Sebastian Girner Interview - Goats Flying Press

[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. So without further ado, let's get on to the interview. Hey everyone, this is... Hi Byron. Who is this? I'm your fairy godmother. I have a fairy godmother? Of course you do. I'm 50 years old, why haven't you shown up before? I appear when I'm needed. And I didn't need you in all these years? Do you want my help or not? Um...

[00:00:30] Sure. Exactly. I was just about to pitch our Patreon. Why would I need help with that? Because you're an idiot sometimes. That's hurtful. What were you going to put on there? We do comic stuff? So something along those lines? And this is why I'm here. You do know what people put on Patreon most of the time, right? Honestly, no. People need something a little bit spicy to entice them to support you.

[00:00:59] Nobody wants to see me shirtless. I doubt that's true. You are in pretty good shape considering your age. Thank you. Let's see. A little spicy. I've been bugging Jimmy to figure out what he's going to do. I know lately he's been playing around with his **** all the time. He loves to take it out and show it off. There's even a specific TikTok channel now. How's that sound? Not a bad start. People like Jimmy. What else you got?

[00:01:24] I told a story recently about being in a strip club with some of the four horsemen when I was working for WCW back in the day. I picked up an infection on my- Woo! From the experience, I hate strip clubs. Is that better? Getting there. But maybe spicy shouldn't include infections you get in strip clubs. That's not sexy. We'll workshop it. Like I need more meating. At least tell them where to find it while we figure this out. Mother goddess, help this poor man.

[00:01:52] You can find us on Patreon at cryptidcreatorcornerpod. I'll put it in the show notes. Anything else you'd like to remind me that I'm bad at? How much time do you have? Why do you look like Rosario Dawson anyway? I appear the way you want me to look. Okay, that's disturbing. Wait, have you been showing up in my dreams? I'll never tell. And we're done here. Y'all, Jimmy, the Chaos Goblin strikes again.

[00:02:20] 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. 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 Arkhamforge.

[00:02:45] If you don't know who Arkhamforge 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. 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.

[00:03:14] Check them out at arkhamforge.com and use the discount code YETI5 to get $5 off. I'll drop a link in the show notes for you. And big thanks to Arkhamforge for partnering with our show. I think I'm going to make Jimmy play a goblin warlock just to get even. Hello and welcome to Comic Book Yeti's Cryptid Creator Corner. I am one of your hosts, Jimmy Gasparo, and I have a very special guest on today's episode.

[00:03:39] We actually get something to run into in person, which is always nice at Baltimore Comic Con. But he has worked as an editor and a writer for companies like Marvel, Entertainment Image Comics, Kodansha, Viz, Vault Comics, Wizards of the Coast. He, in 2018, helped launch TKO Studios as editor-in-chief. And he is now the founder and publisher of Goat's Flying Press.

[00:04:07] Please, welcome to the podcast, Sebastian Gerner. Sebastian, how are you doing today? I'm good. Thanks so much for having me. No, my pleasure. I know Alex Breen from Comic Book Yeti, I believe, is a big fan and has interviewed you before for some of the work that you've done. And, you know, I am very excited to talk about Goat's Flying Press.

[00:04:33] I know one of the first projects I think that I was aware of was The Dead and the Damned, which was out on Kickstarter. I know I backed issue one. I thought it was great. Kelly Williams did the artwork. You had written it. And then more recently, and you were kind enough to send over for me to look at the fables of Earl Kingwood, which writer and artist Juni Ba worked on.

[00:05:02] It was lettered by Aditya Bittikar. I believe you edited it. It is wonderful. It had a very successful campaign on Kickstarter. It is kind of almost like a series of vignettes that really that does tell like a kind of an interwoven story. And anyone who's familiar with Juni Ba's work, I mean, it is just a phenomenal comic book.

[00:05:27] And so I'm very excited to hear about, you know, what Goat's Flying Press is all about and kind of some more of your plans for 2025. Cool. Thanks so much for the nice intro. Yeah. Alex and I go back away. He was, I think, the only person who reached out to interview or talk about one of the vault book I wrote called The Devil's Red Bride, which was a kind of like samurai grindhouse.

[00:05:57] But thematically, I think anyone who read that and The Dead and the Damned can kind of see where half of my heart lies. And we've kept in touch over the years. And then when we met in Baltimore, we were just about to release The Dead and the Damned 2. So it's been pretty wild. I mean, the Elder's Red Bride started off as kind of a, honestly, like just a place where I was like a lot of comic book creators.

[00:06:25] At some point, you get tired of pitching publisher after publisher to publish your comic. And I've been pitching The Dead and the Damned with Kelly around. And, you know, I've been in the industry for a while. I had been getting callbacks, but people were generally interested with a big asterisk, kind of like a, we love this spot.

[00:06:48] And then the notes came in. And as an editor who gets a lot of pitches, I know what it's like to write those notes and I know why editors might write them. But basically all the notes boiled down to, can this be smaller? Can this be less grim? And can there be less like dead people in it? Like, can the cast possibly be more alive?

[00:07:12] And I heard all the notes and I figured, you know what, I could do this. I could tailor this to be what, you know, might be more palatable to a publisher who obviously don't just have comics in mind. They have IT concerns. They have, you know, potential film ability of something.

[00:07:30] And I've been in my position as editor, making those kind of calls of myself long enough to kind of, you know, almost like fight fully being like, I don't want to do this one, not this one. This one will just be unfilmable. And before I landed on Goats Flying Press, I actually toyed with the idea of calling it unfilmable comics.

[00:07:50] Which seems a little too cheeky. And also, honestly, you would never know. And now it, again, like in the, even in just the two years that Goats Flying Press has been official, you know, coming out of my head and being like an actual publisher. Things have changed so much and will continue to change. So, at first, I just wanted to kickstart one book with Kelly. And then I figured, well, a lot of people are kickstarting, you know, comics under their own name.

[00:08:19] But one of the things I really always enjoyed, and obviously, you know, after 16 years of being an editor, I also kind of thought I could possibly bring an angle of kind of experience and expertise and knowledge of an editor that I've accrued over the years to a Kickstarter kind of experience.

[00:08:37] Because a lot of the kickstarting comic book crowd is either, it's either like very, very, you know, complete kind of first-timers, enthusiasts who are creating their own books. One end of the spectrum, other end of the spectrum, you kind of have, you know, established publishers that are stepping into the crowdfunding arena with some kind of hook, be it a piece of IP or some kind of celebrity attached. And in the middle, you kind of have, it's a total free-for-all.

[00:09:04] So one of the things I thought I could do, and I'm clearly not the first person, there's plenty of publishers in indie press and otherwise that kind of, you know, create venues for themselves through crowdfunding. But I kind of wanted to bring what experience I've made in the direct market and the editor-in-chief to that.

[00:09:21] And that's when I decided to found a publisher because the idea was that any success that I accrue through Kickstarter over the course of, you know, kickstarting my own book, I could then also share with other creators. You know, you're established ones that have a pitch that isn't going anywhere but that I really like.

[00:09:43] And that's kind of where I figured out that I wanted to try and be a publisher, which is always kind of a crazy thing because they're, you know, a history of comics in the almost 20 years that I've worked in it, like, has not been kind to the industry as one might say, but I've never been more excited to make them. So we kickstarted the first book with Kelly, and it's beautiful.

[00:10:08] It's like his best work and my best work, and it's so exciting and so much work, but it was, like, invigorating. It was, I've never felt that good making a book when I literally had to do everything. And that was also kind of a challenge is, like, to almost step away from the machinations of the industry and the direct market and IP development and marketing and everything and just be like, I just want to make this book.

[00:10:33] I want to be involved in every part of it, choosing a paper, choosing a paper stock, finding a printer, getting 600 pounds of comics delivered to my door, and then packing and shipping every single one myself and sending them out. All under the guise of a publisher, which I'm certain many people think that's why I'm a legitimate, like, a company with a headquarters and employees.

[00:10:59] And little do they know, it's literally just me and my good friends and co-workers, of course, in terms of, like, you know, Jeff Powell is our designer. He designed the logo. He designed all the books. He letters the books, like, the immaculate, incredible professional Kelly Williams.

[00:11:13] And then as we started learning how to do all that, and by we, I mean me, kickstarting fulfillment, Juni reached out and I had been talking to him, obviously been working with him since Jellia, which TKO published, which was not exactly his debut, but maybe can be seen as his American debut. He published a couple of smaller books before that.

[00:11:38] After that, we did Mobilist, was a follow-up to TKO, another very beautiful book around that time. He started also doing Monkey Me. So his star was kind of on the rise. And he had pitched what would become the Earl King to TKO to consider. TKO, I immediately sent it through.

[00:12:03] And my publishers at the time, you know, were feeling it for one reason or another. And then he took it around, pitched it to other publishers, and pretty much everyone gave him the same answer, which was like, we love this, but do you have anything else? And then he had been planning to kickstart it right around the time that I had announced a plan to, you know, crowdfund, kickstart books.

[00:12:25] But like, he knew me, and we obviously have a great rapport, and I edited his work, and he greatly just came out and asked, would you publish this? And I was like, yeah, absolutely. Realizing that I had just said yes to basically publishing a massive book, like a 180-something graphic novel that I knew I wanted to make extremely special. Like, I don't want to skimp. I know I'm like a one-man publisher, but I want to put out the most beautiful book on the stand. I want to outpunch everyone.

[00:12:54] I want to, you know, go toe-to-toe with every, like, VC-funded Hollywood studio back on a book publisher. Right, yeah. And it's not a, you know, like a 30-page one-shot. Like, you're right. It's not a 30. Yeah, like, at least it's a dead and the damned with, like, it's big, it's beautiful, 48 pages, oversized. Like, I really want to kind of, you know, kabam. Like, it's not because I think comics need to be that big, but I really wanted to kind of just stop second-guessing my own self

[00:13:22] and create a little space where I tend to make the call and then carry it through. Because so much of comics working in the industry is, like, bridling your enthusiasm to fit into kind of, fit into budget, fit into schedules, fit into marketing plan. Definitely, places like Marvel, VC, I'm sure, like, IT-driven publishers where nothing you do is actually the thing that brings the crowd in. What brings the crowd in is the talent.

[00:13:52] Wolverine, Superman, Batman. And evil in the creator on space, like, you start to see certain kind of patterns emerge, tropes or kind of hit-fassing genres. What if Frankenstein was a werewolf? Or what if a policeman was a Dracula? Like, not to downplay that, but it's just the demands of not even a comic book space, but, like, film and TV industry, Netflix streaming,

[00:14:21] like, all the ways that those places kind of identify potential series that could work based on their algorithms. Yeah. It just kind of goes back into the comic book space and then all the story creators are thinking about, not, like, what's my story, but, like, I need to actually get paid. Comics haven't been paying people for a hot minute. The potential of having a couple of creator-owned books that you can option over and over again, even if they never get turned into a movie or two, was still an opportunity.

[00:14:50] And I basically had been inadvertently playing in that arena for, you know, a number of years just because I was working in comic. And now I was planning to stepping out, so much so that I basically created the financial and legal framework of let Goats Flying Press almost resemble the nonprofit. But I'm technically incapable of turning this into, like, a success that enriched me, as opposed to if Goats Flying Press continues to do well and grow and the books do well

[00:15:20] and I don't start just printing a thousand or two thousand copies, but more than that, 90% of everything goes to the creator. And everything is creator-owned anyway. So the only success I can personally optimize out of this is if one of my own books kind of takes off. The ones that I write, I can't I and be creator. Oh, co-creator. But stuff like Junie's book, upcoming other titles, like I'll be publishing more from creative teams that don't involve me,

[00:15:48] where I will be editing and publishing and marketing everything else. And, like, things happen very quickly. I genuinely thought the first three or four or five years would be just kind of me doing all the Kickstarter. A year or two, a lot of work, and I have, you know, a day job and a family and a father. But now it's kind of, like, moving very quickly. And it's one of the, like, magical, like, identify what you want and then, like, the world will crystallize it for you.

[00:16:20] I know I'm talking all over the place, but I've, like, very quickly become my life in a way that I never thought comics would be. Like, when I left PKO, I genuinely thought, like, man, I don't know where else to go after Editor-in-Chief, which is, like, a crazy opportunity for, you know, a comparatively young man of not even 40 when they kind of hired me with that title. Like, that's a title you kind of don't reach in comics more than once or twice. You, like, laterally move to another publisher.

[00:16:48] And that's what's going to happen in the space that we were in and the time that we're in. And now it's looking, like, less likely to happen where I'm going to go downtrend with the market once and then. But just kind of making myself publisher of my own company was the only way I was going to ever reach that level. And it feels incredible. Like, the success of Earl King. And I really, like, unleashed. Like, I unleashed Jeff. I was like, let's design.

[00:17:16] It's going to be the most beautiful book that year from anyone. And I think it is. Like, I didn't really think it's going to be beautiful. And then the speed at which that Kickstarter took off and knowing, like, I actually have the support of the creators, but they trust me. And they know I will do right by this book. And it'll just be the most beautiful book. Might not sell a hundred thousand copy.

[00:17:39] But one of the thing, one of the founding kind of ideas of Ghost Blank Press was that I'll not, I'll never promise anything I can't keep. And I'll never ask anyone to do anything that I can't do myself. So, ergo, the first two, you know, campaigns I fulfilled completely by myself with all, like, stamping and labeling and learning all that stuff. Like, it's daunting.

[00:18:06] But I'm also not someone, over the course of my life, I've never been someone who's been, like, super adventurous in regards to, like, trying stuff like this. So just some of the fact that it all of a sudden was just, oh, I'm doing it. Let's see how far I can take this. Let's see when my energy runs out. Let's see when my kind of optimism fails. And it hasn't yet, which kind of just, like, spurred me on. Yeah.

[00:18:31] Yeah, I mean, you know, coming right out of the gate with Dead in the Damned 1 and 2, who both had very decent, you know, Kickstarter campaigns. I think each of them had over 300 backers, you know. And then, you know, you see folks build an audience on Kickstarter crowdfunding just like they would anywhere else.

[00:18:55] But, you know, to talk about doing all the work, and we've had plenty of, I've interviewed plenty of, you know, folks that crowdfund and Kickstart books and the amount of work it goes into it. You know, to take that and then your third one, like, the Junie Ba's book, the Earl King is, I mean, I think it was over, like, $60,000 brought in on Kickstarter.

[00:19:19] I mean, which, you know, there's rarefied air in terms of, you know, your third Kickstarter doing that well. And it is. I haven't seen the physical, you know, but digitally, it is a beautiful book. I love Junie Ba's art. I did a bit of cars. Just a fantastic letterer.

[00:19:41] And it is, and not just how it looks, you know, for anyone that doesn't know, like, the Earl King is kind of like a Germanic or European, like, fairy king or, you know, like, almost like a boogeyman. You tell the kids, don't go into the forest because the Earl King will get you. It is an absolutely just beautiful, beautiful story.

[00:20:08] I mean, it is in, it is incredible. Anything, everything you would want out of, like, a myth or a modern fable. It is funny. It is clever. It is thoughtful. It is, it is heartfelt. It is just, it is, like, everything comic books can be. Yeah. And yeah, I will report to, like, when I was writing, you know, press copy.

[00:20:34] Like, it's a little hard in that other space where, like, everything has to be a snappy, you know, two-sentence pit because what's the elevator pitch? Like, what are we going to see on the movie poster? I'm like, no idea. I can't describe this. Just read the first opening. I think Junie, obviously known as an incredible artist, but also just, like, such a thoughtful writer. And it's, like, he's gotten better and better.

[00:21:00] And the other reason that I was so committed to doing this, even if I had to, like, I'm literally sitting in my bathroom talking about it because that's the length I'll go to the comic. Like, it, like, it is to be read as a kind of trilogy between Jellion Mobulus and now The Earl King where I think that looking at Junie as the kind of writer and artist who will be producing work their whole life, like, I do think that in 10, 20 years you will look back and be like, oh, this would, like, his, this was a debut.

[00:21:30] Like, I think that he's working through experiences, thoughts, ideas, and every book, like, everything he does, kind of pouring pieces of himself into it. And now knowing him, it's odd to get to know someone. I've never met him personally, but we've worked, you know, together and we talk regularly. We share a lot because of the relationships an editor usually has with their, you know, creators they're working with.

[00:21:57] And I feel like I know him quite intimately because we talk about, you know, the character, story. And it's really exciting to, like, have that relationship and then not just to be like, oh, with Junie, but, like, who else is out there? You know, like, who else can I bring to the foreground? That was at Marvel when Junie, when I saw his work on, you know, Twitter at the time, just like a little Black Panther.

[00:22:20] And I was so struck by, like, the energy and, again, this would, six or seven years before I would be in a position at TKO to actually, like, you know, make a case for, you know, pitching this book. And just the idea that, for the first time in my life, I've had another, like, I'm trying to turn Goodpoint Prepper into a publisher where I can kind of culminate my love and my passion, obviously create opportunities for, you know, other creators, however small or big those may be.

[00:22:50] Because, like, we've seen, like, things can blow up. Like, yeah, Junie was on the tusk. Now you got a Robin book. But the next book we're doing after The Earl King is going to be Lake Yellowwood Slaughter, which is a completely different kind of book, totally different format.

[00:23:11] It's a meta idea that the comic book adaptation of a lost to Pallian slasher film from the 80s, Ajalo, which is a very specific kind of slasher film. They have their own. In the same way that Friday the 13th and Michael Myers' movie, they all have kind of their own internal logic.

[00:23:32] Like, Dello have this very hyper-stylized internal clockwork of characters and tropes and very, very, very grisly murder. And this is the—I don't even know how to express it because it has the elevator pitch for this one. And this is by my very good friend, Alejandro Rambona. He and I ultimately go back all the way to Marvel, also an editor, incredible writer.

[00:23:57] I think after this book comes out, it will be undeniable that he's one of the writers. And probably it's going to be one of the actually most horrific comics, I think, in terms of the pacing, in terms of how comic— Doing horror and comics is very, very, very difficult. And Alejandro has thought about this almost like in a lab, like how to pace out scares and tension. And it's going to be incredible.

[00:24:24] The artist is Gavin Goodry, probably one of the best. It's some of the best paddle-by-paddle, like expressions of motion, shock, horror, storytelling. Beautiful, beautiful book. The premise is the 80s. It's summer camp. Imagine your most favorite slasher summer camp. This is it. The kids are getting dropped off. The parents are stretching their legs because, oh, thank God, they have a whole summer off. The kids are out of the house.

[00:24:54] What are the parents going to do? They're going to get in their cars. They're going to drive across the lake. They've rented out a whole little base for themselves. And they are going to drink and be drugs and have sex. And this slasher isn't coming. He's leaving the kids alone. And he's got the parents on the menu. So it's just an inverse. It takes place across one summer. And then there's a lot more happening under the hood.

[00:25:22] But this book is going to be, again, it's exciting to me to have this big success with The Earl King, which is a younger reader and teen readers, I would say. You know, fantasy fable of talking animals and critters and very soulful. And then the next book we do is this kind of hyper-stylized, very, very beautiful, incredibly smart, razor, razor sharp slasher of a comic. And then we have two more planned for this year.

[00:25:51] Look, this is all happening in 2025. I don't even know if I can do it, but I'm definitely feeling like, yeah, I can't not try. Well, when I saw you at Baltimore, my brother was with me. My listeners are familiar because like every episode I shout out my brother Bobby, who's the Cryptid Creator Corner's number one most dedicated fan because Bobby listens to all my episodes. But Bobby took a picture of the cover of Lake Yellowwood Slaughter.

[00:26:19] And he has been bugging me like every couple of weeks. He is just like, has that come out yet? But he's like, so I'm like, I'm talking, I'm talking to Sebastian on the podcast. I will find out when Lake Yellowwood is going to is going to hit Kickstarter. He is like he was so taken by that cover for Lake Yellowwood Slaughter that you were showing off on Baltimore. And he is just like dying for it.

[00:26:46] He just as soon as he heard, you know, a comic adaptation of like a lost 80s Italian slasher. He was just like, yes, I want it. I need it. So we're very excited for that to hit. I'm really stoked because I couldn't be like we're only just starting to talk about Beryl King. I love that so much. I love that book. I love the space around it. I love it made me feel like, again, the Germanic kind of the Earl King being kind of creepy German. Like he just kidnapped children.

[00:27:15] The original poem, the other thing, like as a German in American comics, I was like, I can't not publish a comic that's based on the Earl King, like one of our greatest poems. But then to like in my neck for my next trick, I get to publish and help this incredible creative team. This is really funny meta, like this really intricate meta. It's both like this deconstructing the slasher once again, but also bringing a lot set set in the 80s.

[00:27:43] There's a lot of interesting stuff with that society and kind of how it mirrors where we are now with like this incredible wealth, this charity and the kind of yuppie generation. And pushing all of that through a prism of these incredibly beautiful, incredibly, you know, raunchy and violent horror comics. And then also engaging with the horror scene, especially here in New York. You've got New Jersey, huge horror crowd here. Horror people are amazing, lovely people.

[00:28:13] And then Jalo people are like even more. It's like the. I don't know. I'm just very excited to engage with that because there's so much fun stuff we have planned for that campaign or that book. And that kind of how I want to run your flight and press is just like every book of its own event should be. Comments are way too hard to make to not like relish every moment and have incredible fun and like just fire off.

[00:28:39] And it's like it's odd to me like I've never worked on a comic book project that isn't draining at all. That just like gives me energy. And I don't know if it like it took me this long to kind of find the right niche for me. But in terms of my own work, my writing, my editing. For these books and just figuring stuff out like that I've never had to figure out before, like what's the best bot to ship something in? OK, how heavy is it going to be? OK, then what's that going to do for the postage?

[00:29:08] OK, what can I actually offer up for international? I don't know. Backers just like I want to have an answer for everything before people come up to me and ask me like, oh, what about international? Like I live in this place and I'm like, I don't I don't know the answer, but I'll figure it out. Like wherever you are, I will get you one of our comics, you know, because the established pathways have failed us over and over and over. And I've had too much fun and I'm still here and I still love it like now more than ever. That's all for the first time in my life.

[00:29:38] I don't I'm not looking back thinking, oh, if I started earlier, if I'd known this earlier, where would I be now? Like all I'm thinking of now is I cannot wait to get back to work on this and I cannot wait to spend the rest of my life being a publisher of comics.

[00:29:55] And the fact that I've never felt anything, any decision in my life is kind of weird to me that it took me this long to kind of discover, oh, this is what I've been wanting to do my whole life. I just had to go through the gauntlet to kind of feel like I'm I deserve to grab this and do it.

[00:30:21] And now I'm in a position to do so many things, hopefully with so many creators for however long, you know, it must take a look of doing this. To speak to the release of Lake Yellowwood, like it's going to be this summer, like it won't be much longer. So, you know, Baltimore was in what is it October? Yeah, that that that long again. And I think we should be in business. Oh, fantastic. Yeah.

[00:30:51] And I mean, I'm very excited. You know, you mentioned it's written by Alejandro Arbona. Gavin Guidry is doing the art. But you also have Chris O'Halloran coloring. I believe Hassan, who I was lucky enough to interview Hassan and Juni with for their book, The Unlikely, The Unlikely Story of Higileks and Macabre. Yeah, Macabre. But they which people also. Yeah.

[00:31:19] So you're also surrounding yourself and working with, you know, some some of the best in, you know, in comics right now. I mean, do you is the plan eventually? Do you think Goats Flying Press will ever be the type that you open up submissions or are you really trying to more like carefully craft the submissions that you want to do? I think it's starting to. I do.

[00:31:48] I do want to open submissions, but I think it will be in a way that. A little more curated, but probably a themed. I really want to do an anthology. I have an idea for one and I want it to be like thematic. Hard to explain. I want to open it up like I'm bringing in creators, writers, artists that I that I'm interested in. I have a long, long list of people that I would like to reach out to.

[00:32:16] But it's more in a way that I'm like, hey, I'd be interested in you pitching like me something like this or that where. I do want to. Take the privilege of my own publisher. Sure. I want to make sure that until such a time that the company name is big enough where I can. Take a pitch. And offer the creator something like they get something out of it other than drip the comic book with pitch, but like.

[00:32:45] Say in three or four or five years. And who knows what what's happening then? Yeah. Any I can reliably say that any book we print or do will will sell one or two thousand copies. That. That gives me like literally a fee that I could quote a creator and be like, hey, do this book with us. And this is how much you'll get. And you'll own it because it's a trader.

[00:33:12] I cannot promise then one a pipeline to Hollywood or any kind of like that's just not I don't know if that's ever going to be the case anymore. What I can offer people is work with me, a professional who hopefully, you know, has a good name and you will enjoy working with. And I want to help you tell your story. And what's more is I will put every cent that we can generate around this project into making it the most beautiful book that we can.

[00:33:40] And I actually think long term they're there in that pathway to apply financial success as well. Because I think. With the kind of slop, slop, bilge pump consumption. Nightmare machine that we're about to, you know, be harassed possibly for the rest of our lives. I think the kind of readers that would be drawn to something like Ops playing press are going to want quality.

[00:34:07] They're going to want like the kind of transparency, like the fact that I'm the head of the company and I'm the face of it and the goat and all that stuff. Like. I'm packing most of the book, like just. Bring it down to a manageable scale and then I will always do my best. I will always deliver the best. And I think it would take some time to build it to a place where I can offer anyone who send the.

[00:34:34] A pitch in that kind of care and attention because. People who sent. I've read a lot of like slush pile pitches, like. It takes a lot of time to weed through even something that's pretty basic and like give people feedback. So I think it'll. I think it will grow. I can't say if we'll ever have an open pitch policy because I tend to. Actually think this is a longer conversation I'm having to talk about. An open pitch policy always sounds so like. Egalitarian and.

[00:35:05] You know, anyone can make comics and they can. But if he's never made a comic before and I sit down with you and we're going to make a comic together. That's going to date some time. And I'm not like a friend sure what you send. It's going to be like, hey. This thing you wrote. Why did you write that? Like what is it with the character? They're not connecting. I have questions about the backstory and like. Once you start pushing people on that. It starts opening up and they're like, oh my God, I didn't realize that's why I was writing this. Like this character.

[00:35:34] Me is this and this and that. It's so many conversations you need to have. And in a perfect world, I could do that with an open permission forum. The reality, I feel like I can make this my livelihood. It's probably not going to come to that. However, I have at least two open pitch anthologies that I am planning. I have to kind of make room for them on the plate and in my mind.

[00:35:57] And when those happen, I have an idea on how to do basically an open submission for paid work for all people involved. The anthology will be creator owned in the sense that every creative team will own their own story. Whatever they want to do with that. That's something that I want to do. I don't know if that answers your question. No, no.

[00:36:24] I've had a lot of thought about the ups and downs. Yeah. I mean, I totally get that. I mean, you know, you don't ever want to go like too big too fast. And it also depends on, you know, the type of company that you want to have.

[00:36:44] Look, the one thing that I'll say as someone who has backed, you know, the dead and the damned and seen the other books, you can show the hair that you put into it. I mean, the dead and the damned is one of the books that like I, you know, it is beautiful. I mean, it is gruesome. Like, I mean, Kelly goes like above and beyond on some of those pages. It is. It is. It is gnarly.

[00:37:13] But it is. It is. It's such an interesting story. I don't. I mean, I know it's it's been out a little while, but like I did not expect where it went when what is it? The great something happens to the grave hand and he kind of has like the four. Undead creatures that are closest to him and. I'm quite proud of that. Like the first it was such a gnarly. It's such a gnarly concept. Like it's me out.

[00:37:43] It's like me out trying to out leak myself. And, you know, probably. But then like I wanted to do something that's so, so, so dark. Unforrible. But then I also found myself being like, this is actually kind of funny. It is. The idea that like it's a world where death is not the end, where you just everything comes back. And not like in a, you know, walking dead zombie way, but in a like, oh, no, everything like like the dead hate the living, which is one of my favorite movie titles.

[00:38:11] But not a very good movie, but the title is amazing. Like not only do you think die, but they come back and then try to kill you as well. Because how dare you be alive if they have to be dead. And then let's see how far humanity makes it in that scenario. And then the, this all happens in the first eight pages, which, which people are happy to read. The king of the undead, essentially the grave hand. Armies of the living eke out this completely unexpected upset victory.

[00:38:40] And essentially like they can kind of tie, imprison him in like a magical fate. And that unleashes, releases all of the millions and millions of dead from his control. But only his four pallbearers, like kind of his four champions, all of whom were plucked, personate by him throughout the history of this doomed world, are thrust back into their bodies. So they remember what it's like to be alive, but they're all rotting skeletons. Some of them are hoping dead for thousands of years.

[00:39:08] But biggest of them is actually just a skeleton encased in a giant, like atrophied piece of wood, like essentially a tree grew around his corpse. So now he's wearing the giant folky armor. And now they have to essentially drag this undead necromancer king to the end of the world because he's compelling them to do so.

[00:39:30] But they also still remember what it's like to be alive and they fear death again, which is a very strange thing to do when you're a skeleton. Yeah. And all the drama there. I just love writing it. Like I wish I could write it for 20 more issues. And who knows? But the third issue of that we're also very deep into that will also be coming this year. So you really want to not drop off.

[00:39:57] I know I'm talking about a lot of new comics, but if you've been on board, you know, I would go blank press and put that in the down number one. Two, you did two issues in the first calendar year, 12 months. You're in issue three this year. There's one more book that I'm spearheading. So we're actually thinking about a little one-two punch Kickstarter where you get a fantasy book and a sci-fi book. And they're both pretty, pretty horrible. It's funny, but I'm quite excited for that. But something I've wanted to try.

[00:40:24] It's actually like a, like a double bill, double feature. Yeah. And then the last thing that, you know, we can talk about later in the year is the illness down for all, which is a long running fantasy adventure book that I've been writing with my good friend Galad. We have a whole third book, over 200 pages, the next big, big entry in the story. And we are going to bring that to Goats Flying Prep as well. So, oh, I know there's still readers out there who've been like playing for more tales.

[00:40:54] I know all 20 of you are out there. I want to make this like a fixture of Goats Flying Prep. It's one of the books that I've kind of like taught myself how to write comics with. And I'm really excited for that as well. So that's kind of what I want Goats Flying Prep to be. And I already have a book planned for 2026. So like it's growing. It's out there. I'm going to be writing less. I think the books that I want to write are kind of locked in right now.

[00:41:19] I don't want, you know, the slate of the publisher to be only my books. Like I want to grow it out more. And I know that on one side of the spectrum, I need to, you know, keep showing up with great quality books, showing other creators what's possible. If they ever want to consider Kickstarter. And on the other side of the spectrum, I need to grow the, you know, grow the market, reach out to more comic book shops, reach out to more bookstores.

[00:41:47] Literally, I'm going to be walking around Brooklyn and New York bookstores with a backpack full of Earl King and introducing myself and just trying it that way. Because Lord knows, like plugging yourself into an algorithm and trumping any social media company to kind of carry the sale, which is not, it's not the way. And I'm not sitting my way at the answer, but by God, it's satisfying. And at the end of the day, I will feel like, you know what? I made a human connection.

[00:42:16] The person in that bookstore knowed me now. The person at that convention knowed me. And if I spend the rest of my life doing that, I do think I can start making some moves in a way of a meaningful, in a way that benefits the creators who have put their trust in me and my really little goat-themed comic book publisher, where my author literally might not. Well, I wish Goats Flying Press a ton of success this year and in the future.

[00:42:44] You know, listeners, I'll put links in the show notes so you can go to the website. I actually want to go because I want to pick, I want to get a T, I got to get a T-shirt because I like the, I like the logo and it says Comics Against All Odds. So I got to, I got to pick up one of those. But when Lake Yellowwood Slaughter, Bobby is super excited about. So we're going to be on the lookout for that. But Dead in the Dan, I'm sure when they kickstart three, they will have a digital tier so you can catch up if you haven't yet.

[00:43:13] Like if you don't want to get the actual print book, it is oversized. It's gorgeous. Like Kelly's work is like wonderful. If you're not familiar with Kelly Williams, I mean phenomenal, phenomenal artwork. And it's just a gorgeous oversized book. Like you just, you hold it in your hand and it just, it looks like nothing else. And it is absolutely gorgeous. The story is wonderful.

[00:43:40] As gruesome as it is, there are parts that it is funny. Like it is a little like absurd when these characters start to come back into their bodies and like the conversations that they have. And also there's a very wonderful like three, four, five page like prose section, which is, is, is great. Is, is, is just sets a wonderful scene. The issue one is the, with Tromner is just amazing. Oh, I see. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:44:10] And there's also a wonderful illustration that accompanies it as well. But yeah, it, it's just look. Yeah. Jam packed. But here's my thing. Like, and I, I've said this before, whether or not it's whatever publisher it is, if it's a publisher that's putting out tons of books a month, like, you know, we cover something like dark horse. Or I cover a lot of stuff or it's something that's being crowdfunded or, you know, or goats flying press.

[00:44:38] That if you find something you like, you have to support it because that's the only way you're going to get more of it. And I, when I, when I, when I tell you that like something like the dead and the damned, I, I, I struggle to compare it to something else. And that's a good thing. Right. Because we, we want things that we haven't, you know, seen before it. And look, it's to speak to what Sebastian said earlier.

[00:45:03] It's great when a new character like, um, uh, enters the public domain and we see all these like derivative things. Hey, that's a lot of fun. It's a character. We recognize we see it in a different way. Uh, I think Morris chestnut has a new show where he's Watson. Uh, so, but when you have something that you've never quite seen before, you know, when you get something like the fable of Earl King would, and you're like, this seems familiar, but I've, I've never quite seen it like this.

[00:45:33] And, and I'm telling you when all of these like separate vignettes really start to come together, it is like a symphony. So check out Goats Flying Press. And, um, that's my pitch for Sebastian's company. Cause I'm a huge fan. So thank you so much. Um, but yeah, Sebastian, thank you so much for joining me today. This has been wonderful. I'm sorry. I kept you a little, a little, a little later than you wanted. Um, all right.

[00:46:02] Well, listeners, please find me on social media. I'm on blue sky. You can find me on Tik TOK. Uh, leave a comment on the website. Let us know what it is you're reading, especially if you've read some of the Goats Flying Press books. Let me know what you think about it. I'll put links in the show notes to everything so you can check it out. You, you can know when things, uh, hit Kickstarter. And, um, yeah. Thanks for listening. I, I really appreciate it. Uh, Sebastian, thank you very much. Thank you. And, uh, listeners, I'll see you next time.

[00:46:32] 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. Maybe you would enjoy our sister podcast, Into the Comics Cave. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.