Fred Kennedy Interview - The Florida Hippopotamus Cocaine Massacre

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

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[00:00:51] That's 128 pages of incredible comics every month for less than $10. That's like a whole graphic novels worth. All subscribers get amazing offers like discount vouchers and exclusive product offers. Head to 2000AD.com and click on subscribe now or download the 2000AD app and why wait, start reading today. I'll put links in the show notes for you. Hello and welcome to Comic Book Yeti's Cryptid Creator Corner. I'm one of your hosts, Jimmy Gasparo, and I am very excited for the guests I have today,

[00:01:20] mainly because the comic that he has written is Bananas. I think it's a product of a fever dream. I got to read a preview of it today. It is fantastic. I laughed all the way through it. I cannot wait to talk about it. It is coming out through Mad Cave Studios on February 18th, 2026. Please welcome to the podcast, Fred Kennedy. Fred, how are you doing today? I'm good, man. I'm great. How are you doing, dude?

[00:01:48] Thank you for enjoying the book, first of all. That's great. Yeah, I don't think I just said that I said the name of it. I just said that it was like kind of bonkers. But the name of it is I love the current trend in comic books to give it a long name. You know, like something is killing the children. We only find them when we're dead. But this might be my favorite. The Florida Hippopotamus Cocaine Massacre.

[00:02:11] Yeah, there you go. That's it right there. Technically, the full title is the laser drug force in the Florida Hippopotamus Cocaine Massacre. But we just like stuck with the Florida Hippopotamus Cocaine Massacre because we we might not do we might not get to do the second arc, in which case the laser drug force sort of falls by the wayside.

[00:02:33] But if it continues, it'll always be the laser drug force in whatever happens. Yeah. So let's fingers crossed, you know, that we'll get to the next arc. Oh, yeah. Especially after reading this first issue, I can't wait to see where it goes from here. And I'll let you tell listeners what it's all about. But I first saw the title of this because I cover a lot of Mad Cave stuff.

[00:02:58] Listeners know I really like Mad Cave. They make it very easy for me as somebody who hosts a podcast to get their creators on. And I love a lot of their books. And I was looking through solicits for stuff coming up. And I saw the title and I was like, OK, well, I don't know what this is about, but I got to have somebody on.

[00:03:18] And, you know, it's you. You're working with James Edward Clark. I said, I got to have somebody on about this. I didn't know anything else other than the title. I had no idea what to expect. Did it live up to the title? Oh, no, absolutely. But I mean, I had like just going in, I knew nothing. I didn't read the little synopsis. I just I saw the title and I wanted to set this up.

[00:03:43] You sent over the preview issue and I went in totally blind. The only thing I knew was I'd like to check if anybody's been on comic book yeti before. So I just searched your name and found that Andrew Irvin, who does who's the interviews editor, interviewed you for Dead Romans, which is like a phenomenal book. It came out through Image Comics. What is it? Shadowline? Yeah. Shadowline Image Comics. Yeah. OK. Fantastic.

[00:04:11] I actually downloaded it on I rented or on Hoopla and I was rereading through it again today. But very different. I mean, oh, very different. I mean, like Dead, Dead, Dead Romans is like, you know, traces it like roots in history. Like you have this story within like the Battle of Tutorborg, if I'm if I'm if I'm saying the name right. And so that's what I that's all I had going going into it.

[00:04:41] And it is like it's like a fever dream is the only way I can describe it. Like you set it up as as being like a PSA. I just it's just it's it's it's it's absolutely ridiculous. Like I'm in such a good way. I don't I hope nothing I'm saying is is like you're doing what I want people to do. Your reaction is perfect. It's perfect. It's perfect. This is what we want.

[00:05:09] The names are ridiculous. The setup is ridiculous. James Edward Clark, I'm not super familiar with his work at all. But all of it is like absolutely tremendous, like batshit insane. There were like so many things that I had that I want to talk about that were just like I loved. I mean, one thing in particular, I I don't want to like, you know, I don't want to give like the whole thing away or whatever.

[00:05:38] But it's kind of hard to get the whole thing away. It is true. But before before we even get into what it is about, I do just want to say because I was so excited about it. So the the feds show up at this hippopotamus park in Florida. But there is a panel where there's like six of them as they are about to confront the the people who are selling the new drugs.

[00:06:06] And each one of them does like a little true as to as to like what they're, you know, like, oh, look, here's this picture of my kid about to graduate or here's my. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I just got married. You have so much to live for, Bill. Oh, yeah. And the one of the guys says that it's such like such a funny trope in TV shows and movies. And just it's like just laid bare in such a funny panel.

[00:06:36] But in any event, enough enough about my thoughts. Could you just I want to hear you tell listeners what like what this is about, because I also wanted to ask, like, how you pitch this, because it seems it's just wild. But but please take it away, Fred. So it's it is it's like a 1980s anti drug action movie meant to be shown to children in school. That's the gist of this movie.

[00:07:04] So what's interesting is I don't know if you remember, but like these movies that you would watch in the 80s would have the most insane over the top violent action sequences. But no nudity, no swearing, all titillation. And so that's the there's no swearing in the book. Like, we're very adamant. Like, no, like there can be gollies. There can be gosh darn it. There can be all these things. Rudy toot tootin guys, you know.

[00:07:30] But like the gist of it is to make it like it's a PSA to show the high school students. And the book is always bookended with Mandy Lazor, who is the don't do drugs first lady of America. And she's like talking to the kids about how they're all soft boiled tater tots and all this stuff. And this they need to watch this show so they can be filled with the virtues of what it means to live in a drug free freedom loving society.

[00:07:57] And so then the story rolls and you learn about why drugs are really bad and everything that happens in the world that's wrong is because people doing illegal drugs. Biggest threat to the world. And everybody is terrible in the story. Everyone's the worst. Everybody is awful except for the hippopotamuses. The hippopotamuses are the only non awful characters in the whole book, even though they are technically the monsters of the story.

[00:08:25] They're the only non terrible people in the whole book. Yeah, I mean. Do you want me to give like a synopsis of the plot? I mean, I don't I don't I honestly don't think you should. Yeah. Well, to set the stage to set the stage for it. Yeah. Um, there's an amusement park, like you said, Disco Hippo Wonderland, which is the number one aquatic mammal themed amusement park in the world.

[00:08:53] And its owner is actually leading a double life as the world's most nefarious drug lord. And he's worked on this brand new, super powerful drug called Coke 45. But before he can release it, there's a big drug bust that goes wrong at the amusement park. And to escape, he dumps all the experimental cocaine in with the hippos and then chaos ensues. That's really the best way.

[00:09:21] So it sort of like has like elements of like Narcos Mexico meets Jurassic Park. But if it was done by the Abrams brothers following Airplane One, that's like the slickest way to really just because that's how I actually do it. He sold it to Mad Cape. Is it really?

[00:09:39] Yeah, that was a line I told by our editor, James, who has been the best to deal with because this has been kind like the book has been just as chaotic to make as the story is because like James and I don't work off like a script for this. We do we write a beat sheet together. Then he thumbs the beat sheet. Then I write the dialogue in and send him a dialogue script. Then he imports it all. And so our editor has to like edit based on lettered pencils.

[00:10:07] And so it and he James even said he goes, this has been a process. I'm like, it's going to be worth it. I promise. Whereas like when I do dead Romans with Nick, that's a straight up script, straight up. And he does all the pencils and everything. So that's very straight ahead compared to this one. But to be honest, I can't see this book being done any other way. You know, it's it is it is a thing, you know, by the way. It's just a thing. It's great.

[00:10:34] Well, so wait, but I'm curious now why you said you can't see it done any other way. But like, how did that come about? How were you like, all right, I have this idea or, you know, working with James on this idea. I've been a fan of James for years. Like I've James has been like he's been doing shows in Toronto forever. And he's a real like indie comic guy.

[00:10:59] Like he sort of shuns all of the big stuff and what because he wants to do his own thing. And I've always been a fan of the way he draws people like like his cartooning skills are awesome. But it's his figures like the way he draws people, the way he draws people when they move. He doesn't make everybody super pretty. You know what I mean? And that's what I love about him. And he did this book.

[00:11:26] I don't know if you remember Toronto's famous mayor, Rob Ford. He was like, so he did this. James did a book that was just all pictures of Rob Ford. Like he drew a whole book. It was just Rob Ford pictures. And I remember like he was walking around at a show just selling books out of his backpack, like on the floor, just walking around with the hand and like comics. Check out this comic that I drew. And he like sling books. It's amazing.

[00:11:55] Like I loved it. And so then I bought the book from him. And I think that night there was like, you know, it shows like everybody goes out and everyone's partying together and whatnot. We were just talking and I always wanted to work with him on something. And we talked about a few things like we were going to do this book with caveman and stuff. And it just never came together. I wanted to do a silent caveman comic is what I wanted to do.

[00:12:17] And I wanted to do it with him and have like these like sort of like apocalypto 10,000 B.C. kind of vibes, but make it like a grindhouse movie, but silent. And we talked back and forth about it. And it just never came together. Like schedules always don't work. And this idea for the hippo book started as a joke text conversation with my buddy, Adam, Adam Gorham. We were joking around about weird ideas.

[00:12:46] One of them was like dinosaurs fighting an alien invasion and how dinosaurs were actually really smart. And they've just been gone so long. We don't know. And then he was mentioning the Pablo Escobar's hippos and how they were like wreaking havoc in Colombia. And then we were talking about stories involving that. And the initial idea had the initial idea for the story was that it was a big party.

[00:13:14] We decided because we wanted to do like, you know, like on South Park, downtown Canada. We love that joke. And so wanted to do like downtown Colombia. And then we made it to downtown Florida because that was like funnier to us. For some reason, it was funnier. And so there's a big party at this mansion. And they've got the drug agents are about to go in. And then when they go in, the big storm hits. And it's sort of that Jurassic Park element of there's a storm.

[00:13:44] No one can get out. But the drug dealer guys are all partying. And it turns into this like almost a smoke and aces type scene thing where you've got assassins trying to kill them. And then we're like, let's just make it the hippos. And then was like no longer a party at a mansion. Let's make it crazier. Let's put it in an amusement park. And those ideas all came from James. Like when we started talking about the idea, because I like silly.

[00:14:11] And I think I really like silly because I do I try and do very different things when I'm writing. Like I do a lot of work with Blizzard. So I work on Diablo a lot. And I'm working with some other stuff with Blizzard that I can't talk about really. But none of it is super funny and silly. So I can't really be funny and silly. So I wanted to do something really silly. So I was really pushing silly. Right. And I think that I was pushing silly too much. And James really pushes Grindhouse.

[00:14:40] He wants to do Grindhouse stuff. So I think that the combination of what we were bringing to it really turned it into what it was. Because I remember the opening scene had I was boring elements from like hard boiled. You know, I was always hanging out like the jazz bar. Like so. And he was hanging out. He was the B character who hasn't even been introduced yet. She doesn't come into play until until book two.

[00:15:05] But B she was actually initially a cocktail waitress at this robot jazz bar that the main character Miguel went to to hang out. And it was like, it's basically like Chuck E. Cheese animatronics, but like a jazz band. Like it was robot jazz. He was a big fan of it. And then we changed the scene so that we're like, no, no, no, no. We want the big action scene at the front.

[00:15:31] So we sort of have the story is happening. And then he comes in like a bat out of hell and makes this big grandiose entrance is his do what you feel shenanigans. You know what I mean? So like James and I together, I think, created something really cool. And there are a lot of times where like we have very different takes on what should be happening.

[00:15:54] But I really think that if you're not having disagreements in the creative process, you're not going to wind up with something as strong. You know what I mean? So I feel like we brought two very different elements to this story. And what you get is something really unique. Like it's a very there's nothing there. Dude, there's nothing like this on the shelves right now. Oh, no, no, there really there really isn't.

[00:16:22] I mean, I read a lot of comics and there's there's absolutely nothing like it. And I mean, it just seems like you you know, the you know, the beats and the tropes of like this type of, you know, undercover agent, you know, has to rescue his brother and some, you know, the drug lord who has a double life. Like we've seen these things like play out before. And I think because you know them so well, you can really kind of like play with them and amp them up.

[00:16:51] And like kind of like we mentioned earlier with the the federal agents that all talk about they have something to live for. Like you can kind of play on all of those tropes. And it just it's it's so much fun. Like reading it was such a good time. Like it really is silly in the best way. And yeah, James James artwork is a movement because like we're talking about, you know, a lot of fun stuff and silly stuff. And it's kind of ridiculous.

[00:17:20] But yeah, there's a scene where is it Miguel who like flies out of his car towards a couple of bad guys jumping through the sky. Yeah. Yeah. But like all that all that paneling, like it it looks really good, like it looks good in terms of like the movement of it. And there's the other thing I really liked about it. I think I think comedy is hard, like no matter what.

[00:17:47] I think comedy is really hard in comics because so much of comedy can be based off of delivery and timing. Like we're used to television and movies. We're used to stand up comedians. So it's I think even though it's you have the the the visual medium of comics, comics, I think it can still be tough. And this is like one book that I feel like just has like jokes upon jokes.

[00:18:12] I mean, you'll have a crowd scene and there's like five or six speech bubbles and they're there. Each one is each one is getting like is funnier than than the next. Like it's just all peppered through. And I'm kind of fascinated that with the scripting of it, you kind of just did a beat sheet rather than a full script. And then then James went through and thumbnail it. And then you put in the dialogue because then James lettered it as well. Right. Yeah.

[00:18:41] So, James, like we wanted it. We wanted to have like as few people in the kitchen as possible because it tends to be with like jokes. There's a line where it's just is too much, you know, like if everybody's throwing in more jokes and more jokes and more jokes. Dude, we have to like shave things back like the initial like.

[00:19:01] Like so what I would try and do when I would give James the letters is give him way more than what we really needed because you I tend to get too lost in what I'm doing. And so I needed to make sure that like what ended up on the pages was the best stuff that was on there. Like I could show you the actual I would write it like I'd print it off of a printer and handwrite everything on to like move stuff around. And the pages are just disasters. They're sitting right there on my desk.

[00:19:30] I'm not going to do that because I could give something away. But one of the big influences for me is Ryan Brown did this book called Blast Furnace. And it was this and he sold it like it's just like a little ash can like book. And it was this he basically made a comic strip with his warm up pages. He would just draw warm ups. And he did this book called Blast Furnace.

[00:19:55] And it is the most it's about a cop who's like the best cop and his tie is on fire. Like his tie is always on fire in the story. It's very silly. I like Ryan Brown stuff. I love one million astronauts. And I actually bought the book when I bought one million astronauts as well. And it was like that was a huge influence on me. The goon as well. I think Eric Powell is one of the best there is period. End of story.

[00:20:24] The goon is like the goon is the comic that made my kids comic book fans. They like funny stuff. And the thing about the goon is it's great because it is funny. But it's also telling a really cool story at the same time that like follows the very sad story of the goon. But it's also really, really funny and enjoyable to watch. And there's this one I forget. I think it's like in the eighth trade where there's a scene where a joke and you're reading it.

[00:20:52] And you're even thinking you as the reader like, wow, that's a little bit of a sidestep for the story. And you turn the page and it's Morgan Freeman trying to determine if that last joke was actually funny. And then it's like they have a discussion about the joke in the comic. And that was one of my favorite things that I've ever seen in a comic. Like it was always like those things that really stand out. That's one of those things that stood out for me.

[00:21:14] And I think when James and I said we were going to do this, everybody's like everyone, every comic, everyone's like, oh, we're going to do something really amazing. I think that we our mindset wasn't, oh, we're going to make this amazing book because that's what you should be always going for. We just wanted to do something that people are going to remember that it's very different than what else is out there right now. And I'm really stoked.

[00:21:39] And when Ryan Brown read it and gave us a pull quote, like that was a huge, huge deal to me, like on like a personal comic book fan level. Because, you know, it's weird you put these books out and you never know who's going to read them. You never know who's going to like be influenced by what it is that they're seeing. And I've bought Blast Furnace, like the original print and then the revised black and white print and in the color print.

[00:22:04] Like I have like four or five different versions of this one book and I give it to people as like a Christmas gift and birthday gift all the time. It's great. Like, so I would like to think that we put something out that is like pop in the face as much as like some of the stuff that Ryan Brown has done, you know? Yeah. Oh, that's fantastic though to get somebody who use work you admire to, you know, actually read your thing and provide a pull quote.

[00:22:32] Like if there's just something so exciting, you know, as a writer about that, having somebody else who you admire check out. Scott Hepburn, like Scott Hepburn from Minor Threats. Minor Threats. Yeah. He read it too and he gave us a really nice pull quote as well and he was very complimentary of it. And it really sparked like a really good like email conversation about the stuff that we're doing with the story.

[00:22:56] And he was like what you're saying with like the timing of comedy in a comic is different, you know? And he was very complimentary of of James's like skill and us working together to craft something that doesn't feel like the jokes are lagging behind the visuals or vice versa. Everything paces itself very well. Yeah.

[00:23:18] And that really is like the key with I think jokes or trying to be funny and have like the the words match the visual gag like you don't ever want you don't want the jokes to lag behind. You don't ever want the reader to get like way out ahead of you because, you know, sometimes comedy, the key is, you know, to subvert expectations or, you know, to surprise the audience with with something that's funny.

[00:23:43] But, yeah, I just thought this was one of the funniest books that I've ever read in terms of comics. And I mean, talk and talk about a story that you just the title alone. You're like, well, that title's insane. So the comic, it can't be ho hum. Right. I mean, you could have went a totally different way.

[00:24:06] Like you could have made Florida Hippopotamus Cocaine Massacre and have it been like a gritty like grindhouse. And it would have it would have been fine. It could have been great. But I mean, the two of you have made something that I don't think I've ever seen in comics before. Did you take the dare pledge? Wild. Did you take the pledge? Exactly. I'm 46 years old. Yeah, I'm 46 years old. Like 100 percent. Like so, like I remember. So because my family's military.

[00:24:36] So we were we were overseas and we were at shape. We were at the NATO base in shape. And so there's like all the different countries have their own school section because but the Canadian and American kids were were very the cultural cultures are very similar. So yeah, as Canadian kids had to go over to the American school to do their program and take our dare pledges. And the only real English channel that you can watch like North American stuff on was the Armed Forces Network.

[00:25:05] So it's this Army TV channel. And it's like there's no commercials. There's just like recruitment ads for the military, by the way. It's just remember like the classic Marine guy who was a knight. Remember that recruitment commercial from the 80s? Like constantly, constantly watching. I do. And then like anti-drug PSAs and recruitment ads. That's all we watched. And all of those things really wove their way neatly into that story.

[00:25:31] And all that like I don't know why we've gotten away from mid budget 90 minute action movies. Like they don't need over the top like budgets and special effects or anything. And they don't even really feel like we're going to reinvent the wheel. Just give us a few cool things. Like I think one of the biggest movie influences on this book was Point Break.

[00:25:59] Like Point Break was a profound influence on this story. Like Johnny Utah washed up college athlete turned federal agent. Clark Nebraska washed up college athlete turned federal agent. Like that's the story. Bodie like out there living it, making things happen, plays by his own rules. Right. Senecoza out there plays by his own rules.

[00:26:30] Like it's that it's a huge deal. Like the stories are very similar. And Clark Nebraska is my favorite character that I think I've ever created. And Clark was originally a dude. Clark was originally a dude. And we described him as like he was a corn fed superstar athlete. And he was really built around what's his face? The boss like like the college football player. Yeah.

[00:26:58] Like really built around the boss. And then James was like, we don't have enough women in the book. Let's make Clark Nebraska a woman. And I'm like, yes, done. So Nebraska became a woman. And we didn't want to do the thing where she's placed by the book. You're out there and crazy. Not we didn't want to Riggs and Murtaugh situation.

[00:27:26] We wanted them both to almost be competing about who's worse. So that's the dynamic of the two of them is almost like a. But the thing is, neither one of them thinks that they're terrible, but they both are awful. They're both horrible people. But it's almost like I can't believe they're doing this, but they're each terrible in their own wonderful, awful little ways. I love the Clark Nebraska character so, so much. And in the second issue, you kind of get her backstory.

[00:27:54] And it's there's a line in it. I don't even want to give it away. But my favorite line in the story comes in the second issue. And it's Clark Nebraska talking about her her time in college. And it's yeah, it's I remember writing a be like, writing it down and sending it to James. Yeah, it's it's so ridiculous. Yeah.

[00:28:17] I mean, I love I love that it's set in the 80s and you can tell that like not just the PSA and dare, you know, of it all. But the you mentioned Point Break, but the 80s influence of like those action films. Yeah. I mean, I think I think nowadays we do we do still have some of those like 90 minute mid budget action films. I just think they're all being made by like the streamers like Netflix is just throwing them out.

[00:28:46] Like the thing was, though, in the 80s, you would have ones that were also like blockbusters and making a lot of money. And then they would they would they would make money from putting them on cable. So we we just saw them every Saturday and Sunday afternoon. And the the thing is, is that I think we kind of are almost too dismissive of them. We we take too much of a look at like the paint job.

[00:29:14] And from a writing perspective, you're not paying attention to how efficient those movies really are. And RoboCop, I think, is an incredible movie. It's always sort of brushed aside as this like over the top sensationalized action movie. And it really is. But it's more of a poke at the genre than it is the genre. You know what I mean? It's like a joke. Yeah, I don't think people get.

[00:29:43] And I argue that it's such a good piece of storytelling, because when you watch RoboCop, like growing up in that era, watching it, you know that Murphy and what's the partner's name? Murphy and his partner. I always forget her name. But she and him, you think they're like the best, best friends in the whole world.

[00:30:09] They're the best partners, even though they really only met that morning. OK, so they meet that morning. Then they go out and they're just they're driving around the city. And he's spinning the gun. He's putting it in. Ace Ace Laser or whatever. TK Laser, whatever his name is. The kid show that his kid watches. Whenever he takes it, a bad guy spins his gun and puts away. So my kid thinks I'm cool. And they have this conversation. And then they drive in.

[00:30:36] And of course, Murphy gets blown apart by Red Foreman and turns into RoboCop. But the thing is, they only have seven and a half minutes together. I think it's like seven minutes and 14 seconds. That's all the screen time that they share together before he gets capped and turned into RoboCop. But when you watch the movie, you're like, they're best friends. They're best friends in the whole wide world. Like they're the best friends in the world.

[00:31:05] But it's because it's so good. Like it's so efficiently done. And people like write that genre off as just nonsense and not good. But like you go back and you watch any of those like Paul Verhoeven, John Carpenter movies, any of those movies of that era. And to another extent, like Michael Mann was almost like artsy version of that. Like watch Miami Vice. Watch the original Miami Vice TV show. And it is awesome, dude.

[00:31:31] Like Miami Vice was a huge influence on the original kind of story, the direction the story took. Miami Vice was a big influence on it. When I was writing it, I did listen to the original Miami Vice score soundtrack a lot. Oh, yeah. When I was doing the writing because there's a coolness to it, you know? Oh, yeah. Like it's cool. And Miguel Senecoza is so cool. Like he's so cool.

[00:31:57] Like his stupid shirts, his unreal hair, the perfect stash, you know? Like everything about never takes off his sunglasses ever. Like he's always cool. And so that element from like Miami Vice plays itself out. Like in the driving the Porsche. The Porsche is actually from the TV show Mike Hammer. I loved Mike Hammer. My dad was a big Mike Hammer guy. Oh, my gosh. I remember Mike Hammer. Stacey Keech in that white Porsche, always driving it around.

[00:32:26] So I was adamant, like adamant that he's driving a convertible Porsche. Like 100% that's the car. It's a convertible Porsche because of Mike Hammer, Stacey Keech and those pipes. Oh, my God. I loved all of those shows that were on, you know? Like they don't. That's what I feel like a genre that they don't do enough. I mean, I'm digressing a little bit from Mike Hammer.

[00:32:54] But all of those shows where they mismatched two people and they had to like, you know, Remington Steel. Remington Steel, you know, all those ones. But like that's a little different than the Mike Hammer of it all. But yeah, Stacey Keech was great. I loved Stacey Keech. I loved Mike Hammer. That's an awesome reference. You can be terrible. Like, you know what I mean? Like you can be terrible, but not bad, if that makes any sense.

[00:33:20] Like nobody is watching Mike Hammer and at the end of the episode looking at their games going, Someday that could be you, son. Nobody's saying that. But you still love the Mike Hammer character because they're not real. Like that's what makes them so. It's like Seinfeld. All the people inside, the characters are terrible. Like they're horrible people, you know? But you love watching them because they're funny to watch. So when we were doing the story, we didn't want the characters to be, oh, they're so great.

[00:33:50] You know, they're such cool people. I would love to live next. I hate them all. I wouldn't want to be around any people in this story, especially Mandy Laser. She's the worst of all. She's terrible. Yeah, she's pretty terrible. But it makes for a very fun comic book. All right, everybody. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back. Y'all, Jimmy the Chaos Goblin strikes again.

[00:34:15] 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 baps? 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.

[00:34:40] 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.

[00:35:09] 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. One of the other things I was curious, are you familiar with Sarah Gailey and her American Hippo book? No, I am not.

[00:35:36] You know that in terms of the hippo stuff, Sarah Gailey, they're a fantastic author. They've done some comic books like Know Your Station and Eat the Rich. But Sarah has prose books. It's the American hippo duology. And it's the premise of the book is I want to say that there's like a meat shortage in the South.

[00:36:01] So they decide the U.S. government decides to bring in hippos to like breed hippos for meat. And I think the industry collapses. And somehow the Mississippi just gets glutted with too many hippos. Makes sense. It's very plausible. And then there is a like a story within that. But that's the backdrop of of it. And I don't know.

[00:36:26] I was thinking about that today because I really love the both of the books that make up the or both of the short stories that make up the the American hippo book. And yeah, I just was thinking about hippos today. And then I read this was another reason when I saw the title. It's another reason I wanted to talk about it because I thought American hippo was so cool because hippos are truly terrifying animals. They really are like we would.

[00:36:53] The opening of issue two involves the first lady, the narrator of the story, explaining why hippos are in fact the perfect communist animal to explain why all of their terrible traits relate directly to the communist scare and what's coming. If we don't get it together as a society. The it's wild. Now, when you start reading about the way hippos really are, it gets really dark.

[00:37:20] But in Canada, there's we have like these PSAs that were run because we have can con laws in Canada. So 30 percent of the stuff that's on the air has to be Canadian made Canadian content. And there was always this PSA that used to run in the 90s called the North American house hippo. And the North American house hippo was this PSA about what to do if your house gets infested with house hippos.

[00:37:47] And there are these tiny little hippopotamuses that are around like 15 centimeters long. You know, they're just little guys. And it goes on about like what to do, how I don't feed them, et cetera. But the whole PSA is actually a PSA about don't buy into everything that you're seeing on television because this isn't real. But you thought it was because you're not thinking critically. So when you're watching TV, use your brain.

[00:38:15] So with Canadians, if you bring up the North American house hippo. Oh, yeah, I know what the North American house hippo is. So for where we talk to Canadians about the like it's like the house hippo, man. We're like, yeah, it's not really the same, but I appreciate that. So that's like I'm getting like Americana hippo culture here. This is a whole new hippo culture for me. So wait, but it was a PSA. Yeah. It was supposed to teach you like media literacy. Yes.

[00:38:41] And instead it fooled people into thinking the house hippo was real. Yeah. Like but like it's it's wild. And the thing was, is that the PSA, if you watch it, you're like, this is just like a little mini nature documentary. And the house hippo like runs across and it's like a mouse in somebody's kitchen. It's like the North American house hippo, like its range is from here to here where you can find it. It comes inside during the winters. And it's like, yeah, it's it's but it's awesome. The house. It's very Canadian. I just looked it up.

[00:39:10] So I'm going to I'm going to watch that. I found it on. I think it's on YouTube. I'm going to I'm going to watch that once we're done. I found the PSA. I mean, I guess there's no fear in terms of your comic work with worried about being, you know, pigeonholed,

[00:39:26] considering that like your work now extends from, I guess, I guess historical fiction with dead Romans through to the Florida hippopotamus cocaine massacre. I mean, but you do a lot of other stuff. Like you mentioned you work with Blizzard. I mean, you've had your own podcast. You've worked in radio for four years. Yeah, the radio like radio is my is my day job. Like full time.

[00:39:55] I'm working on the radio here in Toronto. I work on classic rock. So like stuff from the 90s because it's classic rock now. Sorry. Yeah, that hurts my feelings. That does hurt my feelings. I know, man. Hurts my feelings, too. I remember the first time hearing like Pearl Jam on a classic rock station and be like, oh, wait. Yeah, that's that's yeah. That makes sense now. Yeah. So I work on radio full time and then I've been doing like the indie comic thing for a while.

[00:40:23] And it started as like I was I was talking about comic book stuff and nerd stuff too much on the radio. And my boss was like, listen, I know that's who you are. And you can talk about it like you can that you're aware of it, but you can't just focus on it all the time. So maybe what you need to do is find a way to scratch that itch outside of work. And so I started doing like a lot more comic book writing.

[00:40:47] And my first like I did like these 24 hour comic book day challenges was the first real comic book writing that I did. And, you know, that's like you're writing a like a 22 page comic over 24 hours and it's you're not putting out Shakespeare. You know what I mean? And then when I got to Toronto, I met Adam Gorham and we started working on a book called Teuton together. And it was like a historical fantasy about the northern crusades in Lithuania.

[00:41:16] And you've got the gods of the Lithuanian pantheon who are it's which is similar to Norse like gods and stuff like that, but way darker, like so dark. Like there's like three or four different gods of death. And then there's all these gods that are around and then are dead and replaced by another god because the gods are all vengeful. There's an actual spectral assassin among the pantheon and it was really fun.

[00:41:44] And that was like the first book that I ever really did. And we did like three trades over the course of three or four years together and then started doing more smaller press stuff. But it was really only like about like five years ago that things really started happening professionally, you know, and it was dead Romans came out and we were in San Diego. And then we met the we met Chris Fernandez from Mad Cave and he was a big fan of dead Romans.

[00:42:13] And that led to some more work with Mad Cave. And it was right around that time, actually, that the blizzard thing happened, which was very weird how that all came together. Like there were some there originally were working on some stuff with that was focused around Diablo one. And then they got more into like the lore of the Diablo world and did a book about the Necromancer.

[00:42:40] And then that led into all kinds of spinoff books with Diablo. And then I started doing some stuff with Overwatch. And I've been doing a lot of work with Overwatch lately. And that's really, really cool. I like working with the blizzard people because it's just it's so fun. Like it sounds weird, but it's really fun to do. Like I really like doing it.

[00:43:07] And because it's like and what's good about it, too, like it's a really good exercise for a creator because you're having to work with established canon and lore. And the stories are always evolving and things are always happening. So you're always having to learn to write without knowing everything. And then piecing those things together sometimes after the fact with other creators together.

[00:43:34] And it's I've got nothing but incredible things to say about the people that I've met working through blizzard. It's been an absolute blast. And then there's some other stuff happening with Mad Cave, too, like the Samurai Pizza Cats. I'm doing that. And that's for me, that's a huge deal. Like, I don't know how familiar you are with the Samurai Pizza Cats, but it was like not at all that. You might have well just said that North American has it. Oh, yeah.

[00:44:03] So the Samurai Pizza Cats are from Tatsunoko, same company that does like Speed Racer and Gatchaman. Oh, OK. And they did the show called the Samurai Pizza Cats back in the 90s. And there are these three cats and they have a pizza parlor and they also protect Little Tokyo. And it's this very tongue in cheek action adventure comedy thing.

[00:44:34] And it's relaunching for its 30th anniversary next year through Nakama Press as part of Mad Cave, like a joint production with Tatsunoko and Nakama Press. And awesome, dude, it's that's really fun. That's been a fun book to do. So all these things like Samurai Pizza Cats is sort of like like an all ages young adult story that gets to be like an action comedy.

[00:44:56] And I really like it because there's a narrator in the story and the narrator just dumps all over the book the whole time talking about how you should have seen how great this could have been. But the producers wouldn't give us the budget. And all these scenes got cut. It's awful. And like, there's a lot of breaking the fourth wall in the series. So it's been a very fun thing to write. But everything I'm doing is very different than the last thing that I'm doing. Like, everything is so very, very different right now. And it's really good.

[00:45:26] And I don't think anything is going to be like this book. The Hippo book is it's a thing unto itself because we got other arcs planned. Like everyone at Mad Cave knows we're ready. We're ready to go now to do like the next arc. We've got multiple stories planned. We want to do a big thing involving ninjas because we don't think anybody does enough things with ninjas anymore. Like ninjas are cool.

[00:45:55] They're always cool. Oh, yeah. Like how many ninja movies did you watch when you were growing up? Oh, well, my dad was a huge Bruce Lee fan. Like, wanted to be Bruce Lee. I think my dad had a black belt. And when I was a kid, like I just thought he was a black belt. And it wasn't until like years later when my mom was like, he's not, he just likes Bruce Lee. He bought that belt. Yeah. Your father does not know karate, but we watched a ton of stuff with ninjas in it.

[00:46:23] Oh, I don't even remember what it was, but I was just talking with one of my friends about like some like Kung Fu movie where a guy spat like caltrops out of his mouth at a guy. And he was like, he pulled the mask, spat them. And he's like, yeah, all these like ninja stars on his face. And I remember like, awesome. Always be ready. Like always be ready. You never know when you're going to need to break that move out. You know? Yeah. Yeah.

[00:46:49] Ninjas were, I feel like that was a real like late eighties into the nineties. Did you have a ninja backpack? I feel like everyone had a ninja backpack and then Ninja Turtles came out like sort of like scooped up that young ninja demographic, you know? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Everybody was either, you know, a Ninja Turtle fan and always on the lookout for the foot clan. Yeah. Yeah. It's wild how like Ninja Turtles is still going.

[00:47:16] Like I took my kids to see the Ninja Turtles movies in the theater. So wild. Like that brand has staying power, man. I love the Ninja Turtles. I just bought that new Palladium re-release of their role-playing game too. I love the Palladium stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah. It's amazing how they're still around in, you know, and they're still making new content, not just in like the films that have come out, but like the, I mean, the, the comic books are still doing really well.

[00:47:45] I think they're at IDW now. Yeah. They're with IDW. They're making him. Yeah. It was great. I mean, it was funny. The first like gig that I remember when Adam Gorham and I were doing Teuton, the first thing that he stepped away to do was this X-Files Ninja Turtles crossover book. And I remember being like, that is so cool, man. Ninja Turtles and the X-Files together. You're blowing my mind. That's awesome. I really like that. I'm a big fan of Adam.

[00:48:14] I really like, I really like his work. He worked on a book that I absolutely love. Chris Cantwell wrote The Blue Flame. The Blue Flame. Yeah, man. Well, I had Chris on the podcast and we talked about that a little bit, but I was a huge fan of The Blue Flame. I remember when I was like, dude, you're working with the guy who worked on Halt and Catch Fire. Like, that's a huge deal. Like, I love that show, man. Halt and Catch Fire was one of my absolute favorite binge shows.

[00:48:42] And I always get really frustrated that it was supposed to be the next Mad Men and it just never caught on, you know? And I wonder if like it was just, it wasn't marketed the right way because it had that Miami Vice cool. I mean, dude, you've got Lee Pace, who's like the coolest guy. He's so cool. And then I felt like they adverted that I don't think that they marketed the show properly.

[00:49:07] I think that they dropped the ball with the marketing aspect of that show because anyone who was a 90s kid that sort of watched the evolution of computers and the internet and having your mind blown when you saw a laptop for the first time or a CD-ROM, like, that show is for you. You know, like, it is for you, 100%.

[00:49:33] But yeah, like, Christopher Cantwell, like, I got to get this book in his hands, see what he thinks about it, see what he thinks about the hippos. Maybe he can get Lee Pace to do a, be a show in it, you know? Get, like, his likeness rights to make him a character. Absolutely. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Something like that. I don't know. I actually, we talked about, like, the dream casting for the show, like, if we were ever going to do the hippo book as a show. Okay.

[00:50:02] I always forget his name, but he was, he was the cop who was trying to do the right thing in Narcos Mexico season three or four. Um, and he had, like, I posted about him with the perfect stash. The guy's name is Luis something. But he's great. And he was always with this perfect stash. And I'm like, that's the guy right there. He's the guy. Uh, and Lisa Gilroy, uh, as Clark Nebraska. She's like, like, she's a Canadian and she's from Edmonton, like me, go Oilers.

[00:50:32] And, uh, she's, uh, she was on Twisted Metal. She's doing the Goldenecks show. She's always, uh, on very important people like the video interview podcast with all the improv stuff. She's great. Okay. She's my dream cast for Clark Nebraska. Cause she's very funny. She's way funnier than me. So she'd kill it. If that was who she was, she was vermin in Twisted Metal. And that was really good to see. It's great to see. I haven't watched that yet. Yeah. Yeah. She's not to check that out.

[00:51:01] Yeah. There's a show that knows what it is. You know, it's not trying to be Shakespeare. It's just a good show about driving cars and killing people in the post apocalypse. Yeah. Nothing wrong with that. Nothing wrong with that. Yeah. Anthony Mackie's in that. Yeah. Anthony Mackie's in there. Uh, yeah. That is always fun to kind of dream, dream, to dream cast a project. You know, the characters in this one, I mean, who would you have for, for disco? Is that how you pronounce his last name? Like it's disco world. Cause it's disco.

[00:51:31] So now I don't, when you're reading it, I don't know if you noticed, but everybody is saying each other's names wrong all the time. Like the constantly, none of the characters are saying each other's names properly, which I think is really funny because like, it happens in real life, man. Like, so Nebraska, like Miguel calls her like a variety of different names. My favorite being like, settle down Nabisco. He keeps calling her Nabisco. Like all the time, but it's disco.

[00:52:00] Like it's Jansmjordisco. But everyone calls him more disco. That's his street name. So throughout the story, like some one panel of persons calling him disco. And then next time the other person calls them disco, but then someone says disco. So then they say disco. So if you follow along, it's this chain of mispronouncing of names throughout the entire story, which I think is funny. But like at first we were getting nailed being like, so does this wrong? I'm like, no, it's intentionally wrong.

[00:52:30] That's how it's supposed to be. Right. It's not supposed to be correct. That's real life. Real life is messy. You know, it's yeah, it's intentional. Yeah, it's definitely intentional. No, I just I just think it's great. I mean, I just I was cracking up laughing today and it's you know, I think it's hard. I love comedy and I love to laugh. I do think it's I don't laugh a lot like reading comics. Maybe just there aren't that many like funny ones, but I loved it.

[00:52:57] I was like cracking up in my read it in my office today because I didn't feel like working. And so I took some time and I'm like, oh, I'm going to read this. I don't have to read it in the hour before the podcast. I'll be I'll be ready to go. And I thought it was awesome. So, yeah, I'm I'm a big fan. Very appreciate it. I cannot wait to see what happens with this. I mean, it's you've given it a lot to live up to with the name and you you guys did it.

[00:53:25] You and James and you said you said James was the was your editor, too. Was it James Emmett at Man Cave? Yeah, James Emmett. So I always say editor James and artist James. So, OK, James Emmett is our editor. James Emmett is Emmett James is editor James. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I just fantastic work by the entire team. Like listeners. I mean, I don't I feel like we've talked about a lot of stuff and I want to make sure that we did the book justice.

[00:53:54] It really is one of the funniest books I have read. It is wild. It should absolutely be on your pull list. It comes out February 18th. And, you know, I'll have a link in the show notes. And Man Cave is great. You read stuff digitally. You can get it at Man Cave. They are doing that thing now. You can get the the issues digitally and then get the trade in the physical when it comes out.

[00:54:17] But, yeah, look, the only reason the only way publishers know whether or not to green light a second arc is if the first arc sells well. And the best way to do that is to let your local comic shop know that you want issue one in in your pull box. Yes. And you absolutely should. Mainly because selfishly, I want to see what they'll do with a second arc because it's just I will say this. Okay. Ninjas and pickleball.

[00:54:47] Okay. There you go. I just I got to know. I got to know what that means. Yeah. Well, everyone's got to know what that means. So they got to go by FOC is on January 26th. Yes. So that's very important. You listeners, you know, the FOC, the final order cutoff. Let your shop know by then that you want it. And then it'll be right there waiting for you when it comes out on February 18th. But yeah. And if you haven't done it yet, go go check out Dead Romans.

[00:55:16] It's on Hoopla. Yeah. So if you have if you have Hoopla, you can get, you know, the digital library that said Hoopla or you can you can. And I'm sure there's other places where we get your graphic novels. You can pick it up. Dead Romans. Totally different, but also fantastic. Yeah. The Florida hippopotamus cocaine massacre is what a way to start 2026 with the gift that is this book.

[00:55:45] I mean, truly, Fred. Thank you. I mean, it's just there's nothing else like it. Laugh out loud funny. I mean, I I loved it. So thank you. I love it, too, man. My wife. I gave it to my wife to read. She never reads anything. I write it like she'll never read it. There goes the A. I did it. I did last second. I did it. But she'll never read anything that I write. And in this one, she said, I like it. It's really cute.

[00:56:13] And I'm like, yeah, that's that was the descriptor that I was going for. It's really cute. Very nice. Yeah. Well, you know, look, she read it. Yeah. OK, she gets she gets points for reading it. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's just it's it's absolutely ridiculous in like the best way possible. I mean, and just so different from from dead Romans. It's just just remarkable. You and and James Edward Clark. I just think this is phenomenal.

[00:56:43] So, yeah. I mean, listeners, I just got to pick it up. You got you got to pick it up. Read it. See for yourself. Don't don't read too much about it. Don't even read the description. If you get it digitally, just tell your shop you want it. Order it through Comic Hub, whatever it is you do. So this is I we're we're starting 2026 off strong with the Florida. If I'm going to hippopotamus cocaine massacre. I just want to like, you know what? I'm just going to next time I do this.

[00:57:11] I'm just going to like mix up all the words and we'll just say it a different way and see, you know, the hippopotamus cocaine Florida massacre. That fits with the motifs established in the book. You know, that works. That's fine. Oh, Fred. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast. Anytime, man. This has been great. Yeah. Yeah. I love this. February 18th. Listeners, don't let me down. Let's let's get let's get this book selling. Well, let's get a second arc. I just this is tremendous.

[00:57:39] So, Fred, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. Truly been a joy. And I truly I'm excited to start 2026 off with with this interview and with this comic. I'm excited, man. Believe it or not. I'm excited. Oh, I believe it. You should be. It's why this is just wild. All right, listeners. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you.

[00:58:04] As we go into 2026 and we'll see what what other fun and surprises we have in store. Rate review us. Do all those things they tell you to do about podcasts. It really does help. You can find me on blue sky and tick tock. Let me know what comics you're reading. February rolls around. You get the Florida hippopotamus cocaine massacre. Please let me know what you think about it. I just think it's wonderful. And yeah, shout out to my brother, Bobby, the Cryptid Creator Corner's number one most dedicated fan. Bobby listens to all my episodes. Bobby, don't worry.

[00:58:32] I'll add this to the pull list for you because I know you're going to want it because it's ridiculous and you're going to love it. And yeah, that's all. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you, Fred. Thank you. Good night, listeners, and I'll see you next time. 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.

[00:58:59] 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 Cage. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.