1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,620 Hey folks, we have a quick update on today's episode. 2 00:00:03,620 --> 00:00:08,220 In the time since recording, our guest, Brendan Albetsky, has actually launched a new kickstarter 3 00:00:08,220 --> 00:00:12,580 campaign for the latest issue of their comic, Maru Kiru Destroy the Moon. 4 00:00:12,580 --> 00:00:18,280 The campaign goes live today, that being May 13th, 2026 for you future listeners, and it's 5 00:00:18,280 --> 00:00:21,340 the perfect opportunity to catch up on the series. 6 00:00:21,340 --> 00:00:26,420 Backers can get a physical trade paperback of the comic so far, alongside the latest issue. 7 00:00:26,420 --> 00:00:30,540 The series is a recent fave of mine, so I highly recommend you check it out while you still 8 00:00:30,540 --> 00:00:31,540 can. 9 00:00:31,540 --> 00:00:51,940 Check out the show notes for a link to the campaign to support the book today. 10 00:00:51,940 --> 00:00:54,740 Welcome to GiantSized Violence, a Toku Comics podcast. 11 00:00:54,740 --> 00:00:55,980 I'm Tomi Trembath, 12 00:00:55,980 --> 00:01:00,420 And today, I'm joined by an incredibly talented cartoonist with one of the most vibrant art 13 00:01:00,420 --> 00:01:02,740 styles I've ever seen. 14 00:01:02,740 --> 00:01:04,300 Brendan Albetsky. 15 00:01:04,300 --> 00:01:09,500 Brendan is known for his ongoing series, Maru Kiru Destroy the Moon, a bombastic barbarian 16 00:01:09,500 --> 00:01:13,500 web comic about one girl's quest to kill a god and destroy the moon. 17 00:01:13,500 --> 00:01:18,980 If you're a fan of big, musely women fighting giant monsters, then this comic is for you. 18 00:01:18,980 --> 00:01:23,540 Brendan is the sole creative force behind the series, working as writer, artist, colorist, 19 00:01:23,540 --> 00:01:27,820 and letterer, resulting in a beautiful and visually distinct finished product with an art 20 00:01:27,820 --> 00:01:30,380 style that evolves along with the series. 21 00:01:30,380 --> 00:01:34,700 Maru Kiru has already been featured in two successful Kickstarter campaigns for physical 22 00:01:34,700 --> 00:01:35,700 releases. 23 00:01:35,700 --> 00:01:40,100 Brendan is also the artist on other indie comics like The World Ends in Fire and Circuit 24 00:01:40,100 --> 00:01:44,840 Champ, bringing his incredible artistic style to the robots, monsters, and landscapes of 25 00:01:44,840 --> 00:01:47,420 other series available on comic theory. 26 00:01:47,420 --> 00:01:50,340 With no further ado, I'd like to welcome to the show Brendan Albetsky. 27 00:01:50,340 --> 00:01:51,820 Thank you for joining us, Brendan. 28 00:01:51,820 --> 00:01:53,820 Thank you for having me, Tomi. 29 00:01:53,820 --> 00:01:55,060 Thank you for doing your research, geez. 30 00:01:55,060 --> 00:01:59,740 I feel like you've taken care of the first five or six things I usually have to talk about 31 00:01:59,740 --> 00:02:02,980 so I really appreciate that. 32 00:02:02,980 --> 00:02:07,060 The first interview I ever did, my guest Melissa Flores was like, "Oh my gosh, no one's 33 00:02:07,060 --> 00:02:08,860 mentioned this cartoon. 34 00:02:08,860 --> 00:02:11,140 Everyone forgot about that I worked on." 35 00:02:11,140 --> 00:02:15,380 That's been like, "I aim to replicate that every time I write an intro. 36 00:02:15,380 --> 00:02:16,380 I want to bring up the thing. 37 00:02:16,380 --> 00:02:17,380 No one else is mentioned." 38 00:02:17,380 --> 00:02:18,380 I appreciate that. 39 00:02:18,380 --> 00:02:19,980 I appreciate that quite a bit. 40 00:02:19,980 --> 00:02:20,980 Yeah. 41 00:02:20,980 --> 00:02:21,980 I'm really excited to be on the show. 42 00:02:21,980 --> 00:02:27,260 I'm really excited to be talking to you and I hope that I can justify my presence here. 43 00:02:27,260 --> 00:02:32,780 I know I'm not a typical toco experience this kind of comic, but what we discussed it 44 00:02:32,780 --> 00:02:38,300 kind of before the show, we decided that there's enough large monsters and fights going 45 00:02:38,300 --> 00:02:40,220 on that we could make that leap. 46 00:02:40,220 --> 00:02:41,220 Yeah. 47 00:02:41,220 --> 00:02:42,780 This shares some Barbarian DNA. 48 00:02:42,780 --> 00:02:45,820 This isn't the first Barbarian comic we've covered here. 49 00:02:45,820 --> 00:02:50,940 Since this was originally dedicated to Ultra Mega by James Heron, his other series 50 00:02:50,940 --> 00:02:53,300 Rumble is also very Barbarian. 51 00:02:53,300 --> 00:02:55,540 I know Rumble, yeah. 52 00:02:55,540 --> 00:02:57,780 We did a whole episode on that. 53 00:02:57,780 --> 00:03:03,060 There's giant monsters, people wearing masks, big colorful things, and honestly every time 54 00:03:03,060 --> 00:03:08,140 I've seen the Kickstarter advertised for Mario Curie, this looks beautiful and I want to 55 00:03:08,140 --> 00:03:09,940 know more about this. 56 00:03:09,940 --> 00:03:14,220 I thought this would be a better fit for Giant Size violence, but for those that watch 57 00:03:14,220 --> 00:03:19,580 the video version, we got the Trans Rights cover of Mario Curie Destroy the Moon. 58 00:03:19,580 --> 00:03:22,100 Maybe I should have had Yon Train sending comics, that's my bad. 59 00:03:22,100 --> 00:03:23,100 Next time. 60 00:03:23,100 --> 00:03:29,220 There is a large Trans Leadership of Mario Curie, and some of the first fans of the comic were 61 00:03:29,220 --> 00:03:33,660 trans folks, and I've always really appreciated the kind of the vocal support and endorsement 62 00:03:33,660 --> 00:03:37,620 of the comic, because especially when you're starting out on something, it's like getting 63 00:03:37,620 --> 00:03:41,980 people to read your comic and to comment on it and to tell you, "Oh, this is great. 64 00:03:41,980 --> 00:03:42,980 I like this. 65 00:03:42,980 --> 00:03:43,980 I like that." 66 00:03:43,980 --> 00:03:44,980 It really keeps you going. 67 00:03:44,980 --> 00:03:48,980 Trans community was huge in supporting me when I was first starting out, and I'm never 68 00:03:48,980 --> 00:03:49,980 going to forget that. 69 00:03:49,980 --> 00:03:54,460 Definitely, definitely, always have a home for those readers on my comic. 70 00:03:54,460 --> 00:03:59,180 Yeah, I don't think a single character in Mario Curie follows what I would consider traditional 71 00:03:59,180 --> 00:04:05,180 gender roles even the men in there, so I can see why it's gotten a following among us. 72 00:04:05,180 --> 00:04:10,780 I would say that the one character who does, and you could even make the argument one way 73 00:04:10,780 --> 00:04:18,660 the other, but I think that Manotada is supposed to be like a really obnoxious cis-hat guy. 74 00:04:18,660 --> 00:04:21,020 He's kind of up to the reader. 75 00:04:21,020 --> 00:04:23,740 That's the way I wanted to write him, but it doesn't really matter. 76 00:04:23,740 --> 00:04:26,420 It's like it's kind of what interpretation you're bringing into it, but he's also the bad 77 00:04:26,420 --> 00:04:27,420 guy, so. 78 00:04:27,420 --> 00:04:36,220 But yeah, I've always wanted to capture different types of people in the comic, and I've never 79 00:04:36,220 --> 00:04:40,940 really taken a time to stop and be like, "So and so is this or that, the other thing, but 80 00:04:40,940 --> 00:04:45,300 I just think it's nice to have a diverse looking cast, different body types, different 81 00:04:45,300 --> 00:04:46,460 orientations." 82 00:04:46,460 --> 00:04:48,220 Things get a little bit more out. 83 00:04:48,220 --> 00:04:53,180 See, I don't know if you're, are you current on the web comic, on the comic theory? 84 00:04:53,180 --> 00:04:57,060 Yeah, I just caught up on where we're at with comic theory this week. 85 00:04:57,060 --> 00:04:58,060 Okay. 86 00:04:58,060 --> 00:04:59,820 Yeah, like chapter 14, right? 87 00:04:59,820 --> 00:05:00,820 Yeah, yeah. 88 00:05:00,820 --> 00:05:05,780 So after, after Heming and Hauling about it for years, I decided to confirm the Maru 89 00:05:05,780 --> 00:05:09,260 Bonzer romance, which is always supposed to be kind of just be something that was implied 90 00:05:09,260 --> 00:05:11,580 to be going on in the background. 91 00:05:11,580 --> 00:05:15,700 And just with the, sometimes I read something and I get pissed off, and I'm like, you know 92 00:05:15,700 --> 00:05:18,580 what, we're just going to, we're just going to do this as loud as we can. 93 00:05:18,580 --> 00:05:20,380 And that was something I put in chapter 13. 94 00:05:20,380 --> 00:05:22,020 It's just like, yeah, let's just get it out there. 95 00:05:22,020 --> 00:05:25,100 Because that's the other thing is I'm really impatient about doing stories and stuff. 96 00:05:25,100 --> 00:05:29,260 And I don't have the patience as a writer to do a slow burn romance. 97 00:05:29,260 --> 00:05:32,140 So just like everything else in the, because that was something I was concerned about. 98 00:05:32,140 --> 00:05:34,060 It was like, I don't know how to write romance, really. 99 00:05:34,060 --> 00:05:36,900 I'm not, that's not something I've ever tried my hand at. 100 00:05:36,900 --> 00:05:40,940 I did draw a romance comic for another writer once, it's called romance radio. 101 00:05:40,940 --> 00:05:42,100 It was really cool. 102 00:05:42,100 --> 00:05:45,620 But the, in terms of writing something like that, I never done anything 103 00:05:45,620 --> 00:05:46,620 like it. 104 00:05:46,620 --> 00:05:50,060 And I just kind of decided I was going to treat it like I treated an action scene where 105 00:05:50,060 --> 00:05:52,900 you're going to have to look up page and something fake was going to happen. 106 00:05:52,900 --> 00:05:55,340 And then we move on to the next thing. 107 00:05:55,340 --> 00:05:56,980 And so that's how I did it. 108 00:05:56,980 --> 00:05:58,780 And you know, I hope that people enjoyed it. 109 00:05:58,780 --> 00:06:01,060 I got some good reaction to it when it came out. 110 00:06:01,060 --> 00:06:03,780 And I was like, yeah, I, I'm happy with that. 111 00:06:03,780 --> 00:06:08,260 That works perfectly here instead of action scenes that turned the page and bam, lesbians. 112 00:06:08,260 --> 00:06:09,260 And like, there it is. 113 00:06:09,260 --> 00:06:10,260 I was excited. 114 00:06:10,260 --> 00:06:12,660 And I'm so glad I almost didn't have time to catch up. 115 00:06:12,660 --> 00:06:16,500 I had the last 24 hours that I read the last couple chapters and like, I'd prepare 116 00:06:16,500 --> 00:06:21,060 to question everything of like, okay, I know this has Conan the barbarian inspiration. 117 00:06:21,060 --> 00:06:24,540 And I see this character is clearly like Conan's the friend. 118 00:06:24,540 --> 00:06:27,860 Are we going to get like a Valyria love interest and bam, there it is. 119 00:06:27,860 --> 00:06:29,860 Oh, she's both awesome. 120 00:06:29,860 --> 00:06:31,860 I love that for it. 121 00:06:31,860 --> 00:06:35,340 It's definitely it's kind of, it was like a half and half thing because yeah, it's the 122 00:06:35,340 --> 00:06:40,260 Conan the friend, but also I've been watching Zena as I'm going through this. 123 00:06:40,260 --> 00:06:44,300 But I think it's absolutely hilarious how many times in early, the early running of Zena, 124 00:06:44,300 --> 00:06:49,380 they try to give either Zena or Gabrielle the not case because it's just like, it's so, the 125 00:06:49,380 --> 00:06:53,100 chemistry between the two of them is, is, is spot on from, from minute one. 126 00:06:53,100 --> 00:06:56,500 And anytime somebody else shows up and be like, okay, and now they're going to have a romance 127 00:06:56,500 --> 00:06:57,500 with a man. 128 00:06:57,500 --> 00:06:59,500 I'm like, yeah, never mind. 129 00:06:59,500 --> 00:07:01,940 So I didn't even want to waste time doing something like that. 130 00:07:01,940 --> 00:07:06,500 It's like, yeah, they from jump, they were always supposed to be a couple. 131 00:07:06,500 --> 00:07:08,940 And I'm just, you know, we're going with it. 132 00:07:08,940 --> 00:07:09,940 That's, that's just what it is. 133 00:07:09,940 --> 00:07:13,660 I'm not going to write a whole lot of romantic scenes about it because I don't really want 134 00:07:13,660 --> 00:07:14,660 to do that. 135 00:07:14,660 --> 00:07:19,980 I want to draw monster fights, but that's there and then, and, and it's canon now. 136 00:07:19,980 --> 00:07:26,220 So Brendan, I know you're something of a self-made artist that started drawing later in life 137 00:07:26,220 --> 00:07:29,300 than one would expect for someone with your abilities. 138 00:07:29,300 --> 00:07:33,820 So I was wondering if you could tell our listeners a bit about your journey into comics and 139 00:07:33,820 --> 00:07:38,620 how you made the leap from writing to drawing and then eventually doing it all yourself 140 00:07:38,620 --> 00:07:40,620 with Mario Kuru. 141 00:07:40,620 --> 00:07:41,620 Sure. 142 00:07:41,620 --> 00:07:42,620 Yeah. 143 00:07:42,620 --> 00:07:47,620 The comics journey is is largely about the older I get, I feel like the more Zen I try to make 144 00:07:47,620 --> 00:07:48,620 this story. 145 00:07:48,620 --> 00:07:53,020 But the, the comics journey is, is, is largely about self discovery. 146 00:07:53,020 --> 00:08:00,780 So when I started doing comics, it was from a very selfish place and from a very kind of 147 00:08:00,780 --> 00:08:02,980 self-serving place, right? 148 00:08:02,980 --> 00:08:05,620 And I'm not going to say that that's changed too much over the years, but maybe I've 149 00:08:05,620 --> 00:08:07,260 just saw it under a little bit at least. 150 00:08:07,260 --> 00:08:10,740 But when I started, I was reading comics in my college newspaper. 151 00:08:10,740 --> 00:08:15,580 I went to Yukon, I read the Kinetic Daily Campus, I had a circulation of like 9,000 readership, 152 00:08:15,580 --> 00:08:16,580 a problem like that. 153 00:08:16,580 --> 00:08:18,460 It was, it was big for college newspaper, right? 154 00:08:18,460 --> 00:08:23,100 But we read a lot of, we were always reading the comics page in my roommate and something 155 00:08:23,100 --> 00:08:27,980 we thought about the comics page was always, which is like, we could do better than this, 156 00:08:27,980 --> 00:08:29,540 give it a half chance. 157 00:08:29,540 --> 00:08:34,060 Which is number one, I'm actually very close friends now with, with, with some of the people 158 00:08:34,060 --> 00:08:37,700 who we didn't know at the time, who were making comics on that page who were like, we 159 00:08:37,700 --> 00:08:38,700 can do better than this. 160 00:08:38,700 --> 00:08:42,780 And they're actually extremely talented comics creators in their, in their own right. 161 00:08:42,780 --> 00:08:45,900 And we were not, we were not okay saying those things. 162 00:08:45,900 --> 00:08:48,060 But as, so that's, that's point one. 163 00:08:48,060 --> 00:08:52,220 But you know, I was, I wasn't drawing at the time, but we were avid, you know, webcomap readers 164 00:08:52,220 --> 00:08:57,260 and all, all, all the hits from back in the, the Golden Age of Web Comics got your penny 165 00:08:57,260 --> 00:09:02,020 arcades and your chain saw suits, your PVPs, and et cetera, et cetera, gaming webcomics, 166 00:09:02,020 --> 00:09:03,180 that kind of thing. 167 00:09:03,180 --> 00:09:06,940 But we thought we were experts on like the three panel strip and really what we were experts 168 00:09:06,940 --> 00:09:13,020 on was kind of aping the Jerry Hulken style of, of writing and didn't have like any art 169 00:09:13,020 --> 00:09:14,020 skills at all. 170 00:09:14,020 --> 00:09:18,780 Got a friend of mine who was an artist who wanted to draw, you know, similar kind of three 171 00:09:18,780 --> 00:09:21,540 panel comics to do art for me. 172 00:09:21,540 --> 00:09:24,940 And we submitted this comic to the paper and we got in right away because of course we 173 00:09:24,940 --> 00:09:27,980 did because we're so much better. 174 00:09:27,980 --> 00:09:30,220 And we got paid five bucks a strip. 175 00:09:30,220 --> 00:09:35,580 And we split 50, 50 and is like, hey, you know, that'll buy you a nothing even back then 176 00:09:35,580 --> 00:09:37,060 it didn't go very far. 177 00:09:37,060 --> 00:09:41,020 But it kind of snowballed from there because at the end of the first year doing it, the 178 00:09:41,020 --> 00:09:44,140 comic center graduated and I decided I was going to apply for the job. 179 00:09:44,140 --> 00:09:45,140 No experience, no nothing. 180 00:09:45,140 --> 00:09:47,540 But it's just like one of those things which is like, I could do that. 181 00:09:47,540 --> 00:09:50,820 Turns out, yes, this one I actually could do. 182 00:09:50,820 --> 00:09:54,140 And I did get the job because there's the only person who applied, which is a great way 183 00:09:54,140 --> 00:09:55,140 to get a job. 184 00:09:55,140 --> 00:09:57,020 But I took over the section. 185 00:09:57,020 --> 00:10:02,020 I started doing my own comic, drawing it and writing it because simply because I realized 186 00:10:02,020 --> 00:10:06,580 I was the editor and I could put my own comics in the paper and I could turn this into 187 00:10:06,580 --> 00:10:09,060 five dollars on a regular basis. 188 00:10:09,060 --> 00:10:13,620 So I tried not to get too crazy with it and I never ran more than two of my own comics 189 00:10:13,620 --> 00:10:14,620 at the same time. 190 00:10:14,620 --> 00:10:19,420 It is the one I did with the other artist and the one I did by myself and did that for 191 00:10:19,420 --> 00:10:21,100 my senior year of college. 192 00:10:21,100 --> 00:10:24,060 And then at the end of that, the whole time I was, I was, this is, I was going to be like 193 00:10:24,060 --> 00:10:25,060 a novelist. 194 00:10:25,060 --> 00:10:27,060 And then it was like, well, this comic thing is pretty cool. 195 00:10:27,060 --> 00:10:28,820 I'm going to be a graphic novelist. 196 00:10:28,820 --> 00:10:32,140 I'm going to write, you know, some epic story and I'm going to get my artist friends to 197 00:10:32,140 --> 00:10:36,420 draw it for me because that is just like every writer of that age, I think that has that 198 00:10:36,420 --> 00:10:37,420 plan. 199 00:10:37,420 --> 00:10:43,020 Like I know people who go to art school, I'm going to abuse that labor and make my masterpiece. 200 00:10:43,020 --> 00:10:48,220 And luckily for me, the friends who I want one in particular, who is still one of my very 201 00:10:48,220 --> 00:10:53,380 closest friends and that's entirely because of her good graces and not because of me, 202 00:10:53,380 --> 00:10:56,340 I agreed to draw this, this space opera for me. 203 00:10:56,340 --> 00:11:02,860 And then after working on it with me for, I don't know, a couple of weeks and just the way 204 00:11:02,860 --> 00:11:06,380 that I kind of approached writing and working with an artist came to me and was just like, 205 00:11:06,380 --> 00:11:07,860 look, I'm out. 206 00:11:07,860 --> 00:11:08,860 I can't do this. 207 00:11:08,860 --> 00:11:09,860 And I was like, oh, well, fine. 208 00:11:09,860 --> 00:11:10,860 I don't need you. 209 00:11:10,860 --> 00:11:12,340 I mean, how hard could this drawing thing be? 210 00:11:12,340 --> 00:11:13,780 Anyway, I'll just do it myself. 211 00:11:13,780 --> 00:11:19,100 And I said to myself that like, I think if I, inside of a year, if I practice, I can 212 00:11:19,100 --> 00:11:20,980 be good enough to draw this graphic novel. 213 00:11:20,980 --> 00:11:27,660 And that, while being in incredible fallacy, also kind of launched me on the trajectory of 214 00:11:27,660 --> 00:11:32,060 what would be the rest of my life to this date, which is kind of developing a deep love 215 00:11:32,060 --> 00:11:39,040 of art and illustration and a deep appreciation for the amount of craft and work and blood, 216 00:11:39,040 --> 00:11:42,700 sweat and tears and effort that goes into every single line. 217 00:11:42,700 --> 00:11:45,660 It's mowed me out considerably as a person. 218 00:11:45,660 --> 00:11:48,100 I also got sober in that time period. 219 00:11:48,100 --> 00:11:55,180 So that definitely helped put me out of more positive trajectory, but without art and without 220 00:11:55,180 --> 00:12:02,620 finding that passion and coming from a place of great selfishness and great self-serving 221 00:12:02,620 --> 00:12:09,180 nature of trying to like get other people to do my work for me turned into someone I like 222 00:12:09,180 --> 00:12:16,320 to think who is now someone who's very into DIY, who's very into being the hand that actually 223 00:12:16,320 --> 00:12:21,800 moves every aspect of the book and creating something that I can be really proud of that 224 00:12:21,800 --> 00:12:25,440 I can point to and say the reason there's only one name on the book is not because I'm 225 00:12:25,440 --> 00:12:29,480 an eGomaniac is just because I did everything in the book. 226 00:12:29,480 --> 00:12:33,860 And that is a much better place to be, I think, than if I had somehow managed to trick people 227 00:12:33,860 --> 00:12:38,760 into making my graphic novel for me, who knows what I would be like if that had happened. 228 00:12:38,760 --> 00:12:44,360 But that's kind of how it came about is really just kind of me being an ass and biting off 229 00:12:44,360 --> 00:12:48,920 more than I can chew and then kind of having to learn to sleep in the bed that I've made 230 00:12:48,920 --> 00:12:53,560 and it has really kind of made a better life for myself as a result of that. 231 00:12:53,560 --> 00:12:55,320 So it's a journey, right? 232 00:12:55,320 --> 00:13:00,480 Now, like as someone who started drawing in your 20s, I'm curious what advice you have to 233 00:13:00,480 --> 00:13:05,880 others that are trying to learn the craft well after they're like school years where 234 00:13:05,880 --> 00:13:11,160 drawing might be encouraged or everyone seems to have their seeds and drawing in class. 235 00:13:11,160 --> 00:13:16,160 I personally think that learning to draw in my 20s was actually a great experience and 236 00:13:16,160 --> 00:13:18,200 being self-guided was a great experience. 237 00:13:18,200 --> 00:13:23,680 I have a lot of friends who went to art school specifically for illustration and really 238 00:13:23,680 --> 00:13:27,800 none of them pursued it after school in any serious capacity. 239 00:13:27,800 --> 00:13:31,880 They all got kind of burned out on it and really disheartened as a result of having that 240 00:13:31,880 --> 00:13:33,200 school experience. 241 00:13:33,200 --> 00:13:34,960 I don't know if that's exactly the same way. 242 00:13:34,960 --> 00:13:40,560 Now comics have a lot more legitimacy than they did 15 years ago in an academic setting. 243 00:13:40,560 --> 00:13:47,400 It might be different, but for me, it was all about kind of like the passion of learning 244 00:13:47,400 --> 00:13:51,200 to do what the people who I admired were doing. 245 00:13:51,200 --> 00:14:00,840 So I think that if you are someone who is, you know, 21, 22, 25, 27, 30, 35, 40 and you 246 00:14:00,840 --> 00:14:06,080 want to start drawing, the best thing to do is kind of like figure out who is, you know, 247 00:14:06,080 --> 00:14:07,080 your idol. 248 00:14:07,080 --> 00:14:08,080 And at the time for me it was Mike Pignol. 249 00:14:08,080 --> 00:14:11,840 That was like somebody who was like, that's, I want to be like Mike. 250 00:14:11,840 --> 00:14:17,400 And so you kind of start copying panels here and there. 251 00:14:17,400 --> 00:14:21,280 And I actually used to do a YouTube show called "Paneling" where I did that with just random 252 00:14:21,280 --> 00:14:23,280 panels and I would copy over panels. 253 00:14:23,280 --> 00:14:25,440 Like I'll see what we can learn from copying that. 254 00:14:25,440 --> 00:14:27,480 So like, yeah, copy your faves. 255 00:14:27,480 --> 00:14:29,840 You know, don't be afraid to be a hack fraud. 256 00:14:29,840 --> 00:14:34,240 Don't get too bound up and worrying about like what your style is. 257 00:14:34,240 --> 00:14:35,480 I think that's a faux pas. 258 00:14:35,480 --> 00:14:39,920 That a lot of people just getting started out, are we like super worried about like what 259 00:14:39,920 --> 00:14:41,680 is my art style? 260 00:14:41,680 --> 00:14:46,920 And something that Alejandro Brasense said to me a couple of years ago was that your style 261 00:14:46,920 --> 00:14:47,920 does not matter. 262 00:14:47,920 --> 00:14:53,480 It is how you as a person solve the problems of creating art on the page. 263 00:14:53,480 --> 00:14:56,680 And you know, like at the end of your life, somebody collected up all your work and they put 264 00:14:56,680 --> 00:14:57,680 it in a room. 265 00:14:57,680 --> 00:15:02,800 The only joining factor that it needs to have is that it was all made by you. 266 00:15:02,800 --> 00:15:08,120 Who cares if the first thing you drew and the last thing you drew look anything like one 267 00:15:08,120 --> 00:15:09,120 another? 268 00:15:09,120 --> 00:15:12,200 Style is just like totally not important. 269 00:15:12,200 --> 00:15:16,680 And you will also find that it's going to, something that's going to develop naturally because 270 00:15:16,680 --> 00:15:19,960 it's the way you think and it's the way you put it on the page. 271 00:15:19,960 --> 00:15:23,960 And even if you don't see it yourself, other people are going to be like, oh yeah, I recognize 272 00:15:23,960 --> 00:15:24,960 that. 273 00:15:24,960 --> 00:15:26,560 That's something that I think happens a lot. 274 00:15:26,560 --> 00:15:31,240 I saw a post about this recently where somebody saw a thing on Tumblr that was like normalize 275 00:15:31,240 --> 00:15:35,120 having 50 different art styles and then they showed 50 pictures that were all clearly drawn 276 00:15:35,120 --> 00:15:36,480 by the same artist. 277 00:15:36,480 --> 00:15:41,120 And it's like maybe just normalize not worrying about your style so much and kind of just let 278 00:15:41,120 --> 00:15:47,520 the ideas flow in a way that makes the most sense to you as you are solving problems. 279 00:15:47,520 --> 00:15:49,440 And don't be afraid to use references. 280 00:15:49,440 --> 00:15:51,600 And don't be afraid to like look up YouTube videos and stuff. 281 00:15:51,600 --> 00:15:52,920 I did an anatomy drawing course. 282 00:15:52,920 --> 00:15:55,440 It was just like a series of YouTube videos. 283 00:15:55,440 --> 00:15:58,040 And I did that for like a month. 284 00:15:58,040 --> 00:16:00,280 And it taught me a ton. 285 00:16:00,280 --> 00:16:03,360 And I never had to pay for it and I never had to go to school for it. 286 00:16:03,360 --> 00:16:04,960 I never had to get graded on it. 287 00:16:04,960 --> 00:16:09,520 But it was just like, it was something I was super interested in and it made it fun for 288 00:16:09,520 --> 00:16:10,520 me. 289 00:16:10,520 --> 00:16:14,480 And I think that would be another thing is like as you're drawing, if it's not fun for you 290 00:16:14,480 --> 00:16:19,920 while you're doing it, then either find a way to make it fun or move on to something else. 291 00:16:19,920 --> 00:16:22,640 Life is too short for you to make yourself miserable. 292 00:16:22,640 --> 00:16:29,020 And let me tell you like the reward is the art that you will create. 293 00:16:29,020 --> 00:16:31,420 That's not satisfying to you. 294 00:16:31,420 --> 00:16:36,780 Then rethink what it is that you're doing because you have to treat the product of your 295 00:16:36,780 --> 00:16:42,460 labor like it is its own reward because in many cases that is the only report that you 296 00:16:42,460 --> 00:16:44,420 will get. 297 00:16:44,420 --> 00:16:49,140 So yeah, I think that you know, if you approach it with a beginner's mindset and you're never 298 00:16:49,140 --> 00:16:53,660 afraid to kind of feel a little bit foolish about being the oldest guy in the room when 299 00:16:53,660 --> 00:16:58,820 you're trying to learn something new and approach it with just kind of a joyful mindset. 300 00:16:58,820 --> 00:17:03,140 It will eventually start to flow from you in the way that you want it to. 301 00:17:03,140 --> 00:17:06,300 And it's always going to be work, but it'll at least start to look closer to the way it 302 00:17:06,300 --> 00:17:08,140 looks in your head. 303 00:17:08,140 --> 00:17:11,980 And as far as resources go, I know you have your own YouTube channel with a good, 304 00:17:11,980 --> 00:17:14,380 helpful tutorials and shorts. 305 00:17:14,380 --> 00:17:19,020 Yeah, I haven't done much with it recently, but I have the means to go back and do some 306 00:17:19,020 --> 00:17:22,460 more kind of stuff like that because I'm just talking about doing the paneling show. 307 00:17:22,460 --> 00:17:24,060 It's like, I kind of misdo in that. 308 00:17:24,060 --> 00:17:25,660 Yeah, that was a lot of fun. 309 00:17:25,660 --> 00:17:31,500 I did think that like the low five beats backtrack to your videos, like really helped set 310 00:17:31,500 --> 00:17:34,900 them apart and seem like very professional or like easy to watch. 311 00:17:34,900 --> 00:17:38,740 I'm curious where you got your music from for the channel. 312 00:17:38,740 --> 00:17:40,300 I did it myself. 313 00:17:40,300 --> 00:17:42,060 Yeah, yeah. 314 00:17:42,060 --> 00:17:49,700 Yeah, some of them were I used to do a couple of different podcasts with my friends and 315 00:17:49,700 --> 00:17:54,300 I was a terrible podcast host, but I was decent at doing podcast themes. 316 00:17:54,300 --> 00:17:58,540 So I recorded a couple of different things for old podcasts. 317 00:17:58,540 --> 00:18:01,940 And then when I started the YouTube channel, I made a couple more because my partner was 318 00:18:01,940 --> 00:18:06,620 cleaning out something at her mother's house and we came home with this like this little 319 00:18:06,620 --> 00:18:08,300 toy, Cassio keyboard. 320 00:18:08,300 --> 00:18:10,020 And I was like, oh, I could do something cool with that. 321 00:18:10,020 --> 00:18:14,420 So the low five beat that's behind most of the paneling videos, I think is the one I made 322 00:18:14,420 --> 00:18:15,980 with that, but that little toy keyboard. 323 00:18:15,980 --> 00:18:18,380 But yeah, it's just like real, like I said, DIY stuff. 324 00:18:18,380 --> 00:18:21,460 It's like I set up a microphone and put a speaker next to it and I just kind of noodle 325 00:18:21,460 --> 00:18:25,900 around and do a couple of different tracks and then loop them and just have something that's 326 00:18:25,900 --> 00:18:31,300 kind of nice, easy listening behind it that is not too, you know, intrusive, it is also 327 00:18:31,300 --> 00:18:32,300 kind of unique. 328 00:18:32,300 --> 00:18:36,660 Clearly, I did not do enough of my homework because I completely missed your podcasting 329 00:18:36,660 --> 00:18:37,660 work in your past. 330 00:18:37,660 --> 00:18:41,900 Oh, I've done a good job of burying both of it. 331 00:18:41,900 --> 00:18:42,900 So. 332 00:18:42,900 --> 00:18:49,580 Now, as for your own creative process, I know you've mentioned elsewhere your use of the 333 00:18:49,580 --> 00:18:54,180 Kishotten Ketsu manga plotting method on note cards. 334 00:18:54,180 --> 00:18:59,940 And I was wondering to start, if you could give those unfamiliar a little bit of a description 335 00:18:59,940 --> 00:19:04,860 of what that process looks like and how you personally use it in your comic creation 336 00:19:04,860 --> 00:19:05,860 process. 337 00:19:05,860 --> 00:19:06,860 Sure. 338 00:19:06,860 --> 00:19:07,860 Yeah. 339 00:19:07,860 --> 00:19:15,140 I used to kind of obey it more strictly than I do now, but it's a four part, four, it's 340 00:19:15,140 --> 00:19:20,900 a four part storytelling method that is used in a lot of manga and Japanese storytelling 341 00:19:20,900 --> 00:19:25,620 where you have a setup, a development, a twist and a resolution. 342 00:19:25,620 --> 00:19:30,380 And the important part of the four step is that it skips the, the denimal that is typically 343 00:19:30,380 --> 00:19:32,420 present in like a western story. 344 00:19:32,420 --> 00:19:38,500 So it's perfect for doing short form comics and it's also perfect for doing long form comics 345 00:19:38,500 --> 00:19:42,620 where you don't want to waste a lot of pages, you know, kind of diving back into what 346 00:19:42,620 --> 00:19:43,620 just happened. 347 00:19:43,620 --> 00:19:47,180 And it's something that I was very strictly adhering to and in the early morning I was like, 348 00:19:47,180 --> 00:19:52,620 we never are going to stop and look back on what has just happened. 349 00:19:52,620 --> 00:19:54,980 We're always kind of like barreling towards the next thing. 350 00:19:54,980 --> 00:19:58,740 So it's a really, I would do it in note cards, like you said. 351 00:19:58,740 --> 00:20:03,860 And I would write down next real key, show ten and Ketsu on cards and then I would have 352 00:20:03,860 --> 00:20:08,740 other cards that would say, okay, what's going to be the key for this, the setup, what's 353 00:20:08,740 --> 00:20:10,940 the development next, how many pages? 354 00:20:10,940 --> 00:20:16,180 It's going to be, you know, the twist that kind of carries the action scene and then how 355 00:20:16,180 --> 00:20:18,860 does it resolve and then kind of recycle onto the next thing. 356 00:20:18,860 --> 00:20:23,660 So I used it to write fights because it's great for plotting out fight beats and you can 357 00:20:23,660 --> 00:20:29,700 just kind of, as soon as you have that resolution, you kind of loop back to the key again, the 358 00:20:29,700 --> 00:20:32,340 start, the setup. 359 00:20:32,340 --> 00:20:35,020 And you can do that to plot a fight and I would do that all the time. 360 00:20:35,020 --> 00:20:40,020 It's like the, the solmo fight in first-harrisity was written that way. 361 00:20:40,020 --> 00:20:45,420 And it kind of kept it flowing very quickly and kind of managed to do a few things without 362 00:20:45,420 --> 00:20:50,540 using too many pages to, you know, that would take up a lot, a lot of space because when I was 363 00:20:50,540 --> 00:20:53,780 originally doing it, it was like, I have a lot of story to tell and not a whole lot of time 364 00:20:53,780 --> 00:20:56,980 to do it and what's the most efficient way that we can do this. 365 00:20:56,980 --> 00:21:01,860 And I eased up on that a little bit in Joe's once, but it still is something that I kind 366 00:21:01,860 --> 00:21:06,060 of have internalized now and reference with some frequency. 367 00:21:06,060 --> 00:21:10,820 But it's something I learned about in Here're Hiko Araki's book, "Manga and Theory and Practice." 368 00:21:10,820 --> 00:21:15,460 So if you want to learn more about it, that would be an excellent way to check it out because 369 00:21:15,460 --> 00:21:19,340 Araki does a much better job than I do of explaining it. 370 00:21:19,340 --> 00:21:24,660 Now, I'm glad you mentioned that solmo fight in chapter seven because that was where I 371 00:21:24,660 --> 00:21:29,940 like had to stop and make a note of your panel work since it was that fight where I noticed 372 00:21:29,940 --> 00:21:35,180 like your use of these sharp and your panels and action scenes and just doing things I 373 00:21:35,180 --> 00:21:37,580 hadn't seen much elsewhere. 374 00:21:37,580 --> 00:21:42,220 So I'd love to know how you came to develop that paneling style and like what comics might 375 00:21:42,220 --> 00:21:43,660 have inspired that. 376 00:21:43,660 --> 00:21:51,020 I used to do a lot of work kind of in a basement with other people around, just kind of also 377 00:21:51,020 --> 00:21:52,020 noodling on things. 378 00:21:52,020 --> 00:21:56,180 And one of those people is my good friend Zach Semansick who does a comic called "Saga 379 00:21:56,180 --> 00:21:57,460 of the Space Man." 380 00:21:57,460 --> 00:22:02,300 And this was something that we were kind of playing with was angular panels, right? 381 00:22:02,300 --> 00:22:03,620 Slanted panels. 382 00:22:03,620 --> 00:22:07,100 And this was something that Zach would say to me as he was working on this, it's a great 383 00:22:07,100 --> 00:22:12,860 way to create some energy, but it's really difficult to kind of transition back to a straight 384 00:22:12,860 --> 00:22:15,420 panel after you started using angular panels. 385 00:22:15,420 --> 00:22:18,460 You know, on a page sharing, you're looking for that slant. 386 00:22:18,460 --> 00:22:23,100 And I'm thinking to myself, "Yeah, but why would you ever want to go back?" 387 00:22:23,100 --> 00:22:30,780 So yeah, I use a lot of slanted panels because they denote a certain urgency and energy 388 00:22:30,780 --> 00:22:34,100 that you kind of lack in the traditional up and downs. 389 00:22:34,100 --> 00:22:38,620 So you always get that little bit of movement and motion using the slants. 390 00:22:38,620 --> 00:22:41,700 And then panel breaks, which I love panel breaks. 391 00:22:41,700 --> 00:22:47,740 I use all the time to literally break out of the panels and help that action kind of explode 392 00:22:47,740 --> 00:22:49,860 out at you and splash pages or another thing. 393 00:22:49,860 --> 00:22:55,140 I love using the page sharing to do a big splash or a big hit or whatever. 394 00:22:55,140 --> 00:22:59,420 And anything to keep the energy up and to keep the momentum up. 395 00:22:59,420 --> 00:23:08,420 I hate, this is something that I hate the strong word, but it's like, it's dialogue. 396 00:23:08,420 --> 00:23:12,500 What's the best way to phrase this without without sounding like an ass? 397 00:23:12,500 --> 00:23:14,860 I'm not a huge fan of lots of dialogue. 398 00:23:14,860 --> 00:23:19,660 I try to keep it very brief and meaningful in my own work. 399 00:23:19,660 --> 00:23:27,540 And when I am working with other writers, I try to vary up the pages as visually as possible, 400 00:23:27,540 --> 00:23:31,660 visually vary up the pages as much as possible when you have lots of dialogue. 401 00:23:31,660 --> 00:23:35,100 And I go to the Wallywood 22 panels. 402 00:23:35,100 --> 00:23:39,540 22 panels that always work when some writer gives you a lot of boring dialogue, which I have 403 00:23:39,540 --> 00:23:42,780 to do, which I think is the actual full title of the page. 404 00:23:42,780 --> 00:23:47,580 But it's great to just like you don't just need to have shot reverse shot two talking ads, 405 00:23:47,580 --> 00:23:48,580 two shots, everything. 406 00:23:48,580 --> 00:23:54,100 There's lots of different things that you can do to kind of keep the visual variety strong 407 00:23:54,100 --> 00:23:55,540 and to keep people interested in. 408 00:23:55,540 --> 00:24:01,060 And to take the opportunity of like long dialogue sequences to show off environment and to show 409 00:24:01,060 --> 00:24:07,420 off props and to show off scene setting, stuff that I don't do a whole lot in my career because 410 00:24:07,420 --> 00:24:09,900 there aren't really a whole lot of like long dialogue sections. 411 00:24:09,900 --> 00:24:14,780 We have to kind of crash through the setting in the action scenes so that you can kind of 412 00:24:14,780 --> 00:24:16,900 get a taste of flavor of the world. 413 00:24:16,900 --> 00:24:20,540 And it is part of the reason why I've started doing a little bit more dialogue going forward 414 00:24:20,540 --> 00:24:24,380 is just like, okay, so yeah, this actually is a moment that we can slow down and you can 415 00:24:24,380 --> 00:24:29,660 see like the different things that are happening, the location that we're in, especially in 416 00:24:29,660 --> 00:24:35,100 chosen ones arc, which is not in the the TPP, but is the current what's currently go updating 417 00:24:35,100 --> 00:24:37,660 on the comic theory, web comic site. 418 00:24:37,660 --> 00:24:45,540 There are three different plot lines running at once and at least one of them is being 419 00:24:45,540 --> 00:24:50,940 told across multiple time periods without a whole lot of explanation. 420 00:24:50,940 --> 00:24:54,620 And I'm like David Lynch like that where it's like explain on that. 421 00:24:54,620 --> 00:24:56,420 No, I don't want. 422 00:24:56,420 --> 00:24:59,260 And that's just that's just a way it's going to be. 423 00:24:59,260 --> 00:25:02,060 And I love books that do that. 424 00:25:02,060 --> 00:25:05,020 I don't know if you've read the book of the new son. 425 00:25:05,020 --> 00:25:06,660 But I haven't heard of that one. 426 00:25:06,660 --> 00:25:09,820 Oh, yeah, that's that's that's that's good stuff. 427 00:25:09,820 --> 00:25:12,740 Name of the author is staking me Jean Wolf. 428 00:25:12,740 --> 00:25:18,500 Jean Wolf, book of the new son and book of the long son and the book of the short son 429 00:25:18,500 --> 00:25:23,180 after that it's it's nine or 10 books in total. 430 00:25:23,180 --> 00:25:27,620 Each book over the blah is a is a trilogy and then there's a quash rein that goes on the 431 00:25:27,620 --> 00:25:28,620 on the first one. 432 00:25:28,620 --> 00:25:33,260 But yeah, does that kind of stuff all the time where it's like we're just stuff is going 433 00:25:33,260 --> 00:25:34,740 to happen. 434 00:25:34,740 --> 00:25:36,660 Vocab words are going to happen. 435 00:25:36,660 --> 00:25:40,860 You're not going to get any explanation use context clues figured out. 436 00:25:40,860 --> 00:25:41,940 And I love that kind of stuff. 437 00:25:41,940 --> 00:25:44,660 So that that's kind of how Mario Cure flows. 438 00:25:44,660 --> 00:25:46,700 I don't remember what your initial question was to me here. 439 00:25:46,700 --> 00:25:47,700 I think I just kind of. 440 00:25:47,700 --> 00:25:52,340 Well, you more than answered it because I was just asking about the angular panels and you 441 00:25:52,340 --> 00:25:55,700 gave me a great style. 442 00:25:55,700 --> 00:26:00,220 But following on that though and like especially going without dialogue this leads really 443 00:26:00,220 --> 00:26:05,260 well into the next chapter and the next question because chapter eight, I was really impressed 444 00:26:05,260 --> 00:26:08,620 with how you handled your first silent chapter in the book. 445 00:26:08,620 --> 00:26:13,540 And I thought you did like visual dialogue in a way I hadn't really seen elsewhere like 446 00:26:13,540 --> 00:26:18,260 I've seen images and word balloons before but this just like I don't know the visual style 447 00:26:18,260 --> 00:26:20,340 of them was different than what I've seen elsewhere. 448 00:26:20,340 --> 00:26:25,100 So I'd love to know about your decision to shift to a one off silent chapter and how 449 00:26:25,100 --> 00:26:27,820 you approach silent visual storytelling. 450 00:26:27,820 --> 00:26:33,740 Yeah, the genesis of that was I wanted to rip off the silent chapter from all new X-Men 451 00:26:33,740 --> 00:26:36,140 with Morrison and Quiley. 452 00:26:36,140 --> 00:26:40,180 And I obviously did it differently than they did. 453 00:26:40,180 --> 00:26:47,740 But the idea for me was that's a different location, right? 454 00:26:47,740 --> 00:26:51,980 That's not the toth that we know and love from the beginning of the book. 455 00:26:51,980 --> 00:26:56,140 I don't know, I spoil anything too much for people to have a little bit of, but that's a different 456 00:26:56,140 --> 00:26:57,740 place. 457 00:26:57,740 --> 00:27:05,100 And so the idea was that the actual not only are the word balloons, not word balloons, the 458 00:27:05,100 --> 00:27:08,740 dialogue balloons will call them because it is still a dialogue that they have. 459 00:27:08,740 --> 00:27:13,060 So not only are the dialogue balloons being used to communicate concepts, they are actually 460 00:27:13,060 --> 00:27:14,700 tangible objects. 461 00:27:14,700 --> 00:27:20,060 So I treated them like they were panels and they kind of show the ideas that manifest in 462 00:27:20,060 --> 00:27:24,580 them like, you know, in a visual sense and you have to, you as the reader must interpret 463 00:27:24,580 --> 00:27:25,900 what that means. 464 00:27:25,900 --> 00:27:26,900 My partner hates that chapter. 465 00:27:26,900 --> 00:27:29,140 She's just like, I don't know what's going on in that chapter. 466 00:27:29,140 --> 00:27:31,100 Like it's supposed to be confusing. 467 00:27:31,100 --> 00:27:36,140 It's, it's, it's, it's, it's, she, Mark here has to learn a brand new way to communicate 468 00:27:36,140 --> 00:27:39,540 with this weirdo in, in this other place. 469 00:27:39,540 --> 00:27:42,820 And you know, my, literally, my favorite page is the whole book is when she cuts the, the 470 00:27:42,820 --> 00:27:46,180 dialogue balloon in half with, with the, with the new sword. 471 00:27:46,180 --> 00:27:51,780 And because I really wanted it to be very like meta and, and there's a, there's a part of 472 00:27:51,780 --> 00:27:57,940 me that really loves when Morrison does the kind of like, my comic characters know that 473 00:27:57,940 --> 00:28:01,980 they're in a comic and like the filth and, and, and stuff like that. 474 00:28:01,980 --> 00:28:05,300 And they actually had like a, like a comic world that they were studying and they have 475 00:28:05,300 --> 00:28:09,220 the guy that comes out of it and he's like all like falling to pieces and they have to take 476 00:28:09,220 --> 00:28:11,140 them together with bandages and crap. 477 00:28:11,140 --> 00:28:15,540 So it's like, I wanted to do kind of like a, a, a slightly less pretentious version of 478 00:28:15,540 --> 00:28:16,540 that. 479 00:28:16,540 --> 00:28:19,420 I don't know if I used to see it in being less pretentious, but I like the idea of the medium 480 00:28:19,420 --> 00:28:23,700 kind of talking, nudging you a little bit and being like, yeah, this is kind of obviously 481 00:28:23,700 --> 00:28:27,740 like a comic, what's real, what's not real, what's going on? 482 00:28:27,740 --> 00:28:31,660 Is that a meta thing or are the, are the balloons actually like physical objects in 483 00:28:31,660 --> 00:28:33,140 the world of these characters? 484 00:28:33,140 --> 00:28:35,860 There's a lot that is left up to the interpretation of the reader. 485 00:28:35,860 --> 00:28:37,820 I'm not even really sure I have a super good answer. 486 00:28:37,820 --> 00:28:41,020 That's just a weird chapter, but it was one that I definitely had a lot of fun with. 487 00:28:41,020 --> 00:28:44,900 I wanted to do something experimental and, and, and different. 488 00:28:44,900 --> 00:28:51,020 And that is largely how a lot of the book came together in the first place was like all 489 00:28:51,020 --> 00:28:55,420 those initial chapters, each one, each time I do a new chapter, I want it to be the best 490 00:28:55,420 --> 00:28:57,340 comic I've ever done. 491 00:28:57,340 --> 00:28:58,980 And I want to do something new. 492 00:28:58,980 --> 00:29:05,140 So that was definitely one where we took a really wild swing at doing something new, but I'm 493 00:29:05,140 --> 00:29:07,220 still happy with, I'm still happy with how that one works. 494 00:29:07,220 --> 00:29:10,900 Like in the remaster, that's probably the chapter that got changed the least out of any 495 00:29:10,900 --> 00:29:15,300 of them, just because I was pretty happy with how it came out initially. 496 00:29:15,300 --> 00:29:16,300 Yeah. 497 00:29:16,300 --> 00:29:19,060 No stranger to psychedelic experiences myself. 498 00:29:19,060 --> 00:29:23,460 So I mean, this whole book has a very like psychedelic color scheme at that. 499 00:29:23,460 --> 00:29:26,660 And I think you've managed to have very cohesive storytelling. 500 00:29:26,660 --> 00:29:31,740 I would say even through the silent chapter, like, I think I can just pick up on when something 501 00:29:31,740 --> 00:29:35,980 is supposed to be a mystery or like, okay, reality is getting weird. 502 00:29:35,980 --> 00:29:40,140 I think similarly, like all the Morrison reading has brought me for that. 503 00:29:40,140 --> 00:29:44,820 I mean, like, sure, since you mentioned it, I have the filth within arm's reach. 504 00:29:44,820 --> 00:29:46,660 Oh, hey, look at that. 505 00:29:46,660 --> 00:29:48,460 I don't think I've ever experienced it before. 506 00:29:48,460 --> 00:29:51,860 I mentioned the filth and somebody's like, oh, yeah, I've got it right here. 507 00:29:51,860 --> 00:29:52,860 Oh, yeah. 508 00:29:52,860 --> 00:29:54,700 No, I was great. 509 00:29:54,700 --> 00:29:58,140 No one used this sample out of context, but I love the filth. 510 00:29:58,140 --> 00:30:00,940 Like, oh, yeah, I love the filth. 511 00:30:00,940 --> 00:30:05,300 I feel like I would see it on Reddit comments of like things people wish they could unread. 512 00:30:05,300 --> 00:30:09,820 So I had kind of avoided it until I mean, there's some stuff in there, I guess, but that's 513 00:30:09,820 --> 00:30:10,820 it's great. 514 00:30:10,820 --> 00:30:11,820 That bad. 515 00:30:11,820 --> 00:30:13,820 Yeah, never that much of a downer. 516 00:30:13,820 --> 00:30:18,380 And I was kind of saving it for like when I was going to interview Grant Morrison and 517 00:30:18,380 --> 00:30:22,700 since it was like, invisible is adjacent and our interview is very focused on that. 518 00:30:22,700 --> 00:30:28,260 Like, I got to know what this like pseudo sequel to it is, but oh, wow, that's, that's, 519 00:30:28,260 --> 00:30:30,460 you actually got to interview Grant Morrison. 520 00:30:30,460 --> 00:30:34,060 Yeah, that's the second most recent episode of Transundant Comics. 521 00:30:34,060 --> 00:30:35,060 Oh, my God. 522 00:30:35,060 --> 00:30:36,060 Okay. 523 00:30:36,060 --> 00:30:37,060 I'm going to go watch that. 524 00:30:37,060 --> 00:30:41,580 I've got stories to share after the show as far as my own like share the invisible literally 525 00:30:41,580 --> 00:30:43,300 changed my brain experience. 526 00:30:43,300 --> 00:30:44,580 Oh, yeah, definitely. 527 00:30:44,580 --> 00:30:45,580 Yeah. 528 00:30:45,580 --> 00:30:46,580 Yeah. 529 00:30:46,580 --> 00:30:47,580 It'll do that to you. 530 00:30:47,580 --> 00:30:52,060 Now, rewinding a bit like the origins of Maru Kuru, I know that like a lot of this is 531 00:30:52,060 --> 00:30:58,180 springing out of like cone in the barbarian inspiration and like years and D&D tabletop campaigns 532 00:30:58,180 --> 00:31:04,500 and what I've never heard you extrapolate on though is the actual origin of the name Maru 533 00:31:04,500 --> 00:31:06,620 Kuru and where that came from. 534 00:31:06,620 --> 00:31:10,980 So it's the short answer is it's me stringing sounds together. 535 00:31:10,980 --> 00:31:17,820 And the long answer is I was looking up the word for murderer in different languages trying 536 00:31:17,820 --> 00:31:22,780 to find ones that sounded satisfying to me and I think I chopped a screw to a couple letters 537 00:31:22,780 --> 00:31:24,980 here and there when I saw it. 538 00:31:24,980 --> 00:31:27,300 And Maru Kuru is the words, it rolls off the tongue. 539 00:31:27,300 --> 00:31:28,300 It sounds nice. 540 00:31:28,300 --> 00:31:32,620 It's like I used to say I used to be in a lot of bands in college and I would tell people 541 00:31:32,620 --> 00:31:37,420 like you ever whenever you hear a story about how a band was named, you need to assume 542 00:31:37,420 --> 00:31:39,220 that that is bullshit. 543 00:31:39,220 --> 00:31:42,380 And that's something that they came up with because they thought that was a cool way to 544 00:31:42,380 --> 00:31:45,020 like communicate like how they came up with their band name. 545 00:31:45,020 --> 00:31:48,140 99% of the stories of how people came up with a band name is there. 546 00:31:48,140 --> 00:31:51,540 A bunch of guys sitting in a basement going you know it would be a cool name for a band 547 00:31:51,540 --> 00:31:52,540 XYZ. 548 00:31:52,540 --> 00:31:53,540 You know what? 549 00:31:53,540 --> 00:31:54,540 That would be a cool name for a band. 550 00:31:54,540 --> 00:31:55,540 Let's go with that. 551 00:31:55,540 --> 00:32:00,540 So that was kind of how Maru Kuru came about and the destroy the moon thing was like I 552 00:32:00,540 --> 00:32:07,900 guess I was heavy into Joker's bizarre adventure and I'm still like I'm super manga freak. 553 00:32:07,900 --> 00:32:13,700 And I love the way that manga are titles and translated into English and it's always 554 00:32:13,700 --> 00:32:15,980 just like who's the main character? 555 00:32:15,980 --> 00:32:16,980 What are they doing? 556 00:32:16,980 --> 00:32:22,860 You know and so that's that's what I wanted to do with that but kind of a cool serendipitous 557 00:32:22,860 --> 00:32:27,940 little sideways story is I started kind of casually learning a little bit of Japanese here 558 00:32:27,940 --> 00:32:28,940 and there. 559 00:32:28,940 --> 00:32:32,340 We initially again this is another one of my my idiotic adventures where I'm just like 560 00:32:32,340 --> 00:32:36,340 I can learn that really quick and then I can be I'm going to be a manga translator and 561 00:32:36,340 --> 00:32:38,980 I'm going to make a little you know a little cash on the side. 562 00:32:38,980 --> 00:32:40,980 Yeah, no I was dumb idea. 563 00:32:40,980 --> 00:32:44,380 I mean it's again it's something that's really fun but it's also really hard and complicated 564 00:32:44,380 --> 00:32:47,060 and it's going to take me super long longer than it took me to learn how to draw is going 565 00:32:47,060 --> 00:32:51,180 to think you learn how to speak Japanese but I was talking to a Japanese speaker about 566 00:32:51,180 --> 00:32:56,740 my comic and they said oh Maru Kuru that means that means circle cut around cut. 567 00:32:56,740 --> 00:33:02,780 Did you do that on purpose and I said no but apparently that's that's that's something 568 00:33:02,780 --> 00:33:08,180 that actually makes some kind of sense in Japanese as a phrase so that that was something 569 00:33:08,180 --> 00:33:09,180 that I thought was cool. 570 00:33:09,180 --> 00:33:13,460 Yeah I mean I'm not going to take credit for that or or make the claim that that was what 571 00:33:13,460 --> 00:33:21,300 I was trying to do but I just again I wanted something that was kind of had that not 572 00:33:21,300 --> 00:33:25,060 rhyming what's the what's the thing I'm thinking about here just kind of the pleasant cadence 573 00:33:25,060 --> 00:33:27,220 of like a two-cylinder first name or two-cylinder. 574 00:33:27,220 --> 00:33:28,220 A literal lesson. 575 00:33:28,220 --> 00:33:37,860 Yeah yeah and and to have the you know the end rhyme the Ruru so it's I think it's a fantastic 576 00:33:37,860 --> 00:33:41,700 name Maru Kuru I think it's very natural I think it rolls off the time like I said I have 577 00:33:41,700 --> 00:33:45,500 discovered in my my years of promoting the book that there are so many people who who seem 578 00:33:45,500 --> 00:33:50,020 to not agree with me because I always get people who pronounce it incorrectly especially 579 00:33:50,020 --> 00:33:54,700 people who are like my my my father has never said the name of the character correctly I 580 00:33:54,700 --> 00:34:01,780 get Maru Kuru a lot I get Maru Kuru a lot those are the two of most like most frequent 581 00:34:01,780 --> 00:34:06,380 mispronunciations but it's one of those things that it's like I feel like it just looks looks 582 00:34:06,380 --> 00:34:12,220 and feels natural to say and I am never going to be shaken from that opinion so I think it 583 00:34:12,220 --> 00:34:17,100 sells the book well like not only is it giving the characters goal but like the Maru Kuru 584 00:34:17,100 --> 00:34:21,460 name gives it that anime feel that like yeah people will not be disappointed if they go 585 00:34:21,460 --> 00:34:23,500 in expecting like anime vibes. 586 00:34:23,500 --> 00:34:28,540 Oh for sure for sure and you know like all of the proper names in the book they're they're 587 00:34:28,540 --> 00:34:34,580 fantasy creations of myself you got Maru Kuru you got Metatata you've got Juval you've 588 00:34:34,580 --> 00:34:40,540 got Salmo you've got Jagga okay Jagga Stone from Shakespeare but and Banza which is turns 589 00:34:40,540 --> 00:34:47,260 out stolen from a pasta which I didn't know at the time but it's too late now. 590 00:34:47,260 --> 00:34:51,980 But yeah they're just like again things that I thought sounded nice and sounded good together 591 00:34:51,980 --> 00:34:57,460 and I like things that have a certain number of staccato syllables I love like the name 592 00:34:57,460 --> 00:35:02,980 Manitata because I think it's long and complicated and and an ox is to pronounce just kind 593 00:35:02,980 --> 00:35:05,420 of holds the spirit of that character. 594 00:35:05,420 --> 00:35:09,300 Yeah fits with the horn theme too like Tadas and Torres seem very similar. 595 00:35:09,300 --> 00:35:15,940 Sure yeah things that aren't necessarily actual real word connections to stuff but like 596 00:35:15,940 --> 00:35:17,620 have the vibe right. 597 00:35:17,620 --> 00:35:24,660 Hmm now like of those origins I know that the Arnold Schwarzenegger original Conan the 598 00:35:24,660 --> 00:35:28,940 Barbarian movie was of course a big inspiration I'd love to know if there was any other like 599 00:35:28,940 --> 00:35:34,340 seminal Barbarian media that was huge for you going into this. 600 00:35:34,340 --> 00:35:38,580 The one that people always expect me to say that I never do is Red Sonia which is because 601 00:35:38,580 --> 00:35:42,300 Red Sonia really wasn't an influence on me it's something and I get the characters of 602 00:35:42,300 --> 00:35:46,140 like okay it's kind of cool I guess but I never really read many of the comics. 603 00:35:46,140 --> 00:35:48,900 Zena though is is is a big deal. 604 00:35:48,900 --> 00:35:54,580 Not a Barbarian thing just a just a cool woman thing Sam Serran Metroid is was like a 605 00:35:54,580 --> 00:35:59,820 massive influence on like creation of character and the way that I wanted her to be presented 606 00:35:59,820 --> 00:36:05,820 and I was just talking about this last night on another show that the Canon Mario Curie physical 607 00:36:05,820 --> 00:36:10,460 statistics are that she's 6398 pounds because that's the same as Samus. 608 00:36:10,460 --> 00:36:17,860 So while there is definitely like that root in like the Conan and the setup of kind of 609 00:36:17,860 --> 00:36:26,700 you know Maru and and Banzan Yaga kind of fit that mold of Conan and Subatai and I actually 610 00:36:26,700 --> 00:36:29,660 don't remember the name of me goes character no matter how many times I see that movie 611 00:36:29,660 --> 00:36:35,580 but they you know it there the three women that kind of embody those three man roles from 612 00:36:35,580 --> 00:36:40,620 from that movie but beyond that I actually am trying to pull in kind of as many sci-fi 613 00:36:40,620 --> 00:36:47,060 elements as I can from other places because I don't just want to retread Conan and 614 00:36:47,060 --> 00:36:51,500 stories I want it to be something new and different weird and cool so like it's a book of the 615 00:36:51,500 --> 00:36:56,420 new sun is actually something that is a big influence on this and that kind of sci-fi world 616 00:36:56,420 --> 00:37:00,140 and then a kind of storytelling and I do think you would enjoy reading it so I won't 617 00:37:00,140 --> 00:37:03,300 spoil anything for you this is not a spoil because it's something that you figure out 618 00:37:03,300 --> 00:37:07,940 almost immediately but like book of the new sun takes place on earth like millions of years 619 00:37:07,940 --> 00:37:12,740 in the future to the point where the the the sun is is dying and it's a it's color it's 620 00:37:12,740 --> 00:37:19,620 a dying earth is the name of the subgenre and you have characters that essentially live 621 00:37:19,620 --> 00:37:26,940 a medieval lifestyle in the shell of an advanced civilization that that has fallen and so 622 00:37:26,940 --> 00:37:31,460 that was another vibe that I kind of wanted to bring into to my curine and it comes out 623 00:37:31,460 --> 00:37:37,660 in chapter three I think that you're kind of you are in this storyline a thousand years 624 00:37:37,660 --> 00:37:44,100 after the peak of this civilization and kind of that consolidation of power that happened 625 00:37:44,100 --> 00:37:50,060 in the war with the sorcerer kings is what that was that was the end of this peak civilization 626 00:37:50,060 --> 00:37:54,780 they were kind of just living in the remains now you do a really cool twist on that Conan thing 627 00:37:54,780 --> 00:37:59,500 of like and the gods left steel behind with the yeah because steel didn't mean shit to them 628 00:37:59,500 --> 00:38:04,300 like that I don't go shit yeah I can't hurt them yeah you can keep steel we don't care 629 00:38:04,300 --> 00:38:08,940 yeah I look I also love that yeah because that's then you know that's like my curious thing is 630 00:38:08,940 --> 00:38:12,220 like all I need is all I need is steel and it's again now they don't they don't I'm not going 631 00:38:12,220 --> 00:38:17,340 to do a shit about that yeah I'm glad you brought that up because yeah I like I like that too 632 00:38:17,340 --> 00:38:24,140 yeah I've always been curious like is there a second good barbarian movie outside of Conan 633 00:38:24,140 --> 00:38:31,180 or like sword and sorcery like I I just revisited the original Conan earlier this year and I'm like 634 00:38:31,660 --> 00:38:38,140 tank this really is like the best fantasy movie pre Lord of the Rings and it is yeah nothing 635 00:38:38,140 --> 00:38:42,860 nothing comes even close unless does like Jim Henson puppets in it or something and then that's 636 00:38:42,860 --> 00:38:51,260 just something to me else have you ever seen the barbarians I have not oh okay well it's not good 637 00:38:51,260 --> 00:38:57,900 but it is very entertaining it's called the barbarians it stars the barbarian brothers who are 638 00:38:57,900 --> 00:39:04,700 twin brothers that both look like Arnold Schwarzenegger and they both play barbarians in this movie 639 00:39:04,700 --> 00:39:11,980 and it's it is there's there's a screwball comedy element to it but they for the most part 640 00:39:11,980 --> 00:39:18,140 try to play it straight like like like it's a serious fantasy movie and it's just kind of dumb fun 641 00:39:18,140 --> 00:39:23,100 because instead of having like the the thick Arnold accent they kind of both talk like LA value boys 642 00:39:23,980 --> 00:39:30,060 are like you know kind of like like Jim bros like that like that kind of accent to them so it's 643 00:39:30,060 --> 00:39:36,460 it's it's a lot of fun it's very stupid and and it's very entertaining but it has like that aesthetic 644 00:39:36,460 --> 00:39:44,700 that that the Conan movie to us yeah I think that death stalker is also in that realm yeah 645 00:39:44,700 --> 00:39:50,780 again it's not a very good movie that did just get the reboot from the mines behind psycho gorman 646 00:39:50,780 --> 00:39:56,140 and like oh okay I'd watch that yeah I think pat and oswald's involved in it too so like I do 647 00:39:56,140 --> 00:40:02,540 know we want to see that and I imagine that's got to be a fun time just given who made it but yeah yeah 648 00:40:02,540 --> 00:40:12,540 crawl also crows not a barbarian movie but crows great yeah any suggestions on like the wider world 649 00:40:12,540 --> 00:40:17,340 of Conan media like people coming from the movie looking for more like where would you suggest they 650 00:40:17,340 --> 00:40:23,980 start and like among all the comics and stories and like Robert E Howard in shorts I mean honestly the 651 00:40:23,980 --> 00:40:29,580 Robert E Howard I would I would get yourself a volume of the complete Robert E Howard stories 652 00:40:29,580 --> 00:40:35,740 and just read through it they're still incredibly readable even now you are going to run into some 653 00:40:35,740 --> 00:40:42,540 of Robert E Howard's more objectionable opinions so just you know be so I'm just underlying it 654 00:40:42,540 --> 00:40:51,100 yeah he's he's not as bad as lovecraft but he's close yeah but again those but the pulp stories they do 655 00:40:51,100 --> 00:40:57,020 hold up if you can kind of you know put your blinders on for for a lot of it but in terms of 656 00:40:57,020 --> 00:41:03,020 pulp adventure stories those those are still great um I like to Jason Aaron Conan run a lot I've 657 00:41:03,020 --> 00:41:12,300 recently been reading uh Liam sharps spawn the dark ages which is just a Conan comic but spawn 658 00:41:12,300 --> 00:41:18,700 in it um and I know he's doing a Conan run now that I I need to check out I've also got on my bookshelf 659 00:41:18,700 --> 00:41:25,340 oof I love the old stuff with Conan Conan is an artifact yeah um there's a lot of Conan where it's 660 00:41:25,340 --> 00:41:31,740 like I don't necessarily want you to modernize Conan I know Conan's got problems but I think that 661 00:41:31,740 --> 00:41:37,420 it is as a as a historical artifact we kind of need to preserve his problems and study him so I 662 00:41:37,420 --> 00:41:42,460 I definitely you can't go wrong with the savage sort of Conan collection from from Marvel comics 663 00:41:42,460 --> 00:41:48,220 if you want to get the real kind of like authentic Conan experience is that like the uh Barry 664 00:41:48,220 --> 00:41:57,420 Windsor Smith stories yes yeah yeah it is um and and so that is really again they they are a lot of 665 00:41:57,420 --> 00:42:01,740 times they're just straight adaptations of the the Robert E Howard stories there's a couple original 666 00:42:01,740 --> 00:42:06,140 things in there but you know the I guess we're assuming that people have already seen the Arnold 667 00:42:06,140 --> 00:42:09,900 movie and now they're trying to move on other things because honestly my my favorite interpretation 668 00:42:09,900 --> 00:42:15,660 of the character is Arnold Schwarzenegger in the in the film and I know it's not text accurate but 669 00:42:15,660 --> 00:42:22,060 I don't care it's it's it's just my favorite way that the characters have ever been presented and 670 00:42:22,060 --> 00:42:28,540 you know I know that falsedume is not a real Conan villain that he's a mashup of of of Thothamon 671 00:42:28,540 --> 00:42:34,460 and um somebody else but again James Jamesville Jones in that part like that's this quite 672 00:42:34,460 --> 00:42:39,420 essential stuff for me I think that's like so much of that is just stuff that I did for Mario 673 00:42:39,420 --> 00:42:43,580 Curie's was like I'll take that I'll put that in my book I'll dress it up different but I'll put it 674 00:42:43,580 --> 00:42:51,260 in my book and I love that movie so much and I love the relationship specifically between 675 00:42:51,260 --> 00:42:58,380 Conan and falsedume so much that final confrontation that they have where Thothamon tells Conan that 676 00:42:58,380 --> 00:43:03,020 it doesn't matter that he killed his father because he's more of a father to Conan than his own father 677 00:43:03,020 --> 00:43:09,180 ever was just because of like how he shaped his life from afar and and then Conan cuts his head up 678 00:43:09,180 --> 00:43:16,060 I just think that they're they're they're so great together in that movie and everything everything 679 00:43:16,060 --> 00:43:22,300 that movie does is is fantastic riddle of steel stuff is all fantastic the crucifixion which I 680 00:43:22,300 --> 00:43:29,660 once again is another thing I stole from Mario Curie it's like um but yeah now that that the movie 681 00:43:29,660 --> 00:43:34,540 to me is like that is where I was introduced to Conan and I've loved a lot of other Conan stuff 682 00:43:34,540 --> 00:43:38,700 from after that but that first movie is is really really special to me and I don't like the Jason 683 00:43:38,700 --> 00:43:45,580 Mahmoha don't want to have you heard about she is Conan no tell me about it uh okay so I first 684 00:43:45,580 --> 00:43:51,660 heard of it in the previews before the people's Joker if you were at all familiar with that it's 685 00:43:51,660 --> 00:43:59,500 a French movie that's like the most French possible take on both Conan and Red Sonia 686 00:43:59,500 --> 00:44:06,620 at the same time it's black and white very stylized and it's kind of doing like multiple different periods 687 00:44:06,620 --> 00:44:14,300 of Conan's life at the same time sometimes it's like Conan is like a movie star celebrity or something 688 00:44:14,300 --> 00:44:20,060 sometimes they're having some kind of domestic uh spat between him and Red Sonia living in an 689 00:44:20,060 --> 00:44:27,020 apartment together but other times it's full weird sci-fi stuff it's for better and for worse it's a 690 00:44:27,020 --> 00:44:33,420 very very French movie like I said French alright yeah yeah like I have very little context for 691 00:44:33,420 --> 00:44:39,180 French films like I've seen Emily I've seen Holy Moly and I've seen the trial of Joan of 692 00:44:39,180 --> 00:44:46,540 Arc so my god I do not have the right levels of media literacy to process all this but I had to 693 00:44:46,540 --> 00:44:52,780 watch Jacques Hughes for a fine arts class once you know yeah as someone who makes Lady Barbarian 694 00:44:52,780 --> 00:44:57,820 media I think you would be very interested to see you know it sounds so it sounds like it's very much 695 00:44:57,820 --> 00:45:02,700 up on Emily and you know I appreciate the kind of their interpretation of that just I'm just 696 00:45:02,700 --> 00:45:08,140 dropping Conan into random situations and now we're gonna tell a story about that because that is 697 00:45:08,140 --> 00:45:13,820 how a lot of the early stories were it's just like Conan was here today and then in this some shit 698 00:45:13,820 --> 00:45:21,020 happened and now we're gonna tell you about it yeah sometimes he meets the X-Men in the later years 699 00:45:21,020 --> 00:45:26,060 sometimes he's an Avenger I like that that's kind of kept going in yeah yeah this publication is 700 00:45:26,060 --> 00:45:31,820 tree yeah he's been around yeah yeah I like him to meet Godzilla frankly I don't know why that 701 00:45:31,820 --> 00:45:38,060 hasn't happened yet but we'll get there we can dream now I would like to circle back to some of your 702 00:45:38,060 --> 00:45:44,620 other projects especially the world ends in fire which I just started reading today and I love seeing 703 00:45:44,620 --> 00:45:50,460 your art style applied to like a post apocalyptic America seeing like hot rods and stuff in there 704 00:45:50,460 --> 00:45:57,420 could you tell us a bit about that series and your role in its creative process chair I am half that 705 00:45:57,420 --> 00:46:02,940 creative team it's written by DC Horn we've done five issues of that comic it is kind of currently 706 00:46:02,940 --> 00:46:09,180 on hiatus but that we are gonna put out a trade team back of that those first five issues sometime 707 00:46:09,180 --> 00:46:15,100 in the next year or so but yeah that comic is is a lot of fun and it is a road trip to the end of the 708 00:46:15,100 --> 00:46:21,820 world as as DC likes to call it and I DC writes the scripts for it and I kind of do everything else 709 00:46:21,820 --> 00:46:28,380 so I I came up with character designs you know from some outlines that that DC had and I do have 710 00:46:28,380 --> 00:46:32,940 the joke we have in that book is that I sometimes will change things on them that he's put in the script 711 00:46:32,940 --> 00:46:37,900 and and the joke I always make is I'm the person who touches the book last so I get to decide who 712 00:46:37,900 --> 00:46:43,420 lives and who dies but we we do have conversations about it but oftentimes the conversation starts with 713 00:46:43,420 --> 00:46:47,500 me being like I didn't want to do it the way you wrote it I did it this way what do you think of that 714 00:46:47,500 --> 00:46:53,100 uh and sometimes I have to change it back but um oftentimes we we come to um kind of a compromise and 715 00:46:53,100 --> 00:46:56,220 we create something that's it's a little bit different than maybe both of us were thinking of but 716 00:46:56,220 --> 00:47:02,060 it's it's better overall for the for the whole story but yeah it's a modern fantasy it's got a car in 717 00:47:02,060 --> 00:47:07,260 it which was a lot of fun to to come up with the wizard car and I hope the wizard car comes back 718 00:47:07,260 --> 00:47:12,620 but the premise behind that book is that it's kind of four bumbling heroes who have been tasked with 719 00:47:12,620 --> 00:47:17,500 this mission to save the world but they kind of can't get out of their own way in trying to accomplish that 720 00:47:17,500 --> 00:47:22,300 there's a great deal more humor in it than there is and other stuff that I've done and that's kind of 721 00:47:22,300 --> 00:47:27,260 all down to dc but there are also kind of some some serious emotional stories that that happened 722 00:47:27,260 --> 00:47:32,620 in there as well and we are putting in a comic story right now so you can read I think we're in 723 00:47:32,620 --> 00:47:37,420 issue three currently on the on the comic theory site so that's that's updates Monday Wednesday 724 00:47:37,420 --> 00:47:41,180 Friday right now and we're going to keep updating until we get through all the material that we have 725 00:47:41,180 --> 00:47:47,420 done but you can also buy the the completed issues on the zancon website and that was for a very 726 00:47:47,420 --> 00:47:52,540 long time kind of like my my number two projects it was marcoe and then and then world unsent fire and 727 00:47:52,540 --> 00:47:57,260 I would speak of them on almost equal terms and unfortunately we haven't been able to work on 728 00:47:57,260 --> 00:48:02,380 world unsent fire in a couple of years now but dc and ira are still very close and we still really 729 00:48:02,380 --> 00:48:07,580 love the comic and we are very keen to keep it going for it least another five issues and and 730 00:48:07,580 --> 00:48:15,020 potentially beyond that the world is going to end at some point but when who knows but yeah I 731 00:48:15,020 --> 00:48:21,580 like that comic a lot as well it is something that is after I did the remaster of first heresy I 732 00:48:21,580 --> 00:48:26,940 actually called dc up and I sent him a copy of it and I said hey take a look at that and let me know 733 00:48:26,940 --> 00:48:33,500 if you want to pay me to do world unsent fire like that and he was very enthused by the idea so when 734 00:48:33,500 --> 00:48:38,460 that tpd for world unsent fire comes out you might see a similar style of the remaster than it did 735 00:48:38,460 --> 00:48:43,900 with with first heresy coming back and kind of really stripping up the lettering and and redoing 736 00:48:43,900 --> 00:48:49,740 a lot of the colors and kind of just making everything gel in in a very pleasing way now I was also 737 00:48:49,740 --> 00:48:55,740 excited to see you had a giant robot book under your belt with a circuit champ which yeah I'd 738 00:48:55,740 --> 00:48:59,980 spread red all of that today and that a really great time with it how did that project come to be 739 00:48:59,980 --> 00:49:07,660 and how you get to be involved with it um I was approached by john salito as a result of him 740 00:49:07,660 --> 00:49:13,900 reading maro cure and he wanted to do something with me and john is kind of best known these days for 741 00:49:13,900 --> 00:49:20,220 writing war him for 40 k novels um and uh his you know circuit champ is we always like to say 742 00:49:20,220 --> 00:49:25,100 circuit champs for the children um you know that's it's it's our all ages book but john is the 743 00:49:25,740 --> 00:49:30,620 you know the driving force behind wild hair comics which also in a series called a very task which is 744 00:49:30,620 --> 00:49:35,260 a super-rear book this is obviously different than that uh you wanted to do something that was super 745 00:49:35,260 --> 00:49:41,180 inspired by like shown in manga and you know knew that I was very into manga and anime and wanted to 746 00:49:41,180 --> 00:49:47,820 have me on that project as a result of that so initially it was pitched to me as being uh shown 747 00:49:47,820 --> 00:49:57,500 in version of the huge actin vehicle real steel uh um and I convinced john that the stakes would be 748 00:49:57,500 --> 00:50:03,180 much higher if the pilots were inside the robots as opposed to just standing on the sidelines so 749 00:50:03,180 --> 00:50:08,700 that's how it became a mecha book uh as opposed to just being about um rock, cycle, and robots but 750 00:50:08,700 --> 00:50:13,340 yeah that's that's that's kind of how that came about this is touching on everything like 751 00:50:13,340 --> 00:50:16,860 I have a girlfriend that we're like getting all of her major milestones here in the 752 00:50:16,860 --> 00:50:22,380 last few minutes like she was the one I will rewatch Conan with she's been reading some of the Robert 753 00:50:22,380 --> 00:50:29,500 e-houred stories at night that she's huge 40k head and real steel is her comfort food movie so 754 00:50:29,500 --> 00:50:36,300 oh wow that's fun, that's fun, that's hyper-interest here oh wow yeah yeah double definitely check out 755 00:50:36,300 --> 00:50:42,300 circuit champ them because that I mean even though I put pilots inside the robots um there's still a lot 756 00:50:42,300 --> 00:50:48,620 of real steel DNA in that book um and it is it's a tournament book and it's all about um you know 757 00:50:48,620 --> 00:50:55,820 a young engineer who builds her own robot inter garage at her uncle's house and takes it on the 758 00:50:55,820 --> 00:51:00,700 professional fighting circuit and and up against opponents that are much better equipped and funded 759 00:51:00,700 --> 00:51:06,460 and kind of had just has to get by on grit and tenacity so it's uh it's a very fun book it's a very 760 00:51:06,460 --> 00:51:11,500 heartfelt book and it's something that we are continuing this year um pretty soon I think in may 761 00:51:11,500 --> 00:51:18,220 there's going to be a zoop campaign for a third chapter that'll be krea put into put all three chapters 762 00:51:18,220 --> 00:51:23,260 into a square bound volume and be looking to do that I think that's the current plan um balls kind 763 00:51:23,260 --> 00:51:27,740 of in john's court on that but we've had several meetings about it and he's he's primed and ready 764 00:51:27,740 --> 00:51:32,300 to get on this this third one I've read I've read the third chapter it's good it's good uh and I think 765 00:51:32,300 --> 00:51:37,100 I did some preview pages as well um so I'm looking forward to doing more of that book are the uh are 766 00:51:37,100 --> 00:51:42,700 the print pages all in color or is it a mix of black and white lake on the comic theory version 767 00:51:42,700 --> 00:51:49,500 they are they are all in black and white currently um the color pages are currently only available 768 00:51:49,500 --> 00:51:55,420 on the comic theory site actually we did some printing of the the a print run of the first two 769 00:51:55,420 --> 00:52:00,220 chapters it's 48 page volume uh that we just wanted to have a physical object that we could show 770 00:52:00,220 --> 00:52:04,460 to people and because of you know due to cost concerns we we did the whole thing in black and white 771 00:52:04,460 --> 00:52:10,140 just because it felt foolish to pay for color printing when we only had four color pages so the 772 00:52:10,140 --> 00:52:15,020 I don't know what will happen with the with the new volume I think that if we were to somehow 773 00:52:15,020 --> 00:52:20,220 hit a very big stretch goal I would certainly uh be interested in coloring the whole book 774 00:52:20,220 --> 00:52:25,820 but it was kind of written and intended to be a black one and and we'll probably remain so uh 775 00:52:25,820 --> 00:52:30,460 unless again we hit some kind of light if we if we raise 15 000 dollars something like that yeah 776 00:52:30,460 --> 00:52:35,020 we'll have that conversation about coloring the book but um let's let's get there first I actually have 777 00:52:35,020 --> 00:52:40,140 I have another black and white book that I don't think you may have seen it's called ponskum 778 00:52:40,140 --> 00:52:43,660 whoo look at that right there's a lot on your coffee uh yeah 779 00:52:43,660 --> 00:52:49,500 yeah menta asked about that tell us about ponskum ponskum is uh the first time I've done animal characters 780 00:52:49,500 --> 00:52:56,140 uh it's about a toad and a moth from rival gangs who are both sold out to the cops by an information 781 00:52:56,140 --> 00:53:01,820 dealer and they have to kind of team up on they're you know unwilling to team up at first but they're 782 00:53:01,820 --> 00:53:08,060 are forced together to uh work together to escape the police and um in this uh kind of streets of 783 00:53:08,060 --> 00:53:14,540 rage s city called bog town uh where everyone is either a a lizard or uh an amphibian or an insect 784 00:53:14,540 --> 00:53:21,820 yeah under the cops in this world uh there are wasps uh so they are yeah they are uh wasps soldiers 785 00:53:21,820 --> 00:53:28,540 and it's a private police force that is run by the mayor the evil mayor of bog town who is a uh 786 00:53:28,540 --> 00:53:34,700 disgraced talk show host named iguana tonight and he has a a private police force called the iguana 787 00:53:34,700 --> 00:53:39,260 criminal enforcement and they put their initials on all of their shields and it doesn't mean anything 788 00:53:39,260 --> 00:53:44,700 because who would ever write a political message into a comic not me that's for sure but you know 789 00:53:44,700 --> 00:53:48,300 that's that's just who they're fighting you can take a guess it when I start writing that 790 00:53:51,020 --> 00:53:56,780 not that sounds like exactly what we need and hey at least you got creative with the anthropomorphic 791 00:54:03,740 --> 00:54:10,620 hilarious if the cops were still humans chasing down monster dogs actually would be funny um no 792 00:54:10,620 --> 00:54:15,740 we wanted to stick to I wanted to stick to insects and lizards uh and amphibians for the most part 793 00:54:15,740 --> 00:54:20,700 in the book I end to stay away from from mammals uh I don't know why it's just kind of an aesthetic 794 00:54:20,700 --> 00:54:25,260 choice that I that I made uh and I'm gonna hang on to it because I kind of like the the swamp aesthetic 795 00:54:25,260 --> 00:54:30,940 of the whole thing but I only did eight pages to start it was kind of like a fun challenge that I 796 00:54:30,940 --> 00:54:35,340 set out for myself where I just wanted to see if I could go how fast can you go from concept to print 797 00:54:35,340 --> 00:54:40,700 so in three days I designed the two main characters I did this eight page story for them I printed the 798 00:54:40,700 --> 00:54:44,540 Zeno up my home printer and I stapled it and I said look at that I did it so the only copies that 799 00:54:44,540 --> 00:54:48,860 exist right now are ones that I actually made at home and uh I do give that eight page teaser away 800 00:54:48,860 --> 00:54:55,740 for free in pia form my kofi page and I you know tips and courage of course because it helps make the 801 00:54:55,740 --> 00:55:01,180 next chapter my current funding goal is to raise five hundred dollars to do the next eight page chapter 802 00:55:01,180 --> 00:55:06,300 and we're going to repeat that process until we have completed the 80 page OGN that I have kind of 803 00:55:06,300 --> 00:55:11,260 outlined for ponscom and then once we've done that uh hopefully we'll do a little crowdfunding sort 804 00:55:11,260 --> 00:55:16,060 of thing to to get the print run together and to to get books out to people so that could happen as fast 805 00:55:16,060 --> 00:55:21,500 as the funding comes in for it but and people have gotten a good response out of it it's just one of those 806 00:55:21,500 --> 00:55:26,780 things that it's like uh uh we're kind of raising two bucks at a time you know so it's slow going but if 807 00:55:26,780 --> 00:55:32,460 you if you like mods and frogs and streets of rage and tmnt that kind of thing check it out awesome 808 00:55:32,460 --> 00:55:37,500 well as we're coming up on the hour here I do have a closing question of the week tailored to our 809 00:55:37,500 --> 00:55:43,500 guest sure and I know from your other podcast appearances that mario kuru is your own personal 810 00:55:43,500 --> 00:55:48,300 dream project and that you're that's correct that interested in like writing for a particular 811 00:55:48,300 --> 00:55:54,540 license character however say a publisher calls they want you working on their barbarian project 812 00:55:54,540 --> 00:56:00,540 and they tell you to name your price of three options and question what would you most want to work on 813 00:56:00,540 --> 00:56:08,700 something like Conan or red sonia with editorial mandates or something like death stocker or 814 00:56:08,700 --> 00:56:15,660 beastmaster but you can do whatever the hell you want with it i would much rather have an unknown 815 00:56:15,660 --> 00:56:22,300 thrown away character that i am allowed to to play with yeah give give me give me the beastmaster 816 00:56:22,300 --> 00:56:28,300 and and and let me make something cool or or or something else like that you know i there is so much 817 00:56:28,300 --> 00:56:33,900 baggage that comes with Conan and red sonia like i i would do a red sonia book but i probably would 818 00:56:33,900 --> 00:56:38,460 do my own thing with it and i don't know people would be happy about that i would probably do a 819 00:56:38,460 --> 00:56:43,020 conan book but again it's like i would do my own thing with it and i i i know people would be happy 820 00:56:43,020 --> 00:56:49,420 about that um so yeah like give me give me an unknown that i can do anything with the i think that 821 00:56:49,420 --> 00:56:55,020 that would be absolutely just a blast now that you mentioned it yeah give give me somebody who has 822 00:56:55,020 --> 00:57:00,780 a name and then not much else and and let me go to town because that that that sounds more like 823 00:57:00,780 --> 00:57:06,060 my wheelhouse i'll do anything honestly it's like i wouldn't want to 824 00:57:06,940 --> 00:57:13,100 write if it was a really big name project like a conan or a red sonia i'd want to draw it 825 00:57:13,100 --> 00:57:18,300 and something that i said on blue sky a couple of times is that i would love to draw a gay 826 00:57:18,300 --> 00:57:24,700 salmone red sonia book that would be a cool gig to have i've said that to gay salmone who has not 827 00:57:24,700 --> 00:57:29,020 acknowledged me that i've said this we are we are mutuals but she has not acknowledged that i've 828 00:57:29,020 --> 00:57:34,300 said this so and i can understand why if he like if she were to say that that would kind of lead to 829 00:57:34,300 --> 00:57:37,980 expectations and and and yeah you don't need to get bogged down and that kind of thing so 830 00:57:37,980 --> 00:57:42,860 yeah i if that was the scenario then i'd want to be just the artist i wouldn't want to be the writer 831 00:57:42,860 --> 00:57:46,620 but yeah you want to give me death stalker i'll go to town give me the all give me the keys let's 832 00:57:46,620 --> 00:57:53,900 drive now Brendan are there any other upcoming projects you'd like us to plug or those all 833 00:57:53,900 --> 00:58:01,340 stand under wraps until we're ready for a kickstart earn aspen uh when does this show get published um 834 00:58:01,340 --> 00:58:06,860 i was thinking this might be published in may uh but i can push that back that helps no that's fine 835 00:58:06,860 --> 00:58:13,020 no it's fine i know i have uh i'm currently penciling a book called inheritance for a great superstar 836 00:58:13,020 --> 00:58:17,980 team with writer Doug wood and incur in colorist travest james that's a superhero book it's the first 837 00:58:17,980 --> 00:58:22,860 time i ever been on like a like a such a superhero book it's very much like a a family drama version 838 00:58:22,860 --> 00:58:27,340 of watchman that succeeded on kickstarter a couple of weeks ago and uh so we actually started getting 839 00:58:27,340 --> 00:58:35,100 into the book proper and that will probably be out sometime in october i also have a project that i 840 00:58:35,100 --> 00:58:42,940 had been working on for a couple of years now often on with alis quin rose who does the insomniac 841 00:58:42,940 --> 00:58:48,860 delight anthologies um among other things um which is another medieval horror story which again i 842 00:58:48,860 --> 00:58:52,620 don't know if i can say too much about it but i alis and i have worked together before and i'm very 843 00:58:52,620 --> 00:58:57,580 excited to be working again uh and i teased you earlier by saying that i i'm working on you know a 844 00:58:57,580 --> 00:59:04,780 toku adjacent projects uh with kacy flin called cosmic wardens that is something that kacy and i have 845 00:59:04,780 --> 00:59:09,500 been talking about for a while now and i'm saying it in real life and in case you're watching this 846 00:59:09,500 --> 00:59:14,060 yeah i think we're still doing it um but we're we're talking about actually like putting together some 847 00:59:14,060 --> 00:59:19,740 some serious material for it in in july of this year uh so kind of last half of this year keep an eye 848 00:59:19,740 --> 00:59:24,220 out for that kind of stuff and i'm going to keep driving on my own comics as well maro kira was kind 849 00:59:24,220 --> 00:59:28,620 of the big thing that i'm pushing behind this year uh the trade paper back is is was a huge step for me 850 00:59:28,620 --> 00:59:32,300 getting out this year i didn't crowdfund that or anything i just kind of see the the first print 851 00:59:32,300 --> 00:59:37,020 run with my own money and we're trying to sell as many books as we can to to to make that back and to 852 00:59:37,020 --> 00:59:41,580 to to make it as a success and to keep running with new maro kira on uh the chosen ones arc on the 853 00:59:41,580 --> 00:59:45,740 commentary page you're going to see more circuit champ this year like we talked about earlier you can 854 00:59:45,740 --> 00:59:51,740 see more ponds come this year uh and maybe uh some other fun stuff did you know that um bride of god 855 00:59:51,740 --> 00:59:59,580 silla enters the public domain in 2027 that's just a fun fact okay i somehow i've been a toku fan 856 00:59:59,580 --> 01:00:04,060 for years and years i don't think i've ever heard of bride of god silla that's because it's not a real 857 01:00:04,060 --> 01:00:11,180 movie it never got made oh yeah that's a fun one i i'll i'll tell you more about that one after the show 858 01:00:11,180 --> 01:00:17,580 you want okay yeah no i definitely have my properties that i have my eyes on once they go public domain 859 01:00:17,580 --> 01:00:23,980 i'm jumping on it like tsl it's old possums book of practical cats the thing that cats is based on 860 01:00:23,980 --> 01:00:30,460 that'll be in my lifetime and i'm gonna be ready with like cyberpunk cats get that ready to go now 861 01:00:30,460 --> 01:00:36,060 and just like hit the button right yeah uh brunnan any socials you want to plug before i wrap us up 862 01:00:36,700 --> 01:00:41,740 yes absolutely so i use my i use my my name for all my socials and then for my website it's just 863 01:00:41,740 --> 01:00:49,740 brunnan albecky it's it's put my there you go just like a spell right there um it's brunnan albecky.com 864 01:00:49,740 --> 01:00:53,420 is kind of your portal to everything that i do you can sign up for my newsletter there which i 865 01:00:53,420 --> 01:00:57,660 highly recommend i only send it out once a month i will not annoy you it will always have pertinent 866 01:00:57,660 --> 01:01:03,020 news and cool new illustrations please follow me on my kofi page brunnan albecky i have monthly 867 01:01:03,020 --> 01:01:07,900 membership options my reward structure is flat so whether you're giving a dollar a month or 868 01:01:07,900 --> 01:01:12,300 whether you're giving ten dollars a month or more fleeting more but even no matter how much you 869 01:01:12,300 --> 01:01:17,020 giving whatever you can afford you're all getting the same rewards uh i'm not gonna get keep people 870 01:01:17,020 --> 01:01:22,060 this is about sharing art with as many people as possible and hopefully you know getting a little 871 01:01:22,060 --> 01:01:27,020 bit of support to keep it going on my end so really cool stuff going on there uh early access 872 01:01:27,020 --> 01:01:31,500 to the mario kira comics among other things uh i'm also on blue sky i'm on tiktok i'm on instagram 873 01:01:31,500 --> 01:01:36,860 on youtube brunnan albecky across the board look me up give me a follow and i will you maybe even give 874 01:01:36,860 --> 01:01:42,700 you a follow back if i'm paying attention that's a all right well thank you again brunnan for reaching out 875 01:01:42,700 --> 01:01:47,260 and for taking the time to join us today it's been lovely having you on the show i had a lot a lot of 876 01:01:47,260 --> 01:01:52,140 fun reading mario kira and i can't wait to see more of your work i really appreciate you having me 877 01:01:52,140 --> 01:01:57,740 on thank you for responding to me when i when i reached out to you and i'm super glad to hear that you 878 01:01:57,740 --> 01:02:02,780 enjoyed the book and uh i had a fabulous time on the show and i hope we get to do it again 879 01:02:02,780 --> 01:02:06,380 if the listeners at home have requested recommendations for content you'd like us to cover in the 880 01:02:06,380 --> 01:02:10,460 future you can send more away on social media you can find us on the giant size violence facebook 881 01:02:10,460 --> 01:02:17,660 page on twitter a site you should leave as at ultra mega cast or email us at giantsizeviolence@gmail.com 882 01:02:17,660 --> 01:02:22,060 giant size violence is part of the key master collective network of podcast you can sport us on 883 01:02:22,060 --> 01:02:27,020 patreon or give us a boost by leaving a five star review on your favorite podcasting platform 884 01:02:27,020 --> 01:02:30,540 i'd like to thank you for giving our podcast a chance and give a special shout out to artist 885 01:02:30,540 --> 01:02:35,740 raday parade and dark moon home video for designing our logo and cover photos our intro and outro 886 01:02:35,740 --> 01:02:41,260 music is your and ace kid by demon dice from their album alcatraz you can check out their ep 887 01:02:41,260 --> 01:02:46,380 shut up get happy on itunes and spotify we hope you join us again next time as we continue to explore 888 01:02:46,380 --> 01:02:51,500 the world of toku satsu comics but until then take care and remember to do your part in preventing 889 01:02:51,500 --> 01:03:16,380 the spread of the kaiju virus 890 01:03:16,380 --> 01:03:44,580 [ Silence ]