Chris Yates and Keith Arem Interview - Danny Trejo's Year of the Devil

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[00:00:54] Hello everybody and welcome to the Cryptid Creator Corner. I'm Byron O'Neal. Let's do a quick flashback to 2003. I know that's a long time ago. The Robert Rodriguez movie Once Upon a Time in Mexico when I heard Johnny Depp playing a rogue CIA agent turn and deliver the line, Are you a Mexican or a Mexicant? To a tattooed Mexican actor who looked like he was carved out of a cactus and could kill you with a spoon.

[00:01:22] At that moment, I fell in love with actor Danny Trejo, the walking human warning label, who's actually the nicest guy in the room and has become an icon of positivity in the Latin community and beyond, with one of the most recognizable faces in Hollywood. So, when I heard he was going to be launching a new comic book series, I had to hear more about it. So hanging out with me today are comics writer Chris Yates and award-winning transmedia creator Keith Arem,

[00:01:49] who are co-creating Danny's new project, You're the Devil. Gents, welcome to the show. It's a pleasure to have you. Hey, thank you for having us. Yeah, this is wonderful. Thank you, Brian. Sure. Well, give me the tea here. You know, I worked in the music business for 15 years, but I never crossed paths with Danny. So, is he indeed that nice as he seems to be everywhere? Beyond, beyond nice. He is the total gentleman. I mean, he has a total trash mouth. Don't get me wrong.

[00:02:17] I mean, he's hilarious. When you get him, you know, on stage and doing stuff, he is just lets it rip. But he is the sweetest guy. He learned from some of his mentors and he says it multiple times is that he never turns down an autograph and he never turns down a photograph. And that's who he is. He's just that guy. Oh, that's awesome. I bet he's got some serious stories. Surely you guys have been privy to some of that at this point.

[00:02:44] Yeah, it's not something we really can share because it's just one of those things where it's like, this is something my grandfather would say and I'm just going to leave it at that. Fair enough. Fair enough. He definitely has some very interesting stories working in Hollywood, though, because he's crossed paths with almost every major celebrity. So a lot of times when we're working and especially because I've worked with him in the video game industry for about 15, 20 years.

[00:03:08] So going back, he'll tell stories of working on heat with Val Kilmer and all these amazing stories that you'll never hear in the press. You'll never hear them in other interviews. But behind closed doors, it's fascinating to get the opportunity to work with someone like that, because, you know, Danny just turned 83 this year. And so, you know, he's got a lot of stories to tell. And so we were glad that we were able to tell one of them.

[00:03:34] Holy cow. That really punctuates it. I'm like, I never consider him to be like my dad. But I mean, clearly my dad just turned 80 this year. So that is wild. He feels like he's forever 60. Like we always have them ingrained as like either from either from from Dusk Till Dawn or from Machete. Like we don't or maybe even spy kids for the younger kids, like the younger people. Like we don't really have like another perception of him. But to see him still like being 80, you know, in his early 80s and still walking around smiling and just being an absolute charm fest.

[00:04:02] Like it's it's so like. And like it's mind boggling, truthfully, because like I'll say this, I'll share a story my first time meeting him. I go in and he goes, he's like, I can't stand next to you when we do photos. I'm like, why is that? He's like, you're too pretty. I'm like, what? OK, Danny. And the next thing you know, like I'm and then as we're leaving, he goes, he's like, next time next time we meet, you got to wear sleeves. I'm like, why? He's like, your guns are making me nervous. And I'm like, you are this like professional charm factory.

[00:04:32] So he's just you know, he always does those things. And it's so it's so insane to see. He's always that constant kind of contrast between like his intimidating presence and in his humor and in his warmth and his humanity, because he also just is such a giving person. Like, you know, when you see him with fans, he did a shoot over at Treo's Cantina a few weeks ago and he opens the door for a couple and they had no idea it was.

[00:04:55] It was him at his own restaurant. You know, they were coming to Hollywood to visit it to see the Danny Trejo Cantina and his tacos. And he's literally the one opening the door and just to see fans freak out and then him going around and taking photos and selfies with them is just adorable. So it's a great it's a great thing for him. Like you said, he's like, you know, there's like withered cactus kind of this amazing, like prickly guy that is just like the sweetest person. So it's it's a great contrast.

[00:05:21] I love that. Well, this is a five issue graphic novel pulling from Aztec mythology and biblical prophecy infused with some supernatural horror horror juice. We'll just we'll say that, you know, and we can get into all that in a minute. But let's connect the dots first. Right. Tell me how this whole shebang started. Well, Danny and I had crossed paths in the game industry.

[00:05:46] Most of the work we do here at PCB is performance capture and voiceover and a lot of recording for video games. And so coming off, I was working on a lot of the Call of Duty series and Danny had appeared in the zombies sort of DLC and his management saw what I was doing. And Danny and I just connected on a shoot and just instantly like headed off. And so every time there would be an interesting project, I would kind of reach out and say, hey, I've got a character for Danny.

[00:06:16] And they were like, absolutely. Danny loves working with you. And so we were on the the last Yakuza, like a dragon project for Infinite Wealth. And there was this great tattooed character that just looked like Danny and brought him in on the project. And Danny and I hit it off. And we had just released that year, The Exiled with Wesley Snipes. And that was our last book that I did with Adam Lawson and with Wesley. And literally, like, you know, we've been talking about all the projects we had done together.

[00:06:46] And we were, you know, obviously working on these games. And he just stopped in the middle of the session. He was in the voiceover studio where we're at right now. And he just stopped and he goes, I want to do a book with you. And and it was like such a funny way he said it. It was just like he just literally stopped. And it was like, oh, yeah, of course. And that just began all the creative discussions about how to do this. And then we just dove in. Oh, that's wild.

[00:07:08] Yeah. Keith, you have all that experience with these, you know, developing IPs as these interdisciplinary experiences, you know. So that's what I was curious about. You know, how did we land in comics of all things? Kind of. He's a natural comic book character. I mean, it's so funny. If you look at the roles and like what Chris was saying earlier, like he just like personifies, you know, these kind of characters that that warrant that. And we wanted to do something.

[00:07:34] And I think that, you know, because Chris and I had started working together this past couple of years on several books and building our community with PCV and crowdfunding and doing things on Kickstarter. And now with Backerkit. And so that community really overlaps with like stuff that we did in music, stuff that we loved, obviously, in comics. There's overlap in horror and Danny personifies all of that.

[00:07:56] And so I think when Chris and I started really talking, it was a natural extension of what we wanted to do to kind of sort of present the story in a comic graphic novel form and then just bring it out to the franchise, you know, that it deserves to be. So what's the snapshot of his role? You know, obviously he's more than just an avatar here. Yeah, I mean, I mean, so basically how it was, as he said, they had this conversation and he's in. And Danny was like, hey, I want to do this.

[00:08:24] And so they had this conversation. And obviously, Danny and Keith are very busy and prolific in their own rights. And so as I was coming on to like PCB and helping him out, I was just giving him ideas and thoughts. And Keith and Danny, Keith had this conversation with me like, hey, could you help me figure this out? Would you like to have a conversation of potentially joining the project? And I said, of course, happy to. And so I just figured out, like, what does this actually look like? You know, Danny, what does Danny want to do? And all those things, just trying to get up to speed. And Danny's like, I love history.

[00:08:53] It was my favorite subject in school. It was the only one I was good at. And so and we were like, OK, what does that look like? And he started telling us about his we about his lineage. And we quickly realized that when we started talking, this very this became very much his origin story, because he started talking about his history, as I said, and then his family from the Canary Islands, I believe it is. And he's like, oh, I have like this conquistador blood. And so we're like, that's kind of interesting there.

[00:09:22] And then he's like, I love, you know, kind of the biblical stuff. And so we just kind of started spitballing and be like, all right, what does that look like? And then we landed on Diego and Itzel and kind of how it started off in Mexico and just very much being a celebration of who Danny is. And then also kind of being this like swashbuckling romp. Like the quickest way we pitch it is basically like Machete meets Conan, because it was very much this kind of like big over the top personality, because that's who Danny is. Sure. Yeah, absolutely.

[00:09:51] Let's give people a snapshot of Conquistador Diego de Rojas. So the story starts with the massacre of Toscato, you know, which is an actual historical event in 1520. That was kind of the flashpoint for Aztec-Spanish relations and was a catalyst for the siege of Tenochtitlan, you know, which marks this collapse of the Aztec empire and ushers in Spanish colonial rule, which is an absolute cornerstone moment in Mexican history,

[00:10:19] if not the cornerstone moment in Mexican history. So tell me more about Diego. Yeah, we wanted Diego to be this grounded character that was sort of between two worlds and the idea that he was a captain in the Conquistador army, but also had fallen in love with the princess of the Aztec elite, Ixtel. And for that love story to open up on one of the most bloody massacres

[00:10:48] that, you know, took place in their history was sort of the way we framed the story because he's learned of what the generals are going to do. And he tries to warn her to kind of get her out of this and just run away and escape. And she, as much as she loves him, she loves her people more and she wants to, you know, protect them in their time of need. And she allows herself to be consumed as part of this massacre. And that really sets Diego off on this, just a massacre of his own, trying to stop what, you know,

[00:11:17] history obviously proved to be, you know, the ultimate tipping point, I think, for the Aztecs, if you really look at, you know, some of the major moments in history. And so as much as he has this grief and sorrow of losing her, he also has this deep regret and goes on this mission on its own. And that's where he ends up in the abandoned ruins of Chichen Itza. And what we wanted to do with the story was kind of bridge the supernatural and history

[00:11:45] and mythology of not just history, but world religions. And he starts getting called by this voice that is leading him to this underground prison that he finds in one of the sinkholes underneath Chichen Itza, which they're known for. And only a small percentage, even now of Chichen Itza has actually been discovered. And the Mayans had long been gone, even when the Aztecs were around. And the fact that there's someone there in this prison that's still alive calling to him

[00:12:14] is kind of bringing him into this mystery. And the guy knows who Itzel is. He tries to reconnect him with her and says, if you let me out of this cage, that I'll bring you back together and give you everything that you want. And now Diego carries the Mahuit, the Aztec sword, which is what they are known for. He no longer carries the Conquistador rapier, which is what his army had done. And he uses this blade to try to open up

[00:12:43] this locked iron cage. And as soon as he does, these black demons and spirits start pouring out of this cage and the guy inside the cage starts to transform. And we realized that the Mayans and these ancient civilizations found a way to imprison the devil himself. And so Diego now faced with this like army of darkness that's kind of surrounding him. The only thing he can do is use his own body, his own flesh to seal the prison. And that's what we call the Rosetta bond in our story.

[00:13:12] And that plays a bigger part for the future of all five issues, because that not only seals the cage, but binds him to the devil. And the devil starts laughing and he says, well, it doesn't matter now because the four horsemen have been unleashed and you're going to have to stop them to stop the apocalypse. And he grabs Diego and he pulls him into the bars and into the spikes of the cage and kills Diego in our first issue. And so, but this Rosetta bond that we talk about becomes this really integral part of the story

[00:13:40] because now this bond with the devil allows him to keep coming back every hundred years to defeat each of the different horsemen. And as much as that's been sort of like the cornerstone of our story and how we've kind of introduced Diego to the world and his confrontation with the devil, the story is really going to take a great turn. And now that people have seen a lot of the materials and we have some of the preview pages out and the ash can, what we're really proud of is kind of this historical romp of where it goes through the supernatural and through history,

[00:14:10] because we are very true to a lot of historical moments. But also if you kind of know your mythology and your religion, the devil's intentions and where Diego falls in that story is kind of a big moment and key of where we're going to be taking the story. So that's kind of where we start and it's been a good journey so far. Well, Diego's being reincarnated life after life. Is his cultural POV there static throughout

[00:14:38] or is it to shift depending on which era he's living in? I think it's always going to be on him and what he has the POV because he is from the Spanish and the Mexican area. So I think we see him kind of be himself naturally in his pride and the legacy that we bring into it. So without spoiling where we go and how we do it, it's very much Diego and Danny facing forward. That's a way of explaining it because we don't get lost in it.

[00:15:07] It is a celebration of Latino culture and how Diego is being represented in a positive way. And so I think that's the best answer I can give without it spoiling because how we kind of positioned the adventure was how do we combine world life events with the specific horsemen of the apocalypse? So it's like, could we have conquest during this time period? Could we have war through this one, which could be almost anything at this point in time, but then also like, where do we have famine?

[00:15:35] And so what can we do to have Diego and his roots be seen in a geographical place where we wouldn't necessarily have seen him or Danny for that matter? Like what fun could we have in that sandbox? You know, is it through New Zealand? Is it through China? Is it through, you know, London? We kind of just said, what is that fun thing we can have? And to, you know, kind of have that back and forth with Danny and kind of develop that, that's really cool and fun. So yeah, because the horsemen themselves,

[00:16:05] like they kind of represent a lot of different things of civilization, almost destroying itself. Right. And with Diego having this sort of groundhog day of coming back and retaining his memories and his thoughts and his passion, obviously it's a redemption story for him. And also this love story of him wanting to be reunited with the princess that he lost and just being at peace because he doesn't want to keep being eternally, you know, regenerated over 500 years. But I think each encounter with the horsemen

[00:16:34] kind of reinforces with Diego and to question a little bit more of what he's been told and how he perceives them. Because we do like this idea, this questionable narrator, even though we are with Diego, the whole story is when you're fighting the horsemen, you know, the deeper he goes on those missions, the less, I think, certain that the definitions of what a hero and a villain are. And even though obviously we're framing this as year of the devil, you know, he's got his own demons to fight. And that's kind of the,

[00:17:03] I think what encourages us to keep going through each of the issues and following his story of redemption. Yeah, I really love the mashup, right? You've got the Aztec setting, but the apocalypse engine is Judeo-Christian, you know, Lucifer, the four horsemen, all that. So was that a deliberate contrast you were trying to draw attention to? Or was it just something that sort of served the story? I mean, clearly there's a fun focus element that you're trying to mix up these things culturally with. Yeah, we brought in a lot of historians

[00:17:32] and cultural historians and even pop culture historians, like people like Matt Torres, who's just amazing with Aztec history and just knowing about the different monsters and demons of the time. And it's interesting to see that clash between, you know, the Aztec and Mayan and Incan and all this sort of like ancient gods that you see from those cultures, juxtaposing against what, you know, the conquistadors were bringing, right? And that sort of Western theology of what that concept is of the devil.

[00:18:02] And the fact that the devil is mentioned so many times in Revelations and other biblical writings of, you know, being imprisoned or the dragon, you know, was in prison for a thousand years. There's kind of this interesting mission where, you know, Michael had outcast all of, you know, the Lucifer and these other angels as part of this downfall from heaven. But there's also this idea that you have angels on earth and you have demons on earth and they are completely different from the Aztec gods

[00:18:31] or some of these other ones that have been worshipped. And so you see this pyramid theme that we have that takes place in the Aztecs and obviously in Chichen Itza in the Mayan areas. And then the end of our first issue, we open up, and it's a bit of a spoiler, but I think people have seen some of the artwork as we open up in Egypt. And the idea that there is a tie between all of these cultures and something that maybe Christianity or other world religions

[00:18:59] either didn't know about the devil or maybe the fact that they had a way that they could encapsulate and imprison the devil means something. So that was very much an intentional idea of taking the mythology and the religion and kind of putting those opposed to each other just to kind of, for storytelling purposes, it gives us a huge world to play with. And to jump in real quick, if I may, Keith, you have Ascend. So not to blow Keith up real quick, but he had Ascend, which is very much a kind of biblical story.

[00:19:29] And I think, Keith, you should talk about that more because this is something you're very passionate about and very, you know, I've seen this throughout your work. So, I mean, not to put you on the spot, but to kind of validate the writings and thoughts you've had with Danny, what is the Ascend angle of it all? Yeah, Ascend was the first book that I did. And it was funny because it was never intended to be a graphic novel. It was a dream that I had. And I had traveled and studied world religions and my family was very well-versed in different religions and studied abroad.

[00:19:57] And so I had this really powerful dream and wrote this thing down. And it was going to be storyboards for a screenplay or something that was there. And Jimmy Palamati had actually been visiting my studio. We were working on a video game together and he looks at these boards and he goes, this is a graphic novel. And he called up the guys at Image and it became the number one selling book for Image when it first came out 20 years ago. And the story was very much in this world of like, you know, this war,

[00:20:27] this invisible war that was happening between heaven and hell and this collapse into the purgatory wars. And it was sort of a reimagining of what angels were and how there wasn't necessarily a direct God confrontation, but, you know, there was these brothers that were caught in this conflict and bringing the war to earth. And in the video game space, you know, Joe Madera working on the Darksiders project had seen Ascend and that was dealing with the Four Horsemen.

[00:20:56] And so we did a few of the Darksiders games and was very similar in the world of what I was already working with. So I loved playing in this idea that like, what if we all heard the stories but maybe got them wrong or misinterpreted them or didn't really understand, you know, the true nature of an angel or a demon for that matter. And so that was something that I was very much passionate about. And now we're coming up on the 20th anniversary of Ascend.

[00:21:25] And so hopefully, you know, we'll have more to explore in that world as well. That's awesome. Clearly you have a passion also for comics as a medium. So you've worked in all these others. So as a storyteller, what do you love about comics? You know, what makes comics special? Well, you have to tell the right story on the right medium and comics and graphic novels present a really unique opportunity for storytellers because you have a very visual medium that combines

[00:21:54] with the written word. So it's one thing if you imagine something just by reading it. It's nothing when you see the pretty pictures and you kind of can see what an artist can put together. But I think it's actually more important that the fact is that comics and graphic novels are interactive and people are like, what are you talking about? It's a static medium. It's a book. But the story only progresses when you turn the page. It only progresses as you read from panel to panel. It was funny as I had an amazing dinner with Chris

[00:22:24] and I both sat with Frank Miller and Frank was just bestowing all this amazing knowledge and sharing his wisdom and he said to me, he said, what's the most important part of the page? And I was like, the transitions? And he's like, yeah, it's the space between the panels. Because it's the audience that has to go with you on the progression of panel to panel and follow that story.

[00:22:54] And so it is very much an interactive medium in a sense that you're hearing the voices in your head. It's what the writer might intend, but you are filling in a lot of this. And so the reason why I've become more on the transmedia side is that in some cases I want the reader to hear the voice of the actual character that I want them to hear, I'll bring in a voice actor or I imagine this cinematically with the soundtrack or atmosphere or some kind of tone

[00:23:24] like on Frost Road, the whole character of sound was a major part of that story. So I feel that comics serve a really important story point of being able to tell a certain part of a story that you wouldn't tell in a movie or a video game or another format. It allows the reader to kind of dive in at their own pace and I think that's why we always go to comics first. I'm fascinated. You, working in the audio

[00:23:54] medium as much as you have, it's just really interesting to, I'm curious how your brain works in terms of interpreting story beats. You know, you talked about the pauses there and how vital that are, but they're equally important, well, if not more so, when you're talking about an audio only medium, you know, to making sure that words have that opportunity to breathe. So, yeah, it's just really interesting. And it translates to audio dramas and other things and I think that's why, you know,

[00:24:24] you see some of the projects that we work on and so a lot of stuff that Chris and I are doing now are expanding out into derivatives of the same medium of what we've done, right? Even if you listen to the first trailers we did with Danny, we had Danny come in and narrate it. We set a soundtrack to it, we had him narrate it and we feel that like, you know, it's a very expressive form to be able to lend itself there but a lot of the times the audio is what's driving that because you're kind of imagining that from listening to it. So comics are a great kind of balance

[00:24:53] to that because you get the visual side and on the audio side we can do both and I think you're going to see us explore quite a bit of that. That's something I hadn't thought about much. Normally, I'm such a visual person, you know, I have a visual medium background, 15 years doing, you know, 2D art myself is how I think and so when I'm reading comics I don't put a voice to any of the word bubbles or anything but in this one I most certainly will. I mean, absolutely, to Keith's point when we had Danny in there and then to hear

[00:25:23] Danny do the voiceover for it and like the promotion of it, it's like, holy crap, Danny's saying something I wrote or something, you know what I mean to that point like you heard like you know and you kind of have an idea of what that sounds like but then to actually have him like I'm not going to impersonate him but it's just one of those things of just like wow, like that is insane because it's exactly how you thought it was going to come out so. But actually something that's been a big conversation between Chris and myself and our art team because we have just a phenomenal

[00:25:51] art team behind us but one of the things that we felt was really important is dialogue is a character in the project and if you look at like how we treat text for you know and a lot of my other projects I've been and this is this is I know I'll get blasted by certain groups for this but I've always been very kind of opposed to traditional word balloons and bubbles I think you know

[00:26:21] transactionally they were created because the physical medium demanded it right just to have dialogue that could be put on top of the art and be able to read it and have to have a high contrast background and encapsulate it and make it clear for the reader just hey this is what's happening transactionally between panels I've always thought of our books very cinematically not necessarily that comics are films but I love the cinematic nature of that the way that Frank Miller designs his panels even though he

[00:26:51] also thinks of comics as its own medium not necessarily as films but the one thing that's really kind of for me has been something that I don't really I'm not a big fan and you know some of the guys that work for me are completely the opposite like how can you say this but like I just really don't like it when the balloon or the bubble sits on top of the artwork I feel that like when I'm reading the dialogue I want to imagine them saying it so a lot of times to me it's a subtitle right

[00:27:21] it's understanding what they're saying whether it's a thought or it's narration or it's someone talking and we want the clarity of who's speaking but sitting on top of all this beautiful artwork means that you either have to carve out a part of the space of the artwork to allow the dialogue to breathe or you're putting on top of the artwork and then you're covering some of that and on some of the painted work that I've done with Christopher Shai and some of the other artists that was something that I was always trying to find a balance to and so what you see what we've done in

[00:27:50] this story is even though we do have traditional balloons and bubbles and captions we try to give them their own personality their own font you'll see the devil and the horsemen and Diego all have their own different fonts sound effects play a huge part of that and we feel that like designing that aesthetic especially because it's so unique to comics that we wanted to give it its own personality and character that's awesome yeah I always think in terms

[00:28:19] of a story being able to translate in comics and I always think of them without any of the word bubbles right can I read it in that way alone does it have the language does it have the narration is the story complete and then that only enhances it maybe somebody will get on me for that but I mean I think I would agree with you because then it's a visual medium right and you want to try to appeal to as many people as you possibly can obviously there's room for interpretation and it's art so subjective but I mean that's just a testament to why we chose Frank because we believe in him so much

[00:28:49] and why his like art direction his landscapes his direction with the action and the character moments I mean Frank's done stuff from Void Rivals to Axel Rose's book so he's been able to kind of work with like the high level celebrity but also like the more you know traditional licensing things and so when we were deciding you know between Keith and Danny and myself we kind of just found Frank and we're like this seems like the guy because he is just so dynamic and we were just so excited to partner with him in that regard so for him to you know

[00:29:18] contribute in such a way like he's the one kind of breathing the life into this story and you know helping us in the journey. And that was also a really great way for us to also explore all of these amazing Latino artists around us to do the covers and transitional pages and other things you know bringing in Dan Quintana and Carlo Barberi and Raymond Gay you know we've had so many amazing artists that with their own style contributed and enhanced the

[00:29:48] story. You know Jay Gonzo did this phenomenal cover that sold out at Comic-Con and yeah when Raymond Gay pitched us on doing his cover he wanted to do something that was that was very well known in Mexico and South America from you know Aztec history and Jaime Carrillo and Vanessa Del Rey are doing like amazing covers we just got Vanessa's she's I think the last artist that we just announced that is adding covers and she gave us a sketch of her cover and it's

[00:30:18] so different than all the other covers and Chris and I looked at it like that's absolutely the one. So it's just great to see these artists contributing their own take on what they're doing and we're going to do some campaigns with Danny's other businesses with his cantina and donuts and Jonathan Uribe just did some amazing artwork for us that we haven't announced or shown yet but it's so awesome to see these artists doing additional work

[00:30:47] outside of their covers just to support Danny in the whole campaign. Wow. I knew about Trejo's Tacos. I had no idea he had a donut shop like what what is that? They're phenomenal it's it's this pink building sorry I didn't mean to cut you off I just I was just thinking about is because so I'll highlight Keith's family here in a minute because his daughter is kind of a celebrity chef and she's you know for like Michelin stuff and so we we've partnered with Danny because he's so you know successful

[00:31:17] with all his kind of endeavors and we're like how cool would it be to have a year of the devil type I don't want to say happy meal but let's just call it that you know what I mean like yeah like a Trejo meal and so you know we partnered with their donuts so it's basically this giant bright pink building I won't say giant that's not the right word bright pink building in the middle of like downtown Hollywood and it's just this like everyone knows it I think it's vegan friendly if I'm not miss speaking but it's they're

[00:31:47] delicious they're like one of the highest rated donuts and so Keith's daughter Julia was able to kind of partner and work with them and we've come up with a I think it's called the horseman donut and yeah so throughout all of October you can go to either Trejo's cantina tacos or the donut and buy a select collaboration item which is the donut or a meal and then also that's where you'll be able to get like an item whether that be an ash can or a pen or something like that you can get kind of an exclusive thing because I mean how

[00:32:17] do you not take advantage of that not to be like capitalistic but at the same time like how cool is it to say your crowdfunding campaign has a happy meal you know what I mean like that's not something you usually get to say and so it's like well let's give it a shot okay can you divulge what I mean even a little bit of what's in the donut like I am I'm picturing in my mind a donut with hot sauce and it's not quite connecting we're actually about to drop a video that will actually be Julia pitching Danny the original

[00:32:46] donut idea that's actually going to be one of our next social things I think that we'll have that oh that's fantastic I think it's going to be very fall oriented if I'm not mistaken like it's going to be kind of pumpkin spice in air or in tones or in flavors or something to I'll say it's spice oriented I think that's the best way I can put it yeah I mean that that's not that's dead on so that's where it should be yeah well it's with respect to the art what I have seen what little I've seen reminded me of Gene Colan's work who I'm a huge fan of so

[00:33:15] you mentioned Frank is are they doing every issue or do you have a different artist working on each individual issue I was unclear on that one right now as yeah go ahead Keith no no go for I'll let you Leo no as of right now we have every intention of working with Frank and figuring these out and if we can have potentially other people jump in because we know how comics goes and we want to make sure that we're being respectful to everyone's time and that's the plan and as far as we know Frank's on board with us so we really do appreciate

[00:33:45] him but we also want to know you know if there's opportunities to have additional you know stretch goals down the road and we have other people we would love to highlight other voices if that's a if that's an opportunity we're given for sure yeah based on how the campaign progresses we have other stories and other things that we're looking to announce and the end of our campaign we're going to be extending out some kind of new surprises as well so I think every week we're going to be introducing not just stretch goals but

[00:34:14] just new add-ons and other things to the project we have a lot of things in development that we're going to be adding for people backing the campaign and then at the end of the campaign we're going to release our next kind of goals of what we're going to be doing so we didn't really want to just put out a crowdfunding campaign to say we're looking for money our goal was to really how do we build a community and how do we find people that really support Danny and our vision of what we're doing and at that point once you're on for that then you just you know you help us

[00:34:43] build and guide you know where the franchise goes and I think that's the real change in what's happening with all the disruption that's happened in the industry over the past several years is that crowdfunding has become more a cornerstone of creators like you know Chris and myself where we want to connect directly with the fans and Danny has been you know one of the best people I think of doing that throughout his career anyway so for us to be able to have this very entrepreneurial spirit to say we want to do something in music we want to

[00:35:13] do something in animation we want to do something in you know in trading cards we want to do something in all these different areas those are all things that are now available to us as creators and we already have experience in all those areas and we're surrounded by some of the best people in the industry to do that Danny certainly on the talent side and us on the production side and creating creation side we wanted to make sure that the fans understand that you know the quality is there and we really are listening to our fans so that's a really big part of this this whole

[00:35:42] campaign yeah I'm sure your brain is running about 90 miles an hour and like how else this can be developed you know so how do you how do you approach building out an IP across different entertainment mediums with respect to capital investment and people hours because it's pretty complex calculus well it was kind of like what I was mentioning earlier about you know the just because you can do something doesn't mean you should do something and I think there's the tentpole model that the studios have traditionally had was

[00:36:12] that you would have the film and then all of the other mediums whether it's a comic book or a video game or a mobile title or experiential thing those are all supporting the tentpole and I think what's happened is is that that's kind of inverted and that tentpole is kind of I don't want to say collapsed but you know the film and television even though you are seeing a resurgence with films like backrooms and obsession and sinners and other films that are starting to you know bring people back to theaters I think that you're seeing that all the things that supported

[00:36:41] the tentpole are now the real foundation of what that is and as a storyteller you need the right medium to be able to tell the right story so music can be the right medium a game can be the right medium depending on the agency of the viewer if you're wanting to interact and have that then a video game or mobile or an experiential event is going to be there so I think it always starts from good storytelling and good characters and making sure that the world will support it

[00:37:11] and I think coming from video games we're very much world builders but it has to be grounded in that emotional core of that character so having Danny being both Danny Trago and Diego is as a great overlap for us because it really grounds us in the character that Danny has spent his whole life sort of originating and so we can start from there and then put him in this amazing world and so I think the transmedia elements for us when it comes to like financing or doing

[00:37:40] things different mediums require different investments so if it's a crowd funding campaign for a graphic novel that's great if it's a trading card game 100% once it starts getting into music or film or animation I mean there's been lots of friends who have gone and you know kick started their own series and pilots and other things but I think that like to do a true service to the world itself that's really the tipping point I think you build your community you show online that you have a

[00:38:10] community of people that will come out same way that you know the filmmakers when they're building something on YouTube and then they bring it to theaters I think that's you know how we demonstrate that and at that point then the financial investment becomes a little bit different because you're now that film or that TV show almost becomes an advertisement back to the community to say this is the world and it's great to go and see it in theaters but we're still going to be reading the book and collecting the toys and playing the game yeah I mean as much as I love comics comics is probably the cheapest

[00:38:40] to be able to kind of see how things go so how can the comics medium act as a focus group for how far a concept can be developed or indeed even can it yeah I mean that's a awesome percent sorry go yeah go ahead um I was thinking about that answer as you were saying it because that's such an interesting question because I come from UTA and Disney and so I was kind of a um IP scout and I um it's called non it's a how do I phrase it non-traditional

[00:39:09] IP person for the uh creative acquisitions team which is a mouthful and basically it was like long acronym yeah and so basically what it was was very much that a thing of like hey how do you decipher what is worthy of adaptation and it's very much thinking like what is when I would go through uh through stories or review them it would be like okay how many issues does this thing have first off like is does it have a long tail and then if it does like how active is the community is it something that is you know a slow burn where it's just been decades and you know it's very

[00:39:39] much has a core audience or is it something that's kind of blown onto the scene and just explode it you know is it more of like a something is killing the children or dork or you know um any of those types of title apps of the batman obviously but that's a big tooth thing but you get what I'm saying in terms of like what is kind of the fervor around the IP you know dungeon crawler carl that's the probably the best one you exploded and everybody wants to be a part of it and so I think when we're looking at these things we're doing it we're just wanting to make sure that people feel like it's

[00:40:08] being supported and how can we feel like you know times are hard right now you know and everyone and we want to be respectful to people's dollars and we want to be worthy of that pledge so when people say hey what are you gonna offer me it's like hey we've put in years at this point and like blood and sweat and making sure that this is something you can come back to and we would love for it to have a longer tale and potentially grow into different things and so that's kind of the mindset when I've learned from you know those times of like how do you see those things and how do you

[00:40:37] implement them from the ground level and so when we're developing this we're like hey this is what we have aspirations to be but we also want to make sure that the book is so well done and professional and you feel like you're getting your money's worth and it's experience you would like to come back to time and time again if that makes sense yeah it has to serve the audience yeah yeah well you have a really background you have the comics the magazine stuff with prana that you're working on so I'm not going to say it changes the story but how does

[00:41:07] that experience inform the story you know in such a way that you're you're trying to give it more legs ultimately because everybody's you know cursed to a five issue miniseries like right that's where that's generally where things stop yeah I think it's if I'm trying to think about it that way I think it's just making sure that you know does each page land on a question does it keep you going is it there a reason to come back like obviously we have a graphic novel that we're trying to sit out but we're trying to make sure that every single

[00:41:37] issue has a conversation or every single issue is worthy of that price tag you know what I mean like we want to make sure that everything feels warranted I think that's the one thing because marketing it's like you want to make sure that you can have a long tail and making sure like hey this is going to be something you can keep going so I feel to answer like making sure there's a page turn if that makes sense and making sure that there's there's questions to be presented to the audience or having their year go you know what I mean like to have them keep thinking and wondering

[00:42:06] like where does this go or what does this do and things like that so to kind of answer your question it's like what am I seeing on the comic side in terms of like the direct markets you know flippers how can I take all that information and not to be you know cynical or capitalistic but then just use it to our benefit you know like yeah let's be honest Dan Quintana is killing it he just happens to be a very prolific Latino person and then we just hey here's an opportunity we would love to partner with you and he said yeah I would love to do that and so there

[00:42:35] was a blending of of you know personalities creative ambition and like opportunity and so those were those things of like how do we keep the conversation going because you know Dan can lift us up but also Danny can lift it up and there's a nice marriage if that makes sense. Yeah absolutely I mean you want to be able to intelligently communicate your message to the community and the community actually be seen and respond to it that's one of the things that I really want to thank you

[00:43:04] guys for focusing on the cultural sensitivity aspect because I have Native American background myself you know you know mine's East Tennessee and not you know Mexico and in origin but you know it's a very delicate subject matter that you're dealing with here with traditional Aztec and their religious traditions and conquistadors colonizing and bringing Christianity to America like that is a loaded messy subject and I think you guys from hearing you talk about it you've been

[00:43:34] you know very thoughtful in your approach to making sure that you're doing that and executing it in a thoughtful manner so I appreciate it. Yeah absolutely. Yeah yeah well I'm not going to keep you all day links I'm going to put in the show notes so go sign up for the well it's it's launch now so you are rolling books like this move fast so the campaign dropped and maybe there's some incentives that stretch goals or something like that can you divulge

[00:44:03] anything about that yet or what you got planned we've got an amazing our highlighted featured product is this leather bound like it's almost like this oversized Bible that's got this like extruded 3d leather image of Dan Quintana's cover and it's my favorite when we first saw the first renderings of it and worked with our printers to do it we all fell in love with it we're at San Diego and she presented it to us and so that's probably our featured product that's that's going to be going out forward.

[00:44:32] We have a lot of fun things we're going to be dropping each week into the campaign if you were at Comic-Con in San Diego we kind of showed some of that some some sneak peeks of that so if you're looking at the campaign live and you know saw what we did at Comic-Con there's a couple of insights as to what we're going to be dropping we're doing so many really great things with all the Trejo's brands between the cantinas and the donuts and the restaurants we're doing a lot of exclusives we've got a great relationship with Tony

[00:45:01] Swatton who's designed blades for Pirates of the Caribbean and for things for Star Wars the Mandalorian all these amazing tellers and film properties and and he's going to be doing a custom machete with a Aztec handle a conquistador rapier and Danny's you know etching that onto the blade itself so for a few lucky people we have these really ultra limited ideas that we're introducing the campaign

[00:45:30] we've got some private meet and greets and some dinner with Danny's that we're doing so people get to kind of do what we did at San Diego and have a private experience getting to you know go behind the scenes and meeting with Danny so we're going to be releasing a lot of exclusive things on that side but also if you're following the campaign and you see where the story goes there's a lot of like a lot of just hidden messages and other things that are going to pay off for the fans who are following us so we've got some products they're going to be introduced to kind of help do the sort of the Da Vinci Code

[00:45:59] Indiana Jones sort of mythology that you'll see so I think people really appreciate that if they're into the larger world that we're creating that's awesome well around here we end on a shout out so this could be something that inspired you recently or someone you'd like to say a quick thanks to and I'll go first to give you guys a moment to think about it I'm going to shout out the creative visual genius that is Jesse Lonergan I read the second volume of Miss Truesdale the fall of hyperborea the other night and nobody in comics

[00:46:28] does panel layouts like Jesse so as somebody who comes from a photography background looking at how he constructed some of those panels you know and learning from his approach you know excited me about like just actually picking up the camera again and now I actually want to do some stuff so just goes to show that you can pull inspiration from anywhere and you know I think that's super exciting so what y'all got I think I'll shout out Joseph Keaton from the editor-in-chief from comics the magazine I'll just because we talked about you're the devil I'll try and

[00:46:58] do a little bit different I'm just very grateful that he was able to bring me on board and bring me on the team and just allowing me to be a part of the comics magazine and just to see the industry from a new point of view and I'm just very grateful that he was kind enough to bring me on board so I'll shout you out that I'll do a shout out to an old friend that actually was also involved in the origins of year the devil when we first started doing this was my co-writer on the exiled which is Adam Lawson

[00:47:26] Evan and I go way back producing films and music videos he was the producer on my Phoenix incident film and we've collaborated on so many projects over the years and when I first started doing this Adam and I had been you know trying to find some opportunities to work together and he was very helpful in our kind of getting into the crowdfunding world and starting to kind of look at this new crater owned space

[00:47:53] so so big shout out to Adam for helping support us and he even sent an email this morning to to Chris and myself saying that he was one of our first backers so that was really great cool to see Adam to you know support us through all this very nice well Keith and Chris thanks for hanging out with me and talking about year of the devil and celebrating Danny thank you for having us absolutely this is Byron O'Neill and on behalf of all of us at comic book yeti thanks for tuning in and we will see you next time take care everybody

[00:48:24] peace this is Byron O'Neill one of your hosts of the cryptic creator corner brought to you by comic book yeti we hope you've enjoyed this episode of our podcast please rate review subscribe all that good stuff it lets us know how we are doing and more importantly how we can improve thanks for listening if you enjoyed this episode of the cryptic creator corner maybe you would enjoy our sister podcast into the comics cave listen and subscribe wherever you get your

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