Pornsak Pichetshote and Rafael Albuquerque Interview - Absolute Green Arrow

[00:00:00] - [Speaker 0]
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[00:00:54] - [Speaker 2]
Hello, everybody, and welcome to the Cryptic Creator Corner. I'm Byron O'Neil, your host for our comics creator chat. I am super excited because I'm finally back in the saddle, recording again after a really long extended break for a lengthy lupus flare, but I'm back with a bang because I've got returning guest, Pornzak Pichetso, on with me and first time guest, Raphael Albuquerque, to discuss their new six issue DC Comics project, Absolute Green Arrow, a series I know everyone is quivering with excitement about. Sorry. I've got a bow.

[00:01:28] - [Speaker 2]
I'm like an archer person myself, so I could not resist the pun. Yeah, I've got like an old Mongolian replica bow, so

[00:01:37] - [Speaker 3]
it's like

[00:01:37] - [Speaker 2]
a yeah, yeah, big old recurve bow, it's pretty hefty, so yeah, yeah. But welcome to you both, it's very nice to have you on.

[00:01:47] - [Speaker 3]
Thank you, thank you, it's great to see you again, man.

[00:01:50] - [Speaker 2]
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Well, it's, 2026, 2026 is a bit of a dumpster fire, so I'm not gonna ask in general how things have been, but how have comics been? Like, Pornsack, I know you've been on the stump about this already with WonderCon, I think it was recently?

[00:02:06] - [Speaker 3]
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Just at WonderCon, and is that the first time I talked about it in public? It might?

[00:02:12] - [Speaker 3]
I guess so. I guess that's the first time I talked to about it with the crowd was was in public. And, I mean, you know, like you said, 2026 is a dumpster fire of the year for the world. But but as history has taught us, comics tend to do well during times like that. And that certainly is the case now.

[00:02:30] - [Speaker 3]
You know, the Absolute, I feel very lucky and very blessed to be working with Rafa and be part of this Absolute Universe where every, you know, just it's just a rocket into space. And and, yeah, and and now it seems like things are trickling over to, like, the buzz around indie books with, like, the with some image and Mad Cave stuff. So it's all really it's an exciting time to be in the the world of comics.

[00:02:54] - [Speaker 2]
Yeah. Absolutely. Raffin, what you've been up to? Just trying to catch up on all these pages?

[00:02:59] - [Speaker 4]
Really? Yeah. Yeah. Pretty much. We're just finishing we just finished issue two.

[00:03:08] - [Speaker 4]
I'm just starting issue three, which is great by the way. So yeah, it's been a lot of work, but I'm having a lot of fun as well. Having fun, no way that I didn't have in the comics for a long time. So it's been professionally a really good year for me as well. Yeah.

[00:03:30] - [Speaker 2]
Well, that's awesome. Yeah. And Rafa, you're like a superhero veteran already, but I don't one sec. I think this might be your, like, really big first foray into it with the big two.

[00:03:40] - [Speaker 3]
How are feeling? It's my first superhero book. I'm terrified. Terrified. I, you know, it's we'll see how I do.

[00:03:47] - [Speaker 3]
The one thing I will say is every time I hear Rafa talk about how much fun he's having, I and it sounds so cheesy and it sounds like I'm taking it for press, but it's like the honor of my life because he's done so many big stuff, like, all throughout DC and all throughout comics. So, like, the best moment I have with the script is just the fact that Rafa's having fun. And this book is weird in the sense of like, me and Rafa are so on the same page about what the book is. I feel like I'm writing the book for him. And if he enjoys it, that means the book is on the track.

[00:04:19] - [Speaker 3]
And it's because we, we had, like, we've talked so much about what the book is about what the book, what the book, what we want the book to be and it should be. So it feels like this wild thing where it's I'm just writing the book for Rapa. And if I, I know if I write the book for Rapa, it will be a good book.

[00:04:34] - [Speaker 2]
Awesome. I'm I'm like always lamenting how I hate the dogma in canon, and the absolute universe has really opened that up, I think, for a lot of people, like where you don't have limited storytelling. And people are gonna get mad at me right now, but as a big fan of the character, we're still like in Justice League B territory, right? Like DC typically does they don't have an expectation generally with Green Arrow or Aquaman that the sales are just gonna knock it out of the park. But so I'm curious, does it feel like you have a measure of freedom because of that?

[00:05:09] - [Speaker 2]
Or does having Absolute on the cover just like change the game these days?

[00:05:12] - [Speaker 3]
I mean, Absolute it it's a it's funny. There's a couple of different le levels to it. Even before the sales success of Absolute, just being in the same company as Scott and Jason and Kelly and Al and Jeff, and that's not even talking about these amazing artists, right? And Jay, just being in that same company, that's a layer of pressure because they're so good at what they do. And then, and then you add the art to it.

[00:05:36] - [Speaker 3]
And then now there's sort of the sales sort of expectation. And, and there's been so much excitement from the fans. You know, what so an interesting thing for me coming from more independent books is that when I come on a podcast like this and when I'm talking to a crowd, my job is to get people excited. And one of the things I found out so great in ours, they start off very excited. And so now my job is to just keep that excitement going and not disappoint anybody.

[00:06:04] - [Speaker 3]
So it's a really interesting thing for me to come at it sort of with my background being what it is. So yeah, there's a lot of pressure. But the other thing too, and I think, I don't know if it's like this for any, I can't imagine the scenario where it could be like this for any other book, but with the absolute sort of stuff, is that not only are you given a free you know, get you get free rein to sort of reimagine stuff as you do. I honestly feel like people's history with comics and with a character is, like, a plus to the book in a way. Because, like, what we're doing is sort of this, like you know, for anyone who doesn't know, Absolute Green Arrow is about a serial killer who's slaughtering corrupt billionaires, and the only clue to his identity is the green arrows found in the body of his victims.

[00:06:52] - [Speaker 3]
And they're meant to be a symbol to some very rich and very powerful people that you can't get away with just killing Oliver Queen. So it's I Know What You Did Last Summer for Billionaires, and it follows a perspective and executive protection specialist named Dinah Lance, absolute black canary, as she tries to discover the identity of the killer. And all of her suspects are people DC fans will recognize as familiar DC archers. The thing that so it's a murder mystery. It's, you know, it's a Jallo slasher movie.

[00:07:24] - [Speaker 3]
And the thing that I find the continuity so much fun is the fact that if you've never read a comic before, you will hopefully get a really cool murder mystery. But if you do know the comics, you get a different type of mystery because there's a bunch of Easter eggs in there that are meant to be clues, but there's also stuff that's meant to be red herrings. And part of the fun, I think, is playing with your knowledge of the, you know, if you're a DC fan, playing your knowledge with DC and the Arrow family and all that kind of stuff to see if you can get ahead of the mystery. But if you're not, then hopefully there's a slasher movie mystery that's also sort of ready for you. So that's a weird and I can't imagine there's many opportunities where you get to do that, where you get a chance to do whatever you not whatever you want, but reinterpret the mythology, but in a way where there's an extra level of a game if you know the mythology and the continuity.

[00:08:15] - [Speaker 3]
So that feels like a very special, unique place for me to be and for us to get to play so yeah, and hopefully it comes through to the audience.

[00:08:23] - [Speaker 2]
Yeah. I mean, I'm I'm a big big fan, long time fan. Like, my own timeline with Green Arrow as a character goes back to '87 with the the Mike Grell Longbow Hunters run. You know, as a teenager, I was completely captivated. My co host Jimmy got, Mike to actually, I've got it here, sign a copy at Baltimore Comic Con.

[00:08:43] - [Speaker 2]
So that that's a that's a little bit of a grail for me, and we know here that the media has christened our new green arrow, the Longbow Hunter. So there's some connective tissue in here considering what the solicits are saying about the story beats. Time is a flat circle. So what was the endpoint for the character for both of you all?

[00:09:05] - [Speaker 3]
I think for me wait, when you say the endpoint, do you mean this iteration of the character, my first introduction to the character,

[00:09:11] - [Speaker 4]
in general? How did he

[00:09:12] - [Speaker 2]
how did Green how are you exposed to Green Arrow? Like, I'm trying to get an idea of the background here, kinda

[00:09:18] - [Speaker 3]
I I think I could be wrong about this. I think I've always sort of seen him and stuff, but I don't think my first Green Arrow comic proper was until Kevin Smith's Green Arrow. I think Okay. He was the one I'm trying to remember if I had bought the Longbow Hunters before that or if I ended up buying the Longbow Hunters in, like, 50¢ dollar boxes after that. But I know they happen very quickly in in most but, like, the thing that people forget, or at least I should say, the thing that I forget, is that when Kevin Smith wrote Green Now, it was like the number two DC comic.

[00:09:47] - [Speaker 3]
I actually don't know what the number one DC comic at the time was, but Kevin Smith was such a huge name. I was a fan of all of his movies. So like, you know, I read his Daredevil and I read and I read his Green Arrow. So so I so I want to say if it wasn't Longbow Hunters, was Kevin Smith's Green Arrow, and that was my first Green Arrow comic. I mean, obviously I'd seen a bunch of stuff before that, but that was the first time I picked up a Green Arrow comic.

[00:10:08] - [Speaker 2]
Yeah. Rafael, what about you?

[00:10:09] - [Speaker 4]
Yeah, I think for me, I was a kid, because here in Brazil they collect the it's not like single issues just like in The United States. They have like collections of many, many different issues in same book. Right. So when I was a I was used to, you know, the classic Admins, Superman comics that were definitely more aimed for children. And eventually the publisher here, they put out a book called Hunters, which the name is Brazilian, but it collected Dennis Cohen question and Mike Grell's Green Arrow.

[00:10:53] - [Speaker 4]
And that was definitely for a more mature audience. So that blew my mind when I was a kid, right? Was finally grew up comic. So and that and I still love these comics until now. I'm a huge fan of Dennis Cohen as well and questioned.

[00:11:13] - [Speaker 4]
And that definitely shaped the way I probably do comics. Like more mature and more dark stuff when I'm when I'm working. It definitely comes from from that, I suppose.

[00:11:29] - [Speaker 2]
Well, I'm curious about how the project kind of from the beginning, right? It's it feels more seated in terms of the absolute titles that we've seen so far. We're spinning out of the pages of Absolute Evil number one last October. Oliver is murdered by Hawkman or so we assume, those of us who are not in the know. So what was the remit here from Scott Snyder and Chris Conroy in terms of, like, a story structure?

[00:11:53] - [Speaker 2]
Did they did they give you a lot, or was it just that?

[00:11:55] - [Speaker 3]
So this is the what the amazing thing is about the way Scott and DC or editorial and Chris have sort of set up, the absolute universe is that you're you're given total freedom, and yet you would think that we're giving a remit. So the way it works was that, like, this Jallo take on the green arrow was something that we always sort of wanted to do. And in classic Jallo style, you know, is the you know, who is the killer? Is the killer someone who's dead? Is the killer someone who's, like, alive and all that stuff?

[00:12:28] - [Speaker 3]
So dead Oliver Queen was what we started off with, and we that was part of the pitch from Jump. And then it was those guys in the the the amazing absolute sort of writer's room. They were just like, hey. As opposed to putting it off panel, let's put it on panel. Let's do an absolute and they worked it into absolute evil and kinda turned it into what it is.

[00:12:45] - [Speaker 3]
But it's so organic. Like, you would obviously think, oh, no. They did it first, and they told us, like, here's where the character sits. But no. No.

[00:12:52] - [Speaker 3]
It all sort of came from us, and they were just so good about integrating everything that, like, you can pick up our series completely cold, completely clean, because that's how it was intended to. But it flows very organically from the things that are happening in the absolute universe. And it is kind of like that unicorn that we always talk about in comics, where it's just like, No, These comics that you can pick up at any time are a part of a bigger tapestry. And it really feels like they've figured out a way to do that because, no, they didn't tell me at all. In fact, told them.

[00:13:25] - [Speaker 3]
You know, we told them, like, you know, when we start off, the world is gonna believe Oliver Queen is dead. And and there was like, oh, really? Well, then we can do this then.

[00:13:32] - [Speaker 2]
That's awesome. Well, I wanna I wanna jump into Rafa because I've I've this is one of my my delights is when I actually get to talk to the the the artist as well because I I always conceptualize from an artistic brain. And Pornstack's always kind enough to well, kind enough or I don't know, maybe insecure enough because he always he's been on three three times and every single time he brings the artist along, which which I'm very grateful for. But, you know, for American Vampire, you adapted this kind of chameleon artistic style. Were shifting between two perspectives of the writers that you were working with on the project, kind of changing to fit their vision of what they're doing.

[00:14:10] - [Speaker 2]
So it's a very adaptive style, which I'm not I'm not used to seeing as much. With this book, kind of walk me through what you had in mind when you were starting to conceptualize the world, you know, like here's serial killer Green Arrow.

[00:14:23] - [Speaker 4]
Yeah, I think I think it's part of the same process of trying to adapt my style into telling the story in the best way as I can. So I think the mood we were trying to, and we discussed that with Porn Sack and with Marcelo Mayolo who's the colorist as well, we discussed what kind of mood we wanted for the book and ultimately we felt that it would be great if we could have these seventies trailers, movies, texture in a way. Know it's kind of subjective, but that's how we approach it. So I'm using a different technique on the art as well, trying to use a lot of pencil work, textures, almost like what it's called, I forgot the name in English, anyway, trying to bring some texture into the art and into the color to bring, you know, this kind of this feel. We want it feel like somehow like a vintage thing, I suppose.

[00:15:39] - [Speaker 4]
Although it's not

[00:15:40] - [Speaker 2]
Okay.

[00:15:40] - [Speaker 4]
It's it's it's set on the present day. We wanted to have that feel, you know?

[00:15:46] - [Speaker 2]
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, was really impressed with Marcello's color work on it just from the pages that I've seen. It's it's stellar. It's, like, really grimy and gritty.

[00:15:55] - [Speaker 2]
I mean, feels feels like old school Daredevil in a way. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:15:59] - [Speaker 3]
Yeah. There's there's something about go ahead. Go ahead, Rafael.

[00:16:03] - [Speaker 4]
No. No. No. It's definitely one of the reference. We researched a lot Batman year one as well, know, that kind of coloring from the eighties as well in the comics.

[00:16:15] - [Speaker 4]
Same thing for the lettering. We we really wanted to bring that nostalgic feel, I suppose.

[00:16:22] - [Speaker 3]
Yeah. The the thing that, like, if you've only seen, like and and the thing that gets me excited about the comic is that, like, people have seen the low res, you know, pages online. They've seen more images, you know, off of a screen that shows and all that kind of stuff. But like the high res sort of stuff that, you know, I have the luxury of seeing from Marcello, from Miolo, is, is it's just that it's that grit that is so cool. And obviously I haven't seen it printed yet, but it's a whole other experience to just get all the detail of all the grit.

[00:16:57] - [Speaker 3]
And it's so cool. I remember, you saw the I had seen the low res previews for so long, and then it came time for him to actually download massive files, high res stuff. And when I saw those, I got so excited because feels insignificant. But just the grit gives it so much more presence. And I cannot wait to see it printed to see how it translates on that.

[00:17:21] - [Speaker 3]
But it does sort of feel like, oh, it just feels so it it gives it so much weight.

[00:17:26] - [Speaker 4]
Yeah. I agree. Rafael, are you doing

[00:17:29] - [Speaker 2]
that with traditional

[00:17:29] - [Speaker 4]
I'm sorry.

[00:17:31] - [Speaker 2]
Go ahead. No. No. I was just asking if you do it with traditional brushwork, or how are how are you doing that to kind of create that?

[00:17:38] - [Speaker 4]
Most of my stuff is digital now, but and all the layouts, I did digitally, but there are some pages, the, you know, the most the splash pages and probably the most appealing pages I ink it traditionally so I can sell it later.

[00:17:56] - [Speaker 2]
Maybe. Yeah. Makes sense. Well, one of the things that I'm curious about here, because the most recognizable piece visually of Green Arrow has always been the bow and to some lesser extent, like, cowl. So from what we've seen, the silhouette is dominated now by this mask.

[00:18:12] - [Speaker 2]
It's, like, much darker, much more menacing, you know, not what we've come to expect. It looks like a Japanese oni mask of sorts, you know, which kind of sells that infused horror element. It eliminates a lot of facial acting, so you can't use that, you know, visually to kind of tell the story. So all killer, no filler, I guess, as it were. So, so was that fit something you kind of came up with together, like the new look, the new outfit, that sort of thing?

[00:18:40] - [Speaker 2]
Where'd you come up with that?

[00:18:41] - [Speaker 3]
What's so impressive about that question is it literally recaps every conversation had about the costume and the mask. Literally everything you talked about is something we've had many conversations about. To the influence on the Oni mask and the death mask on it, to the amount of acting we can get through the mask. Me and Rafa have had long conversations about how to handle that and strategies on what to do. So I'm very impressed with that question because that question encapsulates a month of conversation between me and Rafa going back and forth about this.

[00:19:16] - [Speaker 3]
And the thing that I think makes Rafa such a great designer is that I'm used to character designs where, you know, you ask for character design, the artist sends something, you say this, this, this, this, and then they send something that send just is so in-depth with just like how these things work, where the influences are, all this kind of stuff. It is a very long process. And I had the pleasure of talking to Rafa during this, so you can see how his brain works as he prints it up. It's not just dash off a thing and send over, you know, from the bow to the mask to the costume. Like, there's so much thinking about how it's practically used and, you know, where the influences are and references here and there.

[00:19:56] - [Speaker 3]
It's a very cool process to just get to be a fly in the wall from the inn, which I did for this boat. I was very it was thrill.

[00:20:06] - [Speaker 2]
Well, let's get into some of the because we've

[00:20:10] - [Speaker 4]
I'm sorry, I have a delay here. Yeah.

[00:20:12] - [Speaker 2]
No, it's quite alright. Well, I wanted to jump into some of the influences because it's one of the signatures, kind of the absolute books. You have Nick Dragoda clearly with a a big manga influence in what he's doing. Not sure, Rafa, if you're a gamer, but I'm seeing, like, Garrett from the Thief video game series. Definitely, maybe some Assassin's Creed vibes that are in there.

[00:20:35] - [Speaker 2]
And it looks like there's so many Legolas short stories maybe happening as well. So just curious about where you were kind of pulling from for some of those visual cues.

[00:20:44] - [Speaker 4]
Yeah. I'm not much of a gamer, and although I know these games from what I see online, I'm not a gamer myself, but it's possible that there are some subconscious reference on it for sure. But it definitely came from the idea that we wanted this character to look like very scary for their targets, for his targets. So there's an evolution of the visuals. And if you look at the first, very first design we did, it's not, it's nothing like that.

[00:21:26] - [Speaker 4]
So it's something that was built on and on and with me and Pornstack for sure. And that's the best that that's why this is one of my favorite collaborations is because Pornstack is available all the time and we are definitely talking constantly. So it feels to me like he's in my studio working same place, so I can show him ideas, he returns there. So it's just the best way to collaborate. It's definitely made it's not just me doing that, it's a group of people collaborating at the same time, which is great.

[00:22:05] - [Speaker 2]
Well, sounds like a visit down to Brazil's in order then, Pornsac. You need a V.

[00:22:09] - [Speaker 3]
I love that. If DC is listening and they want to send me to Brazil, I am I am totally down.

[00:22:18] - [Speaker 4]
Just come.

[00:22:22] - [Speaker 2]
Jimmy is too humble to do this. So as his stalwart ride or die, I wanted to tell you about his new graphic novel, Penny and the Yeti with artist Amber Aiken. What started as a comic short with his daughter that I've known about for ages now, and it's evolved and has become one of those annoying can't talk about it in comics things for too damn long. Yes, I'm predisposed to be supportive but after reading an advanced copy of it, I have to admit it's way better than I anticipated. No shade, but it's really good, remarkably so.

[00:22:53] - [Speaker 2]
Does it have a yeti? Yeah. Is it cute and adorable? Yeah. But it streak lies in effectively tapping into the all too familiar family dynamics that we all are facing in 2026 and approaching it in a way that doesn't insult the book's target audience.

[00:23:08] - [Speaker 2]
Kids. They are way smarter and perceptive than we adults give them credit for. So I really appreciated Jimmy's narrative approach tapping into his own experiences as a dad and a spouse. I can hear his wife saying, get off your phone, Jimmy, through the pages. She's gonna kill me for saying that.

[00:23:25] - [Speaker 2]
It's hitting shelves on April 21 and I dropped the link in the show notes where you can preorder a copy today. Getty or not, here we come with Penny, Perry, Fenton, Maxine, and the magical, mythical, magnificent Yeti. On behalf of us both, we appreciate your support. YOLOWA. Based upon some of what you've already said with some of these influences, especially given the eighties, can we maybe expect a few visual nods to Mike Grell's The Longbow Hunters just as somebody of my vintage who is a big fan, and I'm kinda curious here?

[00:24:01] - [Speaker 3]
I I I'm curious if fans will pick up on my nods to Grell's run. They're pretty deep cut.

[00:24:11] - [Speaker 2]
K.

[00:24:11] - [Speaker 3]
But they're there. I mean, I I this isn't the game for me. Like, I don't know like, they're I'm fascinated. They're fans of everything. Right?

[00:24:20] - [Speaker 3]
And so they sort of pick up sort of stuff. But it's always interesting to me what people choose to pick up and what people don't sort of pick up. Like, you know, what, like, cues. Like like, you know, there's been so much speculation about obviously Green Arrow and all this kind of stuff. There I've heard some people have questions about Diana Lance's past.

[00:24:38] - [Speaker 3]
There there's a question that I'm surprised no one's asked, which is Diana Lance is a bodyguard, and no one's asking if she's guarding. And I think that's an interesting answer. So, you know, but so but so it's always I'm always curious. You know, there's definitely references to the Grail run-in there. I am curious.

[00:24:55] - [Speaker 3]
Are those fans gonna be like, oh, I totally see that, or or will they just, like, fly right by? I I don't know. I'm I'm curious.

[00:24:59] - [Speaker 2]
Well, I'm curious about the threads that you do have here. Right? So I going back, I can't help but sort of escape, Edgar Wallace's novel, The The Green Archer, which was adapted into a film in the nineteen forties. There are some similarities. You got a rich dude who was murdered by a masked marksman, you know, who's perceived as a ghost.

[00:25:18] - [Speaker 2]
There's a private detective on the case trying to figure it all out. You talked about the Jallo comparisons here, the Italian mystery film, kind of thriller films of the sixties and the seventies known for lots of violence. So there's there's a lot of coding here. So what what threads are making up your tapestry here when you're going into billionaire serial killer 2026?

[00:25:38] - [Speaker 3]
I mean, a lot of 2026 is you're making it is a lot is making its way to the book. You know, lots of Green Arrow lore, you know, from all from all over all the major runs. You know, whether it's Mike Reb or whether it's Kenneth Smith or Judd Winick or Brad Meltzer or Ben Percy, you know, there's a couple more runs and there's some artists in there that I'm I'm missing. But, you know, so a lot of that's in there. Lots of Jallos, lots of slasher movies, Korean revenge thrillers.

[00:26:10] - [Speaker 3]
That's all sort of thrown into the mix. I'm trying to think what else. I feel like, oh, Robin Hood, you know, going real all the way back to, to to Green Arrow's inspiration. I think all that is kind of in the soup of of what the book is.

[00:26:24] - [Speaker 2]
Interesting. Yeah. J Jallo's one of those funny things to me because it's Italian also for yellow, and we're talking about green arrow, and it always cracks me up. It makes me laugh.

[00:26:33] - [Speaker 3]
The, what so this is something that I learned. Alejandro Arbono, who is a great Jallo, Lake Yellowwood Slaughter, that he did with Goat's Head Press Flying Goats Flying Goats Press, is he had pointed out to me that, I guess, there's Jallos in their slasher movies, And Jallo is where the sub where, it's the thing where the reveal of the killer is someone you've met in the course of the story. And slasher movies are just when they're slashers, but there's no, like, mystery reveal in that way. And I never knew that there was a there was a difference, which is why, for well, I've been using the word jallo to sort of describe this because it is technically more accurate than slasher movie, even though slasher movies are jallo. Jallos are slasher movies, although not every slasher movie is a jallo, I guess.

[00:27:23] - [Speaker 2]
I have to go back. Like okay. So Scream. Uh-huh.

[00:27:27] - [Speaker 3]
Scream is a Jallo. I don't know. I know what you did last summer. That's a Jallo. But, like, but, like, Halloween is a slasher movie.

[00:27:39] - [Speaker 2]
Okay. Yep.

[00:27:40] - [Speaker 3]
Yeah. So so that that was just a fun teaser nerd, a horror nerd trivia that I learned in the course of making this.

[00:27:46] - [Speaker 2]
Well, speaking of horror, I mean, like, having a horror coded absolute book, I I that's this is the first. I mean, like, it's something that this that's really this dark. I mean, we've certainly dipped into some difficult subject matter, and I'm I mean, the the last that Scott Snyder run with Bane on on absolute Batman, like, wow. That was intense. So we have a lot of that intensity, but, like, horror coding, like, I'm really curious to see how this works.

[00:28:12] - [Speaker 2]
Like, I'm a huge fan of Gene Colan's work, like the old Tomb of Dracula, Where, What, Why Night series were my introductions to the horrors horror yeah. Absolutely. And I I'm really curious. I've I've been studying a lot of this stuff to kind of figure out how to transmit horror in a comic book effectively. So so, Rafa, I'm curious.

[00:28:32] - [Speaker 2]
You know, every artist's approach is going to be a little bit different. I was reading Werther's Something Is Killing the Children volume nine, which I can't believe it's on volume nine. Congratulations, team, on that because that's crazy for an indie book. But, like, what what transmits horror to you? Like, as an artist, you're putting this on the page, you're wanting the the reader to to see this, to experiencing it.

[00:28:53] - [Speaker 2]
You know, you've worked in horror. You've done a lot of horror books, so

[00:28:56] - [Speaker 4]
Yeah. In general, I would say

[00:28:59] - [Speaker 3]
it's it's the

[00:28:59] - [Speaker 4]
expectation of something is more powerful than actually showing things. It's pretty much like every time I show something, the goriest thing, whatever, okay, it might be impactful, but if I build tension before, I don't even need to show that because the ultimate image is going to be on the reader's mind and nothing can actually and that's going to be satisfactory for the reader in any way. You know what I'm saying? So I think for me as a storyteller at making a horror book, it's about building intention, building That's what I feel that good horror comics and horror movies and horror games, whatever horror stories are about. It's not about showing gore things, it's about building tension and making That's why Stephen King is so good.

[00:30:02] - [Speaker 4]
He really makes you care and then he just crushes whatever you love, you know? But there's a construction, and, you know, that's how I feel about working the hard thing.

[00:30:17] - [Speaker 2]
We're all kind of hearing about how much the absolute universe is bringing in new and younger readers, which is exciting. We've all been waiting for that for some time in comics. You know, I don't know about both of you. I'll never forget picking up my first real horror comic, which which I could truly understand was a horror comic, which was Garth Ennis' run on Hellblazer, which blew my mind. Right?

[00:30:38] - [Speaker 2]
I picked it up because I was reading the demon run, which a lot of people would probably argue is horror, but I wouldn't. I thought it was just funny. But, you know, talking about creating horror, what were some of your all's influences, like horror comics influences, growing up? I'm just curious about, like I'm really into coding here. Excuse me if I'm I'm off on a tangent, but

[00:30:59] - [Speaker 3]
No. That that's that's great. I think, you know, for me, I can remember the horror comics that sort of really hit me sort of hard. And the seminal ones is Alan Moore and Steve Bissett's Swamp Thing. You know, I still remember that panel where where I I wanna say it's in the second arc where the little boy is walking around with that orangutan look looking monster, and and they talk about how this one girl it's like making everyone's nightmares, come real.

[00:31:32] - [Speaker 3]
And so this one girl grew up being afraid of AIDS, but no one told her what AIDS was. And so you just see all this, like, crazy stuff in in her in her hospital room. And that still has, like, a palpable effect. I can still remember that. I can still remember when I discovered Junji Ito, you know, and how that was like, looked like nothing else I ever And that has such a deep impact on on how I approach horror.

[00:31:54] - [Speaker 3]
You know, it really that Junji Ito made me realize like, oh, there's there's there's in horror you can do in comics that you can't do in film, in in live action, and and and and to lean into those particular strengths of it. So those are, like, the two big touchstones from I mean, like and I read I read a lot of horror comics. It it's been really great for me to see. Like, I remember I wrote the horror graphic novel called Infidel back in 2018, miniseries called Infidel back in 2018. And when I was reading it at the time, I had to look for all the horror comics and, you know, and just to reread them and all that kind of stuff.

[00:32:30] - [Speaker 3]
And there wasn't a pun to to choose from. Like, something like The Walking Dead kind of lost the horror aspect to it. It was in the horror genre, but it wasn't like the goal wasn't to be scary in quite the same way. And now I have a whole long box of horror comics I haven't read, you know, that I keep meaning to read just because there's so many horror comics in the past five or what is it? Eight years, six years since 2018.

[00:32:52] - [Speaker 3]
What is math? Eight years since '16 2018. There are so many more horror comics on the stand. So that's been really exciting for me to just read all that and pick up things and and and and all that.

[00:33:03] - [Speaker 2]
Yeah. It seems like we're in a a renaissance, golden years of horror as as a genre, not just in comics, but in, you know, literature and movies and other things. And I I mean, I think it's just emblematic of life right now. We've gone through COVID and how that impacted us all. And, you know, now twenty twenty six, you know, without getting overly political and the shit show that that we're all experiencing the craziness with that.

[00:33:29] - [Speaker 2]
So it just, it feels like the perfect time to lean into a horror angle with an absolute book. And mean, I'm I'm so stoked about this. Rafa, we I didn't ask you. What about what about you and, like, horror influences and and stuff like that in comics?

[00:33:47] - [Speaker 4]
I'm not I've never been much of a comic reader, so I don't really have Okay. Much of those references. So a lot of my storytelling and my visual reference come from movies. Although Mike Miniola for sure, is a huge reference. Bordie Wrightson, I love that Frankenstein book he illustrated.

[00:34:14] - [Speaker 4]
Although I don't think that's considered a comic book, but it has such a visual impact on me that I try to replicate in a way. And I think all these chiaroscuro artists, these guys who actually play a lot with contrasts and rough compositions, so you can just go with Frank Miller, although he doesn't really do much of horror. His comic language, his comic Yeah, the way he tells stories have referenced enough for me to use in a horror comic. Does it make sense? So I suppose that it tends to come more from movies, in terms of rhythm and all that.

[00:35:17] - [Speaker 4]
But but there are definitely some great horror artists in the comics that I'm a big fan of.

[00:35:24] - [Speaker 2]
Yeah. I mean, as I was saying, horror being just the the experience of living right now, and and this is just such a fascinating kind of take on this, I think, general, because we have the Epstein files that are blanketing the news and billionaires buying influence, consolidating our media and our social media. That's real life horror, right, that that you're using as the narrative vehicle here. I I know Green Arrow is on the cover, but in ways as more of a what sounds like more of a mystery procedural procedural sort of thing. It feels like a way to highlight Black Canary, maybe even a little bit more.

[00:36:01] - [Speaker 2]
And you said nobody's asked about her as a bodyguard, but I'm curious about how as much as you could say anyway, how much she'll sort of fit into this. And I'm assuming we're not gonna see her in fishnets. Maybe I'm wrong.

[00:36:12] - [Speaker 3]
I mean, I think on some of the covers, you see them around her hands. I mean, I don't you see them around her fists and and sleeves. Yeah. I don't know if we I don't know if she'll be wearing fishnets out of her lace. She it doesn't really strike it doesn't it doesn't seem like it's her style in this particular version of her.

[00:36:25] - [Speaker 3]
But this story is very I mean, I'd long considered Black Canary sort of one of the most underrated characters in the DC universe. She's she's one of my favorite characters. And and so this is very much as much as the story is a Green Arrow story, it's also very much a Black and Airy story. In the same way, as much as Halloween is a story about Michael Myers, it's also about Luke Laurie Strode. And so and for me, so much of this book is, in the absolute universe, it is a world where billionaires could do whatever the hell they want and the laws can't seem to stop them and they just seem to blatantly ignore the laws in plain sight, and they don't even need to pretend to follow these laws.

[00:37:10] - [Speaker 3]
If you construct your imagination to imagine a world where that could actually be possible, then the world of Green Arrow becomes very relevant in the sense of how do you just, as a regular person, live in that world, how you just maintain your morality in a world like that. And we we enter the story from Dinah Lance's perspective, who she's a fighter by nature. She's a brawler. But these aren't forces that you can fight. You know?

[00:37:36] - [Speaker 3]
There's no one to punch necessarily to fix the problem. And so so much of it is if you're going to be living in a world like that where it just seems like the wrongdoing is overwhelming in public, and you wanna change things. What's the right way to change things? Is there a right way to change things? Is there a wrong way to change things?

[00:37:54] - [Speaker 3]
And how, as a person, do we survive that? Do we protect our family and our neighbors and our friends, the people we love? And that's really the story of Green Arrow. It's told in this language of very cruel violence and a very heavy body count. But that is the story that we're telling there.

[00:38:12] - [Speaker 3]
And Dinah's the heart of that story. Dinah is, you know, in many ways, this book is a conversation between Dinah and Green Arrow. And and again, in the language of cruel violence and and dead bodies. But but it's very much about, you know, a person struggling with that question. And it for me, it's it's a very personal, you know, struggle, and it's a very personal question.

[00:38:34] - [Speaker 3]
And and it is definitely a book that I'm grateful for so many aspects about this book. One, to get a chance to hang out with Scott and Jason and Kelly and everybody there. One, to get to work with Rafa. But the other and to be part of this sales juggernaut. But the other thing too that I'm really grateful for was it became a place where I worked out a lot of what I was feeling just in life.

[00:39:00] - [Speaker 3]
And at a time where I know and I've seen it online, my friends be kind of like, I'm having trouble making things right now because of everything else. I had the opposite perversely. It became easy because it gave me, at a time where I feel powerless, it gave me direction and led me personally to some answers to these questions that I had. And who knows, I did my job right, maybe there are answers that would be of use to someone else, to other people as well. But for me, it was this very personal journey Raina's book has been.

[00:39:32] - [Speaker 3]
And I can say that because I kind of mapped out the story in great detail at this point. I've read half the scripts, mapped out the other half. But but it taught me something about surviving emotionally right now that I didn't know before I started writing it. And I'm super, super, super grateful for that.

[00:39:48] - [Speaker 2]
Yeah. I was reading in your newsletter that you had said it was deeply personal. So is that is that why? You're just it's a way and a mechanism to sort of process your own experiences as a person in 2026.

[00:40:01] - [Speaker 3]
Yeah. Yeah. And I don't know if it wasn't for the book if I would have had the context or the opportunity to process it. And so it and so it really was, you know, just having all these questions about the world and just even like again, like, if you don't like how the world is, what do you do about it? What's the first step?

[00:40:22] - [Speaker 3]
And for me, anyway, this book helped me find that. And and hopefully I don't know. I would love it if people walked away to and got get getting the same thing I got out of it. But but that definitely was the case for me.

[00:40:38] - [Speaker 2]
Yeah. I mean, comics have helped me process it's weird because I'm processing things in an entirely different way. I found myself actually back to comics after my first big lupus failure, after the first diagnosis, and it was like the one grounding element that I could look forward to at the end of the day to take me out of my body that was failing me. My my relationship to comics all along, you know, as somebody who'd read them ever since I was, you know, five years old, drastically different now, you know? So it, yeah, it's really interesting to just hear how you're processing that through, through the book.

[00:41:15] - [Speaker 2]
It's an, it's an added layer of texture that I think is, is definitely going to, to, I mean, it's going to appeal and resonate with a lot of people.

[00:41:23] - [Speaker 3]
Hopefully, hopefully. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:41:26] - [Speaker 2]
Yeah. Well, I know you can't elaborate, but it feels like just the the tip of the iceberg as DC is promising these new launches in May and June mark only the beginning of what is ahead for the absolute universe in 2026 as DC pushes its heroes into moments of absolute terror. So I think we're given a clue here maybe. Stories that are born from the darkest corners of the DC cosmos. Right?

[00:41:48] - [Speaker 2]
So, clearly, everyone is very excited about this. I know both of y'all are too. It sounds like this is not the end of the horror oriented take, though, that's happening. I'm secretly hoping, or maybe not so secretly now that I've put it out on a podcast, that an absolute Constantine will emerge as Johnny Boy as a priest. So I'm gonna manifest that.

[00:42:07] - [Speaker 2]
Rafa, you need to be on that book because I love what you're laying down here, so you need to

[00:42:12] - [Speaker 4]
I didn't know about that. I'm just learning then. That sounds cool.

[00:42:18] - [Speaker 2]
Yeah. It does sound really cool. I mean, has been been amazing so far, that that that absolutely has dropped. So I'm I'm really super, super looking forward to this book and really, really happy that two fantastic creators have have managed to find a home on this book and are clearly very, very happy working together. There's some chemistry here that that feels feels really, really special.

[00:42:41] - [Speaker 2]
So I think a lot of people will dig

[00:42:43] - [Speaker 3]
Thank you, man. Thank you. Yeah. I hopefully hopefully people are into it.

[00:42:48] - [Speaker 2]
Well, before I let you go, let's touch on what else you got cooking. Pornstack, I know you've been writing some of the the tiny onion exquisite corpses issues recently. Typically, I'm a trades guy, so I'm waiting on volume two to get in. What's the experience, though, been like for you working in what amounts to a, like, a rotating writer's room on an indie book?

[00:43:07] - [Speaker 3]
It's it's so much fun. It is the most fun and is the easiest gig I've ever worked on in comics. It's it it it sounds like, I talk about it, you I'm I'm sure it does not sound real, but it's literally, oh, you get to hang out with your friends for a weekend. You chew the shit. You talk a bunch.

[00:43:23] - [Speaker 3]
There are people there taking notes on all of it. So as you're doing it, you don't have to, like, pay too much attention to that. And then, you know, you hang out with your friends for a weekend, you come back, the editor send you, here's what you said was gonna happen in this issue. You break up into pages, you write into a script, and that's it. Like, it's the easiest gig.

[00:43:39] - [Speaker 3]
It's so much fantastic taste in people. So I had this moment during the launch party of Exclusive Corpse number one. I was hanging out with Che Grayson and Jordy Belair, both who were writers on the book. And we're kind of just like, Yeah, you know, it's great because, like, I love you too. And, oh my god, I love Tyler, and I love Michael, and James is great.

[00:44:01] - [Speaker 3]
And they're like, Oh, wow. I love everyone. I sincerely adore everyone who works in the Like, there's not a person who feels left out. Everyone's great. And so to know, like, oh, we're doing season two.

[00:44:12] - [Speaker 3]
We're making travel plans, heading back to Buffalo again, and all that kind of stuff. It's just like, oh, yeah. I get to hang out with my friends. You know? We don't get to do that as much anymore.

[00:44:20] - [Speaker 3]
So just the chance to do that is fantastic. And to know that, like, oh, yeah. A comic will come out, and I'll they'll pair me with a great artist and pay me to write this stuff. It's it's such an easy it's such an easy great gig. I I cannot give James and the folks at Tiny Onion, more compliments about how well run that ship is.

[00:44:38] - [Speaker 2]
That that's James' true superpower, I'm convinced. He's he's a very talented writer, but the ability to just pick the right people and drop them and place them together in in a way that that connective tissue works is really impressive. So

[00:44:52] - [Speaker 3]
And he's super smart too, because I think it's also the one thing in comics where it feels like the it has a proper amount of infrastructure for what it needs. So much in comics is this would be great if people had a little more money financing to, you know, to give the extra weight. But most of the time, it doesn't. So everyone's doing three jobs, you know, and you can feel, like, the strain. Taniyan is the one place where it's like, oh, no.

[00:45:17] - [Speaker 3]
No. It's actually properly calibrated to the work at hand. And so you never need to be like, oh, I gotta do this person's job because I'm not sure if they're gonna do it.

[00:45:25] - [Speaker 2]
Yeah. Well, Rafael, what about you? What else you got going on?

[00:45:29] - [Speaker 4]
Right now, just that. But I have this imprint called Stout Club with other friends, and they are putting out a book that I'm doing the covers, it's called Devil's Look. It's coming out through comicsology. It's written by friend, Rapha Escavoni and drawn by my other friend, Eduardo Frigat. So the book is great.

[00:45:57] - [Speaker 4]
This is also a horror kind of mystery horror thing, and it's available in Comixology.

[00:46:04] - [Speaker 2]
That's awesome. I'll put a link in the show notes. It's out now or?

[00:46:07] - [Speaker 4]
Yeah, it's out now. Yeah.

[00:46:09] - [Speaker 2]
Okay. Okay. I'm not familiar. I'll have to check that out. Very cool.

[00:46:12] - [Speaker 2]
Yeah. Well, I always try to wrap up on a positive note, or I try to anyway. Is so this is my return to the shout out. It can be something that inspired you recently or someone just doing something nice for you that you'd like to acknowledge, and I'll go first to give you guys a minute to think about it. Mine can only go to my cohost Jimmy for keeping the podcast going where I've been out for the health reasons.

[00:46:32] - [Speaker 2]
So as somebody who with a disability who won't be ever ever able to attend conventions, our show is my lifeline, to connect to the community, and it's my love letter to comics. So it means the world to me that we didn't have to take a break. So thank you, Jimmy. So, Pornsack, what do got?

[00:46:48] - [Speaker 3]
Oh, god. I don't know. I'm trying to think I I'm trying to think, like, the people who if I have a person to think You know, the inspiration, the latest thing that inspired me that I read was what was I mean, it's not gonna be an original comment, but I love what Dennis Camp has been doing in general, but especially in assorted crisis events. And I'm a couple months behind, because I'm a couple behind on all my comics. So I haven't read this issue eight that everyone is talking about.

[00:47:20] - [Speaker 3]
So just the issues leading up to that have I found endlessly inspiring and just sort of really kind of galvanized me. And I'll have to think about the person, but, the actual person in my life. But in terms of works that inspire me, that is the work that's been inspiring me lately.

[00:47:34] - [Speaker 2]
I've had to hold off on that one. Just like what I'm going through with with the personal health stuff, Everybody has said it is so heavy. And I was like, I don't I'll I'll I'll I'll definitely read it, but I'm gonna have to hold off for a

[00:47:46] - [Speaker 3]
little bit. That's interesting.

[00:47:48] - [Speaker 2]
Yeah. Yeah. Raffa, what about you? You got a shout out for somebody or something that just knocked your socks off recently?

[00:47:54] - [Speaker 4]
Well, there's plenty of, you know, you were just talking about Jason James, I'm sorry, James Tanion. And I love these people who are getting other creators into making new books independently. I'm trying to do that myself with Stout Club and my friends. And I admire everybody who's trying to do art basically. Do art, do comic art, do the writing, do the editing, do the whole process in or inside or outside of the big two.

[00:48:38] - [Speaker 4]
Because I think this industry is very, very important, especially nowadays. This moment where we are in this crazy moment, crazy planet. So I think art is the thing that can save us. And I admire everybody who's putting their hearts there, working

[00:49:03] - [Speaker 2]
working bravely. I love that. Does it feel like as somebody who is had experience in both the big two and and doing a lot of independent work, does it feel like it's changing? Because it seems like to me, the opportunities for artists to to cash in for just putting putting it bluntly, you know, whether that's a consolidated online, format where they don't have to sell it and direct market it themselves, which allows them to spend more time making art as opposed to marketing, you know, and you have these shows like, the Lake Como Arts Festival, and I think now in 2027, they're also same folks are doing that again in Hawaii. Does it feel like there are more opportunities now?

[00:49:47] - [Speaker 4]
Yeah, I think so. Yeah, I'm dying to go to this Lake Como thing, looks fantastic. And I'm very excited about all that. And it's definitely a more, it's not like a regular convention. It's more art art orientated, which is which is pretty cool as well.

[00:50:08] - [Speaker 4]
So, yeah, it's a place I definitely wanna go. Yeah.

[00:50:12] - [Speaker 2]
It looked really cool.

[00:50:14] - [Speaker 3]
Yeah. I think every comic book writer is jealous of the Lake Como. I I can't remember who I was talking to, but they were just kind of like, don't even think they let writers come. They just like, if you're not an artist, don't want you there.

[00:50:25] - [Speaker 2]
Yeah. They don't. I mean, it's I talked to Steve and Arno about about the show, the organizers and stuff, and, I was maybe gonna try to catch up with them about the whole Hawaii thing because, like, Lake Como is one level, but, like, Hawaii is oh, my God. Like, I'm I'm a huge I've been to both. I'm a and I'm just I love Hawaii.

[00:50:44] - [Speaker 2]
I'd live in Hawaii if I could. So

[00:50:47] - [Speaker 3]
Yeah. I don't grader know Every is trying to say, is there we could go to Lake Como Festival? It sounds so good, and I don't think they let us come.

[00:50:57] - [Speaker 2]
Give them their time to shine. Like, the writer always is getting the props, the artists don't get enough recognition. It's nice to see the artist getting their nod.

[00:51:05] - [Speaker 4]
Thank you.

[00:51:09] - [Speaker 2]
Hey, it's his fault. He brings you on. I'm going to praise the artist every time. I know everyone is excited about this book. I wanted to make sure everybody gets their pre orders in, because that's super, super important.

[00:51:23] - [Speaker 2]
Probably not as much about an absolute book because there's already so much hype about it, but it still matters.

[00:51:28] - [Speaker 3]
Still matters.

[00:51:29] - [Speaker 2]
And if I can, if I can, if I can submit here my own personal idea, I'd love to do this. Right? So I do this all the time. Buy an extra one and you give it to a friend or just leave it in a doctor's office or wherever you happen to be, because you never know who you're going to convert. If we're talking about bringing new readers into the medium, this is the easiest way to do it.

[00:51:49] - [Speaker 2]
And I know it's going to cost you a couple bucks, but it's totally worth it, because it pays it forward to the industry. It puts money in artists, writers, colors, editors, and letterers pockets, you know, and helps support all this stuff. It all compounds on each other. So order yourself an extra one anyway, and give it to somebody randomly. It'll it'll make them smile, maybe you'll you'll convert a new comics reader too.

[00:52:12] - [Speaker 2]
So

[00:52:12] - [Speaker 3]
I love that.

[00:52:13] - [Speaker 2]
Yeah. That's awesome. One second, Rafael. Thanks so Thanks so much yeah. For coming on and hanging out with me.

[00:52:18] - [Speaker 2]
I've immensely enjoyed this opportunity to return and talk about a really, really cool project with with with both of you. So I really appreciate it.

[00:52:25] - [Speaker 3]
Thank you.

[00:52:27] - [Speaker 4]
Thank you very much, man. It was it was great.

[00:52:29] - [Speaker 2]
And Rafa, I don't know if you are a football or soccer fan, but good luck to the Brazilian boys with the World Cup coming up in June.

[00:52:36] - [Speaker 4]
Well, yeah, thanks. Let's see

[00:52:38] - [Speaker 2]
how You're it gonna do better than us, I mean, you've got a great coach, our coach is our coach is good, right? Like, he's a good coach, but not as strong a team that you guys have this year as in years past, but I still think you're going to do just fine, so

[00:52:55] - [Speaker 4]
I hope so, yeah.

[00:52:58] - [Speaker 2]
Hey, if Vinnie turns it on, he's a beast, Like, you're gonna you you you'll be fine. You'll be fine. I hope so, Ian. This is Byron O'Neil. And and on behalf of all of us at Comic Book Yeti, thanks for tuning in, and we will see you next time.

[00:53:11] - [Speaker 2]
Take care, everybody.

[00:53:12] - [Speaker 3]
See you, man.

[00:53:13] - [Speaker 2]
This is Byron O'Neil, one of your hosts of the Cryptid Creator Corner brought to you by Comic Book Yeti. We hope you've enjoyed this episode of our podcast. Please rate, review, subscribe, all that good stuff. It lets us know how we're doing, and more importantly, how we can improve. Thanks for listening.

[00:53:33] - [Speaker 0]
If you enjoyed this episode of the Cryptid Creator Corner, maybe you would enjoy our sister podcast, Into the Comics Cave. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

[00:53:46] - [Speaker 5]
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