Rich Douek talks Heartpiercer

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

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

[00:00:11] Skirt of Good Muts sound like something spoken by a Cthulhu cultist for the name of a weird craft beer brand

[00:00:16] But it's actually the shorthand for this new wild crowdfunding comics project

[00:00:21] Super Kaiju Rock and Roll Derby Fun Time Go from creator David Hedgecock

[00:00:25] This is a mash-up of Jim and the Holograms meets Roller Derby with Kaiju with a twist of 70s pop culture thrown in

[00:00:32] Harmony, Lyra, Melody, Cadence and Biola are a struggling 20-something band and a Roller Derby team fleshed with talent

[00:00:41] But broke as a joke. The burnouts are thrilling concert goers with their killer looks and vibe until a music mishap

[00:00:48] Drops a curious ancient artifact into their hands cheeky lighthearted and fun

[00:00:53] It will be launching soon and there's an early bird special if you catch it in time

[00:00:57] This course you a discount and a VIP wristband. I'll drop the link of the show notes

[00:01:01] I read the advance for this and honestly it reminds me of my own carefree days gigging on the road in the music industry

[00:01:07] But with way better shower scenes. The only thing missing is more cowbell

[00:01:15] Hello and welcome to comic book Yeti's Cryptid Creator Corner

[00:01:19] I am one of your hosts Jimmy Gasparo and I have a returning guest with me today

[00:01:23] And actually this is this young man's third time on the podcast

[00:01:28] I did it. I usually he brings

[00:01:31] Alex Cormack with him, but he's been working on something

[00:01:35] New and we're here to talk all about his new comic heart piercer with dark horse comics

[00:01:41] And I can't wait to get into it. It's like a fantasy comic

[00:01:45] It feels like a bit of a departure from some of the horror stuff

[00:01:48] I'm used to but please welcome to the podcast for the third time

[00:01:52] Rich do weck rich. How you doing? I'm doing good. How are you? I'll do it all right

[00:01:59] See a this is your third time here at you and Alex wrong before talking about I think Rhoda bones and see a sorrows and

[00:02:07] Then drive like hell. Yeah

[00:02:10] Which I love them all I

[00:02:13] Recently just got a chance I to finish breath of shadows just real quick before we get into heart piercer

[00:02:19] But I I did just get a chance to like finish the trilogy

[00:02:22] and read breath of shadows and

[00:02:27] Great, I I always love a main character named Jimmy

[00:02:34] Even if he's a bit of a prick

[00:02:41] What would you think of it I

[00:02:43] Really, I mean I really liked it. I

[00:02:46] I

[00:02:48] Yeah, I

[00:02:49] Kind of I liked him. I mean I felt like you know, he is not necessarily a likeable character

[00:02:58] But I feel like along you know with some of the other

[00:03:02] characters in the band and

[00:03:04] Some of the other folks that he kind of comes in contact with I feel like at least he kind of like knows what

[00:03:10] His deal is like yeah, he's he's not

[00:03:14] He's not somebody who's like confused about why he's doing these things like he knows what's up

[00:03:20] He knows the problem. I don't know if that makes it better or worse, but um

[00:03:25] Yeah, kind of got I kind of liked liked him and I was really into it and then that last issue just is like

[00:03:33] Off the rails and it's so dark

[00:03:36] But I really really enjoyed it

[00:03:39] Yeah, all three of them together are a great trilogy

[00:03:44] And I've been really enjoying Drive like hell as well. I should throw that out there

[00:03:48] But yeah, so you're the new comic you have coming out part piercer with dark horse

[00:03:56] The rest of the creative team it's Gavin Smith. It's Nicholas Bergdorf and

[00:04:01] Justin Birch who you've worked with plenty before Justin fantastic letterer

[00:04:05] Yeah, and so yeah, I mentioned it when we you know when I started in the intro

[00:04:10] I do I feel like this is a bit of a departure. It feels like it has some horror elements to it, but

[00:04:16] um, I think of a lot of your

[00:04:19] there is a

[00:04:21] Like a groundedness to a lot of your stories even though we're dealing with rhodobones and CSR as you're dealing with kind of like

[00:04:30] Fantastical things in terms of the horror elements of it

[00:04:33] Like just I always get a sense of a there's a character who there is up against something much much bigger and darker than themselves

[00:04:40] And we kind of I think at least after reading the first issue

[00:04:44] Maybe still have that here with heart piercer, but it's it's it's very heavily fantasy influenced

[00:04:50] Really love your main character love Gavin's artwork in it and all the visual visuals

[00:04:56] Yes, why don't you just kind of tell our listeners a little bit about what heart piercers about?

[00:05:02] Yeah, so I mean it does take place in a fantasy world and that that is very different from you know

[00:05:09] The rhodobones

[00:05:11] Like trilogy and even drive like hell, you know

[00:05:14] like you totally spot on that they'll those all have like

[00:05:19] Like fantastical elements, but they're all you know

[00:05:22] Still taking place against the backdrop of a very familiar world, but like here

[00:05:26] It's taking place on a world like that we basically like built up from scratch, you know

[00:05:35] So in this world

[00:05:37] Our main character her name is a Tala and she's a huntress and she

[00:05:42] was part of this order of like beast hunters who

[00:05:49] Would go out and basically slay these like magical like great beasts who

[00:05:57] Who

[00:05:59] She used to look like very dangerous and you know like threatening to mankind, but

[00:06:04] well turns out that

[00:06:06] those beasts were more like kind of like guardian beasts kind of holding back the

[00:06:11] darker things out there and by

[00:06:15] Killing them. She's actually set the stage for these forces of darkness to come back

[00:06:22] so

[00:06:23] she winds up betrayed by

[00:06:25] Leader of the order and all her compatriots who she thought

[00:06:30] You know we're on our side and she thought she was doing the right thing, but it turns out

[00:06:36] She actually like doomed the world and

[00:06:40] She winds up getting stabbed over it and

[00:06:45] Goes into this sort of like magical sleep and wakes up

[00:06:49] You know many many years later to this world. That's just like overrun by

[00:06:55] Creatures of darkness like werewolves and vampires and all the way up to like things like dragons and giants and things like that

[00:07:03] Yeah, all fantastically like design by the way

[00:07:08] Yeah, I'm doing a job with that stuff. Yeah, and there's definitely for listeners

[00:07:12] There's definitely going to be some things in here that you know, you have some

[00:07:17] Familiarity with or might look similar to some creatures you've seen before but then there's some other just like mind-blowing stuff here

[00:07:23] Especially that one

[00:07:25] I don't know if they're named but the one character that appears early on as like a scarecrow

[00:07:30] I mean, I just love. Oh, yeah

[00:07:32] Yeah, that I just love the look of that character. Yeah, her name is blight eye. She's she's kind of like a

[00:07:41] She's like like a sorceress or like a witch, but you know with power over

[00:07:48] pros and other birds and she's kind of like

[00:07:52] Kind of like the eyes and ears of

[00:07:55] the operation like, you know like like

[00:07:58] spying and she does play like a larger role in

[00:08:01] In a couple of later issues

[00:08:05] Nice so she's definitely like a major part of it and

[00:08:11] So basically like yeah, like the story is like a tall is kind of like emerging into this world and

[00:08:19] You know, it's like she she wants revenge for what was done to her

[00:08:23] but she also kind of has to come to terms with the fact that

[00:08:26] you know

[00:08:28] It a lot of a lot of it is kind of her fault like, you know, like if she had if she had been a little more

[00:08:35] Circumstant with like, you know or a little more

[00:08:40] Suspicious I guess maybe or yeah really paying attention to what was really going on

[00:08:46] She might have might have averted it but now she's like kind of stuck in

[00:08:51] this world and

[00:08:54] Has decided like what she what she's gonna do about it

[00:08:57] Yeah, one of the things I mean to get into the story and one of the things that I really liked

[00:09:01] Just from the very jump is I feel like the the thing I've maybe seen before

[00:09:09] Maybe it's a trope of the genre but you know a character

[00:09:15] Set on a certain path and like right before they do the thing they uncover the plot

[00:09:21] You know, they don't right don't doom the world they they figure it out

[00:09:25] They figure out. Oh wait the person who has been sending me out to do all these things is really the bad guy

[00:09:30] And now now I have to figure out how to not do the thing they want me to do and

[00:09:35] Like defeat like I feel like that I've seen before but like you're like you're like three pages in and you're like oh no

[00:09:43] She killed the last thing the the world's gone to shit and

[00:09:46] And

[00:09:48] Yeah, I feel like you just like you know cross that threshold and I was like oh, oh

[00:09:54] You know soon now. This is not at all. I kind of expecting and I

[00:09:59] Just I was along for the ride definitely

[00:10:02] Because I feel like that was quickly that trope was kind of quickly subverted and I was seeing something

[00:10:08] But I hadn't quite seen before

[00:10:10] You know because now you have a character who's maybe out for revenge or redemption

[00:10:15] But you know certainly has so much

[00:10:17] I'm assuming as we get deeper into it has so much guilt over their own hand in

[00:10:23] You know blindly following their leader to essentially doom the world

[00:10:28] Yeah, yeah, it's wild

[00:10:31] Yeah, you know, I mean I think that's like a big thing because I've seen that too, you know

[00:10:35] Like exactly what you're talking about and I think that's like

[00:10:39] A big part of like what makes like

[00:10:42] What makes a story feel fresh is how you can kind of subvert those tropes and still surprise people even even though

[00:10:50] They may have read like, you know 100 fantasy stories like

[00:10:56] Always trying to like do something like a little bit different or something that'll be a bit surprising

[00:11:02] Yeah, um was it it was a difficult after kind of, um

[00:11:08] You know

[00:11:10] Completing the the road of bones and and see a sorrow's brother shadows trilogy and something like drive like hell

[00:11:17] Was it difficult to get into like the fantasy mindset? I mean

[00:11:20] um

[00:11:21] You know, is that something you've had an interest in either in your own, you know reading or

[00:11:26] viewing, um

[00:11:29] Where what made you want to go in that direction with this just the opportunity or something in particular

[00:11:34] Well, it's funny because I actually started out as like a fantasy slash like sci-fi

[00:11:41] I like I kind of like a relative newcomer to horror

[00:11:45] Like rota bones is the first horror story. I I ever wrote

[00:11:49] Um all my stuff previous to that which and i'm saying all my stuff that it's really too serious

[00:11:54] It's gutter magic and uh and whaling blade

[00:11:57] Those are both like heavily influenced by fantasy and had a lot of of world building

[00:12:03] um

[00:12:06] involved

[00:12:07] All of them so so like so this was almost like kind of felt a little bit like coming home

[00:12:12] You know, it's like it's like oh cool. I get to like build a whole world and a whole mythology and and and figure out all that stuff

[00:12:20] that I uh

[00:12:22] You know, it's not that I didn't do any world building in in the in the horror stuff

[00:12:27] But it's just like sort of like a different right different type

[00:12:31] like here, you know like

[00:12:33] You know, nobody's named like, you know, john and eric and

[00:12:38] And that's right. You have to like think like that deeply like what what does the name is going to be?

[00:12:47] So it was it was exciting for me to kind of come come back to to doing fantasy because I've been a fan of it for

[00:12:53] You know, yeah, like ever since I started reading

[00:12:56] Um watching movies. I've always been drawn to

[00:12:59] um

[00:13:01] These like really in-depth worlds and it's something I love doing

[00:13:04] um

[00:13:06] so

[00:13:08] And it's not that I'm never ever going to do horror again, but uh, this was definitely

[00:13:14] um

[00:13:15] just like a fun

[00:13:18] Fun thing to get back to yeah, and I think also like

[00:13:22] You know, it's like I don't want to kind of I don't want to get stuck in a rut or

[00:13:26] Typecast as a certain type of writer like only you know

[00:13:30] That only can work in in a certain genre. So

[00:13:34] I think, you know, it's important to kind of

[00:13:37] Push myself a little bit and keep trying different things

[00:13:41] and not

[00:13:43] Yeah, not just be like pigeon-holed into like one one type of story

[00:13:49] Yeah, no, I mean I think that makes sense. Um, and how did you in a Gavin connect for this?

[00:13:55] Had you worked with Gavin before?

[00:13:57] I know Gavin and I well actually we

[00:14:01] We sort of did I'll explain

[00:14:07] Yeah, so um Gavin I've known Gavin for for a number of years because we you know met each other

[00:14:16] Uh on the convention circuit and just you know just just became friendly and um

[00:14:23] I think it was maybe

[00:14:28] 17 or 2018 or something I did a

[00:14:33] I was doing an anthology book that I did on Kickstarter

[00:14:37] um that I put together for my my gutter gutter magic series

[00:14:43] And uh, the whole idea was it was just going to be a bunch of like short stories

[00:14:48] set in that universe with all different artists and I wrote

[00:14:52] I think four there were six of them in there and I wrote four of them, but I also

[00:14:58] Kind of made made like a little contest like you know like

[00:15:02] Like where I was like, hey if you have an idea for a good our magic story send it in and and I'll pick two

[00:15:07] And we'll uh

[00:15:09] We'll do it. So one of the one of the

[00:15:12] Um one of the stories I picked that I got Gavin to to illustrate it

[00:15:16] So even though he wasn't working off one of my scripts, he was involved in one of my projects, but

[00:15:21] Oh, okay. That was a good

[00:15:23] Yeah, but that was kind of how he

[00:15:25] You know got to know each other a little bit more and and like, you know

[00:15:29] I'm like a little bit maybe more professional than like friend level

[00:15:33] And he's just somebody that I you know wanted to work with for a while and we were just

[00:15:39] We had just been talking more and more. Um, you know like oh, what do you work it on?

[00:15:43] What are you working on?

[00:15:45] Uh, and we both

[00:15:47] wound up being free and and he asked me to send him a few ideas. So

[00:15:51] Oh, I sent him heartbeats, sir. And I think I sent him like two or three different pitches, you know, just because

[00:15:58] You know when I'm when I'm like working with with a new artist, especially

[00:16:02] um

[00:16:03] I always try to uh

[00:16:06] I always want to find a project that uh, they're going to be like excited to draw, you know, I mean like uh,

[00:16:12] Oh, sure. So

[00:16:14] so it's like

[00:16:15] Um, I always ask that it's one of the first things I ask when I when I'm talking to somebody like like what kind of stuff

[00:16:21] do you want to draw?

[00:16:22] and um

[00:16:26] You know and that applies to genre too because it's like, you know

[00:16:29] maybe somebody's got like a

[00:16:31] you know

[00:16:33] uh

[00:16:34] Strong desire to like do a western or do a you know or do a cyberpunk thing or do a

[00:16:40] Space or whatever it is. It's like, you know, it helps me kind of um

[00:16:45] Focus on on the idea is because I have ideas like all the time and and they're not, you know

[00:16:51] And they're not always like, um

[00:16:54] Set in stone as far as like, you know, oh like this has to be like a

[00:16:59] Uh a science fiction story or this has to be uh, you know fantasy story

[00:17:02] So so I try to like when I when I work with an artist I try to

[00:17:07] get them

[00:17:10] Um

[00:17:11] Get them stuff that they're gonna feel excited about drawing and stuff that they feel really good about drawing because I think just over at the end of the day

[00:17:17] It just makes for a better product, you know, like the less of

[00:17:20] Less of a slog that it is for them the better the art's gonna

[00:17:24] Uh gonna look and the better the book's gonna be

[00:17:27] so um, so yeah, so I gave Gavin and I think

[00:17:31] Three or four ideas that I was kicking around and this was the one he really gravitated towards

[00:17:35] so like

[00:17:37] Ultimately like that was the deciding factor as to like why why harpier sir is my next book

[00:17:43] And not uh, you know one of the other ones

[00:17:47] Right. Okay. Yeah. No, I mean that makes sense because uh, and it definitely shows

[00:17:52] I mean on the page. I mean, it's it's a it's a gorgeous looking book

[00:17:55] Um, and like I said, I already the character designs are fantastic

[00:18:01] um

[00:18:03] Yeah, I mean it's it's just I love all the monster designs

[00:18:06] Yeah, it and it has a great flow to it in terms of this story. Um, you know

[00:18:11] A fantastic cold open kind of and then kind of gets right into it with the world being in

[00:18:18] In chaos, um, you know, what do you think in?

[00:18:22] You know talking about coming back to this genre

[00:18:25] Uh with this type of fantasy story, um

[00:18:29] Not just like the horror elements, but you know

[00:18:33] Writing the your other series. Do you feel like you're like how you write after?

[00:18:39] You know doing something like wailing blade and then coming back with

[00:18:43] something like this which

[00:18:45] Uh, maybe feels a little bit more like personal of a story

[00:18:49] Um, do you feel like writing those other series like changed how you approach writing or has it all kind of been

[00:18:55] the same for you

[00:18:57] Yeah, I mean, I don't know that it

[00:19:00] It changed but I think it's it's kind of like a muscle, you know

[00:19:03] It's like kind of like the more you do it the the stronger you get like

[00:19:07] And I think every story

[00:19:10] Has its own like

[00:19:12] Challenges, you know and and when you

[00:19:15] And it's not oh

[00:19:18] You can't always like apply like the same solutions

[00:19:22] Is it to those different challenges, but I think you like I'm a lot more

[00:19:28] um

[00:19:29] A lot more experience and a lot more able to

[00:19:33] Uh

[00:19:35] To address things that come up, you know like like, um, I think

[00:19:40] bouncing out like

[00:19:43] Character

[00:19:45] Development and action is like a big thing

[00:19:48] That I learned a lot about

[00:19:51] After doing the horror stuff

[00:19:53] um

[00:19:55] sort of

[00:19:58] being able to

[00:20:02] Show more of the character

[00:20:06] With with less if that makes sense like

[00:20:09] Yeah, you know what that does. Yeah, like I think that's like a really challenging thing to do and it's the sort of thing where

[00:20:17] It's much easier to see in in like film or something because

[00:20:21] You know when when somebody is like

[00:20:24] Doing it wrong. Like it's like overacting, you know what I mean? It's just you're just like yeah

[00:20:30] This person's a terrible actor, but it's like

[00:20:32] um

[00:20:33] The writing and the art it's it's it's it's more like

[00:20:38] uh not like

[00:20:40] I guess like over explaining things or or like letting there be like a little bit of subtlety and a little bit of subtext

[00:20:46] um

[00:20:47] And that's hard because you're always kind of trying to balance

[00:20:52] The fact that you don't want it to be

[00:20:55] Everything to be like totally obvious and and and one note, but you also

[00:21:02] Don't want to make it so obscure that like nobody's gonna know what the hell is going on. Yeah, you know

[00:21:07] It's it's it's a balance

[00:21:09] Oh, absolutely. Yeah, so it's bouncing

[00:21:13] Was there anything in particular in terms of this first issue of heart piercer without you know giving

[00:21:19] Too much away. Um, that was like particularly difficult to kind of like break or get into story wise

[00:21:27] Yeah, I was a little worried that we were spending

[00:21:32] too much time like setting up and not really kind of getting to

[00:21:37] The present day because like a good chunk of the issue does take place and and essentially like flashback but

[00:21:44] So I think it so it was important to me to really kind of

[00:21:48] Pace that well and and make that sequence

[00:21:52] um

[00:21:55] Make it uh

[00:21:57] every like little every last bit of it like important and and and not um

[00:22:02] Not feel like it was like

[00:22:04] going on too long or redundant or anything like that so

[00:22:08] Well, I think that was that was like the biggest thing for me. It was like how much time we're gonna devote to

[00:22:14] kind of the backstory

[00:22:16] And is that going to feel like it's too much set up and not enough of the actual story but

[00:22:22] I think I think we found like a really good balance there because I think um

[00:22:28] I think

[00:22:29] Even with the pages that we spent on the setup like you really kind of get a feeling for atala and and where she's at and why

[00:22:37] um

[00:22:38] Why she's uh

[00:22:41] Why she's in the position season and then and then we still have enough kind of space to get her started on

[00:22:47] On the actual adventure that she's going on right

[00:22:50] Yeah, yeah, I mean that makes sense. You have to

[00:22:53] Be with atala enough and get a sense of her that it matters

[00:22:57] That she's been betrayed and that she feels guilty or once revenge or whatever it is

[00:23:05] She is ultimately seeking you know, so you have I mean I get that

[00:23:09] um

[00:23:11] But yeah, I think I I feel like the balance is right. Um

[00:23:15] You know, you're you're with her enough that you get a sense of who she is and kind of care about the predicament that

[00:23:21] That uh, she's in

[00:23:24] You know

[00:23:26] initial because at one point I was just like

[00:23:29] Um, I thought it was maybe like a misdirect at one point. Oh my is this not the main character? Like what is happening?

[00:23:36] And I was like this is this is wild. Um

[00:23:42] Because I was like invested, uh, you know and I think it's done well in terms of the pacing like there's you know some narrative or

[00:23:51] You know narrative captions or like an internal monologue

[00:23:55] um

[00:23:56] But like yeah when she's I guess climbing the stairs to that tower like it's all paced out very well

[00:24:04] Um because it really feels like it's building to to something and it is and it's just maybe not what

[00:24:11] um readers will be expected, but

[00:24:14] Yeah, I found that all very effective

[00:24:17] Oh good

[00:24:20] Yeah, I uh definitely did um and then like I said it's just kind of like

[00:24:26] After the races from there because then we see the world kind of being you know kind of

[00:24:31] Flooded with all these uh creatures and characters

[00:24:36] All right, let's take a quick break

[00:24:39] Hey comics fam itty comic book publisher band of bars just got a level up and announced it is now a cooperative

[00:24:46] This heralds a new era for them including a partnership with dollah's stories

[00:24:50] And they added star balloon members to the ownership group

[00:24:53] Marcus Jimenez is now chief operating officer Brent Fisher takes on the role of chief diversity officer

[00:24:59] And joey galvez is introduced as head of Kickstarter ops and social media manager

[00:25:04] Which is sure to increase their capabilities overall as a publisher

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[00:25:13] Inclusion and diversity in the media

[00:25:15] They also established a new board of directors to help chart the new path of their journey

[00:25:20] With new projects in the works like Alaska by dropping in june

[00:25:23] I'm broken soon launching on Kickstarter and pollen coming up with thoughtless

[00:25:27] Stay tuned to this space for more exciting news from the growing bards family

[00:25:35] Let's get back to the show

[00:25:37] Just to you know talk a little bit about

[00:25:40] The rest of the team, but nicholas burgdorff is a phenomenal color colorist the colors in this

[00:25:47] Yeah, it's so moody

[00:25:50] and there are like it's it's it's kind of

[00:25:53] There's so many panels that are like imbued with this

[00:25:57] These tones of it just makes it feels like a lot of it is taking place at dusk

[00:26:03] Which I like really like about about it because then that's kind of such a contrast to in the big from the beginning when we see

[00:26:11] um

[00:26:12] Kind of how bad things have gotten uh when things kind of brighten up and we're in present day and you see just how terrible it is

[00:26:21] Um, yeah, I mean I just it's a wonderful work

[00:26:25] Yeah, there's this one panel or it's like a it's a splash. I guess it's really the page

[00:26:31] which we're like these kind of

[00:26:33] dragons are uh

[00:26:35] Blasting away a city and it's just so bright and so vibrant. Um, like as everything's engulfed in fire and I think

[00:26:43] Like part of like it's a beautiful page on its own

[00:26:46] But like part of why it has the impact is because you did have that kind of muted palette

[00:26:50] Coming up muted color palette and the in the proceeding pages. So it really like

[00:26:55] Really pops

[00:26:57] But yeah, nivolous did an amazing job

[00:26:59] um

[00:27:01] On this series and it's actually like

[00:27:03] I don't think it's like the first bookies color, but it's definitely the first one that he's done like for

[00:27:09] Like a big publisher like dark horse. So

[00:27:11] Um, I think you like knocked it out of the park. So

[00:27:15] Oh, yeah, I 100 of gray

[00:27:17] Yeah, very and uh really like nice guy easy to work with so

[00:27:22] I

[00:27:23] Couldn't be happier. Yeah, and then uh, and then lowly justin birch

[00:27:31] Yeah, well justin justin's like lettered. I think probably like half the books I worked on

[00:27:36] And the reason is is because he's he's really good. Yeah, he's phenomenal

[00:27:42] He's phenomenal and he's got uh, and it's also again. He's just like

[00:27:47] easy to work with like

[00:27:50] Nice nice guy like always willing to you know, like

[00:27:54] He never kind of like uh half-ass is it or anything. So, you know, he's always

[00:28:01] Like number one in my my rule of decks of uh when I have a new project like I'm like

[00:28:07] Hey, Justin, you have time, you know

[00:28:11] That's good. Yeah

[00:28:13] um, so how many issues total is is this going to be is this like a

[00:28:18] Limited series is it set for five? Is there potential for more what it what's um, what are we expecting here?

[00:28:25] I would say like we can expect four right now. Uh, that's what we're like, uh

[00:28:31] kind of approved to do and then um

[00:28:34] We will probably take a little time

[00:28:38] uh to see how well it's received and uh if

[00:28:42] People are digging it and buying it number most importantly

[00:28:47] Right. We will we are more than ready to do more. We have like

[00:28:53] We have several

[00:28:55] uh future arcs in mind. So

[00:28:59] It's really more a question of like, uh

[00:29:03] How much time it's going to take to you know before dark horse lets us do another one

[00:29:09] No, I am

[00:29:10] You know, yeah

[00:29:12] But we're planning actually to go back to them with an idea for for the second arc

[00:29:18] Um, uh fairly soon probably like, you know, I want to start talking to them like in the next couple of months. Um

[00:29:26] But I think like ultimately

[00:29:28] It's it's not going to be it's just not going to be like a seamless thing where it's like, you know

[00:29:32] We like roll right into issue five after the first arc. It'll be more more of like, uh

[00:29:38] I guess like a hellboy model where it's like, you know, like like this is volume one and then

[00:29:43] When we're able to we'll do volume two and then hopefully

[00:29:47] Three four or five, you know all the way up to uh, I don't know 20 or whatever

[00:29:53] And issue number one will be out, uh may 15th. Yeah may 15th will be in two weeks in, uh

[00:30:01] Your finer comic stores everywhere, uh

[00:30:04] Nice um and then yeah, and then we then we yeah, and then

[00:30:09] All four are are done. So there's not going to be any

[00:30:13] Any delays on our end? Oh good

[00:30:16] Yeah, that's you know, sometimes that can you know hurt momentum. It's always good when uh, you know

[00:30:22] When yeah, I want to come out when solicited, you know, so folks gonna expect uh, uh, you know when to get them, um

[00:30:30] It has do you think

[00:30:33] your, you know influences have changed in terms of

[00:30:37] Some of the things that you liked or read or watched whatever it may be in the fantasy genre

[00:30:42] Like were the things that when you were younger that you like oh

[00:30:46] Huge into lord of the rings or d and d and now as you

[00:30:49] As you've gotten older as as we all have have you found your you know your tastes or sensibilities in terms of what you gravitate towards

[00:30:57] You know to look check out yourself have changed

[00:31:01] Yeah, absolutely. I mean like yeah, Lord of the Rings was like the first like fantasy

[00:31:06] Thing I ever read and it's kind of funny because I didn't even

[00:31:10] It wasn't even the novels it was um

[00:31:14] There was uh

[00:31:16] Like an animated version of it in the oh sure. I think it came out in the 70s it came out like

[00:31:23] Like before I was born, but uh somehow I wound up with a

[00:31:28] uh

[00:31:30] Like a kid's book

[00:31:32] Or like a kid's with like a very simplified version of the story but like with

[00:31:37] uh

[00:31:38] Like screenshots of the movie like they made like a picture book out of it with just like shots from the movie

[00:31:44] And that was like I thought for a while like that was like Lord of the Rings and I was reading it

[00:31:49] and then when I I think when I got to be about like, uh

[00:31:54] Yeah, probably like like middle school age like 10 or 11 and like I was like, oh no wait

[00:31:58] There are these other books. This is the real Lord of the Rings. So I was like really like already like primed to like really

[00:32:05] um

[00:32:07] Read that and love right and I still love it. But I think my my modern tastes and fantasy runs like a little bit

[00:32:15] uh

[00:32:17] Towards like the darker and grittier stuff like okay, I'm a big fan of like, uh

[00:32:24] I don't know if anybody's familiar with them, but they're the series of book called the black company

[00:32:30] um

[00:32:32] I'm into uh

[00:32:36] there was uh

[00:32:38] Jean Wolf's stuff like uh the book of the new sun

[00:32:42] um

[00:32:45] Yeah, like and and michael moor cox elrich conan the barbarian those are all stuff that like I kind of kind into like later

[00:32:52] um

[00:32:54] But that that's definitely like more like what I would call like my wheelhouse like nowadays

[00:33:01] um, and I realize all these books are like

[00:33:04] 20 years older or more so that's not like

[00:33:07] This is an age work

[00:33:10] I'm always looking for something else

[00:33:12] I'm always looking for something else to add to the list. So I was like looking it up like uh the black company

[00:33:17] I think it's like glenn cook. It looks like

[00:33:20] Yep. Yeah, I think that came out 1984

[00:33:24] Yeah, so like that's 40 that's 40 years old

[00:33:28] Yeah, like I read it like way way after it was published, you know, like sure what a

[00:33:33] edition or whatever, but like it's all just stuff that like, you know

[00:33:37] Got recommended to me or or or that I you know somehow found on my own or or had like mentored and then

[00:33:44] Finally got around to it

[00:33:46] But uh, I say I'll just like fully knowing full well that like there's

[00:33:51] a large group of people out there that are probably like, what are these fucking books? You know, yeah

[00:33:58] Yeah, I I

[00:34:00] Know I I try you know find out

[00:34:03] Somebody'll mention a book and I'm like, oh, I've read this and you know, that'll be something that came out

[00:34:09] similarly like, you know

[00:34:11] in the 90s

[00:34:14] Yeah, I like Game of Thrones too, you know, it's not that I don't don't like it or anything. It's just

[00:34:20] Like I don't know. I think there's just something about like those older books. Like maybe it's the

[00:34:26] I don't know style of it or something but I'm just like more drawn to

[00:34:30] Yeah, no, I got it. I I think the last thing that I read that was you know, a fantasy style book as my wife had gotten me

[00:34:40] Appendix n which is kind of like an anthology of short stories that

[00:34:48] Somebody the editor I can't remember the name of them they put it together

[00:34:52] and it's all either some of the original stories or

[00:34:57] Similar stories that like Gary Gaigak said influenced him and the creation of Dungeons and Dragons

[00:35:03] And it was great. It was like, you know, it kind of like

[00:35:07] Some older stories but some newer like replacement ones for some of the things. Um, so yeah, it was a fantastic

[00:35:14] collection of short stories, but

[00:35:16] If anyone likes that stuff, um

[00:35:19] I recommend, you know appendix n was good

[00:35:22] Yeah, dnd also was something I was like into for like the longest time like I haven't played it actually played it in years

[00:35:28] But I mean

[00:35:30] I put in my time in mom's basement

[00:35:33] Yeah through my uh, it was years

[00:35:37] Like yeah friends and everything so

[00:35:41] Yeah, I I mentioned on the

[00:35:43] I know go ahead

[00:35:45] Oh, I was just gonna say like that that was like a big influence too like, uh

[00:35:49] You know, I used to even and I think also like with like the uh

[00:35:55] Kind of like world building and stuff like that aspect of it because I was always

[00:35:59] One where like I would buy like the

[00:36:02] Like the monster manuals and stuff or like the stuff that had all the

[00:36:06] Little magic items in them and I would just like read that like over and over again

[00:36:10] Even more than like playing like that was just sort of like

[00:36:13] Reading all like the lore and stuff like that that gave me like a big affinity for like building that background

[00:36:20] Into

[00:36:21] The stories that I write

[00:36:23] Yeah

[00:36:24] Where when you played uh as a kid or when you were younger, did you ever dm or were you uh, you know, did you ever

[00:36:31] Take the lead? Yeah, I did a few times. Uh

[00:36:35] I actually like playing more

[00:36:37] I think uh, I think the thing I find frustrating about dming and I guess maybe it's because I'm a writer. It's that it's like

[00:36:45] As a writer like I kind of know how I want the story to go and if you've ever played d&d, you know that the player

[00:36:54] Uh always have their own idea about how the story is good to go

[00:36:57] Yeah, sure, you know, and it's it's the game is for the players. So

[00:37:01] we kind of let them do their thing and uh

[00:37:04] Not that it ever like made me like angry or anything, but it was always just like like okay. Well like maybe this part of it is

[00:37:11] Not not so much for me

[00:37:14] I'm like maybe I guess too much of a story in control freak

[00:37:20] To uh

[00:37:22] To give give that up

[00:37:26] Yeah, I I always wanted to play as a kid

[00:37:28] I think I mentioned it before on the podcast, but I I didn't start playing I played um

[00:37:33] I started playing in like 2017 and played

[00:37:37] More or less once a month for a couple of years the past year. We haven't been able to get together, but

[00:37:42] Actually, we just got together this past weekend because we hadn't played since like last february of you know over a year

[00:37:48] so we got together

[00:37:50] Last weekend to roll some new characters to kind of start it up again with a new campaign so

[00:37:58] Well, we'll see how that goes

[00:38:01] That was a good time like I just have like yeah, it's it's

[00:38:05] It's exactly like the the thing that like the only reason I haven't played in like such a long time is because it's impossible to schedule it

[00:38:12] So yeah, that's the whole challenge like in and of itself. So yep. It's the it's the most difficult

[00:38:20] D&D villain to be

[00:38:22] scheduling

[00:38:24] Yeah

[00:38:26] Yeah, we say that a lot

[00:38:28] You know trying to get five people together who are all you know

[00:38:33] Have lives and kids and all that stuff. It's tough but

[00:38:37] um, but you know kind of kind of turning back to um to to heart piercer

[00:38:43] um

[00:38:45] You know talking about the world building and kind of fleshing things out

[00:38:48] I mean that stuff is great, but I I you know, I don't think it works unless you have

[00:38:53] Really strong and compelling characters. Um, oh, yeah, and yeah

[00:39:00] I mean this main character kind of feels different than

[00:39:03] a lot than the characters of yours that I've I've read before I mean do

[00:39:08] Do you think uh, she's a real departure from some of the other characters you've created?

[00:39:13] And is that a function of the story you wanted to tell or the setting?

[00:39:18] Yeah, no, I think she is different. Um, especially from like the

[00:39:22] characters in the you know and like the horror books like, you know, you mentioned like jimmy from breath of shadows and stuff being like

[00:39:31] Not likable and it's like well. Yeah, like I didn't write him to like be likable

[00:39:36] or

[00:39:37] Or heroic or or you know and and really none of the characters in those books

[00:39:43] Are anywhere near kind of heroic because those books are very much about like, you know

[00:39:48] Are like, you know

[00:39:51] human

[00:39:52] boy bowls and things like that and the things that

[00:39:56] keep us from being heroic and in uh, in you know extreme situations

[00:40:01] But I think like for this book

[00:40:03] And you know, like I think fantasy as a genre in general. It's like

[00:40:07] you you want

[00:40:09] characters that are a little more

[00:40:12] um

[00:40:15] a little

[00:40:16] More ideal a little more

[00:40:22] representative of

[00:40:24] of

[00:40:26] You know virtues or vices or whatever it is. They're like a little bit less

[00:40:33] Die hard like true to life, you know, like like that they kind of have their

[00:40:38] that they're uh

[00:40:42] beyond like a little like

[00:40:45] Again, like I'm sorry. I'm stuttering so much but

[00:40:49] Uh, again, it's just sort of like the balance between being

[00:40:53] Something like like a hero but also feeling like a real person

[00:40:56] So I think that that's kind of what I was trying to do with itala was give her like

[00:41:02] um

[00:41:05] Give her these

[00:41:07] Troubles and things in her life that uh are very human and are very, um, you know

[00:41:15] Relatable like in a way like, you know, nobody's out there like, you know

[00:41:19] Slaying monsters, but we all have kind of like fallen for the wrong person at times in our life or you know, you know

[00:41:26] Trusted somebody we shouldn't have trusted and things like that. So

[00:41:30] It's it's balancing those relatable things with like the idea of

[00:41:34] Having somebody who's going to rise to a difficult occasion and and hopefully triumph

[00:41:39] Yeah

[00:41:40] Yeah

[00:41:41] Yeah, well that that is true with itala. I mean because she thought

[00:41:45] You know her her her intentions

[00:41:48] She thought you know early on she was what she was doing was saving the world

[00:41:54] You know, she so, you know, she does have that

[00:41:58] Um, it's not like she wanted to you know curse the world and unleash hell upon everything

[00:42:04] You know, she thought she was doing, you know, the right thing. It just turns out that

[00:42:09] um

[00:42:10] That was not the case

[00:42:12] To disastrous consequence

[00:42:16] Yeah, and that's the thing I think like, you know

[00:42:19] In like fantasy books and it's like they're always like consequences are always like disastrous, you know

[00:42:26] You mean like there's no like that's kind of like the difference between like fantasy stuff in like real life. It's like, you know

[00:42:32] You know, it's not that your day is ruined. It's that everyone's day is ruined

[00:42:36] Yeah

[00:42:37] That's a good way of putting it

[00:42:39] But uh, there's there's usually like huge stakes, you know, yeah

[00:42:44] Yeah for

[00:42:45] For the world, um

[00:42:49] Well, I mean, I I thought I it's a fantastic first issue. Um, but I really think it's well put together

[00:42:57] And um really enjoyed the story. Uh, yeah, and I I think just right from the jump

[00:43:03] It does a great job of kind of

[00:43:05] subverting expectations. So I think I think folks are really going to love it

[00:43:10] Oh, yeah, well, I hope they do, you know

[00:43:13] um

[00:43:14] I think, you know, it was it was great

[00:43:18] Working on it great working Gavin and and I yeah, I really hope people like it because I would love to to do more with it

[00:43:24] so

[00:43:26] and

[00:43:27] um

[00:43:28] Before I let you go, uh, you know, I just wanted to talk about are there anything other, you know

[00:43:35] Projects that you can talk about that you have coming out or are are working on?

[00:43:39] Yeah, um got uh

[00:43:43] The mecha godzilla 50th anniversary special that's going to be coming out

[00:43:48] At the end of may. Uh, it was supposed to be out, uh

[00:43:52] Next week, but I think it got delayed now. It's coming out on the 29th

[00:43:56] Um, it's a 40 page one shot just like a tribute to uh,

[00:44:01] To mecha godzilla on the anniversary. It was a lot of fun to write

[00:44:05] got to do

[00:44:06] Work with like a lot of different versions of mecha godzilla and writing, you know

[00:44:11] monsters smashing cities up is uh, is always fun

[00:44:15] um

[00:44:16] And then the one other thing I could talk about is uh in august. I've got a book called a phone call away

[00:44:23] coming out uh from through mad cave studios and that's going to be a

[00:44:28] Uh graphic novel. Um, so it's going to come out in august, I believe and that

[00:44:34] a really cool

[00:44:36] Crime story like for talking about like trying new genres like it's like just straight up crime. There's no monsters

[00:44:42] there's no supernatural stuff going on. It's just like a very like

[00:44:48] You know real world uh kind of true crime inspired

[00:44:52] Inspired story and that's gonna be awesome. Yeah, and uh

[00:44:58] A couple of other things that are gonna pop up from with my name on it like, you know

[00:45:03] In the fall and winter but it's like too early to talk about

[00:45:08] Understood I I

[00:45:10] I get it. I get it um

[00:45:12] so with who are you working with?

[00:45:15] A phone call away, so it's a mad cave book and who's doing the art on it

[00:45:20] Uh his name is uh

[00:45:23] Sick I don't want to mangle his uh

[00:45:26] It's Russell Olson. Okay. Yeah, he's uh

[00:45:32] He's a uh

[00:45:34] he's from england

[00:45:37] Or the uk he's definitely from the uk but um did a really great job

[00:45:42] um

[00:45:43] Got a really

[00:45:45] interesting style, so I think uh

[00:45:48] People are gonna really dig what he's doing

[00:45:52] And I don't call away and that's going to be a full graphic novel. Mm-hmm. It's gonna be full graphic novel

[00:45:59] um, and then um

[00:46:02] Godzilla uh, Andrew Griffith is the uh illustrator on that. Uh, he did a great job

[00:46:07] with that too. I'm mecha Godzilla rather

[00:46:10] Um, yeah, and that'll be out at the end of the month

[00:46:13] That's like the thing 40 pages or 44 something like that. Oh, that's cool

[00:46:18] Yeah, I'm always been a big mecha Godzilla fan out of all the other Godzilla's there's something about mecha Godzilla, so

[00:46:25] It's cool. Yeah, I don't know it's like

[00:46:27] robot version

[00:46:29] yeah

[00:46:30] Definitely one of my favorite Godzilla foes. I don't know there was just like though

[00:46:34] I thought there was something really cool about him. Yeah, absolutely real treat to get to write them

[00:46:39] Oh, that's fantastic. Um

[00:46:41] Yeah, all right. Well rich man. That sounds like you got a uh, a full dance card. So that's exciting

[00:46:50] Yeah, absolutely, but listeners first and foremost, uh may 15th

[00:46:55] heart piercer

[00:46:57] Um, right may 15th heart piercer number one

[00:47:00] piercer may 15th

[00:47:01] Yeah

[00:47:02] You let let let your local shop your local comic shop know that you want it. Um, I think it's

[00:47:09] excellent addition if you like fantasy genre comics, but it's uh

[00:47:14] It was a really great first issue and I can't see I can't wait to see where it goes after that because

[00:47:21] Um, like I said, it was I felt it was unexpected in terms of you know, where it opened and where it went

[00:47:27] And um, really excited to see especially where the issue number one ends

[00:47:32] Really looking forward to see where atollic goes from there

[00:47:36] Great. Yeah, thanks so much jimmy really appreciate coming on uh

[00:47:41] Third time, you know, it's great and looking forward to number four down the road. Yeah, absolutely

[00:47:47] Anytime, um, but yeah, this has been nice, uh chatting with you again rich and um, yeah

[00:47:54] Big fan of all your work and folks um my own personal plug for rich if you have not read

[00:48:00] wrote a poem see a SARS and breath the shadows like please go get them go to your local comic shop pick them up there

[00:48:08] Um, I think they're on hoopla if you you know read comics digitally through your local library

[00:48:13] Um, it's always a good thing to check out. Uh, but yeah, absolutely

[00:48:18] um

[00:48:19] And uh, I think you can still I think I think uh

[00:48:23] There's four issues of drive like hell out which I

[00:48:27] had a lot of fun a mix of crime and supernatural

[00:48:32] And uh, yeah, so plenty of stuff out there if you're not familiar with rich's work, but you better be uh, especially

[00:48:39] Look my own see a sorrows. I think is my favorite of the three even though I do like the the characters jimmy and brother shadows, but uh

[00:48:46] Definitely

[00:48:48] You don't have to read them in order with the trilogy, but uh

[00:48:51] Yeah, they're all all all contained

[00:48:54] Yeah, and pick up heart piercer number one

[00:48:56] Um, then I I can't forget to give a shout out to my brother bobby the cryptic creator corners number one most dedicated listener

[00:49:02] bobby listened to all my episodes and uh, I've been doing this bit for a number of episodes now

[00:49:08] And I feel like I can't stop because he'll get upset with me. So

[00:49:12] Thanks for listening bobby

[00:49:14] Thanks, bobby

[00:49:16] All right for comic book eddies cryptic creator quarter

[00:49:19] I'm jimmy guest maro. Thank you so much for listening and uh find me on social media. Let me know what comics you're reading and uh

[00:49:28] What you've enjoyed lately, and um, yeah, I'll see you next time. Thanks a lot rich

[00:49:33] Thank you

[00:49:35] This is baron o'neill one of your hosts of the cryptic creator corner brought to you by comic book yeti

[00:49:40] We hope you've enjoyed this episode of our podcast

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