Fellhound talks S.I.R.

[00:00:00] Your ears do not deceive you. You've just entered the Cryptid Creator Corner brought to you by your friends at Comic Book Yeti. So without further ado, let's get on to the interview.

[00:00:13] Hey comics fam! Does a realm-trodding dystopian fantasy adventure that cleverly explores Norse mythology sound up your alley? It sure does mine!

[00:00:21] So I was excited to see one of my favorite comic creators, Eisner and Harvey Award winning Michael Avon Oling, is launching a new Kickstarter project collecting issues 1-5 of his creator-owned series After the Realm in July.

[00:00:34] I just got a chance to get an early peek and it's fantastic! With over 300 pages of material including 22 new pages of story, it follows a young rebellious ranger named Una Lightfoot trying to find her best friend.

[00:00:46] As the tale of friendship and destiny unfolds, the Nine Realms are torn asunder with Loki up to his usual troublemaking self of course.

[00:00:54] It should come as no surprise at this point that the cast of unusual characters Michael created in the book includes some anthropomorphic animals.

[00:01:02] But I can't say I've ever seen them riding roughshod across the land in mini tanks a la Mad Max Fury Road before, so I'm so here for it.

[00:01:10] Quirky, slightly beautifully unhinged and completely engrossing, the immediate analogues to me were The Legend of Zelda meets The Mighty Thor with Norse underpinnings for perspective.

[00:01:19] Michael is handling both the writing and the artwork duties with Takisoma on colors and Sean Lee lettering the project.

[00:01:25] Head on over to Kickstarter and make sure you back this cause it's epic!

[00:01:37] 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&D campaign on social media. My bad.

[00:01:48] He goes and tags a bunch of comics creators we know and now I have to get it in gear and whip this campaign into shape so we can start playing.

[00:01:55] Another friend chimes in, are you gonna make maps?

[00:01:57] It's fair to say it's been a while since I put something together so… I guess? Question mark?

[00:02:03] It was then that I discovered Arkhamforge. If you don't know who Arkhamforge is, they have everything you need to make your TTRPG more fun and immersive.

[00:02:12] Allowing you to build, play and export animated maps including in-person Fog of War capability that lets your players interact with maps as the adventure unfolds while you, the DM, get the full picture.

[00:02:24] Now I'm set to easily build high-res animated maps saving myself precious time and significantly adding nuance to our campaign.

[00:02:32] That's a win every day in my book. Check them out at arkhamforge.com and use the discount code YETI5 to get $5 off.

[00:02:40] I'll drop a link in the show notes for you and big thanks to Arkhamforge for partnering with our show.

[00:02:45] I think I'm gonna make Jimmy play a goblin warlock just to get even.

[00:02:50] Hello everybody and welcome to the Cryptid Creator Corner.

[00:02:52] I'm Byron O'Neill, your host for today's Comics Creator Chat.

[00:02:55] I'm joined by a returning guest and a comic book Yeti Ice or Indie Comics Excellence Awards show veteran, Fel Hound.

[00:03:02] Fel is a Canadian Ringo-nominated illustrator and writer with a new book dropping soon with Boom Studios called Cirque, which we're going to dive in today.

[00:03:11] Fel, it's always great to see you. You've got a five-issue miniseries coming out, sister.

[00:03:16] How are you feeling about this upcoming release?

[00:03:18] Yeah, I mean, I'm super excited. It's the first, I guess, longer-form book that I've done.

[00:03:25] Initially, I was really nervous, but I'm really proud of what we made with Boom, my collaborators.

[00:03:31] And yeah, I'm really excited to get people, I guess, involved in the Motorcycle Jest.

[00:03:40] Well, I think the annual SDCC FOMO is hitting like all of us who can't attend this year.

[00:03:46] Are you hitting the con circuit or planning on doing it at all?

[00:03:50] So this year, I am not really doing a lot of cons. I'm set on a couple signings for CERB.

[00:03:55] Otherwise, I'm really focused on just kind of drawing this and finishing it right now.

[00:04:00] Okay.

[00:04:01] Yeah.

[00:04:02] Well, we already know each other pretty well. But I always do my research and I didn't know you had such a fancy website.

[00:04:08] The design is like really nice. It's really easy to navigate.

[00:04:11] You know, I didn't know you were on Tumblr though.

[00:04:14] Like everybody in comics I know is looking for that next thing to replace Twitter or X or whatever just happens to be the flavor and in vogue at the moment.

[00:04:22] Is it that we should all be headed back to Tumblr? Is Tumblr working for you? Is that the secret?

[00:04:26] I've been on Tumblr since like 2010 and I've just never left.

[00:04:30] So I think I'm one of those like old, like, I don't know, those dinosaurs left on Tumblr that held the ground even after Tumblr messed up over the years.

[00:04:40] But yeah, I'm still on it, whatever that means.

[00:04:44] But I'm also kind of everywhere, unfortunately, for better or for worse. I'm on every single app.

[00:04:49] Yeah, yeah. Same here. It's a little ridiculous.

[00:04:53] All right. So let's jump into SIR or Seismic Iron Class Roulette.

[00:04:57] You know, so point of confirmation. Are we going with a spelled acronym like full SIR or SIR as I have been as like Sir Gowan at like a knight?

[00:05:06] Yeah, so I've just been calling it SIR. I didn't even clue in people might call it SIR until someone did it.

[00:05:12] And I was like, oh, wow. I never considered that.

[00:05:15] Okay. Well, I know you've been grinding away on it for some time. I read through the review copy you sent over.

[00:05:21] And to me, this is kind of like the evolution of Fellhound right here.

[00:05:27] I feel like you absolutely have a hit on your hands because this thing has some real mass appeal, especially I feel like with younger readers of the younger generation.

[00:05:35] So kind of before we jump into the plot and the characters, I want to start with influences.

[00:05:40] And I already know some of them because I dug around and did the research and listened to some other interviews, but the audience doesn't.

[00:05:46] And I think that framework kind of merits some exploration.

[00:05:50] So what were some of your influences on this?

[00:05:53] Yeah. So as a lot of people clued in, SIR has a lot of like manga and anime influence on it.

[00:06:02] Basically, I think there were probably three major things.

[00:06:06] The first one is basically, if you've noticed, my art style kind of changed between Commander Rao and this book.

[00:06:11] And that's a lot because I fell in love with this Chinese webcomic called My Dear Less.

[00:06:17] And it has a very, very beautiful line work style that I fell in love with.

[00:06:22] And I basically like changed my whole style trying to emulate it.

[00:06:27] Another one is that I fell in love with a lot of sports animes, like Birdie Wing and Skate Infinity.

[00:06:33] They're like ridiculous. They were so much fun.

[00:06:36] They took like a sport and just like took it to the next level.

[00:06:39] And I just thought that they were so cool and so fun.

[00:06:41] And I really wanted to make my own like ridiculous sports anyway.

[00:06:45] And the final influence was Mobile Suit Gundam The Witcher Mercury, which I haven't stopped talking about basically since it aired.

[00:06:53] I am in love with that show.

[00:06:55] It's literally like one of my favorite shows of all time.

[00:06:57] And I was just like, I want to make like a cool school dueling drama.

[00:07:02] So SIR is basically influenced by all of those three things.

[00:07:05] I'm just smashed into one.

[00:07:07] And it's funny because when I was pitching, sir, it was between like seasons one and two of Birdie Wing and Gundam Witch for Mercury.

[00:07:16] So in some ways it was like kind of my like cope trying to wait for these seasons to return.

[00:07:21] I was just like, I need to do something.

[00:07:22] So I need to just like make my own Birdie Wing and Gundam.

[00:07:26] Yeah, I mean, I want to examine kind of the Mobile Suit Gundam The Witch for Mercury because there are more than a few obvious parallels to this project.

[00:07:35] You know, which was first revealed in 2021.

[00:07:37] And it's actually groundbreaking for the series.

[00:07:40] You know, Gundam has been around for 40 plus years now.

[00:07:43] And this series breaks two ceilings with the first female protagonist and it centers around the queer romance.

[00:07:48] And OK, before Gundam historians like get pissed at me, the Ironblood orphans did have a gay male character.

[00:07:54] Right.

[00:07:55] Which was the first queer character.

[00:07:56] But this is the first female.

[00:07:58] So plus you throw in the mix that it takes place in the Astakastia school.

[00:08:02] And so if this was a primary point of inspiration, hey, you really, really love this series and you developed it rather quickly, clearly between those seasons, you know, and I've seen you putting together social posts about, you know, Gundam models and stuff.

[00:08:15] So is it in effect, at least partially an homage to that universe, which clearly means a great deal to you?

[00:08:22] I mean, I can't deny the influences.

[00:08:25] Like I, to be honest, I've been a longtime Gundam fan, like since I was maybe six years old, I watched Gundam Wing when it aired.

[00:08:31] No idea what it was about, but I was like, oh, I love the cool robots.

[00:08:35] And I've basically been obsessed ever since.

[00:08:38] And I did kind of like drop off the Gundam fandom a little bit as I got older.

[00:08:42] But then when Witch for Mercury came along and it basically combined my favorite thing from my childhood, which was Gundam, with one of my favorite things as an adult, which was revolutionary girl Yutana.

[00:08:52] So they basically made Gundam Yutana.

[00:08:55] And I was like, all right, I'm in.

[00:08:56] I'm obsessed.

[00:08:57] And yeah, I am pretty sure that those influences played out in Sir.

[00:09:02] But, you know, if that means that somehow maybe people watching or listening to this will check out Witch for Mercury, then hey, I'm all for it.

[00:09:11] Yeah, I mean, there's definite parallels between Witch and between Revolutionary Girl.

[00:09:17] You know, you and I was reading some other stuff about how the shouju, you know, anime period was kind of influential on you as a person.

[00:09:27] Shouju is young girls in Japanese for people who don't know.

[00:09:31] But I think it's kind of worth digging into how you kind of took that representation to another level with this project, right?

[00:09:39] So conventionally, shouju has a few basic characteristics, both narratively and visually, aside from being focused on just girls as kind of the counterpoint at that time to shounen anime, you know, which is more guys.

[00:09:51] So shouju is high in melodrama. There's less action featured in it.

[00:09:56] There's a trend of characters being portrayed as cute and classically pretty with smoother rounded art styles that kind of accentuate things like like really big eyes.

[00:10:05] That's a feature of it.

[00:10:06] So in my mind, you really broke the mold here.

[00:10:09] So did you set out initially with kind of that purpose in mind to make an anime book that took all that ethos of, you know, shouju and completely turned it on its head?

[00:10:18] So I've been in my head sometimes I call this book like a battle shouju.

[00:10:24] Sort of like, I don't know, in ways it's kind of like Sailor Moon.

[00:10:28] Like, yes, there's a lot of like shouju in it, but there's also like a lot of cool fight scenes like there's the villains of the day.

[00:10:34] It's it's kind of ridiculous.

[00:10:36] So I mean, I'm obviously like very inspired by shouju manga.

[00:10:41] Like I and I always have been like one of my favorite books of all time is the Rose of Versailles, which like kind of is like one of the like mothers of like shouju manga.

[00:10:49] Um, but but yeah, I mean, I think that like, a lot of people maybe sort of type cast shoujo is just like being like cute, and not much happening sometimes or being very slice of life.

[00:11:03] But when you explore the genre, there's so much more to it, like there is a lot of like, like more action stuff than there is a lot of like, you know, shoujo plots like the Rose of Versailles that deal with like not just slice of life school stuff where it's like historical.

[00:11:18] Um, so yeah, with Sir, it's like, it has those influences, but it also expands on it and like has a lot of other influences of things I love.

[00:11:27] So it's kind of like a mix of shoujo, sports, action, Gundam, bikes, and all that.

[00:11:32] Gotcha.

[00:11:33] Well, I got a chance to chat with Michelle Abinator and David Boer about when I was young and the anthology and I know you contributed to it.

[00:11:40] And it's kind of a familiar refrain for for career characters, creators to write the story which they could have found as a kid, you know, and that that feels very much in ways like this for you.

[00:11:52] Is that is that correct?

[00:11:54] Yeah, I mean, to be honest, my influences and or like my interests kind of changed a lot from when I was young to what it is now.

[00:12:01] Um, I think when I was like, you know, sometimes I'm in a mood for like more edgy stuff.

[00:12:05] Sometimes I like more YA fluffy stuff.

[00:12:08] I think this the book that I'm writing now is really more for the book that I want right now.

[00:12:14] Um, well, I know what I wanted as a kid.

[00:12:17] Okay, well, let me let me give the audience a quick overview of what's happening in Sir.

[00:12:22] So in characteristic fellhound fashion, we start with at least the basis of a sapphic romance story.

[00:12:28] Um, so we have Avery Sakai and her girlfriend Niko Zing are separated.

[00:12:33] Um, Niko is enrolled at the Bridal Hymn Academy and Avery takes a shot at reconciliation by basically upending her life and joining the academy herself.

[00:12:41] What Avery doesn't know, um, is that Niko is involved in a type of armored extracurricular, which is the jousting on motorcycles that you talked about.

[00:12:50] So aside from sort of the influences we've kind of already delved into, what, if anything, kind of went into the DNA of this?

[00:12:57] I wanted, like, motorcycle testing.

[00:13:01] I feel like that's the big aspect is because when I was thinking about how to make, like, basically ridiculous ports and also my love of Gundam, I was like, what could they be piloting that would sort of be like Gundam but not Gundam?

[00:13:15] Because I don't want to, like, straight up copy it.

[00:13:18] And for some reason in my head, I was like, oh, motorbikes!

[00:13:20] They're, like, piloting something.

[00:13:22] They get to wear cool helmets.

[00:13:23] They get to wear, like, cool armor.

[00:13:25] And I thought it was just, like, this ridiculous concept that you could really do a lot with and just, like, be completely off the rails with it.

[00:13:32] So that's kind of where that came from.

[00:13:35] Another part of the DNA is that when I was making my really, really sad books, I read a lot of YA.

[00:13:42] I guess it was, like, a balance.

[00:13:43] And reading a lot of YA books, I was like, oh, this is really cool.

[00:13:47] And it makes me feel good.

[00:13:48] And I decided that after all my sad books, my next project, I wanted to make something that was a lot less sad and more, like, fun and more YA.

[00:13:56] So that's kind of, I guess, like, how I went from, like, making my super sad stuff into what Sarah is now.

[00:14:03] Okay.

[00:14:04] That makes a lot of sense.

[00:14:05] Did you have a background with motorcycles before in any way?

[00:14:09] No.

[00:14:09] I don't know how to ride one, but I do think they look cool.

[00:14:13] Okay.

[00:14:13] Okay.

[00:14:14] Have you ever seen Motovol?

[00:14:15] That's like the, it's like motorcycle polo with a big soccer ball.

[00:14:19] It's kind of wild.

[00:14:20] I have not seen that, but that's so cool.

[00:14:23] Oh, yeah.

[00:14:23] You should definitely check out some of the YouTube videos about it.

[00:14:27] I was first exposed to it, I think it was, like, around, I want to say, 2012.

[00:14:33] It was at Goodwill Games, and they were playing motoball.

[00:14:37] So just these people looking very similar to Sir, right?

[00:14:40] So they're flying around in these, you know, full outfits, and they're kicking a very large ball.

[00:14:47] It's the strangest thing ever.

[00:14:49] Only Europeans would do this.

[00:14:50] But, yeah.

[00:14:51] I mean, I love it.

[00:14:53] Oh, man.

[00:14:54] One day someone will make a comic about it.

[00:14:56] So is there kind of a direct comparison to the bike styling that you did with Sir and, like, some of the Gundam suits that you really love?

[00:15:06] So the bikes themselves were, I guess, they're more inspired by the characters themselves.

[00:15:11] I really wanted every bike to look like what the respective rider would have wanted it to be in that regard.

[00:15:18] But in some ways, that was also inspired by Gundam because in Wish for Mercury, there were basically, I guess, three different companies that made three different mobile suits.

[00:15:27] And I remember hearing that every single company's mobile suits was designed by a different, like, mech designer.

[00:15:33] So that's why they looked really unique and really different.

[00:15:36] And I really wanted to try and channel that in sort of my bike and rider designs.

[00:15:40] Like, every rider should look unique and feel like that the character themselves actually designed it.

[00:15:47] I will say that one of them is sort of pseudo-inspired by the Barbotos Lupus Rex from Iron-Blooded Orphans.

[00:15:53] I'm sure you can guess which one.

[00:15:56] Yep.

[00:15:56] Other than that, I really just wanted it to look unique to the characters' personalities.

[00:16:02] All right.

[00:16:02] Let's take a quick break.

[00:16:04] Hey, comics fam.

[00:16:06] Indie comic book publisher Band of Bars just got a level up and announced it is now a cooperative.

[00:16:12] This heralds a new era for them, including a partnership with Dauntless Stories.

[00:16:16] And they added several new members to the ownership group.

[00:16:19] Marcus Jimenez is now Chief Operating Officer.

[00:16:22] Brent Fisher takes on the role of Chief Diversity Officer.

[00:16:25] And Joey Galvez is introduced as Head of Kickstarter Ops and Social Media Manager,

[00:16:30] which is sure to increase their capabilities overall as a publisher.

[00:16:34] And it further promotes their mission statement of advancing representation, inclusion, and diversity in the media.

[00:16:41] They also established a new board of directors to help chart the new path of their journey.

[00:16:45] With new projects in the works like Alaska Buy dropping in June, Unbroken Soon launching on Kickstarter, and Pond coming up with Dauntless,

[00:16:53] stay tuned to this space for more exciting news from the growing Bards family.

[00:17:01] Let's get back to the show.

[00:17:03] Well, it seems like lately the school sandbox is big.

[00:17:06] I mean, it's always been big, right?

[00:17:08] Especially in YA.

[00:17:09] But I've done a fair number of interviews featuring schools recently.

[00:17:12] And perhaps that's just because I'm mentally sort of stuck.

[00:17:15] I just started watching Gen Z.

[00:17:17] I don't know if you've heard about it or seen it.

[00:17:19] It's from the boys universe, which is set in an academy.

[00:17:22] It's on Amazon right now.

[00:17:23] But I feel like the motorcycle jousting as a story topography could have been dropped in a multitude of conditions, right?

[00:17:31] I immediately went to – when I first saw that you were kind of working on this and involved jousting in motorcycles on Twitter way back when, right?

[00:17:41] We just got that little snippet of it.

[00:17:43] I went to Fast and the Furious, right?

[00:17:45] Like some kind of street racing-derived sort of thing.

[00:17:48] So what was the choice that made you want to use the school and motorcycle jousting and smash those together?

[00:17:58] So initially, I did have like a couple of concepts of where to put the motorcycle joust.

[00:18:04] Like my other idea that wasn't set in the school would have been in like a sort of like small town setting where this was just like an underground fight club in like a small town.

[00:18:16] So that was one of my ideas.

[00:18:17] But then I think Boom, the one version that I pitched to Boom ended up being the school one and then it got accepted.

[00:18:25] So I was like, oh, I guess we're going to the school one.

[00:18:29] The school also is like, I guess, it goes back to a lot of that show-driven plans.

[00:18:33] I'm just like, well, you know, I've got to go back to the classics.

[00:18:38] Yeah.

[00:18:38] Yeah.

[00:18:38] I mean, everything's a school there.

[00:18:40] Like everything.

[00:18:41] So.

[00:18:42] Yes.

[00:18:42] Well, I can't remember where I saw this.

[00:18:44] It may have been when you and Cody were chatting, but you drew a comparison to Sir with the Cybertruck.

[00:18:50] You know, I think it was like Cybertruck of betting sports or something like that.

[00:18:54] Those things are awful.

[00:18:55] To me, it's like a DeLorean mated with a piece of like Frank Geary architecture or something like their machine for people with zero taste, but a shit ton of money.

[00:19:04] It's a terrible status symbol is the Cybertruck.

[00:19:07] I hate those things.

[00:19:08] Where did that illustration come from?

[00:19:10] Because your design and artwork doesn't give me Cybertruck in any way in this.

[00:19:16] Yeah.

[00:19:17] So I love that you caught that comment.

[00:19:19] So the Cybertruck of betting sports, being a seismic iron clash relay, really comes from, I guess, the context of the story.

[00:19:27] Basically, Bridal Helm Academy is a school for rich people.

[00:19:31] It costs 40 grand a semester, basically.

[00:19:35] So 80 grand for the whole year.

[00:19:36] And it's basically like filled with, you know, powerful people from major motor companies.

[00:19:40] Oscar Sanson, who runs the seismic iron clash roulette, is like the heir to like the most powerful motor company on the planet, Sanson Motors.

[00:19:50] And basically the entire concept of the seismic iron clash roulette is that it's a rich people sport.

[00:19:57] Or, you know, rich people can afford to come here and motorcycle jazz.

[00:20:00] They can afford the equipment.

[00:20:01] They can afford to like fancy up their bikes.

[00:20:04] Like, it's just like something that's kind of ridiculous and also kind of useless.

[00:20:12] And people bet lots of money on it.

[00:20:14] And I don't know.

[00:20:15] That's kind of where I drew the Cybertruck comparison because it's like this useless, flashy thing.

[00:20:20] Okay.

[00:20:20] Okay.

[00:20:21] That makes a lot of sense.

[00:20:22] Yeah.

[00:20:22] I'm trying to get a feel for kind of tonally where we're headed here.

[00:20:26] Right.

[00:20:26] So Gundam is among other things about how capitalism is this destructive force.

[00:20:31] And as you've kind of alluded to, you've been reading a lot of YA, which tend to have much more happy endings.

[00:20:38] Right.

[00:20:38] You're not known for those happy endings.

[00:20:41] So, you know, what can you tell me about where this might go?

[00:20:44] It's not giving anything away.

[00:20:46] Yeah.

[00:20:47] Not to suppose too much.

[00:20:49] I mean, no one dies.

[00:20:51] I can say that part.

[00:20:53] All the characters end up alive by the end of it.

[00:20:56] But they will be going through some tough times.

[00:21:01] Like, obviously, Avery and Nico's relationship.

[00:21:04] It's kind of on the rocks right now.

[00:21:06] It's going to continue to be on the rocks sometime until we resolve the story.

[00:21:11] I, it is, the drama does kind of go up quite significantly towards the end.

[00:21:18] But I, the one thing about me is that I like endings with closure.

[00:21:21] I like endings that feel satisfying.

[00:21:24] I really hope that once people get to the ending of Sur, they will feel a sense of closure and satisfied with the story.

[00:21:30] And hopefully it will wrap up well for them.

[00:21:33] And that's all I can say.

[00:21:35] Okay.

[00:21:36] Okay.

[00:21:36] Okay.

[00:21:36] So you're, you're going for the side.

[00:21:38] They're like, ah, that, that works.

[00:21:41] Yeah.

[00:21:41] Yeah.

[00:21:42] Well, I know you, you're known for also some high intensity action.

[00:21:46] You mentioned dialing it back here.

[00:21:48] I mean, you had to dial it back from Commander Rouse standard.

[00:21:50] So how has that been working for you, getting the rhythm of longer form storytelling?

[00:21:57] So to be honest, I wish I had even a longer form storytelling.

[00:22:01] This is my first time working within like a 22 pages per issue chapter.

[00:22:06] And initially I did find it really hard, like cutting everything off to 22.

[00:22:11] I felt like I had to always like fight for space in my page counts.

[00:22:16] Um, and also there's like so much exposition and I can't just like cheat my way through it with like a massive wall of text on page one.

[00:22:23] Um, so yeah, that was definitely a learning curve.

[00:22:28] Um, but I think, I think we managed to sell.

[00:22:35] I like when it comes to like not having enough space, I'd always try to like focus back on the characters.

[00:22:40] So like, yes, the, the action and the motorcycles are part of it, but I think what brings this down to earth and what makes,

[00:22:46] readers want to continue reading this are the characters.

[00:22:48] It's like Avery and Nico's resolve and the relationship and their drama.

[00:22:53] And, you know, just remembering that as the focal point and always going back to it when I'm struggling on where to go next with it,

[00:23:00] I think really helped keep this, uh, feel focused and help resolve the story.

[00:23:05] Okay. So when you're scripting it out, you just kind of had, I want motorcycle jousting.

[00:23:10] I want this relationship. Here's the academy.

[00:23:13] And how easy was it for kind of the rest of the world building to just fall into place for you?

[00:23:18] Or, or did you, do you have a, like people talk about a Bible, right?

[00:23:22] You know, so they write everything down.

[00:23:23] These are the rules of this universe. Did you go that far?

[00:23:27] I did not go that far. Uh, I very much, uh, uh, hopefully the readers can extrapolate some things from the bylines kind of person.

[00:23:36] Um, I unfortunately don't do, I hope, I mean, I think I explained enough that people would get the gist of it.

[00:23:42] Like it's motorcycle jousting. It's a betting sport.

[00:23:45] And that's really, to be honest, that's really all you need to know.

[00:23:48] Um, you know, if you ask me like, how are they motorcycle jousting?

[00:23:52] With like one hand, the answer is probably going to be like rule of cool sci-fi magic.

[00:23:59] Yeah. Right. Yeah. So I don't explain everything, but everything that you need to know is probably there.

[00:24:04] Well, that's the beauty of comics. You don't have to explain everything all the time.

[00:24:08] I think comics readers are generous, uh, in that, you know, they're, they're much more along for a ride than if you were writing prose and you had 400 pages and then they would want,

[00:24:20] I don't know, you know, wheel of time level explanations as to who this person married and, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

[00:24:28] But, you know, comics is a very different medium.

[00:24:30] So, and, and I didn't have any trouble at all.

[00:24:32] I mean, I, I was immediately bought in, uh, to the premise and there was a good setup with the Academy and, and some backstory there with Avery.

[00:24:40] And then it's just kind of right into it. I mean, it's among all the things about Serif. I was trying to like encapsulate it. It's got a vibe. Like it's got a really, really good vibe.

[00:24:51] I feel like I'm way too old to like be into a vibe like this.

[00:24:56] I mean, I honestly, that's one of the best compliments. I feel like the book has gotten, it's a vibe.

[00:25:01] And I think that's, that's amazing.

[00:25:03] Yeah.

[00:25:03] Well, thank you.

[00:25:05] Absolutely. Well, you're also handling, you're handling script and inks on this with colors by Eleonora. Am I pronouncing Eleonora? Is it Eleonora?

[00:25:13] I believe so.

[00:25:14] Okay. Yeah. Brunei and letter from Becca Casey.

[00:25:16] I think that if I'm not mistaken, this is the first project with a publisher that you've written and illustrated where you're not also coloring it unless I'm wrong.

[00:25:25] So did you decide kind of, you needed to step back a bit because of deadline necessity with, you know, five issues to crank out too much carpal tunnel, like what's going on?

[00:25:34] Um, yeah. So this was a, uh, sort of like when I was in talking to boom, I was basically like, okay, so this is like my first time working with like a big publisher of like deadlines and like on a, on a mini series.

[00:25:45] And I was just basically like, how much time can I get? Uh, and I think they gave me, they were very generous at the time they gave me.

[00:25:52] But, and then at that point they were like, well, if you want like a colorist, we can just like get you a colorist.

[00:25:58] Um, so I just took them up on that offer because I knew that like, I would, I didn't want to like fall behind on deadlines and everything.

[00:26:05] Um, so Elizabeth, uh, is the one who recommended, uh, Eleonora.

[00:26:11] And I feel like she just like hit the nail on the head with the colors.

[00:26:15] Like we all agreed that we wanted like a pop show to vibe and she did such a great job with the colors.

[00:26:21] Like I was immediately sold.

[00:26:23] I was like, perfect, perfect colorist.

[00:26:25] And I'm, I'm really, really happy with, uh, the way she's coloring it.

[00:26:29] In fact, I'm actually learning some stuff on how she colors for my own artwork.

[00:26:33] Yeah.

[00:26:33] So I'm really, really stoked about it.

[00:26:36] Okay.

[00:26:36] Well, was there a significant learning curve working with somebody else doing the coloring?

[00:26:40] And mainly I'm wanting to help myself here, understand how I can better communicate, you know, with an artist as I try to launch my own fledgling comics color career.

[00:26:50] Yeah.

[00:26:50] I mean, um, again, because this is my first time like working with a colorist, um, I knew immediately the first thing I wanted to do was to get in touch with them and just like talk to them.

[00:26:59] Um, so, uh, you know, there was like an introduction and I was like, Hey, like, how do you like your pages set up?

[00:27:04] Or like, how do you, you know, want your layers to be layered?

[00:27:09] And it was just like trying to be open and accommodating the best I can.

[00:27:14] Um, and yeah, I was just like always trying to communicate, always trying to like get in touch, making sure that my pages are up to par.

[00:27:23] Uh, even with like the lettering with Becca Carey, again, uh, it's my first time working with Becca.

[00:27:27] And she is amazing, like a fantastic letter.

[00:27:30] Um, and first thing I did, I was like, okay, Becca, like, how do you like your script set up?

[00:27:35] Like, how do you like to work off of?

[00:27:37] Cause I'm, I'm pretty chill out of stuff.

[00:27:38] Like if you want me to change something, it'll make your workflow better.

[00:27:41] I'm happy to do it.

[00:27:42] And I think with any collaborative effort, it's always just like communication, communication, just like talk to your collaborators and, you know, let's get it done.

[00:27:51] Yeah.

[00:27:52] Yeah, for sure.

[00:27:53] But yeah, what I was talking about with, with the vibe, you know, so over world building being this complex, you know, narration designed to be some bougie metaphor.

[00:28:02] Um, this is just cool.

[00:28:05] And okay.

[00:28:05] Maybe insert whatever adjective kids are using at the moment.

[00:28:08] I don't know if we're past fire, you know, now or, or what the kids are saying, but it has a very, very clear identity.

[00:28:15] And that is something that I, I feel like with a fell hound joint, I want to take the Spike Lee term there.

[00:28:22] We can, we can expect like very, very clear identity.

[00:28:24] I'm looking forward to see, you know, you transitioning full-time into comics as the IP royalty checks drop as Sura's developed like into a Netflix series or when WWE decides that motorcycle jousting is the next extreme sport.

[00:28:37] And, and there's some really cool alt covers for this.

[00:28:41] The, uh, the Akira inspired bing, is it bingo or bingal cover?

[00:28:45] That's crazy.

[00:28:45] I can't say I know how to pronounce it.

[00:28:47] I always call it bingal.

[00:28:49] I have no idea though.

[00:28:51] Okay.

[00:28:51] Apologies to the master.

[00:28:53] Yeah.

[00:28:54] That cover is crazy.

[00:28:55] Um, I don't know if people have seen it.

[00:28:56] I think it did just drop what last week that it was sort of debuted or.

[00:29:01] Oh my God.

[00:29:01] And my jaw was on the floor for that cover.

[00:29:03] I was like, Oh my God.

[00:29:05] I, I couldn't tell that many people about it, but I told all the people that I could about it.

[00:29:09] And I was basically just like jaw on the floor the whole day.

[00:29:13] Yeah.

[00:29:13] Yeah.

[00:29:13] It's really cool.

[00:29:14] Well, I'm so happy for you, Phil.

[00:29:16] Everybody needs to snag this because it will go under the radar for a bit until it's most definitely not anymore.

[00:29:22] Um, and you're going to not feel like one of the cool kids and you're going to so wish you were.

[00:29:27] So don't be left out again.

[00:29:28] Nerds.

[00:29:29] Make sure to pick this up.

[00:29:30] When are we hitting the shelves exactly?

[00:29:33] Yeah.

[00:29:33] So it comes out on August 14th, uh, which is, I'd say maybe like three weeks from now.

[00:29:39] Oh, the time of recording.

[00:29:41] Uh, but yeah, August 14th.

[00:29:43] So remember, uh, the FOC has passed, but you can still pre-order it.

[00:29:48] It might not be a guaranteed pre-order, but you can, you can still try.

[00:29:50] I'm sure they'll still have some stock left around.

[00:29:52] Um, and hopefully you will all join me at the joust in August.

[00:29:58] Well, what else you got cooking you can talk about?

[00:30:00] Of course.

[00:30:01] Uh, I did some covers that haven't come out yet, but otherwise I've always honestly just been like dialed in on sir the whole time.

[00:30:11] Uh, I, unfortunately I'm finding out that writing, drawing and marketing a book at the same time is a lot of work.

[00:30:17] Um, so I couldn't take on as much other stuff lately, but, um, you know, as you were saying when I was young, uh, I believe that book like is literally just got printed like now.

[00:30:28] And like, we finally have the physical books on hand.

[00:30:31] So very excited for everyone to read that beautiful anthology from Michelle.

[00:30:35] Um, and then, yeah, just trying to finish sir.

[00:30:39] Yeah.

[00:30:40] Yeah.

[00:30:40] I mean, five issues is, uh, it takes a while.

[00:30:43] How's your, your hands holding up with all of this?

[00:30:46] I, uh, so I, I've made like a lot of like ergonomical changes that have given me more stamina when it comes to drawing.

[00:30:53] Like before I would like stay up late and not hold my pen right.

[00:30:56] But now I've, I've made a lot of changes.

[00:30:58] I stretch a lot.

[00:31:00] I take a lot of breaks.

[00:31:00] So we're, we're still going at it and fingers crossed we'll continue going at it.

[00:31:05] That sounds a lot like adulting.

[00:31:07] Uh, I don't, I don't know.

[00:31:08] I don't know.

[00:31:08] Do we really want to do that?

[00:31:10] Are we adulting now?

[00:31:10] I mean, I spent $2,000 on this chair because they told me it was ergonomical.

[00:31:17] Hopefully it's doing something.

[00:31:18] Is it comfortable?

[00:31:20] I hope.

[00:31:21] It's ergonomical.

[00:31:21] It keeps my back.

[00:31:23] No, I mean, I still shrimp on it.

[00:31:25] Let's be real.

[00:31:26] It's, I guess mostly that's like a mental thing.

[00:31:29] I'm like, I'm trying to do something.

[00:31:30] Uh, yeah, I know.

[00:31:31] I thought about doing the whole treadmill thing underneath the desk and it's like, uh, no, I'm, I'm not, I'm not that person.

[00:31:38] But I do have a standing desk, which I feel very, I love standing desks actually now that I have one.

[00:31:43] I don't ever want to sit down.

[00:31:45] Yeah.

[00:31:45] Yeah.

[00:31:45] I also just got a standing desk this year.

[00:31:48] So, you know, they're, they're really, really handy.

[00:31:51] Yeah.

[00:31:51] Yeah.

[00:31:51] For sure.

[00:31:52] I'm now I've got to get one that's adjustable because I built mine.

[00:31:55] Um, but I built it too low with needing to do more color work.

[00:31:59] So I'm finding that my wrist is, is not very happy when I sit there and try to do that for a long time.

[00:32:05] Oh no.

[00:32:06] Yeah.

[00:32:07] It's the business.

[00:32:08] It's the business affliction.

[00:32:09] I think it is, is the whole carpal tunnel, but where can people find you online?

[00:32:15] Yeah.

[00:32:15] So I stated before I am on Tumblr and I am also everywhere.

[00:32:21] Yes.

[00:32:21] Uh, I am, I am on, on Twitter.

[00:32:24] I am on Instagram.

[00:32:26] I have a website.

[00:32:27] Um, I have a mailing list that you can sign up for on the website.

[00:32:32] I am.

[00:32:33] Where else am I?

[00:32:34] I'm basically everywhere.

[00:32:35] Basically every single app that has dropped in the last four years that people said you should be on.

[00:32:40] I am probably on it.

[00:32:41] I might not be active on it, but I am there.

[00:32:44] Um, except Facebook.

[00:32:47] So yeah.

[00:32:48] Uh, if you just look up fellhound on Google and you'll probably find me everywhere, somewhere.

[00:32:56] That and pictures of a world of Warcraft creature.

[00:33:00] Yes.

[00:33:01] Yes.

[00:33:01] I think that anything is actually from raid shadow legends.

[00:33:03] Is that related to Warcraft or I thought it was separate.

[00:33:07] No, that's a separate thing entirely.

[00:33:09] I had to think there for a minute because I didn't, I didn't really get into raid.

[00:33:13] The family has gone through periods of playing world of Warcraft together.

[00:33:17] Um, but my son plays raid and I had to, that took me a moment.

[00:33:21] I was like, oh yeah, those critters are, they are in raid as well.

[00:33:24] So they're in both.

[00:33:25] Yeah.

[00:33:26] So you can either get me or you can get a creature from raid shadow legends, the mobile game.

[00:33:31] All right.

[00:33:31] Well, Bella, it's always a pleasure having you on.

[00:33:33] Um, and also, um, Jimmy says hi.

[00:33:36] So.

[00:33:37] Oh my God.

[00:33:38] Hi Jimmy.

[00:33:39] Yeah.

[00:33:40] All right.

[00:33:40] Well, this is Byron Neal.

[00:33:41] And for all of us at comic book Getty, um, if you get on a real motorcycle, for God's

[00:33:45] sakes, wear a helmet.

[00:33:46] Uh, this message brought to you by your comic book dad, which is me.

[00:33:49] I was in an accident when I was young and dumb and I haven't gotten on a bike since.

[00:33:53] So long story helmets.

[00:33:56] Anyway, thanks for tuning in and we'll see you next time.

[00:33:59] Take care, everybody.

[00:34:00] This is Byron O'Neal.

[00:34:01] One of your hosts of the cryptic creator corner brought to you by comic book Getty.

[00:34:05] We hope you've enjoyed this episode of our podcast.

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