J.M. Brandt and Don Cardenas Interview

[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 novel's 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 am one of your hosts, Jimmy Gasparo, and I have two very special guests today.

[00:01:21] We're going to be doing something a little different where I had a bit of a scheduling snafu and both of these guests agreed that they would come on together to talk about their disparate projects. And I think there's going to probably be more common ground than even I at first thought. But please, welcome to the podcast. J.M. Brant is here and going to be talking about his Kickstarter for Horror Not Hate, an anthology.

[00:01:49] And it sounds like there's some amazing creators involved and they're raising money for some very excellent causes. And then also, returning to the podcast, we have Don Cardenas. And Don is going to be talking about the trade, all four issues of Evie and the Hellsings, which is a series that he's done with Steve Bryant. It's a series that I absolutely love and I can't wait to talk more about that. But as you're listening to this podcast, if you're listening it within the first week it's out,

[00:02:18] you're going to be able to go to the show notes and hit those links because both of the projects will be live on Kickstarter. And you'll be able to check them out and back them. But, you know, you're going to get to hear what they're all about tonight. So, J.M., Don, thank you so much for coming on the podcast tonight. Glad to be back. Yeah. Thank you for having me. As we record this, we're in that garbage time between Christmas and New Year's.

[00:02:44] Do any of you have like particular holiday traditions that you do? I typically was never really a big holiday person in general, but then we had kids. And then something takes a part of you at that point. And then on top of that, so Halloween kind of became our big holiday because the kids like dressing up and I'm more down to be spooky than jolly and festive. But for Christmas time, for this, you know, our family celebrates Christmas.

[00:03:14] And I had kind of taken over the role that my mother had. And that was making the cookies, making the tamales and, you know, making sure everybody gets them, who's around and all that. So like this year was the, unfortunately, you know, we lost my mother earlier this year. And so this was the first year that it was fully on me to like try to do something for a bunch of that stuff.

[00:03:42] And it was, you know, it was nice to do that. So that's kind of kind of my tradition is, you know, making the stuff and making sure everyone's fed and all that and everything's taken care of. But aside from that, you know, it's usually just, you know, these last few weeks of the year, just holding on to see my pants while the kids are home from school and trying to survive until they get back. Yeah, that part is rough. Oh, yeah, I bet. No, I'm sorry to hear that your mom had passed earlier this year, Don.

[00:04:12] That's got to be pretty difficult in terms of taking on those, you know, holiday roles. Yeah, you know, and not to start the podcast off on a bummer note, you know, it's. But, you know, it's the reality situation. But, yeah, this is, you know, it was a nice thing to have to work through and do stuff. You know, I experienced what she always told me was like when you're making the tamales, you're making so many. By the time you're done, you don't even want to eat them. Like everyone else eat them. I don't.

[00:04:41] That's exactly what happened. I'm like, I don't want to look at these things like you guys eat them. I'm done. Which is which is kind of crazy because that's usually like I'm usually just like housing like five or six at a time. Yeah. Tamales are one of my like favorite foods. I I've never I've never said no to one. I mean, they're not that they're so small. It's like, oh, great. I'll take another one. Why not? You know, that's my that's my kryptonite in terms of food. Tamales and deviled eggs.

[00:05:10] I just I can't I can't say no. I will house them. I'll have to ship some to you next year. I have to figure that out. Where there's a will, there's a way. JM, how about you? Are you a break into the holidays? Yeah. No, I love any excuse to celebrate a day and make it special above another day. You know, I don't go in for that. Like talk like a pirate day, you know, kind of the classics. September 19th, September 19th.

[00:05:39] Everybody talk like a pirate day. Oh, OK. Maybe I should have picked a more national hamburger day. You have that one in your back pocket. I don't I don't know when that is. Oh, I was hoping Jimmy would have that one ready to just just read locked and loaded. Oh, like like lo and behold, I come across the one podcaster that has every single the national day memorized. Yeah, no, I fucking love the holidays. Chris, I was raised Jewish.

[00:06:07] Uh, so, you know, I'm in on the Hanukkah stuff, but I married into somebody that celebrates Christmas. And, uh, I took to that with Gusto. So, uh, I'm, I'm, uh, big into the Christmas tree and buying a new ornament every year. Uh, got a really cool one this year from a horror convention and a friend of mine named puppets with teeth, uh, which is really cool. Um, I do a ton of tamales.

[00:06:37] So yeah, like I, I put away like, I don't know, 15 of them on Christmas. I lose track because I'm, because I'm just like, I'm drinking a ton too. Right. There's no point in counting them. Exactly. It's Christmas. You don't count. Yeah. I inhaled tamales. Right. Um, yeah. So, so, uh, that I polished off a handle of eggnog. So yeah, I love it. Oh, that's awesome.

[00:07:03] Do you still, I mean, do you celebrate both now Hanukkah and Christmas having married into a Christmas family? Yeah. Yeah. We do celebrate both. Um, I probably don't celebrate Hanukkah as much as I used to, but I try and give my son, uh, he's 10. I try and give them at least like half of the nights where we're doing the songs and lighting the candles and stuff. I'm just too ADHD on my own to remember to do it every night.

[00:07:30] And life moves a little too fast to dedicate yourself to it. I mean, unless you're a true believer and I, I'm more about the tradition of it and the family get togethers and the presence really about the presence. So, you know, you know, it's, it's fun though. Yeah, no, I bet. That, that's awesome. We'll turn from our, uh, beginning this talking about the holidays to, to comics, which is, I guess what folks listen to.

[00:07:59] They want to hear about the comics. Um, but Don, I wanted to start with you because you now have to trade for Evie and the Hellsings. You were kind enough to send over the, the four issues, which I think I'd read at least the first two previously, but I really appreciate you doing that. I, I just, um, I think I probably said it before when you were on, but I just love this series.

[00:08:22] I just love, I love the whole concept of it, of Evie and the Hellsings and, you know, Evie kind of being descendant all the way back to, to Abraham von Helsing and also doing the, the, her rock band in LA. I just love the, the real mix of it. And so as you go into the trade, you know, looking back over all of it, are you, how

[00:08:49] do you feel about how it, it all came out? And is it exciting kind of like to see like, Oh, we have a, we have, we have all four issues. We, we got a little trade we're putting together. Like, what is that feeling like? Going into the project? Like I hadn't done, I hadn't committed to like a multi-issue thing, you know, since my first book, uh, Packs of the Low Country, which was ended up being like, you know, six issues that we, that we collected on our own and all that.

[00:09:16] Um, more like seven because the last one was like double size, but anyway. Um, so I was excited because Steve and I had been looking to work together on something for a long time. I've known Steve since I think 2009, maybe 2010. And, uh, you know, since then, you know, he just knew me as a guy who was like getting back into drawing and, and interested in comics and stuff. And, um, but you know, over the time we became friends and then, you know, it just became a thing we wanted to work together on.

[00:09:46] And after some, a false start here and there was some things, he finally just like, literally just like called me one day. He's like, Hey Don, um, are you, are you working on anything? That's, you know, like your thing right now? I'm like, no, not right now. And he's like, well, I have a really dumb idea. And I'm like, you got me. What is it? You know, like, and you know, he's like, so he basically said, uh, you know, he pitched me, uh, even the Helsings, which is the story of E.B.

[00:10:12] Van Helsing, the, uh, last of the Van Helsings who, uh, instead of wanting and being vampire hunter number one, she just wants to rock man. And, uh, it comes, the first volume is her kind of getting the mantle and then her having to deal with the fact that she can't ignore it. Cause whether she wants to or not, the Van Helsings are, you know, vampire enemy number one. So, you know, it's kind of her realizing she can't escape her destiny, but you know, she's going to have to figure out how to do both. Cause she's not going to give up the other one.

[00:10:42] She's not going to give up the guitar. I think I, I think I mentioned, I said this to you last time, uh, but you know, with your podcast, comics, coffee metal, and with your, you know, your musical knowledge as well. Um, it seems like you are kind of the perfect person for the artwork in this story. You have a great mix of action scenes fighting, but there, there's a whole battle of the bands that, that goes on.

[00:11:10] And, you know, I think we talked about it before you trying to get things, you know, just right. Um, is that like, you know, feels good to do that, but it's also that a bit of like a, a curse, like I wish I could just not care as much. I don't wish I could not care as much.

[00:11:30] I, I wish, um, that I could just make my decision more quicker on what everyone's doing. Um, cause, uh, yeah, I, I was overly, I was, am overly harsh on myself in terms of like, you know, if they're a, so it's a full band shot, I want to make sure they're all playing the same song, you know, so that the, the notes where everyone's landing is going to

[00:11:58] be close enough to where like, you know, it would actually be within a song and having written songs for the book. I kind of know like, okay, they could be playing the song. So they would be up here and you know, the bass player would be down here doing this. And then the drummer would be like, you know, in between this beat doing this and, and all that. And there's been, there's been a few things since the first issue that I've been like, well, I'm being a little too precious with it because I'm like not making this shot, the,

[00:12:28] the, the, the image look good enough. Like the shot wouldn't be good enough if that's exactly what they were doing, you know, and no one's going to, no one's going to know, no one's going to care. I'm the one who's going to care. And, uh, so I just focus more on making, now I'm trying to keep my focus more on keeping the vibe right. Like, does this feel like this band's playing and jamming out and everyone's like doing that, you know, I'm still going to do my best to make sure, you know, musically it looks correct, but you know, the, that, that, that'll be second.

[00:12:58] And that's, you know, I mean, that second to like, is the vibe right? Is the imagery right? You know, is the dynamicism right? Does it, is it a feel right? Cause that's, what's going to matter. You know, no one, like even, even when I'm looking at other musicians, other artists who draw bands and musicians and stuff, I'm not nitpicking it. You know, I don't care if that doesn't look exactly look like a Fender Telecaster or if that doesn't look like, you know, a Les Paul shape, you know, it's a little wonky or whatever,

[00:13:26] you know, they drew five strings instead of six or whatever. Like, I don't care. You know, it looks cool. It looks cool. Right. It's just me being hard on myself, you know, and all that. So obviously I have lots of reference to check on, you know, and make sure I'm doing everything right. Oh yes. You record this. I see all the guitars behind you, but I was going to say, and then you just have dum-dums like, like me reading it and it's like, I'm not going to know if they're holding the instrument

[00:13:55] wrong or if it doesn't look exactly. I just, I just like that one scene where the guy kills a vampire with a symbol. That's what I want. I want more of that. The fourth issue has been kickstarted and been out for a while. So I don't want to spoil anything for everyone who hasn't like read yet, but that was literally like one of my favorite things to draw in the whole book. I don't know if I have them. I don't know where it was an email or text, but there's a bunch of excited back and forth

[00:14:23] between me and Steve about how to do that. What, what are we going to do? And there's, there's a panel where, you know, kind of like the aftermath of the work kind of slides off a little bit where like, I was just excitedly texting, I think texting Steve, like I'm going to draw it like this. Is that cool with you? He's like, oh yeah, dude. It was like that. So it's like, you know, we're just a bunch of, we're just a bunch of dorks, you know, who just like, you know, love, you know, as much as, you know, we're, uh, we wear our hearts on our sleeves with some of the stuff in the book and stuff that's coming up with

[00:14:53] the book. We're also like, you know, a little bit of gore hounds, you know, like, you know, how's this look cool? What's a cool way to do this? Um, so yeah, that was, um, so in terms of like the, you know, finishing the book and getting all that, it, it was very much both cathartic to like have something that I was so passionate about come out the way it did. That was very happy with, uh, it was nice to be able to see, you know, look back and see my own personal growth as an artist throughout the book.

[00:15:21] And then on top of that, we've been lucky enough to be successful enough to where, you know, I'm working on volume two now. And, you know, uh, and I'm really excited for, for volume two because, you know, Steve came to me with the overall story for this one. And I had a lot of input on the characters. Originally, Evie was going to be a guy. It was going to be like originally like Eddie Van Halen. I said, can we just make it like Evie or no? I said Edie. And he's like, how about Evie? I'm like, that's even better. Cause it's to me.

[00:15:50] It's like that, that keeps the Evie H thing for like Eddie Van Halen and, or, and also it kind of, um, it reminded me of the mummy from, you know, Brendan Fraser, the characters Evie in there too. So I'm like, Oh, it kind of ties into the monster thing and all that. But again, that's just stupid nerd stuff that flows into your brain where you're thinking of things. Right. And, uh, yeah, and all the character designs and stuff and, and basically who the characters are. I had a lot of input on, but this one I had this next time, I had a lot of story input

[00:16:17] on and it was really nice because Steve and I multiple times, you know, I'll come with, I was info dumping on story ideas or whatever. And everything he has seems to be like dovetailing right into what I want to do. So, you know, we're, we're, we're hoping to make many, many, many issues of this book as long as we possibly can for the rest of our lives if possible. Yeah. That's awesome. Uh, when you're working on the story aspects of it, um, are you focusing how, well, let

[00:16:46] me put it this way, how much are you focusing on just the story itself and how much are you trying to figure out all like, I want to tell this story because I want to draw this. Well, it's so stallion. Like it's, it's, it came with pretty much the story. Like there's like, again, small things that were there, but like the heart of the story was very much like, I want to tell this. This is, you know, the heart of the story is someone who was, you know, told that this is what you're going to be. And she's like, no, this is what I want to be.

[00:17:16] And I'm going to go do this. But then that comes and she has to face the fact that she can't escape that, but she's not going to, she's not going to give up. You know, she's going to figure out how to do both. And just someone who's going to have to like, you know, I can, I feel like I connected with the idea of someone who is aggressively putting more on their plate than they should, but because they're too stubborn to give up on the things they love to do that they're going to have, they're going to figure out how to do both. They're going to have to figure it out.

[00:17:47] So there was that aspect of it that, you know, I was really drawn to and focused on. But then as the characters develop, you just kind of fall in love with your characters, you know, and as they grow and, you know, as a writer, I'm sure you, I'm sure you both know as creators, like you, once these characters are created and you've given them enough to be kind of alive in your brains, it doesn't feel like you're writing them anymore. It doesn't feel like you're thinking of things for them. It's like, you're discovering things about them. Like, oh no, wait, this is why they do this. Oh, this is why they do this.

[00:18:18] And so that's, that's been a lot of the fun with me and, you know, Steve, because he lets me just kind of like dump cannon on him. And, you know, I, and, you know, Steve is, you know, the writer of the book. So I wish I, because he respects the fact that I'm the artist of the book. So we try to keep that line, like, okay, I get, you know, to say in the art decisions, he gets, you know, he gets to say in the writing decisions, unless we both really want to fight about it.

[00:18:45] But most of the time, it's just like, you know, he's been really open to me, just like pouring out ideas for things as I'm going through, as I'm drawing. So as I'm drawing, you know, there's been a couple instances where I'm drawing one of the characters and like, I draw one of their expressions and I'm like, wait a second. And like, it just unlocks like an idea of like, oh, this is why they would be cooler with this than they wouldn't, than this other person wouldn't be. Or, you know, there's things that just build up with there. And so I don't have to be answering your question effectively, but like, you know, so when I am

[00:19:14] working on the book, I'm always thinking about the story because, you know, I know what's coming next, but it's not done yet. So it's like, oh, you know, what can we, what can I do to like, what can I do now? That will inform the story even more later to pay off for people who are reading now. And that's something, you know, probably from me growing up on the X-Men, Chris Claremont X-Men, you know, you had those, those long seated things that, you know, you just want to have a one page throw away of the something.

[00:19:41] And then, you know, two years later, it pops up as something more important than it was or whatever. So. No, yeah. Well, JM to, to turn to you and we're, you know, we're staying in the horror realm, but I mean, I do not envy anyone and attempting to take on what it is you are taking on, but I'm so impressed whenever someone can pull off something like this. The anthology is, is horror, not hate.

[00:20:09] And I want you to tell the listeners about it, but like I have looked through, I think it was the article on, on the beat, uh, comics beat, but, um, so many creators, so many unbelievable artists involved in this. So why don't you tell listeners what is horror, not hate all about? And then I, I have to hear how you went about trying to get like everybody involved that you did for this project. Yeah. Um, it's over a hundred people that I'm, I'm dealing with on this.

[00:20:37] Um, yeah, it's, it's, it's a lot of fun. Um, so, uh, horror, not hate, just like the, the bare bones of it is it started out as a horror comic anthology where basically I wanted to raise money for immigrant rights and LGBTQIA rights, uh, because, you know, um, those communities always need help and our support, but especially

[00:21:05] now with the political climate, the way that it is, uh, it was extra important for me. You know, I'm a native Angeleno. So having ice in my backyard and, you know, having my community impacted by it and, and just seeing it all around the country and, and the sentiment, um, of so many people, it's, just caused me to, to want to do something.

[00:21:29] And so before I even really thought things through, um, my wife had had enough of me complaining about the news every single day and told me to get off my ass and do something. And before thinking things through, I just on Instagram posted, Hey, I'm going to do this massive project. And anybody who wants to help out because they're scared or afraid or angry with the way things are going, hit me up.

[00:21:56] And that, that was like the Genesis of it. Uh, just like a two feet first Instagram post. And as time went on, I sort of like, you know, was working on just recruiting people that were mutuals online, uh, people that I knew in person and trying to get through that way.

[00:22:20] And it became this weird seesaw where I would at one point have too many artists for not enough writers. And then I'd go on a writer recruiting spree and then I'd have too many writers and not enough artists. And soon enough, it just ballooned. So now we have 200 pages of stories, uh, in, in the book and there isn't a book, there isn't a story that's over 11 pages.

[00:22:45] So it's, um, you know, it's pretty, pretty girthy, uh, just on, just on the story side. But, um, you know, I wanted to do, because this is my first book that I'm putting together by myself. Uh, I wanted to do like a pinup gallery because I always like it in comics that I read and and trades that I read. The response was so awesome. And not just artists. I knew artists that I admired and followed for years and just hit up randomly on Instagram

[00:23:13] and was like, Hey, do you want to donate your time, energy and, you know, uh, work to this, this project? And, you know, I said, I'm not going to keep a dime. Um, you know, when I'm going to put everything together, so I'm going to be doing 10 times more work than you. So I think that maybe you could do this too. That went unspoken, right? Like I'm not hill tripping anybody.

[00:23:40] Um, but they just all jumped on board and, and these are people that don't even know me. And it's not like I have 50,000 followers on Instagram. It's not like I have the craziest backlog of, uh, repertoire of, of books, you know, that I've had published. So I'm, I'm a relative nobody, but I guess my passion for the project came through and, um, the response from the artist was so much that basically I was like, well, this isn't

[00:24:10] even an anthology anymore. This is also an art. So there's over 50 different illustrations, uh, pinup, uh, pieces in the book also. And, you know, it's sort of follows all of my love. So it's not just comic people, uh, it's horror art people. It's metal art people. It's, uh, outsider art and lowbrow art because I'm a big fan of lowbrow. If you guys are familiar with it.

[00:24:37] Um, so it's just like this big stew of everything that I love, uh, all thrown together. Uh, the stories are all socially conscious horror. So it's horror based around, um, hate fascism, transphobia, homophobia, xenophobia, racism, or toxic patriotism. Yeah. It's, it's a beast and putting it together has been a little difficult. Wow.

[00:25:06] Um, was there a brief in terms of like the, maybe not like the writers or, and the stories themselves, or was it just, these are the topics I want to cover? Like, how did you like let folks know what it was you were interested in? Like in terms of the editorial aspect of it? Right. Yeah. Well, you know, I mean, I, I let people pitch, but after letting them know that that's what

[00:25:32] the stories would be based around, because I figure it would be too loosey goosey if there wasn't some sort of thematic component to it. I do like, you know, there, there'd be sort of a through line with the stories. And then I gave them a page limit. I said between four and 10 pages, only one person tried stretching that. And that was a Bram Stoker award winner and a Shirley Jackson award winner in a second comic ever. Uh, that's Tim Wagoner.

[00:26:00] And he just wanted one extra page. So I was like, yeah, I think we can do that for you. I think we could find something to move around. Yes. Yeah. Let, let me think. No, no, I'm not going to have you in it. Of course. Um, so yeah, I, I just figured between four and 10 pages is really good for a short comic in an anthology. You don't want to overstay your welcome. And, you know, really you can get the right amount of depth if you're a good writer.

[00:26:29] Um, in, in that amount of, of pages. And I love anthologies. I've always wanted to be a part of, um, a ton of them, even with horror movies. I love anthology movies. So just the idea of doing this and, and having everybody approach these themes in their own way has been awesome. And then there's this really, I'm going to call it quasi accidental alchemy that came

[00:26:57] about with the stories because no writer came in with an artist in mind, save two of them. And no colorist was attached to any of the stories and no letterer was attached to any of the stories. So here I am trying to just look at a different art, like different artists and their styles and match them up to the script that gets thrown to me by this writer and seeing like, which is going to suit the tone.

[00:27:26] And, you know, it was a limited pool to, to sort of select from. So there's some unconventional choices for sure. And, and I think for the most part, um, it came out really, really good, like way better than anticipated. You know, I was worried about some duds in there and, you know, we have some people that are fresh faced and that maybe don't have their, their chops just yet, but, um, it's all good

[00:27:55] art and it's all good writing. And, um, you know, I'm, I'm really excited for people to see the, the entirety of it. Uh, you know, it was important to me to have up and comers as well as established people. So, you know, I wanted to give a chance to people. Oh, that's awesome. I'm a big fan of anthologies too. I mean, I love anthologies. I feel like you, you do get such a mix of like differing talents.

[00:28:22] Um, and I, I do like seeing different writers and artists paired up. Uh, I usually always discover something new, you know, no matter what anthology I picked up, like somebody I hadn't heard of before, or, you know, an artist that's like right on the verge of becoming somebody who all of a sudden appears everywhere, you know? And, um, also I think you get so many different perspectives.

[00:28:49] I mean, we're, we're, we cover indie comics, you know, but I do read big two white DC. Um, I don't, I don't really read too much more Marvel, nothing against Marvel. It's just, I feel like a lot of times, you know, the type of writer that you're going to get and the type of story, even when they try and like mix it up. And, you know, I mean, the, all the news cycle right now is how in 2025, the absolute line for DC has been crushing and like, that's great. But I look like a lot of those, you know, writers.

[00:29:19] And when people who don't look like me write and do art, I discover like amazing, like wonderful things. And like, that's, that's what I want. I want, I want to be exposed to, you know, to all of that stuff. I want to, I want to read about somebody else's, you know, perspective. Um, you know, stories, I, I, whether or not it's a movie or TV or, or comic books, I still think are the best way or one of the best ways to really show and teach other people empathy

[00:29:48] to try and really feel what it's like to be in somebody else's shoes, to really see things from somebody else's perspective. So I'm a huge fan of anthologies and like some of the, the creators, ones I've heard of and ones I haven't, I'm so excited to see what everybody has done here. Um, but yeah, I was going through it and there's some very familiar names in terms of this. I was wanting just a couple of them who have either been on the podcast or who I know, uh, but David M.

[00:30:18] Booers in this, Rich Dueck, Jonathan Hedrick, Joe Carallo, Frankie White, Land Pitts, Ben Kahn, uh, Travis B. Hill, Lewis Suthard. Yeah. Uh, Moni Barrett. Yeah. There's like, uh, I mean that those are just some of, just some of the writers. I didn't go through everybody, but Gerald Von Stoddard in terms of the artists, Kurt Belcher. Yeah. Yeah. It's just, uh, unreal.

[00:30:46] Um, the individuals that you, you have involved and that the folks that wanted to, you know, contribute something to this. And I'm very excited by the, by the idea that there's going to be pinups in this, that, you know, it'll kind of also act as like an art book and from all over like that, you know, that's, that's exciting. I saw Don perk up a little bit when you said metal people. It's my dog whistle. Uh, you know, it's like, well, let's grow. Let's grow. Oh yeah. No, no, no. We, we have a lot in common.

[00:31:16] I see the dinosaur junior, sir. I know. I know you got some fuzz or, um, but, um, well, you know, personally hearing it from, you know, as an artist who was, and some might say are still not ready or, you know, not don't have the chops yet. Um, anthologies like were huge for me, you know, even doing a couple of pages and all that. And, you know, and getting in and getting my art better and having those opportunities

[00:31:44] to be part of things like that, much less, you know, it was, it was incredibly helpful, much less being part of one that has such a great message. You know, um, you know, I'm, you know, I live north of Chicago. Um, ice was stationed, you know, right next to my town. Um, we, we had, you know, uh, people watching out cause you know, uh, the schools and all

[00:32:10] that, uh, there's lots of, uh, lots of, uh, you know, heavy, heavy things happening with, with all of that. And, um, so, you know, I'm, I'm right there with like, you know, just how this is affecting communities, affecting people. And, you know, it, it, it's terrible. So I'm glad that there's, you know, uh, there's comics that are there, that are, and that are going to be letting people get their, uh, get their voices heard about how they're feeling

[00:32:38] about this because, and, and on top of it, like you mentioned that you were, you know, kind of surprised that all these artists were like, yeah, I'm sure I'll donate my time, all these big artists. And, you know, I, I can only speak from my perspective and it's like, when there's something cool like that, it doesn't matter. Like how busy you are, where you're at. It's like, as an artist, you're like, you connect with that because I'm sure those artists have a connection to what's happening right now. And you're like, I, this is how I express myself. So this is an outlet for me to do that.

[00:33:08] So that's why I'm, I'm not surprised. I'm very happy that a lot of them reached out to you. Like, yes, I'm, I'm in, let me do this. Let me, you know, let me contribute in some, some way because, you know, on top of that, you know, many of us cannot contribute to these causes and a strict monetary value, but we can do it with our time and our love and our passion. And if that translates to that, you know, uh, on top of it, creating more of an awareness to anyone who may not have, uh, some, some of the information or some of the experiences

[00:33:38] that these people are having, then even, even better. So I can't wait to read the book. I'm excited to read it. I love, I love anthologies, big old thick anthologies, something. And, and, you know, even if it's, you know, you're coming off one story where one, maybe one art theme is more polished than the other. As long as the story and the passion, they're like, no one cares. It's like music, you know, no one cares if it's, if the recording's not as pristine as the previous band's recording.

[00:34:06] Like if the, if the, if the, if the song's there, man, that's all that matters. Yeah. Yeah. I, I, I like mayhem and I like wolves in the throne room. So yeah, I like the lo-fi and the hi-fi. I got to listen to more music. So I know exactly what you two are talking about. Okay. Yeah. No, just a black metal mayhem is like one of the originators and it's very low-fi. It's very scratchy sounding, um, to the point that it gets mimicked a lot.

[00:34:35] And then wolves in the throne room is this like lush atmospheric, um, you know, like 30 different instruments and songs. Pristinely mixed. Yes. Yeah. Very polished. And there's beauty. There's beauty in both. There is. All right, everybody. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back. Y'all Jimmy, the chaos goblin strikes again. I should have known better than to mention I was working on my DC universe meets Ravenloft hybrid D and D campaign on social media. My bad.

[00:35:05] 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. 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

[00:35:34] 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. 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.

[00:36:02] I think I'm going to make Jimmy play a goblin warlock just to get even. Welcome back. The marketing of stuff is like, I'm doing that now to try and get on other people's podcasts for my all-ages graphic novel that's coming out in April. And it's like, oh, you know, having to reach out to people like, can I come on your podcast? It's, or YouTube show, or I don't know, TikTok, whatever, whatever it might be.

[00:36:31] Yeah, it is, it's a lot, JM. It's a grind. Yeah. I don't know if y'all are experiencing this, but it feels like at least in the past couple of years, it feels like it's become, it's become a lot more difficult to like find other podcasts to try to like go on to and speak to because, you know, it might just be the ecosystem I'm involved in or what I'm able to pull up and search. But like a lot of the ones that I hear about most are ones that are mainly talking to bigger creators or having bigger type.

[00:37:00] And that's fine. That's perfectly fine. You know, it's not, it's not a judgment thing on my end by any means, but it's just like, okay, you know, it just felt like, you know, you could find more other distinct pockets of other podcasts to like jump onto and talk to people about stuff. And, but, you know, having run a podcast myself for a few years, I know how hard it is to maintain that schedule and do it. I take breaks often just because it's, it's tough. It's tough.

[00:37:27] But, um, you know, you guys mentioned the marketing of things and like, I, I literally have data that shows this, like how terrible, how bad social marketing, uh, social media marketing has gotten over the past couple of years for this type of stuff. Cause when we did the first EV in the Hellsons campaign, um, this was before a shit had bought Twitter. And then like, it was huge for us. It was Joe, Joe.

[00:37:52] And then by later that year, uh, when I think he had just bought that pot or whatever, it was abysmal. And then the last campaign, we didn't even bother with, you know, I think we both deleted our accounts at that point. And blue sky isn't really, I love blue sky in the social sense, but in the marketing sense, it's just. It's not there yet. It's, you know, it's, it's, it's literally put that, you know, you're, you're kind of

[00:38:19] like shouting out into the world and hoping someone's driving by and listening, but if not, you know, but not, you know, and there's other aspects like Instagram or threads or things like that, it's just like, yeah, it's so exhausting to do this stuff. But, um, you know, you're trying to find that way, but we literally have, I literally see the data from the Kickstarter is like, okay, we got nothing from anybody else. And then most of it just came from Kickstarter itself. And then people who ran part of the previous campaigns.

[00:38:48] So, you know, that's, you know, I'm hoping it's, I'm hoping a tide's turning. Maybe some of these things are getting a little more going because, you know, it's, it's, there seemed to be some sort of like push towards like discords and people like, you know, kind of going back to that old school forum situation and getting involved with those. But that becomes so overwhelming in its own because we have 15 different discords, you know, with basically a lot of the same people all joining up, all great people.

[00:39:18] I'm, but it's just like, you know, you end up like finding that extra reach has been so difficult and I don't know if either of you have, uh, experienced any kind of breakthroughs of like avenues to try to figure out with any of that. But, uh, yeah, that's been the struggle lately. Yeah, no, actually I do have a tip, uh, work with a hundred people and like 30 will actually promote it with you.

[00:39:44] And then, uh, it really helps when you have artists like Skinner who has what, like 200,000, um, followers posting about it or go ship with 50,000 followers or Mazatly with 300,000 followers. Um, the numbers stack up pretty quick. I've, I've, um, it's still been a struggle. Like marketing is always a struggle and, um, you know, just allocating the time and resources

[00:40:12] when you're trying to edit the stories and make sure that everybody's on deadline and collecting the resources and everything else. It's, it's tough to find the time to do the marketing, but, um, you know, for any budding comic creatives out there, uh, it's prop, like, I don't want to say it's more important than the creative work because, you know, without that, you don't have a soul.

[00:40:38] Um, but it's just as important as the creative work, uh, as long as you're, unless you're doing it for yourself, um, which you should always be doing that anyways, but you also want other people to read it. And, uh, so that, that becomes really important. And, you know, like you were saying, Don, um, social media marketing has become much more difficult in a lot of ways.

[00:41:03] The algorithms are squeezing people out and I don't know if it's a pain to get verified is, is the magic bullet. And I just haven't tried it yet. Uh, but it's, it's like blue sky is very pure and it's nice that there's no algorithm like choosing what you see. It's just based on when you're there, but that becomes shouting into the void because if you don't hit it at exactly the right second, when those people are exactly looking at their

[00:41:32] feed, they're not going to see it. Yeah. And if you don't hit that right person in your feed, who's going to retweet it, who hits the right person in their feed, who's going to retweet it. And then, yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's, um, you know, on the, on that, I will say like there is, if there's any newer, any creators really listening that are hesitant about marketing, there's always that step fear of like, I don't want to annoy people.

[00:41:56] I have literally had to rush to back a friend's Kickstarter because I didn't know it was so close to the deadline because of just the way social media is like you're not bothering anybody. If you post about your campaign three, four or five times a day. So when I see people, if I even notice anybody doing that, if anything, that's a reminder to me to like, oh yeah, I've, you know, might be my ADHD talking about it's like, oh, oh yeah, I better go do this.

[00:42:27] You know, as the scene to pop up for the fourth time, it's never, it's like, it's, I'd rather see that than, you know, people, you know, someone complaining about something. I'd rather see like, Hey, here's my thing. We'll check it out. Then, you know, I don't understand why this person did this, this movie character did this because I didn't watch the movie anyway. So like, yeah, so don't, don't feel bad about marketing yourself and you're right.

[00:42:52] Like first do the work for yourself because otherwise why bother, you know? Um, speaking in indie, you know, more of an indie comic sense, because obviously there's, you know, comics is a business that there, it is a commercial art business. Um, we don't always draw the things we want to draw all the time, but you know, if you're not doing it for yourself or passionate about the project, then it's just, it's going to show through everything. But then you kind of have to like, it sucks.

[00:43:21] We have to do this, but you have to redirect some of that passion and energy to marketing it and getting it out there. Or if you don't really don't want to do that, you need to center yourself with the idea that, okay, it's probably not going to go as far as I want it to go with people unless I'm really lucky. But you know, that's just kind of where things are right now. And it's the best of times to make comics is the worst of times to make comics. Um, it's so easy to get something out there and it's so hard to get people to read it.

[00:43:51] Um, but, uh, you know, it's, it's not, not to sound discouraging. It's just like one of those extra little things you can think of that you have to think of and do and all that. But, you know, hopefully, you know, we, we all kind of find a way to reach that extra person, reach that extra thing to kind of push things over, over the, over the end. And having, having a hundred people seems like it would help. It also sounds like an absolute nightmare.

[00:44:19] So, so the benefit way versus the sheer insanity of managing all that people I'm sure are, uh, uh, weighing each other out. And it's not, it's not good, you know, and, uh, as awesome as I'm sure it will be to have these people promoting the book. It's, I know I run Kickstarters. Everyone's run Kickstarters. It's a, it's a slog no matter what, even if you're fun within the first day, it's still a slog, man. Like you're still just watching that thing and trying to make sure you're doing the best

[00:44:48] you can for it and, and all that. So yeah. Well, we're just a bunch of comic book nerds who wouldn't want it any other way. Uh, uh, JM, I wanted to ask you in particular, and I, well, before I do that, I do want to say like, yeah, I agree with everything that JM and Don have said. Like you have to be your own self advocate. Like you, you have to get out there and do that. You can't be worried about annoying people.

[00:45:13] But I would also say the one thing I would say to keep in mind is like reciprocity, you know, be, be a cheerleader for other people to like share their stuff. Talk about the things that, you know, you love on social media. Somebody like just sends you a message you've never heard from before. And, you know, hasn't done anything in terms of like sharing your stuff. I mean, I don't mind that as much. People reach out to me all the time about, oh, can I come on the podcast?

[00:45:43] And I'm like, yeah, I'll talk to anybody. Like, I don't, that doesn't, that doesn't bother me. You gotta, you gotta ask, you know? I would agree with everything that JM and Don said about the slog that is Kickstarter and the pain that is marketing, but, but it is necessary. Um, but, but I wanted to get back to talk a little bit about horror, not hate and JM because I'm familiar with swamp dogs. And I wanted to know what, if you can tease like a little bit in terms of what your story is about. Cause I'm sure you, you wrote something for horror, not hate.

[00:46:13] Are you, are you, can you clue us in a little bit? Yeah. Yeah. Um, okay. So I will say, I will say that it is a Holocaust revenge story and it's supernatural in, in terms. And, uh, there's no dialogue in it. Uh, this, this is something that I actually like teased about in the Kickstarter updates. Um, or no, actually, sorry, my sub stack.

[00:46:39] Um, I, I just recently posted and I said that every single time I try and write something, I want to create an extra challenge for myself. And I guess, uh, coordinating this whole book wasn't a challenge enough, uh, for me. So, um, so what I did was I wanted to see if I could do a dialogue free story in 10 or less pages, um, and have it be really powerful, uh, emotionally.

[00:47:08] And so what I did was, uh, thanks to my publisher at dead sky publishing, uh, who did my, uh, splatter Western one shot. Uh, he's a big world war two buff. And I asked him if he knew of any poems written inside of a concentration camp. And while he didn't know one, he knew some resources to point me to.

[00:47:31] And so I wrote this story where the only words are this poem that was actually written inside of a concentration camp. Yeah. My, my grandparents are survivors of the Holocaust. And so, uh, when it comes to fascism and hate and stuff, um, all of this is hitting me extra hard because I see people being put into camps and deported and, you know, stripped from their families and all that good stuff.

[00:47:58] So it would be really disingenuous for me to do anything else. I, I think I just equaled your heavy Don, like not, not to have a pissing contest. We're going to make people feel sad in this podcast. Yeah. Oh no, but you know what? It's going to feel so good too. It's, you know, all these stories are exercises in catharsis. Yeah. And, uh, if comics and metal are nothing for me, it's catharsis.

[00:48:26] So, you know, it's, um, you know, that's, that's, I always love hearing when, you know, writers have a essentially wordless story, not because I'm a, you know, egotistical artist. I'm like, ha ha, it's all me. No, it shows like such to me, it shows such a maturity and a trust and a letting go of ego in terms of like, I'm not going to have dialogue words here.

[00:48:53] I'm going to trust my ability to write this story that my artist will interpret and draw. And it'll be what I want. It'll fully be what it is. And I think that's, you know, ironically, I feel like that's like one of the epitome of like collaboration in comics where there's this such that level of trust between everybody.

[00:49:17] And, you know, I can't speak for your artists, but if, if I were in those shoes, I would be like, it would be less like, ha, I get to, you know, it's all me. It'd be like, oh shit, it's all me in terms of like, I got to make sure this is done right. You know, so as an extra level, I'll just like the good kind of pressure where you're like, I got to nail this. I got, I got to run this through the brain grinder, you know, an extra couple of times just to make sure I've nailed this expression. I've nailed this pose.

[00:49:45] I've nailed this thing here and all that. So that's awesome. I can't wait to see that. Yeah. Yeah. It was, it was really interesting to see it translated by, by my artist. It's our first time working together, even though we've been mutuals for a long time. I'm not even going to, I'm, you know what? I'm going to try and pronounce his name. He did correct me or like told me the correct pronunciation, but I'm also working on like two hours sleep and putting this Kickstarter together.

[00:50:13] So it's not at the forefront of my mind, but UC Pironen, and I'm sorry, UC, or if I'm saying it wrong. Um, he, as far as American comics go, um, his only other work that I'm aware of is a graphic novel adaptation of a Joe Lansdale story. Um, like one of the happen Leonard, uh, uh, stories.

[00:50:39] So, um, you know, he was really on my same wavelength, um, with maybe like the only thing I can think of where I just went with it was, uh, I created a supernatural creature that doesn't exist yet, or it doesn't exist in fiction as far as I'm aware.

[00:51:00] And my vision of how it looked and his vision of how it looked were a little different, but it's still very impactful and very cool. So yeah, I can't wait for people to see it. Awesome. Yeah, that is awesome. I can't wait for this. Like I said, I love anthologies. Um, I love that, you know, you're the causes you're supporting for immigrant rights for the LGBTQIA community.

[00:51:28] Um, yeah, and you've put out in terms of, uh, where the money's going to go in terms of the two, you know, charities. And, um, if anybody wants to there that you, you can go in like check charities now to see like how much of the money is actually going to the causes. Uh, JM has picked two excellent charities that do a ton of great work.

[00:51:52] Um, and yeah, the sheer number of people involved and it's, it really is like a Herculean effort to do something like this JM. So I like hats off here. We're in a hat, hats off to you. Um, and, uh, yeah, I'm very excited for it. And so listeners, you'll be able to go and there'll be a link in the show notes and I'll have links to JM's like social media and stuff. Um, but yeah, you can go in and check it out. I think horror, not hate.

[00:52:21] Like we, you know, there's, there's been plenty of said and, and written about, you know, the catharsis or, uh, dealing with difficult topics or challenging topics like through horror. Um, I just think this is a, a, a wonderful project. So I, I can't, I can't wait for it. And, um, you know, Don to, to kind of turn things back to you with, with Evie and the Hellsings.

[00:52:49] Uh, this is, it's, I can't say enough good things about this. Uh, it is such a fun story, but, um, I just, I have a great time with it. I like absolutely love it. All four issues. I also love the back matter that was in each issue. Is that going to be collected in the trade? Cause I love seeing those character designs. I love seeing this, how the script comes together. Um, all, all, all that stuff will be in there. Um, and I believe I don't want to speak too much out of turn.

[00:53:16] Cause Steve and I have talked about this a billion times and I may forget some details, but definitely the back matter will be there. I think I was trying, I was really trying to push for even more, but Steve's like, we, like this can't be like an $80 book down. We can't put that many pages in there, you know, cause I've, I've, you know, I'm, I'm a back matter hound, you know, that, that's, that's, that's why I get collections. Cause I want that part of it. You know, I want that extra stuff.

[00:53:43] Um, you know, I still come from the, you know, the era of the DVD commentary or the behind the scenes, uh, specials on cable or whatever about stuff and just learning about all these things. So yes, we'll have the back matter in there. Um, I believe we'll also have, um, images of all the different variant covers. We've had a ton of great variant covers. Um, my favorite being the Archie variant we had, which, uh, uh, I absolutely adore.

[00:54:13] Um, but yeah, tons, tons of, uh, that kind of stuff in there. And then, um, for the campaign itself, I'm actually really excited because I actually went and did something really dumb and cool at the same time. I, uh, took one of my guitars and I painted it, put some blood splatter on it. Yeah. Got a little, um, battle damaged with some flaw marks and stuff like that. What color is that? This is like a nice hot pink. This is like the EV guitar.

[00:54:42] Um, I didn't have, you know, she usually, I usually draw her with flying Vs, but I didn't have a flying V to sacrifice for the, for the campaign. But I did have this Jackson, uh, dinky that actually fun story was sold to me by Mike Norton. So, you know, um, awesome news. But this was actually going to be a tier on the, uh, the campaign. It's going to be part of like a mega package thing because I've had this guitar for a few years. I've written some of the EV songs on this guitar.

[00:55:13] Um, I love this guitar, but I, I've since acquired something that does the same thing this one does. And I'm like, well, what do I do with this? And then here we go. So if you want to battle damage, custom painted pink blood splatter guitar, uh, you'll know where to find one. That's awesome. I love that. I mean, that was a lot of fun throwing the blood splatter paint down there. It was, it was a nice time.

[00:55:42] What are you doing with the songs? Like the, the EV and the Helsing songs? Um, well right now, you know, I actually has, I still have to finish the fourth one. Unfortunately, you know, the, the end of the fourth campaign coincided with a lot of the family stuff that was happening. Um, so I haven't fully finished it yet, but these are all been instrumental songs. The original plan was to hire a female rock singer to then, you know, sing the lyrics I wrote for them and all that.

[00:56:07] But in the interim time from when we had the idea to when we were ready to try to start executing it, the people we had in mind, justifiably so, got a lot more expensive. Yeah, it's a, it's a hire. And, um, obviously, and there's, there's no way in hell I would like do an AI rock female voice thing to save money on this. That's just, that's just dumb. Um, you know, fuck AI, all that, all, all, all that stuff.

[00:56:34] Um, but so I'm still wanting to do that eventually, but they are instrumental songs. Um, and then for the next volume, we have some other, other characters coming in with different kinds of bands. And then I'll actually go to do some of the vocals. So don't worry about that. But, uh, well, uh, we got some, uh, uh, some, uh, a good off doom fuzz metal band coming into the next, next arc. And then, uh, so I get, I get to play around with that. But for those songs in particular, they will be part of the campaign.

[00:57:04] I mean, they were stretch goals that we hit for all the four issues, but so it will be kind of just like a, a standard giveaway now for any of the digital, uh, rewards that we have. But, um, yeah, the goal is still to make, to get someone to stay on. So I have lyrics written. I have melodies written. I just have to get the right person and someone we can reasonably afford to, uh, to, you know, do what they got to do over that. So, but I'm excited. I'm excited.

[00:57:34] It'll happen eventually. But yeah. Yeah. I, I, this, that's like incredible to combine, you know, those couple of things, um, you know, to have written songs for the comic and eventually, you know, not just the instrumental ones, but have somebody sing on them. JM, did you write your own songs for horror, not hate? No, I, I do. I do really love the idea of soundtracks accompanying comics though. I'm a huge sucker for it.

[00:58:01] Uh, when I write anything, I create a soundtrack for my writing first, uh, that, you know, like picks up the mood. And I usually try and share that with my readers. Like, Oh, here's my playlist. Um, I do have an interesting music tie in though, uh, on top of the metal people, uh, for horror, not hate. Uh, I got really high at a show by this guy named John mouse. Uh, while I was putting the show together, he's this iconic cult figure.

[00:58:31] Like, I guess you'd call them like electronic pop, like experimental pop. Um, he's amazing. And he had a song called, uh, I hate antichrist. And something clicked in my head when I heard that song live. And I was like, well, this would be the theme for the book because it's just, the lyrics are just, I hate the antichrist. I hate that son of a bitch. And it's just over and over.

[00:58:59] And given that it was like published in 2025, I'm not going to say who I think it's about, but, um, you know, it definitely is about somebody to me. And so I hit him up, uh, just randomly and he very graciously licensed, uh, that song to our campaign. So the theme for, yeah. So the theme for like all the videos and stuff is, is that, so I've never done music licensing before, but.

[00:59:29] I had to go through those hoops too, uh, in, in order to get this done. So, um, if anybody's a John mouse fan out there, um, you know, our videos are free to listen to. And, uh, well, I'm going to check that out as soon as we're, as soon as we're done here. Cause I want to, you don't have to say who it's about, but, and so unfortunately it could probably be about a handful of them. Yeah. We know the main one. We know the main one. Um, that's awesome.

[00:59:59] Yeah. I, I long, uh, I've been of the mind, like any book I do, I I'm doing music for, I I'm working on a book with, I'm a book Yeti alumni. Grant Stoy. Yeah. And you know, love Grant. I'm, I'm doing a John Carpenter-esque theme, probably EP by the time I'm done for our book. That's really cool. Cause that's just fun stuff to just to, to mess around with. So, uh, I'm going to keep yapping and keep Jimmy on here longer than he wants to be, um, out of pure torture.

[01:00:28] But, uh, no, I'll, I'll, I'll shut up. I can hang. Let's wrap it up. I'll stop taking over the podcast. No, I, I look, we'll, we'll go as long as you want to go. You want to keep, we can talk about plenty of other stuff. Like I got a lot of topics. Well, I don't have a lot of topics. I have a few topics I can talk about a lot. Um, so as long as we stay within that realm, metal, I'm not that good on. I'll listen to anything. I tried, tried recently to expand.

[01:00:56] I haven't, I felt like I haven't listened to like new music in a while. So I was trying to listen to some newer, uh, not, not necessarily metal, but, um, and somebody was just telling me about, uh, what was the, uh, geese. Uh, so I was listening to geese. I hadn't heard. Yeah. I hadn't heard them yet. So I was listening to, I was listening to geese earlier today. Cause I hadn't, I hadn't heard them yet. So, you know what, Jimmy, uh, why don't you shout out, uh, why don't you shout out mammoth mammoth? Yes. The latest one from mammoth.

[01:01:25] That's, uh, it's fronted by Eddie Van Halen's son, a wolf gang. Okay. Yeah. But it is just some really incredibly solid, just hard rock stuff with great melodies, tons of shredding. Some really heavy riffs, but it's not, I wouldn't call it metal just because of just enough, enough there towards like, it's hard rock, you know? Okay. If metal is not your thing, I would, I think, I think mammoth would be a great, um, just don't listen to the song.

[01:01:54] The disc, uh, I think it's distance because, um, you just cry. It's try all the dad cries. Um, I probably still will. Cause, uh, you know, I don't, it's not, it's not necessarily about losing his dad. Cause he wrote it beforehand, but it's about losing his dad. And if you watch the video, oh my God, like just, you'll, you'll be a fucking mess. I swear. Like, all right. So I come from one dad to two others.

[01:02:23] Like just, just prepare. If you need to be in your dad feelings for a minute, just pull up the distance video from mammoth and you'll, you'll get it out. Okay. Okay. I know. I, I will listen to it. I mean, I know I, I'm, I'm familiar with Van Halen. I'm familiar with Wolfgang. I'm much more familiar with when it comes to that family, with the work of Valerie Bertinelli on the food network. Um, just to show where my, my love lies. Wolfgang's an amazing musician. She has a really amazing album out there too. Does she?

[01:02:53] No. Uh, but, uh, you know, Wolfgang, he's, he's a really amazing musician and he's actually, he's got a great voice. It's not like David Lee Roth type of voice. It's a great rock voice. So yeah, I think you'll dig it. I will check it out. I'll check it out. All right. It's not that metal is not my thing. It's just that I was, I don't know. I didn't listen to a lot of metal growing up. Um, you can't be as cool as us. I get it. It's fine. I'm not, you can try, you know, I, I'll, I'll listen to anything.

[01:03:23] Uh, I, I, I will, you know, but yeah, I always say hate the artist, not the genre. Yeah. Right. Connecting with. Oh yeah. That's, that's, that's true. I mean, I love listening to music. I think part of it's, I'm not a big concert person. Like I've only ever been to like a handful of concerts, but I'll listen to anything anybody recommends. I'll put it on and, and, and check it out.

[01:03:53] I think I have like, like a fairly broad musical taste. You know, I like a lot of stuff. Um, but yeah, like I've only ever been to like a handful of concerts and like whenever anyone goes through, what's the top five concerts you've been to? I'm like, I think I've only been to 10. I'm not, I'm not a huge concert guy myself either. I'm trying to rectify that. But, but you know, um, I was starting to try to go to more and then we had kids and that

[01:04:21] just went away for eight or nine years. And now I'm trying to kick that start, you know, kick that back up and, and go again. We just saw like one of my favorite all time bands last year. And then, uh, next year I'm already got tickets to see one of my current favorite bands. So. Who are they? Orbit culture. You don't want to tell us your favorites? Oh no. I saw Gujira and Spirit Box and Korn, but I was there for Gujira and Spirit Box. Last year. That was amazing. I love Gujira.

[01:04:49] They're like number two all time. Atalika is all of them. All time. Number one for me. They're just kind of like platinum status for me. So it's not even like I listened to them all the time. Cause I just listened to them so much when I was younger. It's like, there's there. Then everything else, you know, I'd probably put Black Sabbath up there too, but then it's Gujira and then, uh, orbit culture. They've really risen to like one of my favorite bands. It's like they're, they're, they're kind of like the angry, angry teenage child of Gujira and Metallica.

[01:05:18] So, uh, they have the grooves. They have the, the, the, the clean singing voice is very, you know, 87, 88 era James Hetfield snarl kind of sound. And, um, they got some pretty cool growls and it's not too much of anything. And they usually make, usually every song has a bit where you just kind of want to, if you needed to like, you know, lift a car off a child, you got it with one of those riffs. This is what you put on. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

[01:05:49] J.M. How about you? I mean, I'm sure it's the actual jam. How about you? I, I, I know you have the, the dinosaur junior shirt on and you've talked about some of the other, the music that you're into, but is your musical taste like pretty broad? Oh my God. Yeah. I, I, my cousin would make fun of me for it. Uh, he, he'd go, Oh, this is the JM music, um, intro.

[01:06:12] Uh, and he goes, Oh, it's a Peruvian ska band from the 1960s, uh, that only released the album in the Andes. And, you know, so, so that's like how he makes fun of me. Um, I listen to everything, literally everything. Uh, you know, I have a couple blind spots, a couple of genres that I tend not to jump into.

[01:06:36] I'm not a huge, like modern country and Western guy, uh, you know, like, or, or pop country and Western, I guess you would call it. Um, but yeah, no, I, I listen to absolutely everything. I, I do find myself when I write so far, it's being too harder stuff because, because I've only written or so far in comics. Um, I, I think they sort of go hand in hand.

[01:07:04] Um, I did write to the Carpenter's Christmas album for, uh, my only anthology piece before horror and I hate, I was part of holiday spirits volume three from orange cone productions, which is, um, Travis Gibbs imprint. And, uh, it was like a messed up Santa fairy tale that I, I wrote. So I wanted something schmaltzy and, you know, uh, uplifting to, to tide me over.

[01:07:32] So yeah, I'll listen to the Carpenters and I'll listen to power violence music too. I love it. I love it. Um, all right. Well, um, uh, thank you both for, for coming on the podcast tonight. I really appreciate you doing this, especially both of you being cool about, you know, both of you coming on to talk about your projects. And like I said, I think there's kind of a lot in common, uh, here between not, not just

[01:07:57] the projects, but you know, the music and, um, yeah, having to do the marketing, especially for a crowdfunding project is tough. So we're, we're banding together, uh, to, to get the word out about Evie and the Hellsings and, and horror, not hate. Um, is there anything else either of you wanted, you know, listeners to know before we go? Um, personally, uh, you could, you know, if you're watching this, uh, the day it drops, we've just launched our campaign when we go out for the next 28 days.

[01:08:27] Um, but you know, horror, not hate sounds amazing. So like, please go check that out because that's also, uh, you know, something I'm going to be doing on top of it. Um, so, but yeah, we're, we're, you know, just, you know, thank you for listening and please just, if, if you like, uh, vampires, if you like rock music, if you like, uh, tough

[01:08:53] chicks kicking ass, uh, if you like, uh, you know, symbols being used as weapons against vampires, uh, you know, please check out Evie and the Hellsings. We have a lot of fun, Steve and I had a lot of fun making the book. We put a lot of ourselves into the book. Um, is intentionally originally intended to be more of a comedic horror thing, but it became more than that just because of who Steve and I are. But, uh, we're, we're really, really proud of the book.

[01:09:22] We're excited to be able to make more and, uh, really thankful for everyone who's got us to this point. But you know, the trade package looks amazing. I think the cover of the trade is the best work I've ever done. Um, and I'm excited to just get it out there, get the book out there. Cause that's so much easier to hint to, to get people a book. Here's the first issue or the second issue. When you share that book, that, that first arc, that story, I'm so stoked to just be able to like, get that out to people.

[01:09:50] And then, uh, so Dan. Awesome. Yeah. Um, so I, I'm totally sold on Evie by the way. So I'm, I'm going to be backing it as soon as it drops. Uh, that's totally up my alley. Uh, as, as far as what I wanted to say, um, I will say this about the charities. Uh, we're not allowed to say it on Kickstarter because it violates the policies.

[01:10:19] Uh, but every single penny above printing and fulfillment costs is going to these charities. Uh, so essentially it's a full, full for charity project. Um, you know, I, I had to say that we're just making equal donations, but, uh, I will be updating all the backers with the amount that we're able to raise for the two charities.

[01:10:44] Um, I would just encourage people to, uh, go to the project and support not just the project, but also all the contributors that spent all their time, uh, and energy with, uh, you know, working on the book because, uh, they, they really went out on a limb and, and honestly, you know, if, if the wrong people see it or know about it, you know, it's very easy that

[01:11:11] we could be ostracized, you know, in, in one way, shape or form. So, um, it's, it's not without risk for any of the contributors there. And, and I would like people to acknowledge that by supporting them or, uh, following them on social media, uh, at the very least. And, uh, you can find us, uh, at our bit.ly, which is bit.ly slash horror, not hate, where

[01:11:38] the H, the N and the H of each word are capitalized. And, uh, yeah, I think that's it. Awesome. Yeah. I'll have links in the show notes. So anyone, if you listen to this, you can go there and if you want to, you can, you click it on, go to the campaigns, follow Don and JM on social media. Um, uh, yeah, I just, I really, I really appreciate it. I'm going to be checking and backing both projects. I've said before, I'm a big fan of EB and the health things. I said, it's a lot of fun.

[01:12:08] Like it is a lot of action. I love the comic itself. Uh, I think it is funny. I think, you know, there is a strong comedic element to it. I don't ever think it goes into like camp. Um, it kind of, it kind of like walks that line, but like there's, especially in the interplay with Evie and, and, uh, when you meet Marcus, who is kind of like a Frankenstein's, like a modern Frankenstein's monster kind of guy.

[01:12:32] Um, there's definitely fun and a playfulness in terms of, uh, their relationship. You know, Evie has a kind of a very, like a, a sarcastic, uh, uh, kind of personality. And, and it, especially with some of the folks in the battle of the bands that really comes through. So there's a lot of different dynamics to it. And, um, yeah, horror, not hate just sounds like an incredible project.

[01:12:58] There are so many folks involved in it that I'm just a huge fan of, um, in indie comics, in, in comics in general. And, um, I mean, I just think JM, his anger or your anger and, and, and frustration has, you know, kind of spurred you on to, to do this. And I think you said at least two or three times without giving it too much thought.

[01:13:24] And now you found yourself putting together this, this huge project. And I think, um, it's just awesome that you've taken all that on. I think it's incredible what you've put together and I think folks should definitely check it out and, and support it. Anthologies are a great way to discover something new, not just in terms of a writer or an artist, but, you know, also a perspective. So, uh, I, I thank you both for coming on the podcast today and, um, uh, have a happy new year.

[01:13:54] Thanks Jimmy. Thanks James. Great. Yeah. Uh, we'll definitely get in touch about getting on the show at some point. Uh, if it's not soon. Definitely sometime. Cause, uh, I think I feel we have a lot to talk about. Absolutely. Anytime. And Jimmy, of course, it's always a blast to chat with you, uh, whether here or on, or on my show or just, you know, whenever, wherever I'm talking like Shakira. It's time for me to go to bed.

[01:14:23] I really appreciate it. All right. For comic book, Yeti, um, Jimmy Gasparro, uh, rate, review us, uh, do all those things they say to do for podcasts. It really does help. Um, you know, share the podcast, uh, and let me know if there's an episode that you really like. I'd love to hear what you liked about it. Um, or a particular guest, or if you backed a project or picked up somebody's comic shout out to my brother, Bobby, the cryptic creator corner is number one, most dedicated fan. Bobby listens to all my episodes and I always say hi to him.

[01:14:51] Um, and he got me a really nice Christmas present. So thanks Bobby. That's appreciated. Uh, yeah. So, uh, thank you so much for listening and, um, I'll see you next time. Good night. This is Byron O'Neill. One of your hosts of the cryptic creator corner brought to you by comic book Yeti. We hope you've enjoyed this episode of our podcast. Please rate review, subscribe all that good stuff.

[01:15:19] It lets us know how we're doing and more importantly, how we can improve. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode of the cryptic creator corner, maybe you would enjoy our sister podcast into the comics cave. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.