Wells Thompson Interview - By Appointment Only

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[00:01:29] Head to 2000AD.com and click on subscribe now or download the 2000AD app and why wait? Start reading today. I'll put links in the show notes for you. Hello and welcome to Comic Book Yeti's Cryptid Creator Corner. I'm your host Jimmy Gasparro and I have a very special guest because he used to do a lot of stuff with Comic Book Yeti. And when I started writing reviews, he would mercilessly edit them until I felt a lot of shame. But I think I've gotten better about it.

[00:01:57] Also, with my Kickstarter right now made in Delco, he is my Kickstarter consultant and he has been unbelievably helpful to me. It's probably why we hit our funding goal and maybe some stretch goals down the line. But you're not here to listen to me talk about that. You're here to listen to Wells Thompson talk about his current Kickstarter for Buy Appointment Only, which sounds amazing.

[00:02:26] And I've already heard from a few of my friends when I did a Kickstarter update and included a little shout out to Buy Appointment Only that they wanted me to stop sending emails. That was my friend Lori because there's too much good stuff that she has to back now. And this was number one on her list because this comic, it looks, I mean, it looks super fun. It looks like really cute in like a like a fun way.

[00:02:53] It has kind of, you know, magical realism, grounded kind of witchcraft vibes, you know, maybe a little Kiki's delivery service, which is wonderful for anybody familiar with that. But in any event, Wells, welcome to the podcast. Can't wait to hear more about Buy Appointment Only. Yeah, thank you for having me. It always feels good coming back on this podcast. Feels like coming home. Oh, that's nice.

[00:03:20] Yeah, Comic Book Yeti, like you said, where I started in comics, I wanted to get into it, but really didn't know much about kind of the comic book industry or really anything about making comics. And so I just dove in the hard way and was like, I want to review comics and just read as much as I can and dig into it. And Matt, who was running it at the time, really appreciated the help and liked my style a lot.

[00:03:47] And yeah, no, I remember editing your stuff and I remember a lot of people being upset with my edits. And I'll say then what I said now, if I wasn't hard on you, you wouldn't get better. Yeah, that's true. It's very much appreciated. You know, but I think as an adult, when you get out in the world and you're working, and especially, I guess, the type of job I have as an attorney, I don't know.

[00:04:13] It's very rare that somebody is like, you need to do this, you need to do that. I mean, even though I work for a law firm and have partners ahead of me or I'm helping them out with their cases, you know, usually nobody comes and like corrects your stuff. It does happen with brief writing, but it's very, you know, it wasn't something I was used to. You know, I kind of got out of that from like school and other things.

[00:04:39] And it's like, oh, here's somebody who I know is younger than me telling me that I'm doing a bad job. And then you're like, well, yeah, but that, you know, you have to put the ego of it aside and just be like, yeah, but I want to get better. And here's somebody who doesn't matter what age they are, knows more than me about this. And I want to get better. And I fully acknowledge that I didn't have, didn't feel like I feel like, and I've said it before in this podcast, didn't have the language to really critique the art side of comics.

[00:05:08] And it is a visual medium. So that's like, you know, a huge part of it. So I came to appreciate you trying to make me better. And hopefully I did get a little, you know, a little bit better. Oh, you got, you're great. Star pupil. Thank you. Thank you. That means a lot. It really does. Real quick, before we get into my appointment only, though, had you written and I don't know if I asked you this last time you were on, but have you did you start writing comics before you started with comic book Yeti?

[00:05:37] It was it was more or less concurrent. So I got comics that I started writing. But the way I got into it was critiquing and editing my friend's comics and the stuff that he was doing. He was also doing short stories. We graduated together and we're familiar with each other's work. He wanted to do graphic novels and comics. Grew up on Spider-Man, you know, has the very classic kind of writer story. Sure.

[00:06:07] And I really wanted to get back into kind of the workshopping phase. I wanted to work with people. I was, you know, I think everyone when they get out of school kind of has a period of like, I'm free. And then at some point it's like, I really wish I was back to it to some extent. I wish I was back in school just to have the structure of it.

[00:06:27] So I started working with him and then I got more curious about comics and really like kind of enjoyed the structure of it and the sort of different domains that it puts on on a writer as opposed to screenwriting or prose writing. And so around the time that I started with comic book, I was doing kind of a page short stories, just kind of seeing where I could do it. Like, you know, can I tell a short can I tell a comic book story in a short amount of time?

[00:06:57] And then we printed those and brought them to conventions and they did, you know, they were ash cans. They were two bucks each, so they weren't doing gangbusters. They were doing pretty well, well enough. Like we we wanted to. Nice. That's how we got where we are today. Yeah. And where you are today.

[00:07:14] I mean, you have, I guess, kickstarted 14 different projects between Mecca Tut, Frankenstein, the Unconquered, Smut, Catskin in the Rose. And yeah, this is this makes five. We did have only one of those projects has ever failed to reach funding. Yeah. Annoyingly, it was the one that I wanted to read the most. It was depth.

[00:07:42] Oh, I still am fighting for it. It's like, when can we bring when can we bring depth? Can we bring it? That was the one I was just like, yeah, this is depth. It looked great in terms of the preview pages. It sounded it sounded great that, you know, one day. I mean, look, I love Smut. I think Mecca Tut is so much fun. Put that out of context. So much fun. Very different Smut and Mecca Tut.

[00:08:11] Very different audience, I think. For sure. But yeah, depth I was like really excited about. So that better come back. And the folks who back Kickstarters better, I think, give it its due because it was a worthwhile endeavor, I think. Nothing I would love more. All right. Other than, you know, financial stability. Right. Of course. But this is comics and I accept that that's simply not going. No, probably not. But, you know, you'll do your best.

[00:08:41] OK, so by appointment only. Yeah. Tell listeners what is it all about. Yeah. Similar to depth, I would say this is one of those that like I really felt in a deep place. I just like needed to make it. But it is a store is a urban fantasy about a witch in the modern day that opens up a store to kind of help people in her community.

[00:09:05] It's about her relationship with her childhood best friend, Scarlet and the idiot talking cat. They during kind of day to day operations of their life, someone comes to them clearly frightened out of their mind, says their boyfriend is missing. And they discovered that there's possibly something magical going on might very well be possessed by a demon.

[00:09:36] So sort of a yeah, it's a it's a four issue miniseries. It's it's a bit of a magical mystery urban fantasy kind of vibe. Very like Sabrina the Teenage Witch with Hellblazer kind of in the background. Um, and it was it as you said at kind of the top of the hour. Um, it has a very like borderline cutesy aesthetic, which we wanted to do.

[00:10:06] I wanted to lean a little bit more into that based on some. Uh, some really meaningful like, uh, properties that I had read, like you said, Kiki's delivery service, obviously wanted to pay homage to that, but also the game Seafarer or Spiritfarer, which is a beautiful hand drawn game that will make you cry harder than you've ever cried and like change you as a person. Uh, and that was sort of the vibe that we wanted to go for with this one. I'm not familiar with that.

[00:10:36] What is Spiritfarer? What type of what type of game? Like it's a, uh, it's a management sim in a way. You, uh, are a, uh, it's kind of ambiguous, but you are a young woman, uh, who has taken on the job of the new, uh, uh, Spiritfarer, the person that takes the recently dead to the underworld. Um, the, the job of care on the boat, man. Um, and.

[00:11:07] And you find spirits and you bring them on your boat and you build them a house and you get to know them and you develop relationships with them. And then you say goodbye. Oh. And it, well, when I say it hits you every time you feel like you can't be prepared for it. It hurts every time. And you continue to play because it is so beautiful.

[00:11:32] Um, yeah, no, that's, that was sort of, uh, not like the main inspiration for the book, but definitely the vibe that we wanted to pull of. Like, this is going to be very cozy and this is going to bring your heart. Okay. Woo. All right. That's a lot. Um, no, I love all like, like going through the Kickstarter page. Now I love all, all the characters. I love, I love the character design.

[00:12:00] Um, you know, Maru Javala is the, uh, is the artist on, on this. Uh, we had worked not together. Uh, we were featured in the same, um, uh, anthology, which Jimmy, you are also featured in. Uh, I have his ability.

[00:12:17] Uh, the first, uh, volume one, she has a phenomenal story in there that I had like, when I read, you know, when I show that off at, at conventions, I usually stop on that one and be like, this is the cutest story I've ever read in my life. Okay. And just like, even outside of like my own contribution to this, like there's great stuff. Um, and so in the back of my mind, I had thought like, yeah, I'd love to work with Maru.

[00:12:43] Uh, and, and just a project, you know, never really came up. Uh, until this one, I made a short list of like three, four, five artists that I would love to work with. And Maru was on the list. And luckily she was really into it and is just the sweetest person on earth. Like kind of hard to overstate how pleasant it is to speak with her. Well, that's fantastic. And I mean, the art is great. The character designs, they all look great. The couple of preview pages that are in the Kickstarter.

[00:13:12] They, they look a lot of fun. Chester does look like a good boy. He's perfect. He's a little bit based on my, uh, long hair. Yeah. Okay. And the idea behind him was like every, you know, there's a bunch of witch properties that have like familiar talking cat. He's delivery service. Uh, yeah.

[00:13:35] But they're almost always kind of confined to either having like what people think of as a typical cat attitude, which is very snarky and like holier than thou. Uh, or being like super intellectual or even like a comic, comic relief. But in the sense that they're like kind of a straight man in the, in this. Um, and my experience with Austrian cats and owning cats is that a lot of them are just dumb. A lot of them are real dumb and real funny for being dumb.

[00:14:04] And so I want to, I was just like, what if you're going to get a lot of letters from our fans that are, that are cat people, I think. No. And I mean that with all the love in the world, it's not that they're stupid and like we should make fun of them. It's stupid and they're precious. Yeah. Well, I, I understand. We, we recently got a golden retriever, Barry, and there is, I mean, he's adorable. He's not even eight months old yet. He's, he's like solid. He's made of some type of solid material. I think it's the same stuff they make Thor's hammer out of.

[00:14:34] Yeah. And we can see the, the, the loading symbol on his forehead. Oh, there is nothing behind his eyes. Nothing at all. He's great, but there he's just, yeah. Yeah. That's, it's wonderful. So I understand having a, having a pet like that. Um, totally. And so what were some of your inspirations we talked about in terms of other properties and you want to pay homage to certain things, but what about in, in terms of, um, you know, in terms of the characters themselves?

[00:15:02] Like, you know, uh, I almost wanted to ask what, what is the movie as good as it gets? How do you write women so well? Jack, but Jack Nicholson's response, I think is, uh, I can't do a Nicholson, but he's like, uh, I think of a man and I take away reason and accountability. Um, so yeah, that's as good as it gets. But, but so yeah, tell me about some of the inspirations behind Alice and Scarlet and, uh, so it, it kind of came from two different places.

[00:15:32] It was sort of a deep dive into research of, uh, of witchcraft in, in the end of medieval European, uh, civilization. Um, and like witch hunts and how those became kind of an informal event that claimed the lives of untold number of men and women alike, but especially women.

[00:15:58] Um, and kind of the reasons behind that and discovering that like witch wasn't a spooky thing for a lot of time. It wasn't a Halloween monster. It was like a social role.

[00:16:11] Uh, it was a woman with a lot of social power and that's sort of the niche that magic fills in society is like when someone has a lot of social power, but doesn't have like the sort of inherent physical threat of violence to back it up. We explain it from that. Um, that's a very abridged and technical answer, I guess.

[00:16:38] Um, but basically it's, it's like, I became really fascinated by like the philosophy behind witchcraft, the actual function that it, that it had in society where you had women who were basically, you know, herbalists and therapists and, and midwives and, uh, community organizers and sex workers and just like jobs that are necessary.

[00:17:08] But like in a, in a, in a, in a high, you know, late stage capitalist kind of ecosystem that we live in is the kind of job that like, we just don't have any place for formal. Um, certainly people fill those roles, but like they aren't, they aren't filled by people who it's, it's not a, it's not a place of high status, uh, as much as, as, as it was, especially for women.

[00:17:35] Um, and I wanted to kind of show that that was a vacuum by putting that more in the modern day. And, and, and then on top of that, just, you know, loving properties, like, uh, on the one hand, he's delivery service and, and Monica Magica and, and all of these like really interesting takes on modern witchcraft.

[00:18:00] Um, and then, uh, getting, uh, getting really into Robert Eggers and, and watching the witch and the lighthouse and, and sort of seeing it from that side as well. Um, yeah. So it was, it was a deep interest in witchcraft and sort of the, um, the, the, the many facets of it. The, the, the short answer is like, I became fascinated witchcraft because witchcraft is high power in high femininity.

[00:18:26] Um, and, and power in, in, uh, social structures that are not rigidly enforced in the same way. So it gives a lot of power to the feminine trans individuals, non-binary individuals, and kind of melts away borders that we consider very like normal in day-to-day life. And that's just an interesting thing to talk about and structure. Like, I think that, you know, we should be closer to this.

[00:18:55] If, if you just genuinely believe that, like, that's a great story to tell just for that purpose alone. Uh, and that's, that's sort of where Alice came from is, is that she's the character that like. Like, wants to fill that role and is willing to give all of herself to do it and really need someone to step in and say, okay, you need to take some time for yourself or you are going to burn yourself out. And spectacular. Uh, and that's where Scarlet.

[00:19:25] Um, and Scarlet is. Is based. Uh, both characters are like take inspiration from. Starlet is. Really like heavily influenced by, uh, my best friend, Autumn. Who passed away three years ago. Um, and that was sort of another. I, yeah, it's, it sucks, but it's, it is what it is.

[00:19:54] Um, yeah, she, it, part of the, the other like half of why I wanted to tell this story is for, you know, two, two and a half years at the time I started writing it. I had just lived with this feeling of like, what do you do when the only person that you want to talk to about a thing? Is gone. And that's the thing you want to talk about. Yeah. Yeah. Like.

[00:20:21] That, that was a really difficult thing for me to work through and took a long time in therapy. And part of why I started writing it is my therapist said, you should write some journal entries about that. And I said, I hate doing journal entries. Can I write a comic instead? If I can ask what, what was it about?

[00:20:44] Like autumn in particular, in terms of her interests or personality that you, you felt you could kind of capture, you know, or at least try to with a story like this. Uh, I, I wanted to capture the feeling of someone just being a huge part of your life. And kind of facing the troubling possibility of, of them disappear. About not being, uh, being a part of it.

[00:21:13] Um, and so we look at like Alice and Scarlett's relationship and Scarlett is like, they are fiercely dedicated to each other. They work together. They live together. Uh, Scarlett manages Alice's schedule to make sure she doesn't overwork herself.

[00:21:31] Uh, and very quickly in the story, we find that like, there are twists and turns that I'm not going to spoil, but that relationship comes kind of into jeopardy. And, and you realize that it is being like held together with an iron grip. And the moment that that grip lets go, it could just be, um, and, and they might not get to see each other ever again.

[00:21:58] And, and I, the, the, the, the reason that the, the comic starts out in the sample pages with bringing the pet back is I just wanted to kind of really hold onto that question of like, what would you do to, you know, see some, to, to bring someone back that you care about? Right. And that means the world to you and, and, and you'd like to an irrational extent.

[00:22:27] And I feel like everyone has had most people that experience with a pet of just like, you are so insanely attached to them. They are everything to you. And then maybe it's health issues. Maybe it's a car, maybe, you know, just who knows what happens. They're gone the next day and you just have to put yourself back together.

[00:22:46] Um, and that was like, that's a really hard thing that we all have to deal with, but it was very much something that I wanted to, to, to find a way to express. And the, with the, it's so sort of the final piece that put it all together that said, okay, this, this is the book that I really need to write. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Wow. That's awesome. Um, putting all that in there.

[00:23:15] Uh, I, I'm, the other thing that's daunting about this, I'll say at my editor will, yeah, my editor, uh, Holly ages. Phenomenal. Holly's, Holly's, I, I, I tried to get Holly on the podcast. I've had this before and it just, just didn't work out, but I'd love to have Holly on. Holly's, Holly's great. And when Holly was doing stuff with a top shelf, uh, they got some top shelf people. Absolutely. Top shelf productions on and, and yeah.

[00:23:44] No, they, yeah, they, I, I don't know how I managed to squeeze into their schedule, but they have been, uh, nothing but, but kind of generous and, and took this book from like a pretty good book to. Um, and to what I think might be my best written work. Um, and I, the, the first thing I told them was I'm aware that I'm putting a novel's worth of, of ideas and themes into a mini series, but this is what we got.

[00:24:16] They were very, they were very kind about it. As long as you know, like, all right, let's go. All right, everybody. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back. Let's face it. The comics landscape is a mess right now. I'm the editor in chief of a comics journalism outlet, and I can't even keep track of it all. If you are as passionate as I am about indie comics and its creators, you should check out the Lantern Guide. Created on the premise of creating light in the dark, it's going to be the go-to resource to keep you up to date on the projects and the creators that you love. Don't take my word for it.

[00:24:46] I reached out to my friend Brian Lovell, Poison Ivy artist and indie comics creator, to get his take. Brian, what does the Lantern Project fix? I'm a dude who loves indie comics, and I know personally, like, I get very frustrated when something shows up in my social media timeline or something like that, and I feel like I can't keep track of everything. So, really, the Lantern Project was born out of that.

[00:25:10] It was an opportunity for me as a reader to kind of, like, have a place to want to consolidate all the stuff that I wanted to read. All the cool projects from cool creators that seemed interesting and kind of unique to, like, something that I would like, which is really not super represented everywhere else, but it's all over the indies. Having a spot to go to that felt like it consolidated a lot of those audiences and a lot of those places where I couldn't just get drowned out in the feed of social media seemed really valuable to me.

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[00:26:07] Y'all, Jimmy, the Chaos Goblin strikes again. I should have known better than to mention I was working on my DC Universe meets Ravenloft hybrid D&D campaign on social media. My bad. He goes and tags a bunch of comics creators we know, and now I have to get it in gear and whip this campaign into shape so we can start playing. Another friend chimes in, are you going to make maps? It's fair to say it's been a while since I put something together, so I guess? Question mark? It was then that I discovered Arkenforge.

[00:26:36] If you don't know who Arkenforge is, they have everything you need to make your TTRPG more fun and immersive. Allowing you to build, play, and export animated maps, including in-person Fog of War capability that lets your players interact with maps as the adventure unfolds while you, the DM, get the full picture. Now I'm set to easily build high-res animated maps, saving myself precious time and significantly adding nuance to our campaign. That's a win every day in my book.

[00:27:04] Check them out at arkenforge.com and use the discount code YETI5 to get $5 off. I'll drop a link in the show notes for you, and big thanks to Arkenforge for partnering with our show. I think I'm going to make Jimmy play a goblin warlock just to get even. Welcome back.

[00:27:21] What do you think has been the most heavily edited project that you've done so far where you did have way too much stuff and try and fit it down for the artist into however many panels in however many pages? Was it this, or was there an early draft of Mechaton where it's like, we got a problem? Oh, I mean, I can tell you that there's like three or four different answers to this.

[00:27:47] The most heavily edited and continues to be the most heavily edited thing that I've written hasn't been released or even attempted to release yet because it is a monster of a series that took me three edits just to figure out what the hell was going on. Like, figure out what I was talking about. And then halfway through the third edit, I was like, got it. Okay, now we can start actually writing. Oh, wow.

[00:28:16] That may never come out. We'll see. It's called Box of Bones and it is something that I'm really like, right? I love it. I'm passionate about it, but woof. In terms of what's been published, probably it was Mechaton. Okay. But only because that story took on a couple different iterations. Like in terms of what, like what we presented to our artists versus what it ended up as. Yeah.

[00:28:43] Mechaton is pretty close because we were really meticulous in the scripting phase before we ever get it to the artist. Okay. Yeah, I. I don't know. I think I've just been really, you know, fortunate to have good editors and good collaborators where I haven't needed to necessarily like. Uh, deep into a project and like and rework it and figure it out. Okay.

[00:29:12] After it's been presented. Most of the time, it's pretty smooth sailing. And like, I cannot be more grateful about that. Oh, sure. Sure. Um, so you were talking earlier about kind of part of the genesis of this story was reading more or researching more about witchcraft.

[00:29:33] Um, which I, I always find like this, the witch trials are one of those things I kind, I find kind of fascinating because they've taken on one type of role and idea in, in pop culture. And, you know, but I'm sure you found out in your research, but when you start to dig, you know, and you talked about it a little bit, when you start to dig into like the real purposes behind the witch trials, especially from when they went from the panic in Europe to. Yeah.

[00:30:03] You know, in the U S. Um, you know, it'll, it, it kind of depended on the region you were in. We're familiar with like the Salem witch trials in new England, but other States, it was a little different. I think I, I read once that Virginia actually had a law that it was, that, um, it was illegal to falsely accuse someone of being a witch. So down South, they went a little bit of the, the, the other way with it.

[00:30:27] But, you know, in doing your research, what, what do you think was the most surprising thing, you know, uh, or unexpected thing you learned when you were digging into stuff? Was there anything like kind of really fantastical or, or interesting that surprised you when you started learning more about witchcraft? Yeah.

[00:30:47] I think the thing that turned the, that made me just like turn a really fascinating gaze toward it wasn't so much like the things that they would do in like during, during the, the trials. And like, I mean, there, there's plenty of like source material that is appalling. Don't get me wrong. Oh, sure. And there's plenty of stuff that you can read that that'll kind of shift, you know, shake you in your soul. It's, it's more of the sort of.

[00:31:14] It's more thinking about the attitude of, of like what came after and how it was so easily brushed off as like. Oh, well, yeah, no, we, we figured out the magic isn't real and oh, well. And you're like, you, you slaughtered tens if not hundreds of thousands of people. Right. This was not a whoopsie. This was, this was like organized on some level, like this was to achieve a purpose.

[00:31:41] And I think that purpose often gets obfuscated where like, why, why did you have to slaughter women who have a lot of social power? Because you needed to make way for a system where women exist to produce workers. And that's really the only thing they're used for. Yeah. I mean, the lack, the lack of accountability for something so horrific. Yeah. Yeah. It was truly staggering in that sense.

[00:32:08] And when I think there are like definite answers of like, why, why it was sort of like, this was done and then immediately looked on as, as like, oh, well, which is our real. Oh, well, you know, enlightenment. We, we, we've, we've come to a new understanding. And it's like, no, you did this so that you could, you could like brutally reshape the way like economies work.

[00:32:34] And it worked 100, like it 100% works, but it also realized people's way of life and forever changed the landscape of like, the amount of social power that, that, you know, common people and women especially have in society. And that's kind of something, you know, I think a lot of the past is like a thing that we need to reckon with now.

[00:33:02] But that's definitely one of the big tent poles for me. There are more obvious and recent ones. You know, we should probably talk about civil rights movements in a more comprehensive way. And like, not as a, oh, that was in black and white photograph days. Like, no, that, that happened and your mamaw remembers it. All right. Yeah, no, that's, that, that's a good point. Well, like even, even in that, like, we still have ancient history.

[00:33:31] We're actually like hundreds and thousands of years old that we need to really reckon with and be like this. We didn't build these systems by accident. We did it on purpose. And yeah, yeah, that's a, that's a good point. But then, so when, when you take all of that to put it in something like by appointment only with, which does the art style is, is, is very fun. You know, that the preview pages like bright colors.

[00:33:56] This isn't like a dark book in terms of that, even though it might've been born at least a little bit out of some, some darker subject matter. How do you kind of keep the, I guess, the tone and the pace, like where you want it with a story like this? Because, you know, it's not Mechaton where you, you know, you, you have, you know, mechs fighting, you know, big bugs and stuff like that.

[00:34:24] Like it's, it can be tough with a story like this to get some, some of those, you know, action scenes that folks are expecting from, from comic books and not just like superhero stuff, but, you know, all kinds of indie comic books. You, you have maybe a, a fun story, but it's a little subtler in, in, in the telling of it. Do you, do you worry about like that at all with a story like this?

[00:34:52] And how do you, you know, work to make sure that your audience, like who might be expecting one thing with a comic book like this stays engaged? Mm-hmm. Well, I'm, I'm for sure always conscious of like making sure that there's never nothing going on on a page, if that makes sense.

[00:35:11] I think that the, I think the, the impulse to say like every comic and every story needs to be extremely, you know, high stakes action all of the time is, is kind of a, a false. A hurdle that we put on ourselves. Obviously like I'm not, you know, Frankenstein the Unconquered, a lot of, a lot of problems are solved with a sword and, and, and going to town on people.

[00:35:41] That's true. It's, it's not to say that like that doesn't have a place. It definitely does. And it's a lot of fun to watch, but I, I think that it's like a lot of, of problems and a lot of, uh, of drama in stories. Comes, can, can come from a lot of subtler moments. And it's more just about like, you know, in comments, especially like, okay, well, how are we, you know, what's happening while we're discussing.

[00:36:10] What's important while two people are talking, are we just going, you know, is it the, the shot reverse shot and that's it? Or are they doing something meaningful to the story as they're discussing? And even just small moments like that can really make a story feel like it's moving and doing a lot more than, uh, then, then you might feel like it. Okay. Um, so I don't, there are big moments for sure.

[00:36:36] The big visual, like, you know, splash page moments in by appointment only, but the, the meat of the story is driven by relationships and by small conversations and by kind of hard conversations. And, and that I think delivers more drama than a big fight scene. Do big fight scenes happen? Sure. And, and that variety I think is important in just about every con.

[00:37:01] But I, I knew that this is not going to be, you know, uh, uh, this, this isn't necessarily going to be like sailor moon where problem, you know, where it's, it's not even more action. I guess that's, that show is kind of 50, 50 relationships and then, then beating people up, uh, and beating people up is great.

[00:37:23] But this is, this definitely leans more on like when a big action scene happens, you maybe don't even see it coming necessarily. It is, it's as big a surprise to you as it is. Oh, I love that. Yeah. Um, but that doesn't mean that like, it doesn't feel like anything is going on because the, we understand that the conversations they're having have a lot of weight and what they're doing while they're having the conversations.

[00:37:52] Is, you know, still can be visually interesting and, and reveal a lot about the characters. I, I mean, I'm of the opinion that like a really tense, still conversation can convey just as much as like people screaming at each other and, and, you know, throwing hands. Yeah. No, that's true. Yeah. I've been critical about comics in the past of like, why is every conversation a screening match? Can we, can we calm down a little bit?

[00:38:21] Uh, and I think that, that it's really important to have your, your quiet moments and to let kind of the audience, the reader. Put in that read into like, why are they being so awkward around each other? What do these like, you know, uh, knowing glances actually mean?

[00:38:41] Uh, and as long as you're being really like, not mindful about where you put those in and, and, you know, uh, how you lead the, the reader on in that. I think that can be just as like satisfying to read as, as again. Yeah. Your big, your big magical action scene. Nice. All right. Sounds great. Um, I, well, I wanted to ask you about the, the Kickstarter itself. I mean, you have a ton of great stuff on there.

[00:39:11] Uh, we'll have a link in the show notes for folks that you can check out so you can back it, get your copy of by appointment only. You're also able to get, there's a ton of add ons. Um, I think I've made a decent amount of books at this point. Yeah. And you get some extra stuff on there. I got anthologies. I've got other books. Yeah. No, there are plenty of great stuff on there. Um, I saw, including from the static with both of us are in. Absolutely.

[00:39:38] But one of the things that I thought was really neat, I wanted to talk to you about because I love a book that has really great, um, back matter. Uh, shout out to my friend, uh, Dan McMahon from gate crashers who said that was his nickname in high school. But, um, one of the things you have is, uh,

[00:39:56] uh, you like ask Alice where you're doing, somebody can put in like a question that Alice in character, like the character of Alice is going to answer, like in the back matter of the comic. So kind of, yeah. Like if you ever wanted to ask a witch something, yeah. How'd you come up with that? Like, what was the thought process behind that? I think that's a super fun idea.

[00:40:20] I'm like, I love a great like letters page, but for something with Kickstarter where you're not going to have an opportunity to do that. Something like this, you know, I mean, at least for the first issue, something like that, I think is phenomenal. Tell me about that. It was sort of a hybrid of, of those two thoughts of like, I love a letters page, but it's hard to like work that in, especially with a, with a new series, uh, and on Kickstarter and et cetera.

[00:40:45] Uh, and I, I really like interesting, like that was just looking for what's a new, interesting way we can put in some back matter, um, to, to, to make the comic stand out a little bit. Um, for Frankenstein, the unconquer, for example, we put in a, uh, a four page, uh, pro short at the end of every issue, uh, just to give a little bit of extra, uh, to our readers. And I thought that probably wouldn't work with something like by appointment only.

[00:41:14] Um, and I just kept, you know, coming back to like, I would love to do something. I don't know. And then I, as I was discussing, I think with Holly at some point, the idea came to me of like, yeah, Alice would probably have like, especially if it weren't for Scarlet, like holding her back. She would also probably have like an advice column in a newspaper and something that just eats up way too much of her time for this fact of like, oh, I can, I can reach out to people and help people. And I thought, oh, that's a fun idea.

[00:41:43] Like, what if, uh, we had people, you know, asking either some, you know, maybe whatever questions they want, sincere, silly advice, like genuine advice or, or, uh, more like, you know, theoretical, like I want to know about this aspect of magic. Right. Like, wouldn't that be fun to like, okay, ask the witch and see what happens. Yeah. I think that's great. I love. Yeah. No, we, we, it was just a too fun of an idea to let go of. And, and so I really hope it, it catches on.

[00:42:12] We have a couple of people who have taken up slots. Uh, I'd like to get it. I'd like to get at least five, uh, to make sure that we have enough to kind of fill out the, the, you know, four pages that we need. Uh, but yeah, no, I, I, I would love to keep doing it for the rest of the series possible. Yeah. I, I think that's a great idea. Um, but yeah, I mean, I think I, I'm very excited for it. I think I backed it.

[00:42:41] I'll let listeners know. I backed it. Thank you. Jimmy. I think by appointment only looks great. If you're the type that likes variant covers, I think there's a variant cover by both by Cara McGee and there's one by Jen St. Ange, uh, if I'm saying Jen's last name directly, but yeah, both are wonderful artists and, uh, yeah. Maru Davalos is art. It looks great. Um, so yeah, it's super exciting. Um, we'll get the, we'll get, we'll get this out when folks can listen to it.

[00:43:09] You're going to be on Kickstarter till April 23rd, but you will have late pledges open and yeah. Encourage everybody. I backed it. Encourage everybody to check it out. And, uh, if you're not familiar with, uh, Wells's previous work, Mechaton is, is awesome. Frankenstein, the unconquered is a lot of fun. And, um, if you're old enough, ask your parents for permission. If you're not, smut is very good as well. Don't even ask your parents for permission. Don't. It's not, it's not for you. Oh, all right.

[00:43:38] Well, well, thank you so much for coming back on the podcast. It's been great. Thank you for having me. Yeah. Really always happy to be on. Um, and, and super looking forward to, to seeing this book, uh, kind of in my disgusting fingers. Uh, as always, it's, it's a thrilling experience, but, um, and yeah, just, just always happy to talk to you, Jimmy. Uh, made in Delco. It's great. Can't wait. Thank you. Yeah. It's going to be great. I, I, I hope so. I'm very, I'm, I'm excited.

[00:44:08] Uh, people have said some nice things about it. Hopefully they weren't lying. Um, but yeah, as always, shout out to my brother, Bobby, the cryptic creator corner's number one, most dedicated fan Bobby, who listens to all my episodes. Um, and, uh, yeah, listeners, thank you for listening. You can find me on blue sky or Tik TOK or the cryptic creator corner webpage. Let me know what it is you're reading. And, um, uh, yeah, have a, have a great day and I'll see you next time. This is Byron O'Neill.

[00:44:37] One of your hosts of the cryptic creator corner brought to you by comic book Yeti. We hope you've enjoyed this episode of our podcast. Please rate review, subscribe all that good stuff. It lets us know how we're doing and more importantly, how we can improve. Thanks for listening.