Christian Ward - The Forever Home

[00:00:00] - [Speaker 0]
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[00:00:11] - [Speaker 1]
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[00:00:55] - [Speaker 2]
Hello, and welcome to Comic Book Yeti's Cryptid Creator Corner Podcast. I am one of your hosts, Jimmy Gasparo, and I am so excited for today's guest who returns to the podcast. And, boy, oh, boy, do we have a lot to talk about because he has been very, very busy. He has been working on Event Horizon comics for IDW. There's a new series coming out later this year, Pandemonium, with, I believe, Hernan Gonzalez, also from Ignition Press, and we've been trying to cover some more Ignition Press stuff.

[00:01:31] - [Speaker 2]
I really love the different comics that they've been doing at Ignition Press. He's working with John Jay Pearson, the patron, is coming out. Right. I think maybe out. And then also from Oni Press, working with Sammy Cavella, and I'm a huge Sammy Cavella fan.

[00:01:46] - [Speaker 2]
He's done work with Zach Thompson and Lonnie Nadler. Sammy did a great series that I really love with Ryan K. Lindsey. And, now, today's guest and Sammy have teamed up for a forever home. And that's, largely what we're gonna be talking about today, but we got a we got a lot of stuff.

[00:02:03] - [Speaker 2]
So we're just gonna jump right into it. But please welcome back to the podcast, Christian Ward. Christian, thank you so much for coming back.

[00:02:10] - [Speaker 3]
Oh, thank you for having me, Jimmy. It's it's a real pleasure to come back. I think the last time I was on, I think we were talking two faced, weren't we? Which feels like a whole wild time ago.

[00:02:19] - [Speaker 2]
Yeah. Yeah. We talked I mean, we talked some event horizon when you were on. We talked some two faced definitely. I really loved, your two faced series, which was, I thought, you know, a lot of fun because we got to see we got to see Harvey in the courtroom, which, of course, I enjoy.

[00:02:34] - [Speaker 2]
I mean, very, very different courtroom than what I'm used to, but still.

[00:02:41] - [Speaker 3]
Well Yeah. I'm thrilled to be back. Thank you for having me, Jimmy.

[00:02:45] - [Speaker 2]
No. It's always a pleasure. And so Thank you were kind enough to send over issue number one of forever home, and a very interesting start to the series. And I don't wanna give too much away because I I always like listeners to kinda get into it and experience it the same way I get to. I I try not to read too much about it.

[00:03:05] - [Speaker 2]
I don't like to read the the solicit if I can avoid it, when somebody's coming on the podcast. I just like to, you know, see the cover or jump right into it. So very interesting start to, forever home. And then as we kind of, get into the series, we seems a postapocalyptic type of of series. The the forever home itself has a very kind of, like, retro future vibe to it, I'd describe it as.

[00:03:37] - [Speaker 2]
Like, the characters are very dressed almost like maybe the fifties or sixties. Yeah. There are a lot of robots in the house that remind me very much of, the Jetsons a little bit with, like, robots to do everything. And we have a very interesting setup where we have this family who's kinda be kept kept being kept alive or the house provides for them. But there's also an interesting twist whereas time passes differently, like, in the house than it does in the outside world, which

[00:04:08] - [Speaker 3]
It's fine.

[00:04:08] - [Speaker 2]
Creates a very interesting dynamic as as the series, goes on. And I kinda love the look to it. The you know? And Sammy, I think, is kind of, like, the the perfect artist to do some of this stuff. Yes.

[00:04:20] - [Speaker 2]
And I love that that look. I I always think and I'm not the first person to to have said this, but when you look at the design of stuff, particularly in The US, I think of, like, fifties and into the sixties of, like, hotels and on Route 66 and even the cars at the time. It's almost like the future that never happened. You know? Like, we should and and I I love when things look like that.

[00:04:44] - [Speaker 2]
And so so yeah. So why don't you tell listeners? We'll start with forever home and just tell listeners a little bit about the series and how you and Sammy working together came about.

[00:04:53] - [Speaker 3]
So yeah. I mean, I was me and Sammy worked together first on a book called Machine Gun Wizards, which was published by Dark Horse in 2019, I wanna say.

[00:05:04] - [Speaker 2]
Yeah. Love it. Love that series.

[00:05:06] - [Speaker 3]
Yeah. I was really proud of that book. It was the first book that I did as a as a writer, and Sammy was the first artist to, you know, take a chance on me as a writer. And we hit it off, and, you know, I think Sammy's work is superb, and you kinda touched on it there. He has a really good his page layout is really interesting and and uses kind of space and time in really interesting ways.

[00:05:30] - [Speaker 3]
So obviously, he was the perfect person when I was thinking about a book that is very much about physical space and time. You know? As you, you know, sort of alluded to, the forever home is a house that was built to withstand the climate change for our our billionaire kind of like inventor and his family. And what they discover when they close the doors is it doesn't just withstand climate change. It's also partially immune to time.

[00:05:57] - [Speaker 3]
So for every twenty minutes inside the house is a whole year outside the house. And so our family watched the end of the world, they watched the world be reborn, and then really the story is about what happens next. Next. And it's about family tensions. It's about, you know, climate change, but it's also a really kind of far flung kind of like sci fi fantasy that's, you know, that has a really people when they get to the end of the first issue and read the second issue, there's a really cool kind of, like, hook that really brings out a lot of tension in the story.

[00:06:35] - [Speaker 3]
And, yeah, it's been brilliant to work with Sammy again and and, you know, build this relationship that I have now with Ony Press. Obviously, this book went down so well with editorial and and the whole stuff that it led to to me getting a free book deal at Ony. So there's gonna be more books coming from Ony. But, yeah, at the moment, the folk despite everything that I've got going on, you mentioned like a 100 books at the start, and and I felt every single one of them in my soul. I was like, my god.

[00:07:02] - [Speaker 3]
I need to sleep. But despite all that, like, the focus is very much on Forever Home now. The FOC's passed, but the book comes out on September 9. We're very excited about it. I have a feeling it's gonna sell out based on I just I think it might.

[00:07:20] - [Speaker 3]
So, you know, we're kinda getting the word out there that we've got this book that we're really excited about. Everyone that's read it has really enjoyed it, which is really gratifying. And, yeah, it's kind of about things that I think are really important at the moment, but it's also, yeah, a very exciting, very thrilling comic.

[00:07:40] - [Speaker 2]
Yeah. Thematically, I I really liked it. I really enjoyed it. The idea of this dystopian world, the the house that protects the family, the you know, all of those things I enjoyed in the first issue kind of laying the groundwork for what is this going to be about. You know?

[00:07:56] - [Speaker 2]
Could we have interesting elements with the the family dynamic and, you know, with the the parents and and two kids and how that plays out? So there there's a lot of themes in there that I think are very relevant, but very interesting to see what happens with it. One of the things I wanted to talk about to start and see because you are an artist as well and how you and Sandy work together in terms of the actual design of the the the forever home. Because we we see it in the cover, and then we see it in you know, there's a a panel of it where we kinda see it from the outside. It's this kind of triangular design, but it it has, like, a little rectangle part of it too.

[00:08:43] - [Speaker 2]
It's it's very kind of simple, and, like, diamond pattern out front. Yeah. But, also, in terms of the inside of it, when we get, like, a real good glimpse and I love how it's it's laid out when we really get our first good look at the inside of the house where, you know, the the the it pulls back. We get a big full panel, and then there's little squares at the bottom with some of the characters talking. But we see kind of, like, some of the art on the wall.

[00:09:11] - [Speaker 2]
We see the glass, like, dining table. It's got one of those sunken living room features, which is really, really kinda puts it in, like, either a particular design aesthetic and kind of a particular time period as well. So what what went into, like, you and Sammy coming up with, like, what is this house going to look like?

[00:09:32] - [Speaker 3]
I mean, I've gotta give, you know, the you know, 90% of the credit needs to go to Sammy. I mean, when we were talking about it, you know, both at the pitch level and also my kind of discussion with Sammy via the script and kind of on DMs and emails and whatever. You touched on it in your intro when you were talking about the Jessons. I mean, that's not an accident. You know?

[00:09:58] - [Speaker 3]
The whole thing is looking at kind of mid century futurism, which is, you know, the a time after the second world war where where America was kind of looking to the future to imagine this kind of utopia that never came. And thematically, that's really what this book's about. It is about this utopia that's kind of doesn't really exist even though they think they found it. And so we really wanted to, you know, really express those those kind of themes through that that kind of visual language. So I basically said mid century futurism, Sami, but I also sent him a load of of very suburban like, very typically suburban American houses.

[00:10:44] - [Speaker 3]
You know, the the you know, the triangular roof, you know, almost I mean, this is European, but almost like a Hansel and Gretel type vibe. So you, you know, almost had this perfect idea of almost like an American Gothic house. So it was that kind of clash of the two things, of mid centrifuges and kind of like, you know, a very kind of suburban family home and clashing those together. And obviously, you kind of we find out that the house goes far further down than the the triangle that we see on the top because it's buried beneath the ground. But we want this idea of kind of something that that, you know, it looks quite alien within that environment.

[00:11:29] - [Speaker 3]
And it, you know, immediately, it's kind of recognizable as a kind of a house because, you know, it's almost like a child's drawing of of what a family home should be. But, all the design work, that that's all Sammy. He sent us sketches, different ideas, and then we kind of over like, oh, I think that I really like that one. I really like that one, and he'd go away, maybe combine those. But, know, he's, you know, he's a visual genius.

[00:11:52] - [Speaker 3]
He really knows what he's doing, and, you know, when he's given a project that really stretches him, he he absolutely rises to it. So it's been a joy to kind of, you know, see ideas that I've had in my head kind of brought to life and realized by Sammy.

[00:12:08] - [Speaker 2]
Yeah. One of the things I really like about Sammy's work and, I mean, there's a lot of artists that that, you know, have similarities with this in terms of, you know, comic book paneling. But there's a geometry to Sammy's work

[00:12:20] - [Speaker 3]
Yeah.

[00:12:20] - [Speaker 2]
Where there's certain elements repeated intentionally. In particular, you'll see the triangles on the outside of the forever forever home then repeated for, like, the inside of the house and the which I think really links those panels and the story. And I I really love how Sammy does that. There's just there's just some amazing parts in this, especially when we kinda see the underneath of the house. There's, like Yeah.

[00:12:50] - [Speaker 2]
Another huge layout, almost like a DeLuca effect with the two kids walking through the house, and it's it's so detailed. Yeah. And it looks so good. And also the the colors of this are great. I mean, the They're by Jason.

[00:13:05] - [Speaker 2]
Yeah. It's, you know, it's you and Sammy, Jason Wordy, and Hassan letters it. It's like, okay. Alright. Well, take take my money as the means.

[00:13:16] - [Speaker 3]
Yeah. I know how to pull a team together.

[00:13:20] - [Speaker 2]
Oh, no. Absolutely. Yeah. A 100%. So why with some of the work that you've done and in particular right now and doing you know, you're still doing cover work, but doing a lot more, you know, writing to a certain degree.

[00:13:39] - [Speaker 2]
What is it that you think is interesting you right now about taking on, like, these, like, really kind of heavy topics that you do, like, with your comics? I mean, not just the stuff that you've been doing with the very successful, you know, IDW, Event Horizon series, but, you know, with forever home, what is it that is really having you focus on this type of storytelling?

[00:14:09] - [Speaker 3]
I mean, I think, I mean, I've always wanted to kind of write my own stories. So that's always been the plan right from the get go. And I think I'm very much a writer that I have to have even with even with some of the like the event horizon books and, you know, going back to the two faced and then going back to Batman city of madness and and then blood stained teeth and all of them, there always has to be a theme or, like, a thesis that I'm crave okay. This is about this, and then I'll hang the story. That's the skeleton that I'll hang the story on.

[00:14:46] - [Speaker 3]
And, you know, and every time I'm kind of working the story out, I'm I'm kind of asking myself, does this speak to the theme? Does this speak to the kind of what we're talking about? You know? And I think the challenge really is to sort of get that. I mean, because here's the thing.

[00:15:01] - [Speaker 3]
The themes are for me and and and all the all the the serious stuff is for me to build the fun story out of. So my hope is that when people read the books, any of the books, what they're getting first and foremost is entertainment. You know, it's fun, it's exciting, it's scary. But the way I'm working is I'm expressing things that are important to me. So I mean if we look at, you know, at the moment I'm writing, but they're both finished, but at the moment I'm promoting the Patreon and I'm promoting Forever Hand which are my two first Crackdown books since Bloodstained Teeth that I've written.

[00:15:39] - [Speaker 3]
As I've been doing a lot of promotion sort of talking about the two books, I've started to think about them on a kind of, like, a deeper level and how they relate to each other. And even though they're very different, like, patron is a kind of, like, psychological, like, thriller, serial thriller serial killer thriller that is very grounded. There's no supernatural stuff. There's no sci fi. It's very real world.

[00:16:04] - [Speaker 3]
And then, obviously, we've got forever home, which is half kind of Black Mirror and then half kind of like, you know, end of the world post apocalyptic stuff.

[00:16:13] - [Speaker 2]
Right.

[00:16:13] - [Speaker 3]
And I think really, you know, you ask you ask me why I'm sort of like what I'm drawn to and and what I'm trying to express. And I think if I look at those two things, one is something that I really love which is art and I really wanna talk about how important I think that is. And the other is something that I'm really like frightened by that I hate which is climate change and I wanna talk about that. So I think it's always about, you know, I only have so much time to write so many books because even though you haven't seen any books drawn by me, I'm still drawing books. It's just they haven't they've not come out yet.

[00:16:50] - [Speaker 3]
And Right. So it it I have to be really I have to think about it. Okay. If I've got time to write two more books this year, those books have gotta mean something, and they've got to be about they can't just be bubblegum popcorn fluff. They've got to be I've gotta feel like if I put them out into the world, someone's gonna connect with them on a deeper level than just entertainment.

[00:17:14] - [Speaker 3]
And and, you know, I'm expressing someone that that, you know, I'm feeling in my heart that I wanna kinda talk about. So really it's just about, you know, with I mean, thing is, I think we've talked about this before, you you know, you only have to look around the real world, and there's lots of things that are worrying and troublesome and and that you can extrapolate horror from at the moment. So it's it's not hard to find inspiration and kind of talk about things that that hopefully not just I care about, but lots of people care about.

[00:17:48] - [Speaker 2]
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, yeah, you you do just have to look around, and it Yeah. If you're it it is hard. But I think you do a a good job in terms of the things that you care about or the things that concern you and and turning them into these interesting stories.

[00:18:04] - [Speaker 2]
One of the things I was curious about, like, you know, in with your writing process or when you're putting these stories together, I your two face, I think, was a very interesting it was a lot of fun, and, it was a great story. But I also thought it was a very interesting character study of both two face and Harvey Dent. I think sometimes that when you have such a, like, high concept kind of premise, like forever home, it can be difficult to also focus on, you know, really fully formed, fully fleshed characters. Is that a concern for you, or, like, what is your approach to doing something both high concept that also you have well fleshed out characters that, you know, folks are gonna either love, hate, you know, whatever, but are gonna draw them into the story?

[00:18:53] - [Speaker 3]
I I think it's all characters. I think it has to be. You know, I think it's it's here's the thing. So a lot of my stuff is very high concept and and have, like, very kind of hooky hooks. And I think that's really you know, you really need that in the moment because there's so many great comics.

[00:19:11] - [Speaker 3]
You need something that will you know, someone will hear, a sentence. I get what that comic's about. You know? That that that's lore in the end. But but a hook is not a story, and a a story is kind of, like, much bigger than a hook and kind of has to work almost has to break that hook to then kind of, like, tell a bigger story.

[00:19:32] - [Speaker 3]
And stories are built by characters. I'm not a very I'm not really a plot guy. I mean, the one one one of my least favorite things to do is when when you pitch a comic, you'll often have to do, like, issue one, this happens. Issue two, this happens. Three, four, five, whatever, and it's this.

[00:19:51] - [Speaker 3]
And it's my least favorite thing to do because I'll often say, but I don't know. I've got a vague idea of where it's going. I've got a vague idea of where I want it to go. But often you want a little bit of flexibility because once you get to know the characters, you don't know what they're gonna do or how they're gonna respond or how they're gonna react to certain things. And I think that's the that's the way you kind of like make stories interesting and engaging so that like if a character does something that feels very true to that person, but it's surprising to you as a writer, then it's my hope is, well, if I'm surprised, the reader will be surprised.

[00:20:32] - [Speaker 3]
But also just I mean if we look at Forever Home for instance, I mean the main character, who we think is the main antagonist at the moment, who is a, you know, a kind of billionaire inventor. And the whole idea is he could have saved the world, but he just wanted to save himself and his family. And it's very insular, and it's very inspired by you know, kind of naturalism that we're seeing not just in America or in The UK but literally around the world. The idea of people bringing up their drawbridges because they're worried about immigration and all this stuff which is only gonna get worse as climate change is. And so I really wanted to, you know, explore this idea of a billionaire who wants to build a climate bunker essentially, which is something that's really happening.

[00:21:21] - [Speaker 3]
But then, you know, you don't want, at least in this, I didn't want him to be like a mustache twiddling kind of like bad guy. You want him to kind of feel real because if he feels real, even though he's the antagonist, then you've got better chances of that the other characters feeling real and so it's about thinking okay well that's the bad part of him, those are the bad choices he made But is there a good part of him? And then you think, good part of him is he kind of made those choices partially through ego, but also I think he genuinely wants to save his family because he genuinely, in his way, loves his family. So that becomes a good thing. You know?

[00:22:06] - [Speaker 3]
So it's really about I don't know if I could ever do a team book. I mean even when I did Event Horizon, when I in theory, it's a team book as well.

[00:22:15] - [Speaker 2]
Team book, yeah.

[00:22:17] - [Speaker 3]
You know, I kill them off pretty quickly, you know, one by one. You know? And each and each issue kind of focuses on one character, you know? And that gave me a chance to kind of, like, you know, really explore who that character is. And I think it's just, you know, it's that old thing of, what what does a character want?

[00:22:34] - [Speaker 3]
What does, you know, what does a character need, and what does a character get? And then those are the the three things you wanna be thinking about. And I just think about them I try to think about my characters like they're real people. I don't think that's I'm sure every writer does the same thing. Yeah.

[00:22:52] - [Speaker 3]
You know, just to kinda make sure that they're they're balanced and it's not just all good or all bad and characters can make mistakes. I mean, other thing is it's I never wanna kinda fall into the trap that I don't always agree with my characters, whether they be quote quote, you know, good or bad. You know, sometimes a bad guy will do something that I agree with and go, oh, that was a good thing to do but I still think this is a bit of a dicky thing to do or whatever. I mean, think it's about being nuanced and just people are complicated, real people. And so I'm never really afraid of making my characters feel complicated because I think you because people are.

[00:23:34] - [Speaker 2]
Oh, yeah. And one of the things about, you know, the antagonist, the the the father, so to speak, in in forever home is there's a lot in the dialogue where we're learning about what is going on here. What is this forever home? What is going on with this family? Things are revealed in terms of the the outside world fairly quickly.

[00:23:55] - [Speaker 3]
Yeah.

[00:23:55] - [Speaker 2]
And the father comes across as somebody who his his words are they project a sort of intelligence and confidence. And Sammy draws him very, you know, almost, stoic, like standing up straight, hands behind his back. Like, Sammy does a lot in terms of the posture of the character, and we really get a sense of this guy. And later on, I thought I found it very interesting. You know, Sammy does a very good job with the facial acting.

[00:24:23] - [Speaker 2]
He looks very stern. He looks very angry. But as the series goes on in terms of the dialogue, the May and I think Jason Wurdie does this with the coloring too and and and Hassan with the lettering. The main emotion I got from dad moving forward was fear. Yeah.

[00:24:42] - [Speaker 2]
And I just found it very interesting because when you look at all these things early on and then slowly, we see this confident, maybe stern, angry guy, and it it just even though he looks angry or looks a certain way, it it all just comes across as the book goes on as fear, fear, fear. And I just felt like it was just one of those things when everybody's working together to create an an emotion or a tone that really isn't explicit on the page. Yeah. Like, that's like the magic of comics. You know?

[00:25:16] - [Speaker 3]
Well and absolutely. And I think kind of like I mean, this is people often talk to me about my you know, the any benefits that I've got from being an artist first. And I think one thing that I've one benefit I have in life, I'm not alone in this. There's there's lots of writers who want artists to do this, but I think it's it's having the confidence to not everything has to be spelt out and knowing that a good collaborator, whether that be the artist, the colorist, and the letterer, can also they're playing their part in communicating that story. So, you know, Sammy I've asked him everything.

[00:25:55] - [Speaker 3]
Sammy's so brilliant at acting that I knew he'd be able to, you know, talk about that. And then when I write my scripts, I'm not kind of prescriptive in regards to, okay, we wanna have a closer to this, we wanna have this, you know, whatever. You know, very much like, you know, this is what's going on. But then, you know, I'll often sort of have, like, little psychological, you know, this is what's going on in his head. Like, he's at this point, he's feeling this.

[00:26:24] - [Speaker 3]
You know? And for that character, mean, that's that's that's who I see when I see these people who are, like, talking about immigration, how we have to, you know, in The UK to, like, stop the boat, stop the boats. You know? And it, you know, it is based on fear. It's not not necessarily always based on fear of, oh, you know, but it's it's often based on fear of that person losing what they've got.

[00:26:47] - [Speaker 3]
You know what I mean? Like, so they're, like, blaming other people over here so they can keep what they've got. Right. So, like, you know, it's it's you know? And, it it it's just been a bit more nuanced with with with character work and thinking what's you know, you've got a you've got a superficial character, but then what's going on behind that?

[00:27:08] - [Speaker 3]
And then the same thing will apply for all the other characters, and and obviously, that they'll all have arcs, and and they may end up in different places than where they started.

[00:27:18] - [Speaker 2]
Well, it's a fantastic first issue. And just and, again, it is a high concept, but love this creative team. Love this first issue. Great opening page. Fantastic ending page.

[00:27:34] - [Speaker 3]
I do.

[00:27:36] - [Speaker 2]
It's all I'm gonna say.

[00:27:37] - [Speaker 3]
Really?

[00:27:37] - [Speaker 2]
But, yeah, really, like, really wonderful.

[00:27:41] - [Speaker 3]
I do. Thank you.

[00:27:41] - [Speaker 2]
I I was just hoping we could talk a little bit about some of the other stuff that I mentioned early on in particular because I've I've been liking a lot of the stuff, that I've seen, coming from Ignition Press. And I I want to talk about your series, the with with John Jay Pearson, a a big fan of of his work

[00:28:00] - [Speaker 3]
as well. Amazing.

[00:28:01] - [Speaker 2]
And I'd really like on Ignition Press's website, you know, they have a little blurb for both you and John talking about the series, and I I think it I think it was you that said this was born, over a a curry you and John had in Harrogate many years ago. Yeah. I thought very funny. But tell listeners a little bit about, the patron. You mentioned a little bit, like, it's kind of like a dark kind of serial killer.

[00:28:28] - [Speaker 2]
It's it's very much about art and yeah. So just tell listeners a little bit about about this.

[00:28:34] - [Speaker 3]
So, basically, well, it was born from me and John are kinda old friends, and we both we both have a similar kind of comic book origin story. We've both been fine artists. Like, so we've we've existed in kind of the world of gallery shows and all that. We've both been art educators and now we're doing comic books. So we we have a lot of kind of similar touchstones.

[00:28:57] - [Speaker 3]
And we were having a curry about probably about four years ago now at Harrogate at Thought Bubble, is a brilliant comic book convention here in The UK. And he was talking about an art collector of his who basically joked, oh, I need you to die so that my collection is worth a load of money. And John told me this story. You know, he just like a kind of passing, you know, just joking. And he said he saw this light bulb go off in my eye.

[00:29:26] - [Speaker 3]
I think I said to him right there, that's the idea. That's the idea. We're gonna have a guy who's gonna kill artists to make their work be worth more money. So that's his thing. He he's gonna go around.

[00:29:41] - [Speaker 3]
He's gonna find artists. He's gonna build them up, give them gallery shows just as you know, and then he'll kill them. You know? He'll he'll find a way to make it look like they've killed themselves or they've died in an accident or whatever, and then he sells all their work for double the price because it's all about how in this day and age, it really is you can't just be an artist. There has to be a story.

[00:30:04] - [Speaker 3]
There has to be drama. There has to be something that will kind of like, you know, everyone you know, and it taps into the kind of true crime thing and and and all this. So And then we we pitched it to Ignition, and, yeah, the first issue came out last week.

[00:30:21] - [Speaker 2]
Yeah.

[00:30:23] - [Speaker 3]
And, yeah, it's it's it's five issues plus the the zero issue that came out previously. It's a lot of fun. Again, like Trevor Holmes, it's got a great last last last page or big twist at the end of issue one, and it's basically just about this guy called mister Cherish who is the patron of the of the title, He goes around and he kills artists, but then what happens when he kills he finds one artist and plans don't quite go to how he planned them and it's where we go from there. But what's really nice about the Patreon is it's very much my ode to art and and John's ode to art and talking about why I think art is important. We are surrounded by particularly as comic book fans, we you know, every day we consume art, but also in TV, in cinema.

[00:31:14] - [Speaker 3]
Even when you're walking down the supermarket aisle, you know, you are surrounded by art. Somebody's designing all those packages. And I think as a society, we we kind of it's become a kind of wallpaper that we don't see anymore or or at least don't appreciate anymore. So a big part of the story is just about reminding us how important art is, how it enriches our lives, but we've packaged it in a very twisty turny serial killer thriller that's really unpredictable and, again, has really great characters and and John's very, very beautiful handpainted artwork.

[00:31:49] - [Speaker 2]
Yeah. One of the things that I was thinking about, you know, with thinking about forever home and the and the patron. I I'm not sure the the origin of the the quote if it was but, in Station 11, Emily I think it's Emily St. Mandel's book. And and part of that book, they talk about how, like, survival is not enough.

[00:32:13] - [Speaker 2]
And, like, I can't remember where that that quote originally comes from. I think it's actually referenced in an episode of star trek, star trek to be specific. But if it's from Shakespeare or something more in-depth, I don't know. But I was, you know, thinking about both of these series because you have a climate change book and this family trying to survive. And we even see when we get a glimpse inside the house, there is art, you know, on the walls.

[00:32:35] - [Speaker 3]
Yep.

[00:32:36] - [Speaker 2]
And talking about the value of art and how, you know, survival isn't enough and the importance we place upon art. Because the undercutting this serial killer, you know, story of the patron is exactly what you're saying. Like, what what is the value of art? What is the intrinsic value of it beyond the dollars and cents of it? What does it do for us?

[00:33:00] - [Speaker 2]
And especially right now where, you know, we see the rise the the past couple of years of AI, and we see companies turning to AI, you know, for everything from designing of labels to, storyboarding Yeah. You know, before they actually make the movie to making movies to making, you know, TV shows to, you know, comic books beaten Mhmm. Not using a human artist. And, you know, there's a real question of with with folks that are very much anti that like me, and I'm sure you, like, is that is that art? Like, what putting it through to a machine?

[00:33:40] - [Speaker 2]
Like, what is what is that actually

[00:33:43] - [Speaker 3]
giving us?

[00:33:44] - [Speaker 2]
And you have all these ideas going on right now. And I really to kinda take a ton of that stuff, which you, you know, can can talk about and discuss and funnel it into the really core problem of of capitalism where I just want it to be more money, and I'm going to resort to murder. I just feel like there's so much in here that you can, like, kinda pull apart and talk about. And especially as, like, a you know, an educator to, like you could you could have a whole class just on the value of art, you know, where art meets capitalism all summed up in this series. I just I I find it thematically really fun.

[00:34:31] - [Speaker 2]
And even if it's not on the page, there's all these topics that you can kinda talk about. Or you can just read it and have a fun serial killer story.

[00:34:38] - [Speaker 3]
Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. I mean, and each issue is is I did something quite interesting with forever home, sorry, with the patron when I was scripting it. And each issue, I started with we were working with a really fantastic editor called Maggie Howell, who I've wanted to work with for years.

[00:34:54] - [Speaker 3]
And I tried to write new with the scripts where I would have kind of like a paragraph before I started scripting, sort of talking about what is this issue about? What's this issue about? And each issue is kind of very much has its own thesis about what this is about this or in relation to art and this is about this. And you know, absolutely AI is touched on. I hate AI.

[00:35:17] - [Speaker 3]
I can't stand it. I think it's really vacuous and just gives nothing to us and just and again, like in a weird way, ties into forever home because it's contributing to climate change. So yeah, so it's very it's really nice to hear you kind of connecting with that and seeing these kind of things that we're kind of spreading through it. But yeah, it's been a really fun book to to it's been a very cathartic book. I mean, they're both out to sort of write and and really kind of talk about stuff.

[00:35:47] - [Speaker 3]
And there's, you know, I think in the Patreon, it's probably the first time that I've used characters to literally be a mouthpiece for things that I'm saying, you know, and really, like, talk about what I think. You know? And I know obviously that John also agrees with me on a lot of the stuff that we're we're sort of discussing. But, again, as you say, it's also really fun and really exciting. I mean, feels to me I remember saying one of our first meetings about it, me and John, I described it to him as I kinda wanted it to feel almost like a Korean filler.

[00:36:23] - [Speaker 3]
And I really love Korean fillers and the fact that you never quite know where they're going and that that something will happen that'll be really surprising. But once you get to it, it makes perfect sense kinda looking back on on where we were headed, and that's the kind of vibe we've been going for for this. So, yeah, it's it's been really interesting having both the patron and of Heather Holmes kind of, like, following each other. I'm excited to see how people respond to both of them.

[00:36:49] - [Speaker 2]
Yeah. I I I agree. And like I said, just to talk a little bit more about Ignition Press, I really like a lot of the stuff that they

[00:36:57] - [Speaker 3]
they do. Have great books.

[00:36:59] - [Speaker 2]
I I've had I had Jim Jim McCann and Joe Isma on to talk about their, their other half book, which I think is is is really fun, and I've read a a few of their other series. Cullen Bunn was on to talk about deluge, which, I believe is this came out through Ignition Press. But yeah. I really like stuff.

[00:37:18] - [Speaker 3]
Did you read Monitor? Monitor's great.

[00:37:21] - [Speaker 2]
No. I haven't read that one yet.

[00:37:22] - [Speaker 3]
Yeah. It's Cy Spurrier's McDowling. It's really, really good.

[00:37:26] - [Speaker 2]
Okay. Yeah. I will have to I haven't gotten to that one yet. But yeah.

[00:37:30] - [Speaker 3]
Put that one on your list.

[00:37:31] - [Speaker 2]
It it's on it. It'll be on it. But I really like what they're doing. I really like, their approach. They're really putting together great creative teams.

[00:37:40] - [Speaker 2]
They're really green lighting some really, like, interesting books. And, yeah, it's just been really kinda great to see. You know, I mean, they got a great pedigree in terms of, you know, Jeremy Horn and Jamie Rich, and so they got a lot of good folks, working for them. Before before I let you go, if you have time, I just want to talk a little bit about the, about the the the event horizon experience. I mean, when you armed before, I think we talked about it maybe before issue one even Yeah.

[00:38:10] - [Speaker 2]
Even came out. But now doing you know, working on these Event Horizon books. And I think we talked about a little bit, you know, before it had come out, you know, how you got involved in it. I I think it was a conversation with Heather Antos. And, you know, then, like, the book coming out and, you know, now you have Pandemonium coming out later on this year.

[00:38:33] - [Speaker 2]
I wanna articulate this the right way because, I think there's always a tendency because there are so many good comics out there, and it's a tough market at times. Yeah. And, you know, you always want things to do well. And sometimes you think something will hit and it doesn't. Sometimes you think, you know, it's it's not gonna hit and it's like a surprise.

[00:38:53] - [Speaker 2]
But, you know, this was a property that was had been around for a while. They'd never done anything really with it in terms of any type of prequel or sequel or whatever it might be.

[00:39:03] - [Speaker 3]
Mhmm.

[00:39:03] - [Speaker 2]
But it seems to be doing really well. Everyone I know who has read it loves it. Was it you know, did you think, like, oh, this would be good. I'm excited about doing this. But have you been surprised at all by, like, how good the response has been?

[00:39:21] - [Speaker 3]
Do am I gonna sound arrogant if I say no? I haven't. I mean, I think I mean, here's the thing. Like, I knew it had massive potential. I had a I just had a feeling I thought, you know, the IDW's Star Trek comics do so well.

[00:39:37] - [Speaker 3]
And it you know, and it's almost like it's almost like Star Trek's kind of like holoc half cousin. It's a you know, it's they're not a million miles apart. And I just I knew being a fan of the film long before I, you know, I took this on, like, I knew that the fan base was really hungry. You know, for every few years, it's it's it's if it's not asking for the director's cut of the film, it it's it's wanting a sequel. It's wanting some sort of expansion of the lore and the story.

[00:40:07] - [Speaker 3]
So I knew the demand was there, like I really did. So I knew that if we could like hit it out the park, myself and Tristan Jones, we would have a chance at something really exciting. And you know, we worked really hard on that first book and we surprised a lot of people because we approached it in a very you know, there's lots of really great licensed books at the moment. So that kinda laid the groundwork for us. And we really approached it in the same way we'd approach it, create our own book and put lots of love and care and like but also allowed it to to be personal and allowed it to kinda tell a story that wasn't completely tethered to the film even though it was a prequel.

[00:40:53] - [Speaker 3]
And then, you know, I've got to kind of give thanks to my letter to Nick Nino and the people at IDW and the people at Paramount and Philip Eisner who's the screenwriter to the film who is greenlit every wild idea I've had. Like each like the second one I was like, okay. I'm pushing it now. Like issue four came out yesterday, and the whole issue takes place inside the mind the mind of the event horizon, the ship. And it's all narrated by the ship, and they went for it.

[00:41:26] - [Speaker 3]
And then Pandemonium, who you which you referenced, is starts off in seventeenth century England with Sir Isaac Newton John. Sir Isaac Newton John? I'm combining no. Sir Isaac Newton. Why am I saying Newton John?

[00:41:40] - [Speaker 3]
Am I yeah. Yeah. Are you mixing him up with Olivia Newton John? Yeah. I have.

[00:41:45] - [Speaker 3]
Yeah. Yeah. He comes out. In leather trousers smoking a cigarette. Yeah.

[00:41:51] - [Speaker 3]
So, like, you know, and it's it's you know, and we have a kind of proto, you know, gravity drive that we we start our story off with. You know? It's it's we go to some really wild places. In fact, you know, the wildest place that we're gonna go to in the third one is is heaven, and turns out heaven is worse. But it's great.

[00:42:09] - [Speaker 3]
You know? We've I've had a lot of fun on that book. I feel like I've been spoilt hearing kind of like friends who work for over licensed books where they're, you know, endless notes and that's not quite right and that needs to be tweaked. You know, we've we've had, you know, nothing but praise and and just, like, you know, encouragement to kinda really push it as far as we can push it.

[00:42:33] - [Speaker 2]
Yeah. And I didn't mean to imply that, like, that I that I I didn't think it it would be successful. No. No. Mean, I was I was very excited for it, but, you know, sometimes when you like a thing

[00:42:46] - [Speaker 3]
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:42:47] - [Speaker 2]
You you're like, I I'm excited for it. I I I hope it really does well, but, you know, I don't I I don't I haven't been you know, I don't know if they have, like, an event horizon, like, convention or if there's, like, a message boards online. I'm I'm sure there are. But I've just I'm just such a fan of you and Tristan Jones' work, and I I really like everything that again, IDW is, I think, a great company. They're doing a lot of good stuff

[00:43:12] - [Speaker 3]
with Absolutely.

[00:43:13] - [Speaker 2]
You know, licensed comics, and it's just been very exciting to see that it's the type of series that's like, you know, it's not for everybody. I mean, the the movie itself was it's cosmic horror, and but I just think it's it's just so exciting to see kind of, like, a big swing with something like this and to see it, like, doing well and people excited about it. And, you know, very easily in today's market with so many things going on could have been, like, one and done. Yeah.

[00:43:44] - [Speaker 3]
Absolutely. We've we've been very lucky to have three books. And I think, you know I mean, I think we've we've I was saying this to somebody the other night. We are very we're in a kind of golden age of comics. I don't think there's ever been more amazing comics as there are now.

[00:44:00] - [Speaker 3]
You know, you look at, you know, you look at all the books that are coming out and, you know, more often than not, the books are great. And that's great as a reader and it's great for the comic stores, you know, the comic retailers are doing really well. But obviously, from a creator's point of view, you've really gotta up your game. But even then, you're never guaranteed even with a great book. I mean, have friends who, like, have been disappointed with, you know, sale numbers on books and, you know, on really, really good books that maybe a few years ago would have been like fifty, sixty k, and are now like not close to that because it's just people have got less money and there's more great choices.

[00:44:44] - [Speaker 3]
So it's, you know, it is easy to get lost and you never know what's gonna catch. And I've been very fortunate that this is this is court, and and, you know, and people have responded to what myself, Tristan, and and then Rob did on inferno. And then, you know, when people saw that, I put that sneak page from Hernan from the third volume up and people lost their minds. So, like, literally. So, yeah, it's been fun.

[00:45:13] - [Speaker 3]
And then, you know, the third one will end my tenure on on Event Horizon. I feel like a trilogy is a nice, you know, it it it story will literally tie into Dark Sentinel, tie into inferno, it'll tie into the film, and it'll tie a nice little bow. And then I will walk away from from the license, and I'll be like, they can you know, someone can follow me and either undo everything I've done or add to it or, you know, whatever they wanna do. Yeah. But, you know, that's the beauty of comics.

[00:45:46] - [Speaker 2]
Well, I'm I've just been very excited. I've been loving it. And, yeah, I'm just like I collected the other two, I'm gonna make sure I get pandemonium as well. But, yeah, Christian, thank you so much for coming back on the podcast today.

[00:45:59] - [Speaker 3]
Thank you. Thanks for having me.

[00:46:01] - [Speaker 2]
Listeners, I'll put links in the show notes. You can check out Christian's website. You can follow him on social media. And, also, I'll put links so you make sure that even though FOC has passed, you can still try and reach out to your comic book shop to let them know that you want a copy of it. But, forever home with Oni Press, The Patron, which is Ignition Press, and then, Event Horizon Pandemonium IDW.

[00:46:24] - [Speaker 2]
And and also, if you can, you know, if if you can find it out there, if you're if you're looking in your comic book, shops, you know, long boxes or, the the machine gun wizards, we talked to the first time Christian was on. I mentioned it. I I really like that series. And, yeah. I mean, I'll I'll put links to some of the other stuff Christian has has done, or you can you can go in and check it out.

[00:46:48] - [Speaker 2]
But, especially his his two face was, I was a big fan of as well. But, yeah, thank you so much for coming on, Christian. So listeners, you know what to do. Rate, review us, do all that stuff. Shout out to my brother Bobby, the cryptic creator corner's number one most dedicated fan.

[00:47:03] - [Speaker 2]
Bobby listens to all my episodes. Hey, Bob. But, yeah, Christian, thank you so much For Comic Book Yeti's cryptic creator corner, I'm Jameka Sparrow. Have a good night, and I will see you next time.

[00:47:14] - [Speaker 3]
Thank you, Jimmy. Thanks for having me.

[00:47:16] - [Speaker 2]
You're welcome. Quite welcome.

[00:47:18] - [Speaker 4]
Jimmy is too humble to do this. So as his stalwart ride or die, I wanted to tell you about his new graphic novel, Penny and the Yeti with artist Amber Aiken. What started as a comic short with his daughter that I've known about for ages now, and it's evolved and has become one of those annoying can't talk about it in comics things for too damn long. Yes. I'm predisposed to be supportive but after reading an advanced copy of it, I have to admit it's way better than I anticipated.

[00:47:46] - [Speaker 4]
No shade but it's really good, remarkably so. Does it have a yeti? Yeah. Is it cute and adorable?

[00:47:53] - [Speaker 2]
Yeah.

[00:47:54] - [Speaker 4]
But it streak lies in effectively tapping into the all too familiar family dynamics that we all are facing in 2026 and approaching it in a way that doesn't insult the book's target audience. Kids. They are way smarter and perceptive than we adults give them credit for. So I really appreciated Jimmy's narrative approach tapping into his own experiences as a dad and a spouse. I can hear his wife saying, get off your phone, Jimmy, through the pages.

[00:48:19] - [Speaker 4]
She's gonna kill me for saying that. It's hitting shelves on April 21, and I dropped a link in the show notes where you can preorder a copy today. Getty or not, here we come with Penny, Perry, Fenton, Maxine, and the magical, mythical, magnificent, Yeti. On behalf of us both, we appreciate your support.

[00:48:38] - [Speaker 3]
Yippee la la.

[00:48:41] - [Speaker 4]
This is Byron O'Neil, one

[00:48:43] - [Speaker 2]
of your hosts of the

[00:48:44] - [Speaker 4]
Cryptid 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're doing and more importantly, how we can improve. Thanks for listening.

[00:49:01] - [Speaker 0]
If you enjoyed this episode of the Cryptid Creator Corner, maybe you would enjoy our sister podcast, Into the Comics Cave. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.