Flame Con - An Interview with Co Lead Kevin Gilligan

[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.

[00:00:11] Hey, comics fam! Whether you are a long-time listener or a veteran catching the show today, all are welcome here. When we started this podcast, inclusion and diversity were at the forefront of what we wanted to cover and promote with it.

[00:00:23] So in June, we'll be celebrating Pride Month for our second year in a row featuring an amazing group of queer creators and their projects. One of those projects is from our friends at Lifeline Comics. Following their success with By Visibility Still By, Herology, and Rainbow Canvas,

[00:00:39] Lifeline Comics is launching their newest queer anthology, Transphoria, a trans and non-binary anthology on May 30th. The 90-page graphic novel will contain 19 stories all about trans and non-binary experiences of gender euphoria, crossing all genres like slice of life, supernatural, romance, science fiction, anime, and beyond.

[00:01:01] Featuring a vibrant display of artistic styles and storytelling techniques, Transphoria is a testament to the creativity and talent of its contributors. From sci-fi, striking stories to endearing romantic adventures, this graphic novel celebrates trans stories while delivering a powerful message of empowerment and affirmation.

[00:01:20] I'll put a link in the show notes so you can check it out. As always, thanks for listening and have a glorious Pride Month helping us celebrate! Y'all, Jimmy, the Chaos Goblin strikes again!

[00:01:34] I should've known better than to mention I was working on my DC Universe meets Ravenloft hybrid D&D campaign on social media. My bad. He goes and tags a bunch of comics creators we know,

[00:01:44] and now I have to get it in gear and whip this campaign into shape so we can 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?

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[00:02:39] I think I'm going to make Jimmy play a Goblin Warlock just to get even. Hello everyone and welcome to today's episode of the Crypto Creator Corner. I'm Byron O'Neill, your host for today's chat.

[00:02:50] With con season rapidly approaching, these celebratory migrations that we make to embrace geekdom are so vital to us all. So to celebrate Pride Month, I'm delighted to introduce Kevin Gilligan on the show with me.

[00:03:03] Kevin is vice president and convention head for the Geeks Out organization and the co-lead for FlameCon. We'll be celebrating its 10th year this August in New York City.

[00:03:12] FlameCon is a venture of Geeks Out who is a 501c3 nonprofit whose mission is to rally, empower, and promote the queer geek community. And FlameCon is the world's largest LGBTQ queer comics convention.

[00:03:25] So Kevin, I know things are super busy. Thanks for carving out a little time with me today. Lots of stuff going on for you. So how's things? Busy, good. Yeah, no, I'm excited. We've got lots coming up, lots that's going to be announced. And yeah, it's Pride.

[00:03:47] So I identify as bisexual and tired. And as we're recording, we're not even in Pride quite yet. We're the eve of Pride. Right. But yeah, it's hard to wrap my head around it being 10 years. Yeah, that's crazy.

[00:04:14] Well, I kind of want to start with Geeks Out as an organization. So give me a little bit of background about y'all and kind of how it came into being. Yeah, so Geeks Out, as you said, we are a nonprofit organization.

[00:04:29] We started, we just celebrated our 12th anniversary as an organization, as a nonprofit. We got our start at New York Comic Con. It started out as a panel. At the time, at New York Comic Con, there was a single panel dealing with queer subject matter.

[00:05:03] I think it was essentially like queers in comics, you know, just representation in comics. Sure. And the founders of the organization, Josh Siegel and Joey Stern, they had met up afterwards and were sort of talking about representation at conventions and the general sort of lack of representation.

[00:05:34] But knowing that there was a vast community of queer geeks that would go to conventions and that there wasn't any sort of, you know, groups or representation on the floor. And just having a single panel didn't seem like enough.

[00:05:57] So they did like a little, you know, fundraiser and raised money to get a table at New York Comic Con. Okay. To provide a safe space, to help raise visibility, just to be openly queer in a place that at the time had been very heteronormative,

[00:06:23] had been a little hostile to outside voices that weren't specifically straight white male voices. Sure. You know, this was at the time before you would, you know, if you go to a convention nowadays, you'll see signs that talk about cosplay does not equal consent.

[00:06:49] This was before that time. You know, and thankfully conventions have changed for the better. And we started off at New York Comic Con and then we have slowly expanded and gone to other conventions across the country.

[00:07:09] Doing the same thing, you know, providing this space to be visibly and vocally queer in those geek spaces. And also, you know, we would present panels and programming at these conventions, you know, and trying to do things that were not just being very queer 101, you know.

[00:07:37] Hey, we exist. Let's talk about it. You know, going into other subject matters within that, you know. And then we were, you know, we're based in New York City, but, you know, we're going to other conventions across the country. We would do events in New York.

[00:08:00] And then 10 years ago, the idea to do a flame con came up. We're not the first queer convention that has happened. You know, there were other conventions that came before us. There was BentCon. There's GamerX. There, shoot, there was another convention and it's blanking. I'm blanking on it.

[00:08:36] But, you know, we felt, you know, there was a space that was, I think at the time, BentCon had sort of ended and GamerX was kind of reshuffling and restructuring. And so we started off as doing a one day convention in Brooklyn, New York.

[00:09:01] And we were expecting, I think maybe like a thousand people. And we were blown away by the, you know, the attendance and the response to the convention. And since it has grown into a two day convention, it's now located in Midtown Manhattan.

[00:09:30] And yeah, it just keeps growing and growing. So we're so very excited and proud of all the hard work of all of our volunteers because we're a 100% volunteer run organization. Which is amazing that you've been able to accomplish what you have.

[00:09:47] I mean, this is a volunteer organization that I work for and I know how hard it is to leverage those things up. You know, it's tough. Well, have you been personally involved since the beginning or? Somewhat since the beginning. Not the very beginning.

[00:10:01] I had moved to the city and when I had moved to the city, I wasn't necessarily out. You know, still living a queer, you know, still bisexual. But not a lot of people were 100, you know, really aware.

[00:10:26] And, you know, I was a performer and, you know, was performing. But I didn't really find any queer community. There's not really bisexual culture. And, you know, outwardly the gay culture that I had seen was all sort of club, bar centered, you know.

[00:10:56] And I didn't really feel like a place in that space. And then Geeks Out was having an event at a place called Barcade in Brooklyn. As it sounds, if you're not familiar with it, it's a bar arcade.

[00:11:20] And I one had always wanted to go there, hadn't been there yet. And two, I sort of felt like this. I was like, oh, there are other queer geeky people that I could like chat with and hang out with and, you know, nerd out with as it were.

[00:11:42] Yeah. And I went to that event and had a great time. And the next thing that they were doing was like a Doctor Who screening. And I don't watch Doctor Who, so I was like, well, you guys have fun.

[00:11:57] And then I think the next thing I saw was that they were tabling at New York Comic Con. I think this was probably maybe the second year that they were tabling. And I volunteered to help out. And I, you know, had been involved ever since.

[00:12:18] You know, I joined the board and I loved going to conventions and seeing other queer people at these conventions who may or may not be out. But like are seeing themselves represented and seeing, you know, other queer geeks and like sort of just like validation.

[00:12:49] And it's just like it's very life affirming. You know, like we joke that we're as a nonprofit is like we're not. We're not seeking to cure cancer. We're not. You know, there's not big things, you know, like big swings that we're making. And it's hard.

[00:13:18] Sometimes it's easy, especially with the state of the world. Yes. You sort of, you know, like I find myself downplaying like, oh, we're just, you know, we're having a queer convention where, you know, we go to these conventions.

[00:13:34] But it's easy to forget like how impactful it can be. Like just small things like that. Just like seeing yourself represented in these spaces and like finding community in geek spaces.

[00:13:51] That it's important to celebrate and have these moments of joy, especially in the sort of uncertain times that we live in. Yeah. Well, don't downplay it because it's so important, especially to the next generation who is so important to change that paradigm.

[00:14:16] I mean, you're probably younger than me, but, you know, similarly, you know, in age, but, you know, millennials, Gen Z, if that groundwork is there so they know they have that support, you know, to be comfortable being who they are. Like that is huge. So don't belittle it.

[00:14:38] Don't belittle what you do. Well, you know, sometimes the mission doesn't change ever. Right? But the focus does. So how has Geeks Out morphed over time?

[00:14:50] You know, like I've worked in many volunteer organizations and you often have to adapt sort of the interest to fit the volunteers, you know, to keep everyone engaged and happy.

[00:15:02] So, you know, things have changed with FlameCon in that, you know, we did a lot more just events, you know, a lot more sort of social events. Yeah.

[00:15:16] And then as FlameCon grew and, you know, it, you know, needed more attention, we and other other groups in the community sort of came into existence. We sort of lessened the amount of events that we were doing because like we were doing something maybe like every other month.

[00:15:39] And so now I think we're doing maybe like four events in a year outside of FlameCon. And then pandemic kind of changed things. You know, we in 2020, we were gearing up for FlameCon.

[00:15:58] We were, you know, at that time it was going to be our biggest year going into it. And then pandemic happened. Yeah. And, you know, we're again we're an all volunteer run organization.

[00:16:12] So, you know, people we had people who had to back down because of life changes and work changes. So, you know, we have. And then we obviously did not to FlameCon that year.

[00:16:34] And, you know, kind of being in New York and sort of like the epicenter of everything. We did do a sort of virtual convention that year. We did virtual panels. And then we actually did.

[00:16:53] We had produced a sort of a virtual after party with performances from various drag performances and drag performers. And we had, you know, sort of like real past performances from previous years. And then 2021, you know, it still was not still wasn't safe for our community.

[00:17:25] And there is a lot of uncertainty. So we instead of, you know, things in the city had just sort of opened up and it opened up very quickly. And there's a lot of uncertainty about, you know, doing large scale events.

[00:17:44] So we elected to do a virtual event again that year. And we actually had like virtual exhibit hall with, you know, virtual exhibitors. And we had, again, virtual panels and we did a small socially distant after party in New York.

[00:18:11] And then 2022 was our first year back from pandemic. So and, you know, we are still trying to protect our community. You know, we required everyone attending and, you know, exhibitors and volunteers and attendees. Everyone was required to wear a mask. Sure.

[00:18:36] We made sure that there was sanitizer and, you know, hand washing stations and, you know, making sure that everyone was felt safe and was safe and staying safe. Well, most cons kind of play that balancing act right of guests and programming structures.

[00:19:04] You know, is there one facet that people can expect that you sort of focus on? I mean, I know there was games that you guys covered and I'm just not quite sure exactly what.

[00:19:14] With. Yeah. So we we've described fan con as the largest queer artist alley that you will find. It is a lot of queer artists and creators and makers that have everything that have art from every fandom.

[00:19:39] You have people who do prints, you have people who have their own comics. We have comics professionals that are there every year. We have people who have made their own, you know, merch. We've I can't remember all of our exhibitors.

[00:20:02] We'll have our exhibitors or full exhibitors list on the on the website so you'll be able to see that. But beyond that, you know, we have lots of great special guests from both the comics community.

[00:20:17] But also this year we have from season 16 of RuPaul's Drag Race, we have Magami, who is going to be not only a guest at flame con, but is also going to be the host of our after party, the fireball, which is happening Saturday night after the convention.

[00:20:42] We also just announced Chris Anka, who is a comics artist, but is also was one of the lead I think was the lead designer for Spider-Man Enter the Spider-Verse and has done other work in animation as well. And then we also have the voice of Morph from X-Men 97.

[00:21:13] Yeah, who is a really great person, JP Kraleik. And then we also we also I we also announced Molly Knox Ostrotag, who is a comics creator and also will be announcing when this comes out her husband,

[00:21:41] Andy Stevenson, who is the creator of Nimona on Netflix, the Oscar nominated animated film, which if you have not seen it, I do highly recommend seeing it. It's really great. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, for sure.

[00:21:59] Yeah. When I was looking at stuff, the fireball after party, like frankly just sound amazing. You know, that's like the geek thing, drag and burlesque and boy, you know, among other things, which sounds like so much fun because my last like drag experience

[00:22:14] because my autoimmune stuff doesn't allow me to get out that much. So was was drag bingo in Florida, which was a lot of fun, but way different. So so that sounds amazing. Yeah. Yeah, we have a lot of great comic guests.

[00:22:29] We're also going to have Emily Drabinsky, who is the president of the American Library. Association, because one of the you know, we have lots of great panels as well at at flame con. And one of the things that has been especially affecting our community has been the censorship

[00:22:56] and book bands that have been going on across the country. And so our president of Geeks Out and my my my other half of my brain, but I've also flame con Nick Gatow. They are also a former librarian.

[00:23:16] So, you know, we always have love and support for for our librarians. We'll also be announcing a couple more performers from for the the fireball performance. The burlesque performers, Agent Wednesday and we have another drag performer, Motzabelle Soup. And yeah, that's a great name. I love that name.

[00:23:45] That's so good. Yeah. But we also have those, sorry. Okay. I was gonna say we also cosplay is a huge part of flame. There's lots of amazing cosplay artists that do just gorgeous and wonderful things like I'm a big cosplay fan.

[00:24:10] I'm not talented in that regard, but I like it's something like, hold like really respect the talent that goes into it and hard work especially. So we have like lots of we have cosplay contests.

[00:24:28] And then we also have workshops and we have a cosplay corner where people can get, you know, fixes for any like things that happen. Mishaps that happen with your cosplay.

[00:24:40] But also, you know, they can talk to cosplay professionals and get like tips and tricks and, you know, find out what it's like to be, you know, professional in the cosplay world. We also have a performance stage at flame con.

[00:24:57] So we have like lots of, you know, comedy, both queer stand up performances from a lot of sort of up and coming queer comedians. We've had Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers in the past, Jay Jordan, Sam Morel.

[00:25:18] So you can always expect to see someone who is on the rise at flame con. We've had Star Trek themed drag performances there. So good puppetry. We have like a whole poetry slam that happens. Yeah, there's lots of great things.

[00:25:42] Plus we have our our gamer lounge, which is run and managed by our friends at NYC gamers. And they they do great work and they help run a lot of different sort of like gaming programming that happens there, both tabletop and video games as well.

[00:26:04] I absolutely love that you have Saturday Youth Day too. That's an amazing idea. Sunday. Sunday. Yeah, yeah, anyone 21 or younger can attend for free. That's great. Yeah, that that started our second year. It was our second year. Where an anonymous donor had a sponsored Youth Day.

[00:26:37] So that anyone 21 and under got in got to experience flame con for free. And that is something that we have continued every year since. Yeah, absolutely amazing.

[00:26:50] Well, do you have that you can talk about anything, you know, special plan for the big 10th anniversary or do we have to hold off on that's much later? There are things in the works that we hopefully can announce in the not too distant future.

[00:27:05] Lots of balls that are in the up in the air, so I don't want to tease something that may not happen just because of scheduling and everything. But yeah, there's some there's some big ones that we're hoping are going to happen. We were also we've expanded.

[00:27:27] So we have been on two floors at the Sheridan in the past and we've expanded to a third floor. The Gamer Lounge is going to be a lot bigger this year with multiple rooms, a lot more programming. Yeah, it's it's going to be a lot of fun.

[00:27:48] People are going to get to, you know, chat with JP and voiced Morph and get real one on one time. You know, that's that's the thing is with with flame con.

[00:28:05] We have a lot of these great creators and artists, and you have like this one on one time with them to be able to like really like chat with them and get, you know, ask them questions about things that they're working on, you know,

[00:28:22] that you may not get at other conventions, you know. We we've had last year we had James Tyne in the fourth. Yeah, I saw that. And yeah, yeah. They were. James has been a longtime supporter of flame con he was at the very first flame con.

[00:28:49] And, you know, it was important for him to be there last year. I know this year he's super crazy busy with everything going on with tiny onion. So we were very happy to have him there last year, given given his schedule. But yeah.

[00:29:11] Again, there are things that I wish I could talk about. Because they, they are are very exciting, especially if they happen. But, but yeah, you'll you'll just have to stay tuned to flame con social media. So yeah, sign up for the newsletter. Yeah.

[00:29:34] Yeah, there's lots of great stuff in there. I'll put it in the show notes so everybody can then have to hunt for it. We'll make it easy for excellent. Excellent. Well, I'm curious, is it is it prohibitively expensive to do the con in June in New York?

[00:29:47] I was just wondering why it's not part of the larger, you know, pride celebrations. Yeah, actually our very first year we it was in June as a one day convention. We were at the Grand Prospect Hall, which unfortunately is a space that doesn't exist anymore.

[00:30:07] It was an old like wedding venue is very camp and gaudy like huge chandeliers like if you get a chance, YouTube search for the Grand Prospect Hall commercial. It is amazing. But yeah, when we were looking at returning for the second year to doing a two day event.

[00:30:39] June is a very popular wedding month beyond also being pride. So there's a there was a lot of things that we would have been competing with doing it in June. OK, so we had elected to do August being that it's still the summer.

[00:31:00] You know, it's still at a time when a lot of, you know, queer youth may not exactly be in school yet, so they may have a little more time before school starts so that they would be able to attend.

[00:31:17] And it was we weren't having to compete with sort of the big two conventions, which are San Diego Comic Con and New York Comic Con. Sure. Yeah, makes a lot of sense. Well, there's no better education than like making mistakes and learning.

[00:31:36] Right. So I was in event management in the music industry for a decade and a half. So perhaps you'll have to you'll just have to excuse me for my morbid industry curiosity here. But, you know, what's a lesson learned over the years for you? Oh, gosh. That's.

[00:31:53] This is a hard question. Sorry. No, no. Yeah. I guess for for me myself, it is. That I can't do everything. Yeah, that's humbling for sure. Yeah. You know, Flame Con exists because we all will it into existence.

[00:32:21] There's a lot of sort of type A personalities that are helping to make flame con a reality. And so we all we all feel very passionate about having this sort of queer space for the geek community.

[00:32:41] And we all take it very seriously and we all are very focused on making sure that it happens and being able to have other people come in to sort of take things over. Because I think we tend to overextend ourselves and trying not to have burnout from it.

[00:33:09] So, you know, thankfully, and that was especially the case after pandemic because a lot of people had to step down and understandably so, you know, life, life thing really hard.

[00:33:24] So we had some new people who have joined, who have been great and have really sort of helped out. You know, and we're you know, again, we're a volunteer organization. We're always looking for people to help out if people are interested in getting involved.

[00:33:41] There's there's lots of different ways, even if it's just helping out the day of flame con. You know, there's there's lots to do. Many, many hands make for light work. So. Absolutely. Yeah. All right. Let's take a quick break. Hey, comics fam.

[00:34:03] The comic book publisher Banda bars just got a level up and announced it is now a cooperative. This heralds a new era for them, including a partnership with Dallas stories and the comic book publisher. Marcus Jimenez is now chief operating officer.

[00:34:18] Brent Fisher takes on the role of chief diversity officer and Joey Galvez is introduced as head of Kickstarter Ops and social media manager, which is sure to increase their capabilities overall as a publisher.

[00:34:30] And it further promotes their mission statement of advancing representation, inclusion and diversity in the media. They also established a new board of directors for the comic book industry.

[00:34:41] With new projects in the works like Alaska by dropping in June, Unbroken soon launching on Kickstarter and Pond coming up with thoughtless. Stay tuned to this space for more exciting news from the growing Bards family. Let's get back to the show.

[00:34:55] Well, part of your personal mission, according to your bio that I saw online was to create and foster a safe space and a visible queer presence. You know, it could conventions around the country and will presumably mission the world. Right. So how are you doing that?

[00:35:19] Well, so, for instance, next week of this recording, we're going to be at Ban Expo Dallas. OK, which is a convention we have been hosting for a long time. OK, which is a convention we have been to once before.

[00:35:42] And it felt while we have since pandemic, we have sort of scaled back on the number of conventions that we are going to just because of, you know, budget that, you know, also. We're all volunteers and so trying not to overcommit ourselves. Trying to be smarter about that.

[00:36:07] So we were trying to go with places that our presence is needed, essentially. OK. With how things are for the queer community in Texas, being a visibly queer base in that larger space is important. And we're also presenting. We are centered programming there.

[00:36:50] We are trying to reach out to some local organizations to be able to provide local resources for people there. Beyond just being at the convention, you know, we provide. We have pronoun pins and stickers.

[00:37:16] And then we, you know, we have different sort of merch so that people can sort of show their queer geeky pride as well. That all goes to help support the nonprofit and us being able to go to other conventions as well.

[00:37:34] And just sort of showing that attendees at these conventions, that they're not alone. You know, that we one of the things that has always surprised me. It's sort of the interactions that we get at the table. I grew up in North Carolina.

[00:38:01] And we've gone to HeroesCon in Charlotte a few times. Yeah. And part of the first year that we did, that was the one of the years that they had the bathroom bill that they passed.

[00:38:15] And it was important for us to sort of be there for me to have a presence at that convention. The last time we went to Dallas, there are two interactions that sort of stick out for me.

[00:38:34] One was a guy who we have little stickers of our flamies, our mascots of FlameCon. And they were out on the table. And this guy picked one up. And then he started to walk away. And I was like, oh, those are not free. Those are $2.

[00:39:03] And I didn't realize what he had done until I had said that. He had picked them up and had ripped them in half and then put them at the edge of the table. And then he was like, oh, well, you know, I'm not a thief or anything.

[00:39:23] So he then paid like... He gave us money, like $5, and then picked up another one and ripped it and then walked away. It was such an odd interaction of like, I'm a hateful bigot, but I'm not a thief.

[00:39:49] Afterwards, I was like, oh, man, I would have said here, would you like to buy a tote bag and tear that up? Yeah, exactly. Here, what can I get you to spend to support us? Right. Right. Right. Right. It was such a weird thing.

[00:40:08] And like that was it. It was just like this quiet. You know, he just ripped it up and then, you know, walked away. That's just like a weird, homophobic, like bigoted thing to do.

[00:40:20] And then we also had like this good old boy, older gentleman who like walked up to our table and I'm like, cool, we're about to be hate crimes. Yay. And he came up and wanted to get some enamel pronoun pens for his child who was non-binary. Okay.

[00:40:55] And so it's like things like that. You know, we get a lot of parents who well-meaning parents who were with their kids and they're like, hey, they're like pushing their kid towards the table like queer stuff. Yeah, you. We like they're being overly supportive.

[00:41:12] And then the kids are like teenagers and like dad, mom, stop. Oh, no. You know, I totally be me. So yeah, I get it. So there's like lots of like sort of great interactions like that.

[00:41:27] And so it just sort of makes it underlines the reasons of why, why we're there. So yeah. Yeah, well, I'll flip it. So as a con goer, as an ally, someone who cares, what can I do to change the experience at con?

[00:41:50] I mean, to change the experience, calling out when people do things. You know, we I was at we were at Heroes Con one year and this was I think this was 2016 or 2017.

[00:42:20] It was one of those years after Trump had been elected and we had the Proud Boys and some young adults had gone up to a queer artist. And they very intently did like the OK thing.

[00:42:44] That was like the dog whistling from the Proud Boys and like intently were like, you know what this means, right? Like literally said that to him. OK. You know, the convention staff were alerted, but at that point in time, it was sort of done.

[00:43:10] So it's, you know, being an advocate, like stepping up and, you know, if you see something, say something kind of, you know, don't let shit like that pass. You know, it's advocating for gender neutral restrooms at conventions.

[00:43:31] You know, if you don't see any there asking the staff, asking the staff why there isn't there any there. You know, even the simple act of having like something that displays your pronouns like is a way of being able to have that conversation so that people.

[00:43:53] We have E.H.E.M., she, her, they, them and we have one that says ask me about my pronouns and I'll typically wear that because it's you know, it's getting a conversation of, you know, people not assuming that I'm gay.

[00:44:07] And also just supporting queer artists, you know. Yeah, absolutely. Well, that is that is where my continually be all the time if we want more representation in comics than just the way that we're doing it. So I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point.

[00:44:25] I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely.

[00:44:29] Well, that is that is where my continually be all the time if we want more representation in comics than you have to buy it because that that is the only way we can signal to the publishers that that's what we want.

[00:44:44] You know, yeah, it's going, it's it's researching and like seeing who's going to be at that convention, researching and finding out who those queer artists and creators are going to be.

[00:44:55] And then finding them and going to their tables and buying their art and buying their work, you know. A lot of them, you know, this is how they survive. You know, a lot of comics don't necessarily pay a lot. And they don't really get residuals.

[00:45:21] So being able to go in person and supporting them is is the best way to one of the best things you can do at a convention. OK, well, I know Geeks Out covers way more than just comics in kind of the geek landscape.

[00:45:39] But comics seems to be something you have a background in something you love. So and it seems to be that the footprint and the influence of queer representation in the medium is growing fairly rapidly.

[00:45:52] I mean, I can remember even last year, right, when I was doing my Pride Month stuff, I feel like it looks very different now. But that's from an ally who is straight white and cis.

[00:46:04] So in your opinion, you know, how do you see the landscape in comics changing as a fan, as an advocate? What can we do to foster it? I mean, like you said, it's just it's it's buying those comics. It's you know, I will say of the big two.

[00:46:27] And I think that DC Comics has been doing a great job in terms of representation in and not doing pink washing of like a rainbow washing.

[00:46:41] It's Pride Month. Here's the only time that we're going to talk about, you know, or, you know, profile queer characters and creators and things like that. Yeah. So they're Pride Anthology, which comes out, which has become an annual thing now.

[00:46:59] But they also have lots of different graphic novels that come out year round that feature queer characters from queer creators. You know, they have Dreamer, Nicole Maines, who is a was the trans actor who played Dreamer on the Supergirl series on the CW.

[00:47:28] She has written Dreamer both in sort of like individual comics and in the DC Pride Anthology, but has also written a graphic novel featuring Dreamer.

[00:47:45] She is also writing right now a I guess it's a mini featuring Dreamer in the Suicide Squad as a sort of an integral character and sort of an overarching story. The big story that's happening, the big event that's happening this summer. So she's really much involved in that.

[00:48:13] Marvel does OK. That blew my mind. Yeah, that was that was definitely a choice. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There are, you know, there are other comics publishers that are doing really great work. You know, boom. You know, image.

[00:48:45] There's also like other small press, you know, comics, Silver Sprockets and Yen Press. Dark Horse has done some as well and Mad Cave as well as well. Honestly, it's finding out like what those publishers and supporting those those comics.

[00:49:12] You know, when a when a especially from like the big two come out, if there is a queer centered comic that's that's been announced. Going to your comic store, your local comic store and asking for them to create a pull list with those comics.

[00:49:40] Like requesting those comics, they know that there is someone that is wanting those comics and they will place those orders for those comics because that's that's a lot of where those decisions are made.

[00:49:51] In like how long a run is going to last for a comic is based on the sales and a lot of it is like pre sales or, you know, in what you're requesting for your pull comics. What's the best part of your job with Geeks Out? Oh, um.

[00:50:15] Best part. It's hard to say because it's easy to sort of get in the weeds of it like to just be sort of stuck in like the intricacies of it because Nick and myself, we oversee everything.

[00:50:36] So it's trying to keep all of the balls in the air and make you know, making sure things are happening. And, um, but it's like being at the convention and just seeing everyone there and hearing everyone's reactions and

[00:50:57] being a part of creating this, this thing, this event, you know, that means a lot to so many people and like finding out people who discovered it for the first time or finding people who've been there every year. You know, um, yeah, it means a lot. Yeah, yeah.

[00:51:22] Well, what other programs is Geeks Out kind of currently promoting and developing aside from, from FlameCon? I know there's a podcast. It was on a little bit of hiatus for a while. Don't you host that, I think? Yes, yes.

[00:51:37] I funny enough just recorded an episode right before this featuring Magali. Nice. Yeah. We chat a little bit about her time on Drag Race, you know, goals of what she wants to do in this post Drag Race life of hers.

[00:52:03] And then we also, you know, talk about X-Men 97 and, you know, the trailer for Wicked and lots of other queer geeky stuff as well. But yeah, it's, um, it has over 300 episodes. Congratulations. That's really good. That's really good. We were a weekly podcast for a long time.

[00:52:35] And then I hit a wall and was needed to lessen the amount of what I was doing. So I'm trying for it to be monthly now, maybe more. I don't know. We'll see what I have time for. But yeah, we do have the podcast.

[00:52:56] You can catch up on old episodes. They're all there on wherever you find your podcast. It's also on our website, Geeks Out Podcast. We actually are adding them now as videos as well on YouTube so you can find them there.

[00:53:13] You can also find past panels from FlameCon and from our digital FlameCon as well. There's lots of great panels and things that you can find there. We are going to be at, after FlameCon, we will be at Rose City Comic Con in Portland, Oregon.

[00:53:39] And then we will be at New York Comic Con. And we will be part of the Pride Lounge there as well. We are presenting lots of different programming, both in the Lounge but also at New York Comic Con as well.

[00:53:59] And then we always do an after party called Snicked. Wolverine? Gotcha. Yep. Yep. Yep. So we always do an after party for that as well. Yeah. And then we have a great blog, the Geeks Out blog, which features so many interviews.

[00:54:25] There are some retro lookbacks at different properties. Someone who did her name as Rebel and they looked back at Darkwing Duck. Someone who was looking over Star Trek and all sorts of different fandoms. Because it's not just comics. It's horror, it's gaming, it's fantasy, all of that.

[00:54:59] Yeah. Well, before we go, if this is your first time hearing about FlameCon listeners or Geeks Out, you might be asking yourself, Hey, what can I do to support them? Kevin, what can they do? Well, if you would like to attend FlameCon, you can get tickets are available.

[00:55:19] It's August 17th and 18th in New York City. Tickets are available now at flamecon.org. We also have a special hotel rate to stay at the Sheridan's. You can be right there in the middle of all the action. We also can go to our website, geeksout.org.

[00:55:42] We have lots of great merch available on our online store. We have our Strong Female Character shirt. We have Alan Turing fought Nazis with his big gay brain. The Upside Down turned me gay. We have a Bender Fluid for Avatar, the last Airbender. Lots of great merch.

[00:56:12] We also have a book that we created called Serving Pride. It is a handbook for throwing a queer history dinner party. Oh, wow. Okay. I've checked that out. It features lots of original artwork from various queer artists and creators. It also has the collective queer history of America,

[00:56:39] going back to the indigenous Americans up to modern times. It also features some recipes as well. We created it because queer history is not widely known or taught. We figured this might be a great way to create new traditions.

[00:57:06] A lot of history has been learned in group settings or storytelling. This is a great thing to do with your friends, family, and found family. That's also available on our online shop. If you feel like donating, you can also donate directly to us on our website as well.

[00:57:30] Wasn't there something about a game specific to FlameCon? At FlameCon, we do have a con game that people can enter. It's like a scavenger hunt essentially. People can win all sorts of raffle prizes from there as well. Shout out to Mad Cave. I noticed they're sponsoring the convention.

[00:58:06] We love Mad Cave here. I was just curious, how did that connect happen? I believe it might have been from our sponsorship coordinator, Hunter Schneider. They are an amazing volunteer who has done a lot of work to line up some great sponsors including Mad Cave.

[00:58:34] They're going to be there on the convention floor. Also, they're going to be presenting some programming as well. So it should be good times all around. Awesome. Kevin, thanks for hanging out with me on the show today. I really appreciate it. It's been an education.

[00:58:58] If I could get to conventions these days, I would absolutely want to come. It sounds awesome. Well yeah. Our hope is FlameCon is going to continue going on and just get bigger and better.

[00:59:15] If you're not able to make it there this year, we look forward to seeing you there in the future. Love to make it. This is Byron O'Neill and on behalf of all of us at Comic Book Yeti,

[00:59:25] thanks for tuning in and have a very happy Pride Month everyone. Thanks for listening. Take care everybody. 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.

[00:59:39] Please rate, review, subscribe, all that good stuff. It lets us know how we're doing and more importantly, how we can improve. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode of the Cryptic Creator Corner, maybe you would enjoy our sister podcast, Into the Comics Cave.

[00:59:57] Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.