Preeti Chhibber Interview - Supernatural

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[00:00:55] Hello and welcome to Comic Book Yeti's Cryptid Creator Corner. I am one of your hosts, Jimmy Gasparo, and I am very excited for today's episode. I feel like this person I've seen a ton on social media and I'm familiar with a lot of their work, but not too much of their comics work because they've done a lot of different things in terms of outlets that they have written for. And I'm very excited to talk to her tonight. She has a new supernatural comic coming out through Dynamite. It is a Valentine's Day issue.

[00:01:22] She also has strange tales with Marvel Infinity and a graphic novel coming out in July, House of Harkness. So please welcome to the podcast, Preeti Chhibber. Preeti, how are you doing today? Hi! Doing well. I'm so excited. I always joke that I'm like, I am always ready to talk about supernatural whenever anyone wants to talk about it. I am game.

[00:01:45] Oh, great. So, because I had Greg Pak on who is writing for the Dynamite supernatural comic as well. And I was talking to him about it. So I, you know, I didn't know that they were doing this special Valentine's Day episode. I think that's awesome. I'll let you talk about, you know, what it's actually about. But before that, I kind of wanted to get into like, what is your relationship with like, with supernatural?

[00:02:13] Because, you know, a show that had 15 seasons, there's, there's a lot. It's pretty dense. And I just, I'll say, I've, I said it before with when Greg was on, but my brother and I, my brother Bobby, we watched every episode. Uh, it was like our activity when he first told me about it. He's like, Hey, there's this new show coming on and it's like two brothers and they hunt demons.

[00:02:39] And he's like, do you want to watch it? And I was like, Oh yeah. And like he had, he's my younger brother, but he moved out of the house first. So he had his own place and I was still living with our parents. And it was like our thing to get together and hang out and, and watch. And I, I mean, we, we got through all of it. I will say there were a couple of times around, like, if you're familiar with it, the Leviathan season where we're like, they're not, they can't bring it back.

[00:03:02] They can't possibly bring it back. Right. And like, we're pot committed at that point. We gotta, we gotta be all in and watch the whole thing. But we, we did it. We're huge fans. So excited to see that Dynamite is doing stuff with supernatural comics. So how, how about you? Um, I'm a child of the WB. So I, I've been there since the beginning. Cause I was like, Oh, Dean from Gilmore Girls.

[00:03:26] Uh, you got Eric Brady from days of our lives doing a show together where they hunt demons. Like I'm a hundred percent in. So I've been watching it forever. And it's so funny. You say the Leviathan cause I love the Leviathan season. I didn't even know that like people didn't like it. I was talking, my sister also, we, the two of us really love the show. We watch it together. And I was talking to her about it and she was like, Oh yeah, people don't like the Leviathan season. And I was like, what? I love the Leviathan season. How dare.

[00:03:55] Sure. So, you know, it's, it's so, I, I mean, I've seen it multiple times. I've done like the entire season. Who are the entire series? You've done the entire series more than once. Yes. More than. Wow. Cause I used to, what I used to do is like when a new season was coming out, I would rewatch leading up to the new season. Okay. Wow. I love the show.

[00:04:23] I mean, I, I, I do, I do love it too. I don't, I don't know that I could sit and watch like all of it again. I could probably go through like certain episodes. Like there are things that I love to go back and like there's certain episodes I would put on then and watch again that I just felt like, you know, from top to bottom were like fantastic episodes.

[00:04:45] But yeah, I don't know if I could do the whole, the whole season, like again, from beginning to end that, that is, that is a lot. There would be some, I'm sure there are like some episodes that I would skip that I'm like, oh, this one's not my favorite, but I would end up like right now I'm in the middle of a rewatch with a friend of mine who has never seen it. So we're watching it together and she's like, I cannot watch every episode of 15 seasons. Like I can't, I'm an adult. Like I can't do it until like, okay, let me make a curated.

[00:05:14] I'll make a curated. We're on season 13 right now. And the problem is that I'll like look through the seasons and I'm like, well, we should watch this one because it's a really good Dean episode. And like, we should watch this one because like Sam is so good in it. So I convinced myself where we end up watching more episodes than not of a particular season. And she's like, what are you, I told you I'm an adult. I have responsibilities. That's amazing.

[00:05:42] So what are, what are some of you think, what are some of your favorite episodes? Like what are some of the ones that you think are like, oh, I could never, you know, if anyone ever said like, give me a couple of supernatural episodes. Oh my God. I know. I know. I, I, you have so many to choose from. You're like, do you want supernatural like Kripke era? Do you want supernatural? Like when it kind of goes off the rails, like there's so many angles to like, Hey, give me a few supernatural episodes.

[00:06:07] I, so I feel like what I love about supernatural is like, yes, people are like, oh my God, it's 15 seasons. That's so much TV. Every season has good episodes. Every single season all the way through 15. And I don't know that every show can say that. Like, I'm not saying every season is perfect. Top to bottom. I think we all have our favorites and all have our least favorites, but every single season up through season 15 has really strong, amazing episodes. Let's do it this way.

[00:06:37] Let's take out like the underlying mythology of it all. If somebody was like, just give me a really good monster of the week. I don't need to know anything about it. Like one of my favorite episodes is the, the, I don't think they called it Krampus. I think they called it Black Peter. Oh, the Christmas episode. Yeah. Yeah. That's a good one. I really like, like that episode is one that I, I feel like is, is a lot of fun. That's a good one. I thought that was a good episode.

[00:07:06] I love Bad Day at Black Rock is one of my favorites. Oh. Such a good one. This one, you do have to know the lore, but I love Lazarus Rising. I think is just one of the best TV episodes, period. It's just good TV writing. Um, and what, one of my favorite character introductions of all time, like Castiel's introduction is incredible. Yeah. Yeah. The French mistake, of course, is a perfect supernatural episode. Whenever they got meta, I was.

[00:07:36] Meta stuff is always fun. Fan fiction is so good. Yeah. Like, I love the episode where they find, you know, when they, when they meet Chuck and they, they, and they, the, they find out that they're, that he's been writing the books and there are conventions. And that people ship the two of them and they learn like what all that is. Like it was, it was such an interesting look at the fandom that surrounded supernatural and brought it into it.

[00:08:04] And yeah, it was, that was really good. There's so many just, I love the, I'm not always good with care with episode, episode names, but the black and white monster episode, the classic Hollywood monsters episode is one of my favorites. Yeah. That's a great episode too. Yeah. There's so many good ones. There's so many good ones. Yeah. No, there, there are, there are. I, like I said, I'm, I'm, I'm a big fan and I, I, I really like love the show.

[00:08:33] I just don't know that I could go in. I could go back and watch certain episodes. I don't know if I could do all 15 seasons again. I just love the journey. I love the journey. Yeah. Well, so tell me now, um, as a fan and, you know, Dynamite's doing this comic and they have the, the license. How do you get involved in writing like supernatural? Did, did you have to like, did you reach out to them? Did they reach out to you and ask for like pitches? How did that happen?

[00:09:04] So I know Greg, Greg and I know each other pretty well. Um, we've been friends for a long time through like comics stuff and being Asian comic creators. Um, and so when I found out Greg was writing supernatural, I texted him and I was like, you know, I'm the biggest supernatural fan that, you know, like, you know that, right? Like, you know that I'm like losing my mind that you're writing supernatural. He was like, okay, relax. And I was like, I can't relax.

[00:09:32] Um, but so I ended up being, uh, like supernatural consultant on his, on his books, which has been really fun where I basically, I'm like, this sounds like Dean, like going through the Oscars, which has been really great. Um, and then he messaged me back in October to be like, oh, dynamite wants to do this Valentine's day special. Uh, would you be interested? Cause then I'll tell, I'll tell them to reach out. And I was like, are you joking?

[00:10:02] Because obviously does Borax kill a Leviathan? That's a supernatural joke. Nerds. Look, he got it. And my brother, my brother, Bobby got it. Oh, Bobby. Yeah. So that's fantastic. Yeah. It was really fun. It was like, it happened really fast where they, you know, it's, it's this kind of work is often, often happens very, very quickly.

[00:10:30] So I basically like pulled together a pitch really quickly. It was like, this is what I think the story could be very like quick sort of two paragraph situation. And they were happy with it. And then I like banged out a script and turn that in like the week of Thanksgiving. And then there we go. Wow. Now that did, that did happen fast. Like, did, did you have in terms of your pitch, did you have like parameters that they gave you or you're just like, all right, I know this lore. Or this is kind of what they're looking for. And I'm, I'm ready to go.

[00:10:59] They wanted it to be set around the same time as Greg's run. It's not a part of Greg's run. So like my, I was, they were like, it can be, the story can just be like sort of monster of the week where I can just like do my thing for one, one issue. It just needed to be set around the same era. It would not like season one, season two time. But other than that, that was it. They're like, go to town, do whatever you want, basically. And I was like, awesome. What was your process like to come up with, you know, because there's so many different monsters that have been used throughout the season.

[00:11:28] And I, I mean, I even talked about that with Greg when he was on the podcast. I'm like, yeah, I, you know, I would, I would struggle if I ever had an opportunity to write like, uh, you know, a superhero comic or something with that much backstory, you know, with the monster of the week. And it's like, all right. Who haven't done it over here and they've done it over here. And there's all this lore. Yeah. Uh, yeah.

[00:11:53] I decided to go mythological with it because while they have a lot of, you know, obviously like religious aspects to the show, it is sort of like very, um, Western centric in its approach. They'll sometimes have other religions show up, but it's very fleeting. So I was like, oh, I'm going to use Hinduism. I'm going to use like my background and see if I can pull something out of my like culture and religion to drop into this story.

[00:12:18] And so it's the Hindu goddess of love is who I decided to go with because she has this, her myth is this like sort of wonderfully like tragic myth. And I thought it could parallel what Sam is dealing with at the time really nicely. Oh, that's awesome. Uh, yeah, that's true. I mean, when they, you see that with a lot of television shows when they have to go to something even, you know, like supernatural, but something paranormal or something mythological,

[00:12:42] it's, it's very much Greek Roman, you know, it, you know, they'll, they'll throw in Egyptian just cause it's been kind of well known since the U S has been obsessed with, you know, anything Egyptian since like the 1920s. Um, but yeah, they, they don't do a lot and it's, it's such a, there's so many things in terms of like Eastern cultures that have such a rich heritage. I mean, like my experience with like comic books and you look at some of the things that

[00:13:11] like, like, like Ron V has done with like the many deaths, Layla Starr and things like rare, rare flavors. And you look at some of those things and you're like, oh yeah, there is just, you know, some of us white folks who have been sheltered, we are missing out on so much really excellent myth and storytelling. It's true. Don't let it. It is. There's a, there's a lot of like cool stuff that, that exists.

[00:13:36] And I, I can understand when you're like coming at it from a TV show and you're like, I don't when it's like something you're not as familiar with, you're like, I want to be a little careful in how I'm approaching this and what I'm taking and what I'm using. Um, I do think like, that's why I was like, I'm going to do it. Like, let's go. No, absolutely. Um, if you could have said it in any time period, is there was, is there a supernatural

[00:14:04] character that you're like, okay, Sam and Dean, but if I ever had the chance to write somebody. I love Cass. Cass is my favorite. Like sort of like mid, mid, mid timeline, mid seasons, like sort of like from that, like four to like nine ish era Cass. Like I love him and I would love to write him. And obviously like, this was not the time I was like, oh, I phone late, but Cass is so, so wonderful.

[00:14:34] I feel like it would be so fun to write like trickster era. Gabriel would be really enjoyable. Um, that would be a good time. Charlie. I would love to write Charlie. They're just, they have so many, and Crowley, obviously Crowley would be such a blast to pull into like any, any type of storyline with them. It would be a good time. Big, big Crowley fan.

[00:14:57] And, um, yeah, my brother, Bobby and I went to, we went to Ireland in March of 24 to celebrate my 45th birthday. And he'd never been to Ireland. So we, we took a trip and we, while we were there, it just happened to be Dublin Comic Con. And we met, um, we met the actor that plays, uh, Crowley at. Mark Shepard. That's awesome. Yeah. We met Mark Shepard. Yeah. He was very funny and very nice. And my brother was very, very excited. So.

[00:15:27] Oh, how cool. That was pretty cool. Yeah. Yeah. But Crowley would be a really like fun one to write. Yeah, absolutely. That would be pretty cool. Well, hopefully they'll keep going with the series and, and do more of these, you know, not, yeah, I'm not, I got, I'm sitting at a wood table. I'm not going wood for you. Yeah. I'd like to see you try your hand. You get to write cast. That would be, uh, that would be, that would be fantastic. My angel. I love you.

[00:15:55] And who are you working with in terms of, uh, who's doing the art? Pasquale Coilano is doing the art. And I just actually saw interiors and they're so cool. Like, I can't wait. I can't wait. That's awesome. Yeah. It's going to be out in early February, right? Mm-hmm. February 4th. Oh, that's, that's fantastic. So did I read correctly? Is it like an oversized issue? Yeah. It's, uh, I'm like trying to remember how many pages, 28 pages. Oh, that's fantastic.

[00:16:24] What I wrote, which means I think it's 32. 32? I feel like they print in reams of 32, I want to say. No, that's pretty cool. Um, it just, it's just so great to, you know, you involved in like fan stuff, like stuff that you're a fan of and get the opportunity to, to do something like this. And like, you know, I saw the cover of it and I was just like, oh God, that's, that's

[00:16:51] got to be so awesome to, and I, I, I just knew some of the things that you were, you know, involved in and have written about before. I did not know at the time when I first reached out that you were such like a huge supernatural fan. That makes, that's like, that makes it even better. That, that is just so fantastic. You know, cause I know with Greg, when I was talking to him, he was like, yeah, I watched, I watched it. I watched some stuff. It was like, no, I mean, I trust Greg. Greg's a great writer. I've, I've, I've gotten like, I've read issue one.

[00:17:19] Um, I really liked the series that he's doing, but yeah, it is kind of cool to see somebody who's like a really big fan get a chance to, you know, to write that, write, write those characters. Cause that's so annoying. I'm like, let me do it. Yeah, they should, they should let you do it. I'm glad you're getting a chance to do it. Um, what do you think, you know, a show that lasts 15 seasons, it is extraordinarily rare in, in television today, especially with like streaming shows.

[00:17:49] Like we hear a lot about when, you know, and you can read a million articles about, oh, Netflix canceled this show after one season or, you know, whatever this, it might be. And I, and I, I have to imagine that there's something about, you know, supernatural that kept it on the air for 15 years. And that like makes you a fan and makes you, you know, want to write stories for these characters. Like what, what do you think it was about Sam and Dean? Like, what was that mix between like the actors and the writing?

[00:18:18] What do you think it was for you? I think, I do think that Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles are, they just have excellent like brotherly chemistry. And you know, when you watch something, you can tell people are having a good time. Like you can tell people are happy to be working on the thing. Like, I think that's part of it is you could see that there was like care and joy.

[00:18:44] Um, and just like excitement about the thing that they were working on. And then those first, the story and the arc they told over those first five seasons, like Eric Kripke is, you know, his brainchild, the whole, the whole from beginning to, to the end of season five is so strong. And it's such like, they like pull you in slowly with like, Oh yeah, monster of the week. Like dad's gone hunting. He's missing. Like we don't, you know, all of that. They pull you in slowly.

[00:19:10] And then all of a sudden you're like angels, demons, Lucifer. Like what is happening? So I feel like having this really, really strong basis and pulling people on for the ride. And at the time, you know, you could do full season, 23 episodes for multiple seasons. Right. And by that point you're hooked. You have this like fan base that deeply, deeply loves the show and deeply loves the

[00:19:38] characters and actors who deeply love the show and deeply love the characters. And I think it's just like, and creators and writers that, that it's this like perfect, perfect storm of like, like the, the equation for longevity basically. Yeah. It does seem like they had some, you know, something in, in the mix there that not, not too many shows are able to, to find. I mean, I think it helped the cast initially was with just the two main characters and

[00:20:06] Jeffrey Dean Morgan coming in a little bit and Bobby coming in. James Beaver's coming in like a little bit for, for episodes. So you didn't have a, you know, a big cast, but it was amazing. Like when the characters come in, like when they introduced Castiel and the stayed strong in like through all those seasons and like, was like a mainstay of the cast. It was amazing to think you come in and like, Oh, what, when, when they first

[00:20:33] introduced season, season four, season four. Yeah. Yeah. And then, then to stay through season 15, but yeah, it's, it's, it's, it was a pretty, it's a pretty great show. So, and I'm really excited that they're doing stuff with, with comics now. And so, yeah, I cannot wait to read the, the Valentine's day issue. I'm so excited. I'm so nervous. I'll let you know. I'll send you secretly. I'll be like, it was really great.

[00:21:03] Or maybe, maybe they'll do another one. I'm kidding. Let's talk about some of the other stuff you, you, you have coming out. Cause you have secret tales, which looks, I mean, I've, I've only seen a couple of like previews page preview pages for it. I haven't had a chance to like read any of it yet, but that looks like that looks adorable. Like, I just like the one picture of like Scarlet Witch and, you know, I don't

[00:21:29] know, running some, some type of app or sanctuary, I guess. It's yeah, it's really cute. It's, it's currently ongoing on Marvel Unlimited. Although I'm, I'm not sure when this episode is dropping. It might be done by the time that episode drops. It's like six issues. I don't know if that is public, but it's six issues. That's what I wrote. Okay. And it's just this, like, it's, it's part of Marvel's like Friday funnies. So they're shorts. They're like 15 panels.

[00:21:57] Uh, and there, there, there's something very like, like Sunday comics page about it, like newspaper comics page where you're just getting a brief glimpse into the silly little thing that Scarlet Witch is going through for the week. And every episode is her helping another magical animal. So the first issue is Venom Mouse, which is, uh, like a newish character, uh, from, I want to say 2020, I think April, 2025.

[00:22:26] Uh, but he's, he's looking for a dream. He's a mouse who wants to find a dream. And so Scarlet Witch helps him figure out what his dream is. And it's really cute. Yeah. I'm sharing my screen. That's, that's, you can see that, right? Yes. Oh, I love Venom Mouse. So cute. I, I, yeah, I had no idea. Venom Mouse is, that's, that's wonderful.

[00:22:54] I mean, I, I've always, I love the idea of, um, and I'm more familiar with the DC ones, but I always love the idea of like the animal heroes or the animal, you know, the, the pets being involved. Like, you know, Supergirl had a cat at one point and while there's Comet, the horse and like Wonder Woman had Jumpa, the kangaroo. And, uh, yeah, seeing some of the ones on for the, uh, for, for strange tales.

[00:23:24] What's the deal with the cow or the, the bull in the. It's hell cow. I am not familiar with hell cow. We love hell cow. Hell cow has been around since like, I feel like the seventies. Like, I think I want to say hell cow's first appearance was in like a Howard the duck issue. Okay. Which, which tracks, um, hell cow is a vampire cow. Yeah. Okay. And, and, and hell cow has a baby named hell calf. I love comics. I know.

[00:23:54] I do too. So now, because it now be, now because I, my hobby is a comic creator podcast. I'm going to be at my local shop this weekend, trying to see if I can track down the first appearance of hell cow. What a, what a wonderful hobby. Um, but when you get to do something like this, you know, uh, and kind of similar to what we talked about with supernatural and figuring out like, Oh, what am I going to use if I'm doing like a monster of the week thing?

[00:24:21] Like, you, you know, you're, you're doing this stuff for Marvel and you got this, the premise is Scarlet witch and animals show up at the last door and she kind of helps them, you know, does what she does. Like, do you already have a list of animal characters you like want to work with? Are you, you know, is there, are you going to like the Marvel encyclopedia and just like, all right, which ones can I use? Like, did you know of hell cow before this?

[00:24:50] And I did know of hell cow before this. This is one that, um, the editors, Farah Javed and Alana Smith had, they came to me to be like, we want to do this like little like animal thing where, where Wanda helps, um, animal, magical animals out. Uh, and I was like, Oh, that's cool. I want to use bats because I love bats. The ghost dog. He's, he's one of my favorites. Um, but other than that, they like pulled together a list of like a whole bunch of potential animals.

[00:25:19] Cause Marvel's that's one thing about this where you're like, Marvel's catalog is so big that sometimes you're like, I don't even know where to start. So you look to Marvel editorial to be like, at least give me a starting point. And so it was this list of like 10 to 15, I feel like, and we just sort of, I was like, Oh, hell cow would be really fun to do. Venom mouse of course would be awesome. And because he's so new, um, I should have said Venom mouse was created because it's so

[00:25:46] recent Erica Schultz and Dylan Burnett created him, uh, earlier last year. And so there are these like, and Donny Cates did, did, uh, bats based on, I think his dog, which I also deeply love. Um, and so it was just picking out all these, like, you're like, what would be the most fun? Like what would be the most, where could I bring in the most like absurd hijinks for Wanda to get into? And that's kind of where it starts where you're like, these are Friday funnies.

[00:26:15] They need to be silly and fun and short and snappy. What do you think, uh, that you've done previously in terms of, you know, it doesn't have to be necessarily like other writing, but just other things that you've been involved in, how you were raised that prepared you to kind of deliver like quick snappy fun silly. Is it just part of your personality? Is it like the family you grew up in? Like what, what do you think best prepared you for that?

[00:26:42] The best example I can give of this was when I was 15 or 16. I was a huge Backstreet Boys fan, like huge Backstreet Boys fan. And so my friend and I had a Backstreet Boys website that was like a fan. We'd like learned HTML. We like did the whole thing so that we could have a Backstreet Boys website. But then I made a second Backstreet Boys website where I made fun of them. Like I was like firing on both fronts.

[00:27:10] I was like, I love you guys, but also I have a lot of jokes. I need to get out about who you are. So I had both my like fan site where it was just like, oh my God, they're so hot. I love their music. And then aren't they ridiculous dorks? Here are all of the jokes I'm going to write and the parody song lyrics I'm going to write for their music. And that is who I have always been. With the second site with your friend as well? Or you're just like, I'm this is a solo project.

[00:27:37] She was involved because she was better at she was a little bit better at like the tech side than I was. So I feel like I don't know how to make this a button. That's oh, that's fantastic. Yeah. No, I like that. You did parody lyrics to like I was, you know, I was raised on. I was raised on Weird Al. Yeah. So, you know, big influence. Yeah.

[00:28:05] I mean, yeah, I was a huge Weird Al fan. I mean, I used to I still remember when I got one, whatever, whatever album of his had lasagna on it and stuck in a closet with Vanna White. And yeah, I used to I used to perform songs for my like I had a little cassette tape. I put I can't believe I'm telling the story of the podcast. I used to put the cassette tape in and like I wouldn't do like La Bamba. I would do the Weird Al songs.

[00:28:34] I would perform them like for my family. That's awesome. Like I'd I'd make them not watch TV and watch me sing. I was probably nine or or 10. Yeah. Lasagna was a big hit in my house. I think there is part of that where it's like you grew up with that kind of absurdist, ridiculous humor. And it just like one of my favorite TV shows that I have, again, also seen multiple times is Scrubs.

[00:29:02] Like I love I love that kind of snappy, funny, like very funny and but also very heartfelt style of humor that is just it was like kind of pervasive at the time. And it heavily influenced my approach. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I'm a big, big Bill Lawrence fan who did Scrubs and does Shrinking now if anyone's watched Shrinking.

[00:29:27] But yeah, I really like his approach to to to writing television, to writing character. And yeah, when you have a cast like that, that Scrubs cast, it's, you know, Donald Faison and Zach Braff and like John C. McGinley at Sarah Chalk. They were just, you know. Yeah. So funny. Yeah. A big influence as well, just in terms of trying to really ride that line of we can be funny.

[00:29:56] We can also be serious. Like this show doesn't have to be one thing. Yeah. You know, so you had that quippy dialogue. Yeah. But also they'll tear your heart out and throw it on the ground. Oh, where do you think you are right now? You're like, oh, oh, my God. Yeah. I was just going to say every once. Yeah. I just sent that that clip came up on social media, I think, because of the Scrubs like reboot or, you know, the reunion, whatever the show that they're doing now.

[00:30:24] And I sent it to my brother and he just sent back. He's like, why? Why would you? I just sent him, I sent him the clip of the scene where John C. McGinley, you know, goes there and is talking to Brendan Fraser. And then listeners, listeners, if you don't know what we're talking about, go watch Scrubs. Just watch all those Scrubs. Not season nine. But watch seasons one through eight. The other stuff. Yeah. But I sent it to my brother and he was like, why would you do that? He's like, it's 10 o'clock on a Tuesday. I'm at work. I can't.

[00:30:54] I can't start crying. Oh, absolutely. All right, everybody. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back. Y'all, Jimmy, the Chaos Goblin strikes again. I should have known better than to mention I was working on my DC Universe meets Ravenloft hybrid D&D campaign on social media. My bad. He goes and tags a bunch of comics creators we know. And now I have to get it in gear and whip this campaign into shape so we could start playing.

[00:31:23] Another friend chimes in. Are you going to make maps? It's fair to say it's been a while since I put something together. So I guess? Question mark? It was then that I discovered Arkenforge. If you don't know who Arkenforge is, they have everything you need to make your TTRPG more fun and immersive. Allowing you to build, play, and export animated maps, including in-person Fog of War capability that lets your players interact with maps as the adventure unfolds while you, the DM, get the full picture.

[00:31:53] Now I'm set to easily build high-res animated maps, saving myself precious time and significantly adding nuance to our campaign. That's a win every day in my book. Check them out at Arkenforge.com and use the discount code YETI5 to get $5 off. I'll drop a link in the show notes for you. And big thanks to Arkenforge for partnering with our show. I think I'm going to make Jimmy play a goblin warlock just to get even. Welcome back. All right.

[00:32:21] And then the other thing you have coming out this summer is House of Harkness. So tell us about House of Harkness. So House of Harkness was originally a Marvel Unlimited comic that came out in 2024. That was 15 issues. And now it's coming out in print, which I'm really excited about. And it's basically magical girl school alter in a universe for Wanda Maximoff, Agatha Harkness.

[00:32:49] Like just a bunch of we had a blast. Like Dr. Strange is Stephen Strange. He's not a doctor because he's 16. But like Stephen Strange is there. Loki is there. Like you didn't do the Hauser Dr. Strange. I didn't do. No, he but he does want to be the best student at school. He's like I am. He's you know. But it's basically like a magical boarding school of like Wanda's the new girl who shows up and Agatha's the queen bee. And it was just so delightful.

[00:33:18] And it has art from Jodi Nishijima and this like very fun shoujo manga style or manga style. Excuse me. And it's really fun. It's just a very sweet school story that we got to do. And people liked. And so they're printing it, which is really exciting. Oh, that's awesome. And that'll be out in July. July. Yeah. Oh, that's that's fantastic.

[00:33:40] What did you like most about getting to, you know, when you were working on that for Marvel Unlimited to get to do in terms of like the magical girl school? Because I know in like some of your prose writing, like you've done like romantic comedy type of stuff before. And now you're you know, you're you're and we can talk about that. Talk about that book as well.

[00:34:01] But, you know, to do like a magical school type of stuff and have those characters in a school setting, which, you know, I think can be kind of tough because you want to you're you're de-aging the characters from what we're used to seeing in terms of the Marvel Universe. But you still have to make them interesting and compelling. And and, you know, you can't take it down too much.

[00:34:22] Like even if you're writing for, you know, YA or younger readers, you know, kids or young readers or whomever it might be, you want to appeal to like a lot of folks. And they always pick up on way more than, you know, authors think they do or certain authors think they do. So how do you kind of find that balance between making the characters recognizable, but then making them maybe a little more relatable and like that type of setting?

[00:34:51] I think what's fun is I think everybody loves a coming of age story, no matter how old you are. You love a coming of age, because I don't think we ever stop coming of age. You're constantly changing. You're constantly shifting who you were to who you might want to be to who you are. You like all of those things. And so you relate to that notion of a character going on a journey regardless of age, I think. So that's part of it. And then the other part is that there's such a deep love for Marvel characters.

[00:35:18] And people enjoy seeing them put into different situations and different scenarios. And so you'll have like how you have all the different universes that exist within Marvel. So you've got like, you know, the 616. You've got all of these various versions of character, like even something like the Spider-Verse, the comic series.

[00:35:39] I mean, the dance lock event that came out many, many years ago where you just got to see iterations of Peter Parker, iterations of Spider-Man, not just Peter Parker, but like iterations of Spider-Man from all over the various universes. And people love it. They're just like, I do want to see the different ways my favorite character can exist if you pluck them out of like their mainline story and drop them into this other thing. And so you have your certain truisms about the character.

[00:36:08] So Wanda is still Wanda. She's driven. She's smart. She's very good at magic. She's ambitious, you know, but she's 16 and she's the new girl in school. And so she's feeling a little awkward and a little uncomfortable and having to make new friends. So it's actually quite easy. And then you work with Marvel editorial, obviously, and they know the characters and can tell you like, no. So you're okay on that front. Yeah.

[00:36:36] I mean, I guess that that I guess they reign you in if you ever go if you ever go too far. Yes. How are you with taking notes in terms of editorial? I've been doing what we call IP work. So that's like, you know, intellectual property. It's other people's characters. We say, you know, you're playing in someone else's sandbox for many years now.

[00:37:03] And so you just kind of have to accept it. Like when I did one of my first books in IP that I did was a Spider-Man Far From Home movie tie-in. So I did like this little middle grade, like illustrated travel journal that was with that was basically like Peter, Ned and MJ writing their travel diary from Spider-Man Far From Home. Right.

[00:37:29] And I real quick, was that your that wasn't your first time writing Peter Parker, was it? That was my first time writing Peter Parker. Oh, OK. All right. It was the movie Peter Parker. And it was so funny because like I wrote this whole manuscript and I wrote it very quickly. And I had this thread because it's all written in first person with like Peter, MJ and Ned sort of taking turns writing their things. And Peter had this thing like it was like a shared journal that they were writing in together.

[00:37:56] And Peter had this thing in my first draft where he would tell bad jokes in the book. He would write out his like bad jokes and his friends would be like, oh, my God. And it was like hashtag like Peter, like PBJs, like Peter's bad jokes. And the note I got from the studio at the time was our Peter wouldn't do this. Like this is not who our Peter is. And I had to take a step back and be like, you're right. That's my Peter Parker.

[00:38:22] That's like the Peter Parker that I like from the comics and like the version of Peter Parker. Because every writer has their version of these characters. And I was like, oh, yeah, yeah, that's that's not you're right. That's not your Peter Parker. Like you're correct. Like he's not that kid in your in your movies. So I had to like take a step back from my my understanding of who my version of that character was and write their version of that character.

[00:38:49] And that was a very good lesson for me to learn very early on. And of course, like no one at Marvel is like, no, you can't. There are very rarely. They're like, no, you can't. It's always a conversation when it's, you know, some kind of original story. I did like a series of prose Spider-Man novels of like a totally different like Peter Parker, 16, 15, 16 years old. And he's like my Peter. Like that was I got to decide who this Peter Parker was, which is really fun.

[00:39:18] So like there's always a conversation. But like at the end of the day, I'm like, it's your sandbox and I am just playing in it. So like I know that like everyone is very cool and we will have our conversations. And for the most part, no one's ever been like, absolutely not to me. Like in anything that I've done that is like comics or original book stuff. No one has said like, no.

[00:39:42] Except one time when I tried to have basically I was like, and then Captain America shows up and then Iron Man shows up and then the Sinister Six show up. And my editor was like, you need to take a step back. You're doing too much. It was worth a try, I guess. Right. I got too excited. Well, but before I let you go, I also wanted to talk to you about I guess it was in 20. I almost said last year, but we're just into 2026 here.

[00:40:09] But in 2024, you had a I don't know if it's like is it if it's considered like YA, I guess it's YA, but Pyle, if I'm saying that correct, Meta's Romance Revenge Plot. Yeah. I put out a YA rom-com. Yeah. They call it. I saw that when I was looking at your, you know, looking at your website and get ready to talk to you about this. And I saw that and I was like reading the description of it. And I'm like, oh, that sounds awesome. Like, yeah, let's talk about that.

[00:40:36] It is somebody tagged me in a review on Instagram that was like, this is the funniest book about racism I've ever read. OK. And I was like, I'll take it. Tell me what it's all. Tell me what it's all about other than the funniest book you'll read about racism. So I think I believe very strongly that kids should be allowed to be imperfect in the way that they learn things and the way they talk about things.

[00:41:03] And my friends and I, when I was in high school, like we were not we didn't know what we were doing. We didn't know how we were talking about things. And we just had to sort of navigate it in this very awkward, uncomfortable, funny way. And so that was the energy I wanted to bring to this book. And the book is about this girl, Bile, who has been in love with the hottest guy at her school forever. It's like handsome white kid who's like really sweet. My friend's like, you need to write a spinoff about this boy. I'm like, all right, relax.

[00:41:32] But she's been in love with him forever. And like there's a series of events. They end up at like a lunch together and it's going really well. And she's like, oh, my God, we're laughing like he's we're having a good time. Like maybe this is going to go somewhere. And he's like, you have to meet my Indian friend. And she's like, what? But I thought we were vibing.

[00:41:51] And so she decides to join up with her like rival at school through again a series of events, convinces him to like be like, we have to get this guy to like fall for me. And of course, it's enemies to love her. So you can take from that what you will. But it's just this like very funny, sweet story about figuring out who you are when the world is telling you you're one thing and like you feel like another.

[00:42:20] And all of these like what is what is identity? Like what is what does it mean to be American? What does it mean to be a child of immigrants? Like all of those things through the lens of a romantic comedy and all the trappings there. And it was very influenced by like early aughts rom coms. It's like she's all that 10 things I hate about you. Like all of that stuff is in this book. Nice. Yeah. I'm familiar with all of those. Every everyone they put out. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. It looks adorable.

[00:42:50] And it looks like really it does look like really fun. And yeah, I was reading the description of it. And I was like, oh, this sounds great. You know, we can talk about this. We don't have to just talk about comics. You know, we I I like other things. I I listened to 50 books last year. I'll have listeners know. And they were, you know, we do other stuff. But yeah, that looks great. So I wanted listeners to know about that because I I think it looked really, really cool.

[00:43:16] And reminded I it reminded me a little bit of the just a little bit in terms of some of the things. But like the Netflix show. Never have I ever. Yeah. Yeah. A little bit of that vibe, which I thought that was I really enjoyed that show. I really liked that. They had the narrator be John McEnroe. I just thought that was kind of a funny bit in the show. But the whole cast is the whole cast of that show is incredible. And the writings, I thought, really good as well. Yeah.

[00:43:46] Very funny. Very funny. But all right. Well, I definitely want to read the funniest that that that somebody on read their Instagram said the funniest book about racism. I was like, this is awesome. Put it on the book. Yeah. Put that blurb right on the back. Right. Right there. Well, that's that's great. That's fantastic. So. All right. Paya Almeta's Romance Revenge Plot. All right. That's that's great.

[00:44:16] Well, Preeti, I really appreciate you coming on the podcast and hopefully you had a nice time and we'll come back, especially if you get to do more supernatural. But good luck with your friend getting through the next, I guess, two to three seasons. You're on season 13 now. We're on season 13. Uh huh. All right. We got good stuff ahead. Yeah. Real good stuff. I can't I can't.

[00:44:43] I want to know, like, what they have thought about, you know, the whole experience. I mean, it's really funny. Part of the reason we did it is because when the when the series finale was happening and it was just like it's my favorite thing in the world. That's supernatural has never truly ended. Like it will never truly end. Supernatural is forever. I was sending her all the memes and all of the like everything that was going on and all the like just all of it. I was just like talking her ear off about everything.

[00:45:10] And she was like, I don't understand any of this. I have to watch the show. And I was like, you do. And so we've been slowly going through it since like I think we've been watching it because she's not local. So we she's she's several states away from me. So we watch it like virtually together. OK. But now it's not on Netflix. So we have to figure out how to do it. All right. Well, I I hope you have a good, you know, season 15. Thank you.

[00:45:40] Experience as you get to the finale. Yeah. Now I want to see now. The problem with talking about supernatural is now I'm going to spend like the rest of the night just like looking up clips of different moments. You know, like I don't know if I'll get through a whole episode, but I'm like, OK, I want to watch the death's entrance when they're playing. Oh, death in the background. Oh, I love that guy who plays death also. Oh, he's so good. Yeah.

[00:46:10] Yeah. And that whole conversation when he went between him and Dean in that. I'm getting goosebumps. It's so good. Oh, my God. All right. Listeners. Listeners. The Supernatural Valentine's Day episode is out February 4th from Dynamite. All right. And a Marvel Unlimited. Check out Strange Tales and House of Harkness is going to be coming out in July.

[00:46:35] And yeah, if you're looking for a good YA romantic comedy, Paya Almeta's Romance Revenge Plot. It came out in 2024. So check that out as well. Yeah. And I'll put links to Preeti's like social media and website and you can go and check out some of her other work and some of the other websites that she has written for. She's done a ton of stuff about Star Wars. And we didn't even talk about Star Wars. I know.

[00:47:03] I mean, you're going to have to come back once a week because like as I record this in my basement with like where my kids toys are. And I still have my Darth Vader head with my action figures from when I was a kid. So, yeah, we're going to have to have a second like a second episode just so we can just talk about we don't even have to have comics. We'll just talk about Star Wars stuff for like 40 minutes. Yeah. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast. I mentioned Bobby.

[00:47:31] Shout out to my brother Bobby, the Cryptid Creator Corner's number one most dedicated fan. Bobby listens to all my episodes. Yes, Bobby, just like I got you the Supernatural episode. I'll make sure you have your own copy of the Valentine's Day episode. I got him too because I got him the one, the photorealistic cover of issue one. Nice. And I'm like, oh, I can also get you. They're so cute, aren't they? If you'd let me fold your front cover, I could make them kiss.

[00:48:01] But I won't do that because Bobby's very careful about his comic books. But I did get him a comic cover as well. Oh, that's awesome. So I'll make sure we both have an issue with our local comic shop of the Valentine's Day episode. I'm really looking forward to it. But Preeti, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. I really appreciate it. This has been a fantastic way to spend 48 minutes. Thanks for having me. This is awesome. All right.

[00:48:29] Listeners, rate reviewers, do all those things they tell you to do. You can find me on Blue Sky. I sometimes post things on TikTok about comics. I'm reading. Coming up in, I think by the time you listen to this in a few episodes, I'm finally going to get out the comic book Yeti, our 2025, like our favorite comics. And yeah. Oh, and if you haven't yet, I'd really appreciate it if you took a look and pre-ordered my debut

[00:48:55] all-ages graphic novel, Penny and the Yeti, is coming out through paper cuts on April 21st. Oh, congrats. Thank you very much. And now I have a podcast. So at the end of every episode, I can tell people that. I do the same thing. I have like a Wheel of Time podcast. So there's no overlap in readership. But I'm like, hey, buy my stuff. Yeah. Check it out. The kids graphic novel. It'd mean a lot to me. All right. But listeners, thank you so much for listening. I really appreciate all your support.

[00:49:26] Listen to all our episodes this year. Apreeti, thank you so, so much. This has been awesome. I really appreciate it. All right. Good night, everybody. I will see you next time. This is Byron O'Neill, one of your hosts of the Cryptid Creator Corner, brought to you by Comic Book Yeti. We hope you've enjoyed this episode of our podcast. Please rate, review, subscribe, all that good stuff. It lets us know how we're doing and more importantly, how we can improve. Thanks for listening.

[00:49:56] 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.