Buddy Beaudoin talks Corvus

[00:00:00] Your ears do not deceive you. You've just entered the Cryptid Creator Corner brought to you by your friends at Comic Book Yeti.

[00:00:07] So without further ado, let's get on to the interview.

[00:00:11] Y'all Jimmy the Chaos Goblin strikes again

[00:00:14] I should have known better than to mention I was working on my DC Universe meets Ravenloft hybrid D&D campaign on social media

[00:00:21] My bad. He goes and tags a bunch of comics creators

[00:00:24] We know and now I have to get it in gear and whip this campaign into shape so we could start playing

[00:00:29] Another friend chimes in are you gonna make maps?

[00:00:32] It's fair to say it's been a while since I put something together. So I guess question mark

[00:00:37] It was then that I discovered Arkham Forge

[00:00:40] If you don't know who Arkham Forge is they have everything you need to make your TT RPG more fun and immersive

[00:00:46] Allowing you to build play and export animated maps including in-person fog of war capability

[00:00:52] But let your players interact with maps as the adventure unfolds while you the DM get the full picture

[00:00:59] Now I'm set to easily build high res animated maps saving myself precious time and significantly adding nuance to our campaign

[00:01:06] That's a win every day in my book. Check them out at Arkham Forge.com and use the discount code yeti5

[00:01:13] To get $5 off. I'll drop a link in the show notes for you and big thanks to Arkham Forge for partnering with our show

[00:01:19] I think I'm gonna make Jimmy play a Goblin warlock just to get even

[00:01:24] Hello, and welcome to comic book Yeti's Cryptid creator corner

[00:01:27] I'm one of your hosts Jimmy Gasparo and I am very excited for today's guest

[00:01:33] Because it's someone I've worked with before which is always very exciting

[00:01:38] He is a comic book letterer

[00:01:41] Extraordinaire and not content with lettering

[00:01:45] He also wants to come up with the words that he's putting down on the page

[00:01:49] So he is writing a comic with Dead Sky publishing. It's coming out in September

[00:01:55] I think September 25th issue number one

[00:01:58] It is Orvis with art by Christopher Sassman and colors by Allison who?

[00:02:04] Please welcome to the podcast his name's been mentioned a bunch

[00:02:07] Buddy Bo Doin buddy. How are you doing tonight? Good and glad to finally be here and talk about myself

[00:02:14] Everybody else can shut up about me

[00:02:16] I think it's been mostly good

[00:02:20] No, it's been

[00:02:21] It's been great. Yeah, I

[00:02:25] Listen I listen in and it's cool. I think somebody called me their hero on the last

[00:02:30] Episode I listen to so yeah, it's been nice. I don't mind people mentioning me on here. Yeah

[00:02:36] I think I said even at one point that I said buddy's name comes up. I really got to get buddy on the podcast

[00:02:43] Yeah, that we're doing this so Corvus

[00:02:47] Dead Sky publishing you were kind enough to send over three review issues

[00:02:53] The first thing I have to say is it has

[00:02:58] the the bit of the concept reminds me of one of my favorite movies of all time which is the last Starfighter the idea that a video game

[00:03:09] Can kind of lead to

[00:03:12] Someone being recruited

[00:03:14] For some type of outer space

[00:03:17] Mission or resistance

[00:03:19] I was always a huge fan of the last our fighter and this had those vibes

[00:03:27] But a lot a lot a lot bloodier a lot

[00:03:32] gorier

[00:03:33] Definitely has that like the first or actually I'd probably say aliens the second one kind of that like marine

[00:03:40] influence

[00:03:42] fighting these

[00:03:44] Just horrific

[00:03:46] creatures I

[00:03:47] Really dug it like all three issues

[00:03:51] Just fairly fairly enjoyed it

[00:03:55] Yeah, so why don't you tell our listeners a little bit more about like Corvus like what what?

[00:04:01] Yeah, why was this your because this is like I think your first time

[00:04:06] Writing that's not being like self-published. Is that right? Yeah, so I had I had started writing when I started making comics

[00:04:14] I was a writer and I just created

[00:04:19] Essentially buddy comedies was like my go-to. I came up with a book called verses which was about a

[00:04:26] cop and an evil scientist and they

[00:04:30] Went all through this city trying to kill each other and it was

[00:04:33] Just like a greatest nemesis type of scenario

[00:04:38] And then I started working I started writing a book called Pratt

[00:04:43] with my good friend Brennan and free mantle and

[00:04:48] We were starting to pick up some steam with that and I was like

[00:04:52] Man, I can't hire anybody to letter this so I need to figure it out and that's when I started to learn

[00:05:01] lettering

[00:05:02] And was just doing it for myself and I did a terrible job. It was awful

[00:05:08] Do you go back and look at it now and you're like, yeah all the time

[00:05:12] It's so bad, but the story is really good and we kind of hope to bring it back Brennan and I

[00:05:21] So that was kind of where I got my start was writing comedy

[00:05:24] And I'm a kind of a silly goofy guy and I think like a lot of silly goofy people you

[00:05:31] Are silly and goofy to kind of like mask some other things a lot of the times so I grew up

[00:05:39] In a kind of a difficult situation. I have a fair amount of like childhood trauma

[00:05:45] And I was in therapy

[00:05:49] Pretty hard core

[00:05:53] So this book Corvus seemed like kind of a way to talk about that stuff without

[00:05:59] maybe

[00:06:01] Directly referencing myself. It was just like a place to put

[00:06:05] All of that stuff. So like yeah, you'll see a lot of familial trauma throughout it and

[00:06:11] That's kind of the hole in this arc

[00:06:16] I'm not sure that we'll get another one but in this arc

[00:06:20] the

[00:06:21] Bad guy is called the mayor

[00:06:24] Which is basically just short for nightmare

[00:06:27] But they're an alien race that kind of they make you relive

[00:06:31] They have psychic powers and what they do is they tap into your brain and they make you relive your worst trauma

[00:06:37] Like over and over and over again and with the point being of

[00:06:41] essentially making you

[00:06:43] kill yourself

[00:06:45] And that's kind of how they wipe out worlds. They don't do much of the legwork themselves

[00:06:54] So and that's all they are just like a planet destroying kind of evil thing

[00:06:59] I always really liked a

[00:07:02] Villain that was just evil for the sake of being

[00:07:05] Evil and there wasn't like it didn't need

[00:07:10] Some something to happen and it's past or whatever

[00:07:14] Kind of like the original

[00:07:16] The original Halloween when Michael Myers was just like the figure like when they were working that out

[00:07:22] He wasn't supposed to be like he was just a boogie man essentially, right?

[00:07:26] Yeah, he didn't have some or the initial concept like someone who has like a backstory and there's a reason and there's rules and you know

[00:07:34] Right, just he is some type of force that just does not

[00:07:38] Stop right

[00:07:41] So that's the mayor they just kind of indiscriminately

[00:07:45] Take out planets and right move on to the next one. So

[00:07:50] Corvus Earth is up. It's it's Earth's turn

[00:07:54] and

[00:07:56] Yeah in the first issue you get kind of a glimpse of them

[00:08:02] And and their abilities

[00:08:07] But

[00:08:08] Yeah, it's it's been super fun to work with

[00:08:12] Chris and Allison on it. So originally it was gonna be with Brennan my original kind of creative partner

[00:08:21] He had just said to me like hey, can I draw monsters next time and I was like, oh, yeah

[00:08:27] so I started kind of working on the idea of it and

[00:08:31] He's a tattoo artist. He's got a ton of things to do. So like by the time I was getting serious about doing this book

[00:08:38] He was too busy

[00:08:40] And I found Chris and I think his art is just

[00:08:44] insane

[00:08:45] He pulls things out of the scripts

[00:08:48] I'm not only that but he's been a great help with the scripting whenever I collaborate with somebody I try to like

[00:08:55] Run everything past them and say

[00:08:59] Do you feel comfortable doing this? Is this gonna be fun for you?

[00:09:03] Do you have a vision for this because that that's like my main goal in collaborating with other people is making sure that they're

[00:09:10] Enjoying it cuz comic books like yeah. Yeah, what else are we supposed doing?

[00:09:17] Should be a collaboration. It should be fun. I think

[00:09:20] Christopher Sassman, I think he was the artist on

[00:09:25] Another crowdfunded comic territory did he do that with Blake McCarthy? I want to say yeah, he's my god Blake's last name wrong

[00:09:34] But I think that's it. I know he didn't do

[00:09:38] All of them. Oh, I think he did like the first few

[00:09:43] Yeah

[00:09:44] I really liked a lot of the art in that

[00:09:49] There's such an interesting mix and it's it's very interesting to hear you say

[00:09:55] You know to try and channel that's the right word some things that that you were going through

[00:10:02] Or had been through in in the abstract to you know to put them in the comic

[00:10:09] And

[00:10:10] Thinking about that now there's so much really packed into these these first three issues

[00:10:18] and it's because you you get a sense of the

[00:10:23] Space adventure and these terrible monsters

[00:10:26] But when they when you see the effect that they have on the main character to essentially relive the worst day of their life

[00:10:36] We're seeing very you know real human

[00:10:41] like

[00:10:42] interaction so this is

[00:10:45] For all intents and purposes you could read this and be like alright

[00:10:49] Space monsters, let's go. Let's have a good time

[00:10:53] You know

[00:10:54] But there is some really like heavy-duty issues because you essentially have an enemy that forces you to confront the worst thing

[00:11:01] You ever went through and basically kind of like trap you inside it and it's all very you know

[00:11:09] real

[00:11:10] fear and trauma

[00:11:13] Especially with you know your main character who I think in the first three issues faces off

[00:11:18] Against things that happen, you know in terms of both of his parents and it's truly like terrifying to think oh

[00:11:25] I'm I'm trapped in here until

[00:11:28] He's you know somebody hopefully brings him out of it. Yeah. Yeah, well, I'm glad you said human because that was

[00:11:36] One of my first thoughts when I was writing this was

[00:11:40] Okay, so there's the last the last starfighter vibe, which is very much on purpose. I also love that movie

[00:11:46] Yeah, the alien also very much on purpose

[00:11:50] um

[00:11:52] To me though

[00:11:54] It wasn't going to be fun for me to write it unless it was like what would people actually do

[00:12:00] in this situation

[00:12:02] is like

[00:12:04] Darren the main character when he gets

[00:12:07] You know kind of ripped away to space. He's not

[00:12:10] Stoked about it. He's not like no, he's not like oh, I'm off on a grand adventure

[00:12:16] Yeah, uh and and you know just not just in terms of like the the

[00:12:20] I guess the fighting and the the battles the blood which is

[00:12:25] You know takes it up a notch from something like the last starfighter

[00:12:29] But all you know also the language in it. It feels very real where he's like

[00:12:34] You know, it happens so suddenly that you have like a bit of a cold open

[00:12:38] I guess

[00:12:39] You know and then he he kind of

[00:12:42] Is telling you the story which essentially there's like a panel or two

[00:12:47] Transition and we feel like oh, we're going a little bit back in time

[00:12:51] And then but to get kind of almost

[00:12:53] Caught up

[00:12:55] It happens like very quickly

[00:12:57] um, you know where he is kind of

[00:13:00] Uh whisked away and yeah, he is not psych

[00:13:04] uh about about being in space and I mean I think a couple of times when

[00:13:10] Orders are barked at him and he's just like like first day in space everybody

[00:13:14] Yeah

[00:13:15] Yeah, who are you?

[00:13:16] I didn't know you until 18 hours ago. Yeah, so not only the nightmares they face

[00:13:22] Gives us this really like human element

[00:13:25] But you know that the character that we are essentially as the reader, you know shadowing

[00:13:32] You know, we're right there

[00:13:33] You know with him and can picture that we're having would would be having a very you know

[00:13:40] Similar reaction to to the to the situation he is in

[00:13:45] Well, it's cool to hear that it uh, it reads that way because that is

[00:13:51] Yeah, it's essentially like well, what would I do in this situation?

[00:13:55] How would I react in these situations?

[00:13:57] Like I did try to put even though it's not directly about me. I think I did try to put as as

[00:14:02] As much of myself in there. It was an interesting noise. Yeah. I don't know what that was a transformer pretty sure

[00:14:09] Uh

[00:14:11] um

[00:14:13] Yeah, I did try to put as much of myself in there and uh as I could and so like

[00:14:20] Yeah, there's stuff that happens that are uh a direct

[00:14:25] Take on actual nightmares that I've had. Yeah

[00:14:29] So

[00:14:30] Yeah, it was actually a great note by my editor on this is uh christy baptist. Um and steve once also

[00:14:37] Um does some of the editing

[00:14:40] um

[00:14:41] Yeah, I got a note back that was like oh this scene reads like a real nightmare and I was like sick it it is

[00:14:50] So yeah, and I'm

[00:14:51] At christopher's artwork and it is is great. I mean I love the concept of these

[00:14:57] like creatures um

[00:14:59] because you know there's

[00:15:02] If the they're kind of

[00:15:05] Like nebulous at times, you know like in terms of their shape. Um, they kind of like

[00:15:11] grow and change a little bit

[00:15:14] You know and then

[00:15:16] I don't know there was I think there was one panel where there were just all kinds of different

[00:15:21] I think I think it was when sig was in one of the comics is explaining to darin about

[00:15:26] The whole deal like what the universe is really like and how they're kind of like, you know

[00:15:33] A last line of defense or maybe a first line of defense, but

[00:15:36] They there's a panel with all these different creatures in it and they're all just they're all just great

[00:15:42] It's I just love seeing things like I never would have you know, we get so

[00:15:47] Used to seeing either like a humanoid monster or you know something done a certain way

[00:15:53] And I love when I see designs that are just like I never would have thought of anything that looked like that

[00:15:59] Yeah, I know I know the exact panel you're talking about. Yeah

[00:16:03] He uh, he knocked that out and it's also so fun to see

[00:16:08] Allison on that stuff too because they don't

[00:16:12] I mean, I don't know how much they communicate

[00:16:14] um

[00:16:15] About

[00:16:17] The color

[00:16:18] Yeah, but chris has said to me time and time again like i'm just gonna let allison cook

[00:16:23] Because she

[00:16:25] She'll go in and she just like sees what's in his brain. I think so there they have like such a great

[00:16:31] Working relationship and like those pages

[00:16:35] That the opening of that issue that you're talking about is was so fun to like get into my inbox

[00:16:41] Yeah, I mean they all are but um

[00:16:45] Yeah, there's some stuff later in the series that you haven't seen yet that um

[00:16:49] Um

[00:16:51] We're kind of introduced to a new alien race and they're i'm working on a lot of fun

[00:16:55] A lot of fun aspects of them. Uh, oh cool. That's like the fun for me too of writing a space story is

[00:17:04] Who knows who knows who knows what's out there? There's no, yeah, absolutely

[00:17:10] Yeah, I love I love seeing all those different. I think in I think in the third issue

[00:17:14] There's there's a hint at at something. Um, but yeah, all those different designs and those different elements and

[00:17:21] You know, especially a story like that where

[00:17:24] There's this whole other universe. We know nothing about

[00:17:27] uh, I mean in terms of humans and uh or the people on earth

[00:17:32] And you can do whatever you want with it. Yeah

[00:17:36] Speaking of allison, I was going to say the when

[00:17:39] darin

[00:17:40] Uh

[00:17:41] Because he works at like a video you know video game place when he the when the alien first affects him

[00:17:50] In that that the first time it happens to him before he's whisked away the colors in that

[00:17:56] sequence that first nightmare sequence are

[00:18:00] Are phenomenal

[00:18:02] Yeah

[00:18:03] They're so good

[00:18:05] Yeah, she killed it. Uh, that was really fun for me

[00:18:09] To letter I think specifically because of the way that it's colored like it gave me

[00:18:15] The ideas for what I was going to do in that scene, which was try new things. Um, so you'll see in that scene that

[00:18:23] I did like

[00:18:25] It's almost kind of like

[00:18:27] An interpretation of 3d. So there's like all of the lettering is red white and blue

[00:18:32] Um, kind of like offset from each other

[00:18:34] Yeah, specifically because of of what she did with the coloring

[00:18:39] Uh

[00:18:40] Yeah, there's some stuff that cover of issue 3. I think is

[00:18:46] One of the coolest covers I've ever seen and I'm like, I'm pretty hands off about that stuff

[00:18:52] Like I just because I'll be like do you have ideas? I'm like my idea is to let you

[00:18:57] Do what makes you happy?

[00:19:00] And

[00:19:01] Because

[00:19:02] Uh, yeah

[00:19:04] when we got the

[00:19:07] The issue 3 cover steve wands was like so psyched about it. Uh, it is the background on my phone right now

[00:19:15] Um, I can't wait for that to be revealed

[00:19:19] um

[00:19:20] Yeah, this whole

[00:19:23] Experience for me is a new

[00:19:26] Cool thing like this is my first time getting picked up by a publisher

[00:19:30] This is my first time like we have melissa mazeros. My first time was a publicist

[00:19:35] Or like

[00:19:37] I'm gonna come out and do podcasts to promote something other than just being a goofball

[00:19:42] Right. Uh, yeah, it's it's so cool and it's um

[00:19:47] So thankful for it

[00:19:50] I didn't think that this book was going to be something that got

[00:19:55] Made um up until now I think it's been

[00:20:00] In the works

[00:20:02] In some way or another for close to five or six years

[00:20:07] Oh, wow

[00:20:07] so it was

[00:20:09] It was something that was always like this book is a lot of me it means a lot to me

[00:20:14] There's a lot of myself in it and it's a very personal journey

[00:20:20] And I just want to write it

[00:20:22] And whatever happens happens but the fact that it's

[00:20:26] um

[00:20:27] Getting put out like I'm really excited to see

[00:20:31] You know, I know it's not for everybody nothing is but I'm really excited to see like what people pick up from it

[00:20:38] um and

[00:20:39] Yeah, it's really cool to hear that you like you're getting all the vibes right away because they're all like

[00:20:46] Very on purpose

[00:20:48] well, I mean

[00:20:49] You know as soon as I saw that he got selected because he was like the third best in a video game

[00:20:55] I was like, I mean i'm 45 so like

[00:20:58] Yeah, uh last star fighter

[00:21:00] When that when that hit I was just all all over it. I mean it was um

[00:21:05] It was a lance gaston

[00:21:08] Robert Preston is you know and the license plate that says rylos and like

[00:21:14] um

[00:21:14] What is the big weapon at the end the death blossom? I mean I loved everything about that

[00:21:20] But it's so I love it too, but it's so fantastical

[00:21:23] So he's like, uh, oh this all makes sense to me. Oh, yeah, you don't

[00:21:29] They don't like, you know, they don't like question anything

[00:21:32] You know too much it's just all all fits. Uh, but yeah, uh

[00:21:38] I I just I was like I was on board right away, you know for that that type of

[00:21:44] um

[00:21:46] You know concept

[00:21:47] I mean especially because when that when the last star fighter came out like

[00:21:50] I was I want to say it was like eight somewhere between 82 and 84. Um

[00:21:55] The idea of aliens monitoring

[00:21:59] Uh an arcade game at this little place is silly, but now

[00:22:04] You know with so much online stuff. It seems like hey if there were aliens and they wanted to recruit seems like

[00:22:11] Makes way more sense now to do it. Yeah

[00:22:15] Yeah, that's that was kind of like my take on it is like there's so much

[00:22:20] Gaming in the current era is like so much more social than it ever was back then. So it's like

[00:22:27] You know, that's why there's like, oh, he's third best

[00:22:29] There's like the idea of the leaderboard and it's like all these people like know who each other are

[00:22:36] um

[00:22:37] So it's it's super fun in that way too and there are some

[00:22:41] there's some kind of uh

[00:22:43] Things in there that you won't get unless you're on my friend's list, but

[00:22:49] Just gamer tags and stuff. Um, but that's funny. Yeah. Yeah, it's super fun

[00:22:56] All right, let's take a quick break

[00:22:58] Hey comics fam itty comic book publisher band of bars just got a level up and announced it is now a cooperative

[00:23:06] This heralds a new era for them including a partnership with dollah's stories

[00:23:10] And they added several new members to the ownership group

[00:23:13] Marcus Jimenez is now chief operating officer Brent Fisher takes on the role of chief diversity officer

[00:23:19] And joey galvez is introduced as head of Kickstarter ops and social media manager

[00:23:24] Which is sure to increase their capabilities overall as a publisher

[00:23:28] And it further promotes their mission statement of advancing representation

[00:23:33] inclusion and diversity in the media

[00:23:35] They also established a new board of directors to help chart the new path of their journey

[00:23:40] With new projects in the works like Alaska by dropping in june

[00:23:43] Unbroken soon launching on Kickstarter and pawn coming up with dollah's

[00:23:47] Stay tuned to this space for more exciting news from the growing bards family

[00:23:55] Let's get back to the show

[00:23:57] so having

[00:23:59] kind of started your comics journey as a writer and then

[00:24:03] you know

[00:24:04] having to learn how to letter because of you know

[00:24:09] Financial reasons let's say putting the comic book together and wanting to save money and

[00:24:14] Or or not being able to you know afford a letter and i'm sure plenty of comic creators

[00:24:19] Have been there and faced that dilemma, but now you have lettered. I mean

[00:24:24] Because of all the things you've lettered do you think?

[00:24:27] Or let me ask it this way. How has how you write?

[00:24:31] Like changed do you still write the way you do knowing that you're also going to

[00:24:37] Letter it do you think you would write differently if somebody else was going to letter your work now?

[00:24:45] short answer yes, well

[00:24:47] Yeah, I mean because I know

[00:24:50] When i'm writing everything right now i'm like

[00:24:55] If I need to change a line of dialogue or something it's not a pain in the ass to anybody but myself

[00:25:01] um, so when the pages come in

[00:25:04] You know if I don't like the thing that I had written as I'm lettering it i'll just change it

[00:25:09] Right, and that's like I would never do that to a client. I would never be like sure. Yeah, this fits better

[00:25:16] I think you don't know what you're doing

[00:25:19] Yeah, so there's there's that which is a nice

[00:25:23] A nice takeaway

[00:25:27] It's weird because for so long

[00:25:30] I think

[00:25:33] My brain has been stuck in lettering. So when I read comics

[00:25:37] I'm getting the story and i'm picking it up, but i'm like, oh man

[00:25:41] Look at this that clipping mask that they did there is

[00:25:45] It's really intricate. How did they how did they go about doing this? Like I read comics

[00:25:51] Or the lettering and it which is really annoying

[00:25:54] um

[00:25:55] Probably for everybody involved because they're trying to tell a story and i'm just

[00:25:59] It's like oh jim cambell put this thing behind a leaf. That's so cool

[00:26:10] Are there

[00:26:12] I just had a just thinking about lettering

[00:26:18] Like are

[00:26:19] Are there things that you know, because you working with different writers get you know, there's no format, right?

[00:26:26] You scripts can come in all

[00:26:29] Shapes and sizes are there things in particular that that

[00:26:33] You know annoy you or pet peeves and are you able to like navigate them?

[00:26:39] Like easily do you just like i'm just knocking this out because that's the assignment

[00:26:45] Yeah, there are things and you'll see

[00:26:48] This um probably like twitter from letters, you know like

[00:26:53] There are things that are easier for us to do, you know when your

[00:26:58] Script is in a word document and not a pdf and I can edit it

[00:27:02] In a way that is conducive to lettering. That's nice

[00:27:06] Um

[00:27:09] But there's nothing for me anyway other

[00:27:14] Other letters will say differently

[00:27:16] Um, and I think it's probably all dependent on like our workflow like I am pretty

[00:27:22] Go with the flow

[00:27:23] Just probably why I'm behind right now and a lot of other people are

[00:27:28] Um, they're pretty rigid and like they have their way of doing things and the script needs to be in a very specific format

[00:27:34] I don't care that much. Um

[00:27:36] I do to a point like if I get a script that is just not it doesn't work

[00:27:40] I will let the writer know

[00:27:43] And I'll say like this needs to be gone through

[00:27:46] um

[00:27:47] You know whether it's like at your page numbers don't match

[00:27:51] um, which happens

[00:27:54] Um, if a writer doesn't do a lettering pass after they get the art back a lot of the times the artist will have just

[00:28:01] put things where

[00:28:02] felt comfortable to them and not necessarily where they were in the panel description

[00:28:06] If you don't go back and look at that afterwards then yeah the letter is like, where does this go?

[00:28:12] um

[00:28:14] So yeah, just little things like that but it's not like

[00:28:19] I don't know. I'm pretty easy going about my job. I think I try to be

[00:28:24] Mindful that I get to make comic books for a living and while it is a job and while it does have job like qualities, it's still

[00:28:32] Pretty cool

[00:28:34] And like I'm not I worked in kitchens for 17 years before I did this so it's

[00:28:40] It's not that and I I think I'm really happy about that

[00:28:44] so

[00:28:45] So

[00:28:46] Yeah, sure. There's stuff that is annoying

[00:28:49] Um, but none of it is as annoying as having to quit comics and go work in the kitchen

[00:28:55] I think is my final answer

[00:28:59] What what did you do when you worked in a kitchen and don't worry? I won't I won't turn this into the bear

[00:29:04] podcast man that show is so much um

[00:29:09] Just

[00:29:11] too many good scenes that are like

[00:29:15] Anyway, yeah, we don't have to turn it into bear. I did everything. I started as a dishwasher worked

[00:29:21] um

[00:29:23] Pantry garmaje and fancier restaurants

[00:29:27] You know line cook. I was the chef of our local domestic violin shelter, which was a very interesting job

[00:29:35] Um, I've kind of had every job in a kitchen right

[00:29:40] Um, I've worked in a ton of kitchens

[00:29:42] um

[00:29:45] Yeah, the bear is

[00:29:48] Watching it. It's like the entire time. I'm like

[00:29:52] Yeah, yeah, I I've never worked in I mean I worked in kitchens, but mostly like

[00:29:57] You know small Italian restaurants, uh, I worked at a country club for a number of years and did just about everything

[00:30:04] You know in in the kitchen at the at the club other than other than a cook

[00:30:08] You know dishwasher server

[00:30:11] all that other stuff, um

[00:30:14] But yeah, I've never worked in a restaurant that fancy is the the restaurant in the bear but um

[00:30:20] Some of the things like working with chefs working with line cooks working in that kitchen

[00:30:26] It is like panic inducing at times

[00:30:29] Yeah, I mean that's true to life too when you're in that environment the

[00:30:34] thing about kitchens is there are a lot of personalities

[00:30:38] um and

[00:30:40] Like I said, I'm pretty easygoing and laid back so navigating that kind of landscape escape for me is always

[00:30:48] Horrible I hated it

[00:30:49] Um because I'm not like I don't have a lot of like bravado somebody. I'm just like yes chef. Okay

[00:30:56] Uh

[00:30:58] Yeah, do you ever miss any of that? You know like because sometimes being a writer or a letterer

[00:31:02] You know can be kind of uh, I mean you're collaborating, but you're not working, you know in a kitchen in an office

[00:31:08] Do you ever miss that like the camaraderie aspect of it?

[00:31:13] Yeah, I just so I just finished the last season of the bear and

[00:31:18] texted my best friend and was like

[00:31:20] I think I miss co-workers

[00:31:23] Just like yeah

[00:31:25] The way of like I mean I I did work jobs while working in comics. I worked up until

[00:31:32] Last February in a guitar store and I'm still I still talked to all the people that I worked with there

[00:31:38] um

[00:31:40] But yeah, it's cool to have people around you or like

[00:31:45] I don't know somebody to to talk to

[00:31:48] um

[00:31:49] It's nice that I can focus on my work and there's not a bunch of stuff happening behind me

[00:31:53] Um or around me or I don't have to talk to customers ever and that's really nice

[00:31:59] um

[00:32:00] but

[00:32:02] Yeah, every once in a while. I just wish somebody was like

[00:32:05] You know over in my closet or something I could be like, what are you doing?

[00:32:11] I always I miss I mean I you know, I work in an office

[00:32:15] I'm an attorney and we certainly have some characters

[00:32:18] But man, there's I've never worked at any place like when I work in the kitchen at a country club

[00:32:24] I mean they were just some of the

[00:32:26] Everybody was deserving of their own

[00:32:29] you know

[00:32:31] Backstory

[00:32:32] Yeah, there's just so many colorful characters. I mean I that was I was you know between the ages of like 14 and 18, you know

[00:32:41] So we're talking

[00:32:43] 25

[00:32:45] 30 years ago and I still remember there's or I still have crystal clear memories

[00:32:51] Of like of some of the guys we

[00:32:54] I

[00:32:54] There's we had this one chef mark mark was great mark left for a little while and they got this replacement

[00:33:00] Robert and I don't know what robert steel was he did not last at the club very long

[00:33:06] But but robert would just shout they don't know me

[00:33:10] Like if somebody was challenging him or if something happened that he didn't like he would just go

[00:33:15] They don't know me and he just walked away from the conversation

[00:33:19] I don't know what robert steel was

[00:33:23] I have

[00:33:24] He's doing well right now wherever he is

[00:33:27] I had a similar robert believe it or not. Who was a chef at a restaurant? I worked at he was

[00:33:33] He was a great guy

[00:33:36] Yeah, um

[00:33:38] You know but in any event that's that's enough of the uh the kitchen talk. Um

[00:33:44] But yeah, it is

[00:33:45] It is uh

[00:33:47] You keep that stuff with you. I think sometimes, you know the good and the bad of it. Um

[00:33:53] So with Dead Sky publishing I'm kind of curious like I was looking at some of their catalog and some of the other stuff

[00:34:00] They have coming out how to end up at uh at Dead Sky

[00:34:04] Uh

[00:34:06] Through the grace of steve wands. I don't okay. Yeah, I don't

[00:34:12] Truly know I was pitching it and it wasn't getting

[00:34:17] much

[00:34:18] Uh traction

[00:34:20] and we know each other just from lettering

[00:34:24] Yeah

[00:34:26] and

[00:34:27] Yeah, I just got an email that was like hey, let me I'm working on a new thing

[00:34:31] at that time

[00:34:33] Dead Sky was like

[00:34:35] I think brand new they were just they were stidge in sky press before that

[00:34:42] Um, but they had I think a few different companies that were kind of all like folding into one

[00:34:47] um, so

[00:34:50] Uh, yeah, he just emailed me and asked to take a look at it and

[00:34:55] decided to pick it up which was really cool of him. Uh

[00:34:59] Yeah, so you'll see their catalog is a lot of like they do like

[00:35:04] um

[00:35:06] Like more like novels and then graphic novels and then they have a few

[00:35:11] Comics, so they're kind of like branching all out. Uh, steve steve writes horror books as well

[00:35:16] um

[00:35:18] So I think that's some of the

[00:35:20] The love there for him. Um

[00:35:24] Yeah, it's been a really cool like I said, it's been a really cool experience to

[00:35:29] Have an editor or two on something that i'm writing and not just share it without it being edited

[00:35:36] Has been really has been really nice or there are things that i'm like

[00:35:41] Steve who's both a writer and a letter and knows that like maybe I got lazy on and i'll get a note from him

[00:35:46] That's like that could be better and i'm like, yeah, you're right

[00:35:50] Uh, and then i'll you know i'll go and re-letter things. So it's nice to have the feedback that's been

[00:35:56] You know working for publishers. I always I always have editors and I love working with editors, but it's really

[00:36:02] Nice

[00:36:04] To have somebody looking at my writing

[00:36:06] Uh

[00:36:07] because pratt was not edited

[00:36:11] Uh, or any of the comic books that I wrote before were not edited and they were just very

[00:36:17] Ridiculous

[00:36:19] Ridiculous can be fine, but it is nice to have an editor

[00:36:23] Who knows what the goal is right and is able to kind of keep you honest because um

[00:36:30] I mean, I don't know you you'll hear

[00:36:33] writers talk about writers block and talk about different things and

[00:36:37] You know if you're stuck what to do I

[00:36:42] You know, I've not by any stretch of the imagination written a lot. Um

[00:36:47] What am I legal writing when I have to write briefs?

[00:36:51] I always think that like I'll just get a notepad out and even if I don't even know where to start

[00:36:56] I will just start throwing ideas out there. No no idea, you know is too bad

[00:37:01] I just got to put something on paper

[00:37:03] Even if it's a bullet point list to try and even if I can figure out what I'm

[00:37:10] Not gonna write, you know, at least I can have that on there and like cross it out to just get started and go somewhere

[00:37:17] In my brain your legal pad just says objection over and over

[00:37:20] Yeah, sometimes it does

[00:37:29] Yeah, so I wanted to talk about some of your your other work for anyone listening to this who somehow missed all the episodes where buddy's name

[00:37:39] is mentioned

[00:37:40] But some of the stuff that I really love

[00:37:44] You know, especially in terms of your lettering, but you did

[00:37:48] Some stuff for like midnight western theater

[00:37:52] Crash and Troy, which I I really really loved crash and Troy

[00:37:58] And I know just recently because I

[00:38:01] I talked to both uh cullen bun

[00:38:04] And chris patista, but you're lettering gotcha man. Yeah

[00:38:09] Which uh, I read I guess issue zero and issue one and just what

[00:38:15] That is so much fun. Um, I think cullen's writing is great. Um

[00:38:21] chris patista's artwork is just really captures the spirit of the original anime

[00:38:28] I I think I don't I want to say is it

[00:38:31] um

[00:38:33] Lopez is the last name of the colorist. It just went right out of my head. Yeah, uh same

[00:38:42] But yeah, it is yeah, carlos lopez. Um is is coloring and yeah, I mean colors in it are fantastic

[00:38:50] It just is really just came to life and uh, I just thought

[00:38:56] Just

[00:38:58] I hope it's uh, you know

[00:39:00] Like a home run it it was just so much fun to read

[00:39:03] Yeah, I think it's doing really well. It's the first issues getting reprinted, uh, which I think is

[00:39:09] Uh, a pretty big deal for mad cave. Um

[00:39:14] It I think it sold like 30 000 issues so far the first issue, which is great

[00:39:19] um

[00:39:20] And it yeah, it's so it's so fun to for me to to like work on it. Um the colors are so vibrant and like poppy

[00:39:30] um

[00:39:31] Yeah, the entire team

[00:39:33] Uh

[00:39:34] Crushes it and it's so cool to get those pages in my inbox and be like, oh, what are we doing this time?

[00:39:41] um

[00:39:42] Yeah, it's so much

[00:39:44] It's so much fun and I'm glad that they kind of let me

[00:39:48] It's always interesting working on a licensed property where you know, everything has to go through the licensor and be

[00:39:55] approved um

[00:39:58] But it's they've been great and I feel like I still

[00:40:02] I try to have a little bit of a voice and everything that I work on like I try to make stuff look

[00:40:08] Like I did it

[00:40:10] Um, I don't know that I have a distinct style, but I try to like

[00:40:16] Every project is new for me and it makes me feel some type of way and I try to put that into the lettering

[00:40:24] Um, I'm glad that they were they were open to that. There's some stuff that I get to do in that book

[00:40:28] That is so much fun for me

[00:40:32] uh

[00:40:34] Especially when uh the god phoenix is involved

[00:40:38] Yeah

[00:40:39] Yeah for anyone that doesn't know, uh, if you know, that's the like I mean they're shipped. They're like, you know

[00:40:45] Yeah, they travel in and um, yeah, it is pretty cool. Are you doing like

[00:40:51] Because sometimes it depends whether or not like with sound effects. It's the artist or

[00:40:56] If it's the letterer

[00:40:57] But are you doing a lot of the the sound effects for it because some of them are great?

[00:41:01] I mean, they're just so good. Thanks. Yeah, I'm doing all of them. Um,

[00:41:07] Yeah, that's I have worked on books. It's not as common

[00:41:12] I think recently for me, but I have worked on books where they're kind of baked into the art. Uh,

[00:41:19] I prefer doing them

[00:41:23] Like just because I guess I try to get a feel for things

[00:41:26] Right, but yeah, that's

[00:41:30] That's a lot of the fun

[00:41:35] uh

[00:41:36] Gotcha man, um is doing those sound effects for me. It's

[00:41:41] It's such a dynamic

[00:41:44] Um piece of art all of the like the posing and the

[00:41:50] Just the like the way the panels move is so it's so fun to work on

[00:41:55] I'm trying to articulate it and I don't think I can but yeah

[00:42:00] No, it is I I can imagine. Um, I just thought it was so much fun

[00:42:03] and um, I wasn't really familiar with the uh

[00:42:07] That anime beforehand. I found like a couple of things I I watched before I talked to cullen and chris

[00:42:13] And um, yeah, I just thought it was just a ton of fun. Uh, just really really think it's great. Um

[00:42:20] You know, I wanted to ask you you talk about leap reading comics for like the lettering but

[00:42:26] You know working on them. Do you still find time to to read them?

[00:42:33] Yes, I'm really I'm really bad at it. I'm not current on anything

[00:42:38] I don't know if I don't know if anybody is yeah, that's okay

[00:42:42] Uh, yeah, I tried to read stuff when I can get my hands on it

[00:42:45] I'm the half the fun of lettering. I guess is that I'm the first person to read

[00:42:50] The completed story. Um, so yeah, I get to read a lot of comics that way. Um

[00:42:57] Yeah, I'm read I'm trying to catch up right now on

[00:43:01] distilleries titles

[00:43:03] Okay, so

[00:43:05] I just

[00:43:06] I read the first two spectrograph which is really good

[00:43:12] Uh,

[00:43:13] I just picked up the trade paperback of denizen which I somehow didn't read all of before when it was in single issues. So

[00:43:21] um

[00:43:22] Yeah, that's I've become one of those readers. I think I moved on from single issues and now I collect

[00:43:29] trades or compendiums

[00:43:32] um

[00:43:33] Which is kind of like the same as binge watching a Netflix show or something I guess but um

[00:43:40] Yeah, I a lot of horror a lot of horror and sci-fi is kind of like where I'm at

[00:43:48] um

[00:43:49] Yeah, I'm a big sci-fi fan myself too. I have I was just looking over what I had to the left of me that I got to get caught up on but um

[00:43:58] I I think I just picked up issue

[00:44:02] four of uh morning star

[00:44:04] D.B. Oh, yeah, you know andry and tim daniel markov and again. I mean that's like, you know, they that's um

[00:44:11] I've really enjoyed the first couple

[00:44:14] But yeah, I'm I'm behind just like just like everybody else. So

[00:44:18] D.B. sent me those I think the first two issues when he was putting them together

[00:44:24] Like right after they got announced and it's so good

[00:44:27] uh

[00:44:28] I think at any time jason wordy is on a book it like becomes my new favorite book

[00:44:35] um

[00:44:36] I had something about his coloring is

[00:44:40] So good, uh, yeah, I I agree and especially him

[00:44:45] You know with the rest of that team because I think he did the coloring for resonant, which was another

[00:44:52] D.B. Andry and then um, I know the second arc the artwork with skylark patridge

[00:44:57] Um, yeah, I love jason wordy's coloring. Yeah phenomenal

[00:45:02] autumnal

[00:45:02] all of it

[00:45:03] Um that book I think is my favorite recent comic autumnal autumnal. Oh, yeah. Yeah that

[00:45:11] I

[00:45:12] You'll you won't look at fall or leaves the same way

[00:45:16] again

[00:45:18] I think the first time I read, uh, I don't want to spoil anything. I mean it's been out a while

[00:45:23] I don't want to spoil anything though in case anyone hasn't read it if you're looking for a good horror book to read

[00:45:27] Go get the autumnal

[00:45:29] You'll you'll thank both buddy and I I think the first time I read through the autumnal

[00:45:34] I think was in single issues and when I got to like the last issue

[00:45:38] I think I was really really mad

[00:45:41] At the ending like I think I was just like I think I hate it

[00:45:46] And I really loved it up until the end. I'm like, I think I hate it. Do I hate this?

[00:45:50] and I

[00:45:52] Left it alone for a while and somebody

[00:45:55] Was mentioning it mentioning it on

[00:45:57] Discord or Twitter how they they really loved it and I went back and read it again straight through

[00:46:04] and I like really

[00:46:08] I really I liked it. I mean, I thought it made sense

[00:46:13] you know like um

[00:46:15] in a

[00:46:17] Stephen King's like the mist kind of way we're like, oh, that's a real bummer, but I get it

[00:46:23] You know

[00:46:24] So I have a

[00:46:26] A friend that would say it's it's not the dog has puppies ending

[00:46:30] Oh, yeah, yeah, which I

[00:46:33] I tend to prefer

[00:46:35] um

[00:46:36] You got to come out of turmoil at least a little bit

[00:46:40] scraped up. You know what I mean? Oh, sure. Sure. Uh, yeah

[00:46:43] I mean, but there are some comics and I think you know

[00:46:48] movie

[00:46:51] Movies in particular like endings where

[00:46:54] You know, I certainly understand and I think as

[00:46:58] Narratively movies, you know make sense

[00:47:01] But still like it's like it takes an emotional toll like something like the mist or

[00:47:08] The remake of uh invasion of the body snatchers, you know the donald sutherland

[00:47:14] Leonard neemoy what like I mean that just

[00:47:17] I mean that and that's another one where that that the end of that movie is I feel is just

[00:47:23] Like one of the most brutal endings in

[00:47:27] All a film

[00:47:28] It's not bloody or quarry and it's just

[00:47:31] hurts

[00:47:33] I won't I won't spoil corpus for you

[00:47:45] Okay, well, I love the first three issues, uh, so I'm I'm

[00:47:50] I'll prepare myself. Uh, I'll be I'll be ready. I'll be ready for it, but um

[00:47:55] And buddy after

[00:47:56] Your name being mentioned so many times. I really appreciate you coming on to talk

[00:48:01] Comics and I'm super excited that that corpus is is going to be out issue number one from dead sky publishing

[00:48:09] 1st and so if you're listening to this you have plenty of time

[00:48:13] Best thing you can do is let your local comic shop know that you that you want it

[00:48:19] Uh, make sure you can order it. I'll put links in the show notes so that you can make sure that you get

[00:48:26] A copy that is the the number one

[00:48:29] thing you can do for any comic creator

[00:48:33] Is uh to let them know that

[00:48:35] You let your shop know that you want the issue

[00:48:38] Appreciate it. Uh, yeah f oc for first issue

[00:48:42] I believe is august 2nd and will be out september 25th

[00:48:46] and there's uh

[00:48:48] Cover a which is the interior artist chris and allison and then we have a variant

[00:48:54] For issue one, which is laura helsby and jason wordy

[00:48:58] um

[00:48:59] Which is super fun

[00:49:00] No, that's awesome. Yeah more variants to come

[00:49:05] Excellent. Yeah, well i'll put links so you can follow buddy on social media. You can check out dead sky publishing

[00:49:11] I'll have a link to the the website

[00:49:13] as well

[00:49:14] As uh how you can make sure that you get your copy of um of corvus number one and yeah buddy

[00:49:21] Buddy, this was great. Thank you so much for uh for coming on the podcast. I really appreciate it

[00:49:28] Yeah, thanks for having me. I I appreciate it too. It is

[00:49:31] A lot of fun

[00:49:32] All right. Yeah, I ran into you. I was uh

[00:49:36] last year at baltimore comic con which is

[00:49:38] Coming up again in september. So uh, i'm excited i'm excited to get back to baltimore comic con again

[00:49:44] This year my brother and I go shout out to my brother bobby the cryptic creator corners number one most dedicated fan

[00:49:49] um bobby listens to all my episodes and we're we're both going as comic book yeti press this year. So that'll be

[00:49:56] That'll be exciting for us. Um

[00:49:58] That's a fun show

[00:50:00] Yeah, I like it a lot. I haven't committed yet, but we'll see if I get

[00:50:04] Another ringo nomination and yeah fingers crossed and i'll be there you deserve it

[00:50:09] I appreciate that. Thank you. All right. Thanks a lot buddy. I really appreciate it listeners. Thanks for listening

[00:50:15] Um find me on social media. I'm usually on twitter

[00:50:18] Let me know what you're reading. Let me know what episodes you like

[00:50:21] Let me know if there's any comic creators you want to

[00:50:25] You know here on the podcast to be happy to try and

[00:50:28] Use my team to track them down and again

[00:50:30] um my team is me

[00:50:32] So, uh, thanks for listening

[00:50:34] Uh, and i'll see you next time

[00:50:36] This is Byron O'Neill one of your hosts of the cryptic creator corner brought to you by comic book yeti

[00:50:42] We hope you've enjoyed this episode of our podcast

[00:50:45] Please rate review subscribe all that good stuff

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