David Andry Interview - Red Vector

[00:00:00] Your ears do not deceive you. You have just entered the Cryptid Creator Corner brought to you by your friends at Comic Book Yeti. So without further ado, let's get on to the interview. Do you love sci-fi? Are you a horror fan? Maybe you prefer action or fantasy? 2000AD has it all and should be on your radar. With a whole universe of characters from Judge Dredd, Astronium Dog to Rogue Trooper, Shakara Halo Jones and many more,

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[00:00:56] That's like a whole graphic novels worth. All subscribers get amazing offers like discount vouchers and exclusive product offers. Head to 2000AD.com and click on subscribe now or download the 2000AD app and why wait? Start reading today. I'll put links in the show notes for you. Hello and welcome to Comic Book Yeti's Cryptid Creator Corner. I'm one of your hosts, Jimmy Gasparo. And we have a returning guest and he hasn't been on the podcast just once or twice or three times.

[00:01:26] No, he has been three times before because this is his fourth time on the podcast. I need my five-timer jacket for next time. That's right. One more time. And I don't know, Byron has something special planned, I think, for anyone that's been on five times. But please welcome back to the podcast for his fourth time, David, DB, Andrew. David, how you doing tonight? I'm doing great. Thanks for having me on again, Jimmy. No, it's always a pleasure. You know, we were just before I started recording.

[00:01:56] We were I was just trying to sort out how many times you had been on because we talked about Dead Blood. We talked about Morningstar with you and Tim Daniel and Marco Finnegan. And then you came back on to talk about Crushed Depth. And now you're here. New Mad Cave series. You and Tim Daniel. Yes. Again, and Red Vector. Final order cutoff is August 4th. And the issue itself will be out August 27th.

[00:02:26] And I I you were kind enough to send over, you know, an advanced copy to me. I got to read it. I think I had put out there on social media that it had a very like Star Wars, last starfighter, a bit of enemy mind. Let it go. Yeah.

[00:02:46] It's kind of some of the things that it had a little bit of, you know, a flavor of and all those touch tones are things that I absolutely love. And yeah, I thought the issue itself was fantastic. The artist you're working with, Chris, is it Evan Weiss? It's Evan Weiss. Evan Hughes. I'm not exactly sure. Yeah, I try to look it up to see if I could find it like a I always try to see if I find like another interviewer saying.

[00:03:16] Yeah. Yeah. So that I I get it right. Sacrificial lamb. How'd you say? Yeah. What did that guy say? Yeah. Yeah. But the artwork in this, I thought is phenomenal because you're kind of you're you're straddling both a, you know, outer space kind of starfighter world and then like a very grounded desert.

[00:03:42] Like the second half is a bit of like, you know, kind of talking head. A lot of like those types of panels. It's much more, you know, grounded than the earlier sci fi elements. But, you know, why don't you tell listeners? How do you explain it? What is Red Vector all about? I think I think you nailed it perfectly because it is, you know, it's like Star Wars kind of crashed on Earth. And, you know, it's me and Tim. We're always going to kind of ground it with some kind of a, you know, emotional character core.

[00:04:13] So it's, you know, still kind of as realistic personal interactions as possible with this crazy sci fi, you know, story with this over the top melodramatic villain. And it is, you know, that's my childhood. My childhood is Star Wars, Last Starfighter and and like enemy mine and and all the great sci fi and stuff that kicked off, you know, after Star Wars. So I'm loving getting to do a little sci fi.

[00:04:40] We've done quite a bit of like horror and a little bit of fantasy. So this is like me and Tim's first foray into sci fi. So I'm super excited for people to check it out and see a little different flavor maybe than what they're used to still with that still core storytelling that that I think you could recognize as as like me and Tim. Yeah. So, yeah, it's it's it's all that stuff. It's all the fun stuff.

[00:05:08] It and and, you know, working with Chris, it's great because there's no limits on. Like what I can get across with facial expressions and the subtleties of all the character acting that he could do. I mean, the dude is is just amazingly talented and can draw it all and make it all look beautiful and clean and perfect.

[00:05:31] And so, yeah, I I really wanted to work with Chris for a very, very long time ever since I saw his work in like Monstro Mechanica. And he did some work with G.I. Joe for a while and just and Wynonna Earp. And, you know, as a writer, you have that kind of. Laundry list of dream artists that you want to work with. And when I had the opportunity with this one, I'm like, yeah, we got to get Chris on this.

[00:06:01] He'd be perfect. So I'm super excited for people to check it out. Yeah. And I mean, the rest of the creative team, it's good luck. Yeah. Sean. No. What Weasgers is the colorist. I am not familiar with their work, but that opening page and then Buddy Bo doing is the letter. But that opening page that Chris has drawn and colored.

[00:06:24] And I don't know if Buddy did all the narration in terms of like, you know, the from the opening page is just like gorgeous. It's like a full splash is how it essentially opens after the credit page. And it just it's very evocative. It's it's very, you know, what is this about? Plus, it has like a cool dog with bandana and sunglasses.

[00:06:48] Right. I mean, I got to have a little, you know, well, you know, I had my dog in in in resident that a lot of people were aware of that I put my dog in there. And my dog is more of a, you know, shepherd husky mix. So had to put, you know, my dog in this comic, too. I can't show dog favoritism. So haven't put a cat yet in. I got a couple of cats. So maybe next book, I'll just slip a cat in there.

[00:07:17] But yeah, it. I think Sean colors all of Chris's stuff, their partners and together. And so they're just and she's a super talented cartoonist and background artist. If you like check out her Instagram, it's all that kind of like super colorful, almost Disney style backgrounds. And like get her colors on this has just been amazing. So there's such a good team because they're right there with each other.

[00:07:46] And, you know, we always get, you know, just perfect pages back from them. Oh, yeah. Yeah. My apologies for not knowing that. But, you know, the two of them together, like it's another. It's just like an absolutely gorgeous book. What I like about, you know, I'm I mean, as much as I love comics, I will have to to say that I and it's a visual medium, but I I always tend to.

[00:08:13] Like search, seek out different, you know, writers more so like there's a lot of art I love. But for whatever reason, I'm I'm always been more of a words person. Yeah. I appreciate some of the amazing art. And that's one of the things that I, you know, you know, I love about your work in the writing of it, but also the folks that you and Tim choose to collaborate with.

[00:08:37] Like because all of these books look so different, whether it not it's Skylar Patridge for the second arc of Resonant or Chris Sheehan, you know, or, you know, or Chris for this one. Or is it Alex for crushed up? Yeah, crushed up. But they all have such their own unique look like you're, you know, and that's the great thing about working with a bunch of different artists. And you you you work with folks.

[00:09:06] And I think you really get the like the mix right in terms of the type of story you're trying to tell and have an artist come in that really, you know, fits that that look. Because you think like the, you know, Chris Sheehan working on Denizen might not work for a sci fi, you know, story like this. Well, it's just definitely going to have a different vibe, right?

[00:09:30] Yeah, the storytelling is probably going to be just as as good with with good cartoonists and good sequential artists who can, you know, tell the story without the words. But you definitely get a vibe from from the artist, you know, and a Chris Chris Sheehan's work is automatically, you know, because he uses so much like charcoal as kind of drawings and darker shapes and a lot of shadow. He's he's going to give you that creepy vibe, you know, from the jump.

[00:10:00] Right. Yeah, I'm not trying to knock Chris. Oh, no, no, no. Yeah. You know, you're resonant was kind of like a take on, you know, almost a zombie post apocalyptic survival story. And, you know, Denizen was more of like a full on, you know, horror story.

[00:10:26] Morningstar was kind of like, you know, just a bit of sci fi, but a bit of like family drama that that kind of like mid 80s thing that like Spielberg did, you know, so well. You know, and Crushed Depth is a claustrophobic kind of submarine body horror story. Right. You know? Yeah. And and, you know, we put a lot of thought. I put a lot of thought.

[00:10:54] Tim puts a lot of thought into who are we going to partner with as an artist on each and every project. And it's it's really super important. One, we want to work with good people and people that we like as humans. And and then we want to work on someone who's going to match the vibe and the feel of the story and who could do the storytelling and world building that we know we want.

[00:11:22] And and and so it's it's for each project. It's a much, much different list of of artists that we compile to like look at and imagine how the pages are going to look and look at their work. And and yeah, it's a it's a it's a very, you know, deliberate process. We haven't been willy nilly about the artist we've worked with.

[00:11:46] We've worked with every single artist we've worked with is someone we wanted to work with and we chose and and we're very excited about it. And then the earlier in the process that you know who the artist is, you can really tailor that script for them. Hopefully, you know, you can even have a dialogue with them and what sort of things do are their strengths? What do they like to do? What do they not like to do? You know, so like I hate drawing bookshelves.

[00:12:11] Okay, well, we're not going to set anything in a library that we're cool with that, you know, and and so there can be some adjustment of the script based on on the artist. But with like with with with Chris on on red vector, I knew, you know, just from his previous work and all the stuff he's drawn, you know, he drew kind of robotic things in in in in Monstro Mechanica.

[00:12:36] He drew vehicles and stuff and GI Joe and then like a lot of drama and facial expressions in Winona Earp. So I knew exactly what we're good. And the dude is consistent as a machine. You know, you don't get a bad you don't get a single bad panel. You don't get a single thoughtless panel. You don't get like, oh, I'm going to cheat this and this will be real quick. Like like he's putting his full force and and and effort into every single page and panel. And and so kind of knew exactly what we're getting from him.

[00:13:06] And and yeah, I it was kind of like I think with this one, you know, Marco with the Morningstar was attached from the beginning before I even got there. But like for for this for resonant, I wasn't going to go with anybody other than Skylar for the second half. I and with with Red Vector, I I wasn't really going to go with anybody.

[00:13:28] But Evan, he's I'm like, this is God of if we can get this guy, this has got to be the guy, you know, and and so like and and when things, you know, when they turn out to be a great, you know, partner, a great coworker, a great collaborator and a great person. It's like a super bonus on top of them being an amazing artist, you know. So, you know, I can't say enough good things about Chris and the other Chris and all the Chris's that I've worked with before.

[00:13:58] But no, all the artists, I mean, I love them all. And it's like when people ask, like, oh, what's your favorite? But, you know, when you're at a con and they're like, oh, what's your favorite one? I'm like, I can't. They're all my favorite. Yeah, that's got to be tough. They all come out, you know, in their own special way. The artist always elevates like things that you put down on a script and it usually at least luckily in my experience, the things that I imagined my head, they came out better from the artists brain and pen and pencil than I could ever imagine.

[00:14:27] And so I've always been like super happy, super blessed, super lucky to work with the artists that I worked with and and always had really good luck and vibes with them. And things have gone really well. So, you know, knock on wood, that continues, hopefully for the rest. If there is more of my career after this, buy my book, please. Things are getting tight out there for creators. Yeah, that's true. So yeah, buy by David's books, please.

[00:14:57] Yeah, please. Yeah. When you and Tim and Mark were on here to talk about Morningstar, you talked a little bit about, you know, how you and Tim work. Does that change at all? Do you kind of keep the same patterns in terms of what you bring to a script and what Tim does? Yeah. Is it consistent throughout the different projects? I mean, it's consistent generally because we're kind of the same people. We like doing the same thing. Um, in, in every project has been slightly different.

[00:15:25] And so with, with Morningstar, with Red Vector, uh, Tim, like went nuts on this thing. When we started talking about this idea, he's like, okay. And then if we get like a second series, this is what the second series is going to be. If we get a third series, this is what the third series is going to be. And I'm like, wait, I haven't even finished page two on the first chapter yet. Uh, so yeah, Tim had this great, you know, backstory and, and this history.

[00:15:54] And I, you know, that's not super my, my strength in, in like world building and stuff like that. I can do a little bit of, but I can kind of get bored with that. Uh, so I just like to kind of get in and start moving forward with the story. So I, I wrote a whole bunch, um, of, of just a, a, a rough draft all the way through issue five. And then he came back and plotted in all these kind of, uh, back, uh, flashbacks and backstories and stuff like that.

[00:16:22] And, and, and really rounded out the whole world. And, you know, he had given me a pretty extensive outline, um, on, on the series. And, you know, I did what I do and kind of went a little nuts. And then he came back and reined it back in and kind of put, put all the, the, um, the kind of complete history of the, the, the universe that we were building. Um, so yeah, it, it, it's still fairly the same.

[00:16:52] We do a lot of bouncing back and forth. We do a lot of talking about it. Um, I'll do a lot of drafting and then he'll go back and do a lot of, uh, filling in and adding to what I've drafted. I, you know, I'll keep the draft for pretty, pretty light. Uh, like my rough draft will be, you know, about probably about 11 or 10 pages for an issue. And then he can go in and, and beef it up. And then the script, the script will come out to 22, um, after we kind of go back and forth a couple of times.

[00:17:22] Okay. Um, so, you know, with this story in particular, we, we talked about some of the things, you know, that are maybe influences or some of the touchstones for it. But essentially the first issue it's there's immediately some type of rebels or some type of faction. Right. And then, you know, they, the band who I think is the bad guys. I don't even know. I'm going to call them the bad guys. They're, they're certainly drawn and colored. They're bad guys. Yes.

[00:17:53] They opened some type of like weapon that opens up rift. And we have, it seems like the leader of one faction and, uh, yeah. And, and somebody else pretty important who kind of gets stuck. What, what appears to be on earth, uh, together. Yes. I like that you're using a lot of peers to be, it looks like, because there is some, uh, purposeful. Yes. And that's purposeful kind of ambiguity maybe for this first issue.

[00:18:21] Uh, because there are, you know, we do share a cultural history. And like a cinematic history, you know, there, even if you've never seen a star Wars, you probably know what the force is. You know, what a life is, you know, Darth Vader is, um, so you can kind of cheat a little bit. Right. Depending on people's foreknowledge and maybe have their expectations and then subvert some of those expectations. Yeah.

[00:18:48] Well, I, there, I, do you remember, you remember the show Sequest DSV? Yeah. Of course. Yeah. Talking dolphin Darwin. Yeah. Darwin Darwin's great. Jonathan Brand is, uh, there's like a, there's an episode of Sequest and that, uh, I always feel like really relied heavily on like that trope where they had Mark Hamill in Sequest where they found like an alien ship and Mark Hamill's like, we got to save my people. We got to do this.

[00:19:16] And then like spoiler alert for a series, a series of years old, 30 years ago. Yeah. No one watched when it came out. They have a two parter or they have a second episode. Some point like much later, I think they're like, you, you realize that like the Mark Hamill character I think was like, they were the bad guys. Right. And it was like, Oh, they just, they suckered me in. Right. They put Luke Skywalker. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I, I'm never going to trust another thing again. Yeah.

[00:19:47] So that's why I'm, I'm, I'm very cagey. You're very, you're hedging your bets on this one. Exactly. Yeah. Well, and you know, I love, I love a good melodramatic villain, you know? So there's a lot of Zorg from fifth element in, in, in Peric, you know, this kind of like, you know, likes to make speeches and, you know, is a, is a megalomaniac and power crazy and stuff, but is he really a bad guy?

[00:20:15] I don't know who's, who, cause who's gonna say, and, um, you know, the, the rebels are rebelling and, and, you know, does that make them good or bad guys? So yeah, there's some, some stuff going on in there. And then there's some parallels, you know, where we placed it, we placed the story, the earthbound story on the border in, in, uh, in like the, the, the, the Mexico American border. And so of course we're going to get some parallels there, uh, and telling our earthbound story

[00:20:44] part of, of red vector. Okay. Oh, oh, great. I can't wait. I just, you know, another great first issue. Um, so yeah, I'm, you know, excited for it. So listeners, the, uh, like we said, final order cutoff is August 4th. So that's, you got to tell your shop that you want it to make sure you get a copy of it and then it'll be out August 27th. Um, I do want to talk more about red vector, but just if I, we could, I mean, we had you

[00:21:09] on the talk about crush depth, I think before it came out, I think now four issues are out for crush depth. Yeah. Fourth issue just came out a couple weeks ago. Yeah. Okay. Um, so I'm all caught up on it for anyone who hasn't read it yet. I don't, you know, really want to spoil it, but, um, yeah, I'm, I think, uh, Alex's work is, uh, incredible. I mean, especially in issue four and five, when we get to the monster stuff.

[00:21:40] Yeah. I mean, that's kind of, you know, that's Alex's bread and butter. He loves horror. He's a classic horror fan and he, you know, he's drawn some Godzilla and stuff. And, and, and so when we saw his monster work, we were like, oh, oh yeah, this is the guy for sure. Cause he can give us stuff that's new and unique, but also familiar and, and terrifying, you know? Um, and there's some really gross stuff.

[00:22:05] I mean, I just, I just read issue four, just took a look at it again earlier today, you know, in preparation for this, but yeah, there's some really gross stuff, uh, in issues three and four. So I can't wait to see what, what pops up in five. And I really love the kind of the, you know, the, the opening kind of, you know, right now. And then we kind of take a step back and we have these, the, the, the, the earlier timeline

[00:22:33] and then like the right now timeline kind of converging. Right. And we're going to, yeah, that converges right in issue five. So we'll catch up to, you know, with some, you know, some latitude based for storytelling. Um, you know, we're going to catch up basically with, uh, where we started the issue. We started the issue one with that flashback. We'll catch up, um, towards the end of issue five.

[00:22:59] So yeah, it's, uh, that was a fun kind of thing to kind of play around with, um, as a, as a, as a framing element, but also this little, you know, kind of with this type of story, um, it, it lends itself to a bit of a slow build, right? You have to get to know the characters. You have to care a little bit about the characters. Then the monster has to slowly develop and, and you start slamming monsters in too early and people don't care about the characters.

[00:23:26] You slam monsters in too late and people are bored. So that was a, that was a concern of mine that it was going to be a little slow. So I wanted to start with this framing device kind of showing, oh, we're getting to get to some crazy action towards the end of this series. So just stick with us and, and we give you a little nugget of goodness at the beginning and then listen to a little bit of talking and then you'll get some cool gross stuff. If you stick with us. Yeah. Uh, no.

[00:23:54] And we've gotten a lot of, I mean, four issues in, we've gotten a lot of cool, um, uh, gross stuff. And I mean, especially because, um, you know, where you, for anyone who has, for any listeners that haven't read it yet, it's set in like this kind of futuristic submarine. Like we don't really know a ton about what has happened top side, except in issue one, we find out like it's bad. They they've been in, I think the ship for like a decade or whatever it might be. Um, maybe longer.

[00:24:24] And you know, everyone cut, you know, it's, it's, everyone has like a uniform, which is, is tough. Like, like Alex really has like a tough job there because everybody has to look distinct. Yeah. And then especially when people start. Well, and there's like twin, almost twin brothers. Right. It's like, great. And then, you know, so you gotta, you gotta think about like, not just in the script, like, Oh great. Like, okay. I gotta make sure that I'm constantly using their names.

[00:24:51] So like people know who they are, but like in terms of the visuals of it to make everyone be distinct, especially when the bad things start, uh, start happening to them. Um, but yeah, I, I'm really enjoying it. I mean, it's just Alex's work. I think is, uh, it is an incredible. And, uh, there were a couple of things that were in particular where we're, we're pretty gross, but, um, I, I just, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a queasy person.

[00:25:19] I'm not, I look away during like medical dramas and stuff. And, and so for me, like being in control of the gross stuff kind of made it easier. I'm like, Oh cool. I'm like, I think of it like being scared of a haunted house versus being one of the actors in the haunted house. Like when you're in control, it's not as gross and it's not as scary. So I find my, I found myself going a little bit further than I thought I would when we got to some of the body horror and some of the kind of gross out stuff.

[00:25:49] How descriptive were you though, in terms of like, like in, in your script, were you like, Alex, I want it to look like, you know, uh, uh, uh, said character's name. I'll just pick Harper Harper's name of a character. Like, and listeners, I'm not spoiling anything. I'm just, this is a hypothetical, but if it's like, but it's like, you know, something bursts out of Harper where you're like, are you descriptive or were you just like, Alex, I need, I need

[00:26:17] this to look, I need this to shoot out of this body part and I need it to look like whatever, whatever. Well, cause we wanted to make sure we maintained this kind of sea creature aesthetic. So if you look at like the pupils of the eyes were like, we want this to look like an octopus eye that has a horizontal slit, you know, instead of the human round, you know, slit for the, for the iris.

[00:26:43] And, and so, yeah, no, we were pretty descriptive as far as like, okay, this is going to start to bulge out and get really swollen. And it's going to, you know, the screen stuff is going to come off this way. Uh, cause we wanted to keep a lot of the sea creature themes, um, within the, the, the, the, the monsters on the sub to match kind of the horrors that we saw kind of on the outside of the sub in, in the very beginning of issue one.

[00:27:11] Um, so if you go back to issue one, like there's human thermal vents almost, you know, these humans have been like transformed into parts of the coral and parts of the, the sea floor. And so we wanted to make sure we kept that kind of consistent on the inside too. So no, I was pretty descriptive. There's a, I posted it on, on blue sky. So it's already a little spoiler, but there's a, there's a, there's a scene where one of the

[00:27:39] characters is kind of sloughing off their human ness and they are plucking off one finger at a time, just kind of popping them off. Like they'd be plucking cherries from a tree or something. And so I got a real, yeah, that was the one that I said, the, yeah, Tim made that face. When I sent him the script, he's like, he's like, what the hell is this? What's wrong with you? I'm like, I don't know. I think I'm having fun. I don't know. So yeah, it was really.

[00:28:07] Well, still, I mean, the first issue has been out for a while, but I, you know, just to kind of focus in on two things, cause I don't know if I specifically mentioned these when we talked about it. I think I probably did mention the end of it, which you had just mentioned like the kind of human thermal vents. It, it, it looks absolutely grotesque. I love the coloring in that scene, that kind of like underwater greenish yellow glow to it.

[00:28:35] But what, I don't know if I talked about this last time, but I, um, apologies if I did, but like tough to accomplish, like essentially what's a jump scare in a comic when they're piloting them, the manta wolf, which is like their little, their little tiny drone sub. Yeah. And then one of the, like a former crew member of the other ship they find just kind of like pops up next in panel. And then Alvarez, who I think is piloting the manta wolf, like kind of screams. Like I did too.

[00:29:07] It's kind of a tough, like to accomplish a jump scare and a comic. This was kind of as close to as I've seen. I'm glad. Cause that's the, that's the, that was the intention. You know, it is, it's like, I was challenging myself. Like, Hey, all right, how do I get a jump scare? Cause in, in that type of movie or show, you would get tons of jump scares, right? Absolutely. And things burst out of chest or, or things coming around corners that are giant monsters

[00:29:34] and stuff that, you know, you really don't get that, um, in comics very easily. So yeah, trying to do a little like with reveals and stuff, a lot of like jump scares and creepy stuff and, um, a lot of hints at the monster before you see the monster sort of a thing. Right. Yeah. So, uh, but I'm, I'm really enjoying crush depth. I can't wait for issue five. I'm all, I'm all caught on crushed up now. All right, everybody. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back.

[00:30:02] Y'all Jimmy, the chaos goblin strikes again. I should have known better than to mention. I was working on my DC universe meets Ravenloft hybrid D and D campaign on social media. My bad. He goes and tags a bunch of comics creators. We know, and now I have to get it in gear with this campaign into shape. So we could start playing another friend chimes in. Are you going to make maps? It's fair to say it's been a while since I put something together. So I guess question mark. It was then that I discovered Arkham Forge.

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[00:30:59] Check them out at arkhamforge.com and use the discount code YETI5 to get $5 off. I'll drop a link in the show notes for you. And big thanks to Arkham Forge for partnering with our show. I think I'm going to make Jimmy play a goblin warlock just to get even. Welcome back. I was lucky enough earlier today to, I went to Philly, I'm in Wilmington, but I drove up to Philly to have a beer with some comic friends of mine.

[00:31:29] It's always nice when folks that you, you know, see on the, you know, from the internet, right to meet in person. So I had beers in Philly with, um, Jason Piper Berg, Heather Vaughn and Grant Stoy. Oh, nice. I told them that, Oh, I'm interviewing, you know, David tonight. And, and Grant, uh, wanted to make sure that I asked you this question. Oh God. Where do your ideas come from? I knew that I was going to do that.

[00:31:57] I'll never, I'll never get, Grant will never let me live that down because that's like, he's asked me on, I think on the podcast with him. He's like, what's the one question you hate? I'm like, that's the one. And so he asked that before we went on to air. And then as soon as we started recording, that was the first question he asked. Uh, but I will answer that for red vector because we've already talked about it. You know, I mean, I saw empire strikes back in the theaters. I saw enemy mind in the theaters.

[00:32:26] I saw last starfighter. That, I mean, that was my, my enemy mind was my first mix, like boy, girl group date. And so I'll remember that forever. I'm like, I don't know why we, you know, David, we need to, we need to unpack that. Did you just say an enemy mind, the Lou Gossett, Jr. Dennis Quaid, the classic. It's just like, it's just the two of them. The whole movie.

[00:32:56] Yes. Very poor choice. We were very bored, but it was okay. Cause we'd sit around and talk and, you know, again, remember back in whatever it was, 84, 83, 86, somewhere. I was probably about 86, 87. I would guess if I, if it was a boy girl date, um, it was 80, 1985. 85. There you go. Yeah. And, and you didn't, you didn't have the internet. You didn't have, I didn't read the newspaper magazine. I didn't know. You didn't know what movies were.

[00:33:25] You just saw a movie poster and then you saw a trailer and the trailer made it look like a laser shoot them out. Like action kind of alien movie. And I'm like, Oh sweet. It's just another like star Wars. Let's go see this. Yeah. And it was a big group of us and it was boys and girls. And yeah. Um, it was a very poor choice. A whole, everyone's like, what is this? I mean, yeah.

[00:33:50] Listeners, if you haven't seen it though, I do encourage you to, uh, yeah, to, to find it. I'm sure it's somewhere or we're streaming, find it streaming, go to your local library. They probably have a copy. My, my library in Delaware has dusted, dusted off. Cause no one's ever watched it. Yeah. You probably have to rent a DVD player as well, but they probably have this. Yeah. Um, I mean, I love, you know, it's fun. It's fun to, it's fun to reference a movie that no one's ever saw. It's like, yeah, that's my big influence for this.

[00:34:19] But I did love that. I just, I still love that trope of like two people who come from different places, different cultures, different, different, different languages, you know, shoved together that episode of, uh, Star Trek next gen, you know? Yeah. I was just going to say that when the walls fell, you know, right. That was essentially enemy mind. Right.

[00:34:44] With, you know, the, the, the, that would really plays up the communication barrier. Yeah. Yeah. And so like, again, that was, that's like my favorite episode of Star Trek. And, um, so it's, yeah, you know, you just don't know how many shots you're going to get in comics. Right. And so I, I try not to really hold anything back. I'm like, let's, let's go. If we're going to go like body horror, let's, let's do it big time.

[00:35:13] If we're going to go sci-fi, let's throw all of our, you know, let's throw all of our influences in one pot and cook it up and have come something come out. That's originally ours, you know? And, uh, you know, you, you always are going to be, you know, influenced by those things that, that touched you as a kid. It, I think it's good to recognize that and see where you can lean in and seeing when you can diverge off.

[00:35:39] And, and, you know, you don't want to be, uh, redundant and you don't want to be like parroting someone other, someone else's work. But if, if you're saying you're not influenced by anything, that this is a wholly unique idea. I don't, I don't think that's truly that possible. You know, we have, we build our, our, you know, mental language through metaphor and stories and things we saw as kids and things that we watched and things we experienced as adults.

[00:36:06] And, you know, and looking back at different things that happened in different perspectives and different ways as you get older. Um, but all those things influence us and all those things are where our ideas come from, Grant. That's, that's where they, that's where they come from. They come from. That's it. So that's great. Great answer. Thanks for your question, listener. Um, um, the last star fighter is another one that I, that, that, that I, I love. Um, yeah, there's a, like a horror.

[00:36:37] Convention over in Cherry Hill, New Jersey monster mania that I've, I've years ago. I, I went to a couple of times, but, um, yeah, I went there once and it's usually very much geared towards folks that are in the horror industry. I think the first year I went, I met Tom Savini who, you know, ton of horror stuff. Um, it dawn of the dead, you know, um, but I, I, they also do have sci-fi folks.

[00:37:01] So like I was there once and, um, you know, to get autographs and whatnot, but the Lance guest was sitting next to Catherine Mary Stewart. And I was like looking around and I'm like, how is nobody in love? Right. Star fighter. Uh, yeah, I absolutely love that. That movie. Yeah. And that's right in that same area. 1984.

[00:37:24] And actually I think if my, unless my memory is really wonky, I'm pretty sure Lewis Gossett Jr.'s character like from enemy mind kind of looks like very similar, very similar look to the other alien. And, um, it fought with a character. That's the, that no, that was Luke Gossett. I don't know who it was in, um, in, in last starfighter. Yeah. I like to remember.

[00:37:54] I can picture it. Yeah. Robert Preston. Yeah. I mean, that was, it's, I think it's, it's Dan O'Herlihy plays Greg. Oh, wow. Uh, yeah, I think it's like for, for, for Gen X people. It's like Jurassic Park, right? That that's something that imprinted on, on like the generation after me, like that was their empire strikes back last starfighter, you know?

[00:38:19] So there's these films that come out just at the right time that hit the right age group that just awaken your imagination. Um, and yeah, all those, all the star Wars and star treks and all that stuff. So I, I've always been a massive, massive sci-fi fan. So getting to do at least one sci-fi book in my career has been a huge goal. So, uh, if this is, if this is my one shot at sci-fi, I'll take it. Nice.

[00:38:49] Um, I mentioned, I, I, I told you this question was coming because I put on, we're both in a comic creator discord. Yeah. And I threw out there that I was going to discord. Discord is the main word there. It is. But I said, did anyone have any questions for you? We had one person who jumped in. They said, uh, they'd like to know your favorite rustic recipe and, and please all the steps for the process. You know, I think he's trying to, he's trying to steal. He's trying to steal.

[00:39:19] My recipe is why he wants all the steps. Yeah. He goes, uh, this for Christopher and he, another Christopher, and he does not, uh, he does not a cook and he won't make this recipe because it takes hours. It's my, my grandmother's red sauce. Um, and you know, we call it in the South red gravy. There's, you know, red gravy, brown gravy and white gravy. So this was called red gravy, but it's basically a marinara sauce. Um, that takes, you know, she would do it all day. Yeah. It's just real. Yeah.

[00:39:49] You'd make a, you know, you make a roux with onion and like peppers and green onions, and then put it in a couple of demands, cans of tomato sauce with some spices and let it boil for, or let it simmer for as long as you got. And let it cook down, cook down, cook down. And then you, for some reason you add back water, you put water back in it because you've let it boil for so long. And you put, you put water back in it. You put a can of the water, a can of like the 16 ounce can of water back in it.

[00:40:19] And, you know, just kind of stir that some more. And it's, it's really easy. It's, um, it's a nice little red sauce recipe that it's a good base for any kind of spaghetti or lasagna or pizza or anything you want to do. There's nothing better than like a pot of sauce that has been similar. I'm telling you, I, I, I, that used to be, uh, and I don't do it as much anymore, but you know, when I was, uh, single and had nothing to do, my Sundays were, I'm going to make sauce all day on the Sunday and make a big patch of it.

[00:40:47] And then just have pasta all week long. Yeah. Well, I would, but I would come in when I visited my grandmother, I would come in and she would hand me a meatball the size of a softball and, and just have a meatball and cover it with the gravy. And I just sit there as happy as a little clam in front of the TV, eating the giant meatball. And nothing wrong with that. No, I had meatball sandwiches every day and she knew exactly what I liked. Yeah.

[00:41:15] Um, so yeah, it was, uh, I have a friend, uh, my good friend Cass. He, um, we met in college and, um, he, he didn't, we both commuted to, to undergrad and I, you know, so we'd hang out on the weekends at one or the other's like, you know, house where, you know, um, and he had a neighbor, Ann, uh, who has since passed on. But like, we would go, I'd go over his house for the weekend. I wouldn't hang out at Cass's house, you know, where his parents are. We'd hang out at Ann's house.

[00:41:43] Cause she was probably in her seventies or into her eighties and her family lived somewhere else. And Ann always had like a pot, a sauce on his stove. And it was always something different, whether or not it was spaghetti or she'd have, she'd have spaghetti and crabs. And I mean, yeah, my, my great grandmother till the day she died cooked every day.

[00:42:06] And she had like two giant, uh, freezers in her, in her, in her garage that you would open up and it's filled with like homemade meatballs, sausage and pasta sauces and shrimp and, you know, crawfish. And this is, you know, this is in, in Mississippi. And so like, she, she's like, Oh, do you want some pork chops? I'm like, it's 8 AM. I'm like, yes, of course I want pork chop.

[00:42:34] And she's like, you want red gravy, white gravy or brown gravy. I'm like, give me the red gravy. Uh, so yeah, and she cooked until, and she had a Chihuahua that was equally parts round as long. It was just basically a giant sphere of a dog. And that dog, I think lived to 30 or something. It was, yeah, that dog did not die until she died. And like the 8, 8 AM pork chops will keep you going. Yeah. I mean that she had to give it to somebody cause nobody else was around.

[00:43:02] And that, that dog ate well. So yeah. No, that's too funny. Yeah. I do like that discord though. And I, I do like the channel where we get to post food. Cause like, I feel like when I, you know, it's just, it's just fun to be like, look, I had this and, and you know, the, the, the, it's, it's usually never mean spirited, you know? Like it's always, there's some good natured ribbing at times.

[00:43:28] Uh, but I, I do really, I, I do really enjoy the, the camaraderie of that. But also the one we're in is like unbelievably helpful because there are some folks on it who are really throwing out some fantastic advice, whether or not they've worked with publishers, you know, like you or like kickstarted or crowdfunded comics. Like it's as a, as like a resource, it's like absolutely amazing. Um, yeah, it, yeah, it's invaluable as a resource.

[00:43:55] And it's like, it's something that I didn't have when I was trying to quote unquote break in, you know, that I would have learned so much from having a group like this. And, you know, that's kind of the, the number one recommendation usually, you know, if you're trying to get into comics is find people at your level and create a little community. And this is like one of the best communities I've seen of people, you know, relatively at the same level, trying to do the same stuff. And right.

[00:44:24] You know, um, you know, I'm helping people out with pitches and other people are helping people out with scripts and, um, you know, we're helping out like get the Kickstarter looking good and advice on, you know, what should price things at and all, all this stuff that you just don't, you know, it's like you, you have a million questions that you have to try to either guess and figure out yourself or have somebody that's done it before. Um, so yeah, it is great.

[00:44:49] I mean, that's the, and it's, uh, just shout out to, I mean, Travis, yeah, Travis started it, right? Like, yeah. Yeah. And every month Travis will let it in like, I think 20 new people. Um, so if you're an indie comic creator, you know, hunt down Travis give on Facebook or wherever he's pretty active on Facebook. Yeah. Orange cone productions. Travis. When it opens up. Yeah. When it opens up, um, you know, he'll, he'll let in some vetted people and we've kicked

[00:45:19] people out if they're not appropriate. And so it's a really nice, positive community. Yeah, for sure. I find it really helpful. And like, you know, I, I, I've not on it as much as I, you know, uh, would like to be sometimes with there's everything, you know, everyone's busy, but whenever I do check it out and, and see what like the different channels, what folks are talking about. And I always post like the episodes for, uh, you know, for comic book, Yeti for the, for the podcast and whatnot.

[00:45:48] And it, it really is like, you know, pretty great. And even like stuff that like, you know, newer creators or maybe folks that are like me who, you know, are kind of to the, to the side of stuff like with the podcast, but dipping my toe into, you know, creating things like there's, there's just unbelievable resources. And like, you know, even things like, uh, folks talking about, you know, um, what, what, what if somebody wants to make your thing into a movie?

[00:46:17] Like that somebody always asks like a question like that. And some folks are really like open and honest about like, Oh, here's what this is like. Some, sometimes it's good. Sometimes it's bad because there, there still is when you, you know, you just cause you love something or, or read a ton of comics. You know, you don't always know when you, you, you want to make things, how the industry, you know, works and it, even folks that are, you know, successfully kickstarted something

[00:46:43] or had like a comic published with one publisher, it doesn't necessarily mean that they're, they're going to know what different publishers are doing or what next steps might be. If you really want to try and make, you know, being creative, uh, a career. So I do love that we're, that, that, that we have that, that resource. I think it's great. It's great. Yeah. I don't feel like I miss old Twitter as much. No, I don't.

[00:47:09] Cause that kind of feels a little bit like how Twitter used to be, you know, back in the day. And so having the, having the discord, it's like a little bit of a more closed private Twitter with us. I mean, not gonna, I'm not gonna put all my business up there, but I definitely am more open on that discord than I would be like on Twitter or Facebook, you know? Oh yeah. Yeah. So I'm able to say some stuff on there and, and, and maybe pull back the curtain a little

[00:47:36] bit on, you know, my experiences, um, and, and how I've gotten to get books published and stuff, uh, when a lot of people are struggling to do that. So, uh, anything that I can do to help out the fellow creators is, is, I think it's good. Yeah. And now we know it all just involves delivering a pot of red sauce to certain. A hundred percent. A hundred percent. Meatballs, meatballs in the mail.

[00:48:05] Um, well, David, once again, uh, for your, for your, your, your fourth episode on the podcast, this is great. I'm, I'm loving crushed up. Uh, if anyone has not heard me talk about morning star, hasn't listened to the episode with, uh, David and Tim and Marco, I, I, I, it's, it's out in trade now. Um, I'm a huge fan of, of morning star. If you haven't read resonant, I mean, I encourage you. What's wrong with you? Yeah.

[00:48:32] I encourage you to go, uh, read, read, uh, both volumes of, of resonant and, uh, Denison's great as well. But, uh, red vector, if you're a fan of star Wars, last star fighter, enemy mind, uh, David's other writing, um, Chris's other writing. Yeah. This is our writing. It, I mean, it's, this is like right in terms of like my sci-fi wheelhouse. I really loved issue one final order cutoff is August 4th.

[00:49:02] Let your shop know that you want it so that they order it and, um, it'll be there in your bin, uh, August 27th. When issue one comes out. And also Mad Cave's doing, you know, a lot of stuff. If you read digitally where you're, you can get it through, you know, Mad Cave, they're doing different bundles where I think you can get the digital issues and then the trade. So yeah, they have this crazy bundle where you get all the digital issues. And I believe you even get a week before they come out in stores.

[00:49:29] Don't quote me on that, but I think that's, that's what their plan is. And you can buy a bundle. That's all the digital issues. So you can read everything and then you get the trade at the end. Yeah. Which is amazing. I think that's a great way for people to support, um, the, the comics themselves, because we need to support, you know, monthly comics. So those stay around and then we need to support, you know, trades. So, you know, the, the, the, the publisher can make some money and the creative team can

[00:49:58] make some money at the, at the, at the end. Uh, so I think that's a really cool way they're doing it. Cause I think space and money is always an issue when we come to monthly comics. You know, I got 10, 10 short boxes cooking over here. So I got to start paring some stuff down for get room. Oh yeah. If I bring one more short box into the house, uh, it's, it's me or that short box. According to Sarah. Yeah. Having that, yeah. Having that nice digital, yeah. Digital option.

[00:50:26] And then a physical option at the end. That's awesome. Um, but yeah, I agree. Check it out. However you check out comics and, um, we're done with the fifth issue. Everything's done and in the, in the can. Um, so the, again, that's another cool thing with mad cave is that, you know, you're not going to get issue one, two, and three, and then we waiting six months for number four. It's that's not going to happen. Yeah. Um, at least not on any of the books that we've done. We've been finished with the whole series before the first issue came out.

[00:50:55] So we'll be, uh, done with creating the trade. The trade is being created right now. So the trade will be done and ready to go to print, um, on schedule before the first issue comes out. So, um, yeah. And if you're in the Bay area, uh, maybe come to Cape and Cal con the Sunday before red vector comes out, you might have a little red vector surprise for you at that show.

[00:51:22] So, um, trying to get it still in the works, so I can't say anything definite yet. Uh, but we're trying to get a special variant for the Cape and Cal con. Um, that's the Sunday before red vector comes out. I think the 27th to 26 something around there of August, uh, whatever that Sunday is before. And yeah, I'll take the, um, the Sunday before would be, um, August 24th. Yeah.

[00:51:50] So, uh, yeah. Cape and Cal con 24th. It's going to be in at a brewery. Mm. Mm. Fraction brewery. I think it's called. Um, so one of the best cons in the country because you get to hang out at a brewery, drink beer, buy comics, meet amazing creators, um, and maybe get a special variant only available at that show. Oh, that sounds awesome. Until supplies last. We're gonna do a very small print run.

[00:52:19] Um, so it'll probably sell out the show, but, um, yeah. Awesome. Well, I hope that works out. That sounds great. Yeah. So if you're in, you're in the Bay area, August 24th, Cape and Cal con. Yeah. Fantastic. I'll be at San Diego. I don't know if I'm doing anything with mad cave yet. I haven't seen a schedule. So, uh, but I'll be at San Diego comic con. Um, if this comes out before then, I'm just, I, I don't know when you're going to post this. Good question. Um, when am I going to do that?

[00:52:48] I might be talking about things that happened in the past. Well, San Diego is in two weeks or three weeks. So this might not be out yet. Uh, 24th, uh, San Diego comic con of this month. So two weeks from today when we're recording this on the 10th. Okay. This is, this is, this is coming. This will probably, uh, when this comes out, San Diego will, will have just happened. So I will. Thanks everybody. I want to thank everybody who came by to say hi to me at San Diego.

[00:53:15] We had a great time doing, please edit in right here. Whatever I did. I'll move my mouth a little bit. Okay. And had a great time at the side. He had a great time at the bar, had a great time. Whatever we did. I love seeing whoever was there to be seen. Um, yeah. And then I'll be a Cape and cow. And then I'll be Boise comics arts fest. Um, which looks like an amazing show. They're having some cool guests there and super excited about that show.

[00:53:45] That's the, that's the weekend after red vector comes out. Okay. Very, very busy red vector week. I do. That's good. Yeah. I've been cow on Sunday, assigning at empire's comics fall in Sacramento all day on Wednesday when it comes out. And then Thursday I leave for Boise and Boise comics art fest Saturday and Sunday. Um, we're going to do some stuff at the schools on Friday. So I'm super excited about that.

[00:54:12] Um, but yeah, I'm get all your red vector goodness. Well, that sounds fantastic. So I'll put links to everything so folks can get the issue and so they can follow you on social media and I'll put links to the, the, the Cape and cow con or the, the arts best. Um, you know, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll search them out and I'll make sure that there's links. So listeners, you can get all that stuff. Of course. Shout out to my brother, Bobby, the cryptic creator corner. Number one, most dedicated Bobby.

[00:54:42] Thanks for the dead blood. Love we're working on number two. I swear. There's like three pages left to illustrate. We're getting real close. Oh, fantastic. Yeah. I, and, uh, we're starting to talk about issue three right now. We're going to try to get the, we have a wrestling game that being, uh, Christopher Alvarez created, uh, based in the dead blood universe. And so we're going to try to bring some wrestling into issue three.

[00:55:08] Um, it's gotta be stupid and crazy and fun and just like the best time. Um, so issue two, hopefully, I don't know if we're going to do a Kickstarter. We might just do a pre-order and just sell it ourselves. So, okay, we'll see how it goes. I want to, uh, I want to talk Christopher and doing a Kickstarter, but since he's the organized one and has to do everything and I'm this flaky ass writer that does nothing. Um, it has to be up to him to run the Kickstarter because I'm no help.

[00:55:38] Whatever it is. Um, Bobby, Bobby will be there. He'll be excited for it. So, and I mean, I liked it too, but he was, he was really, really very thrilled with dead blood. Yeah. Talk to him, find out when dead blood. I had, and I'm telling you, man, uh, Christopher's going crazy on some of these pages. He's got some crazy layouts. Um, like it starts in a sewer and he's got this giant sewer scene where it's like a big, like maze of pipes and stuff. Uh, so it's super cool. Yeah. Awesome.

[00:56:09] When, when we get it done? Not if, when, when it gets done, when it gets done and you guys can come back. That'll be number five. That'll be number five. We all are five. Well, yeah, here's the, I mean, uh, I really hope people buy my books cause I want to make more books and I only got like one more thing under contract right now. So I got one more time that I can maybe come back to talk to you. All right. And then dead blood. And then I'm, I'm running out of jobs. So we got a, uh, Tim and I are getting some pitches together, so we're going to hopefully pitch some stuff out. But like, you know, uh, things are tough in comics right now.

[00:56:38] So yeah, I know. Yeah. Remember when you go to the comic shop, you're voting with your dollars on who gets more books made. So vote wisely. Yeah. That's what I do. I do my best to try and support indie comics, you know, here. And I mean, I support a lot of, a lot of comics, but yeah, that's what you have to do. If you, if you know, if you like a series, you got to buy it because that's the way the publishers know that somebody is going to be interested. It is still a business. Uh, but you know, um, you're writing them, David, you and Tim are writing them.

[00:57:08] I'll, I'll keep reading them. Thank you, sir. Yeah. Appreciate it. All right, listeners. Thank you so much for listening again. Red vector, August 4th is final order cutoff. The issue is coming out August 27th. Um, if you're any type of sci-fi fan, I really think you're going to love it. But especially check it out. Issue one. If I know you're going to like it, then you can add the rest of them to your pull list. And, uh, yeah, it's issue one is really great.

[00:57:36] So especially for somebody who's a fan of all those things that I've mentioned. Um, it's really very exciting. So David, thank you so much again. Thanks for coming on the podcast. I really appreciate it. Uh, listeners, thank you so much for listening and I'll see you next time. 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.

[00:58:03] It lets us know how we're doing and more importantly, how we can improve. Thanks for listening. Thanks for listening. Thanks for listening.