Damien Becton Talks World's Away

[00:00:00] Your ears do not deceive you.

[00:00:02] You've just entered the cryptid creator corner brought to you by your friends at Comic Book Yeti.

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

[00:00:11] No! No! No! No!

[00:00:15] Yes, I can clearly see that I rolled a one.

[00:00:17] Oh boy! Oh boy!

[00:00:20] Ugh.

[00:00:21] While the Yeti determines my faith, I wanted to tell you about our friends at Sanity Damage.

[00:00:25] They're an amazing D&D actual play live show. He's done and what he's going to be doing for 2024 because My first introduction to his work is like a sci-fi comic mother daughter Outer space and I really love it right up my alley But please welcome to the podcast Damien Beckton Damien. How you doing? I'm doing well. Thank you for having me

[00:01:42] Jim. I really appreciate I've been seeing you and

[00:02:45] I guess my exposure to your work was Worlds Away,

[00:02:48] which was the science fiction comic that I alluded to earlier.

[00:02:50] And folks who are listening,

[00:02:52] you can't see this, you are wearing your Worlds Away t-shirt,

[00:02:54] which is really great.

[00:02:55] I gotta get one of those, I love that.

[00:02:58] So Worlds Away, which is a comic that you crowdfunded

[00:03:01] on Kickstarter issues one through four.

[00:03:05] And now I think it's coming out with a publisher,

[00:03:08] is that right? as soon as he made it. So shout out to Chris. That's one of the, I think it's one of the most recognizable things. You know, if World's Away Ever, you know, takes off and makes a billion dollars, I think the logo would be one of the things that are the most recognizable. So shout out to Chris. But yeah, it's coming out with Amanda Barr. That's actually pretty, pretty soon. January 31st.

[00:04:23] It's going to come out with the, daughter, they have these power ranger radiant black type suits, Iron Man suits. But essentially they crash land on an alien planet. That alien planet is more of a fantastical God of war type planet.

[00:05:40] And this mother and daughter,

[00:05:41] they don't get along very much.

[00:05:44] But when, you know, their lives are in danger, reminded me, I think I backed issue one when it was on when I was on Kickstarter, but I wasn't sure about the other. So I just went and went on comic hub just now while we're talking and added the double sized issue to my pull list at my LCS. So Hey, I appreciate it. Check it out. Check it out.

[00:07:00] Appreciate that.

[00:07:01] Yeah, I mean, I, I think you, you know, you have a story with

[00:08:07] nicest person on earth. She's a tiny little lady. She's Filipino. I'm half Filipino. But she's the smallest Asian lady. I'm 30. I'm going to turn 33 in 2024, but she loves

[00:08:13] me so much that she texts me all the time and asks, she asks me all the time. If I've

[00:08:18] eaten, if I need any money and things like child. And I literally think my mom, if my mom was an intergalactic soldier who was trained for years and years and can pilot an Ironman suit, I'd literally think that she would do anything,

[00:09:40] keep me alive on an alien planet.

[00:09:45] Do you think your mother has the skills you know, power rangers, radiant black, things along those lines, you're like, well, I love all these things. I kind of want to like tell my own kind of story and play in this playground, or was it something else that kind of spurred you on to want to write? Because I mean, look, I love comics, I love stories.

[00:11:00] And what I'm interested in terms of this podcast

[00:11:03] is what takes somebody from just being a fan.

[00:11:06] Because I think everybody has a story inside them, right? I've always done that and I've always had stories. World's a ways to be in my brain for maybe since 2016. It fleshed out a little bit more when I played those, when I played God of War, when I read some of Ryan Parrots, Power Rangers stories. But really the driving force that really made me pursue,

[00:12:21] kickstart or pursue indie comics was in 2021,

[00:13:22] every year and I was actually lucky enough to win be one of the winning writers in 2021.

[00:13:26] So really what happened was when I won that,

[00:13:31] I said, this is my foot in the door.

[00:13:35] If this comic book thing,

[00:13:37] if this comic book dream that I've had

[00:13:39] since I was eight years old is ever gonna happen,

[00:13:43] then it's gonna have to happen right now.

[00:14:45] We've either through this podcast or written interviews.

[00:14:47] I've talked to a few past winners before. When Byron interviewed Jared Lujan,

[00:14:51] I've spoken to-

[00:14:52] Good, good, yeah.

[00:14:53] I love, have a lot of respect for that guy.

[00:14:55] I've interviewed Mario Candelaria,

[00:14:58] who was a patient with her,

[00:15:00] and Anthony Cleveland was recently on the podcast.

[00:15:03] Was one of the-

[00:15:04] He wasn't talking about charred remains,

[00:15:06] because I just fill in the blanks Okay, so I gave him an outline and he get him and Brian Hawkins shout out to Brian Hawkins again But they gave me a little bit of nose, but pretty much, you know, what happened in that story was pretty much, you know

[00:16:25] Everything that I came up with and May and Cave have have created. Was that kind

[00:17:42] of your first foray into working with, you on, wait, one second, Damien, you can't use this character or this character because I have plans for this character and this character. I said, okay, no worries, no problem. They're just that's just that. That's just those get notes and he gives his tips and everything. You know, in Tales do anything for their country, who would do anything for their beliefs. And I'd kind of morph that into this angry character. And I got good notes back for David and Brian. So shout out to David and Brian.

[00:21:40] Oh, good.

[00:21:41] No, I mean, I think that more so than some other types of, you know, kind of crafting your own version. Right. Kind of playing with David's version, the sadistic mean, which is a huge contrast to the one that I grew up watching. Right. Well, yeah, definitely if it's Mel Brooks, Robin Hood, many types. I want to take along those recently this past year, you and Kenneth Laster and Reed Hinkley Barnes again did try not to die, which is kind of like a Ode to, you know, 80s, early nineties, uh, maybe even later, like slasher flicks, um, which a very familiar opening for anyone that is,

[00:24:26] uh,

[00:24:26] I'm glad you recognized it.

[00:25:27] watching, you know, and I'm really proud of it. I'm excited to do more. There's a lot that we have planned and it doesn't take itself too seriously either. That's one of the things that I really

[00:25:34] wanted to do. I didn't want to make it is, it's a horrible, but I also didn't want to, you know,

[00:25:42] make it this super serious. It's very, it's very selfmore, but not Drew Barrymore. Well, you know, that is such kind of the opening of Scream is such an iconic opening to a horror movie because it's playing with that same thing. It was a movie Kevin Williamson. It's taking all

[00:27:01] the tropes that we're familiar with. And it's being. I did land that lap with the two characters where I think at one point the boys characters get separated.

[00:28:21] That was my favorite joke. I loved it writing that I had to pass that I'm not Laster's artwork, I thought like wow what a what a good companion piece if you wanted to do like a comic double feature This would go with like homesick pilots by Dan Waters and Casper wind guard, which is a haunted house House as a mech type of story and I just felt there was something very

[00:29:44] some you know, I said, hey, if there's nothing, if there isn't anything working here, or if you want to change something, you know, I want this to be your story as much as, as much as that it's mine. And that's what we did. We bounced ideas off each other. He said, hey, what about if we do this instead of if we do this? And I said, you know what, that idea is way better than my idea. Let's,

[00:31:01] let's go for it. And is the beauty of collaboration, right? And he doesn't want, even if he doesn't want to. All right. Well, good. I mean, I guess for Kenneth, and I'm hopeful that there will be more, like, that you want. So thank you, man. And I want to get more folks a chance to read it and take a look at it.

[00:32:24] All right, let's take a quick break. previews or you can visit their website bandabars.com for all the latest. Can we turn the music off now? Thank you. No more surprises, minstrels or anything like that. And I'll rent you out to the rimfare as a children's ride. Let's get back to the show. And so next you have, I guess, launching at the end of January, we talked about

[00:33:45] is it sinners, sinners, take sinners, take all

[00:34:46] hits, but yet check out Damien's newsletter. So I saw that this was coming out. And from what I read, it's like, I guess two people sell their soul to the devil, then the devil

[00:34:53] lets them and gives them an opportunity to kind of get their soul back. But I'm assuming

[00:34:59] by the title, they have to do terrible things. that Jacob Phillips has done some work for them as well. But yeah, really kind of pretty, but detective not detective type of story. Like that's the flair you get set in what like the 80s? Yeah, 80s 90s. I think it's very reminiscent of when, you know,

[00:36:22] he was growing up, I believe.

[00:36:24] Yeah, I mean, just an Ed Brubaker,

[00:36:27] phenomenal writer, phenomenal story teller. But yeah, like I was like you were saying, you know These two people they have an opportunity to get the rights of their soul back to their soul back But they have to commit some very egregious Sins if they're willing to do that and yeah I'm very able to do I'm there able to get that back

[00:37:40] and one of the one of the things that I really wanted to add to it was

[00:37:46] an extra layer to it was

[00:38:45] worked on Stranger Things for Dark Horse, and he actually worked on End After End with Vault Comics.

[00:38:48] I think he was the perfect person to collaborate with, because seeing how he's drawing some

[00:38:55] of these souls, how he's kind of, and you kind of get a glimpse at it on the cover, what

[00:39:03] these souls can look like, because they can literally look like anything.

[00:39:06] I told Sunando,'s, that sounds great. I can't wait. I'm a big fan of Sinanda's work. He's been on the podcast before and I really like end after end, the vault comic. I think that's a DBE that David andry. Andry and I'm forget I'm laying it on the name. But yeah, that's that. I didn't

[00:40:25] know he was on here. I think we talked about. I was probably right before end after end came out, I would think. But yeah, so that's, yeah, that's fantastic. I can't wait to see what he does with a story like this. He's a great guy. He's really just like Kenneth Laster. And he was, you know, he was open to suggestions.

[00:41:42] He was, you know, he asked me if he wanted to do.

[00:41:46] But he had some ideas. on the chessboard and you know he's creating this universe, the Black Box universe and I was lucky enough to get a five issue series. I'm actually literally Jimmy right before I came on here. I was working on issue number six, the script.

[00:43:00] I'm number six.

[00:43:02] I don't know if that's, I don't know if I can say that,

[00:43:05] but I'm working on issue number six. And Jimmy whenever it does come out, I want to be on the show again so I could talk about it. Yeah, please. Black Box in terms of some of the writers they've worked with. You know, Brian Hawkins, Eric Gullicki, Jay Sandlin, that episode came out already, but to be curious, is the Black Box Comics one hasn't come out yet, but it will, and folks will be able to listen to that and hopefully it'll get more people

[00:45:40] to check out the Black Box Comics,

[00:45:42] because I think, yeah, I like seeing more indie comics,

[00:45:46] publishers in the space and connect to, you can reach out to the people that made it. Like it's like, yeah, there's really been like no other time in history where you can do that. And it drives me nuts when people like abuse it and they are like negative or they want to harass people, which is absolutely terrible.

[00:47:00] But I think it's, you know, I you want to create something, it's really diving into the deep end, believing in yourself. And if it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out. But you just got to give yourself a shot. It sounds corny, it sounds cliche.

[00:49:24] like blown my hair back, like knock me on my ass. They were so amazing.

[00:49:25] And I read comics that are like better, okay, you know?

[00:49:28] But they're doing it.

[00:49:30] People are telling the stories that they wanna tell.

[00:49:34] And, you know, I think that's great.

[00:49:37] And I like, I do this because I like to talk about the stuff.

[00:49:40] I want people to read the stuff that I read

[00:49:43] and that I connected with

[00:49:45] whether I found something interesting or funny anything this year because my job has been like absolutely the busiest I've ever been in 17 almost 18 years as an attorney this past year was the busiest I've ever been. So it's difficult to find the time, you know, to make the time to do it. And you know, you entered a contest. And one,

[00:52:03] bagging board and ship out the comics that people actually wanted to read and

[00:52:07] you know having the opportunity opportunity to talk to people like you people

[00:52:09] you know wanting to talk about the books that you're creating that you created it's really

[00:52:13] you know it's really

[00:52:15] something that makes all that hard work worth it. Right and I have to imagine I mean because

[00:52:21] you're a teacher you know during the day right and I mean, it that's absolutely true. And you know, it's, and it doesn't happen overnight either, you know. So I appreciate you very, very, very much. Well, thank you. And I'll say that I appreciate you because I try and be,

[00:55:06] if there's a story out And that's the fun part.

[00:56:22] Finding those connections and creating characters that you have nothing in common with besides and bars. Go on comic hub or call your local comic shop wherever you eat your comics and make sure it's going to be on your pull list when it comes out at the end of January and be sure to sign up for Damien's newsletter and Sinner Takes All is going to be out on Kickstarter at the end of January. And then at some point in 2024, we're going to have

[00:57:42] Damien back and talk about whatever this black box. And shout out to my brother Bobby, the Cryptocater, Cryptocreative Corner, is number one most dedicated listener who listens to all my episodes. And yeah, thanks for listening and I hope you had a wonderful holiday.

[00:59:00] And as you're listening to this, it'll be 2024.

[00:59:03] So I hope you had a happy,

[00:59:05] you're having a happy new year.

[00:59:06] And I will see you next time.

[00:59:08] Thanks a lot.