Frankee White and Adam Markiewicz Interview - I Just Came From Hell

[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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[00:01:20] Frankie White is back on the podcast and we are going to talk about who killed Sarah Shaw. We are going to talk about what I think is a follow-up to Eat My Flesh, Drink My Blood. I Just Came From Hell. Frankie also has a short in a new anthology, Horror Not Hate. Yeah, we have lots to talk about. So Frankie, welcome back to the podcast.

[00:01:44] Thank you for having me and thank you for introducing me so I don't have to remember everything that I'm talking about. No worries. I have no problems doing that, you know, as a reminder, if nothing else, so you can remember all those things that you've actually done. Well, let's kind of jump right into, you know, talking about some of this stuff.

[00:02:08] And I know you got, I mentioned some of the things that you have coming out that I want to talk about, but I want to chat a little bit about who killed Sarah Shaw. And I know it's a visual medium, so sorry podcast listeners, but I was just holding up and showing Frankie that I do have my hardcover of Who Killed Sarah Shaw.

[00:02:29] It's an absolutely gorgeous book. You and Adam Markowitz. The story initially came out through Patreon, and I think then you kick-started the graphic novel. Is that how it worked? Yeah, so we initially ran it through Adam's Patreon. Throughout his Patreon, he's done a variety of different things. It was pin-ups, shorts, other long-form stuff, and this long-form comic with another writer.

[00:02:57] And I was like, hey, well, if you ever finish this up and you want to do something new, I mean, I've worked with him now on Broken Bear, Eat My Flesh, Drink My Blood, Who Killed Sarah Shaw, our new project that just came from hell. He's kind of like my soulmate, creator, partner. Like, I love working with him on everything. Like, I don't need to, you know, give too much direction and vice versa. Like, we can feed off of each other, which is really great.

[00:03:20] But it started through his Patreon. We ran it for, geez, I mean, I think it went two years almost or something like that through his Patreon. And then once we wrapped that, we partnered with Dauntless, who had published Eat My Flesh, Drink My Blood. They ran the Kickstarter for us, thankfully, because running a Kickstarter is very, very difficult and challenging. So they ran that. So it was published through Dauntless stories. And yeah, I mean, and now the physical copy's out.

[00:03:49] And shortly in the near future, we were supposed to be hitting bookstores and everything like that. Amazon, Barnes & Noble, everything like that, which I'm excited for. Oh, that's awesome. And Adam, Adam has just joined us. Yeah, I'm here now. Listeners, Adam Markowitz has joined us on the podcast as well. So we have Frankie and Adam. Adam, I think I think this is your first time on this podcast. Welcome. Thank you. Happy to be here. Yeah. I mean, you the two of you have done a ton of stuff together.

[00:04:18] I think the first thing I ever read was Broken Bear, which I love. I love Broken Bear. I think somebody had recommended it to me when I, you know, knowing that I was just starting to do stuff with comic book Yeti and checking out more indie comics. And someone, oh, I think you'd like Broken Bear. I cannot remember who it was, but they did me a great service because I just, Broken Bear was one of those things where you just like, I had no expectations going in.

[00:04:48] I mean, I love indie comics. They can be great. They can be, you know, OK. It's just like anything. So I went in with no expectations. I thought Broken Bear was like one of the best things that that I had read. Just absolutely fell in love with the characters, love the story, love the art, just thought it was tremendous.

[00:05:10] And then totally blown away in a completely different way because it's so different with Eat My Flesh, Drink My Blood, which as somebody who is no longer a practicing Catholic but went through 16 years of Catholic education, you know, grade school, high school and college. Yeah, I was a lot.

[00:05:38] But one hell, I guess, no pun intended, of a comic. Thank you. Thank you. I mean, that's great to hear it. Kudos and thank you to whoever recommended Broken Bear to you in the first place. Whoever you are, thank you. Word of mouth, right, is the lifeblood for indie comics. So whoever that was, you're doing the Lord's work. Well, so let's talk about who killed Sarah Shaw. First off, before we get into like any of the story stuff, I'm just curious.

[00:06:05] What did you think of doing it that way in terms of releasing it on the Patreon and then kind of packaging everything together to hopefully get out to maybe a wider audience? How did you feel that that worked as kind of a delivery system for the comic? Well, I can say that at least on my end, when I came up with the idea, I was basically waiting for Adam to become free to work on it.

[00:06:32] And seeing that he had done other stuff like Into the End Zone on his Patreon, I was like, all right, he's already got people that follow him that can expect to see comics, you know, actual comics through the platform. I had done web comics in the past, a web comic called Wolf on Vacation that I ran through Tumblr back in the day, aging myself.

[00:06:52] And, you know, web comics just have a great system built into them where you are able to, you know, put the work out immediately and get immediate feedback, hopefully from your audience as they're reading it, as they're looking into it, you know, and following along and continue to grow that fan base as you grow, you know, as opposed to working in silence, quietly kind of toiling away. Making a comic book takes a really long time to do it.

[00:07:21] Like if we had done Who Killed Sarah Shaw without doing it via Patreon, you know, probably would have taken us the same amount of time it did take, you know, like two years. And during that time, I would have had to have sat there on my hands or twiddling my thumbs, not being able to share it, which is a nightmare for me. Because as soon as Adam ever finishes a page and sends me something, I immediately want to post it on the Internet and let people see it.

[00:07:44] So for me, working with Patreon and, you know, working through Adam's Patreon and working with him on it was like a dream come true because it gets to satisfy my desire to have immediate gratification, right, of getting the thing done and putting it out there. But then also allowing it to grow and build and hopefully add more readers as you go and get them involved in the mystery.

[00:08:08] And with it being a mystery story, it works really well in the webcomic format because you're hopefully hooking the readers and taking them along with you. Yeah, go ahead. Well, I was going to say, part of the appeal of it for me is I had this idea. I've had this any time I've tried to do a webcomic of if I do a page or two pages a week, these will be like the best pages I could possibly do because I could spend so much time on them. And it never works out that way.

[00:08:34] Other than that, it's basically everything Frankie said of, you know, having the immediate response and all that. But it seemed like a good idea for a perfectionist. It doesn't work out that way ever. I think it worked out that way because it's probably, I mean, to me, you can speak for yourself, Adam, but it's my favorite thing you've ever drawn. And I think you do. There are some pages in there where like at the time when I got him, like this is the best thing he's ever drawn.

[00:09:02] And I think as you go through that book and I don't know, you know, a lot of comics are like that. But I think in some books and especially like with Who Killed Sarah Shaw, you can see the growth throughout the book, like from chapter one to chapter five. Like trying new things, getting better and better as you go, because it wasn't something that we made, you know, two months or three months or something, you know, where your skill level might be the exact same throughout the thing.

[00:09:29] And writing it too for me, like I felt like my writing got stronger and stronger as it went on. Because again, it was a process, you know, like you said, you're taking time to deliver the pages versus trying to get it done, you know, as quickly as possible. Adam, why do you say that you had never worked out that way that you thought it would be like the best one or two pages you did that week? Is it because you feel like you never have enough time to make it perfect or some other reason?

[00:09:57] Well, if anything, what I've learned is that that kind of perfectionism just works against you. You just because all you do is you sit there, you know, I can fix this, I can fix this. And eventually you end up with kind of a dead page. But it never really, I always was kind of had my back to the wall working on that one. I never really got a good cushion of pages. So I never, but even then it just, it wouldn't have mattered. It would have been, you know, and I agree with Frank.

[00:10:21] Like actually, when I look at the book as a whole, I can, from beginning to end, I can see a progression. I can see where I, oh, I figured this out and this started to work out better. And so it, you know, it is what it is. And it's just how it is with any book where I want, I want to be able to take as much time on a page. And then I realized it doesn't matter. I could take a month or a day and it's going to probably end up about the same. If that makes any sense. I don't know if I just made a nonsensical ramble there. Or no, Adam, I mean, I agree with you on that.

[00:10:49] And I think we similar like minds where Adam will send me a page and be like, I think this panel looks, you know, not, not up to par. I'm like, no, it's fine. Let's keep moving. And there are sometimes I'll send Adam like a panel script and I'll be like, all right, what do you think about this line versus this line? And it's basically like choosing between the or a, you know, like in a sentence, like what's the difference? Like the difference is minimal. You're trying to just like get it distilled. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:11:15] I will say reading the hardcover that I have of who killed Sarah Shaw, like the overarching thing that sticks out to me or if I had to, you know, use an adjective to, I guess, to describe the storytelling, both narratively, both in the visuals is like confidence.

[00:11:37] I mean, there's a, I, I, I, I feel like there could be a real tendency to do a lot of different things with something like who killed Sarah Shaw. But I mean, it feels like there's not like a wasted panel, wasted moment.

[00:11:52] I just feel like there's a lot of strong choices made in it, in particular, a lot of the panels that you've done and the artwork that you've done, Adam, that just shows like a real grasp of how you wanted to lay it all out. And maybe that's not at all how it went as you were doing a page or two at a time.

[00:12:13] But that, that's how it comes across as like, oh, this person who put this together, they knew exactly what they wanted to do and what every panel wanted to look like. Because it feels like there is, there's nothing extra in it. It is like lean and mean and the pacing is fantastic for this kind of mystery as it, you know, as Jess and Dave investigate it. It's thank you. I, you know, the, I don't know if I say it's confidence.

[00:12:40] I think it's a, I mean, I do go in with like a specific, you know, visually there's something I want to do with it. A lot of it is really just, I work very hard on it. And that's not saying like people, I'm just saying like, I, you know, I, I have very high standards for myself and I work to meet those standards. That's true. I mean, it shows on the page. There's a lot of times where I will have to say like, Adam, this page is good. Let's like, we can go, let's, let's go. But Adam, you said something earlier and I think it's true too.

[00:13:08] Like, you know, you said you didn't have a big cushion on it. And, you know, I think that leads to like this sort of mentality while you're making it. And I was the same way with scripting it. Like, I like, I always, when I talk about how we work at him, I, I like say, it's like Adam is the train and he's rolling down the tracks and I'm trying to lay down the tracks in front of him as the train rolls. And there's no time to like stop and second guess yourself.

[00:13:36] Like once you're happy with a page, it's like, all right, don't even look at it again. Like, like, you know, once you've like, once you've, you know, wrote, wrote something down, it's like, okay, you can like review it once and move on. And you have to be happy with what you're working on because there's no time to stop. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

[00:13:54] Well, Frankie, one of the things that, you know, I wanted to ask you in terms of the script, did you have this all written out and, and you were just releasing pages at a time or were you, you know, working on the script and then giving those pages once they were done for Adam to do, to get out on the Patreon? Because, you know, I've talked to some writers who are still making like significant lettering changes during the lettering pass.

[00:14:19] And I'm like, well, you're, you know, the way this is working, you guys aren't really getting an opportunity to do anything like that. Is that, you know, is that the case or how did that work in terms of the, you know, the script? Look, thankfully Adam letters his own work. That makes it easier because I do, I do a final lettering pass. Like when he does the pages, which is great, he'll pencil everything out and then he'll like hand write the word balloons in like, so you can see what it's going to look like.

[00:14:47] And that allows me to kind of hopefully do a lettering pass before he goes in and does the lettering. And sometimes still afterwards he does it. And then I have to say like, oh, let's take this out. Like this reads clunky now that I've seen it for the 80th time. And the way that it works is I write everything on my phone. I don't have a laptop or anything. So I work out of a Google doc and at the start of the project, I send Adam the Google doc and I'm like, all right, here's, here's the Google doc.

[00:15:14] You know, at the beginning of it, there might be like, you know, a cast of characters with character descriptions, you know, an outline that is super, super loose that might have the whole scripts outline in there. It might not. Some sections might be more outline than others, but typically like once we're kind of getting ready to go, I'll have like, let's say the first, I don't know, up to 10 pages scripted. And I'll say like, all right, here's this. And then I'll start, you know, working. But then it really does become like, okay, as he's sending stuff, I'm trying to stay in front of him.

[00:15:43] So like right now, you know, we're, I think 20 pages into the story that we have, like as a cushion built up and I'm scripting like the four pages in front of it as we go basically. Like, so we're just going to keep working that way. Because I think it keeps, I think it keeps everything moving with a sense of urgency in the writing. And I think in, in how we deliver the story, like you said, lean and mean, you know, you don't have a lot of time to fluff things out.

[00:16:12] If you're, if you know, you're sitting there going like, okay, Adam's getting ready to thumb the next four pages. Like, let's, let's get the next four pages ready for them. Adam, is there like a, what's the, you know, particular type of challenge in, in rolling out, you know, a story like this? Like there are, there are times when you, you look back on it where it's like, oh, if I had known what was going to happen in chapter five, I might've done something differently in, in chapter one.

[00:16:40] And do those types of thoughts plague you more so than, you know, if you were, you got the whole script and you, you, you started into it? No, because even if I had the whole script, I wouldn't, I've never read that far ahead on anything, on anything I've ever worked on. And a lot of that is because I've worked with writers who do a similar thing where they're not writing the full scripts ahead of time. I'll get pages kind of as we go. So it's just, to me, it's just easier. I don't know. It kind of keeps it almost like fresh.

[00:17:09] Like I don't, I mean, I know the story. I know, I know where it's going, but not the details of it. Right. But if I do something and it doesn't fit with what's supposed to happen later, frankly, well, I mean, no. So it's not really any worry about it. Yeah, that's true. And I, since, you know, at this point in time, your collaboration between the two, you has to be, you know, pretty tight having worked on so many different projects. Oh yeah, absolutely. I mean, there's where Adam will like add stuff in, like I'll, you know, I'll strip the page out and then Adam will add something in.

[00:17:39] That I didn't even think about. Like, like I said, I set it off. No, I said it before Adam, before you hopped on. I consider you like my comic making soulmate, basically. Like I, there's times where like I'll send like pages over and then you'll send pages back. I'm like, I didn't even think about that. Like you like read my mind without like even knowing what I was thinking about. Like our sensibilities are very enmeshed, which works really well. Yeah. I'd have to say the same thing. Yeah. So for who killed Sarah Shaw and I think Frank. So that's good.

[00:18:09] No, I just, I just said they're very easy scripts to work from. They're, you know, very not demanding, not an Alan Moore script. I'll say that. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. No, I, my, my, my directions are, I feel like a lot of times it's like he enters a room, you know, like, or he, like, you know, unless I have a very specific idea, I let it, I like to let whenever I work with any artists, like I like to let them dictate a lot of what the shots are going to look like. Unless I have, again, super specific ideas.

[00:18:39] I'm more concerned with like, again, tweaking dialogue and making sure the dialogue is exactly how I want it. And so now with, I think Frank, you had mentioned with Who Killed Sarah Shaw that it, if anyone missed the Kickstarter, there is going to be an opportunity that it's going to be, you know, at your local bookstore. Yeah, that's where we're waiting for Dawnless to finalize that next part of it. They have it almost ready to go for Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

[00:19:08] And then after that happens, I assume this would be like at this point, probably in sometime in 2026. And then we're going to hopefully also have versions available for local comic shops and stuff like that. But that'll be later in 2026. So fingers crossed it's coming soon. I don't have any like specific dates or anything, but, you know, it sounds like we're almost there. We're like at the final lap. Awesome. All right. So now let's talk about the, like the newest project.

[00:19:35] I just want to make sure I get the title right. I just came from hell and you're going to be, I think, doing the same thing. You're going to be rolling it out on Adam's Patreon for folks that are supporters of the Patreon. Yep. Yeah. It's currently running. I think we just dropped. What was it, Adam? Page 13? 13 today on the Patreon. 13, I think. Yeah. Yeah. I think. Going on.

[00:20:04] So good, good, good splash page. Right. Yeah. Splash page. Yeah. It's a great page. So what is it? Two bucks a month. Then you get to, you know, join on, you get 13 pages automatically. And then right now we're trying to stick to two pages a week as our drop rate outside of like, if we do a splash page, the splash page will be like its own singular thing. Cause usually the ones we have so far are worth like singling out and having their own thing. But yeah, it's all through Patreon. Yeah.

[00:20:33] Run it until, until the story's done. Awesome. So listeners, I'll have a link in the show notes to Adam's Patreon. And yeah, who killed Sarah Shaw is fantastic. Um, I loved eat my flesh, drink my blood. And so I can't wait to see what you do with, I just came from hell. But for listeners, you know, we talked a lot about your process for listeners who aren't familiar. Eat my flesh, drink my blood is, uh, a couple, uh, goes to see the husbands or soon to be husbands.

[00:21:03] I can't remember if they're married or engaged in laws and he's kind of estranged from them. And that was probably a good idea that he was estranged, not that they go and visit. And I'll, I'll leave that one at that. Uh, and then who killed Sarah Shaw? Jess and Dave. It's a heartwarming tale. Yes. Oh, yes. Very heartwarming. Um, and who killed Sarah Shaw? If you don't know, listeners, uh, Jess and Dave, they have like a, they, they're part

[00:21:32] of a true crime podcast network. They're investigating a 40 year old cold case. And, um, Frankie's now been replaced by a cat, uh, on the podcast. Um, and they go to investigate this cold case in this, uh, small town of hard ground. And, uh, it, it's just as, as, as they investigate and that they learn more about these folks and more about Sarah Shaw and like the mystery kind of unravels. It's fantastic.

[00:21:58] And so now I just came from hell, which I, I've, I haven't seen everything, just a couple of preview pages. This is, I guess, a kind of a, a followup to eat my flesh, drink my blood. And why don't you kind of tell listeners, you know, uh, what this is all about? Yeah. So it's, it's a bit of a double sequel. Um, so Jess and Dave are still our main characters.

[00:22:23] We're following up what their, you know, story is post who killed Sarah Shaw, how the end of that case sort of impacted their lives and what their next, you know, case will be what they're going to cover. Um, and what that is basically is the, you know, the fallout of eat my flesh, drink my blood. The there's basically, you know, the story of this woman who exits a swamp and devil's garden, Florida, completely naked and covered in blood.

[00:22:51] And when she comes out, she's basically catatonic, doesn't want to speak to anybody and then becomes a recluse and lives this town. Well, if you're an investigator, it's pretty juicy story to start going after. And so they decided to go and do this story. The big twist for readers who read who killed Sarah Shaw is that this time around Jess is eight months pregnant. So we're putting her in a position where she's traveling across the country to do this strenuous case while about to give birth.

[00:23:21] And her partner, Dave gives her basically three days. Dave is very much, if you've read who killed Sarah Shaw, he's the grounded, no nonsense one. And Jess is the I don't call her idealistic, but like she basically will do whatever it takes to get the story. And he's basically saying we got three days to get the story because I didn't want to come here in the first place. Is this from the preview pages I've seen? This is going to be more along the lines, at least visually.

[00:23:48] And maybe, Adam, you can talk about this visually like who killed Sarah Shaw. Because my recollection from Eat My Flesh, Drink My Blood is it was in a particular like format, three panels. Is that right? Yeah, that was the idea was that it was a movie aspect ratio for those three panels per page. And they were all the same size. So it had kind of this widescreen look like because Frankie and I are both huge like horror movie nerds.

[00:24:17] So that was the idea that who killed Sarah Shaw was just, you know, that was just done as like a regular comic book. So but yeah, it's similar in style. It's a little different enough where it's not just repeating what I did, but it's still that kind of gray tones comic book look. And I like to say that Eat My Flesh, Drink My Blood is the movie adaptation of the real life story of what happened to Lisa and her fiance, John, in that story.

[00:24:47] So it's giving us a little bit of leeway in adding additional elements because Eat My Flesh, Drink My Blood is basically like a graphic novel. It's 52 pages, I believe. It's a little bit on the shorter end. So this is allowing us to kind of flesh that story out a little bit more, add some more details, maybe change some things. It gives us a wider path, you know, to tell the story. I like that idea that the that it you know, because you you did it in that particular format

[00:25:17] and you know, Adam just said it kind of came from the fact that the two of you love horror films and it was kind of very cinematic. So to say that it's like the movie adaptation and give yourself some some freedom to kind of dig into some other aspects of it. Uh, I love that. Um, Adam, do you prefer to work like in any type of particular like format?

[00:25:41] Like, did you you enjoy doing something like Eat My Flesh, Drink My Blood or, you know, does it not matter to you? I mean, well, I enjoyed that because it was a part of that was that was sort of me because when I was like when I was a teenager, I wanted to be a film director. And so that was sort of me like, you know, weird way getting that chance. But at the same time, you know, I got to the end of it. I'm like, yeah, you know, I kind of like being able to use smaller panels if I want have, you know, design elements on the page and in terms of the layout.

[00:26:11] I don't know if I'd want to do it again. I really I think I prefer doing regular comic books. Oh, that's interesting. Yeah. Go ahead, Frankie. That format. I agree with Adam. It was a it's a fun challenge to try and tell a story like that to work. Like, I mean, basically, there's three panels every page. You have to kind of really strip your story down. You know, it's not a lot of real estate. I do. I like to approach like all my scripts.

[00:26:39] There's like a structure puzzle element to it that I like to add that makes it fun. Like, so you might flush drink my blood. The three panel page format was fun to work in for that project. And I like Adam said, I don't think I'd ever want to do that again because it was difficult to do. So but like even with like who killed Sarah Shaw, you know, we knew from the start it was going to be five chapters and every chapter was going to be, you know, its own focused on its own suspect, basically.

[00:27:07] And then also leaning into the narrative of, you know, what's truth? You know, you have to break down everyone's story. So there's no, you know, text and flashbacks. You know, like when people are telling their story, it's always narration. You never get any like, you know, there's never a moment where like you're back in the 80s and one of the characters verbally says something where you can see it as a word balloon because that's fact, right? That would be like what's actually happening. So you're only seeing the visuals and that's someone recollecting stuff.

[00:27:37] So trying to do that. And every comic I write is like creating a little puzzle to solve to make it fun and interesting to script, you know, besides just trying to tell a compelling story, which is a number one. Kind of speaking of that with going back and going, you know, back and forth between the two, you know, timelines in Who Killed Sarah Shaw, is that type of continuity difficult or

[00:28:02] particularly challenging for you at all, Adam, when you're switching back, you know, back and forth between characters and what they looked like 40 years before? No. And part of that is because I had this idea of I wanted it to be the most realistic looking comic I did. So I actually cast all the characters and I picked for anyone who was going to be in both time periods. I picked somebody who was acting when they were a certain age in the 80s and that would be around now.

[00:28:30] Oh, that's and they had a lot of photo reference. Yeah, that's really smart. Yeah, that's great. Can you tell can you do you recall? Can you tell me some of the folks that you you picked? Like, like, who's the first one that they interview? Is that Tiffany? Do you remember who you asked for Tiffany? Yeah, that's that's I'm probably going to butcher her name. Machen Amick from Twin Peaks. Oh, yeah. Mm hmm. Yep. She put Shelly on Twin Peaks. Yeah.

[00:29:00] Although I put weight on her for the present day stuff. I don't know why I didn't even think of that. Like pretty, pretty obviously Fairshaw is pretty obviously her Langdon camp from Nightmare on Elm Street. Like very few people have picked up on that, too. And I'm like, I kind of made that obvious, but I haven't had that one called out a lot. Oh, no, that's great. That is absolutely fantastic. All right, everybody. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back.

[00:29:28] Y'all, Jimmy, the Chaos Goblin strikes again. Ben, 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. 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. 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.

[00:29:56] If you don't know who Arkham Forge is, they have everything you need to make your TTRPG more fun and immersive. 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. Now I'm set to easily build high-res animated maps, saving myself precious time and significantly adding nuance to our campaign. That's a win every day in my book.

[00:30:25] 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. What are you most looking forward to, Adam, with revisiting part of the story and the world from Eat My Flesh, Drink My Blood? Is there anything in particular?

[00:30:55] I mean, you know, that was, it's horror stuff. I love doing horror stuff. So, and I don't think I've done horror in a while. So, that's kind of it. I like the, I mean, I'm getting to draw Lisa again. I liked drawing Lisa. She was a lot of fun. I've had a couple good pages with her so far. Yeah. Awesome. But also getting kind of that alternate, because since the, you know, the idea is that the Eat My Flesh, Drink My Blood was the movie version, getting to do kind of this alternate playing around with what I did before and not have it.

[00:31:25] It doesn't have to match up, but I can kind of play with that and, you know, be what I can do to make that interesting. Yeah. I mean, there definitely has to be a certain, you know, freedom to that. Do you have yet, Frankie, in terms of the, you know, how far out this story is or how long this story is going to be? Is it going to be a similar, you know, five chapter, like Who Killed Sarah Shaw? Or I Just Came From Hell? Yeah, this one's a little different.

[00:31:52] So the structure for this one is going to be like a three day format. And the days are, I mean, they'll all have to be kind of similar in length, I would imagine, because days are all similar in length in real life. But it's going to be structured. So instead of it being five chapters, it'll be like, you remember Majora's Mask, Zelda, the dawn of the third day, like before in that game there, the moon is about to crash into the earth and every day, like a title card appears and it's like the dawn of the third day, the dawn of the second day.

[00:32:21] So it's kind of like that where it'll be like basically day one, day two, day three, and that'll be how it's structured. So it'll be three chapters like that. It won't be, you know, five individual character based chapters. So we're going to do that lengthwise, pretty loosey goosey. I'd like it to be longer than Who Killed Sarah Shaw, just because we're already, I mean, script wise, we're 24 pages in and we're barely scratching the surface of like

[00:32:49] where we want to go with the story, but that can change. I mean, the, the way I script and have outlines there, you know, sometimes you start writing and the outline goes by the wayside because you're in a, in the zone with a certain character doing a certain thing. And then all of a sudden you look at your outline and you're like, oh, I, well, I had him doing this, which was going to affect this, but now we're doing something totally different. And so that can change. So, I mean, I would say at minimum, it'll be the same length as Who Killed Sarah Shaw, which was 120 pages.

[00:33:18] But if, if, if we can, you know, if fortune favors us and, you know, people are subscribing and, you know, the process is going well and nobody falls and breaks their shoulder again, or I don't fall there again, like, you know, we, you know, hopefully we'll be able to do, you know, do it and keep, keep making it until, you know, we hit where we, you know, hit a good point where we feel like we've told a compelling story. I mean, I'm working on it right now. Ooh.

[00:33:46] I mean, right to the second, I'm actually penciling right now. Insider's poop. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Page 22. Progress. Oh, that's pretty exciting. Frankie, I just wanted to, before we, we end tonight, I don't want to forget to talk a little bit about horror, not hate. Can you tell me about that? All right. Anthology that you're a part of, from what I understand, it's going to be on Kickstarter.

[00:34:14] I think it's a 200 page collection of stories. I've seen some of the folks that are involved, fantastic writers, fantastic artists. Any proceeds are going to go to either the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights and the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund. So can you just tell me a little bit more about, you know, that and your involvement and, uh, yeah. Yeah. So that, uh, was started by J.M. Brant.

[00:34:42] Um, he asked, uh, you know, he reached out to me a while back, asked if I had availability to do a short for that anthology. And I mean, it's awesome. When he pitched it to me, he's like, it's an anti-fascist, anti-authoritarian horror anthology. And I was like, I was like, don't say any, like, say less. I'm already in. That's perfect. Like, I, like, I put the stories are all themed around and everything, which is a fun, you know, horror space to work in. Um, I just have a, it's a, it's a small four page story in there.

[00:35:11] I worked with an artist named Basilis and then, uh, Tom Napolitano. I'm going to butcher his name. Tom Napolitano, um, did the lettering for it. You got it. Um, you got it. You nailed it. All right. And the page is already done. Looks amazing. They did both like an incredible job on it. Um, like you said, it's like a murderer's row of creators on it. Like there's so many talented people. Um, and then on top of it being not just an anthology, you know, I'd found out recently

[00:35:40] that it's also like part art gallery too. So there's tons of pinups from other artists that aren't doing stories, but are contributing pieces to it. Um, you know, it's, it's something I'm really excited, you know, for more people to see jam has been doing a great job coordinating behind the scenes and making sure, you know, getting the word out, you know, everyone's been trying to pitch in and promote it wherever they can, whether that's just posting or sharing other people's posts, things like that.

[00:36:04] Um, it feels like it's been a real team effort from an anthology of creators, you know, who aren't, we're not like working to, you know, we're not working together, but we're working together, which is a lot for an anthology. I think, you know, some of the other ones I've been a part of, like, you know, you do your piece and then you just feel like, all right, like I'm, I'm done. Let me know the books out. Right. You know, like, but this one does a nice little coalition feel to it of like, we're all in, you know, on making sure the books is as successful as it can be. Oh yeah.

[00:36:34] That's awesome. Um, all right. Well, I'll have a link to that as well in the show notes. So listeners can check that out. I'm a big fan of anthologies. I know they, you know, they, they have their moments on, um, Kickstarter, but I just think it's a great way to get a ton of stories for usually a really great price. It's also awesome that this one, you know, is for a charity as well. And yeah, it's just ridiculous. Some of the names of writers and artists in, um, in horror, not hate.

[00:37:02] So, so that's, uh, that's pretty cool. Um, you know, I know we're in, we're in December now we're getting ready for the holiday season, but, uh, since both of you are big horror fans, I was just curious, um, anything that you saw, you know, recently or that you, you have a tendency to, to revisit or are watching right now that you're enjoying? Uh, I watched, uh, Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein recently. I thought that was actually very good. Oh, I haven't seen that yet, but I've heard, I've heard good things.

[00:37:31] Well, I'm not, and I should say, I'm not, I'm not, I, I like him, but I have problems with a lot of his movies, but this one really works for me. Oh, cool. I want to check that out. I just love that cast, the cast in that movie. Oh, the cast is a great unit. For me, one, one that I saw this year that I've been yelling at everyone to watch is Bring Her Back, um, which is by the directors who made Talk To Me. It's a 24 movie. Awesome. Awesome performance.

[00:37:59] Speaking of del Toro, Sally Hawkins is the lead in that. She's in his Oscar winning, uh, Shape of Water, um, movie. Very, very good. Very traumatic. There are some, we saw it in theaters back in March when it came out. It was a path theater and there were some moments where like the whole theater, like was screaming and squirming in their seats, which is a fun experience because there's not very many movies now that like get that theatrical, you know, kind of squirming in your seats moment.

[00:38:28] Um, for a movie that I had now at this time of year, easy classic must watching December is Black Christmas. Um, oh yeah. I love that movie. It's one of my favorites of all time. Um, 1974 early. Well, that and Texas Chainsaw basically the first two slasher movies in my mind, um, came out the same year. It's like a sorority house slasher movie.

[00:38:52] Um, but just extra creepy crawl, you know, spine shingling, spine tingling chills, um, wonderful performances in it. Um, but my favorite fun fact about it, and it's something I also tell anyone that will listen to me, um, it's directed by the guy, Bob Clark, who directed a Christmas story, you know, Ralphie, you'll shoot your eye out that movie. So. Oh yeah. I love it.

[00:39:22] I love that. No, I love that movie, Adam. So I don't, I don't like Christmas story. So I, I grew up every, you know, every year it's on 24 seven on TBS or whatever. So like when I was growing up, my dad would always put it on and we watch it and just leave it on in the background. So every year for me, it's like a mandatory double feature. I put them both on. So I watched like, I'll watch a Christmas story and have a lighthearted ha ha, you know, family Christmas movie. And then followed up with one of the most disturbing horror movies.

[00:39:53] And he, I was just looking him up cause I wasn't too familiar with. I mean, I'm familiar with the Christmas story and black Christmas. I, I, I didn't realize that they were directed by, by the same person. And he also did. Yeah. I was just going to say that he, he directed black. Yeah. So black Christmas is first in 74, but yeah. Then he does a couple of movies that I've never heard of. He does three, three films and then porkies, porkies too. He does porkies too.

[00:40:23] And Christmas story the same year. Yep. He's, he was a, he worked on everything, which like, so when you go through his IMDb, it looks like a fever dream. Yeah. But I, I, you know what? I am fascinated by this. He followed up Christmas story the next year by doing rhinestone, the Sylvester Stallone, Dolly Parton movie. That was him. Yeah. Oh my God. Yes. He's done. Seriously. Adam go look up. It's, it's crazy. It's crazy.

[00:40:52] Like it's a, it's a who's who if he did that. Uh, yeah. So, all right. Well, Bob Clark, may he, may he rest in peace. Um, but yeah, he had a, got a crazy run in the seventies and eighties. All right. So black Christmas, uh, Frankie's also going to watch a Christmas story. Adam's not what, what is it annoys you about Christmas story, Adam? Well, I don't want to get too into it. Cause you know, Frankie's he's got memories tied to it, but I hate the kid and I hate

[00:41:22] the narration and honestly, I hate everything kind of in it, but Darren McGavin, he's the only part of it. I really like. Yeah. I do. Like, I do like Darren McGavin too. It's always, I didn't, I didn't see it until I was like, I was in middle school and they showed it to the school and I didn't, I was just like, wasn't into it. And then like for years I had people like, Oh, that's, it's cause of where you watched it. You need to watch it again. I didn't see it against how I was probably like 20. I was just like, yeah, this is a for me. Yeah. But Adam, you're, you're an incredibly stubborn individual.

[00:41:50] I think once you, you could have been eight years old and once you made up your mind on when you were eight, you were like, Nope, that's it forever. I mean, that's, that's possible, but I don't know. There are other movies that come around on. That's not one of them. I was never into a Christmas story as a kid growing up. I've come around on it recently, mainly because my, my father-in-law likes it. So every time we go over there for Christmas, it's always on.

[00:42:13] So I've seen it a bunch and it has, it has grown on me, uh, you know, somewhat, but I mean, I, my kids are 13 and eight. So usually at Christmas, I, I'm just watching whatever it is, uh, uh, they watch, but, um, we, we did recently, uh, we did last year. I finally introduced them to Christmas vacation, which, which I've, I've always enjoyed. So yeah, that's, that's one of my favorites. That's a fun one. Yeah. That was always great.

[00:42:42] And then I haven't, there's still a little, my wife says they're still a little young, but we just, you know, just Thanksgiving and every Thanksgiving, I watch planes, trains and automobiles. Um, cause great movie. That's just, I think they're, they're up in, I was, I think I was probably seven or eight when I first saw that. I was like, I, my wife tells me all the time though, that we're not, we're, we're not showing them things judging by based upon when I watched it. Honestly, that's fair. That's true.

[00:43:12] Cause I was also seven when I saw RoboCop. So I was like, yeah, I first for the first time. I'm pretty sure I saw RoboCop at like when, when's RoboCop out like 88, 89 or is it later? Uh, no, I think it's like 87. Yeah. It might've been a little earlier. Yeah. Okay. So yeah, uh, I was, cause I saw RoboCop shortly after it was out. I believe that was one of the movies that my dad brought home a bootleg of. Um, but yeah, 87.

[00:43:41] So I was nine when, when RoboCop came out. So I saw it at nine or maybe, maybe 10, but yeah. I was blessed to have an aunt who my mom was very like, Oh, you know, you can't like parental advisory on a CD. You can't have it, you know, R rated. Definitely can't watch it. You know, things like that. And I had an aunt that thankfully was like the exact opposite. So like, I'd go over there to like sleep over and hang out with my cousins.

[00:44:06] And like, that's where I saw like Akira for the first time as like an eight year old, like army of darkness, like 13 goes scream. Like just like all these movies that like a child maybe shouldn't watch, but I think it worked out for the best. I think it's cheap. Yeah, probably. It's always nice to have a family member like that. I remember the first time I, um, I slept over my, my uncle's house and my cousin Ray,

[00:44:34] uh, my uncle Ray, my cousin Ray at the time was like eight years younger than me. So he was a, he was a little kid. Um, I think maybe still a toddler. And I was probably 10, 11, maybe 12 at the most. And my uncle was just like, uh, you know, my dad was always into Bruce Lee films and karate. And my uncle was like, Hey, your dad likes this stuff. And I think we watched, uh, a Steven Seagal marathon.

[00:45:02] Like I was probably 12 and we just went like hard to kill above the law, marked for death and out for justice. Just, just, just like spend a day. Oh man. I mean, as a, yeah, as a young kid that liked any kind of movie, uh, yeah, I was just like Steven Seagal is the best there's ever going to be, you know, it's never a B better than him.

[00:45:31] I had a lot of strong opinions at 12, you know? Well, Adam, is there, is there anything else that you're working on or you want, um, listeners to, to check out and I'll put a link in the show notes to your Patreon. So they can all click onto that. Yeah. Well, it's, it's there anyway. I've, I've got another comic I'm working on myself called Trenchcoat Samurai. Okay. He's actually kind of helped me a bit. He's been the editor sort of on it. Um, but it's, you know, I'm writing it, I'm drawing it.

[00:45:58] It's a sort of a, a neo noir ish story of a mysterious modern day samurai who ends up in an affluent town in, in Connecticut. And, uh, he's there searching for something. He thinks he sees like an ancient evil kind of present there. So he's, he's kind of looking, he's trying to find it and he comes across, there's like a police officer that he becomes entangled with. And it's just sort of his, uh, little adventures in this town. Nice. All right.

[00:46:28] Well, that sounds great. So listeners check, check that out as well. Um, awesome. Yeah. I'll have links so they can find all this stuff and we'll keep an eye out for who killed Sarah Shaw for anybody that hasn't picked it up yet. But yeah, um, uh, I'm excited for, I just came from hell. And, um, the one other thing I wanted to mention, um, cause Adam, this is the first time I think you, you and I have ever, you know, spoken, but, uh, uh, you had done a commission for me.

[00:46:56] Oh gosh. I'm trying to remember. I think it was like three years ago at this point, uh, where I, I had, I had something that I still am thinking about, uh, doing where the main character is an anthropomorphic, uh, capybara. And so three years ago you did like my favorite, you, you, you did like what my favorite it's, it's a capybara dress like Marty McFly standing in front of the story.

[00:47:23] And it's like one of my absolute favorite things that I, that I have. And it was a fun drawing to do. I loved that. That's awesome. Well, yeah. So, um, yeah, I had a, had an idea for like a, I love anthropomorphic animals that people, you know, aren't typically anthropomorphized. So I had this, I have this comic idea about a team book and the leader is a capybara who's obsessed with the eighties. And, uh, so I had one friend of mine who drew him like Don Johnson in Miami vice.

[00:47:52] And then I saw Adam had done something that I saw on social media. I'm like, Oh, Adam would be perfect. And yeah, knocked it out of the park. It's one of my favorite comic things that I, that I own my, the capybara as Marty McFly. So thank you, Adam. Just wanted to say that's one of my favorites. That was a lot of fun to do. I loved it. Back to the Future is one of my all time favorite movies. Yeah. We just showed my girls that for the first time, uh, over this past weekend.

[00:48:18] Oh, we all sat down as, as a family and watched, uh, Back to the Future. And, uh, my 13 year old, she loved it. Um, she, she actually really enjoyed it. So I was, I was excited about it. It takes a lot to get like them to watch something I'm interested in. But, um, yeah, I, I watched the new season of Stranger Things with her. So that was the trade-off she had to watch Back to the Future with me. So then both of us, very happy.

[00:48:48] Both of us were very happy. I enjoyed the new season. So the new season's crazy. They just throw stuff at you the whole time. Man, there's no thing in the new season of Stranger Things. Yeah. I haven't, I haven't gotten to it yet. So you don't know, no spoilers. I will say that, that I, I did, I did really like it. I just thought it was kind of like all over the place. And I feel like the writers had come up with some things that they thought would sound fun.

[00:49:16] And then they worked towards those things. And I was like, yeah, you know what? I'm happy with it. I'm enjoying myself. Yep. This all long for the rest. Yeah. All right. Well, Frankie, Adam, thank you so much for coming on the podcast tonight. Listeners, there'll be links in the show notes so you can follow both Frankie and Adam on social media, especially Adam's Patreon. You're going to be able to check out I Just Came From Hell.

[00:49:43] And check out Trenchcoat Samurai. I just, I love everything that the two of them have done. And if you, you know, get a, can find it out there, Broken Bear, Eat My Flesh, Drink My Blood, Who Killed Sarah Shaw. These are, they're fantastic comics. You're not going to be disappointed. So yeah, check it all out. And yeah. So Frankie and Adam, thank you so much.

[00:50:12] This is, this was great. Thank you for having us. Yeah. Thank you. All right. And, oh, shout out to my brother, Bobby, the Cryptid Creator Corner's number one most dedicated fan. Bobby listens to all my episodes. Hey, Bob, how you doing? And yeah, rate and review us and do all those things that they tell you to do for podcasts. It really does help if you like what you hear. You know, we're over 400 episodes on the podcast. And also just my own little plug.

[00:50:40] It was recently announced that my first graphic novel with paper cuts and artist Amber Aiken is going to be out in April. So you can follow me on Blue Sky and, you know, you can preorder that. That would be kind of you. It's an all ages book. It's called Penny and the Yeti. And I think you'll like it. You know, I hope so. If you have kids, they'll probably really like it. So, yeah. So thank you so much for listening. And I will see you next time. Good night.

[00:51:06] This is Byron O'Neill, one of your hosts of the Cryptid Creator Corner, brought to you by Comic Book Yeti. We hope you've enjoyed this episode of our podcast. Please rate, review, subscribe, all that good stuff. It lets us know how we're doing and more importantly, how we can improve. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode of the Cryptid Creator Corner, maybe you would enjoy our sister podcast, Into the Comics Cave. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.