Travis B. Hill and Ben Humeniuk talk A Last Goodbye

[00:00:00] Your ears do not deceive you. You have just entered the Cryptid Creator Corner brought

[00:00:05] to you by your friends at Comic Book Yeti. So without further ado, let's get on to the

[00:00:09] interview.

[00:00:10] Skerriff Goodmuth sound like something spoken by Cthulhu Cultist or the name of a weird

[00:00:15] craft beer brand but it's actually the shorthand for this new wild crowdfunding comics

[00:00:20] project Super Kaiju Rock and Roll Derby Fun Time Go from creator David Hedgecock.

[00:00:26] This is a mashup of Jim and the Holograms meets Roller Derby with Kaiju with a twist of

[00:00:30] 70's pop culture thrown in. Harmony, Lyra, Melody, Cadence, and Biola are a struggling 20-something

[00:00:38] band and a Roller Dirty team fleshed with talent but broke as a joke. The burnouts

[00:00:43] are thrilling concert goers with their killer looks and vibe until a music mishap drops

[00:00:48] a curious ancient artifact into their hands. Cheeky, lighthearted and fun it will be

[00:00:53] launching soon and there's an early bird special if you catch it in time that scores you a discount

[00:00:58] and a VIP wristband. I'll drop the link in the show notes. I read the advance for this

[00:01:03] 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.

[00:01:12] Jim Gispero Hello and welcome to another episode of Comic Book Yeti's Cryptid Creator

[00:01:19] Corner. I'm one of your hosts, Jim Gispero and I feel like I've been having a lot of multiple

[00:01:25] guests on recently which has been great and I have two more guests on for you today. One

[00:01:31] of which is the returning guest, the other. We did a live stream and talked about one

[00:01:35] of his comic books but please welcome to the podcast or welcome back to the podcast

[00:01:40] Ben Humeneck and for the first time sort of although we've chatted before Travis B.

[00:01:46] Hill. Welcome both of you Ben, Travis how are you doing tonight?

[00:01:50] Ben Humeneck Doing well. My children are in bed and so this is great. Everyone's asleep

[00:01:55] and the house is not on fire. I like it.

[00:01:58] Ben Humeneck I feel so bad. I don't know if I should be how honest I should be on

[00:02:01] the show but I had tickets to see Dune tonight because I'm terrible with my schedule

[00:02:09] and then you sent that reminder email this morning. I was like oh I do have that

[00:02:12] so I'm gonna have to wait and it's always texting Ben about it today. It was like

[00:02:19] yeah I'm gonna have to you know skip out on that but I also don't remember

[00:02:23] anything from the first Dune because I was not paying attention.

[00:02:29] Ben Humeneck Well thank you for joining us.

[00:02:30] Travis B. Hill Oh I'd rather all that to say I would much rather be here doing this.

[00:02:36] Ben Humeneck I still haven't watched the I still haven't watched the first Dune.

[00:02:39] I mean I watched the one what was it 1984 the David Lynch Dune.

[00:02:43] Travis B. Hill Oh my gosh.

[00:02:44] Ben Humeneck I've watched that a number of times but I haven't watched the new Dune.

[00:02:49] It's on my list but it's you know it's daunting to think like oh I'm gonna get

[00:02:53] into a long movie right now although I did watch for the first time the other

[00:02:57] night I'd never seen Dark Knight Rises and I listen I listen to another podcast

[00:03:03] Newcomers. Hey if anyone likes other podcasts I'll shout out Newcomers.

[00:03:07] Lauren Lapkus and Nicole Beyer they're very funny and they do a genre or like a

[00:03:14] thing that they've never watched before so they did like a Star Wars one the Marvel

[00:03:17] Cinematic Universe and they watch a lot of these movies for the first time.

[00:03:20] So this season they're doing Batman and they had awesome.

[00:03:25] They were having Jason Mansouk is on to do Dark Knight Rises and yeah for

[00:03:28] whatever reason I just never never watched that I've watched you know

[00:03:31] the other Batman Batman movies but not that one.

[00:03:34] So. Okay did it meet expectations were you satisfied?

[00:03:40] Honestly I was kind of bored.

[00:03:43] I really like Batman Begins and I liked the Dark Knight when it was out

[00:03:48] and I think that was about I'm two Christian bales I think that's about what I can do.

[00:03:56] Man he it is the Dark Knight Rises is the worst of the three but I do what I

[00:04:05] what I always appreciated about that trilogy was how they took a lot of

[00:04:12] the greatest hits of Batman's you know mythos in the comics and just kind

[00:04:17] of were able to mash them together but then tell their own like kind of

[00:04:22] original story around them so I was always kind of impressed by the Nolan

[00:04:27] brothers on that but yeah definitely my brother is a movie cynic critic and he

[00:04:36] always like yeah you like this movie but here's all the plot holes in it I'm

[00:04:39] like all right.

[00:04:42] All right and so Dark Knight Rises is his favorite one to pick apart like.

[00:04:47] Oh okay he's like got notes craft notes.

[00:04:52] You know what it is there's a couple things like when I I mean when I first saw

[00:04:57] Batman Begins when it first came out I hadn't read a lot of Batman comics

[00:05:01] like I read you know comic I talked about it on the podcast before but I read

[00:05:04] comics as a kid but didn't get back into them until much later and really it

[00:05:09] was kind of DC's Blackest Night that got me back into comics and after I

[00:05:13] read Black Blackest Night I then realized that a lot of the characters

[00:05:17] I didn't know like I mean I'd heard of them certainly but didn't really

[00:05:20] know a lot about their backstory so I went and read a lot of the you know the

[00:05:24] crisis comics and then I read a bunch of a bunch of different series

[00:05:29] and so it was interesting I really didn't know a lot about some of the

[00:05:33] characters in Batman Begins when I saw it in theaters whenever that came out

[00:05:37] like 2005 I want to say and then now going back and watching

[00:05:44] something like Dark Knight Rises having read a lot of DC comics and a

[00:05:47] lot of Batman and being like oh this is this is just like

[00:05:51] no man's land this is just like you know calling out some of those things but

[00:05:55] see the beats yeah yeah I think the biggest thing for me with Dark Knight

[00:05:58] Rises is the character I really like the character of Batman especially in

[00:06:02] the comics when he really is like the world's greatest detective

[00:06:06] and out of all the Batman movies even

[00:06:10] you know the 66 Adam West he is the least detective

[00:06:15] in Dark Knight Rises don't do this you just can't get rid of a bomb

[00:06:20] this is my this is my spiel Christian Bales Batman is a detective more so

[00:06:26] than Pattinson's Batman and I have a whole argument but that will take the

[00:06:30] rest of this podcast okay Pattinson's Batman he's

[00:06:34] not a detective at all he gets he starts doing detective work and then he

[00:06:38] gets distracted the entire movie and then he's just being led by the

[00:06:43] nose by the Riddler I don't know don't don't don't do this to me Jimmy okay it's

[00:06:47] this sounds like bonus content for like the Patreon it's like

[00:06:51] movie corner thoughts and then deep dive right from some qualified opinions

[00:06:56] my second podcast that will start a new podcast and it'll

[00:07:03] it'll that'll be that'll be it where we do like a deep dive

[00:07:08] into like a comic book creator who has a really

[00:07:11] you know really strong opinions about something so that'll be that'll be the

[00:07:14] first one we'll be like you know Travis and I

[00:07:18] really diving deep into Dark Knight Rises oh my gosh

[00:07:22] sign me up and I know that we need to get to our stuff

[00:07:25] yeah but have y'all been reading ROMs detective

[00:07:30] comics at all no not recently it's kind of supernatural stuff isn't it like

[00:07:35] supernatural detective stuff it is it is but it's also like

[00:07:42] basically you know it is this this rich family turning the city against

[00:07:49] Batman in this very interesting way and and using a lot of like history of

[00:07:55] the city to do it it's very interesting it's fantastic

[00:07:59] but issue that came out this week I was reading it right before the podcast

[00:08:03] and just I was like oh I need to tell Ben about this but

[00:08:07] this issue itself is a it's a retelling of the

[00:08:14] temptation in the garden from Matthew 4 that's what it is

[00:08:17] fascinating direct quotes from the text in this very interesting way where

[00:08:24] Batman has ended up in the desert um clinging

[00:08:28] end of his life and and he is being tempted in the same way that Jesus

[00:08:34] was tempted and it's very interesting the way ROM does it this

[00:08:36] theological kind of acquisition in this in this one single issue and I'm

[00:08:42] very excited to see he's got seven issues left and I'm

[00:08:46] you know seeing he's this was issue 22 of his run and

[00:08:50] yeah I'm I'm excited to see where it goes sorry

[00:08:53] I thought Ben and I you know have some similar theological leanings and so

[00:09:00] always fun to think about and ROM is very good

[00:09:03] so yeah no I wanted that makes me want to check that out I haven't gotten

[00:09:06] around to his uh detective comics for a while yet so yeah yeah if you get the

[00:09:10] chance I think it's it'll probably be good when it's all

[00:09:12] collected or read it once it's one of those types that you might want to sit

[00:09:16] with like it'd be worth sitting and reading all 29 issues at one time and

[00:09:20] saying yeah and you know but if you're like hey I'm gonna block off time for

[00:09:24] Dune then just read the detective read it said and that that'll be

[00:09:29] sufficient fit that deep dive yes absolutely but to turn to tonight's

[00:09:36] topic um which you know what we're here to talk about

[00:09:40] the two of you have a comic that is coming out through

[00:09:44] band of bards it's going to be out um but when you're listening to this

[00:09:48] podcast uh it'll be April and um you're going to be able

[00:09:52] to go to previews and order it there'll be a link in the show notes

[00:09:56] but it is a last goodbye it's uh believe it was like I don't

[00:10:00] not sure the exact page count if it was like an eight page comic maybe or

[00:10:04] and you maybe it was more it is now expanded it into a larger story

[00:10:11] but yeah you were kind enough to send over some of the pages

[00:10:15] and um I was familiar with it from when I first heard about it

[00:10:19] but I thought it was a great story I'm excited to see

[00:10:23] you know the entirety of it but kind of you know I don't want to get anything

[00:10:27] wrong you guys tell me like what is a last goodbye all about uh let's start there

[00:10:32] who wants to go first Travis is Travis is the origin of the story so I think

[00:10:36] Travis you've got to you got to get us to where things began

[00:10:39] yeah so the story is about kind of a man on a final journey um it is set in a

[00:10:46] dystopian future that's kind of been ravaged by climate change and and um

[00:10:52] just created some kind of supernatural developments uh amongst like living organisms

[00:11:01] but ultimately it's it's um a character who has kind of come to the end of their of

[00:11:11] their days but also has realized that the world is it's time is done and and so

[00:11:18] um they just want to end their time well the main character he wants to end his time well

[00:11:25] and so he's on this kind of final journey to do that and and so as you get into the story

[00:11:32] that will be coming out uh with band of bars which is a little different than the short

[00:11:37] that we originally did um you'll see that as he's on this journey he is wrestling with

[00:11:45] kind of some of the regret of his past and then um being kind of faced with that regret

[00:11:51] in the present as he's kind of on his way um that's that's kind of a way to sum that up

[00:11:57] um that's that's stories about it's about a final journey um thinking through regret and then

[00:12:04] having the chance to maybe overcome that regret regret in some real way some yeah

[00:12:10] and so um I guess what just remind me what was the like original like was it a something you just

[00:12:19] came up with was it a pitch were you submitting it to an anthology like what was the original idea

[00:12:24] behind it yeah so all that band chime in as much as you want but i love telling all of the story

[00:12:28] about how last goodbye so band might not say it worked because i love how this has developed

[00:12:32] tell the story travis tell the story it's here to to look good okay and draw pretty pictures

[00:12:38] um if you're listening to the podcast on audio please do track down the visual version so you

[00:12:43] can see our handsome visages in this conversation no but this story genuinely does begin with travis

[00:12:48] because it did not begin life as a comic it began life as a prose piece actually

[00:12:52] so i wrote it as a flash clicking piece uh back um with a now defunct group called ashcan comics

[00:13:02] where uh they would put out like a a short end anthology every month where it would be the anthology

[00:13:09] would be flash fiction comics where it would be 750 words of prose um which in the space of the

[00:13:17] size of the comic was um uh like three pages and then one page of pinup art that that was it

[00:13:28] that was okay and so that was the concept and it came out every month and so that's kind of where

[00:13:33] i got my starting comics uh was writing these stories uh every month and they weren't sequential

[00:13:40] comics they were one piece of art to go with three pages and it was a really interesting group

[00:13:46] a lot of talented people in that group that i got to meet really started to build uh my

[00:13:51] kind of comic community through there stony williams brian hawkins uh uh j-sheet you know all those guys

[00:14:01] so and more i'm obviously blanking and so someone's going to watch this and be like hey i was in the

[00:14:05] group and i'm like yeah i i know you know i know you're a survivor too yeah you survived yeah and

[00:14:12] so you know that kind of came to an end through some unfortunate whatever that i will never get

[00:14:17] into and don't care too but um but i had all of these uh stories that i was just kind of testing out

[00:14:26] that you know here's the story i've got for this anthology you know because each anthology had a

[00:14:31] theme right um and so the theme for this particular anthology the title of the anthology was the end

[00:14:39] that's what it was right and so it was telling stories about the end and i will always shout

[00:14:43] this out stony knows i love it stony's story for that particular uh stony williams if you're listening

[00:14:49] or if you know stony he wrote a short story in that anthology where we put a last where i put a

[00:14:55] last goodbye for the first time stony put this short short story called last call at the end

[00:15:01] of the universe it's my favorite short story ever that's it so if you can hunt that down i

[00:15:06] have a copy on my laptop but if you can get that down from him read it uh but yeah so i was cutting

[00:15:14] my teeth that's the first place i ever put a thorn story out oh cool that's where mark and i kind of

[00:15:23] developed the uh the look of the character and just kind of the tone of the character for the

[00:15:28] first time uh dakari um the the third most famous space space pirate in the universe which will be a

[00:15:36] story in um amongst the stars which is also coming soon right yeah yeah the stars are coming back

[00:15:44] right yes that's where i told my first dakari story um so a lot of these comics that i have

[00:15:51] coming out now were things that i tested the waters on years ago um in these like short

[00:15:57] flash fictions so where so that's where it started right just you got it pro 300 750 words right uh

[00:16:07] ben ben and i uh after you know kind of the covid shutdown and and cons were starting to

[00:16:13] happen again ben and i had scheduled to be at uh three two or three cons together i think the

[00:16:21] first one was going to be fan expo we were we were planning to be there we knew there'd

[00:16:25] be like folks to be pretty well trafficked things were coming back yeah so uh fan so fan expo in

[00:16:30] dallas and then heroes in uh in north carlotte north carlotte yeah and so ben you know it's like

[00:16:38] we were splitting the tables we're actually gonna split the the the tables coming up at some shows

[00:16:43] down here uh in texas this spring but ben just hit me up and was like hey ben we're gonna have

[00:16:50] we're gonna be at tables together ben ben is very much a marketer in his soul he knows

[00:16:57] he's got good ideas about how like hey here's how we can maybe drive up some sales at our table

[00:17:02] right and he said we should do a con exclusive comic zine mini short comic that is you and me

[00:17:11] that's something because we had never done a project together so he said why don't we do

[00:17:14] something i can draw it pretty quick you know eight to ten pages boom and i said okay let me think

[00:17:22] but i don't i'm here's another thing about me i don't have a lot of stories in the wheelhouse

[00:17:28] like like there are comic book writers like i always say i'm super impressed by brian hawkins

[00:17:33] because that that man has 30 different stories ready to go at any given time yeah it seems like

[00:17:40] every time i turn around brian has like something new he has that that shakespeare

[00:17:46] like themed one and then he has a new detective one and you know he's ready he's got a grand

[00:17:54] and i'm not like that like i have like i've got five stories that i tested out in this like small

[00:18:00] thing a year like years ago that those the only ones i care to keep writing like that's

[00:18:04] the

[00:18:08] nothing else right so yeah so i was like you know okay ben like i'll think of whatever i maybe

[00:18:15] i'll think of something but like it wasn't a theme so it's no anthology that i can just write

[00:18:20] towards a theme that usually helps me or whatever so i'm like just whatever and then i was like

[00:18:25] you know what out of all the um anthology stories from this flash flash fiction days

[00:18:32] the last goodbye is the one i really wanted to see sequentially that it has not had any

[00:18:37] type of sequential development uh the other four i was really focused on had already had

[00:18:42] artists like work on those projects and were being pitched elsewhere and um so i said hey man i

[00:18:48] got this short story that i think could be you know eight to twelve pages and i sent it to him

[00:18:54] and showed him the beats where i thought the pages would break and i said hey you know

[00:18:59] you give it a read and tell me what you think right and um ben i don't know if you want to talk

[00:19:03] about like kind of where you came in as you started to develop it but ben took over and then turned

[00:19:09] it into 11 sequential pages all right let's take a quick break what in the sam hill is happening

[00:19:17] right now what is that you like bars oh you like band of bars it's not my fault you

[00:19:29] yeah that makes sense they're dropping some great new series right now there's that one about a

[00:19:36] heavy metal guitarist in the 1970s with monsters working class wizards you know how we love monsters

[00:19:42] around here and my friend dakota brown he's working on a project uh grandma tillies hell tech

[00:19:48] mech with lane void i saw the preview for that that is crazy jimmy even contributed to their

[00:19:53] anthology from the static and had matt sumo on the podcast to talk about his project the barric

[00:19:58] versus witch makes a lot of sense that the project landed there where you are where can you find them

[00:20:06] you need to get out more they were in previews or you can visit their website band of bars dot

[00:20:10] com for all the latest can we turn the music off now thank you no more surprises minstrels or

[00:20:19] anything like that or i'll rent you out to the ren fair as a children's ride let's get back to the

[00:20:24] show then yeah i mean i was curious and you can say you know get into it but um i was just kind of

[00:20:31] curiously like you got this idea we're going to be tabling together we want to do a short comic

[00:20:35] so was initially it just like oh travis sent this i can do this i can turn this was there

[00:20:41] or was there something like more was there anything that like immediately grabbed you about it

[00:20:47] about the piece that he sent yeah oh it's dystopian sci-fi which jimmy you and i have a great

[00:20:52] shared love of our sci-fi interests and so when you see terrible futures and people trying to find

[00:20:57] meaning in those that's really compelling and so travis um i got the whole pro short and travis

[00:21:03] also had some notes on some things that can be done sequentially like for instance there's a

[00:21:06] scene pretty early on where the character is traversing towards his destination and it's five

[00:21:11] panels horizontally widescreen and travis said i think it'd be cool if he was kind of walking

[00:21:15] across the page like each panel he's incrementally moving down the screen towards his

[00:21:20] destination and it's like that's a great visual conceit now we've kind of got to travel montage

[00:21:24] with narration we're seeing him go through different destinations we're suggesting a lot

[00:21:28] of devastation without having to like write to it so that was clutch um so i like basically this

[00:21:34] idea of like kind of a western drifter but instead of facing bad ombres in a corrupt town

[00:21:40] he's facing religious fundamentalist cannibals who are trying to impede him on his journey

[00:21:47] and he's dealing them a kind of like rough justice um that wouldn't seem out of place in a

[00:21:52] western but it's actually pretty dope when you think about the world is going to see you and like

[00:21:55] you know how do i escape like the version of hell that is currently existing in front of me so

[00:21:59] that i can get to my heaven almost right it'll make my escape yeah um and i think a lot of ways

[00:22:04] travis i mean and tell me if this is off base but i think this is a story about wanting to

[00:22:10] make some escapes and then turning back to confront responsibilities instead would you say that's

[00:22:16] a fair read or was that where your headspace was that when you were writing it and that's when i'm

[00:22:21] i'm thinking about this is i'm working on the pages right now but i don't know if that was

[00:22:24] the original genesis of it so you're touching more on the the the thing that we've developed

[00:22:30] for band of birds the first one was just this kind of dystopian journey um of uh

[00:22:39] i mean the short story is out there right and we're going to talk about this in a minute

[00:22:42] i'm sure but like it hasn't right like quite definitive you and it's been posted online

[00:22:48] enough like you i had to take it off my website once band of birds you know took the deal so i

[00:22:55] was like well i don't want everybody to just read the ending um you can probably still find it

[00:23:01] if you scroll far enough on twitter i have not taken the time to go take all the pages down

[00:23:07] um so yeah and of course there's zine copies out in the world so but but um it was really about

[00:23:15] kind of the the heartfelt turn at the end of where he's trying to get to right for sure like we don't

[00:23:21] really know where he's trying to get to uh but he seems very determined and then when he gets

[00:23:25] there you're kind of you know my my hope is that you it's a little emotional beat at the end of

[00:23:30] like dang like he made it for this but that's kind of sad that he that's where his that's where

[00:23:37] his end was and that's where he was going towards the whole time right so yeah it wasn't really

[00:23:44] much about the confrontation because that was the stuff that we kind of added later on that's

[00:23:49] that's that's one of the stuff we built in yeah sorry i was just no go for it yeah

[00:23:55] i was going to say what when i when i first read it um and yeah i won't i mean i know it's out there

[00:24:02] but i won't you know say exactly what it was but when he the main character like gets to the

[00:24:08] end and you realize what he has been like kind of striving towards i think i think my first thought

[00:24:13] was man he went through so much like why this and then you know i that was like my first

[00:24:21] initial thought and then like thinking about it more and i was like oh but you know what i get it

[00:24:26] like this is it is dystopian but when you think of it in kind of the gaze of of a wester you know

[00:24:32] something like shane or something like that i think of the last shot in in shane and like

[00:24:39] i mean it's a different ending different kind of like an emotional beat but just the idea of

[00:24:43] like there was a reason he had to get where it was he was going there was a reason he went

[00:24:48] through all that and um yeah i it hit me pretty hard thinking about it i really loved it yeah i wish i

[00:24:55] could say more but there is something you know when i when i go through a long day i'll just you

[00:25:04] know when i go through a long day i want to get home to be around you know my wife right

[00:25:13] that's that's something that's important to me and so thinking about that um

[00:25:19] you know just kind of just i think there's a lot of that mentality maybe in the book and

[00:25:28] kind of in the journey i'm yeah so that's that's just that's just something that was in there and

[00:25:33] i don't know so yeah i think uh i think you kind of get to this part where you're kind of like

[00:25:36] damn this guy threw all that to get here like that's that's tough and and so yeah and then and that

[00:25:44] as you'll see uh we can keep talking about it but um the uh you know westerns really drove

[00:25:52] the heart of the story it's like um it's it's a western in a dystopian sci-fi future that's what

[00:26:00] it is it's it's like we've kind of hidden a genre inside of the outside genre right like

[00:26:05] and that's fun there's like a little bit of bonus it's like you're you're eating the gobstop

[00:26:08] or in the flavors kind of change a little bit the more you get into it um genre bending is

[00:26:14] is good i think oh yeah i think that's good so it's it's there's layers to it we here's the

[00:26:19] bottom line we have taken what was originally a pro short story that we adapted into an 11 page

[00:26:24] comic that we then adapted again into a short page comic and we want people to feel like

[00:26:29] would they spend their money on it they're going to get a really satisfying amount of time

[00:26:33] with the tail and um i don't know it's it's it's fun to see how it's evolved it has lost

[00:26:40] nothing from its original form but so much has been added and we think it really enhances the value of it

[00:26:46] so yeah basically the way we grew it from its original form is travis sent his short story

[00:26:51] and i think if i remember this correctly what i did is like what i did is i tried to turn it

[00:26:55] into a script to send back to travis for notes and approval um travis has also edited

[00:27:01] travis works as an editor has professional background as an editor he had edited me on

[00:27:05] some anthology stories so i was like it makes sense for me to say hey here's what i think the script

[00:27:09] version is tell me where this is wrong and so type it up send it back to travis travis has notes

[00:27:14] we just get the script locked um we draw it i'm like hey i know this is supposed to be 12 pages

[00:27:20] we're running close to the deadline can i make it 11 in budget travis is like whatever you

[00:27:23] got it it's fine uh so we ended up printing an edition um four kinds that um we just kind

[00:27:29] of had at the table because i came up through the small press scene making zines for your tables

[00:27:33] right that's pretty common for like small press shows i thought that was cool we're doing this together

[00:27:37] and um jimmy honestly the reason this book exists is partially because um you are a better picture

[00:27:44] than we are um because we submitted this thing to from the static and van avard said no we have

[00:27:52] jimmy kaspero's story in here we don't need your story instead why don't we let you do it

[00:27:59] is its own thing i mean that's kind of a that's a goofy way to say it that's not directly the case

[00:28:03] but we submitted it to from the static we said we want parts to publish it because it's kind of got

[00:28:06] some horror elements to it we think this would be rad and they said yeah well we're going back hold

[00:28:11] on you're skipping over some fun stuff where oh in the gaps you need to know how again how creative

[00:28:18] ben is ben's like hey i'm only gonna have 11 instead of 12 so how about we show like

[00:28:25] we have the 11 pages and then in an in an additional like you know three or four pages i do this kind of

[00:28:32] like i i creatively lay out the pro's story so they can oh yeah so they can so the zine has

[00:28:42] the 11 pages and then it's got the pro's story that was ben i like that i didn't see both and i was

[00:28:48] like great cool so so ben was really all in on that um and then after we finished our concert

[00:28:57] get for that year uh okay we have this story like why don't we look for a good place to pitch it like

[00:29:03] that was oh we did look at some different places too you're right about that yeah even then it was

[00:29:08] like i was like all right cool we have it it's done like i was like it's done like i'm not and

[00:29:12] ben's like why don't we try to get it published in one of these anthologies there's a million

[00:29:15] anthologies we have a thing we can find one yeah and so ben would throw me something and i'd be like

[00:29:22] eh i don't know like you know we we wouldn't decide on something we felt was good and um

[00:29:27] and so we passed on a couple of like what we felt might what we felt might be opportunities but we

[00:29:32] didn't both feel right about it so then we did end up pitching it to uh uh into the static in is

[00:29:41] that from yeah from static yeah yeah from the static won't even remember my own book titles

[00:29:49] the number of comic books that have prepositions beginning their titles is fantastic i love the

[00:29:55] trend and may it continue forever it's so great so great i've got a you know what is the i don't

[00:30:00] have you to have a definitive article we don't have a definitive article at the beginning of

[00:30:04] ours no just general article yeah it's true article should you turn it into the last goodbye

[00:30:09] the last goodbye not at all no leave it open a little bit about that but um so anyways but ben

[00:30:15] but i'm telling you like if it if it was up to me i'm i'm so bad because i do feel like writers

[00:30:21] have become like the de facto funders and project managers of their projects very true and and my

[00:30:28] whole goal in comics is to get someone else to pay for everything um that always yeah uh you

[00:30:38] know because i'm not cutting into my mortgage money ever um yeah so so i but but also like

[00:30:48] i'm not super like oh i need to figure out how to get this next thing out because i was i was

[00:30:54] fine just like letting that be the con thing that ben and i did that but ben's you know very um you

[00:31:02] know adam he was very adamant about like we can get this published somewhere else

[00:31:07] we finished it it's worth doing that work where i had like it was done um this wouldn't have the life

[00:31:16] it had if it weren't for ben um being like very like hey we need to start looking for anthologies

[00:31:23] and putting that on my radar for the story so i'm super thankful you're gonna see all i am

[00:31:30] this is all ben's thing and that's why in the end yeah it was me writing a short story one time

[00:31:36] a long time ago and then ben is taking it forward and that's why on you know on the credits it's a

[00:31:42] story by ben and and travis it's not like travis go ahead or whatever it's it is a story by us

[00:31:50] for so many reasons like ben was the one that said let's do a con exclusive

[00:31:55] and i said here's the short i wrote i didn't even write a new story for him like who

[00:32:00] thing well it was the one that said hey we should pitch this other places and i was like

[00:32:07] okay so i'm just letting you know this has been human x book that spark a little bit and then

[00:32:18] well that raised a good point though so you submitted to from the saddock right for

[00:32:22] bando boards bando board says no not for this but we liked it and we would rather

[00:32:27] than putting into an anthology read rather you know we liked it so much we want to develop it

[00:32:31] into something so when that happens and you know to your point travis it was a short story

[00:32:37] that you had you know that you and then ben worked on for the con exclusive so when

[00:32:41] bando board says you know we would like to turn this into something else you know

[00:32:46] you know more of a one-shot like do either who takes kind of the rowing or of that

[00:32:53] so let me say this i will tell you and then ben can tell whatever his experience was

[00:32:59] i they sent that to us right they said hey we um we would love for you to turn into a one shot

[00:33:07] okay um it had 11 pages and i said and i i you know i reached out to ben and said hey

[00:33:15] what are your initial thoughts and he said let's see how many you know pages they need

[00:33:23] for this thing right so we asked them they said hey it just needs to be you know at least 20 pages

[00:33:27] so okay we have to add nine pages and i'm just telling you i'm up front i told ben i said ben i

[00:33:33] cannot pay you for pages so um this is gonna have to be something that you just want to do

[00:33:39] because i can't do it so i'm i'm willing to walk away um and i'm i'm sorry like i just you know

[00:33:46] i just can't i couldn't from the beginning the grace is ben uh ben humanic is is just one of the

[00:33:53] most gracious human beings in terms of like wanting to get a story out there in this respect um you

[00:34:00] know through our friendship and wanting to see something through that we started and um and so

[00:34:07] i had said uh you know um i just by the way this is an out of order i'm starting to realize we're

[00:34:19] telling a little the story's a little out of order we'll get back to it but um but i just said

[00:34:25] i can't i can't i just can't pay you i can't and ben said it's okay i'll draw i said okay cool

[00:34:35] i'll i'll then i will write nine more pages but that's it i'm only gonna write nine more pages

[00:34:40] because i'm not gonna ask you to do more than that so that's what i oh my gosh this is this is

[00:34:45] where we get into trouble we're about to tell on tell on something so time out this was not so

[00:34:50] so uh fan expo dallas was in september 2021 the heroes show that we went to was um october or

[00:34:58] june 2022 right itch to end the static between or from the static between the two okay okay so they

[00:35:07] had offered us between those two cons not the circuit but between those two that's gonna be an

[00:35:15] important piece of story so i said okay that's fine we'll we'll we'll get into the meeting with

[00:35:20] them we'll tell them we'll do nine more pages and then we'll figure all of it out but i also

[00:35:25] told ben and i told uh tim and chris in the meeting i'm not changing the ending so you have the beginning

[00:35:31] and end all you're gonna do is get more middle um the ending is the end like i don't want a different

[00:35:36] ending i don't want a different beginning i will we can expand the world of the dystopia with some

[00:35:44] conflict that's all we're gonna do and they loved that everyone loved it and i was like okay cool

[00:35:49] i'm glad you all like that um because that's all you're getting until until the sequel when you just

[00:35:57] you know like the new i am legend too where you just act like the original ending never happened

[00:36:02] just cut yeah so we get in that meeting listen to how crazy this man ben is okay we get in that

[00:36:09] meeting and and so we're just kind of having this conversation and then ben asked the question

[00:36:15] what does it take to get a book perfectly bound like ben is about perfect binding not saddle stitch

[00:36:24] ben love that square spine i love it love so he asked that question they said well it's gonna be

[00:36:29] you know page count and ben said how many pages does the comic have to be to get us to perfect

[00:36:35] binding and they said 40 and ben said okay let's do that i said what i cannot pay him i i do not want

[00:36:47] to ask him to do more work than he's willing to do and all of a sudden he says let's do 40 in this

[00:36:54] meeting without talking to me so i'm like my eyes are like i just like i love i love that the

[00:37:03] impetus of this is not you know we can't tell the story we can expand it but we have this idea and

[00:37:11] we can't do it in 20 pages or you know we we want to do a backstory and we want to change the beginning

[00:37:18] or something it is it has just been just just like i can we what it will take to have it perfect

[00:37:24] bound hello perfect buddy why literally the reason the the the comic that is coming out

[00:37:31] is 40 pages and not 20 is because ben wanted to get it perfect bound that is the only reason

[00:37:37] there's that much story in there but i will tell you this oh my gosh this is this is wow yeah i will

[00:37:42] tell you this it is worth it is worth all the extra space none of it is wasted no the best story

[00:37:49] we could um and and and it would have ended up being a disservice with nine pages i would

[00:37:56] have crammed a lot in i would have left a lot out i would have made different decisions and so ben's

[00:38:02] desire to have a perfect bound book ended up being just a just a happy accident that ended

[00:38:08] up allowing us to do our best work i think so oh we get big chunks whatever you want to say but

[00:38:14] i need to tell that is that is how we got the book from a show throw story into being a 40 page

[00:38:22] contracted comic over the course of a year and a half or whatever so ben anything you want to add

[00:38:30] are you ready for the kicker jimmy yeah we priced it out we said how much is it going to cost

[00:38:36] to for people to buy this book and when we looked at how much it costs for people to buy it perfect

[00:38:40] bound we were like okay let's go saddle staples so it's 40 pages with staples um and part of

[00:38:50] its mania i we didn't we didn't even go perfect bound in the end even though we wrote for perfect

[00:38:55] ground content because that was so much like i want more i want to make more and and here's part of it

[00:39:00] too at the point that travis and i approached bards um i was already under contract with tim and

[00:39:04] chris to work on a previous graphic novella called brony can't be broken and so in my mind i'm like

[00:39:09] okay good relationship with these publishers i'm being paid royalty in the back end i'm very

[00:39:13] comfortable with that happy to do another project where that's where that's the

[00:39:16] pay rate structure of course when i can ask travis to boot trev the project out of his pocket

[00:39:21] we are friends we're colleagues here this is a good way to do it um so in my mind it was just

[00:39:25] going to be the follow-up to brody through band of bards um and since brody was perfect bound i

[00:39:29] was like well we can do this perfect bound too economically makes more sense and is going to

[00:39:32] be much friendlier to people's wallets for it to be a saddle staple book it's still going to

[00:39:36] be a chunky one like it is going to push the limits of your poly bag when you pick it up

[00:39:39] at your lcs um in june and please place your pre-orders now it is in previews you can

[00:39:44] check it out in band of bards yeah um but i have my copy of brody can't be broken right

[00:39:49] right over my shelf to the left what's up jimmy on the shelf absolutely love it yeah yeah got a copy

[00:39:55] of comics from the kitchen up here right thank you got my copy of from the static up here um

[00:40:01] my copy of all of travis i got techno nights right here guys we've got fan bookshelves for

[00:40:05] each other it's a beautiful time on the podcast yeah i just i just backed i think you had

[00:40:09] we're in some other anthologies on uh i think i'll kick starter so i should have some more ben

[00:40:15] human x stories come in my way if there's a moral to our discussion today it's that ben needs to

[00:40:19] put some limits on himself because i think i tried to anthologies like a dog chasing cars um it's

[00:40:26] like where's this one where's this one where's this one and it's it's it's an excess it's

[00:40:30] definitely an excess um but it's been nice to focus on this so yeah when ben finally is said

[00:40:39] and done with all that though and he has you know because anthologies those rights revert back

[00:40:44] to you after a year yeah and ben is going to have like his when he collects all his short stories

[00:40:52] into the the ben humanic uh um nobis that he's gonna be 1500 pages it's gonna be nice and a couple

[00:41:02] of them we're gonna say edited by travis b hill so uh that's gonna be pretty nice too on that i'd say so

[00:41:07] yeah it's it's gonna be fun man right now when you're talking to us it's uh it's the very end

[00:41:12] of february 24 everyone's hearing this in april but at this stage you know the books sailing

[00:41:17] forth we are almost done with the pencils uh it's gonna get inked over the month of march

[00:41:21] and then um we'll be able to start releasing preview copies to retailers digitally hopefully

[00:41:26] that's the goal is for shops to look at it and say oh yeah this is worth adding to our order pile

[00:41:30] like this is a good story um and it's i think it's gonna be an easy sell from the front of the store

[00:41:34] because here's it done in one um and it makes sense and it hits it'll make you feel emotions

[00:41:40] it's got incredible violence in it that is cathartic um it's it's me trying to do my best

[00:41:46] to chase daniel warren johnson and feeling miserably in the process but trying to grow

[00:41:49] as a result because oh my gosh dwj's action storytelling uh i think i said to travis at

[00:41:53] one point i was like can can we do some daniel warren johnson stuff no and man was like i love you

[00:42:00] that's not how that went was that how it went in the script i actually read through like the

[00:42:08] the document you sent me in the you know the link to go through had like like some of the

[00:42:14] outline and scripting and i i caught my eye right away when it was like do your best daniel

[00:42:19] warren johnson i was i wrote the script it's several people do a daniel warren johnson here

[00:42:26] and and so i was like dude channel your murder falcon right now it's happening murder falcon is

[00:42:33] actually right right next to me um and i've been looking at it because it's got some of

[00:42:37] johnson's pages in the back listen jimmy's attorney that i'm seeing it on the podcast

[00:42:40] you can help me um there's a there's an arena sequence in the book um and i was looking at

[00:42:45] Wonder Woman Dead Earth and i said oh that's a good arena let's use that arena so if dwj or

[00:42:49] dc comics wants to come sue me i'm on the podcast with you you're you're a lawyer they can't do that

[00:42:53] so um we're good yeah i mean that's how it works you're like that's not how that works at all

[00:42:57] that's not how it works it's an homage in comics it's an homage if you swipe from someone

[00:43:01] i was clearly but yeah actually going through that um you know we talked a lot about like

[00:43:07] how this book kind of came into the world because i'm just kind of fascinated by that

[00:43:12] you know and i said that early on to take the short story and go through all these steps and now

[00:43:16] to have you know this comic but to dig it into a little more about the story and where you decided

[00:43:23] to like expand and there's like a bit of there is a bit of a backstory that we see glimpses of of

[00:43:29] the main character and his dog how have we gotten this far without talking about uh the dog

[00:43:34] um beautiful boy dog yeah he's he's a good boy um he's a good boy but i just i really

[00:43:41] liked where i could see you know all the additions and um really remarkable how

[00:43:50] adding something and you're kind of doing it in between an existing structure with some of

[00:43:56] the pages you know you're still using or some of that story um the pacing does not take a hit

[00:44:03] at all like you have a character who's moving to a destination the comic always feels like it's

[00:44:09] moving it never feels like oh they've just added a page here uh because they needed to hit a page

[00:44:15] count and it bogs down the story never feels like that at all it's constantly moving um yeah a lot of

[00:44:22] the additions are great uh i mean yeah the arena stuff was fantastic um the the page that i saw

[00:44:32] which i think in what you sent me was only in pencils with um the last panel ends with uh the

[00:44:39] main character i his name just jumped out of my head and his name is his name is never mentioned on page

[00:44:45] oh i didn't miss it um Travis captions him in the script is your jimbo right because that's who he

[00:44:51] is he's a traveling right so um not to cut you off and we'll get into it no go ahead go ahead

[00:44:57] oh yeah we'll talk i was just gonna say that last page with that the last panel on that one page

[00:45:02] where he has the he takes the spear at like one of the bad guys like it just looks so great like

[00:45:08] that whole page all of that looks so awesome i just i loved it i thought it was yeah i

[00:45:15] the great flow to it and um i really felt it just it really adds to the

[00:45:21] building of the emotion when you get to that kind of that when you get to the end um i i didn't think

[00:45:28] anything would really like add to that catharsis and i'm kind of surprised that it just builds and

[00:45:36] builds and builds even more with all the additions without hurting the pacing at all that's all

[00:45:41] i wanted to say well it's some good writing right there um one i i i appreciate that that

[00:45:50] feedback a lot because like i said you know think about kind of where we've just been

[00:45:57] in telling the development of this of like you've gotten to see the story um and you saw the

[00:46:05] you know you've seen a lot of i know there's still some unfinished pages but you've seen

[00:46:09] um the 29 pages added at some level and think about that if we only tried to do all of that

[00:46:17] 29 pages in just nine it just wouldn't work it just worked um it would have been bad no matter

[00:46:23] what it was it would have been bad so again just a happy accident ben's desire got us to a point

[00:46:29] where we could do all of that i um i love telling backstory right every if you've read thorn every

[00:46:42] every thorn issue has a flashback um i'm a sucker for the way you know just when when

[00:46:48] when backstory is done well now i i don't like pointless backstory where it's like why are

[00:46:53] we learning this about the character that doesn't involve what's going on right now

[00:46:59] but but i think that it's always i love the interplay of moving back and forward through a

[00:47:05] character's timeline um to kind of see who they were and who they are and how they wrestle with

[00:47:11] different things uh past to present and and how they've become more hopeful or how they become

[00:47:18] more determined or how they become more cynical um or how they've become more problematic so

[00:47:23] just all of those things i think are are really uh kind of fun things to explore right and um and so

[00:47:34] that was that was enjoyable um but one of the things that i really loved

[00:47:42] about by the way can y'all hear my dogs in the background a little bit yeah

[00:47:47] they're at the front window somebody's walking outside

[00:47:52] near their distracting beat that's the one you went crazy in here i've got three

[00:47:58] australian shepherds and they are wild so anyways but one of my favorite things about

[00:48:06] the development of this story that people are going to get to read uh in june was when we

[00:48:12] knew that we were going to have to expand it um i didn't want to just go and write it alone that's

[00:48:19] not what i wanted to do it hadn't been developed alone at any point as a as a sequential comic

[00:48:27] so what i told ben that i would like to do we knew we had signed the contract we knew that

[00:48:33] we were going to have to tackle these extra 29 pages and um i asked ben i said i i have some ideas

[00:48:44] but what i would like to do is on our draught we drove from dallas to charlotte 16 hours

[00:48:55] for heroes conan we stopped ben's family's house in tennessee on along the way but i said

[00:49:01] hey on the way back from heroes i would like us to take the opportunity on the drive to develop

[00:49:07] the story together let's talk it out let's talk out the new outline let's talk out the new scenes

[00:49:12] let's really kind of put ideas out there and get it where it needs to be and then i will go

[00:49:18] and write the script but i'd like us um to to kind of bounce things back and forth um as we tell

[00:49:27] the story so i i kind of had this um when and so when we were driving back i did have some things i

[00:49:33] had like you know given to ben that i want to talk about one of was this idea of presenting it as a

[00:49:40] yo jimbo or man with no name you know clinton eastwood's uh fistful of dollar into the dollar

[00:49:46] trilogy yeah yeah yeah fistful dollars few dollars more yeah it's this traveler who ends up in a

[00:49:51] town uh you never learn the kind of the traveler's name uh but they uh but they help you know they

[00:49:59] they they just want to pass through they just want to pass through and they don't want to get

[00:50:04] involved in the in the complications of of the ongoings of this town that they've happened upon

[00:50:12] and and they're on their way to somewhere else but they but they get kind of roped into

[00:50:17] the struggle of the people there right and i said that should be i want to tell that story

[00:50:24] i want to tell that uh story in the middle um we have a journey that's a good journey narrative

[00:50:31] we have this conflict in the short story where um the the character uh kind of you know goes to

[00:50:40] you know has to fight these uh these uh cannibal religious zealot cannibal mutant

[00:50:47] creature human hoids or what that's awesome yeah that's whatever um and so we can we can kind of

[00:50:56] have this uh this this yo jimbo narrative uh in in the middle of it right and so and so that is

[00:51:03] what kind of the framing we took and then on the drive um we we played with that world and just

[00:51:14] had different conversations about um what could be going on why these people could be in conflict

[00:51:20] why these groups could be in conflict where the one group could be at in terms of uh you know

[00:51:27] struggling against the other group and how our main character ends up where he ends up

[00:51:33] and why he ends up feeling obligated to help you know so we and then we kind of really told that

[00:51:40] and then i had some backstory ideas um you know that that um i always think that that some of

[00:51:48] the things that i write have certain emotional beats but i always like to run them by people who might

[00:51:55] you know have a different look at emotions in certain ways and so i wanted to present ben with

[00:52:00] like here's the backstory that i think adds a lot of uh emotion to the story and how do you feel

[00:52:05] about it so we spent you know a good portion of that 16 hour drive just back and forth um

[00:52:16] on these story ideas really got a very detailed outline that then i went and scripted you know

[00:52:24] you know page by page for so wow yeah yeah i like to i like to compare it to uh it's fine i like to

[00:52:33] compare it to the wolverine mini that chris clairmont worked on with frank miller uh the

[00:52:38] the legend goes that they worked it out together uh on a drive back from like san diego comic con

[00:52:42] in like the you know mid 80s or whatever and then you know got it banged out and um i'm like if we can

[00:52:49] come somewhere close to kind of touching that resonance of like that classic miller clairmont

[00:52:54] rubenstein you know combination comic that'd be pretty cool so hopefully a little bit that is in

[00:52:59] the pages but it's also something too jimmy you know this is a storyteller when when you get to

[00:53:04] collaborate with another storyteller and learn from their strengths and be influenced by their styles

[00:53:08] that's a really that's a wonderful conversation that helps you grow as a creator

[00:53:12] that helps you develop connections and more strongly with your writing partner and so

[00:53:16] feels like a real privilege to be able to hatch something together um and and to nurture it

[00:53:23] together that would get to this place it's just i feel like i have become a better storyteller

[00:53:28] just learning from the choices that travis is bringing to the table and the ideas and the

[00:53:32] suggestions and then also the freedom that he gives in certain places just to say we see this

[00:53:37] action scene it is three pages go nuts right and i'm like awesome this is so cool there's so much to

[00:53:43] work with here to bounce off it yeah yeah and i i mean it just you kind of see that i mean you can

[00:53:48] you can see it doesn't feel disjointed and you know that's a good feeling when you're talking to

[00:53:53] somebody else about a story idea and um to be enough on the same page that there isn't really

[00:54:00] any you know conflict but uh um you know also having different ideas and being able to

[00:54:06] work them and weave them in you know together um yeah that's that's like the real fun part of

[00:54:12] being a collaborator it's like oh here's my idea okay well i like that but i also you know

[00:54:18] want to add this element to it oh well what do we took that and we did this and like just kind of

[00:54:23] just doing that type of uh that discussion and then you know to continue to expand it um yeah

[00:54:31] you know the other page i really wanted to point out that i really liked is we meet some other characters

[00:54:38] where our main character is and uh you kind of there's a page and the the again the bottom panel

[00:54:44] is we kind of see these other folks that he's met the kind of the society that they've developed

[00:54:50] and i only saw it in in pencils and like the captions are you know kind of how they figured

[00:54:56] out something or you know a way to go on and um i really can't wait to see that full page because

[00:55:01] the pencils of it looked awesome i'm so pleased yes yes absolutely i'm excited to get that one

[00:55:07] turn i think it's our only two page spread in the book um it's really want to like make it land

[00:55:12] but yeah that's going to be a lot of fun for uh for folks to open up yeah i'm i'm really excited

[00:55:17] about it and like i said i mean i i i love one shots i i mean i like all comics really but

[00:55:21] the idea of a one shot and like here it is here's 30 pages here's 40 pages and it's like this is the

[00:55:26] story this you know this is it um yeah you know like brody can't be broken was great uh loved how

[00:55:33] it looked i love the story um then it was you know uh really loved being able to get in there read

[00:55:41] it and um think about it so yeah i'm excited to see more i like some of the stuff band of

[00:55:46] bards is still going as well you know they they seem like decent folks and uh so well this is a good

[00:55:51] chance pretty great good chance to plug that for a second so brody is currently sold out from

[00:55:55] band of bards in its original edition it is re-releasing uh in july so one month after

[00:56:01] Alaska by comes out brody is back on the stands as a treat paperback uh so conventional comic

[00:56:06] format um brand new cover on it and um we've been talking to marcus Jimenez about his

[00:56:13] wonderful skills and so the hope is that you'll get to see marcus's take on the character on that cover

[00:56:18] so yeah that's coming soon so it's kind of a one-two punch but uh yeah to me chris they're really

[00:56:23] committed to having a creator um relationship mindset where um creators are able to own their

[00:56:30] intellectual property and have trustworthy publishing partners we're grateful that we get to work with

[00:56:34] them on this one and they've been really supportive all time through awesome do you have anything else

[00:56:40] coming out other than i mean this and brody uh bendy you want to plug

[00:56:45] for myself um i think the only other thing would be amongst the stars which travis and i both have

[00:56:50] stories in uh that's coming out kind of contemporaneously it generally will hit in the summer of 2024

[00:56:55] so if that's not been announced by the time this podcast drops please keep your eyes and ears

[00:56:58] peeled cj hubson has got some good stuff coming in regard to that um yeah and then for myself

[00:57:05] i can tease a little bit vaguely that um there is a third volume of waking life which is a young

[00:57:11] adult graphic novel series that i've worked on and that should be available through comic repress in 2024

[00:57:16] that's the next thing i'm working on at length um after travis and i are done i'm getting uh

[00:57:21] Alaska by ready to go and i guess one last tangential plug but stony's gotten some love

[00:57:25] on the podcast stony and i are doing a little bit of work on travis gibbs kalulu anthologies

[00:57:30] and we've got um two stories coming out um for the kalulu stuff in the next couple of months so

[00:57:35] oh fantastic happen in two yeah it's gonna be pretty well that's great yeah i love this i love uh

[00:57:40] i love everything travis does um what's that a lot of fun comics and he's always has a ton of

[00:57:46] energy for the indie comics community i had him on the podcast once um where we discovered our

[00:57:51] shared love of rent the musical rent and meatloaf so really need to get him back on the podcast

[00:57:58] um how travis how about you what uh what are the things you're working on i mean is

[00:58:02] i mean i you know last time you're here we talked about thorn um so what other stuff

[00:58:08] do you have coming out what do you got yes so thorn uh issue four will come out the same month

[00:58:14] as uh alaskan by so you'll get to pick up two travis v hill originals in the month of june

[00:58:22] if you want nice um so so you know grab alaskan by but then also uh make sure you go back and grab

[00:58:31] thorn uh issue uh we are trying to seed a a worthwhile connection between both books for

[00:58:38] those who intentionally read thorn four and read alaskan by hopefully you see some

[00:58:42] connective tissue between the two uh that grouping intention will really pop out for you

[00:58:46] all right well if i was christian bales batman i probably wouldn't be able to figure it out

[00:58:51] but we'll see if you were ever dancing batman you would start to figure it out and then you get

[00:58:57] distracted by captain and then you would never return that's what would happen um okay so i have

[00:59:04] just two things uh i have amongst the stars um and then uh technonites book two is in production

[00:59:12] but that won't be until 2025 but i'll be excited to probably share some art from this human

[00:59:18] as soon hopefully marcus is on fire right now he is so oh murdering pages yeah whenever marcus

[00:59:25] like shares something on social media in terms of something he's working on yeah it's really great

[00:59:31] i and then um sequential potential comics sp comics is where i do most of my work that's uh

[00:59:39] you know my my full-time gig and and for the most part if you don't know i'm since i'm plugging

[00:59:45] things if you don't know most of that right now is short comics uh sp comics uh works with

[00:59:52] academic researchers nonprofits various research institutions organizations to take their

[00:59:59] high-level academic research and then disseminate it um into short stories whether it's one page

[01:00:06] four page eight pages um to supplement that research for various audiences so like right

[01:00:13] now i'm working on um there's a a book uh by um a couple of political uh science professors called

[01:00:23] the prophets of distrust and it's about how when we start to distrust our government we also

[01:00:28] start to lose trust in our uh water systems and so we turn to bottle water and pay exponentially

[01:00:35] more for bottled water when our tap water is actually safer and so i'm writing i'm taking

[01:00:41] their research book and i'm turning an eight page comic to then be a companion piece to the book

[01:00:48] i'm working with um we we sp comics and i'm writing the script uh there's an economist named

[01:00:54] john quigan out of australia and he wrote the book um zombie economics and so i'm taking that

[01:01:02] economic research book that looks at the history of of um economic systems over the past

[01:01:08] hundred years and i'm creating an eight page comic to be a companion for that so that's the

[01:01:13] kind of thing on but one thing i will plug in this release is it will already be out but it comes

[01:01:20] out next wednesday new comic book day on webtoon it's called sanctioned lives okay um and so nargus

[01:01:28] is a professor at um johns hopkins and uh she oversees a research initiative called rethinking

[01:01:36] iran where they look at um house sanctions specifically trump era sanctions have have

[01:01:42] negatively impacted uh the community and people of iran so that's what this comic's about

[01:01:48] another situation there's a 20 page one shot another situation where um uh her and three

[01:01:54] other co-writers wrote a book called house sanctions work and i took that book and then

[01:01:59] we produced this 20 page comic um you can't see you can there's me john deluca is the artist but

[01:02:05] and and mokin and mike mires uh mike mires is the letterer so this this love mike yeah so this

[01:02:12] comic uh comes out uh on march 6th on webtoon and then it will be um so yeah so you can read it

[01:02:21] for free there and then i don't know how they're going to distribute it the the print copies but

[01:02:25] they sent me mine so that's that's fascinating i mean i know i've seen you share stuff on like

[01:02:32] twitter and uh you know about some of the work that you've done before like you know a particular

[01:02:36] page or you know the uh you know with scientific research or the whatever books you're working on

[01:02:43] but yeah i'm i'm like fascinated that that doesn't happen more and i love seeing whatever it does

[01:02:48] like i mean look at that topic you know sanctions against iran how did they affect

[01:02:54] that iran did they actually do what what it was they were intended like all of those topics

[01:03:00] and you know we've then taken that very heady academic approach and you know have a 20 page

[01:03:08] comic to kind of break it down i think that's amazing it's so much fun and and i'll tell you one

[01:03:14] that i we just wrapped on it's now online it's just a four page story but the norwegian

[01:03:21] peace institute and the swedish peace institute uh worked together to create a they they did a

[01:03:28] report for the un security council um for climate insecurity in in certain regions of the world

[01:03:38] and i worked with their team in sp comics but i i wrote the script uh we worked with their team

[01:03:46] to create a four page comic that then would go along with their report so i've got a comic

[01:03:52] that's going to the un security council wow cool like you know i love being in comic book shops

[01:04:00] but these high politicians are gonna read my stuff and uh and then maybe next they'll read

[01:04:06] some dystopian futurism in alaska yeah turn them on to the good stuff but that's the audience

[01:04:13] i wouldn't have this job without speaking comics if it weren't for ben ben saw them

[01:04:17] some people might not know this i'm a i'm a phd candidate history at ut dallas uh ben saw the ad

[01:04:24] on indeed for sp comics needing a script writer he just came across it he hit me up and said

[01:04:31] hey man like i i saw this and and it's dealing with writing comics for like high level academics

[01:04:38] that kind of merges your world and now that's what i do every day like that's how i pay my

[01:04:44] bills so if it weren't for ben i wouldn't have this you know i wouldn't have this job that i have right

[01:04:49] now so you know our friendship is you know getting to do alaska bye is is kind of this

[01:04:54] celebration of our friendship it's intersected in so many ways like now you know we um part

[01:05:01] of the reason last goodbye is coming out two months later than it was originally intended

[01:05:06] was because um this nonprofit group approached me on the side uh and asked if if uh i could create a

[01:05:14] series an eight you know a couple of comics for them and the first one they wanted to do was um

[01:05:22] like this kind of a person wrestling with a lot of demons like the four-horse apocalypse and

[01:05:28] that's a four page short story to go along with a poem that they had produced or um and and

[01:05:35] so they asked me to kind of suggest an artist and i suggested ben and so it was a work for higher project

[01:05:42] and so we asked band of rds if we could delay that start so that we could do this project over here so

[01:05:48] ben and i are getting to work together in a lot of different ways and and our comic careers are

[01:05:52] crossing paths and the kind of mutually beneficial as we kind of watch out for each other and

[01:05:58] definitely been a blessing and so getting to do the a lot of fun stuff with sp comics i wouldn't

[01:06:02] be doing it if it you know work for ben so that is awesome i mean you know i that just an added layer

[01:06:10] another reason to just definitely get a last goodbye add it to your poll list yeah it's a really good

[01:06:17] story and um you know this is a really good story the your friendship is a really good story

[01:06:24] um i the whole journey to take you know that short story that three page and turn it into

[01:06:32] you now have a 40 page comic uh it's just awesome and it's and it's great i mean it really is and

[01:06:40] it just uh it really lands the ending of it even though i know it is still as powerful as

[01:06:46] when i first read it and first made me think about why is this guy going through all this

[01:06:51] and it just you know i mean look i love comics as entertainment comics don't have to say anything

[01:06:57] i don't think um they can just be for fun they can be an escape that's okay but um yeah i do love

[01:07:04] something that challenges me i do love something that makes me think i do love something that makes

[01:07:09] me dig a little deeper and maybe see something from another perspective um i just i think it's

[01:07:15] a great comic i and uh yeah this is a great story and uh thank you ben and travis for coming

[01:07:20] on the podcast this has been wonderful hey man uh if if there's anything that i'm taking away from

[01:07:26] this it's make friends do comics right yeah that's that's the story yeah but jimmy yeah thank you for

[01:07:32] having us on i really appreciate it thank you for taking the time to just you know review our

[01:07:36] work in a way that we can talk about it that's always just humbling to i appreciate that um

[01:07:42] and also i want to tell everybody out there who has seen the cover uh the dog is okay

[01:07:48] all right i know you're getting it's gonna be all right we will not pick up these books they see a

[01:07:52] dog and they're like that dog is getting hurt this dog does not get hurt this dog is okay this this dog

[01:07:57] is putting on the hurt he is what he is yes you want to know uh his the ace ace is the name of

[01:08:04] the dog we do name the dog uh you you want to know ace's story so get in there read it

[01:08:10] enjoy it um but yeah jimmy thank you so much for all this no i i pleasure is all mine i i do this

[01:08:17] because i i like comics i think i say at every podcast folks are probably trying tired of hearing it but

[01:08:23] yeah i i really love comics i love talking to folks that that make them and i i i like hearing

[01:08:28] all about it like i you know someone said something before so a guest who was on you know before we

[01:08:34] recorded like oh like the process stuff is kind of boring and i'm like no i mean i i think if

[01:08:39] i'm interested in it other people will be and i you know some folks don't know you know somebody

[01:08:44] hears about a podcast and they listen to an episode you know like last week's episode was tom king

[01:08:49] before that was gary maloney and you know they want to keep going and they might know a little

[01:08:55] about comics they might know a lot but i mean look i've been reading comics for how long and

[01:09:00] talking to folks about comics this podcast has been going on two years now and there's still

[01:09:04] a lot i don't know so i'm always fascinated by it and how you can just take one idea and turn

[01:09:10] it like into something and um yeah so i really appreciate you digging into all that i think

[01:09:16] it's a great story that people are going to like if you like you know dystopian sci-fi if you like

[01:09:21] west especially if you like westerns it is it is more of a western i think than than anything

[01:09:27] and if you like stories with a good dog in it you're going to like this one too good dog

[01:09:33] it is a good dog um so yeah but ben travis thank you so much for coming on the podcast

[01:09:39] and listeners you're you're going to be hearing this if you're listening to it shortly when it

[01:09:44] when it came out it's going to come out April 9th you're going to be able to add a last goodbye to

[01:09:49] your pull list at your local comic book shop i think if it's available digitally i know band

[01:09:53] of bards does a lot of stuff with global comics i'm not sure it'll be on there but folks can

[01:09:57] probably check uh but you're definitely going to want to do that and especially 40 pages it's

[01:10:03] a one shot i really think you're going to like it even if you're familiar with

[01:10:07] you know the shorter version of it there is a lot to dig in here and i think it really adds a lot

[01:10:11] to the story so um yeah make sure you add it to your pull list um oh shout out to my brother bobby

[01:10:16] i almost forgot bobby's uh cryptic creator corners number one most dedicated fan i say that every

[01:10:21] episode so uh so and bobby buys a lot of the comics he he listens to every episode and it'll

[01:10:27] tell me it's like uh and he makes me order it because the i initially started the pull list

[01:10:33] so he's like who'd you you know i had ed brison on and he's like uh what was that one i'm like the

[01:10:37] displaced he's like can you put that on the pull list i'm like you know i got you i got you

[01:10:42] so oh well thank you both so much um for comic book eddie i'm jimmy gasparo this has been the

[01:10:49] cryptic creator corner thank you for listening and i will uh see you next time good night everybody

[01:10:55] this is baron o'neill one of your hosts of the cryptic creator corner brought to you by

[01:10:59] comic book eddie we hope you've enjoyed this episode of our podcast please rate review subscribe

[01:11:06] all that good stuff it lets us know how we're doing and more importantly how we can improve

[01:11:12] thanks for listening if you enjoyed this episode of the cryptic creator corner maybe

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