I don't drink coffee a lot. But if the coffee is, like, got a funny name and it's like, this was inspired by a slasher movie. It's like, how can you tell? Oh, there's, like, strawberry drizzle, and I'm like, alright. I'll I'll buy it.

[00:53:14] - [Speaker 3]
I'm there.

[00:53:15] - [Speaker 2]
I'll have I'll I'll check it out. Yeah.

[00:53:16] - [Speaker 3]
Hell yeah.

[00:53:17] - [Speaker 2]
Fourth horsemen the fourth horsemen doesn't they don't sponsor the the podcast or anything, but

[00:53:23] - [Speaker 3]
But maybe they'll send me a pizza.

[00:53:26] - [Speaker 2]
Maybe they will. I, next time I'm out in California, I want the night of the chicken dead, mozzarella, tomatoes, fried chicken, tomato sauce, roasted garlic, shredded Parmesan, shaved parsley, finished with lemon lemon Lemmon. Lemon Parmesan. Lemmon. I made something up.

[00:53:45] - [Speaker 2]
Lemon Parmesan cream sauce. So, I'll take two, you think it's knights of the chicken dead or knight of the chicken deads if I plural it if I make it plural. Is it like cul de sac or attorneys general?

[00:54:01] - [Speaker 3]
Oh, I would say knight of the chicken deads because that I don't know. That's that's how I feel. Knight of

[00:54:10] - [Speaker 2]
the chicken dead. Night. So in

[00:54:12] - [Speaker 3]
any event knights knights knights of the chicken dead sounds like knights of the round table.

[00:54:17] - [Speaker 2]
It it it does a little bit. Well, Amy, thank you so much for coming back on the podcast. Listeners, fixation. Me. Oh, anytime.

[00:54:28] - [Speaker 2]
Fixation

[00:54:28] - [Speaker 3]
And so soon you get Sorry. I keep keep interrupting you. Prime line. We don't have to wait two years every time to do this.

[00:54:35] - [Speaker 2]
No. Once a year. Let's go. Fixation, IDW prime line, Amy Chase, Savannah Mayer. It will be out September 9.

[00:54:45] - [Speaker 2]
So if you're listening to this, if you're someone who listens to the Tuesday episodes when it comes out, it will be out on new comic book day. Tomorrow, you can let your local comic book shop know that you want a copy and make sure you while you're there, order issues. Two and three, the

[00:55:00] - [Speaker 3]
best way to tell IDW that you like what they're doing is to buy the issues, and, you could do that at your local comic shop. And issue two comes out, like, the Wednesday before Halloween. So, like, again, I know we're not part of the the dark lineup, but there is plenty of pre Halloween spooky goodness for you. And then our finale will be out in November. So and then there's a trade paperback after that, but it hasn't solicited yet.

[00:55:26] - [Speaker 3]
I don't know exactly when that will be out. But yeah. No. Super excited. Please, please, please pick up this book.

[00:55:32] - [Speaker 3]
It is my first miniseries. It is Savannah Mayer's second, and you're gonna wanna keep an eye on their their comics career because they've I I think fixation is the coolest, but I know some other things they're working on, and I think those might also be equally cool. Okay. But yeah. And then if you want any updates on my future stuff, amythunderjam.com is my website.

[00:55:54] - [Speaker 3]
That's where I will update with as much as I can, or amy thunder jam dot blue sky dot social, or yeah. Is it .bsky.social? However, they they I don't I'll

[00:56:05] - [Speaker 2]
put a link

[00:56:05] - [Speaker 3]
in the

[00:56:05] - [Speaker 2]
show notes.

[00:56:06] - [Speaker 3]
Perfect. I'll put a link

[00:56:07] - [Speaker 2]
in the show notes to to all that stuff so folks can folks can can find you.

[00:56:11] - [Speaker 3]
So

[00:56:11] - [Speaker 2]
And the the

[00:56:12] - [Speaker 3]
only other thing I have coming up sorry. The only other thing I have coming up is in January 2027. I've got an Avatar the Last Airbender official Oracle deck coming out. So I'm back on my back on my tarot and Oracle decks, and that one is for there's no Korra in it, but it's the core, Avatar the Last Airbender series. So I'm very excited about that.

[00:56:31] - [Speaker 2]
That's awesome. Alright. Well, I look for that as well. As always, shout out to my brother, Bobby, the Cryptid Creator Corner's number one most dedicated fan. Bobby listens to all my episodes.

[00:56:39] - [Speaker 2]
Hey, Bob. How you doing? And, only because I had brought her name up earlier. If Rachel listens to this episode hi, Rachel. How you doing?

[00:56:47] - [Speaker 3]
Hi, Rachel. And hi, Bobby.

[00:56:50] - [Speaker 2]
Alright. So for comic book yeti, cryptic creator corner, I'm Jimmy Gasparo. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you to my guest, Amy Chase. Make sure you pick up fixation and, rate and review, do all the stuff they tell you to do for podcasts.

[00:57:03] - [Speaker 2]
It really does help us. Thank you, listeners. Thank you so much for listening. Have a good night, and I will see you next time.

[00:57:11] - [Speaker 4]
Jimmy is too humble to do this. So as his stalwart ride or die, I wanted to tell you about his new graphic novel, Penny and the Yeti with artist Amber Aiken. What started as a comic short with his daughter that I've known about for ages now, and it's evolved and has become one of those annoying can't talk about it in comics things for too damn long. Yes, I'm predisposed to be supportive but after reading an advanced copy of it, I have to admit it's way better than I anticipated. No shade, but it's really good, remarkably so.

[00:57:43] - [Speaker 4]
Does it have a yeti? Yeah. Is it cute and adorable? Yeah. But it streak flies in effectively tapping into the all too familiar family dynamics that we all are facing in 2026 and approaching it in a way that doesn't insult the book's target audience.

[00:57:58] - [Speaker 4]
Kids. They are way smarter and perceptive than we adults give them credit for. So I really appreciated Jimmy's narrative approach tapping into his own experiences as a dad and a spouse. I can hear his wife saying, get off your phone, Jimmy, through the pages. She's gonna kill me for saying that.

[00:58:14] - [Speaker 4]
It's hitting shelves on April 21, and I dropped the link in the show notes where you can preorder a copy today. Yeti or not, here we come with Penny, Perry, Fenton, Maxine, and the magical, mythical, magnificent, Yeti. On behalf of us both, we appreciate your support. YOLOLA. This is Byron O'Neill, one of your hosts of the Cryptic Creator Corner brought to you by Comic Book Yeti.

[00:58:40] - [Speaker 4]
We hope you've enjoyed this episode of our podcast. Please rate, review, subscribe, all that good stuff. It lets us know how we're doing and more importantly, how we can improve. Thanks for listening.

[00:58:54] - [Speaker 0]
If you enjoyed this episode of the Cryptid Creator Corner, maybe you would enjoy our sister podcast, Into the Comics Cave. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.