unSEEN/unHEARD Anthology Interview With C.K. Carpenter And Aubrey Lyn Jeppson

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_00]: Your ears do not deceive you. You have just entered the Cryptid Creator Corner brought to you by your friends at Comic Book Yeti.

[00:00:07] [SPEAKER_00]: So without further ado, let's get on to the interview.

[00:00:10] [SPEAKER_04]: You ever been to a martial arts tournament like this?

[00:00:14] [SPEAKER_02]: When I was a kid there was a used bookstore in town. I begged my mom to drop me off all the time.

[00:00:18] [SPEAKER_02]: They had a loose stack of comics that I used to thumb through searching for secret gold. One day

[00:00:22] [SPEAKER_02]: I came across Daredevil 189

[00:00:24] [SPEAKER_02]: That's that Frank Miller cover that's iconic with DD flying through the air and a hail of arrows.

[00:00:28] [SPEAKER_02]: The book was a complete snobber knocker throwdown with the hand and stick sacrifices himself to save Matt at the end.

[00:00:35] [SPEAKER_02]: Ever since that moment I have loved martial arts comic book

[00:00:38] [SPEAKER_02]: So when fellow Yeti Alex Green reached out about his Kickstarter project from within I was excited to find out more about it

[00:00:44] [SPEAKER_02]: It's a 240 page martial arts revenge graphic novel about a slave fighting his way through a deadly tournament

[00:00:51] [SPEAKER_02]: where the rules shift according to the whims of Eugastic a

[00:00:54] [SPEAKER_02]: tyrannical emperor full of high impact fight sequences

[00:00:57] [SPEAKER_02]: It's sure to delight any fan of action focused fiction

[00:01:00] [SPEAKER_02]: Artists Renzzo Podesta kills Lizanna see what I did there and the whole project is already complete

[00:01:06] [SPEAKER_02]: So the hardest part the one that makes you wait is already done bounce on over to Kickstarter and search for from within

[00:01:12] [SPEAKER_02]: I'll drop a link in the show notes to make it easy for you. Make sure to check it out

[00:01:16] [SPEAKER_02]: Oh

[00:01:16] [SPEAKER_02]: Y'all Jimmy the chaos goblin strikes again

[00:01:23] [SPEAKER_02]: I should have known better than a mention that was working on my DC universe meets Ravenloft hybrid D&D campaign on social media

[00:01:29] [SPEAKER_02]: My bad. He goes and tags a bunch of comics creators

[00:01:32] [SPEAKER_02]: We know and now I have to get it in gear and whip this campaign into shape so we could start playing

[00:01:37] [SPEAKER_02]: Another friend chimes in are you gonna make baps?

[00:01:41] [SPEAKER_02]: It's fair to say it's been a while since I put something together

[00:01:43] [SPEAKER_02]: So I guess

[00:01:45] [SPEAKER_02]: Question mark it was then that I discovered archon forge

[00:01:48] [SPEAKER_02]: If you don't know who our conforms is they have everything you need to make your TT RPG more fun and immersive

[00:01:55] [SPEAKER_02]: Allowing you to build play and export animated maps including in-person fog of war capability

[00:02:01] [SPEAKER_02]: But let your players interact with maps as the adventure unfolds while you the DM get the full picture

[00:02:07] [SPEAKER_02]: Now I'm set to easily build high res animated maps saving myself precious time and significantly adding nuance to our campaign

[00:02:14] [SPEAKER_02]: That's a win every day in my book

[00:02:16] [SPEAKER_02]: Check them out at archon forge comm and use the discount code yeti five to get five dollars off

[00:02:23] [SPEAKER_02]: I'll drop a link in the show notes for you and big. Thanks to archon forge for partnering with our show

[00:02:27] [SPEAKER_02]: I think I'm gonna make Jimmy play a goblin warlock just to get even

[00:02:33] [SPEAKER_02]: Hello everybody and welcome to the cryptic creator corner

[00:02:35] [SPEAKER_02]: I'm Byron O'Neill your host for our chat today if you've listened to our commercials over the month of September

[00:02:41] [SPEAKER_02]: You should already be familiar with unseen unheard the anthology on Kickstarter a 64 page anthology

[00:02:47] [SPEAKER_02]: That collects 12 new comic short stories about dealing with disabilities or being neurodivergent

[00:02:52] [SPEAKER_02]: I fall into both those camps and rarely do I get chat with comics creators who do so it should be no surprise

[00:02:59] [SPEAKER_02]: That I'm excited to talk to our guests today

[00:03:00] [SPEAKER_02]: So it's my pleasure to introduce the editors of the anthology she Aubrey Lynn Jepsen and CK carpenter

[00:03:07] [SPEAKER_02]: How's everyone doing mid campaign? That's sort of the dreaded anxiety time for most crowdfunding

[00:03:13] [SPEAKER_01]: projects I

[00:03:15] [SPEAKER_01]: Mean we're we're checking along steadily. So I'm I'm very I feel pretty optimistic, but doing okay

[00:03:21] [SPEAKER_04]: Good good. Let's get to here CK. How about you? I'm doing good

[00:03:25] [SPEAKER_04]: I will say you are one of my favorite comics interviewers. So I'm I'm a little nervous today

[00:03:30] [SPEAKER_04]: I'm like, oh what hard-hitting questions is Byron gonna ask but but no

[00:03:34] [SPEAKER_04]: I'm excited to be here and I'm excited for the anthology too. I think we're trending well

[00:03:39] [SPEAKER_04]: But we are about to hit that spot where it gets a little rough for the usual

[00:03:42] [SPEAKER_04]: So we'll see what happens, but remaining optimistic. Well, I'll try to be nice

[00:03:46] [SPEAKER_02]: I mean like I stayed at the wheelhouse. It's a lot of fun to be able to talk about

[00:03:51] [SPEAKER_02]: Disability in comics right? I and I really get to say this because I don't see many disability focused projects

[00:03:57] [SPEAKER_02]: But this is kind of my first rodeo in terms of the online vitriol that some people spill on socials

[00:04:04] [SPEAKER_02]: Or like a category that I personally fall into it's kind of weird for me

[00:04:07] [SPEAKER_02]: You know, I've seen it sadly too often with people of color or those in the queer community

[00:04:12] [SPEAKER_02]: But naively I thought surely people don't do that with disabilities and that was stupid

[00:04:20] [SPEAKER_02]: Like we were all conversation where somebody suggested that that there's not enough

[00:04:25] [SPEAKER_01]: There's enough right there's too much almost right too much representation

[00:04:30] [SPEAKER_02]: Which is crazy. So as veterans you did not engage which was smart

[00:04:36] [SPEAKER_02]: I waited in and got the education

[00:04:37] [SPEAKER_02]: But that's also probably part of my nature to kind of stick up, you know in general for people

[00:04:42] [SPEAKER_02]: So I don't have any regrets

[00:04:43] [SPEAKER_02]: but let's start there because it appears that convincing people that more disability and neurodivergent coverage in our media is

[00:04:50] [SPEAKER_02]: Still needed. So how can a comics anthology change some minds on that front or am I being naive again?

[00:04:58] [SPEAKER_02]: Like is changing minds even the goal?

[00:05:02] [SPEAKER_04]: It is for me. I don't want to speak for and it's Abdul Hock the other editor Aubrey, but

[00:05:07] [SPEAKER_04]: For me, you know each of our stories we I really wanted to achieve three things

[00:05:12] [SPEAKER_04]: I wanted them to be first and foremost entertaining

[00:05:15] [SPEAKER_04]: Because that's at the end of the day everything has to be entertaining

[00:05:18] [SPEAKER_04]: I wanted everything to be educational and informative in some way

[00:05:21] [SPEAKER_04]: And so that touches on what you're saying and then finally everything be emotional and pull it to heartstrings somehow whether it be

[00:05:28] [SPEAKER_04]: inspirational joyful sad

[00:05:31] [SPEAKER_04]: And all of those things put together they really give you a look into someone's life. And so

[00:05:36] [SPEAKER_04]: my goal is like I'm even learning things about disabilities and your divergence that I didn't know and

[00:05:43] [SPEAKER_04]: So yeah for me, it's definitely a changing of the mind situation

[00:05:48] [SPEAKER_04]: hopefully exposing people to this whether you buy it for a friend or you buy it for yourself and

[00:05:54] [SPEAKER_04]: Getting that education for sure. Okay, I agree. I

[00:06:00] [SPEAKER_01]: Agree, um, I think so I before I realized I was

[00:06:06] [SPEAKER_01]: Neurodivergent and then later disabled by my neurodivergency

[00:06:10] [SPEAKER_01]: Um, I was a special educator

[00:06:12] [SPEAKER_01]: So I went to school to teach special ed and I remember hearing all the things of like

[00:06:16] [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, there's so many less girls than boys that are on the autism spectrum

[00:06:20] [SPEAKER_01]: And it was weird like going through that myself and kind of like realizing I was on that spectrum and

[00:06:26] [SPEAKER_01]: Like even telling family members. I think I'm on the spectrum them being like no

[00:06:30] [SPEAKER_01]: These are reasons why you can't be and I'm like, okay. Well, we have a family full of men on the spectrum

[00:06:35] [SPEAKER_01]: you know boys or or

[00:06:38] [SPEAKER_01]: You know a sign male at birth people who

[00:06:41] [SPEAKER_01]: Are on the spectrum

[00:06:43] [SPEAKER_01]: But no girls no

[00:06:45] [SPEAKER_01]: You know a sign female at birth people who are on the spectrum. Like are you kidding me?

[00:06:51] [SPEAKER_01]: So like for me like a lot of this exposure helps people realize maybe like

[00:06:56] [SPEAKER_01]: They're out they are outside the norm and I think too

[00:06:59] [SPEAKER_01]: I think a lot of people who are neurodivergent may not realize they are dealing with a disability

[00:07:04] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, um like I to me I

[00:07:08] [SPEAKER_01]: Got diagnosed with ADHD at 35

[00:07:10] [SPEAKER_01]: my mother before me got diagnosed ADD like in her 40s around Perry menopause age for

[00:07:18] [SPEAKER_01]: people with those kinds of hormones and

[00:07:21] [SPEAKER_01]: Like even that

[00:07:23] [SPEAKER_01]: Wasn't enough of a predictor for me to get diagnosed younger for people to recognize like some of the things I were deal

[00:07:28] [SPEAKER_01]: I was dealing with were this issue and so much of my life has been me white knuckling

[00:07:36] [SPEAKER_01]: Abilium planners and things like that

[00:07:37] [SPEAKER_01]: So I think like these stories are important because they're gonna show different pieces of what we're dealing with

[00:07:42] [SPEAKER_01]: I communicate both the people who don't have disabilities what our lives are like and to people who might have lives like us

[00:07:50] [SPEAKER_01]: um

[00:07:51] [SPEAKER_01]: That they're not alone, you know

[00:07:53] [SPEAKER_01]: And even as you read through the story is like there's plenty of

[00:07:57] [SPEAKER_01]: Different disabilities that I don't personally deal with but the pain and the struggle still resonates

[00:08:03] [SPEAKER_01]: And so I think two people with disabilities are often used as like inspiration like oh look at them overcome it. Yeah, and it's like

[00:08:13] [SPEAKER_01]: That's such a

[00:08:14] [SPEAKER_01]: dismissive way to look at an entire population of people

[00:08:18] [SPEAKER_01]: Um and often it's used against us in ableist ways to be like well this person did it

[00:08:23] [SPEAKER_01]: So why can't you sure? Um, so I think it's really important that this book

[00:08:28] [SPEAKER_01]: you know shares those perspectives and

[00:08:31] [SPEAKER_01]: puts more authentic representation out there

[00:08:34] [SPEAKER_02]: Which is essential because you know, I guess my question

[00:08:37] [SPEAKER_02]: I keep circling back to and you've touched on it there a little bit is

[00:08:40] [SPEAKER_02]: You know, how do we come overcome some of the prejudice and preconceived ideas about

[00:08:44] [SPEAKER_02]: People who have disabilities people who have a neurodivergence or on the spectrum

[00:08:50] [SPEAKER_02]: With the general population because I think about my relationship with people

[00:08:53] [SPEAKER_02]: I knew before 2020 when everything happened to me and having a non visible disability is really tough for

[00:09:00] [SPEAKER_02]: people to kind of grasp and grapple with right they will say but but

[00:09:05] [SPEAKER_02]: You're not disabled all the time, you know

[00:09:07] [SPEAKER_02]: And my response is well, I am I just don't act or look the way you think a person with a disability would

[00:09:14] [SPEAKER_02]: You know, I don't fit into your box, right?

[00:09:17] [SPEAKER_02]: So so how else do you feel like

[00:09:20] [SPEAKER_02]: Comics can help change that perception by getting in front

[00:09:24] [SPEAKER_02]: In in front of those people's hands, you know

[00:09:26] [SPEAKER_02]: Not just the people who fall into those categories who are like, oh, I'm being seen that that's great

[00:09:31] [SPEAKER_02]: You know unseen unheard. That's kind of kind of the goal here

[00:09:34] [SPEAKER_02]: But how do we how do we else? How else do we change some of those perceptions?

[00:09:39] [SPEAKER_02]: You know with with a comic in the comics medium

[00:09:43] [SPEAKER_04]: I think that one just in general in any medium but in the comics medium for sure is um, sorry

[00:09:54] [SPEAKER_04]: That, uh

[00:09:56] [SPEAKER_04]: The more exposure the better like all you can do is just put the material out there and let it be absorbed and

[00:10:01] [SPEAKER_04]: And just put more and more stuff in any medium

[00:10:03] [SPEAKER_04]: But especially the comics medium because there's definitely a lack of representation there

[00:10:08] [SPEAKER_04]: Put the material out there is really all you can do

[00:10:11] [SPEAKER_04]: And then on top of that the more material you put out there

[00:10:14] [SPEAKER_04]: I think the more people get comfortable talking about it because there's a huge stigma against it

[00:10:19] [SPEAKER_04]: So like even with me I've been disabled for 20 years and I bring up with conversations and friends all the time

[00:10:25] [SPEAKER_04]: I have an invisible illness have fibromyalgia and

[00:10:28] [SPEAKER_04]: I bring it up all the time with friends

[00:10:30] [SPEAKER_04]: But I've gotten really comfortable in my own skin to do that

[00:10:33] [SPEAKER_04]: We're and I know you have too but a lot of other people they don't want to talk about it

[00:10:37] [SPEAKER_04]: They they think that people are gonna think well, that's all they talk about

[00:10:41] [SPEAKER_04]: They just talk about their illness all the time

[00:10:43] [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, you know and when you see things like this out there in the world

[00:10:47] [SPEAKER_04]: You're gonna maybe hopefully be more empowered to talk about it more and so that can help in that regard and

[00:10:55] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah

[00:10:56] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, most of us really don't want to talk about our illness all the time fun fact

[00:11:02] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, absolutely. Yeah, like it's it's um, we were doing a different uh

[00:11:07] [SPEAKER_01]: We were doing a different show and I brought up like some of my sensory stuff around food

[00:11:11] [SPEAKER_01]: Which is something like uh ck

[00:11:13] [SPEAKER_01]: And I have never really talked about like we talked a lot about

[00:11:15] [SPEAKER_01]: What I deal with and and what they deal with

[00:11:18] [SPEAKER_01]: But like we didn't necessarily even even being friends for almost three four years now

[00:11:24] [SPEAKER_01]: Like we we hadn't you know delved every depth of like what goes on with with each other

[00:11:30] [SPEAKER_01]: Right, and so I think and I I talked specifically about how like

[00:11:35] [SPEAKER_01]: Um, like my sensory needs with food often get dismisses. Oh, she's just picky. She's just difficult

[00:11:41] [SPEAKER_01]: She's a problem. She won't eat what's in front of her and it's like it's not that

[00:11:46] [SPEAKER_01]: It's not that I'm just

[00:11:49] [SPEAKER_01]: picky it's that like eating something that has the wrong texture or whatever is really distressing it's it's

[00:11:58] [SPEAKER_01]: It's um, I mean even just thinking about it. I'm getting like the the ick, you know, like um

[00:12:03] [SPEAKER_01]: And I've had people back and I know that's a simple thing

[00:12:07] [SPEAKER_01]: But like it does I think people don't realize too how much you have to plan for your

[00:12:12] [SPEAKER_01]: Things that disable you or things that make you outside of the norm

[00:12:16] [SPEAKER_01]: Like if I go somewhere that I know there's going to be food, but I can't predict what kind of food there will be

[00:12:20] [SPEAKER_01]: I often eat in advance because

[00:12:24] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know what it's going to be like, you know things like that. Um

[00:12:27] [SPEAKER_01]: So there's a mental load that comes with all of that and that's like a tiny example

[00:12:31] [SPEAKER_01]: Like other people do with much bigger examples like will will the venue be accessible to them?

[00:12:36] [SPEAKER_01]: Even if it's supposed to like I've seen videos on tiktok of

[00:12:40] [SPEAKER_01]: um

[00:12:40] [SPEAKER_01]: Like doctors offices that have a ramp

[00:12:42] [SPEAKER_01]: But the ramps blocked by something or the ramp was added after and the ramp doesn't actually work the way it's supposed to

[00:12:48] [SPEAKER_01]: Or the ramp has a locked door that isn't manned

[00:12:51] [SPEAKER_01]: And somebody has to be with them to walk inside and tell them to unlock the door. That's not accessible

[00:12:57] [SPEAKER_01]: that's not you know like

[00:12:59] [SPEAKER_01]: Things like that are our

[00:13:02] [SPEAKER_01]: I think this anthology does a good job of like kind of opening that door to people in a really visually accessible way

[00:13:08] [SPEAKER_01]: Okay, um and showing what people are dealing with

[00:13:12] [SPEAKER_01]: so

[00:13:13] [SPEAKER_02]: Well, there's a really broad spectrum here that we're talking about, you know, and

[00:13:19] [SPEAKER_02]: How do you approach this as editors to?

[00:13:23] [SPEAKER_02]: Put a relatively small

[00:13:25] [SPEAKER_02]: You know anthology together, you know, you got 12 stories. So how did you go about?

[00:13:30] [SPEAKER_02]: kind of parsing

[00:13:32] [SPEAKER_02]: Did you look at the submissions and then say, okay, this is perfect and this works and this works or did you come come in with?

[00:13:38] [SPEAKER_02]: Okay, well we want x and y and z genres represented

[00:13:43] [SPEAKER_04]: So basically we weren't concerned too much with genre. I don't think we we were just going to let whatever happen happen

[00:13:49] [SPEAKER_04]: um

[00:13:49] [SPEAKER_04]: And then what we did is basically we did do an open submission in this process

[00:13:53] [SPEAKER_04]: So that people that had never had a story published just had just as much a chance of getting published this time

[00:13:59] [SPEAKER_04]: Is somebody like Richard fairgrey who's in the book or Doug wood. He's in the book who's been published a lot

[00:14:04] [SPEAKER_04]: And so we're we're lucky in that way that we got some people that have never been published before

[00:14:08] [SPEAKER_04]: That this is going to be the first story which was I was really hoping we would get some of that

[00:14:12] [SPEAKER_04]: and so basically how our process worked is that we um

[00:14:16] [SPEAKER_04]: Uh, we basically just said okay, we're just going to read every story. We're going to see what hits emotionally

[00:14:23] [SPEAKER_04]: We're not going to worry about genre for now

[00:14:25] [SPEAKER_04]: We're not going to worry about which condition it's tackling for now

[00:14:27] [SPEAKER_04]: But we do want to split between you know divergence and disability in some capacity

[00:14:32] [SPEAKER_04]: Which ended up just happening to be a 5050 split

[00:14:36] [SPEAKER_04]: Which is nice um

[00:14:37] [SPEAKER_04]: And then basically what we did is we had like a yes no maybe column for everything

[00:14:41] [SPEAKER_04]: And then we were just like at the end of the day when the submissions closed

[00:14:44] [SPEAKER_04]: We looked at all our yeses and we talked about those stories

[00:14:47] [SPEAKER_04]: And we unfortunately had to cut three or four but out of the yeses

[00:14:50] [SPEAKER_04]: They just happened to cover a 5050 split

[00:14:52] [SPEAKER_04]: And they happened to not overlap with the conditions that they were talking about excel for

[00:14:57] [SPEAKER_04]: Say adhd or adhd where there are multiple

[00:15:02] [SPEAKER_04]: Angles to the story that you could tackle, you know, whether it be pattern recognition or sensory overload

[00:15:07] [SPEAKER_04]: You know different things like that. So that's the only one where we really have overlap and everything else just kind of fail into place

[00:15:12] [SPEAKER_04]: kind of naturally

[00:15:15] [SPEAKER_02]: Okay, well, I know you're trying for that a 50 representation

[00:15:20] [SPEAKER_02]: Um for creators in the pool with creative teams

[00:15:23] [SPEAKER_02]: So was that a challenge when submissions started to roll in or was it just yeah, we're getting this this was great

[00:15:29] [SPEAKER_02]: How did that work?

[00:15:30] [SPEAKER_01]: Go ahead, Aubrey. Oh no you had

[00:15:33] [SPEAKER_04]: We had a little bit of pushback online about that is hey our story's only the writer and everybody else

[00:15:40] [SPEAKER_04]: Involves is it 25 hours? Is 25 percent? Is that okay?

[00:15:44] [SPEAKER_04]: But we really did push back and say we really want at least 50 percent because we knew 100 percent would be very difficult

[00:15:50] [SPEAKER_04]: Because you know take take somebody like me

[00:15:52] [SPEAKER_04]: Who can make it two or three hours on a good day and then i'm drained

[00:15:56] [SPEAKER_04]: How am I supposed to take the time to find uh like a disabled or neurodivergent artist and colorist and literate

[00:16:02] [SPEAKER_04]: Like that and so that could be really draining and if that's me

[00:16:06] [SPEAKER_04]: I can't imagine other people it's the same situation

[00:16:09] [SPEAKER_04]: And so we didn't want to put that strain on people. So we said hey, let's just do 50 percent

[00:16:13] [SPEAKER_04]: And so we got a little bit of pushback online about that but but not too bad

[00:16:18] [SPEAKER_04]: um just some questions here and there and um, but overall

[00:16:23] [SPEAKER_04]: uh the the times that we would have

[00:16:26] [SPEAKER_04]: I can think of a couple of stories where we didn't quite hit the 50 mark

[00:16:29] [SPEAKER_04]: But they didn't have a letterer so aubrey is actually a letterer and so she's stepping in and it's going to let her a couple of the

[00:16:36] [SPEAKER_04]: um the

[00:16:37] [SPEAKER_04]: Story so that we hit the 50 mark

[00:16:40] [SPEAKER_04]: nice, okay. Yeah

[00:16:42] [SPEAKER_02]: Well, I probably be on this drum too often

[00:16:44] [SPEAKER_02]: But regular listeners will know that I dislike

[00:16:47] [SPEAKER_02]: Uh dystopian narratives or a lot of them anyway because and I don't cover many of them on the show

[00:16:51] [SPEAKER_02]: The ones I do are really damn good

[00:16:53] [SPEAKER_02]: I don't like them because they make me anxious as a reader right? I know

[00:16:56] [SPEAKER_02]: Me put in that situation I'd be toast

[00:16:59] [SPEAKER_02]: And I'd love to see that genre represented with more disability character outliers

[00:17:03] [SPEAKER_02]: You know the the ones that are successful

[00:17:06] [SPEAKER_02]: And not not just the the ones that are slower or or what have you because because of their condition

[00:17:11] [SPEAKER_02]: Have you have you gotten submissions in that radically pushed the genre

[00:17:16] [SPEAKER_02]: In a way you didn't expect

[00:17:23] [SPEAKER_04]: Oh, I was gonna let you take leave but I can talk. I feel like I'm talking too much aubrey

[00:17:27] [SPEAKER_01]: We both always feel that way. I can't nothing's coming to my brain right away. So if you have something jump, uh, not really anything that

[00:17:35] [SPEAKER_04]: pushed the

[00:17:37] [SPEAKER_04]: How do I say this nothing that pushed the genre too much except there are some artistically that are really pushing

[00:17:44] [SPEAKER_04]: Boundaries I would say like Richard fairgate always does really interesting panel layouts and things like that

[00:17:49] [SPEAKER_04]: We have Chuck how at least doing terminal vibrations, which is a story about sensory overload with with

[00:17:56] [SPEAKER_04]: dealing with that and it's a magical realism story

[00:18:00] [SPEAKER_04]: And the way they're doing the art is really pushing boundaries. I think but nothing that's like

[00:18:06] [SPEAKER_04]: We definitely don't have any dystopian stories. I don't think because we did want to go too dark

[00:18:12] [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, so we do have a good chunk of stories that are depressing that that deal with an emotional aspect

[00:18:18] [SPEAKER_04]: That's going to make you tear up because that's our lives sometimes

[00:18:21] [SPEAKER_04]: But then we also how it runs the gamut of emotions. So we have joyous in there and everything else

[00:18:27] [SPEAKER_04]: but um as far as like

[00:18:29] [SPEAKER_04]: pushing the boundaries in

[00:18:31] [SPEAKER_04]: New ways, I don't necessarily think it's that I think it's just the content that's in there is new

[00:18:37] [SPEAKER_04]: And so it's just the idea of a queer robot with ADHD

[00:18:42] [SPEAKER_04]: You know, like that's just an interesting aspect like that

[00:18:45] [SPEAKER_04]: Who's just trying to make it through the day and get the task that the boss assigned done

[00:18:50] [SPEAKER_04]: You know that kind of thing

[00:18:51] [SPEAKER_04]: But uh, so we have stories like that but in the magical realism story. I talked about with chukka at least

[00:18:57] [SPEAKER_04]: So in different ways they're they're they're pushing the boundaries a little bit

[00:19:01] [SPEAKER_04]: But i'm not going to say here and say anything is like groundbreaking in a genre or anything like that

[00:19:07] [SPEAKER_04]: It's just really really great stories

[00:19:09] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, and I think the existence alone is a little bit groundbreaking when we were looking when we were trying to figure out ideas for our covers

[00:19:16] [SPEAKER_01]: We were googling like

[00:19:18] [SPEAKER_01]: Comics anthologies about disability and neurodivergence and there's like a handful out there. There's not very many sure

[00:19:26] [SPEAKER_01]: And and one of the searches I did I can't remember what the keywords were but the first picture that came up was our call for submissions

[00:19:33] [SPEAKER_01]: So that kind of tells you like

[00:19:35] [SPEAKER_01]: There's not enough out there

[00:19:37] [SPEAKER_01]: And so it was also funny when we got that troll on twitter and I still love

[00:19:41] [SPEAKER_01]: You may have seen on tiktok

[00:19:42] [SPEAKER_01]: I put that Taylor Swift meme with like because they called us makia vellion

[00:19:47] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that was wild. I just thought that was so hilarious because i'm like dude you've never read makia velly

[00:19:53] [SPEAKER_01]: Like I've read makia velly and I know you haven't um

[00:19:56] [SPEAKER_01]: So it's just funny like

[00:19:59] [SPEAKER_01]: The idea that like telling our own stories is a little revolutionary and it picturing ourselves in these different like

[00:20:05] [SPEAKER_01]: Genres and things like that is a little revolutionary. Um my story is

[00:20:11] [SPEAKER_01]: Loosely based in like d&d style fantasy

[00:20:15] [SPEAKER_01]: um

[00:20:16] [SPEAKER_01]: That's more or less the backdrop of it

[00:20:18] [SPEAKER_01]: But still like watching that guy on twitter just push back and be so angry at us

[00:20:23] [SPEAKER_01]: Um, and he specifically referenced war hammer, which is another tabletop game

[00:20:27] [SPEAKER_01]: And it's funny. I just went to a con and I saw a guy in a wheelchair who was wearing a warhammer cosplay

[00:20:33] [SPEAKER_01]: You know and that's the thing the guy was pushing back against and i'm like

[00:20:36] [SPEAKER_01]: This is somebody who's lived existence

[00:20:39] [SPEAKER_01]: Is them doing something they love and that's what we're doing

[00:20:42] [SPEAKER_01]: And so if you don't want us to do it cool, don't buy the book like right go away

[00:20:47] [SPEAKER_01]: you know like

[00:20:48] [SPEAKER_01]: yeah, um

[00:20:50] [SPEAKER_01]: So I think there's definitely um

[00:20:53] [SPEAKER_01]: We may not be breaking the genres and I would love to see more

[00:20:58] [SPEAKER_01]: um disability representation in dystopian because I think a lot of it's just assumed

[00:21:02] [SPEAKER_01]: Like I don't enjoy when people play the game of like oh, what do you think your life would be like in The Walking Dead?

[00:21:07] [SPEAKER_02]: I'm like, I probably wouldn't be here. Yo, I'd be like that's not I have five minutes right, you know

[00:21:12] [SPEAKER_01]: Like and it's not because I'm not like I don't have grit. I'm not tough

[00:21:16] [SPEAKER_01]: It's because I have medications I rely on that help my body

[00:21:19] [SPEAKER_01]: You know things like that that it would be very difficult for me to survive in that world state

[00:21:24] [SPEAKER_01]: And I don't really want to think about it. You know, yeah, I mean I think about

[00:21:29] [SPEAKER_02]: Recently and I'm not trying to get get political or anything like that

[00:21:33] [SPEAKER_02]: everything that's going on with israel and and

[00:21:37] [SPEAKER_02]: Palestine lately and just

[00:21:40] [SPEAKER_02]: The lack of empathy because I I immediately go to

[00:21:43] [SPEAKER_02]: Oh my god, like if I if I was in this situation personally, you know, I would be confronted with

[00:21:49] [SPEAKER_02]: telling my telling my family basically you need to leave me

[00:21:54] [SPEAKER_02]: You know because I'm holding you back

[00:21:56] [SPEAKER_02]: Like I am not going to make it and that that is

[00:21:59] [SPEAKER_02]: Horrific, right?

[00:22:01] [SPEAKER_02]: And these are the these are the kinds of things that we deal with these are the kinds of things that we have to think about every day

[00:22:06] [SPEAKER_02]: So yes, Machiavellian seemed a touch too far

[00:22:10] [SPEAKER_01]: I mean all of it was too far with that guy

[00:22:12] [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, that's why I went to a different platform and made the joke because I was just like

[00:22:16] [SPEAKER_01]: You're just c-lining in the comments

[00:22:18] [SPEAKER_01]: You just want to fight with people and every time someone did engage with him

[00:22:21] [SPEAKER_01]: He kept moving the goalposts

[00:22:23] [SPEAKER_01]: And so I was like you just want to fight with people and tell us we're wrong

[00:22:25] [SPEAKER_01]: Right

[00:22:27] [SPEAKER_04]: And interesting

[00:22:28] [SPEAKER_04]: Interestingly enough that's specifically why we made that cover is because

[00:22:33] [SPEAKER_04]: Of the discourse we were like we need a fantasy cover with physical disabilities and ensures the world

[00:22:38] [SPEAKER_04]: We got the pushback, but but I think that's the point that always making for sure is that to circle back to the anthology is that it

[00:22:46] [SPEAKER_04]: Is that we are it's not that we're breaking genres is that we're we're breaking the mold that's within each genre

[00:22:52] [SPEAKER_04]: By including these stories the

[00:22:55] [SPEAKER_04]: Indisabled stories and neurodiversion stories. So I think that's more where we're lying with that

[00:23:00] [SPEAKER_02]: Okay, well have your expectations changed of what this could be or has it evolved over the course of working on it

[00:23:07] [SPEAKER_04]: It has for me

[00:23:09] [SPEAKER_04]: When I first started I didn't know what we were going to get

[00:23:11] [SPEAKER_04]: We ended up getting so many gate submissions that we have a few for a volume two if we're able to do a volume two

[00:23:18] [SPEAKER_04]: Nice

[00:23:18] [SPEAKER_04]: My expectations have changed because the quality of these stories is so amazing

[00:23:24] [SPEAKER_04]: That I actually think we could win some awards if we can just get the books out there get them into the right hands

[00:23:30] [SPEAKER_04]: Get the reviewers going

[00:23:32] [SPEAKER_04]: Then I really think we have something special and I don't just say that because

[00:23:37] [SPEAKER_04]: I'm biased or anything like that

[00:23:39] [SPEAKER_04]: I actually think that's a true statement

[00:23:41] [SPEAKER_04]: I did not have that that expectation going into it and now i'm like

[00:23:45] [SPEAKER_04]: This could be really something special if we can just get it funded

[00:23:50] [SPEAKER_04]: Aubrey, what about you?

[00:23:53] [SPEAKER_01]: So I certainly didn't have that expectation but as we've gone along like there's some really

[00:23:58] [SPEAKER_01]: Really good stories in this book

[00:24:00] [SPEAKER_01]: um, and so I absolutely agree there

[00:24:03] [SPEAKER_01]: I

[00:24:05] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if I ever think that far ahead if I'm honest like I'm a planner. I love planning but uh

[00:24:11] [SPEAKER_01]: Chris will tell you I'm a very like I think it's probably the autism. I'm very practical

[00:24:15] [SPEAKER_01]: Okay, and so I try to

[00:24:18] [SPEAKER_01]: prepare for the worst hope for the best

[00:24:20] [SPEAKER_01]: um

[00:24:21] [SPEAKER_01]: But I think my hope was just that we'd make a cool book and that people would support it

[00:24:25] [SPEAKER_01]: And and so far that's happened like um

[00:24:29] [SPEAKER_01]: We've got a little ways to go on the Kickstarter, but we've had steady support

[00:24:32] [SPEAKER_01]: Um so far knock on wood and I will knock my desk for that just to get because we are terrified of jinxing ourselves

[00:24:39] [SPEAKER_01]: um

[00:24:41] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think there's always the anxiety of like when submissions open um is anybody can submit

[00:24:47] [SPEAKER_01]: You know and especially with this being more of a niche thing

[00:24:51] [SPEAKER_01]: Um, I know everybody's gonna submit to like an open calls for a horror book because

[00:24:56] [SPEAKER_01]: There they were going to be a bunch of horror creators out there

[00:25:00] [SPEAKER_01]: So this was something a little bit more

[00:25:03] [SPEAKER_01]: To the side of things and then like as we say in the Kickstarter

[00:25:07] [SPEAKER_01]: Creators with disabilities and neurodivergence are dealing with different barriers that other people don't deal with

[00:25:12] [SPEAKER_01]: And so you just don't know like we've had I've had more than one person say

[00:25:15] [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, I really wanted to submit to this

[00:25:17] [SPEAKER_01]: But my disability actually put up a barrier like I wasn't able to I had other deadlines and I had to complete other things on time

[00:25:23] [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, yeah

[00:25:24] [SPEAKER_01]: You know and I think that's something I deal with constantly like there's been

[00:25:27] [SPEAKER_01]: I've watched many a like mad cave contest fly by my radar like oh, yes

[00:25:33] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm gonna submit to that I've even gotten pages half done and then I just had client work or whatever

[00:25:38] [SPEAKER_01]: And I wasn't able to finish in time, you know

[00:25:41] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, no, I feel that 100% like as the I want to shed myself of the aspiring colorist label

[00:25:47] [SPEAKER_02]: That's what I keep calling myself, right

[00:25:50] [SPEAKER_02]: But I also try to communicate to people even even jimmy's like hey, hey

[00:25:54] [SPEAKER_02]: You don't want to do this you want to do this and yeah, I totally want to do

[00:25:57] [SPEAKER_02]: But I also try to be realistic about time that that I that I have that in my day that looks different than

[00:26:04] [SPEAKER_02]: somebody

[00:26:06] [SPEAKER_02]: Who doesn't have that, you know a disability?

[00:26:08] [SPEAKER_02]: Um, and it and it's really really challenging. I don't I don't think people can honestly fully understand

[00:26:14] [SPEAKER_02]: You know what what our community goes through? Oh, yeah, uh my um

[00:26:21] [SPEAKER_04]: So I had to live with my family when I first became disabled because I had to go through the social security

[00:26:26] [SPEAKER_04]: disability process to try to get done ssdi and I was living at home with them and then

[00:26:32] [SPEAKER_04]: Recently my mom got diagnosed with chronic myelokemia, which she's perfectly fine. She's healthy

[00:26:37] [SPEAKER_04]: She just takes medicine every day. She's good to go no big deal there

[00:26:41] [SPEAKER_04]: But it makes her really tired and now she's like now

[00:26:45] [SPEAKER_04]: I understand what you always meant when you could only function a couple of hours a day

[00:26:49] [SPEAKER_04]: And so like to get with the anthology

[00:26:53] [SPEAKER_04]: You know, I have to put all of my personal projects on the whole

[00:26:57] [SPEAKER_04]: Like just to do this anthology. So for six months of my time now

[00:27:01] [SPEAKER_04]: I'm not going to get to write my graphic memoir that I was working on or the horror comic that I was working on

[00:27:06] [SPEAKER_04]: Now I have to take a break from everything I wanted to do and devote myself to this anthology

[00:27:11] [SPEAKER_04]: But it's so important that I wanted to do that but I don't think a lot of people get that they

[00:27:15] [SPEAKER_04]: They think you can juggle as many balls as they can and we just don't have the spoons for that. So

[00:27:22] [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, yeah

[00:27:24] [SPEAKER_01]: Sorry, I was just gonna say that's exactly it like um

[00:27:28] [SPEAKER_01]: It

[00:27:29] [SPEAKER_01]: The other thing and I I always talked about like oh rest is so important when I like uh, I had a friend who

[00:27:35] [SPEAKER_01]: he'd always like kind of be

[00:27:37] [SPEAKER_01]: um our accountability buddies

[00:27:39] [SPEAKER_01]: And now as my ADHD and autism have gotten worse

[00:27:44] [SPEAKER_01]: Like rest isn't even important. It's a requirement. Like if I don't rest, I don't like I fall apart for weeks, you know, like

[00:27:51] [SPEAKER_01]: It's just a totally different thing

[00:27:54] [SPEAKER_01]: than someone who's full like able-bodied and neurotypical

[00:27:57] [SPEAKER_01]: It's just not even in the same realm

[00:28:01] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I completely get it. I mean I try to just people who who know me that are close on the inside

[00:28:07] [SPEAKER_02]: See it and then they really see it especially with the food stuff because

[00:28:13] [SPEAKER_02]: I have kept my condition relatively stable

[00:28:17] [SPEAKER_02]: Because I eat the exact same meal

[00:28:20] [SPEAKER_02]: three times a day

[00:28:22] [SPEAKER_02]: Every single day like it doesn't deviate and that's what keeps me stable

[00:28:26] [SPEAKER_02]: And that takes a lot of time to prep that food, you know, like I am prepping indoor eating my food

[00:28:34] [SPEAKER_02]: Six hours a day

[00:28:36] [SPEAKER_02]: You know and people whoa that is insane. Like I would never get anything done

[00:28:41] [SPEAKER_02]: There you go. Yep

[00:28:44] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah

[00:28:45] [SPEAKER_02]: Well, I'm curious what your your personal goals are here, you know, you what would you like the reader to take away?

[00:28:51] [SPEAKER_02]: Ultimately for me, you know, I'll throw my two cents here

[00:28:53] [SPEAKER_02]: It would be moving the needle and a little bit in thinking of disability as as lesser

[00:28:58] [SPEAKER_02]: That would be a total win in in my mind or myself if I was in your shoes, but what about you?

[00:29:05] [SPEAKER_01]: I think for me it's um, there's like there's the the story

[00:29:09] [SPEAKER_01]: CK mentioned about the robot with ADHD or there's the one terminal vibrations by Chuck that

[00:29:17] [SPEAKER_01]: Really showcase like specifically the things I also deal with and those really resonated with me as well

[00:29:22] [SPEAKER_01]: um, because I think to autism and ADHD still have so much like

[00:29:28] [SPEAKER_01]: preconceived notions about who it is what it looks like

[00:29:31] [SPEAKER_01]: Like I even saw on twitter today a discussion about well, or maybe it's tiktok. I can't remember

[00:29:35] [SPEAKER_01]: I I'd like social. I'm in a lot of those spaces on social media

[00:29:39] [SPEAKER_01]: um

[00:29:40] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, you know a lot of engineers are autistic so and they do fine

[00:29:44] [SPEAKER_01]: So like why why are these women complaining was basically the gist of the comment and I

[00:29:50] [SPEAKER_01]: I I can't respond to all those things because it stresses me out, but like

[00:29:55] [SPEAKER_01]: It's a different environment. My husband is autistic and an engineer and uh

[00:30:00] [SPEAKER_01]: I think those those environments are almost more supported because you do have a more tendency of having more people with either that leaning or that

[00:30:07] [SPEAKER_01]: Kind of brain in those areas

[00:30:10] [SPEAKER_01]: So they're gonna accommodate for that like it's going to be an automatic accommodation

[00:30:14] [SPEAKER_01]: Whereas if I go into you know teaching or corporate or corporate work or something like that

[00:30:20] [SPEAKER_01]: Those comedy accommodations are not going to be felt it. Um, and I'm going to be

[00:30:25] [SPEAKER_01]: People in those settings are going to be expected to be social, you know or whatever

[00:30:30] [SPEAKER_01]: And so I hope it'll just show people more of what they're dealing with

[00:30:34] [SPEAKER_01]: Okay, um, because I think I think that comics is such a unique medium with the visual

[00:30:39] [SPEAKER_01]: That you can show things that you can't necessarily show like if you're talking about it in text

[00:30:44] [SPEAKER_01]: Or even in a movie because the movie is going to move through it differently

[00:30:47] [SPEAKER_01]: Because your pacing is going to be different in a comic

[00:30:49] [SPEAKER_01]: So I hope it just gives them a look into like what all of the the different creators in our book are dealing with

[00:30:56] [SPEAKER_01]: In such a unique way

[00:30:59] Okay

[00:31:00] [SPEAKER_04]: And uh, really to piggyback off of what but to be said and I'm going to try my best not to tear up when I say this

[00:31:05] [SPEAKER_04]: Um, so like like I said, I've been dealing with this for 20 years

[00:31:09] [SPEAKER_04]: I've been in comics now for three years and seeing the lack of representation

[00:31:13] [SPEAKER_04]: I really needed to put this together like it was my little nugget of an idea and then Aubrey and Anas have done an amazing job

[00:31:20] [SPEAKER_04]: helping me bring it to life

[00:31:22] [SPEAKER_04]: And uh, for me what I want people to get out of it is I want people

[00:31:26] [SPEAKER_04]: With a condition to read these stories even if it's not their condition precisely

[00:31:32] [SPEAKER_04]: and feel empowered

[00:31:34] [SPEAKER_04]: and um, then secondly, I want

[00:31:37] [SPEAKER_04]: People who maybe don't have conditions who like you said it needs to move the needle where they have a little bit more empathy

[00:31:44] [SPEAKER_04]: They have a little bit more

[00:31:46] [SPEAKER_04]: Understanding and they're like, okay. I get this a little bit more from this story

[00:31:50] [SPEAKER_04]: Now how can I apply that to my friend or family member's life that has a condition because we all know somebody

[00:31:56] [SPEAKER_04]: He's either neurodivergent or disabled and um, and so hopefully to become a better ally

[00:32:03] [SPEAKER_04]: For those people and then to feel empowered for people with conditions

[00:32:07] [SPEAKER_04]: So hey, I made it without tearing up. Yay. Good job

[00:32:12] [SPEAKER_02]: I'll try not to make you tear up with any of the questions. All right, let's take a quick break

[00:32:25] [SPEAKER_02]: After a string of unexplained disappearances in the southern parts of the united states

[00:32:29] [SPEAKER_02]: Retired detective Clint searches for his white trash brother while searching for him

[00:32:34] [SPEAKER_02]: He ends up being abducted by aliens

[00:32:37] [SPEAKER_02]: He is now in the arena for big guns stupid rednecks

[00:32:41] [SPEAKER_02]: An intergalactic cable's newest hit show which puts him and other humans in laser gun gladiatorial combat

[00:32:47] [SPEAKER_02]: And his brother is the reigning champion with 27 kills

[00:32:52] [SPEAKER_02]: That's the premise for a new book from band of barns big guns stupid rednecks

[00:32:57] [SPEAKER_02]: I got a chance to see an advanced preview of this book and being from the south honestly

[00:33:01] [SPEAKER_02]: I was a bit skeptical going in but they won me over and nothing is more powerful than an initially skeptic convert in my book

[00:33:08] [SPEAKER_02]: In jimmy's words big guns stupid rednecks is many things, but it isn't subtle

[00:33:13] [SPEAKER_02]: It tells you exactly what it is up front

[00:33:15] [SPEAKER_02]: Then it delivers with a great premise fantastic art and a whole mess of fun

[00:33:19] [SPEAKER_02]: I had a great time reading big guns stupid rednecks

[00:33:22] [SPEAKER_02]: And what I thought was going to be an indictment of redneck culture quickly showed it was actually a love letter

[00:33:27] [SPEAKER_02]: A family mystery brother pitted against brother aliens fighting for profit in a big arena

[00:33:32] [SPEAKER_02]: This truly has it all issue one is out already

[00:33:35] [SPEAKER_02]: But you can still pick up a copy on the band of barns website and current issues are available via your previews or lunar order form

[00:33:42] [SPEAKER_02]: Or just ask your lcs. Don't miss. Let's get back to the show

[00:33:46] [SPEAKER_02]: I'm curious how so you you basically said you needed to put it out and you knew aubrey

[00:33:53] [SPEAKER_02]: as fellow editors with the scott snider

[00:33:56] [SPEAKER_02]: That presents tales from the cloakroom volume one. Is that is that right?

[00:33:59] [SPEAKER_02]: And so how did you put anison and everybody together here? How did how did the three of you

[00:34:04] [SPEAKER_02]: Decide to okay now tk. I want to do this

[00:34:08] [SPEAKER_02]: and go

[00:34:09] [SPEAKER_04]: So yeah, basically that's what it was is I knew aubrey had the skill set. I knew she had

[00:34:16] [SPEAKER_04]: um

[00:34:17] [SPEAKER_04]: She just needed to wait to recharge from after the last editorial project

[00:34:22] [SPEAKER_04]: And then um anis. I knew I've known for a couple of years

[00:34:26] [SPEAKER_04]: I just reach out to them and dm them on twitter and said I love ethros so much

[00:34:30] [SPEAKER_04]: I love objects in the mirror so much. I just wanted you to know that and our friendship

[00:34:35] [SPEAKER_04]: Blossomed after that and they have an amazing skill set and they've done a lot of projects

[00:34:41] [SPEAKER_04]: And so thinking about putting it together. I thought well

[00:34:45] [SPEAKER_04]: Three of us get along so well

[00:34:48] [SPEAKER_04]: Let's try this out. We we've done this before aubrey and I have and this is amazing

[00:34:52] [SPEAKER_04]: So let's bring them on board and let's make this happen

[00:34:55] [SPEAKER_04]: And it has been a smooth sailing process for the most part

[00:34:59] [SPEAKER_04]: You know, there's always going to be a little bit of conflict here and there when you disagree with something

[00:35:03] [SPEAKER_04]: But everything was resolved amicably we get along so well

[00:35:07] [SPEAKER_04]: And that's really how it went is this is an idea. These are two of my best friends

[00:35:11] [SPEAKER_04]: And we're all on board

[00:35:13] [SPEAKER_04]: We all have the skill sets that complement each other because I can do things that they can't

[00:35:17] [SPEAKER_04]: They can do things that I can't and so we all brought something to the table

[00:35:21] [SPEAKER_04]: And we also have enough overlap where if one of us is feeling drained that the other one can take over

[00:35:27] [SPEAKER_04]: And it'd be perfectly fine. And so it was it's kind of like

[00:35:32] [SPEAKER_04]: It's it's been perfection to be honest

[00:35:34] [SPEAKER_04]: Oh, it's close to perfection as you can get I guess

[00:35:38] [SPEAKER_02]: Cool, aubrey do you have any kind of

[00:35:40] [SPEAKER_04]: anything?

[00:35:41] [SPEAKER_01]: I think that's exactly what it was is um there have been times where uh

[00:35:47] [SPEAKER_01]: Like my I've definitely had to be like

[00:35:49] [SPEAKER_01]: I

[00:35:50] [SPEAKER_01]: Just barely is when my life slowed down a little bit

[00:35:53] [SPEAKER_01]: But like the last few months have been like a whirlwind for me

[00:35:55] [SPEAKER_01]: And so I've been just thinking about the pieces of the thing that are mine

[00:35:59] [SPEAKER_01]: and also letting them know like the thing that I need to get done will get done

[00:36:04] [SPEAKER_01]: It'll probably get done this time not right this time because

[00:36:08] [SPEAKER_01]: you know, like that's the reality right now. I

[00:36:10] [SPEAKER_01]: I

[00:36:11] [SPEAKER_01]: Kept the launch date out of my head

[00:36:14] [SPEAKER_01]: Like I knew generally when we were launching but I didn't have like the exact date in my brain until about a week

[00:36:18] [SPEAKER_01]: before

[00:36:20] [SPEAKER_01]: Because I had a lot on my plate

[00:36:22] [SPEAKER_01]: And so it's been really nice to have the three of us because we can help each other in that way

[00:36:27] [SPEAKER_01]: um and so we can

[00:36:31] [SPEAKER_01]: If the ball stops rolling because one of us is dealing with something another person can start rolling that ball or

[00:36:36] [SPEAKER_01]: um sometimes I struggle with like email responses because I'm worried about my intonation

[00:36:42] [SPEAKER_01]: um or

[00:36:43] [SPEAKER_01]: Communicating effectively because that's something I struggle with

[00:36:46] [SPEAKER_01]: and or over communicating because that's something I struggle with

[00:36:50] [SPEAKER_01]: And so it's been nice to be able to go back to both of them and go. Hey

[00:36:53] [SPEAKER_01]: How do I what do I say here? What do you think and get some feedback and um

[00:36:59] [SPEAKER_01]: Have that help uh, so I think and not have it treated as like oh my gosh

[00:37:04] [SPEAKER_01]: Can you not figure this out like have it understood that like that's a literal part of what I deal with as someone who is audio HD

[00:37:12] [SPEAKER_01]: Is communication issues? Yeah, and so

[00:37:15] [SPEAKER_01]: Having a little bit of support to make sure we're communicating effectively is really helpful

[00:37:20] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it's funny. I was going through that um in a way the other day with my son

[00:37:25] [SPEAKER_02]: So trying to get crank out these indie comics uh recommendations every week now

[00:37:30] [SPEAKER_02]: Uh for tiktok and like youtube shorts and stuff. So I you know my son who's he's a teenager

[00:37:36] [SPEAKER_02]: He's he's in snapchat and everything like that. So say okay kiddo

[00:37:40] [SPEAKER_02]: I'm gonna do in here and he's like you're really flat

[00:37:45] [SPEAKER_02]: So I was like, okay, I'll work on that

[00:37:47] [SPEAKER_02]: But it's really good to have people you trust anyway that that can give you that

[00:37:51] [SPEAKER_02]: us feedback and and you can absorb it and you know in a loving way

[00:37:55] [SPEAKER_04]: So that's really I I love your little tiktok shorts where you do like like the daniel the daniel craig wind that popped up

[00:38:02] [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, yeah, I was like how in the that's magic to me. I was like, how do you even do that?

[00:38:07] [SPEAKER_04]: So I like them. I think they're good. Good. Thank you. Yeah, so I have um a video editing background

[00:38:14] [SPEAKER_02]: I've done a lot of it in the past

[00:38:15] [SPEAKER_02]: Sort of my it was odd that my first experience with it was

[00:38:19] [SPEAKER_02]: So I grew up in a southern baptist church and so I'd been out of the church for several years

[00:38:24] [SPEAKER_02]: that I grew up in

[00:38:26] [SPEAKER_02]: And then there was this opportunity to to sort of work with my dad and

[00:38:31] [SPEAKER_02]: In the back editing room and just you know crank out

[00:38:34] [SPEAKER_02]: Weekly sermon stuff and and so it became a part-time job. So that's where I learned to do video editing

[00:38:41] [SPEAKER_02]: So I think a lot of it is just being comfortable with it and just knowing that you're just sort of

[00:38:47] [SPEAKER_02]: Taking these pieces of the puzzle and shifting them around and trying to to make it clever

[00:38:52] [SPEAKER_02]: Now in a way that that keeps people watching it, you know, because it's not it's not

[00:38:57] [SPEAKER_02]: enough to

[00:38:58] [SPEAKER_02]: To just get people to click it on something they're already predisposed to be interested in

[00:39:02] [SPEAKER_02]: You have to keep them engaged and and that's that's the trick now. That's that's why I enlisted my teenager because you know

[00:39:11] [SPEAKER_02]: I don't know any of the vernacular

[00:39:13] [SPEAKER_02]: He was trying to tell me about all the words and it was so funny because he's um

[00:39:17] [SPEAKER_02]: He and of him and of himself as this little old man, even though he's a teenager

[00:39:21] [SPEAKER_02]: Uh, so he was talking about the the gen alphas, you know, and it's like oh

[00:39:26] [SPEAKER_02]: And it was so it came off so much as all these kids today

[00:39:29] [SPEAKER_02]: You know, he's like they keep using the these words and I was like, oh man, you know, you're so funny

[00:39:37] [SPEAKER_02]: But anyway, I want to I want to get to to your stories in the book because you're both contributing too

[00:39:42] [SPEAKER_02]: So, uh, I'll read the the ballot of kassandra. Like we're looking at an autistic bard

[00:39:47] [SPEAKER_02]: I I've never seen a story about an autistic tell me about this. This is pretty cool

[00:39:50] [SPEAKER_01]: yeah, so I had in my I had my notes app this idea of um

[00:39:56] [SPEAKER_01]: A bard who sings about like her autistic pattern recognition because I was specifically struggling with

[00:40:04] [SPEAKER_01]: A few social groups I'd been in where I'm like, hey, this person is not safe

[00:40:09] [SPEAKER_01]: And they're like, why are you being so negative?

[00:40:12] [SPEAKER_01]: And I'm like, I promise you they're not safe. I don't know. I can't I can't explain exactly why

[00:40:18] [SPEAKER_01]: But I'm seeing some red flags

[00:40:20] [SPEAKER_01]: And I know you're not seeing them. So I'm just trying to tell you

[00:40:23] [SPEAKER_01]: We're not safer

[00:40:24] [SPEAKER_01]: And it's always

[00:40:27] [SPEAKER_01]: Like why are you being such a pain? Why are you being so negative?

[00:40:30] [SPEAKER_01]: Or let me explain to you why you're wrong

[00:40:33] [SPEAKER_01]: and so I just had this idea like

[00:40:36] [SPEAKER_01]: Probably even a year more than a year ago about

[00:40:39] [SPEAKER_01]: That idea of someone who deals with autistic pattern recognition

[00:40:43] [SPEAKER_01]: but also how they kind of decide to

[00:40:46] [SPEAKER_01]: I wouldn't say turn it into something positive

[00:40:48] [SPEAKER_01]: But like not necessarily look at it as a negative themselves

[00:40:52] [SPEAKER_01]: Um, and so that's what gem of the bard does gem of the bard sings a song about kassandra

[00:40:58] [SPEAKER_01]: And it shows different ways that she's using her autistic pattern recognition and kind of how she comes to terms with it

[00:41:04] [SPEAKER_01]: um

[00:41:05] [SPEAKER_01]: and so I don't know I I

[00:41:08] [SPEAKER_01]: played balder's gate three. I just uh

[00:41:10] [SPEAKER_01]: I cosplayed as car like with my husband in his house and just recently and I um

[00:41:16] [SPEAKER_01]: I did not think that the bard class would be a class that I loved because I've always played like sorcerers or

[00:41:22] [SPEAKER_01]: rogues

[00:41:22] [SPEAKER_01]: And then I was like, oh this is like

[00:41:25] [SPEAKER_01]: performance with a little bit of magic

[00:41:27] [SPEAKER_01]: Which is like life as an autistic person for me is performance with a little bit of magic

[00:41:32] [SPEAKER_01]: Like I've always had people be like, oh my gosh, you're so social. You're so animated

[00:41:36] [SPEAKER_01]: And so much of that is like the mask I wear

[00:41:39] [SPEAKER_01]: And so that's performance. That's what a bard does and so I'm like, oh, I've got to figure out a way to like

[00:41:45] [SPEAKER_01]: Translate this into a story

[00:41:47] [SPEAKER_01]: And this just happened to be the perfect opportunity for that. So I'd had like

[00:41:51] [SPEAKER_01]: three different notes on my notes app about like vague ideas of where this story would go and then finally

[00:41:56] [SPEAKER_01]: With this our submissions process it finally lit the fire under me

[00:42:00] [SPEAKER_01]: And as we opened I was like kid this I will turn in my story

[00:42:04] [SPEAKER_01]: The day it closes the day our submission closes. I promise you it'll be there

[00:42:08] [SPEAKER_01]: But that's when it's gonna happen because my brain will not want to do it

[00:42:11] [SPEAKER_01]: Until it knows I'm almost in trouble

[00:42:14] [SPEAKER_01]: You know, and that's exactly what happened see kick and tell you like

[00:42:18] [SPEAKER_01]: I think I turned it in like that night like right as we were closing things

[00:42:22] [SPEAKER_01]: so

[00:42:23] [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, I I love an artistic bard and music is is universal

[00:42:28] [SPEAKER_02]: but

[00:42:29] [SPEAKER_02]: It's always fascinating to me to see how music

[00:42:33] [SPEAKER_02]: Is interpreted and is a special thing to people who are on the spectrum. Like I was watching

[00:42:40] [SPEAKER_02]: um

[00:42:41] [SPEAKER_02]: Was it America's Got Talent and we were watching a couple of years ago and there was somebody who's clearly

[00:42:47] [SPEAKER_02]: You know very autistic, you know significant disability associated with it, but you put them in front of a piano and

[00:42:55] [SPEAKER_02]: It's just magic, you know

[00:42:58] [SPEAKER_01]: For me, it's how I've understood the world. My father was super so my father was also an our day of origin

[00:43:03] [SPEAKER_01]: But he had bipolar disorder. Okay. Um, and he was very he loved music. So I just was raised with that

[00:43:10] [SPEAKER_01]: um kind of in my veins and

[00:43:14] [SPEAKER_01]: For me it helps me figure out who I am like song lyrics and stuff like that like help me interpret or if I feel if I hear a song

[00:43:22] [SPEAKER_01]: Playing in my head over and over. I'm figuring that's trying to tell me something sometimes

[00:43:26] [SPEAKER_01]: Like if I'm hearing

[00:43:28] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know we got to get out of this place or like stuck in the middle with you

[00:43:33] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm like, okay. What is that telling me? What is my brain trying to communicate me through this song?

[00:43:38] [SPEAKER_01]: That I am feeling inside my body that I'm not realizing

[00:43:42] Um

[00:43:43] [SPEAKER_01]: And so and I used to sing when I was younger. I still sing sometimes but like I used to perform when I was younger

[00:43:49] [SPEAKER_01]: okay, and so

[00:43:51] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think I think for me especially music is just such a it helps me process the entire world in a way that

[00:43:59] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm sure other people do to some extent, but like

[00:44:02] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know it just contextualized it helps me contextualize things as an autistic person

[00:44:07] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, for me it was always a way to feel like I was a

[00:44:12] [SPEAKER_02]: greater part of

[00:44:14] [SPEAKER_02]: fitting in I guess it was because

[00:44:17] [SPEAKER_02]: I worked shows for for 15 years and there was

[00:44:20] [SPEAKER_02]: It's one of the few moments in my time to my life where

[00:44:24] [SPEAKER_02]: I felt in sync with everybody else around me, you know

[00:44:27] [SPEAKER_02]: I could hand the mic off to the person who actually did have musical talent. I don't I can't sing I can't

[00:44:33] [SPEAKER_02]: I can play a couple instruments, but not I never really dedicated myself enough to getting truly competent at it

[00:44:38] [SPEAKER_02]: But certainly I hand the mic off to the talent. So at least I'm a piece of that

[00:44:43] [SPEAKER_02]: But then there is this communal bond when when they walk out on stage and whether it's 500 or whether it's 50 000

[00:44:51] [SPEAKER_02]: You just feel like you're apart like everyone is equal, you know in that moment and that has is sort of always why

[00:44:59] [SPEAKER_02]: I've connected to music but yeah

[00:45:02] [SPEAKER_02]: All right, so ck trying not to make you cry or anything

[00:45:06] [SPEAKER_02]: But step by step focused on fibromyalgia my mother-in-law has it and I've seen how devastating it can be

[00:45:12] [SPEAKER_02]: So tell me about your story

[00:45:15] [SPEAKER_04]: Sure, uh, and I'll read just really quickly your artist's name is

[00:45:18] [SPEAKER_04]: Norn

[00:45:19] [SPEAKER_04]: Norn because okay, just wanted to make sure that was recognized. Um, so I'll be working with my coraco and arts

[00:45:27] [SPEAKER_04]: and colors and a blyn jebson on

[00:45:30] [SPEAKER_04]: Letters and so my story step by step is basically

[00:45:35] [SPEAKER_04]: Actually an inspirational story. Uh, it walks through my journey of the last 20 years

[00:45:40] [SPEAKER_04]: And so it basically just starts with how I became diagnosed what how what I had to go through to get that diagnosis

[00:45:47] [SPEAKER_04]: Um, the the turn when I actually got the notice from the government that they were going to give me social security disability income

[00:45:54] [SPEAKER_04]: Which is really really really hard to get

[00:45:57] [SPEAKER_04]: And then my final acceptance of my condition and so mine is actually a very positive story

[00:46:05] [SPEAKER_04]: And uh, what's cool about it is working with my

[00:46:10] [SPEAKER_04]: It's been a really collaborative process so far even though we've done like he's done like a

[00:46:16] [SPEAKER_04]: sketches and things like that, you know, he hasn't like done the whole story yet

[00:46:20] [SPEAKER_04]: but one thing I mentioned in the

[00:46:23] [SPEAKER_04]: The script was that I had this idea of

[00:46:27] [SPEAKER_04]: Every time that I was

[00:46:29] [SPEAKER_04]: In the story like at first there would be concrete blocks tight around my feet to show that I was struggling to walk

[00:46:36] [SPEAKER_04]: And then slowly but surely more and more bricks on me more and more things like that

[00:46:41] [SPEAKER_04]: And then he came back and he was like, what if we did it this way instead like blending the realism with surrealism?

[00:46:47] [SPEAKER_04]: And what if we did it this way? And I was like, that's a really better idea. I like that a lot more

[00:46:52] [SPEAKER_04]: So let's do that. So it's been a really cool collaborative process with mike. I've really enjoyed it and um, and yeah

[00:46:58] [SPEAKER_04]: It's just a very I don't want to say

[00:47:01] [SPEAKER_04]: Actually, I would kind of say upbeat for me because I tend to write very depressing stories

[00:47:06] [SPEAKER_04]: And so I think this one is actually pretty upbeat may I abry would you agree there?

[00:47:11] [SPEAKER_01]: I wouldn't call them depressing. I would call them

[00:47:14] [SPEAKER_01]: um emotion evoking

[00:47:15] [SPEAKER_04]: But as far as this one goes would you say it's more?

[00:47:19] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, this was more hopeful like I would say is what it is is like

[00:47:24] [SPEAKER_01]: um, I think a lot of people

[00:47:26] [SPEAKER_01]: on the disability and neurodivergent spectrum have dealt with the

[00:47:31] [SPEAKER_01]: At least the the element of like going to doctors

[00:47:34] [SPEAKER_01]: And being like hey something's happening with me and them being like is it though?

[00:47:39] [SPEAKER_01]: Are you sure like are you really in pain? It's if you are in pain. It's really not that bad

[00:47:44] [SPEAKER_01]: It couldn't be that bad. Um

[00:47:46] [SPEAKER_01]: And I say this is like my dad was a physician

[00:47:49] [SPEAKER_01]: He was a initially a pathologist and then he became a psychiatrist

[00:47:52] [SPEAKER_01]: So he was an md

[00:47:53] [SPEAKER_01]: And like I've definitely grew it up around the medical establishment

[00:47:58] [SPEAKER_01]: But yeah convincing people. I think my mother-in-law who also has phymen myalgia. I think it took her

[00:48:04] [SPEAKER_01]: Was it 12 years to get diagnosed? It took a long time

[00:48:08] [SPEAKER_01]: um to get any any leeway on that um

[00:48:12] so

[00:48:14] [SPEAKER_01]: But I think it shows that like

[00:48:17] [SPEAKER_01]: Your story shows that like there's what like even though that's a process like um

[00:48:22] [SPEAKER_01]: Once you get through that process and work through various processes

[00:48:25] [SPEAKER_01]: Like you can find your own quality of life and figure out how to make things work

[00:48:29] [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, it's it's more like you you can do it just hang in there like that's kind of the point of the story

[00:48:35] [SPEAKER_04]: And uh, usually my job in writing to me is to make a person cry

[00:48:40] [SPEAKER_04]: But this time I was like there's enough crying in the world

[00:48:43] [SPEAKER_04]: We are gonna go happy here. And so that's the that's the track. I decided to go down this time

[00:48:49] [SPEAKER_02]: Nice. Well how in terms of the mix of things so

[00:48:53] [SPEAKER_02]: Between your two stories, it's it's a great

[00:48:55] [SPEAKER_02]: There's a grid line there right because there's the autistic part and then there's something that is definitely more

[00:49:02] [SPEAKER_02]: Autobiographical, you know a personal journey

[00:49:04] [SPEAKER_02]: So what does the mix up kind of look like with the the stories that are in the book?

[00:49:08] [SPEAKER_02]: Did we get because i'm assuming a lot that came in was fairly auto autobiographical, but maybe that's that's not true

[00:49:15] [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, no for the most part for sure because we told them

[00:49:18] [SPEAKER_04]: The only thing they needed to do was to

[00:49:22] [SPEAKER_04]: Center it around, you know tackling your condition in some capacity

[00:49:26] [SPEAKER_04]: So there's definitely an autobiographical element to it and then we were like you could do whatever you want

[00:49:31] [SPEAKER_04]: So that's why we have like a robot with ADHD like setting it in this kind of not necessarily almost comical

[00:49:38] [SPEAKER_04]: Story comical sci-fi story about what this person's dealing with and then an emotional core to it as well, of course

[00:49:44] [SPEAKER_04]: Because you got to have that

[00:49:45] [SPEAKER_04]: We have stories like I said with the magical realism with with chukha at least where it blends the

[00:49:52] [SPEAKER_04]: It's set in the real world, but then it blends a little bit magical fantasy into it because it's like

[00:49:57] [SPEAKER_04]: To get away from this sensory overload. There's this magical world that I go into

[00:50:01] [SPEAKER_04]: But is this going to end up being a pro or a con?

[00:50:04] [SPEAKER_04]: By separating myself and going into this world and how does that affect my relationship with my family members or people?

[00:50:10] [SPEAKER_04]: I love kind of thing

[00:50:12] [SPEAKER_04]: We have horror

[00:50:14] [SPEAKER_04]: Like I don't know if you got to read the sample packet, but we have a horror story in there where a guy deals with

[00:50:19] [SPEAKER_04]: Obsessed of compulsive disorder and has ticks and things like that

[00:50:22] [SPEAKER_04]: And his he wanted to go a little bit more of a horror route. So even though it's autobiographical

[00:50:27] [SPEAKER_04]: It's kind of like a deal with the devil kind of thing

[00:50:30] [SPEAKER_04]: And we all know he didn't sit there and literally have a deal with the devil, but

[00:50:34] [SPEAKER_04]: Well, what's up? I don't know

[00:50:36] [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah

[00:50:41] [SPEAKER_04]: But uh, but that one definitely blends more of a fantastical element as well

[00:50:46] [SPEAKER_04]: But so it was really up to each person to go

[00:50:50] [SPEAKER_04]: How much realism do I want here?

[00:50:53] [SPEAKER_04]: We have other stories that are about a spinal cord injury and of and

[00:50:57] [SPEAKER_04]: The relationship between these two guys

[00:51:00] [SPEAKER_04]: How their relationship changes when one of them gets a spinal cord injury very set in reality like mine

[00:51:06] [SPEAKER_04]: and um, so yeah, we definitely run the gamut there between just being straight up realism autobiographical

[00:51:13] [SPEAKER_04]: And including these sci-fi or fantastical elements into their stories to make them more comfortable telling them because we did get

[00:51:20] [SPEAKER_04]: Several people who said this story was so hard for me to write

[00:51:25] [SPEAKER_04]: Um and because it's so personal

[00:51:27] [SPEAKER_04]: And so, um, you know, whatever helps you get there. That's what mattered in the end

[00:51:33] [SPEAKER_04]: It's like if you needed to tell that story through the lens of

[00:51:35] [SPEAKER_04]: Horror or through the lens of fantasy or sci-fi then do it get you there

[00:51:40] [SPEAKER_04]: But just just lead us along the journey and tell us what you deal with so that people can be exposed to that

[00:51:47] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, well if if you do get to a volume two, I've got my story ready

[00:51:51] [SPEAKER_02]: I had us I had it ready for this one, but I couldn't get get the funds together to get the artist who I want to work on it

[00:51:57] [SPEAKER_02]: Who I know will absolutely knock it out of the park

[00:52:01] [SPEAKER_02]: So so hopefully hopefully you get to a volume two and hopefully I can I can put everything together for that

[00:52:06] [SPEAKER_02]: um

[00:52:07] [SPEAKER_04]: Go ahead. I will also say just real quickly

[00:52:10] [SPEAKER_04]: Aubrey and it's not all have a story in it

[00:52:13] [SPEAKER_04]: But we told ourselves from the get from the beginning if it's not up to par with the other people's stories

[00:52:18] [SPEAKER_04]: They're not getting in and so we definitely in that regard

[00:52:23] [SPEAKER_04]: all looked at each other's stories with just as much of an editorial eye as the other stories and

[00:52:29] [SPEAKER_04]: And they ended up being on par with the other. So hey

[00:52:32] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I was definitely a little nervous. I was like

[00:52:34] [SPEAKER_01]: um, because I I've leaned way more into

[00:52:37] [SPEAKER_01]: Editing the last few years because I love editing and I had not been writing as much and it's funny because when I told a friend

[00:52:43] [SPEAKER_01]: It the con I just went to that I'm um, they met me like

[00:52:48] [SPEAKER_01]: Right before the pandemic 2019 and I was only focused on writing comics and they were like, oh, you're writing again

[00:52:53] [SPEAKER_01]: That's amazing. And I was like well

[00:52:56] [SPEAKER_01]: It is but also like I love the other stuff I do

[00:52:59] [SPEAKER_01]: Um, so I was a little nervous, but I was glad when they were both like no, this is good

[00:53:05] [SPEAKER_02]: Is there any trepidation then going in as an editor?

[00:53:09] [SPEAKER_02]: and approaching something and and I don't know how many or you know

[00:53:13] [SPEAKER_02]: How much things had to be changed or anything like that or how many suggestions you as a group had for people

[00:53:18] [SPEAKER_02]: But these are so intrinsically personal stories, you know, so is that hard?

[00:53:25] [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, um, some of the stories will be yes

[00:53:28] [SPEAKER_04]: The end of discussion

[00:53:32] [SPEAKER_01]: No, um, there were some of the stories had to be cut down and

[00:53:36] [SPEAKER_01]: Um, that's always a hard conversation to have

[00:53:40] [SPEAKER_01]: But it was met with oh, yeah, I can do that. Yep

[00:53:44] [SPEAKER_01]: And it actually might work better this way or

[00:53:48] [SPEAKER_01]: um,

[00:53:48] [SPEAKER_01]: Kind of get the story helps it. Uh, so

[00:53:51] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't think we like content wise had a lot of changes and then correct me if I'm wrong ck

[00:53:58] [SPEAKER_01]: uh

[00:53:59] [SPEAKER_01]: Because I do think that like those are very personal stories but like

[00:54:03] [SPEAKER_01]: Overall, it was just like kind of making we only had 64 pages

[00:54:08] [SPEAKER_01]: As much as especially ck wanted to do more like we only had so much fun because like

[00:54:12] [SPEAKER_01]: We're putting up the funds for we put up the funds for like the initial art and and stuff

[00:54:17] [SPEAKER_01]: And so we only had so much money that we could put up and do this book

[00:54:20] [SPEAKER_01]: And then we were like if we if we make this we can do a volume two, you know, sure. Um

[00:54:26] [SPEAKER_01]: So wanting to include all the stories we wanted to include we we did have to ask a few people to cut their stories down a little bit

[00:54:33] [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, and it wasn't too major like I think it was three or four stories

[00:54:36] [SPEAKER_04]: Lose a couple pages. Uh, they didn't really push back like Aubrey said it was

[00:54:40] [SPEAKER_04]: I think most of them are just so excited about the project that they were totally open to the process

[00:54:46] [SPEAKER_04]: That I'll tell you the fear and the fear came in to when I had to contact like a glad award-winning person and say

[00:54:53] [SPEAKER_04]: Can you please change this and I was like who am I to be telling this person a glad award-winning author

[00:54:59] [SPEAKER_04]: To change something when I my heart was just beating out of my chest

[00:55:03] [SPEAKER_04]: But they wrote back and was like, you're right. This works better this way

[00:55:06] [SPEAKER_04]: And I was like, oh, thank god

[00:55:08] [SPEAKER_04]: I guess I that's where the fear came in for me

[00:55:13] [SPEAKER_02]: Well, I'm glad that the hurdles weren't too extensive. Um

[00:55:16] [SPEAKER_02]: But before we wrap up, I also I just want to thank you both not not just for putting this together

[00:55:20] [SPEAKER_02]: But I'm a relative newbie to the disabled community. I had no idea we had a flag, right?

[00:55:26] [SPEAKER_02]: Um, and and now I feel like I'm cool too, right?

[00:55:29] [SPEAKER_02]: I I see all these these pride flag variations which makes me a bit envious honestly

[00:55:34] [SPEAKER_02]: And now I can say I'm part of a club, you know as a former

[00:55:38] [SPEAKER_02]: Plain cis straight white guy in America like I I have something now and it feels really weird to

[00:55:45] [SPEAKER_02]: To to be coming from this vantage point of an ally and sort of like want

[00:55:49] [SPEAKER_02]: You know closet want I want I want to be part of the club. It's kind of strange

[00:55:55] [SPEAKER_02]: Anyway, I saw the flag on the campaign page and I and I didn't know it existed. So so thank you

[00:56:01] [SPEAKER_01]: You're very welcome of course

[00:56:03] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm glad we got to share about that because I think that that's something too that we want to introduce that like disability

[00:56:09] [SPEAKER_01]: I think there's been such a classic

[00:56:11] [SPEAKER_01]: Description of what disability looks like in a lot of media. That's not I put air quotes up for people who are listening with my fingers

[00:56:18] [SPEAKER_01]: as I said that um

[00:56:20] [SPEAKER_01]: But I think

[00:56:22] [SPEAKER_01]: Like a lot of people need to realize that there's so much more than that and

[00:56:26] [SPEAKER_01]: You're actually hurting disabled people when you don't expand your thoughts on what disability can be like I know

[00:56:32] [SPEAKER_01]: There have been people who have to like park in

[00:56:34] [SPEAKER_01]: Disabled spots at like grocery stores and they may have some

[00:56:39] [SPEAKER_01]: Ability to walk but they may need assistance of like a walker or they may need to use a wheelchair at times or

[00:56:45] [SPEAKER_01]: Whatever and I've I've known they've gotten like people yelling at them

[00:56:49] [SPEAKER_01]: And just because you think everybody who needs those spaces is in a wheelchair doesn't mean they are and so expand your thoughts

[00:56:56] [SPEAKER_01]: You know like things like that

[00:56:58] [SPEAKER_04]: And I will say with the anthology, um, I thought it was really cool

[00:57:01] [SPEAKER_04]: I'm pretty sure it was alas of a dis idea the the person who did the main cover that everybody keeps seeing

[00:57:08] [SPEAKER_04]: In addition to scyler patrick's cover and arthur cabez's fantasy cover

[00:57:11] [SPEAKER_04]: But the the one that's in front of everybody's eyeballs the most and their idea of making it the disability pride flag

[00:57:18] [SPEAKER_04]: And then just having the lines cut through the different people and have them just be the different colors

[00:57:23] [SPEAKER_04]: I thought that was pretty ingenious. They they nailed it. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah

[00:57:27] [SPEAKER_02]: When I saw all that stuff it made me do a little research about it and I didn't

[00:57:33] [SPEAKER_02]: It didn't exist until 2019

[00:57:34] [SPEAKER_02]: Like how how was that possible like now that I know it exists?

[00:57:38] [SPEAKER_02]: I'm like, okay, and I'm starting to do the research

[00:57:39] [SPEAKER_02]: It was just a couple years ago. That's crazy. My flag's still white though. So, you know there

[00:57:44] [SPEAKER_02]: Still still the white guy

[00:57:47] [SPEAKER_02]: My color

[00:57:47] [SPEAKER_02]: Your color in there it totally figures but um, thank you and miguel

[00:57:53] [SPEAKER_02]: For putting that together and the flag. So that's really really cool. So

[00:57:57] [SPEAKER_02]: What are after this is over right? You get this done. What else you got cooking?

[00:58:03] [SPEAKER_01]: Um, I just edit freelance projects. I also uh

[00:58:07] [SPEAKER_01]: Uh, I just think we want to keep helping people in the community. We have our own little discord

[00:58:11] [SPEAKER_01]: That's pretty small and I'm okay with it staying small like if you

[00:58:14] [SPEAKER_01]: But if you're looking for help and you think we're a community that resonates with you like reach out, we'll get you in there. Um

[00:58:21] [SPEAKER_01]: But I think both of us come from a place of wanting to help creators learn about the comic process

[00:58:25] [SPEAKER_01]: And help people get those opportunities and I think that that's something

[00:58:29] [SPEAKER_04]: We'll continue to do after this point

[00:58:32] [SPEAKER_04]: As for me, um, so basically over the last few years

[00:58:36] [SPEAKER_04]: I've gotten into quite a few comic anthologies with short comics

[00:58:39] [SPEAKER_04]: But now i'm trying to write a longer form comic graphic memoir

[00:58:42] [SPEAKER_04]: Uh about my life and what I've dealt with in my disability and go more in depth there

[00:58:48] [SPEAKER_04]: But it's hard to change lanes because i'm gotten so used to compacting everything into like this little short space

[00:58:54] [SPEAKER_04]: And now every time I try to write I keep trying to shove it all into like five pages

[00:58:59] [SPEAKER_04]: And move on to the next part of it and I'm like, oh wait. No you can let it breathe a little bit more

[00:59:04] [SPEAKER_04]: So my goal there is to continue to work on that

[00:59:06] [SPEAKER_04]: Um, but honestly and Aubrey will probably not like this

[00:59:11] [SPEAKER_04]: Um, I already have like three more anthology ideas lined up

[00:59:16] [SPEAKER_04]: I'm like, what if we did this next and what if we did that one and what if we did this

[00:59:20] [SPEAKER_04]: And I have not brought any of that to her attention yet because I did not want to scare her away

[00:59:25] [SPEAKER_04]: But I have surprised

[00:59:26] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't think it'll scare me away. I think that's something um, and we didn't really touch on this

[00:59:30] [SPEAKER_01]: But I'll say it real quick like the thing to do is if you want to create things and you're worried

[00:59:34] [SPEAKER_01]: You don't have the time or energy

[00:59:36] [SPEAKER_01]: Bring other people on to help you find people that you trust find people that you know follow through

[00:59:40] [SPEAKER_01]: I think that is the most important thing we've had discussions about how

[00:59:43] [SPEAKER_01]: over both of our careers in comics, we've had people who

[00:59:46] [SPEAKER_01]: Flake or disappear or ghost and not in a adhd ghost way in a

[00:59:52] [SPEAKER_01]: Just leave it hanging sort of way. Um

[00:59:55] [SPEAKER_01]: So find people that you know

[00:59:58] [SPEAKER_01]: Will do their best to their ability

[01:00:00] [SPEAKER_01]: And collaborate with them

[01:00:02] [SPEAKER_01]: And build those bridges together because none of us can do this alone

[01:00:05] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it's it's tough. I mean and I guess is my piece to sort of piggyback on top of that like my

[01:00:12] [SPEAKER_02]: Jimmy and I had a story that we wrote it was accepted in anthology

[01:00:17] [SPEAKER_02]: and we just

[01:00:19] [SPEAKER_02]: The artist didn't deliver with with the timing and everything

[01:00:24] [SPEAKER_02]: And it was heartbreaking, you know, it's like my first piece. I was so excited about it and it's been

[01:00:31] [SPEAKER_02]: Difficult to get the energy to try to want to do it again, you know

[01:00:35] [SPEAKER_02]: Yep, absolutely. So this yeah, I get it

[01:00:38] [SPEAKER_02]: We'll find you both online

[01:00:41] [SPEAKER_01]: Um, I'm at rebel muse comics on pretty much every platform. So that's where you find me

[01:00:46] [SPEAKER_04]: All right, and I'm at c underscore k underscore carpenter instagram and twitter

[01:00:53] [SPEAKER_02]: Awesome. I'll put that in the show notes. I am indeed a backer on this project

[01:00:57] [SPEAKER_02]: I encourage you to support our community with this project if you want more representation in comics

[01:01:02] [SPEAKER_02]: You have to buy it and that's the bottom line

[01:01:05] [SPEAKER_02]: I think I've watched too many episodes of the mr. McMahon documentary lately and it's rubbing off and i'm going stone cold steve austin there

[01:01:12] [SPEAKER_02]: Triggers some memories working wrestling shows back in the day

[01:01:14] [SPEAKER_02]: But anyway, I'll put a link in the show notes to make it easy for you or you can search for unseen unheard on kickstarter

[01:01:21] [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you both for coming on the show today. It's been a lot of fun. Give me an opportunity to talk about something

[01:01:24] [SPEAKER_02]: I don't normally get to talk about that is very near and dear to my heart

[01:01:28] [SPEAKER_02]: Well, thank you for having us so much

[01:01:30] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, absolutely. I'll also say uh ck and I our profile pic family. Uh lane Lloyd did both of ours

[01:01:37] [SPEAKER_02]: So lane is super talented with such a unique visual style. I love their work

[01:01:41] [SPEAKER_02]: I'll drop lanes socials in the show notes as well if anyone wants to join our rather elite club

[01:01:47] [SPEAKER_02]: Um, this is biron o'neill and on behalf of all of us at comic book eddie

[01:01:50] [SPEAKER_02]: Thanks for tuning in and we will see you next time. Take care everybody

[01:01:54] [SPEAKER_02]: This is biron o'neill one of your hosts of the cryptid creator corner brought to you by comic book eddie

[01:02:00] [SPEAKER_02]: We hope you've enjoyed this episode of our podcast

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