Tom Sniegoski Interview - The Herculoids

[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 everybody and welcome to today's episode of the Cryptic Creator Corner. I'm Byron Anil, your host for today's Comics Creator Chat. Joined by a returning guest who I've been meaning to catch up with for quite some time. He's got a new project dropping in February with Dynamite Comics.

[00:03:43] Although personally calling something this old new is a bit weird for me, but we'll get into that. It's one of my all time favorite childhood IPs brought back to life in our wonderful four color realm that has that uniquely weird family of ass kicking galactic protectors with their one of a kind group menagerie of creature friends. Sock, Tundro, Gleep, Gloop and Egu along for the ride. That is the Herculoids. Please welcome back Tom Stagowski.

[00:04:13] Tom, how have you been? How you doing? It's been a minute. Thanks for having me. I'm doing good. I'm doing good. You know, working. That's keep my keep my mind on off of other things. Yeah, yeah, I get it. I mean, yeah, there's there's a lot of stuff to distract us right in comics. The news has just kicked me in the teeth in the last week. We have the LA fires Neil Gaiman. AI is continued insidiousness. Yes. Outlook on our medium with the printing costs and today apparently diamond distribution filing for bankruptcy.

[00:04:43] So I need to relax into this warm hug of the Herculoids. I'm hoping it's warm hug. I, I, well, I'm, I'm sure in your capable hands is going to be great, but let's, let's start off with your experience with the cartoon. Um, we're, we're of, we're of a similar vintage. We'll put it that way. Um, were you like myself kind of glued to the TV to catch this as a kid? 1967 in front of the, in front of the TV set with the cereal. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:05:12] I can remember it. I can, I can distinctly remember it. Um, and there was always something about it. Even then, like I can, I can remember it like, like branding itself into my brain even then. And I don't know if it was the designs. Like now, now I know Alex Toth designed all the creatures and the people and all the characters, but I don't know what it was, but it was always something that was there. I mean, even after it was gone, it was there always floating around. Yeah.

[00:05:41] My Saturday mornings were not cereal. They were eating, um, I said Betty Crocker, the blueberry muffin mix. And I wouldn't even bother to bake them. I just eat it raw. So. Oh, nice. That's a brick. That's a brick. Exactly. Yeah. Well, you called this the opportunity or the opportunity to write this one of the highlights of your comics career, which, which is kind of big praise given how much you've helped steer the mythology. You've written the movies of Hellboy and Vampirella. You've written Batman, Wolverine and added to the Buffy legacy.

[00:06:10] So these are all dream projects for most writers. Yeah. So what does working on the Herculoids mean to you personally? Well, just because of the fact that it was so important at, at that like point in my life, you know, I think it was almost like, like the beginning. I was always a monster kid growing up. I was like, like dinosaurs and the universal monsters and stuff like that. So this just added to that. Miasma that, that, that, that nicks of everything.

[00:06:38] And I can even remember, um, when I first started writing comics, that used to be a question that I would ask editors who owns the Herculoids license. I, I was, I even had a fixation on possibly writing these characters back in like the, like the early two thousands, late nineties, early two thousands. Okay. And I never, never quite got a satisfactory answer. I never really got like, Oh, we have the license. And how would you like to take a crack?

[00:07:07] No, it was, it was always like, I don't know. I don't know. No, no, nobody, nobody of any authority ever knew anything, but it was, what was interesting is though, even within the industry, other writers, other artists, they would always talk about the Hercules. That was like a common, like a common thing that we all shared, how much we love them and how much we like the looks of them. And wouldn't it be cool to do a comic or something? Yeah. It was a universal. It was really interesting.

[00:07:36] Um, and now, you know, with, with, when Nick, when Nick Berucci at dynamite started to get the, uh, Warner brothers, Hannah Barbera stuff, I made a phone call and I said, if you get the Herculoids, I will be so bullshit. If you don't give it to me, I will be fear. I've known Nick for years. So I said, I'll be furious at you. And he was like, Oh, we don't have it. We don't have it yet. But you know, if we get it, I'll, I'll, I'll be sure to look you up.

[00:08:04] And I didn't know if he would, but yeah, when he got it, he, he, I got an email and said, we got the Hercules. If you want it, you can have it. So then you raised your hand. I, I raised my hand and I immediately became freaked out because it's like, when you have that dream, kind of like that thing that you've always been thinking about, but you never think you'll get there suddenly in your lap saying, all right, put up a shut up. You know? Yeah.

[00:08:34] That was, that was quite the, that was quite the like shock that I had to kind of, now I had to actually do the thing. Yeah. I bet. Did you find that, okay, as you actually really got that opportunity, you kind of changed the direction of what you wanted to do with it in terms of how you developed it? Or did you already have a Bible written? I really did.

[00:08:55] I really didn't have like, I, I, first of all, first of all, you always want to know what your, the, the people who are like the licensors or want you to do. Yeah. So, I mean, I always had a very general idea. I never wanted to invest too much brain power into something that I might never get an opportunity to do. So when I realized that there's a chance that I was going to do it, that's when things kicked into overdrive and I was kind of like ask questions.

[00:09:23] All right, how far can I go? What do you want me to do? Is there anything specific that you want me to do? Or, and they were really, they were great. They just kind of came back and said, give us a rough idea of what you would do in a year. Okay. What would you do? What would your first 12 issues be? And then it was kind of like, uh, uh, so yeah. And I sat down, that was a weekend, that was a weekend job. I sat, I sat down over the weekend and just like, just took notes.

[00:09:53] All weekend long. Watched, watched some episodes, tried to get like some ricochets off of, off of stuff that I saw on the show. And, uh, yeah, they, in there. And when I finally delivered my 12 plots, they were, they were like, yeah, this is great. Yeah. That's awesome. The only thing, the only thing that they said was, could you tone down the carnage? So, so I was kind of like, yeah, I can do that. I can, I can tell. Well, that's the perfect excuse to the wife, right? It's like, no, I have to watch these.

[00:10:23] They're paying me to do this. Oh, right. I've had that. I've been doing that for years. So. Well, the thing that's remained fascinating to me, you know, down the years with this group is just how little there was real world building that was done. Oh, exactly. Right. So you basically get the intro somewhere out in space, live the Herculoids. Yeah. And first of all, what an opening emphasis as an opening. It's an opportunity in your case, because as a blueprint, it's super basic.

[00:10:51] You know, you had, I think it was 18 short original episodes and 11 more with space stars with a few appearances smattered over the years in comics. But it's such a weird concept because you got that family trio alone on a rock and loincloths defending the world from a constant threat of alien invasion with a group of sentient creatures. Yep. And it was, it was never really explained why the hell Amzot was so valuable. No. And it was, and it was repetitious.

[00:11:18] I mean, no, like I, I hate to say anything negative, but the, it was pretty much the same story every episode. Right. So that right there kind of made me feel a little bit better. Cause I was kind of like, all right, it telling the same thing over and over again. I think people will want to see me deviate and maybe kind of explain some things and, uh, you know, do a little something different with these characters than the same thing over and over and over again. So. Yeah, absolutely.

[00:11:47] Well, if I was flushing it out in my head, Amzot is, is absolutely where I'd start as it's annoyed the crap out of me as a kid. But I guess that's part of the charming mystery of it all. You know, it functions very much as its own unique sort of characters got full of jungles and swamps and barren deserts and sometimes castles. It's, it must be enormous. If you think the planet must be enormous. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. The only constant is it's hostile. So. Yeah.

[00:12:17] Are you, are you kind of maintaining that relative lack of planetary distinction? Cause I'm thinking and trying to compare it to, to other worlds that have identity like Dagobah or Cybertron or something. Yeah. I mean, I think, I think if I spent, if I spent a ton of time world building, I would find myself like lost in that. And I think that's really not why people want to read a Hercules comic.

[00:12:42] Like they, they, they, I think it's, I think a Hercules, the characters are what people are, are like fascinated by, you know? So my main focus was, and it's funny too, cause when I started rewatching them, the, the, the number one thing that just popped into my brain was why is this planet so valuable? Why is, why is everybody always invading it? And they never really say why they just kind of invade it and they want it.

[00:13:10] And there's really no like explanation. So the first two issues is one of those kinds of stories with an explanation as to why it's being invaded and why the Hercules are defending it. Yeah. I gotcha. It makes perfect sense.

[00:13:28] And I don't know if you've been watching it, but there's a, there's probably a parallel convenience here of the moment, but given the marauding space pirates sort of theme and a searching for a secret treasure world, it's hard for me not to compare a little bit to like Star Wars skeleton crew with. You know, it's so funny that you would bring that up last night. I watched the first six episodes. Oh, wow. Okay. You mentioned it. I was last night. Yeah. I watched the first, I really enjoy, I really enjoyed it. I thought it was great.

[00:13:56] Oh, I thought it's a, it's, it's my, it's space goonies. Yeah. Yes. Yes. I can't wait to watch the next two tonight. So, so I could wrap up that first season. Um, but yeah, yeah, that's a, that's a pretty good idea. It's funny while watching it. I didn't really think that, but yeah, there's kind of a, there's kind of an interesting comparison. So yeah.

[00:14:19] Well, to the family itself, one of the other weird things about the series was how primitivistic Xandar, Tara and Dorno are. And it's really interesting for me to think about how Alex Toth developed both the Herculoids and space goes kind of around the same timeframe. You know, one, a group in one cloth losing slingshots of all things, right. To, to take on space aliens. And you know, the other, uh, space traveling superhero garbed in a variety of cutting edge tech, you know, right.

[00:14:47] Space ghost is more of a pure sci-fi vehicle. While the Herculoids is to me much more of kind of this dark dystopian fantasy. Yeah. Yeah. But what was funny about the Herculoids is one minute they're using slingshots and the next minute Xander is flying a spaceship. So it's, so it's kind of like, all right, what is it?

[00:15:05] I don't, you know, are we, are we just misunderstanding what we're seeing or are we seeing a little bit of, are we seeing it just like, are we just scratching the surface on what these characters are? And I think that's one of the main directions that I'm going in, in the first 12 issues is kind of giving a little more background on that. Sure. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. I mean the, the silhouettes and the creature designs from Toth are the, are the best in, in my opinion, of that entire generation. Right.

[00:15:35] Like, yeah. And you're working with collaborator Craig Russo on the project who you've worked with on Young Hellboy. And I believe you both have some kind of forthcoming paper cuts thing down the road. Yes. That they're still yelling at me. Don't talk about it. Keep your mouth shut. Yeah. Yeah. I'm talking about it. How did you and Craig want to modernize those silhouette designs while still making sure to offer due respect kind of Toth?

[00:15:59] Well, it's funny. You just, you just basically quoted Craig. Craig was kind of like, I do not want to deviate from what you see. What you mean, what people expect to see in this comic. I want it to be like, what's in engraved in their brains. Like what's, you know, from, from watching the show. So he's done this amazing job of making the comic kind of look like the cartoon.

[00:16:26] But at the same time, adding this kind of spin to it that takes it away from it a little bit. I don't, I don't even know how to describe it. It's just, he's just doing a really, really nice job of keeping that nostalgia.

[00:16:36] Like when he first, when I first started getting the artwork, it was, it was like, I was just like transported back to 67. I mean, it was like really felt like, wow, this is really, really complimentary to what Toth was doing. And he kept saying he wanted to stick to Toth's designs and keep it, give it that Toth feel. So, um, yeah, he's, he's doing a fantastic job.

[00:17:01] Like really, did he have, had that same familiarity that like you or I would, or did he have to go back and watch it? Well, what's funny is he, he watches, now he's got them on in his, in his studio all the time. He's watching them all the time. But what was funny is I wasn't aware of the fact of how big a fan he was. Okay. So when I asked him to do it, I knew he was busy with all kinds of other projects. When I asked him to do it, I didn't think he was good. I thought he was going to go, oh yeah, that'd be fun, but I'm doing this, this, and this. I really can't fit it in.

[00:17:29] But when I asked him, it was almost like that other stuff went, he just like kind of swept it off the drawer. He's like, I'm no, yes, I want, yes, I want to do this. So I was pleasantly surprised that he, uh, was excited by the potential of doing it. So I'm glad. Yeah. And then Matt, Matt cave called him. It's like, Hey, where's our paper cut stuff?

[00:17:50] Well, it's so funny because he's doing both. Like yesterday I got paper cuts art. And the day before that I got Herculoids art. So he's like, he's like a, like a assembly line. He's just, he's just banging it out. It is, it is great. It looks wonderful. Yeah. He's a machine to be doing both of those at the same time. Yeah. Well, I mean, I love his work. We, were you pretty much immediately a package deal when dynamite called or were you reached out to dynamite, I guess, and you said, Hey.

[00:18:18] Yeah. Well, well, when dynamite, when I, when I knew I was doing it, when, you know, when everybody was happy with what I was providing them with the outlines of stuff, dynamite then said, so artist, do you got anybody? And Craig was pretty much like the first person I thought, cause I'm working with him like daily anyway. And I was like, Oh, he, I bet he'd be great for it. But I didn't know his, I didn't know the extent of his interest. And, and, and when they asked him, it was like an immediate,

[00:18:48] yes. Well, did you go back and research how they had kind of been presented in comics before as well as rewatching the series? I wasn't sure. I wasn't sure if I missed anything, you know what I mean? It says I'm, I'm, I'm always amazed at how little comic time they got. Um, they were in some gold, a couple of gold key comics, right?

[00:19:11] Like, um, and about bear specials or something like that. And then they, they were in, uh, a cartoon network comic that DC did with just like little six page stories. And then they were in that future quest that yeah. In 2016.

[00:19:31] Yeah. That Jeff Parker wrote. That was the first time anybody seemed to do something with them. And I remember like reading it and enjoying it. I thought it was fun. I thought, I really thought it was good. Cause they had Johnny quest and space ghost and, um, all, all the, all the like sci-fi, uh, superhero characters, my tour, um, Frankenstein jr. Um, so that was fun. That was really fun. But, but the, the, the other stuff was very much.

[00:20:02] Like the episodes of the show. They were very, um, kind of the same, you know, you read them like, Oh, all right. Here's the invader. You know, they're going to try to take something from Amazon. Amazon. So yeah. So, so future questions, like the first time that I saw that somebody actually put some time and effort into trying to expand that universe. Um, but that was, that was the last time that, that they did, that DC tried to do anything with them.

[00:20:32] Well, the family itself. Interesting. You can play with family dynamic, but I mean, the Herculoids is all about the creatures, um, to kind of run through them. You have Zoc, the space dragon, Tundro, who's a weird rhino triceratops hybrid that shoots horn projectiles.

[00:20:48] Yes. Gleep and gloop, which are like blobs with big eyes, like silly putty. And they, they're like defensive or something. Yeah. Yeah. And then Igoo the rocket. They had, they had distinct personalities, but they were not, they didn't function as like family familiars. You know, they had an agency. So yeah. How are you approaching their relationship to the family and their intelligence?

[00:21:09] I'm actually hinting at a much larger intelligence than just animals. I, I, matter of fact, when I've referred to them as animals, I always correct myself because I don't, I don't want to look at them that way.

[00:21:21] I want them, I want them, I want them a little bit, I want them just as much as part of that family as, as, as Dorno and, and Xander and, and Tara. Um, and I'm trying, one of the most exciting things about it is that I, I'm doing, um, every couple of issues I'm going to do, I'm doing a solo issue that just focuses on one of the animals. Oh, cool.

[00:21:45] One of the, one of the, one of the creatures, um, and giving you like a background on something that you don't, that you don't know. Um, so that's super exciting. I'm hoping to do all of them in the first 12. Yeah. I may not, I may not get to all of them in the, in the first 12, but I do at least, I do at least two of them in the first 12 issues. Um, but yeah, I, that's really, that's really fun. That, that, that, that gets me excited. Yeah.

[00:22:10] Yeah. What, what was really interesting is when I first got the gig, um, being excited and nervous and the whole nine yards. And then it was like, I was talking with Janine, Janine who was on with. Yeah, absolutely. We're still writing a bunch of stuff together and I kind of get this look of horror in my face and she's like, what's the matter? I goes, I just, I just realized this. These characters don't talk.

[00:22:35] And she was like, Oh no. And so I was like, ah, crap. How do I, how do I do that? How do I convey story with just either sound effects and action or, you know? So that was, that was a little bit of a challenge to kind of like calm myself. And I'm used to characters chattering away at each other.

[00:23:01] So how did you end up navigating that? You know, the acting bits in the script was with so many central characters who don't speak. Right. And I distinctly remember very, very memorable sound effects that were associated with them. Yes. Very much. Very, very specific sound effects for like, like vocalizations. Like Ego had a very specific sound and gloop and gleep definitely have a very specific sound. And even Zock has a very specific sound. But yeah.

[00:23:28] So you, you, you convey through action or you convey through the human characters saying something that they, that the animals, that the, that the creatures react to. So you, you hope, you hope it's coming across. You hope that your, your, your, your meaning and your story is, is, is coming across. It's a challenge, but I think it's working. I mean, it's a, it's a fun challenge. Yeah.

[00:23:58] Craig hasn't complained yet. So he, I think he would tell me if it wasn't working. Yeah, I'm sure he would. Yeah. He gets to create cool sound effects and onomatopoeia that's never been seen before. Right. Right. Right. Well, I, I, it was funny that then the, the very first issue I sent him an email and I'm like, all right, I want this specific sound effect. I want to do like what Walt Simonson did in his Thor run where he would make sound effects like part of the artwork.

[00:24:27] I said, I want to do that a couple of times. And he was like, Oh, real. Oh, I think I know what you mean. And he's pulling up pages of Thor. He's like, like this, like, you know, like that. Yeah. Just like that. So yeah, that, that, that's exciting. That's awesome. Well, Zock was my favorite. I mean, come on. Who doesn't love a space dragon that can shoot Superman laser beams out of his eyes? And he can function as a mount. And, and in my, in this run, Zock's a she. Oh, interesting. Yeah.

[00:24:57] All right. Well, now you're going to inevitably tell me that you had a different favorite though. I did have a different fit. Ego was my favorite. Okay. And again, Ego is just this amazing design. There's just something so cool about the way he looks. It's those shadows. He's mostly shadow. Shadows and lines. Like certain lines. Craggy. The craggy lines. Yeah. It's just a beautiful silhouette. Yeah. They all are. Yeah.

[00:25:26] They really, they really are amazing. Absolutely. Well, I asked, I asked David about this with Space Ghosts and I wouldn't be able to avoid it personally, but since you're a big fan yourself, do you hear the voice actors while writing the dialogue or at least those sound effects? It's funny that you asked that. Today I was doing some revisions on issue four and I was hearing Xander. I was hearing Xander's voice and I started laughing. I'm like, well, if I'm hearing Xander's voice reading my dialogue, I must be doing it right. Exactly. Yeah.

[00:25:56] I must be doing it right. That's awesome. Well, the other fertile gem in the series in my mind for you as are the bad guys, you know, both gave Space Ghosts a huge rogues gallery that rivals Batpin. Yeah. It certainly didn't skimp on Amzot. You have like the faceless people, the destroyer ants, the raider apes, the buttoids, the arnoids, the zorbots, the mechano-mechanical men. And I think it was like augs who were some like weird vegetable life too. Yeah. There was some, yeah, there was, there was all kinds of stuff.

[00:26:26] So I have to, I have to kind of almost like step back a little bit and say this, some of that stuff is so crazy that maybe I need to pull back a little bit and just maybe be familiar. Like, like something that's like the robot, some of the robots are vaguely familiar. Craig has drawn them to look like certain robots in the episodes. Um, I, I use the, the, I use the mole men in, um, in issue two, no three.

[00:26:52] I use the mole men and, um, issue one, one and two is new, relatively like newer characters, uh, newer, newer concepts and themes and stuff like that to kind of introduce people who don't know the Herculoids to this world and what it's all about. Yeah. I mean, I plan to kind of go back like, um, there was an episode called the lost door guide.

[00:27:19] And I actually use the lost door guide as a character in issue four grown up. He has to go through kind of like a, a rite of passage to become an adult. And that involves one of the Herculoids and stuff like that. So yeah, it's fun to kind of pick and choose what you want to play with. Oh, for sure. I wouldn't be able to avoid the, the mechanical men because I would immediately try to do something

[00:27:47] narratively with AI in it and just make something super topical. Oh, that's true. Yeah. I knew you'd think of that. Well, there you go. Yeah. Year two. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I'm, I hope I get a year two. I've, I'm already, the brain has already started to spin into year two and I'm like, pull it back, calm down. You haven't even finished this right next to your floor yet. So I want to see how people react. I want to see how people react to it too. So that's, that's, that's another. Yeah.

[00:28:13] So how do you transcend that gap between people of our generation? And it's one of the things that I think that space goes specifically has done very well is pull in that younger readers. You have dads or, okay, God, I hate saying this, but grandfathers maybe in some case who. Oh, honestly. Yeah. You're right. Yeah. And they drag kids into the local comic book shop and, oh, I love this so much. Well, tell me about it. Right.

[00:28:40] So, so how, how do you pull that younger reader into? I think that a lot of the, a lot of the same way. I mean, for what the Hercules looks so damn cool. Yeah. The, the, the, the visual alone, I think is enough of a hook that if somebody was a fan, they would say, let me tell you why this is so awesome, you know, and, and kind of like maybe go through some of the plots or, you know, what they, what they understand about

[00:29:08] the world or, I mean, um, yeah, so I, I, I think, I think it's got the same draw or shine as, as space goes. It's just looks so damn cool. Yeah. I mean, I'm always curious about how, when you have a cartoon first property, you know, how do writers approach pacing? Um, again, I'll go back to, uh, David's work on space ghosts.

[00:29:34] You know, you, you reveal these icons like Moldar or Zorak in an exciting new way and kind of cocoon them in that nucleus of, of what people understand, you know, and then he's used found family and you, but you, he still kept that frenetic pace of the originals where you had a thinly sort of developed universe. Yeah. So how do you go about laying that out in a way you want to enfold that to the reader?

[00:30:00] So it feels familiar and, and sort of cartoony, but I mean, you're also, this is, this is the adult version. I don't say adult as in like not say for work. Yeah. Um, what's, what's interesting about it, I find myself very much aware of the fact that there's going to hopefully be new readers coming into this thing. So I'm trying my damnedest to kind of like almost like a little kid with his toy saying, look at how cool this is.

[00:30:28] Look, wait, look, come, come here, come here. I want to, I want to show you how neat this stuff is. Look, look at this, look at this guy. Look at this guy. I'm trying to draw the man, especially in the first two issues where I kind of almost like establish the world. I establish the fact that it's a big universe out there and I establish the characters of the Herculoids themselves.

[00:30:50] So I'm hoping by the, by the end of issue two, people have a sense of the world and the characters and what could possibly happen in this big, giant, weird universe in regard to this, this planet, the strange planet. Um, there's a theme. I introduced something at the end of issue two that runs through the rest of the issues,

[00:31:16] getting a threat that continues to grow, um, as, as the issues go on. So there is that kind of one and done type feel to some of the stories, but there's also a re a theme that runs through all of them that gets bigger as the, as the issues progress. I gotcha. Well, I'm, I'm very grateful that dynamite is giving it some legs and it sounds like you've got at least a year of commitment on, on that part.

[00:31:45] I mean, yeah, that the 12th, they wanted to plot for 12. I plotted for 12. So. Which is amazing. Cause that is one of my, my big pet peeves is you have some of these great stories, but they only get legs to, to do five or maybe six issues. Yeah. It's not enough. No, it's not. It's, I mean, for, for, for a comic to really get rolling, I think it needs at least a year. Yep. To, to kind of determine what the creative team was up to.

[00:32:13] Um, yeah, I always, I'm always disappointed when I think something's a regular series. And then all of a sudden two months in all of a sudden you see it solicited for five issues and it's like, well, wait a minute. If I, I, I would, I was tough to show that this was a monthly. Um, but, but that's just, that's comics. These days it certainly is. I guess you have worked on quite a few properties though, that have those legs and have that

[00:32:42] history and working with Mike a lot. You know, you, you get that ability to kind of really dig into and help develop a mythology that's in that case has been going on for decades. I mean, the Mike, Mike's, uh, universe is just amazing in terms of what you could still do with it. Um, you could spend five minutes on the phone with him and he comes up with three, three new series ideas in the course of just a car, a regular conversation. It's amazing.

[00:33:13] Yeah. Well, you've got a slew of other stuff coming out, including something in that, that universe. That's Frankenstein new world. Yeah. I'm doing that with Chris golden. Yeah. That's the second, the second it was like Frankenstein new world. And now this one is Frankenstein. Was it the endless sea or something like that? I think it's the endless sea. Um, so that's, we've written that that's, that's being drawn and, and, uh, colored and stuff right now. So, um, I think I just saw, I forget what issue I just saw.

[00:33:43] It goes maybe three. I just saw the artwork for, and it was colored and stuff. It's beautiful, beautiful book. Peter Bertig is doing the artwork. Uh, he's, he's great. Yeah. And you have, you're, you're also working and you've got some stuff coming up. I know what Janine and I think the trade for the mad cave book, soul taker drops in March. Yeah. That comes together. I think that was just in like the solicitation. Um, yeah. For, for the collection. Yep. That's coming.

[00:34:12] And the upper, all the dark reflections, which we worked on together, the collection of that is coming also. I think that was in the new, a new, uh, solicitations. Um, and then there's the unannounced things that, that Matt, like the paper cuts thing that I, they still won't. Can't talk about. Can't talk about. They, cause they have a specific, a specific like announcement that they want to make on that.

[00:34:37] Um, Janine and I also, we have, uh, uh, our first novella together for a publisher named Bad Hand Books. And, um, it's a first novella in a series of novellas that we're planning on doing for them that, that was, that was a lot of fun. That, that's, that's very cool because I get to take off my comic book guy hat and put

[00:35:03] on my book writing guy hat, which is nice to kind of bounce back and forth. Um, she's trying to learn that same thing cause she's relatively new to that, to this stuff. But yeah, she's, she's, she's doing good. She's, she's keeping up with me. So that's gotta be something. It's gotta be tough because so many, so many writers now it's, it's not sufficient to make a career as a writer almost out of, unless you're just wildly successful, like, like Stephen King or something.

[00:35:31] But you know, everybody's dipping their toe into screenwriting or they're coming from screenwriting and writing comics or they're coming from novels and writing comics or, you know, or they're in animation and they're, they're getting into comics. So comics is this interesting thread and through line for, for everybody to kind of get into. So comics teaches you a lot. Writing, writing comics has taught me an enormous amount.

[00:35:56] I mean, I was writing comics before I was writing books and a lot of what I brought to writing a novel. I, you know, it was like building blocks that I just, that I brought from the comics to the, to the novels. Um, so yeah, it's, it's a, it's a, it's a good way to kind of flip things around.

[00:36:19] Like book, book writing is so internal and so much, you are responsible for so much. Whereas comic book writing is this amazing team effort that everybody's like, it's like, it's like, it is, there's a, there's a crazy communal energy that comes from writing, writing comics. This is like, it starts with Jean and I, and then it kind of spreads from Janine and I to say Craig. And then it's me, Janine and Craig.

[00:36:49] And it's, I mean, it's just like, and then the, then the colorist gets involved and then it's me, Janine, Craig and the colorist and they get pulled in. It's, it's, it's really fun. It's really, it's really energetic. Whereas writing a novella or a novel, you're literally sitting, staring at a computer screen and just like vomiting onto the page. You're just kind of like just getting everything that you can out to paint the picture of this

[00:37:17] world or these characters or, or, or whatever. So yeah, it's, it's, it's definitely a, uh, a shifting of gears when, when, when we had to go from comics to writing a novella or a book. Yeah. And I imagine it, comics feels so much more concise to me. I'll take the Robert Jordan example. You know, he could take three pages to describe what somebody is wearing. Yes. And in a comic book, that's one panel. That's one panel. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:37:44] You get, you get that one panel to, cause you got a lot to say. You got 22 pages. That's it. You gotta, you gotta get your story down, Pat. Well, to circle back to the Herculoids, I got my pre-order in already. I actually ordered two of, of Mike's cover. Um, one to keep and one to scan. Cause I'm going to make a poster of it myself for me, just for me, because I love that cover. Isn't that, I mean, we talk about, oh, it's guys so good.

[00:38:11] And all of the, I mean, I'm not one of these, I'm not a big single issue guy. I mean, I, I read a whole lot of trades, but you know, um, obviously I'm a huge fan of, of the Herculoids and of yours. So I'm, I'm, I'm in on this one, but there, there's so, you talk about something that'll bring in new readers and the, the variant covers are, they're so good. And they have, they have those silhouettes, those classic silhouettes that we've talked about to play with.

[00:38:38] So I'm imagining just those covers alone will pull people into picking it up. I hope so. I mean, I, I, it's funny. I just saw the covers for issue two and they're just as fun. They're, they're like really, really cool. So I can't imagine what they got for three and four and stuff like that. Um, yeah, it's really neat. Well, it never hurts to be able to call Mike on the phone and say, Hey, uh, can you hook me up with a, I said to him, guess what I'm writing? And he was like, what?

[00:39:08] I'm like the Herculoids. And he was like, Oh, I guess I'm going to have to do a cover. Yes, you are. That's right. Is that Mike's way of saying, I can't say that I really want to do this already, but yeah, I really want to do this. Yeah. That's kind of, that's kind of Mike, Mike, Mike. Yeah. And Mike loves the designs and, you know, matter of fact, somewhere on the internet, he had done redesigns.

[00:39:37] Somebody asked him, he said to me that he didn't remember what it was exactly, but somebody in animation asked him to kind of like do his take on those characters for, for something. He, he was, he, he, he couldn't quite remember what it was that he was doing them for. So online, some way online, I have them in my computer. There are like Mike versions of all the characters. Oh, wow.

[00:40:07] And they're really cool. You could tell that he, you could tell that he didn't deviate that far from what Toth was doing. Cause, cause it's so good. Yeah. Right. You lose the essence when you do. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, he didn't, he didn't quite remember what he says. He didn't think it was for like a revival of the show or anything, but he doesn't remember why he did the drawings. They were for somebody. Somebody asked him to do them, but he wasn't quite sure who or why.

[00:40:38] Well, now you've ruined my night. So now I have to go find, find all these. I could send them to you. I have them in my computer. Well, oh yeah, I would absolutely. Those would end up on the wall too. Cause that's just too cool. That's too cool. Yeah. They have, again, they're very simplistic. You know, you could tell he probably sat down and, and, and drew them fast, but they're like, I've had them in my computer for years. Cause I was so excited when I found them, you know? Yeah. Yeah.

[00:41:07] Oh, I'll, I'll, I'll hit you. My, uh, when we moved back to North Carolina here, um, and it is, is this is most cliched story ever, but all my comics from, from that generation, when I worked in three shops and I was in my teens and when I was younger and all that, um, we're in my parents' attic. And now that we're closer, they were able to bop over from Tennessee and start dropping stuff off. So they had all this stuff like from comic book shops, promotional posters to, um, solicit

[00:41:35] stuff that was exclusive to retailers. So in all of this junk, I found the original dark horse, um, solicit. So before hell boy ever came out, this was the interview that dark horse did that was just sent to retailers. Oh, wow. And that was fun to get that little gem and go back and read what Mike was thinking before all this started, you know? Yeah. Oh, that's that, that sounds very fun. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:42:03] I still, I still got it behind here somewhere. But folks, if you haven't gotten those, uh, pre-orders in, call yourself already. As soon as I saw the solicits drop for this, I was like, wait a minute, who's going to write this? They better not fuck this up. Um, well, they hired me. No, no, no. I was going to say, as soon as I saw you at the reins, I knew it would be a banger. Um, so, so make sure to get the orders in and make sure that Tom gets the opportunity to write more than just one year of this cool stuff. Yeah. I would die to write another year.

[00:42:33] That'd be so much fun. I'd write three years. They could sign me up for two more years and I'd be perfectly happy. Well, here, here's fingers crossed that we get enough people pulled in to get the orders in to, to make that happen. And Tom, it's always a pleasure having you on and getting a chance to catch up with that. Awesome. I was going to talk, but I love to talk Herculoids. It's so, it's so interesting to find so many people who love these characters. So that's.

[00:42:58] So are, are you finding that as, after this was solicited, that people are just reaching out to you, even in the industry and it's like, oh dude, this is awesome. This is so cool. And they're all, and they're all threatening me. Every single one of them was, you better not screw this up. I'm like, oh, great. I'm far from the first. Yeah. Oh no, no. Yeah. They, I had like a, there was like a line, like as soon, as soon as it was announced, I had emails, I had people coming up to me at shows, you know, you better not screw this

[00:43:28] up. I wanted to do that forever. And I'm like another one. Wow. Wow. No pressure. No. Oh God. No. Yeah. All right, everybody. Well, this is Byron O'Neill and for all of us at Comic Book Yeti, thanks for tuning in and we will see you next time. Take care, everybody. 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.

[00:43:55] 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. If you enjoyed this episode of the Cryptid Creator Corner, maybe you would enjoy our sister podcast, Into the Comics Cave. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.