Paul Tobin talks the Mammoth

[00:00:00] Your ears do not deceive you. You've just entered the Cryptid Creator Corner brought to you by your friends at Comic Book Yeti.

[00:00:07] So without further ado, let's get on to the interview.

[00:00:11] Y'all, Jimmy, the Chaos Goblin, strikes again!

[00:00:15] I should have known better than to mention I was working on my DC Universe meets Ravenloft hybrid D&D campaign on social media.

[00:00:21] My bad.

[00:00:22] He goes and tags a bunch of comics creators we know and now I have to get it in gear and whip this campaign into shape so we can start playing.

[00:00:29] Another friend chimes in, are you going to make maps?

[00:00:32] It's fair to say it's been a while since I put something together so I guess?

[00:00:37] It was then that I discovered Arc and Forge.

[00:00:40] If you don't know who Arc and Forge is, they have everything you need to make your TTRPG more fun and immersive.

[00:00:46] Allowing you to build, play, and export animated maps including in-person Fog of War capability that lets your players interact with maps as the adventure unfolds while you, the DM, get the full picture.

[00:00:59] Now I'm set to easily build high-res animated maps saving myself precious time and significantly adding nuance to our campaign.

[00:01:06] That's a win every day in my book.

[00:01:08] Check them out at arcandforge.com and use the discount code YETTIE5 to get $5 off.

[00:01:14] I'll drop a link in the show notes for you and big thanks to Arc and Forge for partnering with our show.

[00:01:19] I think I'm going to make Jimmy play a Goblin Warlock just to get even.

[00:01:24] Hello and welcome to another episode of Comic Book Yetis Cryptid Creator Corner.

[00:01:28] I'm one of your hosts, Jimmy Gasparro.

[00:01:30] And what a treat I have for you for today's episode.

[00:01:33] I have multi-Eisner award winning writer Paul Tobin is here on the podcast today.

[00:01:41] We're going to talk about his brand new comic book from Mad Cave the Mammoth with artist Arjunas Sassini.

[00:01:48] They've worked together before and I can't wait to hear all about it.

[00:01:51] Mad Cave was kind enough to send over an advanced copy for me.

[00:01:56] And it was fantastic.

[00:01:58] I'm excited to get into it and talk to Paul about it and hopefully touch on some of Paul's other projects that he has coming out.

[00:02:07] So, Paul, welcome to the podcast.

[00:02:09] Great to be here.

[00:02:10] I like talking comics.

[00:02:13] Yeah, I mean, I can tell.

[00:02:15] And you've been doing it.

[00:02:17] Aren't familiar with Paul's work.

[00:02:20] I'm sure you actually are if you've listened to this podcast because Paul has done a ton of stuff in the comic book industry.

[00:02:29] I think your first work was with on Fringe for Caliber Comics in 1990, I want to say.

[00:02:37] Yeah, that was my first personal series.

[00:02:39] But I'd done a couple of small comics with like I met Phil Hester in college and we became friends and we started doing I was like during the black and white explosion.

[00:02:49] Years. Okay, where anybody could do a comic.

[00:02:52] So that's that's how you get in and you start at one time when anybody can do it, which is actually kind of today's time with, you know, online stuff and things like that.

[00:03:02] If you want to do comics, man, you can do comics now.

[00:03:04] And it's really great.

[00:03:06] Yeah, it feels like there was a period of time where maybe that wasn't the case.

[00:03:10] But then, you know, because there was a huge underground scene at one point, which I think is still out there.

[00:03:17] But with the rise of crowdfunding Kickstarter, Zoom, other companies like that, it does feel web comics.

[00:03:26] It does feel like, you know, it's more accessible than ever for folks to tell their stories in some type of, you know, comic fashion.

[00:03:35] Yeah, it's like you just mentioned, like there's an underground of like when I think of underground comics, I think of like the years of like, you know, Robert Cromm and, you know, Fat Fred's cat and all that.

[00:03:47] And like, I'm not even sure there is an underground now because everything is so accessible that this like if you want it, you can get it where it's like it used to be underground comics.

[00:03:57] You needed to like, you know, squeeze past a cop car that wouldn't get past that and go to some shop where, you know, they had a knife ready.

[00:04:05] You know, and it's like now you can just like just get online and go, oh, I want, you know, a comic about this.

[00:04:11] And you can usually find it.

[00:04:13] I mean, yeah, you have to do a Patreon to get it.

[00:04:16] But yeah, those are fun.

[00:04:20] Yeah, you can find it.

[00:04:21] It is out there, you know, whatever you're into.

[00:04:27] That's what I love about comics.

[00:04:30] I mean, I think it's and especially right now, I feel like it, you know, this is like a new golden age.

[00:04:37] I mean, there's just so many amazing comics out there, whether or not it's, you know, mainstream or independent or, you know, crowdfunded comics.

[00:04:47] It's wild.

[00:04:48] Yeah, as an old guy, I can tell you there were years where like if I got 10 comics there, then that meant that I was getting five comics that I wanted, three comics that I kind of wanted.

[00:05:01] And the rest were like, I don't know, I'll just get this.

[00:05:04] And now if I buy 10 comics, it's like, well, I just got one fifth of the ones I really want, you know, because it's like there's so much out there.

[00:05:13] It's so much fun.

[00:05:15] Oh, yeah, absolutely.

[00:05:17] But let's talk about a little bit about the your new comic with the mammoth coming out from Mad Cave and issue one drops June 5th in your local comic book shop for listeners.

[00:05:33] And it's I the first issue I really liked it set up.

[00:05:37] It's these four scientists are kind of investigating this this broke tree valley right off the bat.

[00:05:45] There's rumblings literally and figuratively about what's going on in this valley.

[00:05:52] And we quickly understand that there's quite a mystery going on.

[00:06:01] And I really like like it was kind of shocking how everything happened, like the main action right away with the character Olivia.

[00:06:11] I don't want to give like too much away for readers for our listeners who will be readers.

[00:06:17] But yeah, I mean, I what and then what happens to Olivia kind of sets up this the main story for issue one.

[00:06:26] And then we see the other three scientists kind of like coming to grips with what happened.

[00:06:31] And there's an investigation and it goes on from there.

[00:06:35] What I really liked about it more so than than the mystery was the characters themselves.

[00:06:43] Like there are a couple of scenes where they're just kind of talking about the past or talking about what they're doing there during the investigation.

[00:06:53] And I they were all just so kind of they all felt realized.

[00:06:57] They all felt a little quirky, a little real.

[00:07:02] I just love the character interaction and the dialogue like that hit me right off the bat.

[00:07:08] I wanted to spend more time with these folks.

[00:07:11] Well, that's thank you.

[00:07:13] That makes me feel good because that's always my aim.

[00:07:16] I don't really care about stories unless I care about the characters, like whether I'm a writer or even more so as a reader.

[00:07:27] I've sort of read I've disposed of so many stories where I was like, oh, it's you know, there's this cosmic thing going on or this mystery or this murder.

[00:07:37] And I'm like, I'm 50 pages into a novel or in 10 pages or 15 pages or an issue into a comic.

[00:07:44] And I don't know who these people are.

[00:07:46] Why do I care if they win?

[00:07:47] Why do I care if their lives go to hell?

[00:07:49] You know, so that's the first thing I need to cement as either as a reader or you know, as a writer.

[00:07:58] Like who are these people and why should I care?

[00:08:01] And I love developing characters and giving them aspects that, like you say, make them feel real to me because then I care.

[00:08:08] You know, even as a as there should be parts as a writer where I'm like, OK, I need to do this to the characters.

[00:08:15] But dang, they're my friends now.

[00:08:19] I'm really messing them up here.

[00:08:22] And that feels good.

[00:08:23] And there should be parts like me and my writer friends, Ben Fisher, who I mentioned off camera a little bit ago, Jeff Parker, who's both a friend and in a little ways a mentor to me.

[00:08:38] I need we talk a lot about that moment when you're writing characters and then you say, you know, I need you characters to do this.

[00:08:48] And they go, it's not really us.

[00:08:51] Don't want to do it.

[00:08:52] And it's like your characters rebel and do something else.

[00:08:56] And it's like that's when you know that they're coming alive in your mind and doing what they want to do.

[00:09:01] So after that, you're sort of just shepherding the story rather than creating it.

[00:09:05] And that's that's a really good feeling.

[00:09:08] Do you have ways to try and like get to that place faster when you're writing or it just takes as long as it takes?

[00:09:16] I think it said that takes as long as it takes.

[00:09:19] And sometimes it never takes.

[00:09:21] I mean, there's there there have been certainly entire issues that I've, you know, typed in the end of this issue and then sat and looked at it and went, no, that that just isn't there.

[00:09:35] It didn't happen.

[00:09:37] Which is also a good feeling in a way, because I mean, if if you like I work on novels too and there's something really freeing about like selecting 20,000 words of typing and deleting it because it lets you know you're writing.

[00:09:54] You care.

[00:09:55] You're looking at it as a reader and it's like this isn't good and it should go away.

[00:10:00] So deleting stories is fine.

[00:10:03] I think that's part of part of writing.

[00:10:06] I think it was really freeing for me when I read Stephen King's On Writing book.

[00:10:14] And boy, if you look at his examples in the back, you know, he's one of the most popular writers in the history of the world.

[00:10:23] And his first drafts, he changes hugely.

[00:10:27] He marks out things.

[00:10:28] He throws things away and things like that.

[00:10:30] And once I saw that from him, it kind of freed it up for me to say, look, I'm I'm just writing a first draft here.

[00:10:38] It doesn't have to it doesn't have to work.

[00:10:40] It can have holes.

[00:10:41] It can it can do things.

[00:10:43] And then you fix it later and you put in those parts that can make it come alive.

[00:10:47] And sometimes it's really easy.

[00:10:49] It's just having a character do one thing and you're like, oh, OK, yeah, now I now I see who this character is and what they want to do.

[00:10:57] And I usually feel like it's small things rather than, you know, large things like if you have a character that that, you know, can fly through space and things like that.

[00:11:09] And you're like, oh, his big dream is to punch a planet in half.

[00:11:12] It's like, yeah, what do I care?

[00:11:13] And, you know, but if you if you write and his big problem is he just can't keep his shoelaces tied.

[00:11:19] It's like, oh, OK, I know this guy, you know, and then you can start to build from there and work things.

[00:11:26] And it's like that's that's important to me.

[00:11:28] And it's the same in horror or comedy or anything.

[00:11:32] Any genre really needs those small moments as well as those big moments.

[00:11:36] I try to I often think of scripting or writing prose as sort of a musical thing.

[00:11:44] You need those highs and lows or else, you know, doesn't work, which is one reason I can't write to music because I then start to time my writing to the music.

[00:11:55] And it's like I get that from a lot of people.

[00:11:58] A lot of writers say that they can't they need dead silence.

[00:12:01] You know, I can be, you know, I can be in like, in fact, I often am writing in cafes and things like that where there's music.

[00:12:08] But cafes and places like that become just white noise.

[00:12:13] You know, you lose it all.

[00:12:15] I'm home and I'm listening to music.

[00:12:18] It's actually it's there for me.

[00:12:21] So it becomes problematic.

[00:12:24] There are writers that are different.

[00:12:26] I brought this up before.

[00:12:28] I can remember going to Brian Bendis' house once and he had it's a different house where he lives now.

[00:12:34] And he had a whole big set up of videos, movies he would watch while writing.

[00:12:39] And like, how can you do that?

[00:12:41] That's just but that's one thing you learn is everybody has their own their own process.

[00:12:46] Yeah.

[00:12:47] If you want to distrust a writer, find the ones that are online saying this is the way you should write.

[00:12:53] And this is the way you should make a script and say, man, you're wrong.

[00:12:57] There's no way you should write.

[00:12:59] Yeah.

[00:13:00] Anyone that is convinced that they have the formula?

[00:13:05] Mm hmm.

[00:13:06] Yeah, I did.

[00:13:08] We tried to do it all fell apart for dumb reasons.

[00:13:11] But I can remember doing an anthology together like we're going to self publish it.

[00:13:17] I remember when like Kurt Busiek sent me one of his scripts and I'm like, what is this?

[00:13:23] It's so different than I do it.

[00:13:26] But you know what?

[00:13:28] It works really well because Kurt's one of my favorite writers of all time.

[00:13:31] So however you get there is the correct path.

[00:13:35] Yeah.

[00:13:36] Astro City reads real nice.

[00:13:37] So I guess that's still something right.

[00:13:40] He knows what he's doing, I guess.

[00:13:45] So you've worked with so many different artists over your career, including your spouse with Bandette.

[00:13:55] And you've worked with Arjuna the City before with I think Made Men and Heist or How to Steal a Planet.

[00:14:04] So are you someone that is able to then like do you prefer working with someone that you can develop like a shorthand with or is your scripting regardless of the project kind of always the same?

[00:14:18] I would have to say it's largely the same.

[00:14:21] Like you mentioned, working with Colleen Coover, my wife, and people are fascinated when I talk about the process of working on Bandette with her because I don't show her a script until I'm done.

[00:14:33] And I send it to her through email just like anybody else.

[00:14:36] Really?

[00:14:37] Yeah.

[00:14:40] So yeah, she doesn't get to see a script until it's done.

[00:14:44] And that's the way I prefer to write.

[00:14:46] I don't think I would be very good with them, you know, so-called Marvel style, which doesn't really happen too much anymore of like coming up with a basic plot and then having the artist draw it and then kind of scripting around what they draw.

[00:15:02] That's not really my thing, especially like I can't...

[00:15:07] I almost feel like if you're going to do that, you should be giving the artist a fair chunk of the writing pay too because they're essentially writing it.

[00:15:17] I have one friend who made his career on a book that people...

[00:15:24] I'm not going to mention any names, that people constantly talk about how well the writer did.

[00:15:29] And I've seen the scripts and they were often like literally pages four through eight something funny happens.

[00:15:41] And then the artist unnamed would do it all, you know?

[00:15:48] And then the writer would cash his paycheck and go, ka-ching.

[00:15:53] And then my friend would have to read online reviews of, oh, this writer did such a great job on these pages.

[00:16:00] This is so funny.

[00:16:04] It's like, OK, whatever. I could never do that.

[00:16:07] I'm a very complete scripter. Very complete.

[00:16:11] Yeah, but I do. It's more to your question.

[00:16:15] It is comfortable at times to work with someone that you know what...

[00:16:20] not what you're going to get, but that they can do such and such.

[00:16:25] There was there's a sequence upcoming in Mammoth,

[00:16:29] I think mostly in the third issue where it's like of every artist I've ever worked with, Arjuna is the only one who could pull it off.

[00:16:36] And that was part of the reason I brought him on the project is because he could do it.

[00:16:42] And you mentioned Heist.

[00:16:46] Part of the reason I love working with Arjuna is because of his covers.

[00:16:49] I will go to my grave thinking that Arjuna should have gotten Eisner Naam for covers that year because the run of Heist covers was just brilliant.

[00:16:59] Yeah, I think with the trade that I had, because I think I collected it when it came out and have the trade.

[00:17:05] And I think some of the covers are also... Yeah, they're in there.

[00:17:09] Yeah, phenomenal. I mean, I love the look of that whole world in terms of Heist.

[00:17:16] That's a book I tell a lot of folks about.

[00:17:20] In fact, just recently someone was saying they read a crime comic.

[00:17:24] I don't know if it was a recent Brubaker and Phillips or what it was.

[00:17:30] And they're like, we need more Heist comics. And I'm like, read Heist.

[00:17:34] Right there. It's like, read Heist.

[00:17:37] It's absolutely phenomenal.

[00:17:40] Twists and turns galore. Fantastic characters.

[00:17:43] The look of that world. Arjuna's work in that is absolutely wonderful.

[00:17:48] I mean, that was a book that I felt like not enough folks were talking about when it came out.

[00:17:53] I just love it. I tell so many folks about it. I think it's incredible.

[00:17:58] So when I saw that you were coming out with... And I'm a big Mad Cave fan.

[00:18:03] I love a lot of the stuff they're putting out.

[00:18:06] I interview a lot of Mad Cave creators, mainly because Frank, who worked for Mad Cave, is so helpful setting these up.

[00:18:14] But when I saw that you and Arjuna were on a Mad Cave book, I'm like, oh, I gotta talk to him.

[00:18:20] It's kind of like a transition for Arjuna.

[00:18:24] He says he was happy, but with Heist, he was designing these futuristic cities with all this stuff happening and this going on, blah, blah, blah.

[00:18:33] And I'm like, yeah, come over in Mammoth. We're going to draw cars driving through trees.

[00:18:40] Like, OK. We actually had a book.

[00:18:44] You will hopefully get to see it at some point with us together between it.

[00:18:52] But the company, which you can probably figure out, is in bankruptcy hearings.

[00:19:00] So it hasn't made it out, which is too bad because the first issue was done and it's beautiful.

[00:19:06] So hopefully we'll get back to that someday.

[00:19:09] Yeah, hopefully. Well, you know, I mean, even though Mammoth...

[00:19:13] I mean, the first issue has some interesting stuff in it.

[00:19:16] But Arjuna really does. He does people really well.

[00:19:20] I mean, the main character in Heist, I know I keep talking about it, so I love it so much, but Glaine Braille, which I think that's the name of the character.

[00:19:28] Yeah, I mean, he just just really kind of like nails that look.

[00:19:32] And it's the same thing, like even when your other three characters, other than Olivia, are sitting around chatting.

[00:19:41] I think it's Mason, Jess and Kokoro.

[00:19:45] You know, there's just always something interesting going on, like the facial acting is fun.

[00:19:50] And I think that's the point when he kind of can kind of let loose on some of the sections of the story when it starts to kind of get into the horror elements of it, the more fantastical stuff.

[00:20:01] It just looks great. It just looks great on the page.

[00:20:04] Yeah, there's like I say, there's some upcoming pages that I was just like got them in.

[00:20:09] One of the sad things about being a comic creator is we all, well, speaking for everyone, but we all got into it at least partly for the love of storytelling and the love of sharing stories.

[00:20:23] And then we all become professionals. And it's like, you know, I finished Mammoth months ago.

[00:20:31] And it's like those pages would come in and I'm like, oh man, people are going to love to see these a long time from now.

[00:20:38] You know, and it's like you want to just share them immediately.

[00:20:42] And sometimes I do, you know, we can't really do it before a series is announced.

[00:20:49] But I suppose I could pop a couple of panels on here and there and say, now that the word is out.

[00:20:56] And those really like the range of covers for the first issue.

[00:21:00] And yeah, that's the stuff I want to share. I love sharing stories.

[00:21:05] Yeah, I mean, it's clear in terms of all the different types of stories that you've told, all the different work that you've done.

[00:21:16] And there were a couple of things that I was familiar with, but I just didn't, for whatever reason, associate you with it.

[00:21:23] And I was going, you know, preparing for this and I like to go back through and see like, oh, what are all the things that Paul has done?

[00:21:29] But like, yeah, like but Rassel Castle was another, you know, some of the stuff for younger folks that you've done.

[00:21:38] But that's another phenomenal one.

[00:21:42] And then all the, you know, all the different property work that you've done in terms of, you know, I think you did the Prometheus comic, Witcher.

[00:21:52] You've done Adventure Time. You've done Angry Birds, the, you know, the very well received Plants vs. Zombies comics.

[00:22:00] Actually something I discovered today that I didn't realize.

[00:22:03] You did a comic based on the Noah Wiley show Falling Skies, which I thought was great.

[00:22:09] I was like, I love that show.

[00:22:11] That was weird because like Juan Ferrerra and I did that.

[00:22:17] And then I enjoyed working with Juan and then I was like, oh, I have this horror thing that I'm working on.

[00:22:25] Juan, would you like to be on that?

[00:22:27] And that was Colder.

[00:22:29] Yeah.

[00:22:30] We had a Eisner nom for it.

[00:22:32] And it's like where the, he started turning in the Colder art and it was so different than the Falling Skies stuff.

[00:22:40] And it was just like, oh, it was so glorious.

[00:22:43] He's a great guy to work with and he's a guy, there are very few people.

[00:22:48] I talked about being like my scripts are fairly complete and I don't mind if an artist, you know, changes a thing here and there.

[00:22:55] That's the game.

[00:22:57] And part of being an artist is you have the visual eye.

[00:23:00] So obviously change my stuff around if it looks better.

[00:23:06] But Juan would change things hard.

[00:23:09] Usually that kind of irks me.

[00:23:11] Man, he made everything so beautiful that it was just, it was fine.

[00:23:16] I hope I can work with him again someday.

[00:23:19] He's a great guy too.

[00:23:21] Yeah, Colder is another one.

[00:23:24] I don't know if it was Juan's cover or not, but that like hand up through the face into the eye.

[00:23:30] I mean, that's just, that's rough to look at.

[00:23:33] That is just no good.

[00:23:35] It's so disturbing.

[00:23:37] Yeah.

[00:23:38] That was all his idea too.

[00:23:39] A lot of a lot of the covers are like I sort of I don't design them because I'm not a very good artist.

[00:23:45] But I say I kind of want this, kind of want this, I kind of want this.

[00:23:49] But Juan just kind of turned in that piece of our artwork and it was like, yeah, cover.

[00:23:56] Yeah.

[00:23:59] So I mean with something like Colder and now kind of returning to horror, I mean, I guess is it a return?

[00:24:07] Like, do you always feel like you have some of those elements in it or you've done horror elements in some other stories that weren't like straight horror?

[00:24:17] Is it something you like to return to?

[00:24:20] I love horror. Absolutely.

[00:24:22] And I love well, I mean, to be honest, no matter what genre you asked me about, I would go, oh yeah, I love that.

[00:24:32] There's an there's an upcoming story that my that my wife and I are working on co-writing that hopefully will be announced by the end of summer.

[00:24:41] That's romance.

[00:24:42] I've never really done romance before.

[00:24:44] It's got some supernatural elements because I like messing with combining genres, but it's essentially a romance.

[00:24:52] Yeah, there's really no genre that I don't enjoy.

[00:24:54] They all have their little fun rules that you can play with.

[00:24:58] They all have their little boxes that you can either decide to stay in or expand.

[00:25:03] And and and yeah, there's pretty much no genre.

[00:25:07] I when I grew up, I was reading every single comic I could get.

[00:25:10] And so I was reading horror comics.

[00:25:13] I was reading romance.

[00:25:15] I was reading Little Lulu and Casper the Friendly Ghost and and stuff like that.

[00:25:21] And then when I got older, it was still stuff like that.

[00:25:25] But like Mad Magazine and National Lampoon and all the Jim Warren magazines, creepy, eerie, things like that.

[00:25:35] Oh, yeah.

[00:25:36] So that's what I grew up on.

[00:25:40] So there's basically no genre that's not dear to my heart in some ways.

[00:25:46] And I love playing with them all because they're all I mean, at the base of everything, it's character.

[00:25:51] And like I was saying earlier, that's that's where I want to be.

[00:25:54] Character for a long time, I fought science fiction, but heist helped that a little bit.

[00:26:03] The work on Prometheus helped that a little bit.

[00:26:06] Now I like science fiction, too.

[00:26:08] So it's all so much fun.

[00:26:10] Yeah.

[00:26:11] Yeah. Well, I mean, I'm all in favor if there's somewhere to vote for Paul Tobin to make more science fiction comics.

[00:26:22] I'll you have my vote for that or whatever I need to do because thanks.

[00:26:27] Yeah, it was fun making my that website that you're referring to.

[00:26:32] I just revamped hugely my website like I launched it like maybe a month and a half ago.

[00:26:39] And in order to do that, I made a my works page where everybody could look and see how much you know, and all the places I've been.

[00:26:48] And it was it was kind of astonishing making it.

[00:26:51] Frankly, it's like, oh, I forgot that and I forgot that and I forgot how much I've done of that and things like that.

[00:26:56] So it was like, yeah, Tobin kid, he's been all over.

[00:26:59] It was very helpful to me preparing for this interview.

[00:27:02] It is very nice to that I can go through and say, oh, what do I need to check out?

[00:27:05] What do I what do I want to mention?

[00:27:08] And I'll put a link in the show notes for listeners so they can just click on it wherever they listen to this podcast and they can check your website out.

[00:27:16] All right, let's take a quick break.

[00:27:19] Hey, comics fam, the comic book publisher Banda bars just got a level up and announced it is now a cooperative.

[00:27:26] This heralds a new era for them, including a partnership with Dallas stories.

[00:27:30] And they added several new members to the ownership group.

[00:27:33] Marcus Jimenez is now chief operating officer.

[00:27:36] Brent Fisher takes on the role of chief diversity officer and Joey Galvez is introduced as head of Kickstarter Ops and social media manager, which is sure to increase their capabilities overall as a publisher.

[00:27:48] And it further promotes their mission statement of advancing representation, inclusion and diversity in the media.

[00:27:55] They also established a new board of directors to help chart the new path of their journey with new projects in the works like Alaska by dropping the

[00:27:59] June unbroken soon launching on Kickstarter and pond coming up with Dallas.

[00:28:04] Stay tuned to this space for more exciting news from the growing bars family.

[00:28:09] Let's get back to the show.

[00:28:11] What are the things that I thought was I mentioned it, but I thought was really cool was you kind of have covers from like your own personal comic collection.

[00:28:24] And I don't know if it's on your website or if I read it somewhere else that like it's all stuff that you know, you collected like either a lot of it from when you were younger.

[00:28:34] Yeah.

[00:28:35] Yeah.

[00:28:36] Like that you have held.

[00:28:38] Yeah, I'm still trying to collect like Golden Age comics and things like that.

[00:28:44] Oh man, the prices these days.

[00:28:46] I'm not rich, you know, plus I'm buying a house.

[00:28:48] So I got to kind of quit.

[00:28:50] But yeah, yeah, I mean, I've been going to conventions since like, oh man, like 1988 or something.

[00:29:00] So, you know, back then you could kind of pick stuff up really, really easily.

[00:29:06] Like my my website has my comic collection on it.

[00:29:10] Not all of it yet, because I on my blue sky have a blue sky.

[00:29:15] I don't really go to Twitter anymore because of ethical things.

[00:29:18] But on blue sky, I try to every weekday post a comic of the day from my collection.

[00:29:28] And then as I post that, it goes on my website.

[00:29:31] So my website, I think is about probably 70 percent of my collection so far.

[00:29:36] But there's some there's some big stuff like cool comics like FF1, Avengers one, Daredevil one that haven't made it to the website yet.

[00:29:46] And then a bunch of Golden Age stuff and a lot of faucets because I love faucet comics.

[00:29:51] Yeah, I bought those throughout my life.

[00:29:56] And my original art collection is on the website as well.

[00:30:00] Probably less than half of my collection is on the website right now.

[00:30:05] I'm adding adding more each day.

[00:30:09] But yeah, I bought them far enough in the past that things can afford them.

[00:30:14] I mean, the things that the thing that the one that pops into my head was I have a really nice Frank Miller Daredevil page with Daredevil and the Punisher on it.

[00:30:25] And I paid seventy five dollars for that.

[00:30:28] So now it's probably forty thousand dollars.

[00:30:32] Yeah, it's probably probably worth a little bit more than a lot of the stuff that I bought is like so I bought it for so ridiculously small of a price that right.

[00:30:43] You know, so people are like, well, people are always like, how can you afford to have that stuff?

[00:30:48] And it's like, I can't. There's no way I could buy a chance.

[00:30:53] Yeah, yeah. I mean, I always love looking through and I go to Baltimore Comic Con every year, at least I have the past couple of years.

[00:31:02] I really like that show and like to walk around and, you know, pick up stuff from artists alley.

[00:31:08] But I will at least stop at like a couple of the booths and like look through some of the the older Golden Age comics.

[00:31:16] And it is amazing. You know, the prices now for some of them.

[00:31:21] But what one of the things I liked and then looking through like the collection on your website is I just love like the the covers of because of all the different like types of superheroes.

[00:31:35] There were just like so many and it really feels like editorial, like never said no to an idea for a superhero.

[00:31:47] It's like you have pages will print them.

[00:31:51] I mean, it's like I talked earlier about the black and white explosion.

[00:31:54] I mean, the Golden Age was the Golden Age explosion.

[00:31:57] And I think that's one of the things that I love about Golden Age comics is like I've gotten into arguments with a dear friend who I won't mention because he's so wrong.

[00:32:14] He talks about how the Golden Age comics are boring because it's like it's this trope and this trope and this dumb thing and this dumb thing.

[00:32:22] And it's like, dude, there were no tropes.

[00:32:25] There's no trope when you're on year three of a medium.

[00:32:28] You know, they were literally figuring out how to do it.

[00:32:32] And it's like I read all these things about, oh, Will Eisner was breaking the rules of comics.

[00:32:37] And it's like he wasn't breaking the rules.

[00:32:39] There were no rules.

[00:32:40] Nobody knew how to make comics yet.

[00:32:42] He was just doing it different.

[00:32:44] And it's like we gravitated towards like some of the bombastic creators like Jack Kirby in the early days or like Will Eisner and Jack Cole and and some of the fantastic people that were they weren't rebels at the time.

[00:33:01] They were just good creators.

[00:33:04] You can't rebel against something that's just forming.

[00:33:08] There's no rebellion.

[00:33:09] It's just how about this?

[00:33:10] They're just making up the rules.

[00:33:11] And it was it's fun and exciting for me.

[00:33:13] But like you say, man, I just talked about Jack Cole and people like that.

[00:33:18] And it's like, well, they were the best of the best at the time.

[00:33:21] Man, there were some worst of the worst at the time.

[00:33:24] But but they're actually kind of fun to see, too.

[00:33:27] And it's like, you know, they're all just figuring it out.

[00:33:30] Yeah, yeah, there was a I mean, there were a couple I was looking at.

[00:33:35] What is it like?

[00:33:38] I don't think I've ever read one of the comics, but like what bullet man he had the bullet.

[00:33:43] Man's awesome.

[00:33:44] And I mean, but it's just like they were just like they were just cranking them out.

[00:33:48] They had they had to they had to get them out.

[00:33:51] They're like, all right, what about what about bullet man?

[00:33:53] Yeah. Where's the helmet shaped like a bullet?

[00:33:56] Oh, yeah. Do it team up with a girl who wears the same thing.

[00:34:00] What do we call her? Bullet girl.

[00:34:03] Yeah. I did notice also I wanted to mention this just because I have read some of these throughout the their creation.

[00:34:15] And I think one of the Marvel family, not Marvel Comics, but like, you know, Billy Batson, Captain Marvel, Mary Marvel,

[00:34:25] the Tigers name literally just went right out of my head.

[00:34:29] But it did for me, too.

[00:34:31] Yeah. Yeah.

[00:34:34] But you have you have a lot of like really great, you know, Marvel family comics.

[00:34:42] Yeah. I love Fawcett Comics because they were they were solid storytelling at the time.

[00:34:49] And I like the characters and they're actually developed characters.

[00:34:53] And I actually I like, you know, stories that are fun.

[00:34:58] Sometimes it's like, let's do a three part story where Captain Marvel finds out his birthday and it's like, yeah, OK, let's do that.

[00:35:05] That's fun. Or let's make Captain Marvel's you know, one of Captain Marvel's main villains, a little tiny worm.

[00:35:12] OK, yeah, let's do it. You know, that's Mr. Mind.

[00:35:16] And it's like, yeah, that's fun for me. And they had a lot of great creators.

[00:35:20] I like Mary Marvel a lot. I have the first appearance of Mary.

[00:35:25] I haven't posted it yet on that website, but I have the second appearance of Captain Marvel, which is nice to have.

[00:35:31] I can't afford the first one.

[00:35:33] Like I said, there's no way I could afford the second one now.

[00:35:37] But yeah, and I can remember part of my fondness for them is I can remember

[00:35:45] Captain Marvel number 48 was I can't quite remember in my mind one of the first two Golden Age comics that I ever bought in my life.

[00:35:56] And I bought them when I was like maybe 16, 17 years old.

[00:36:01] The other one was Submariner Comics number 12.

[00:36:05] I can't remember which one was first, but I loved them all.

[00:36:08] And I can remember like going there was a shop in Mason City, Iowa.

[00:36:13] This is back when I lived in Iowa. I live in Portland, Oregon now.

[00:36:17] There was a shop called Oakleaf Comics.

[00:36:20] I think it's still around in some form, but it used to be in those days.

[00:36:25] It had was in small.

[00:36:27] It was a small shop on the second floor of a building.

[00:36:30] And I can remember going like you'd open the door to the stairway and that billowing smell of decaying newsprint would come down and was like, ah, it smells so good.

[00:36:40] It was like, I'll wear that.

[00:36:43] I can remember seeing Golden Age comics for the first time there.

[00:36:47] It was a blonde phantom comic who I've grown up to love and write.

[00:36:52] And they're just so weird.

[00:36:55] They're just such great fun.

[00:36:58] I'll never sit here and I think I actually put this on my website.

[00:37:02] I'm not going to sit here and say these are some of the best comics ever done.

[00:37:06] They're not. They're just not.

[00:37:08] The modern age blows them away.

[00:37:11] But there's also just a fun energy to it that I really enjoy.

[00:37:17] Yeah, yeah.

[00:37:19] Yeah, I went just a little past the Golden Age.

[00:37:23] I had went and read going back and read some of the old like Silver Age Flash comics.

[00:37:29] And I mean, the amount of like scientific jargon for some of the things that were in those Silver Age comics is I mean, it's remarkable.

[00:37:40] I mean, now some of its, you know, by modern standards are very wordy in terms of all these descriptors.

[00:37:48] You know, but yes, some of the stuff they came up with is just, you know, it was wild like late fifties, early sixties.

[00:37:56] And they were just they were just throwing everything out there in terms of the stuff that they were creating.

[00:38:02] And it's like, yeah, they weren't just like throwing anything though.

[00:38:04] Like they were kind of putting the story together, like with a villain.

[00:38:07] They were coming up with some type of villain device.

[00:38:10] Yeah, they were weird, but somewhat cohesive, far more cohesive than the Golden Age.

[00:38:16] I'll say that because it's like every panel in the Golden Age is just different.

[00:38:20] I'm doing on my website.

[00:38:23] There's a section called Public Domain Loves where I'm just going through and talking about characters that I love that you can anybody can use now because they're they're out of copyright.

[00:38:33] And I'm working on one Marga, the Panther woman, and they tell her origin story in the first on the first page of the first story.

[00:38:45] The story is only eight pages long.

[00:38:48] And then you read the second one and the first panel of her second appearance, they have a completely different origin story.

[00:38:56] Keep it straight for nine pages.

[00:38:58] You know, they're just going, you know, that's great.

[00:39:03] It's just kind of fun.

[00:39:06] Comics. Yeah, it's it's great stuff.

[00:39:10] It's great stuff.

[00:39:13] And I want to talk, if we could just a little bit about some of the other stuff you have coming out because I think like not only is mammoth coming out June 5th, but I was looking at the

[00:39:25] I think along the same lines of some of like the game adaptations.

[00:39:30] I think you're working on Tiny Tina's Wonderland, like Land of the Giants comic that's coming out.

[00:39:36] And I don't think it's out yet, but I not yet.

[00:39:39] Yeah, that's coming out.

[00:39:41] Oh, I also wanted to mention you did another comic.

[00:39:43] I like the voyage to gourmet.

[00:39:45] Oh, thank you.

[00:39:46] That was really cool.

[00:39:48] That was a fun project.

[00:39:50] And that one was I really cut loose on characters.

[00:39:52] I just wanted to talk about characters for like 240 pages.

[00:39:57] It's kind of a long book.

[00:39:59] Yeah, but worth I mean, worth anyone checking out, especially if you have any interest in, you know, really great characters and food and comics.

[00:40:09] Just just those that little Venn diagram of those three things.

[00:40:14] You're you're all set with that one.

[00:40:17] Yeah, thank you for mentioning that because that's a dear project that I don't think enough people are reading.

[00:40:23] I mean, obviously as a creator, I don't think anybody has read enough of my stuff.

[00:40:28] Well, we'll do whatever we can to put people in that direction.

[00:40:32] So and then in terms of stuff still coming out, I think you have one that I love this concept.

[00:40:41] And I saw on your website that my vampire verse your werewolf.

[00:40:45] That sounds fantastic.

[00:40:48] Yeah, they're novels.

[00:40:49] They're straight up novels.

[00:40:51] Okay.

[00:40:52] I like writing prose too.

[00:40:53] So well, I love this idea.

[00:40:56] And I mean, you know, we don't have to stick just to comics.

[00:40:59] I mean, we're a comic podcast, but if I see something interesting that somebody's working on, I want to talk about it.

[00:41:04] So these are like the novel.

[00:41:07] It's there's like a world of humans and monsters.

[00:41:12] The monsters are underground and essentially kids are kind of like trainers for the monsters to fight.

[00:41:17] So the idea of my vampire verse your werewolf.

[00:41:21] Yeah, so that's basically a way for like the monsters have been kind of hidden by society.

[00:41:28] So they this is a way of bringing them into culture and society and human society.

[00:41:34] And so, yeah, there's the first one is my vampire versus your werewolf.

[00:41:38] And then it's your ghost versus my mummy.

[00:41:43] And then right now I'm working on my zombie versus your closet monster.

[00:41:48] Oh, that's fantastic.

[00:41:50] So I mean, is it the age group?

[00:41:52] I think look like it's like middle grade.

[00:41:54] Yeah.

[00:41:55] Yeah.

[00:41:56] Well, fantastic.

[00:41:57] I just think that that sounds awesome.

[00:41:59] So yeah, point people in the direction of that as well.

[00:42:03] So, yeah, listeners.

[00:42:04] Well, I'll put everything I'll put links in the notes so they can follow you on blue sky and check out your website so they know what you have coming out.

[00:42:15] Just in terms of you've done so many things and just to kind of steer it back towards mammoth.

[00:42:25] When you get into a project like this, do you think about your influences in terms of this story?

[00:42:34] What different things influence you when you are creating?

[00:42:38] Are you being influenced by other comics, by stories you've written before, by anything you're viewing?

[00:42:45] I mean, to a certain degree, I'm influenced by everything I've ever seen.

[00:42:49] And my I think the most influential for horror for me is probably some of the Japanese and Korean horror.

[00:42:59] I actually prefer them to American horror because American horror is a lot of in your face and jump scares and killing.

[00:43:11] Sure.

[00:43:12] Where the first I think the Japanese was very Japanese movies were very good at it, but I think Korea is a little better now.

[00:43:22] I'm just slow, terrifying, unsettling events where like if you for an American film for me, I horror films like you go to it and you're like, oh, that's scary.

[00:43:36] And then you go home and it's gone where like some of the good Korean horror, you go to it and you're like, no, it's pretty scary.

[00:43:44] And then you wake up in the middle of night going terrified now.

[00:43:47] I'm still eating that me.

[00:43:49] And that's that's the part I want is the is the pacing and the feeling that it gets.

[00:43:57] It just keeps hitting you and it keeps growing.

[00:43:59] And I really I really enjoy that.

[00:44:03] I'm so bad with names and things like that, but I've watched if there was one Korean horror film that was essentially about a drip in a woman's apartment that just wouldn't stop.

[00:44:15] And it just.

[00:44:17] The drip wouldn't stop.

[00:44:19] It's like it just kept growing.

[00:44:21] There's never any monster.

[00:44:23] There's never any like, you know, such and such.

[00:44:25] It's just you feel a little bit off from the world, which was part of the inspiration for Mammoth is I wanted that a little bit off a little bit aside.

[00:44:37] Like you're you're driving through a forest and it's like that almost like that.

[00:44:42] We're not in Kansas anymore.

[00:44:44] Horror feeling.

[00:44:46] And part of the way I did that was there.

[00:44:50] I'll give it away.

[00:44:51] There's a ghost in Mammoth, but it is decidedly not the ghost of a human being.

[00:44:56] And I I it's not something that humanity can even comprehend.

[00:45:02] And I I wanted that.

[00:45:04] I wanted that feeling of of being close to, you know, in this essentially a supernatural ocean, something that is a force that you cannot comprehend.

[00:45:16] It's not the ghost of an ocean.

[00:45:17] I don't mean it that way.

[00:45:19] No, no, I I mean, I got to the end of issue one and I was you know, I can tell when something really because I read a lot of comics.

[00:45:28] I read comics to interview folks.

[00:45:30] I read comics because, you know, it's my hobby that I've decided I, you know, I decided a number of years ago reading comics.

[00:45:37] I needed a hobby and it was going to be reading comics.

[00:45:39] And then that turned into writing short comics and now podcast.

[00:45:46] But he's expanding.

[00:45:48] It does.

[00:45:49] Publisher soon.

[00:45:50] Yeah, who knows?

[00:45:51] Who knows?

[00:45:52] But yeah, I got to the I can tell when I when something really gets me when I got to the end of issue one and I was like I and I was annoyed that like where it ended because it was like perfect.

[00:46:07] It was like the perfect end.

[00:46:08] And I was like, really?

[00:46:10] And it's not even out yet.

[00:46:13] Like I got it early.

[00:46:14] I'm not even going to be out till June 5th.

[00:46:17] And then I got to wait like another month.

[00:46:20] Issues because here you have this kind of supernatural story and you have these very grounded scientific characters, like to the point where they have like during the investigation, they run into the sheriff and the sheriff mentions like, you know, could it be something supernatural?

[00:46:41] And like, I think the response is from like the three of them is something like, yeah, do you mind?

[00:46:46] Like, no, we're scientists.

[00:46:48] We're here studying where, you know, we're funded by the USGS and and to the point where things happen and they're so grounded, they're kind of ignoring some of the more like bizarre things.

[00:47:05] Yeah.

[00:47:06] Yeah.

[00:47:07] And I, it does such a good job of really grounding those characters that when that end hits, man, it hits.

[00:47:18] And I was just like, ah, and Arjuna's work is just so good in that last shot, like the lighting in it, the shadow.

[00:47:26] I mean, I think the other, I want to mention your other collaborators, but Pippa Boland and Charles Pritchett as well.

[00:47:32] But I mean, just everything comes together in that end.

[00:47:36] And I'm kind of pissed that I have to wait till I think like July for issue two.

[00:47:42] I do that too.

[00:47:43] Like, because like so many of my friends are creators and they're like, let me slide you the first issue so you can do like a blurb for it.

[00:47:50] And then, like you say, you know, to me, I can get him like three months ahead of time.

[00:47:55] And then it's like, well, that was good.

[00:47:58] Give me the next one.

[00:48:03] It'll be out in, like you say, three months from now and then a month after that.

[00:48:07] And it's like, but no, you hooked me up.

[00:48:10] Yeah, I want to know.

[00:48:12] Yeah.

[00:48:14] I want to know what happens next.

[00:48:16] Like you say, that's the emotion you want.

[00:48:20] Like if you give a comic to a friend and say, what do you think?

[00:48:23] And they're like, yeah.

[00:48:26] And also because I'm still not like there's just enough in issue one.

[00:48:31] Like, I still don't know exactly what's going on.

[00:48:34] Like, I have my thoughts and I'm like, oh, it could go this way and it could go that way.

[00:48:40] But I'm still, you know, it's enough of a mystery and that I'm still contemplating like where is it going?

[00:48:49] And, you know, you don't have all the pieces yet.

[00:48:53] And yeah, I just really loved it.

[00:48:56] Really, really loved it.

[00:48:58] So very excited that you and Arjun are teamed up again for a Mad Cave book.

[00:49:03] That makes me very happy.

[00:49:05] Arjun and I have worked together so much and it wasn't until like two weeks ago or something that we had like a Zoom conference thing for because of what's happening with Heist.

[00:49:18] That was literally the first time I've heard his voice.

[00:49:22] Oh really?

[00:49:23] Or even really seen him.

[00:49:25] So it's like that's one of the things that can be weird about comic collaboration is sometimes like

[00:49:34] I remember when I was doing Spider-Man, like me and like Matteo Lolli.

[00:49:40] God, I don't know. We did like 500 pages of comics together.

[00:49:43] I don't know what the guy looks like.

[00:49:47] By considering him a friend, you can become friends.

[00:49:51] But sometimes, you know, it's like we've never even been on the same continent together.

[00:49:56] So it's like kind of weird sometimes.

[00:49:58] Yeah, that is kind of an odd thing about comics and about collaboration because so much of it, especially now, you know, just sharing emails or the Google Drive or whatever it is.

[00:50:12] And like how things can come together too because like I've worked with Alberto Albuquerque a couple of times.

[00:50:20] Okay.

[00:50:21] Mystery Girl and Calculated Man, which is still kind of at Hulu.

[00:50:25] And like Steve Lieber is a good friend of mine.

[00:50:30] And Steve went to a convention in, oh I forget where, but well overseas, smaller country, forgetting where.

[00:50:40] But he met Alberto there.

[00:50:42] And then Alberto liked Steve.

[00:50:44] So he came to Portland and visited Steve.

[00:50:46] And then Alberto and I became friends.

[00:50:48] And then, you know, we collaborate on a lot of things now.

[00:50:51] We don't have anything upcoming right now, but we will because I like working with the guys so much that he's...

[00:50:58] I have like a little group of people I like to grab in.

[00:51:02] Arjun is one.

[00:51:03] Alberto is one.

[00:51:06] There's a guy right now that I can't name.

[00:51:10] But we're talking about working on a third thing.

[00:51:13] And the first two things haven't been announced yet.

[00:51:16] So it's like...

[00:51:18] All right.

[00:51:19] Yeah.

[00:51:20] He started turning Arjun for the first one and I'm like, okay, I just want to work with this guy for the rest of my life.

[00:51:25] It's just, you know, helping.

[00:51:27] And well obviously I liked Colleen working with Colleen so much that I just went and married her.

[00:51:31] So yeah.

[00:51:32] So you got that going for you.

[00:51:34] Yeah.

[00:51:36] Well, Paul, I don't want to take up any more of your time.

[00:51:39] I really appreciate you coming on the podcast.

[00:51:42] This has been wonderful.

[00:51:44] Please come back any time you want to check comics.

[00:51:47] Open invitation to come back.

[00:51:49] It's not that hard to get me to talk about comics.

[00:51:53] All right.

[00:51:54] Well, listeners, The Mammoth is out June 5th.

[00:51:59] It'll be in your local comic shop and be on the lookout for Tiny Tina's Wonderland, Land of Giants,

[00:52:07] My Vampire vs. Your Werewolf.

[00:52:10] And also I'll again give my personal plug for Heist or How to Steal a Planet,

[00:52:16] which I think they're working on an adaptation of it.

[00:52:21] I think it's by the same director who did what is it?

[00:52:28] Dear White People.

[00:52:30] And I think so.

[00:52:33] I think so.

[00:52:34] If you ask me anything, I'll blank on it.

[00:52:37] And yeah, so that's pretty exciting.

[00:52:43] But read the comic, find it, vault Heist, How to Steal a Planet.

[00:52:48] And if you haven't, Voyage, De Gourmet and Rassle Castle, I just think are just absolutely fantastic.

[00:52:55] And last but certainly not least, Paul and Colleen's Bandit,

[00:53:01] which, yeah, I mean, it's multi Eisner winning for a reason.

[00:53:06] It is if you're not familiar with it, Bandit is like the, I guess, alter ego for the best teen thief in the world.

[00:53:14] And it's just a wonderful, wonderful comic.

[00:53:18] So you got to check that out.

[00:53:20] But Paul, thank you very much for coming on the podcast.

[00:53:22] Thank you. It was fun.

[00:53:24] All right, listeners, if you like the podcast, please let us know.

[00:53:27] Check out all of Paul's stuff.

[00:53:28] There'll be links in the show notes.

[00:53:31] Shout out to my brother Bobby, The Cryptid Creator Corner's number one most dedicated listener.

[00:53:35] And Bobby listens to all my episodes and let me know if you want me to add the mammoth to your pull list.

[00:53:43] All right.

[00:53:45] I'll see everybody next time.

[00:53:49] Good night.

[00:53:50] This is Byron O'Neill, one of your hosts of The Cryptid Creator Corner brought to you by Comic Book Yeti.

[00:53:56] We hope you've enjoyed this episode of our podcast.

[00:53:59] Please rate, review, subscribe, all that good stuff.

[00:54:03] It lets us know how we're doing and more importantly, how we can improve.

[00:54:07] Thanks for listening.

[00:54:10] If you enjoyed this episode of The Cryptid Creator Corner, maybe you would enjoy our sister podcast, Into the Comics Kate.

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