Full Transcript for INTERVIEW: Curt Pires

just say RPGs in general. 00:02:06.093 --> 00:02:07.114 What were your thoughts? 00:02:07.298 --> 00:02:10.605 Obviously very, very uh Hellboy vibes. 00:02:10.848 --> 00:02:16.193 If this was not, if I didn't know this was an image comic, I would say this is like a Hellboy spinoff. 00:02:16.193 --> 00:02:18.510 Like a dark horse sort of, uh you know, boy book. 00:02:18.510 --> 00:02:18.891 Sure. 00:02:18.891 --> 00:02:19.252 Yeah. 00:02:19.252 --> 00:02:19.681 Yeah. 00:02:19.681 --> 00:02:21.763 And, um, I mean, I'm digging it. 00:02:21.763 --> 00:02:23.864 I'm, I'm, cannot wait for, for more of it. 00:02:23.864 --> 00:02:29.526 It's got this, if you've ever watched the television show grim, it's got like a grim vibe to it. 00:02:29.526 --> 00:02:37.349 It's got a very much BPRD very hell boy, like the secret world of like trolls and things. 00:02:37.349 --> 00:02:38.903 so I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm hooked. 00:02:38.903 --> 00:02:39.604 Yeah. 00:02:39.604 --> 00:02:45.198 think you're, you're hitting on the head of something because you know, that's kind of the central point of Hellboy. 00:02:45.198 --> 00:03:00.667 People who are fans of Mike and his work over at Hellboy at Dark Horse is that it is that intertwining of like a NCIS detective show, but in a fantasy, some would even say like religious based world, you know? 00:03:00.667 --> 00:03:02.429 And that's kind of what it feels like here. 00:03:02.429 --> 00:03:05.056 Kurt also mentions in our conversation a little bit. 00:03:05.056 --> 00:03:15.235 about like the Harry Potter influence, which is interesting because of the multiple houses, Blackheart, Wolfsbane, Kitsune, Grootslang, and I'm going to really mess this one up here. 00:03:15.336 --> 00:03:16.856 TekuHumani. 00:03:16.957 --> 00:03:18.068 Aaron, you help me out there. 00:03:18.068 --> 00:03:23.522 Am I saying that even close to the great hunters of the lost fantasy world? 00:03:24.685 --> 00:03:25.961 TekuHumanimi. 00:03:25.961 --> 00:03:27.383 Yeah, there we go. 00:03:28.139 --> 00:03:33.786 Everybody knows at this point now, if you've been listening to the Blue V-Bar long enough, you know that I am the one who can't often pronounce things. 00:03:33.786 --> 00:03:35.310 I look at things, I look at words. 00:03:35.310 --> 00:03:40.780 human I mean, the cumin human. 00:03:41.707 --> 00:03:44.162 I should have got Kurt to say this during our conversation. 00:03:44.162 --> 00:03:45.385 Human enemy. 00:03:46.943 --> 00:03:47.854 Yep. 00:03:48.175 --> 00:03:48.814 It's one of those. 00:03:48.814 --> 00:03:49.055 Yeah. 00:03:49.055 --> 00:03:58.581 And actually, you know, while, while talking to Kurt about all this, it's really interesting to hear him speak on sort of his influence and how he can sort of play in this world of the sort of RPG world. 00:03:58.581 --> 00:04:03.765 He is, he's one of us, Aaron, when it comes to the love of again, Final Fantasy is the low hanging fruit. 00:04:03.765 --> 00:04:10.169 And he actually, he mentioned in the episode that he doesn't, he's never played Chrono Trigger, which is sort of blasphemous in the world of RPG. 00:04:11.015 --> 00:04:12.460 Yeah, you're a JRPG fan. 00:04:12.460 --> 00:04:13.401 played. 00:04:13.675 --> 00:04:14.045 Right. 00:04:14.045 --> 00:04:17.017 But you know, hey, it's we're not here to gatekeep at any point. 00:04:17.017 --> 00:04:18.750 You can play Carnage Sugar and enjoy it. 00:04:18.750 --> 00:04:20.360 you know, we'll get to that conversation with Kurt. 00:04:20.360 --> 00:04:21.531 I think it's great. 00:04:21.531 --> 00:04:22.663 Great to have him on the show. 00:04:22.663 --> 00:04:31.259 And then also without really spoiling anything, I do get a chance to thank him pretty in depth for a thing that he did last year when I was going through all the cancer stuff. 00:04:31.259 --> 00:04:32.800 It was a big deal for me. 00:04:32.800 --> 00:04:35.802 But that's sort of the first thing we discussed in that conversation. 00:04:35.802 --> 00:04:36.733 I'll save it for later. 00:04:36.733 --> 00:04:41.216 Aaron, will you please let the folks at home know how they can support the Oblivion Bar podcast? 00:04:41.740 --> 00:04:43.574 What if it was a Busta Thor? 00:04:43.574 --> 00:04:45.355 Like Busta rhyme? 00:04:45.658 --> 00:04:47.141 know, like Busta. 00:04:47.141 --> 00:04:47.442 Yeah. 00:04:47.442 --> 00:04:52.523 It's just like every time you killed somebody with it, was like, know, uh me of Fast and Furious. 00:04:52.523 --> 00:04:55.559 Remember the first one he's like, who let the Busta in the house? 00:04:56.482 --> 00:04:58.665 The Busta was the only one who didn't. 00:04:59.000 --> 00:05:00.300 You had me. 00:05:01.081 --> 00:05:02.781 You have me. 00:05:03.762 --> 00:05:08.266 Okay. 00:05:08.266 --> 00:05:12.168 If to the oblivion bar podcast, consider checking out the Patreon for your support. 00:05:12.168 --> 00:05:15.060 You access to a bonus episode each week called the grid behind the scenes. 00:05:15.060 --> 00:05:23.244 Look to how we prepare each episode with episode transcripts, patron polls, newsletters, uh, gifties goodies and all the gotchas. 00:05:23.372 --> 00:05:28.920 Give it a shot with a seven day free trial at patreon.com forward slash with the bar pod or check out the link in our show notes. 00:05:28.920 --> 00:05:30.317 Little chotskies, right? 00:05:30.317 --> 00:05:31.711 You get little trinkets. 00:05:32.401 --> 00:05:35.244 Flare, like eight pieces of flare. 00:05:35.244 --> 00:05:39.533 Yeah, and choir here on the Abliving Bar, you must have at least eight to ten pieces of flair. 00:05:39.533 --> 00:05:49.314 I've got, I've got 10, but, uh, but see Jake over there has 16, but the minimum is 10. 00:05:49.454 --> 00:05:50.473 It could be the minimum. 00:05:50.473 --> 00:05:54.213 You could be the minimum or it'd be like Jake. 00:05:54.350 --> 00:06:00.773 We just went from Fast and Furious, no, sorry, we went Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, Fast and Furious, Office Space.

00:06:02.274 --> 00:06:03.776 Only at the Oblivion Bar, everybody. 00:06:03.776 --> 00:06:05.696 That's what you get here at the Oblivion Bar. 00:06:05.697 --> 00:06:08.588 All right, let's go ahead get this conversation with Kurt Pears. 00:06:11.446 --> 00:06:20.713 Oni Press presents a monstrous new milestone in the immortal legacy of the one and only EC Comics with blood type number one this June. 00:06:20.713 --> 00:06:35.165 Crawling out of the pages of EC's best-selling anthology Epitaphs from the Abyss, Hugo Award-nominated writer Karina Beko and superstar artist Andrea Sorrentino are biting deep for EC's first ever standalone horror series. 00:06:35.225 --> 00:06:43.648 Meet Ada, an immortal vampire who has just washed ashore on a tropical island paradise teaming with welly tourists and superstitious locals. 00:06:43.648 --> 00:06:47.591 The perfect getaway for a cunning bloodsucker with nothing left to lose. 00:06:47.591 --> 00:06:54.036 But as Ada stalks the boundaries of her new hunting ground, she'll soon become embroiled in a deadly game of cat and mouse by moonlight. 00:06:54.036 --> 00:07:00.482 As an older, wiser, and entirely different kind of monster reveals that this island is already spoken for. 00:07:00.482 --> 00:07:05.805 Who will survive when this brand new kind of blood type decides a vampire is the perfect prey? 00:07:05.826 --> 00:07:10.720 Pre-order with your local comics retailer by May 19th and look for blood type number one. 00:07:10.720 --> 00:07:15.483 in comic shops everywhere June 11th only from Oni Press and EC Comics. 00:07:24.526 --> 00:07:27.617 And now, this week's special guest. 00:07:30.637 --> 00:07:42.257 Joining me today is the comic book writer of titles like You've Been Cancelled over at Mad Cave Studios, It's Only Teenage Wasteland and Youth over at Dark Horse Comics, and Olympia and Indigo Children over at Image Comics. 00:07:42.257 --> 00:07:51.278 More recently, he has the ultra-violent space romance Galactic coming from a distillery, and the procedural fantasy Lost Fantasy at Image Comics. 00:07:51.278 --> 00:07:55.478 It is my pleasure to welcome Kurt Piers onto the Oblivion Bar podcast. 00:07:55.831 --> 00:07:56.863 Thanks for having me, Chris. 00:07:56.863 --> 00:07:58.154 Stoked to be here. 00:07:58.327 --> 00:08:00.278 Kurt, so great to get you on. 00:08:00.278 --> 00:08:04.740 We were talking a little bit before the recording here and I feel like it's important that I bring it up here. 00:08:04.740 --> 00:08:10.122 I'm just gonna bring us in with the heaviest of heavy at the very beginning of the conversation. 00:08:10.122 --> 00:08:17.807 And I want this to stay light after this, but it's so important to me that I have a chance to thank you live here on the Oblivion Bar podcast. 00:08:17.807 --> 00:08:24.697 as someone who, uh you know, they may or may not know this, I went through stage four colon cancer last year in 2024. 00:08:24.697 --> 00:08:28.644 uh still kind of currently going through it, but feeling much better, doing a lot better. 00:08:28.644 --> 00:08:36.729 uh And during one of my chemo sessions, I'll often like post a picture of a book that I'm reading or something that I want to highlight, a movie, what have you. 00:08:36.729 --> 00:08:43.631 And I was showing off my copy of Olympia here, which is of course your image book that you developed and eventually wrote with your late father, Tony. 00:08:43.712 --> 00:08:52.566 And when I posted that, I may have tagged you, I'm not sure, we were already mutuals on Twitter at that time, but uh you sent me a DM and you asked if you could send me some reading material, which. 00:08:52.566 --> 00:08:55.850 I thought was just insanely generous and wonderful. 00:08:55.850 --> 00:09:00.677 You know, it may not have been a big deal to you at the time, but it really made my day. 00:09:00.677 --> 00:09:02.650 It was really, really just an incredible gesture. 00:09:02.650 --> 00:09:04.543 And I wanted to thank you here on the Oblivion Bar. 00:09:04.543 --> 00:09:06.186 So yeah, thank you. 00:09:06.220 --> 00:09:07.091 What we were talking. 00:09:07.091 --> 00:09:07.360 Yeah. 00:09:07.360 --> 00:09:10.153 I mean, I, I used to go to my dad's chemo with them. 00:09:10.153 --> 00:09:11.744 So I know how much that kind of sucks. 00:09:11.744 --> 00:09:18.518 So when I kind of saw that you were going through that, just thought, you know, just be some kind of nice, right? 00:09:18.518 --> 00:09:24.062 Because it's like, the thing that struck me is that sometimes you go to them and the nurses like, aren't very nice. 00:09:24.062 --> 00:09:34.918 kind of the thing that always triggered me is like that you're there just doing the worst shit and, Some, some ladies just, they're like, Oh, I can't wait to clock out. 00:09:34.918 --> 00:09:37.317 I'm like, are you fucking serious about it? 00:09:37.538 --> 00:09:41.138 you're, you're, these people are literally going through the worst shit imaginable. 00:09:41.138 --> 00:09:45.638 you're like, it's just sent, you know, it's not the. 00:09:45.638 --> 00:09:55.467 The biggest thing in the world, but I, you know, just if there's something I saw when you're going through, if there's something I could do to help that, I was happy to do it. 00:09:55.467 --> 00:09:56.717 Yeah, it meant a lot to me. 00:09:56.717 --> 00:10:03.940 honestly, what you said just for everyone at home that's listening, you sent me issue one through three of Indigo Children. 00:10:04.039 --> 00:10:08.932 You sent me, think the Jenny Friesen cover of cover of issue one here. 00:10:08.932 --> 00:10:13.062 And then also, well, and also it's only a teenage wasteland as well. 00:10:13.062 --> 00:10:20.794 But I think more impressively, you sent me the one in seventy five black and white edition of issue one, which I've looked up since. 00:10:20.794 --> 00:10:23.597 And I obviously I still have it, but that's a couple hundred dollars. 00:10:23.597 --> 00:10:25.599 uh Kurt, so I

appreciate you. 00:10:25.599 --> 00:10:27.740 I'm sure these are probably comps from you. 00:10:27.740 --> 00:10:31.301 No way. 00:10:31.301 --> 00:10:32.940 I need to get you at a con one of these days. 00:10:32.940 --> 00:10:33.892 I'm get you to sign that, baby. 00:10:33.892 --> 00:10:34.982 I'm keeping these forever. 00:10:34.982 --> 00:10:44.166 You know, and of course, since that moment, and I already loved Olympia anyway, and like, I think this is the first work that I ever got of yours. 00:10:44.166 --> 00:10:49.889 uh And since then, I've become like a big, you know, a big, not only a big fan, but also a friend of Christian Ward's. 00:10:49.889 --> 00:10:52.822 This book has meant, and obviously the source material as well. 00:10:52.822 --> 00:10:56.615 It all just hits directly in my right in my cerebellum. 00:10:56.615 --> 00:10:57.445 I love it so much. 00:10:57.445 --> 00:11:00.888 So again, just want to thank you one last time for all that. 00:11:00.888 --> 00:11:04.330 And it really, it made me excited to eventually get you here on the show. 00:11:04.330 --> 00:11:22.131 And it, sort of was serendipitous that when I saw the release of lost fantasy, or at least like the, the advertisements for it and all that, I thought this is the perfect time to get Kurt on because I am a, I was born in the RPG, the JRPG age of the PlayStation and the super Nintendo. 00:11:22.144 --> 00:11:26.923 It feels like that's very much sort of the key in on the demographic that you're going towards with this, right? 00:11:26.923 --> 00:11:31.875 The initial idea, it's definitely the most video game inspired thing I've ever done. 00:11:31.974 --> 00:11:36.437 And I wasn't sitting down like, I'm gonna make something that feels like Final Fantasy or anything. 00:11:36.437 --> 00:11:48.190 But I think I gave myself the license to just pull in all the inspiration from like everything cool when I was a kid and like pretty much everything I still think is cool. 00:11:48.190 --> 00:11:53.645 And a lot of that's just that shit where it's just like cool dudes with pointy swords. 00:11:53.645 --> 00:12:04.168 you I joke with people and I'm like, all the stuff I thought was the coolest when I was 12 is basically still the coolest, you know, I'm like, right. 00:12:04.168 --> 00:12:16.692 It's the same stuff, but yeah, the, it's really the first time I think, and it, I'm doing this more and more, but I'm just pulling from all sorts of things, right. 00:12:16.692 --> 00:12:26.091 Where it's like very like, I mean, obviously you can trace the final fantasy seven back to like berserk and like, there's kind of. 00:12:26.091 --> 00:12:32.807 the lineage of the big sword in Japanese video games and manga. 00:12:32.807 --> 00:12:36.208 it's just like, I'm just pulling from stuff that I think is cool. 00:12:36.208 --> 00:12:46.176 And I'm trying to still build an interesting and grounded narrative out of it with good character work, because I don't think you can just... 00:12:46.176 --> 00:12:50.278 Cool imagery alone isn't enough to sustain a comic book. 00:12:50.278 --> 00:12:53.059 I think that's what a lot of the 90s comics taught us. 00:12:53.059 --> 00:12:55.594 Some of them are better than others. 00:12:55.594 --> 00:13:04.261 No disrespect, because I do respect all those guys that are kind of like the OGs and they have so much enthusiasm and have done so much for the medium. 00:13:04.261 --> 00:13:09.679 But I just think I have the benefit of having read those comics and read all the ones that came after. 00:13:09.679 --> 00:13:18.144 So I'm trying to like always combine super cool imagery and ideas with, you know, some really compelling storytelling. 00:13:18.951 --> 00:13:20.201 I mean, it's building blocks, right? 00:13:20.201 --> 00:13:28.418 Like you had to have lived during the image boom to know that you can make amazing looking comics and also thought provoking comics in the same book. 00:13:28.418 --> 00:13:29.139 Right. 00:13:29.139 --> 00:13:31.230 And I want to talk a little bit more about Lost Fantasy here. 00:13:31.230 --> 00:13:32.761 It comes out on April 30th. 00:13:32.761 --> 00:13:36.264 Here's a brief synopsis for everybody who isn't familiar with what Lost Fantasy is. 00:13:36.264 --> 00:13:41.288 There's a world of magic, myth and monsters that exist beneath the surface of the of our own. 00:13:41.288 --> 00:13:47.192 Since first contact was made over 100 years ago, the great hunters have kept us safe from the creatures that lurk in the shadows. 00:13:47.192 --> 00:13:52.485 but last night something broke through and it's up to rookie monster hunter Henry Blackheart to stop it. 00:13:52.485 --> 00:13:57.788 Now, all I've seen from the masses from comic readers, you know, we're pretty keyed in here on the oblivion bar. 00:13:57.788 --> 00:14:03.831 got our finger on the pulse and it seems like the buzz and the excitement for this comic is, you know, turned up to 11. 00:14:03.831 --> 00:14:13.057 And I just saw you post a video on Instagram just a couple hours ago talking about sort of the hype and the numbers that have been going along, you know, with this first issue of Lost Fantasy. 00:14:13.057 --> 00:14:20.951 And I want to ask you, do you think that it is sort of the the Final Fantasy nerds, the JRPG nerds that are really leading the charge with this excitement? 00:14:20.951 --> 00:14:24.327 Or is it something else that you think is getting folks so excited? 00:14:24.525 --> 00:14:26.096 I mean, I think it's all the above. 00:14:26.096 --> 00:14:36.514 think it's like I found an overlap between the comic conceptually was something I really like and I like leaned into it and leverage that, right? 00:14:36.514 --> 00:14:45.289 And then it's also like more on that is like, I built it out in a way that like I would buy it from the store. 00:14:45.289 --> 00:14:48.452 So it's like, got the coolest Jay Lee cover. 00:14:48.452 --> 00:14:51.965 We got Derek Robertson to do a cover.

00:14:51.965 --> 00:14:56.705 It's like, It just comes down to like, made it what kind of I would want. 00:14:56.705 --> 00:14:59.094 And I think people respond to that. 00:14:59.094 --> 00:15:09.245 And I do think, you know, part of our success for sure is that we're leaning into the fandom of like, Final Fantasy and all these other properties in like a fun way. 00:15:09.245 --> 00:15:19.511 ah And, but at the end of the day, if people weren't interested in the comic at all, like the homage variants or what, you know, it just doesn't matter. 00:15:19.511 --> 00:15:21.724 So it's like, I think it's all the above to be honest. 00:15:21.724 --> 00:15:22.721 Like I'm not. 00:15:22.721 --> 00:15:29.726 going to just pretend like, it doesn't help leveraging a mass massively popular video game franchise. 00:15:29.726 --> 00:15:41.875 But it's like, I think at the end of the day, uh everyone's, you know, the cover a everyone's really excited about too, which is That Luca cover is my, respectfully, that's the best cover in my opinion. 00:15:42.221 --> 00:15:52.417 Yeah, I mean, it's crazy because uh that covers obviously like still very informed by the Final Fantasy thing, but it's less a direct thing to it. 00:15:52.417 --> 00:15:55.000 But it's kind of just I think he just nailed it, right? 00:15:55.000 --> 00:15:56.528 m Yeah. 00:15:56.528 --> 00:16:00.801 And so when you were coming up with this concept with you and Luca were sitting down talking about lost fantasy. 00:16:00.801 --> 00:16:04.203 Now, as I said in the intro, this is a both a procedural and a fantasy. 00:16:04.203 --> 00:16:08.767 Did you start like, was your central pillar of this house of the lost fantasy house? 00:16:08.767 --> 00:16:13.166 Was it fantasy or was it sort of a mystery procedural type of book? 00:16:13.166 --> 00:16:36.855 It was like the mix of both because I wanted to find a way into fantasy storytelling that would be interesting for me as a creator and uh interesting to readers who are maybe not the most into fantasy, which is kind of, again, how I kind of feel where it's like, I like fantasy storytelling when it's done well, but I find it really hard to get into. 00:16:36.855 --> 00:16:37.755 Right. 00:16:38.677 --> 00:16:50.071 But, you know, I kind of noticed there's a, uh a surge of like fantasy stuff I was enjoying, you know, like I played one of the biggest influences on this. 00:16:50.071 --> 00:17:07.180 I haven't really talked about too much was the Witcher video games where I was playing through that and the way he it's the way you procedurally sort of solve the things is actually really big influence on lost fantasy because he has the book or whatever and it's got all the creatures and the BC area whatever. 00:17:07.180 --> 00:17:10.050 And so that I was like, well, that's cool. 00:17:10.050 --> 00:17:12.352 What if you just take that and make it contemporary? 00:17:12.352 --> 00:17:13.162 Right. 00:17:13.269 --> 00:17:21.457 And then the idea of there being a world underneath ours, sort of, uh, that's magical. 00:17:21.457 --> 00:17:32.897 And that's sort of hidden right below the surface is really inspired by like Harry Potter, obviously from when I, when I was a kid, that was the, you know, like so many children growing up in that time period. 00:17:32.897 --> 00:17:35.519 That's one of my favorite franchises. 00:17:35.519 --> 00:17:44.470 And I still think just purely talking about the from a story standpoint, it's a brilliant creation, it's a brilliant world. 00:17:44.470 --> 00:17:47.071 It's why so many people want to spend time in it. 00:17:47.071 --> 00:17:53.375 That's why the Hogwarts legacy game or whatever, I haven't really played it, but it's a huge hit. 00:17:53.375 --> 00:17:54.147 It's incredible. 00:17:54.147 --> 00:17:56.702 it's I mean, I mean this like with no hyper bowl. 00:17:56.702 --> 00:17:59.347 It's probably one of my favorite video games of all time. 00:17:59.660 --> 00:18:00.250 Yeah. 00:18:00.250 --> 00:18:02.131 It's a world you want to spend time in. 00:18:02.131 --> 00:18:08.824 so for me, that was like, okay, I want to do my version of this where it's sort of inspired by the Harry Potter thing. 00:18:08.824 --> 00:18:20.868 What's also inspired by, you know, manga and you know, stuff like, like east of west, which is very, you know, trace that back again, east of west is basically very inspiring. 00:18:20.868 --> 00:18:24.980 mean, everything's you're going to does is very inspired by, uh, knee hay, right? 00:18:24.980 --> 00:18:27.721 Like the mangaka. 00:18:27.721 --> 00:18:29.271 And so it's like. 00:18:29.271 --> 00:18:35.930 just tracing all this stuff back and then making like a soup and sort of putting my own spin on it. 00:18:35.930 --> 00:18:42.847 So it's like a million different things, but just filtered through my sort of lens of storytelling. 00:18:43.294 --> 00:18:45.156 This is kind of a weird sidebar. 00:18:45.156 --> 00:18:47.230 You saying sort of these influences and all these things. 00:18:47.230 --> 00:18:50.816 Can I ask you, you don't have to tell me if you don't want, but how old are you? 00:18:51.339 --> 00:18:52.769 I'm 32. 00:18:53.294 --> 00:18:54.314 Okay, I'm 33. 00:18:54.314 --> 00:18:56.973 So we were literally into these same exact things growing up. 00:18:56.973 --> 00:18:58.973 And I can see that in your work, right? 00:18:58.973 --> 00:19:10.413 Like not just with Lost Fantasy, but you know, Indigo Children and youth, like youth specifically, but also like Olympia, like all of these really key in on this, like, I mean, you can tell me if I'm wrong here. 00:19:10.413 --> 00:19:12.854 This is sort of my read, like a power fantasy. 00:19:12.854 --> 00:19:20.913 Like a lot of these, I think like a lot of the central idea with a lot of these books is like a power fantasy where like the one you wouldn't expect is the one that comes out, the one that deserves the power gets it. 00:19:20.913 --> 00:19:22.273 Does that, that make

sense? 00:19:22.304 --> 00:19:27.018 Yeah, I mean, it's sort of a lot of it's heroes journey stuff in a way, right? 00:19:27.018 --> 00:19:30.961 Because it's like, like the the heroes journey structure. 00:19:30.961 --> 00:19:38.928 I think when you utilize it, but differ from it a bit, it's uh it becomes very interesting. 00:19:38.928 --> 00:19:44.502 And you can apply that sort of structure to 90 % of storytelling. 00:19:44.502 --> 00:19:52.969 But yeah, it's I definitely like that underdog storytelling in this sort of sort of a mode. 00:19:53.719 --> 00:20:09.971 Well, will tell you another thing that I really love about your work is that you often, you know, let your collaborator do a lot of the storytelling visually, especially like in like the cold openings, a lot of in a lot of your books, especially in those first issues, which we get plenty of in this first issue from in lost fantasy from Luca. 00:20:09.971 --> 00:20:13.554 It's always it always makes for like a really dynamic read. 00:20:13.694 --> 00:20:16.877 Maybe people who aren't well versed in like comic script writing. 00:20:16.877 --> 00:20:19.640 I'm not even saying that I am, but I have a little bit of knowledge in it. 00:20:19.640 --> 00:20:22.519 But like balancing structure and spectacle. 00:20:22.519 --> 00:20:24.290 can be sort of a tightrope. 00:20:24.290 --> 00:20:27.354 can be pretty tough sometimes, but I think you do it extremely well. 00:20:27.354 --> 00:20:35.420 So when you begin scripting out your stories, do you purposely create space for your collaborator to sort of stretch their legs and showcase their talent? 00:20:35.420 --> 00:20:39.117 Or do you find that like that just happens naturally throughout your process? 00:20:39.117 --> 00:20:46.998 I try not to overwrite or over script action or fight scenes because I hate it when I'm reading books. 00:20:46.998 --> 00:20:52.317 And it's like two guys are beating the shit out of each other and they're doing a paragraph on each panel. 00:20:52.317 --> 00:20:53.557 like the worst thing. 00:20:53.557 --> 00:20:53.897 Yeah. 00:20:53.897 --> 00:20:58.678 And it's like the most American superhero storytelling trope. 00:20:59.218 --> 00:21:01.317 So I just hate that. 00:21:01.317 --> 00:21:36.117 And so I try and I, I try and avoid that and then also like higher panel count stuff like really Frank Miller inspired stuff is my you know Mount Rushmore of comics is definitely Frank Miller's on there and he with the he does the higher panel count stuff so well and it's like perfectly calibrated and I always like that that's you know Dark Knight Returns type stuff where it's like the 16 pound grader guys beating the shit out of each other. 00:21:36.540 --> 00:21:38.865 So I'm always trying to do something like that. 00:21:38.894 --> 00:21:39.457 Sure. 00:21:39.457 --> 00:21:42.920 Have you seen American Genius, the Frank Miller doc? 00:21:43.039 --> 00:21:44.392 No, I want to watch it. 00:21:44.392 --> 00:21:46.473 It's I don't where can you even watch it? 00:21:46.473 --> 00:21:49.390 It's like, didn't they just do a couple like roadshow screenings? 00:21:49.390 --> 00:21:56.049 Yeah, they did a couple like single night viewings at like Cinemark, which I went and saw and they have like a quick panel with Frank as well. 00:21:56.049 --> 00:21:56.930 And it's great. 00:21:56.930 --> 00:22:01.910 Like, of course, we all know that Frank Miller is a genius and he's a pioneer in the medium. 00:22:01.930 --> 00:22:07.990 that doc and you know, docs can be sort of they can glorify, they can glorify anybody. 00:22:07.990 --> 00:22:09.470 They can make you get side with anyone. 00:22:09.470 --> 00:22:09.950 Right. 00:22:09.950 --> 00:22:21.887 But like I already had warm feelings about Frank Miller, but that that doc really just to hear all of these legends come together and just talk about how revolutionary and how inspiring Frank is. 00:22:22.029 --> 00:22:26.837 It really like just brought it all home for me that like Frank's the he's one of the goats. 00:22:27.346 --> 00:22:27.645 he is. 00:22:27.645 --> 00:22:36.307 And I just think if you're one of the people who like, just spends all day online snarking on his new covers or whatever, like, go fuck yourself, right? 00:22:37.209 --> 00:22:46.832 Like a seven year old guy who's contributed so much to the medium and his style's evolved and maybe it's not what people want it to be, but it's just, I don't know. 00:22:46.832 --> 00:22:53.182 I just hate how negative a lot of the discourse online around his covers are. 00:22:53.182 --> 00:22:55.913 It's like, Marvel doesn't put out. 00:22:56.013 --> 00:22:59.913 10 million shitty comic book covers a month. 00:23:00.614 --> 00:23:06.673 I'm not saying, yeah, I mean, know I sound like an asshole when I say that, but it's not like every Marvel covers a masterpiece, right? 00:23:06.673 --> 00:23:09.493 Like the vast majority of them just blend together. 00:23:09.493 --> 00:23:18.445 So the fact that people are so morally outraged by like one or two Frank Miller covers a month, just, I can't handle it. 00:23:18.445 --> 00:23:18.925 Right. 00:23:18.925 --> 00:23:30.726 You know what I think it really comes down to, because I tend to agree with you on a certain level, is that it's a lot of house style, which, know, you included, but everyone in the comics medium is about 10 times more creative and artistic than I am. 00:23:30.726 --> 00:23:36.326 But I will say that, like, when you get a bunch of house style in a row, it does sort of blend together a little bit, right? 00:23:36.326 --> 00:23:39.986 Like the cross hatching and the bright digital colors and all that. 00:23:39.986 --> 00:23:41.365 So and I agree with you. 00:23:41.365 --> 00:23:45.105 Like, of course, classic Frank Miller is like it's the best. 00:23:45.105 --> 00:23:46.806 But and this new version. 00:23:46.902 --> 00:23:55.314 It is a style, is a choice, but Frank Miller deserves to showcase and evolved into any

style that he wants. 00:23:55.314 --> 00:23:58.584 Like he can do whatever he wants with his artwork. 00:23:58.584 --> 00:23:59.074 forward. 00:23:59.074 --> 00:24:03.555 Didn't even agree on his his work when he did Dark Knight's Tricks again, right? 00:24:03.555 --> 00:24:08.037 This is kind of extension of that, which was already very divisive. 00:24:08.037 --> 00:24:18.479 And then you add to the fact he went through, you know, medical issues or whatever personal issues uh that I don't have any interest in speaking on because it's when he wants to speak on and he can speak on it. 00:24:18.479 --> 00:24:21.450 But uh that's contributed to as well. 00:24:21.450 --> 00:24:26.371 So I'm just like, I still some of those like I really like the Red Hulk cover he did. 00:24:26.371 --> 00:24:30.845 I saw someone making fun of it on an Instagram reel the other day and I'm just like, what? 00:24:30.845 --> 00:24:32.717 Like this is, it's cool as shit. 00:24:32.717 --> 00:24:36.709 Like he looks, that's one of his best ones in a while. 00:24:36.709 --> 00:24:40.590 And the Spider-Man one he did not too long ago was like pure Ditko. 00:24:40.590 --> 00:24:46.825 Anytime he draws Spider-Man, I find it really cool because pulls really heavily from, from Ditko. 00:24:46.825 --> 00:24:51.887 Uh, but yeah, like a lot of these covers I find are pretty cool. 00:24:51.887 --> 00:24:54.173 And I was just talking to someone the other day. 00:24:54.173 --> 00:24:55.950 I'm like, fuck I wish I just. 00:24:56.945 --> 00:25:08.986 $10,000 sitting around to just to get Frank Miller to do a cover for one of these books, but it would just not be $10,000 because then he draws it and then I'm going to want to buy the thing. 00:25:08.986 --> 00:25:16.076 And then so it's like, you really need like 20 or 30 grand lying around to just burn on getting Frank Miller to do a cover for you. 00:25:16.076 --> 00:25:22.498 Yeah, you're going to need to set aside like the amount of money you need to buy a low end Toyota to Frank Miller. 00:25:23.781 --> 00:25:24.201 Yeah. 00:25:24.201 --> 00:25:27.616 the investment in a Toyota though, fuck the Toyota. 00:25:28.278 --> 00:25:32.054 The Toyota off the lawns, it loses half its value. 00:25:32.054 --> 00:25:35.981 think the Frank Miller piece is appreciate over time. 00:25:35.981 --> 00:25:36.461 Right. 00:25:36.461 --> 00:25:41.221 Well, I'll tell you, as someone who has a 22 Corolla, I kind of like it, to be honest. 00:25:41.221 --> 00:25:42.102 It's the best car I've ever owned. 00:25:42.102 --> 00:25:42.882 But I agree. 00:25:42.882 --> 00:25:44.761 Just like any car that you. 00:25:46.221 --> 00:25:46.961 Right. 00:25:46.961 --> 00:25:48.961 The depreciation immediately happens. 00:25:48.961 --> 00:25:54.301 But, you know, speaking of, you know, well, I will say undiscovered genius in this particular arena. 00:25:54.301 --> 00:26:00.321 I firmly believe that in this first issue of Lost Fantasy and I put this on social media a couple

of weeks ago. 00:26:00.321 --> 00:26:05.750 I believe this first issue of Lost Fantasy is a poster child for why comics fucking rock. 00:26:05.750 --> 00:26:11.172 I'm excited to eventually share this first issue and I'm not, I'm not trying to just butter you up now that you're here on the oblivion bar. 00:26:11.172 --> 00:26:16.881 I'm very excited to eventually hand this first issue or again, this first trade of lost fantasy to someone. 00:26:16.881 --> 00:26:38.153 Cause I firmly believes, believe that this is why comics are cool, you know, uh, and my buddy, and again, we just talked about a minute ago, Christian Ward, he once gave me this profound piece of advice, and don't ever tell him that I said that anything he said was profound, but, uh, he said the, the, the best first issues are when you can tell the reader, that the story is this for 21 pages. 00:26:38.153 --> 00:26:41.695 And then at the last second, that last page, you flip that narrative on its head. 00:26:41.695 --> 00:26:46.621 And I think you and Luca do that masterfully here with this first issue of Lost Fantasy. 00:26:46.621 --> 00:26:56.150 So my question for you is, you recently spoke about how you and Kirkman, or sorry, you and Robert Kirkman had a conversation and he actually inspired you to not be so precious with your twist. 00:26:56.150 --> 00:27:01.038 Tell us a little bit more about that conversation, how you included that in this first issue of Lost Fantasy. 00:27:01.038 --> 00:27:05.182 Oh, I didn't talk directly to Kirkman about that. 00:27:05.182 --> 00:27:10.625 listening to, forget, I've just heard that story before about him and Valentino. 00:27:11.346 --> 00:27:13.568 And so I was thinking about that. 00:27:13.568 --> 00:27:16.151 ah I've never talked to Kirkman. 00:27:16.151 --> 00:27:18.053 I've talked to Todd McFarlane a bunch. 00:27:18.053 --> 00:27:20.355 ah He's cool. 00:27:20.355 --> 00:27:24.919 He's from the same city I live in. 00:27:24.919 --> 00:27:25.689 was born here. 00:27:25.689 --> 00:27:27.401 And so we kind of bonded over that. 00:27:27.401 --> 00:27:29.192 And he was... 00:27:29.192 --> 00:27:40.099 for a while we were like kind of working on a Olympia TV thing that we're kind of shopping around but didn't didn't end up happening. 00:27:40.715 --> 00:27:46.643 Yeah, I mean, so in terms of like that that twist again, you not being so precious about it, what was it about what Kirkman said? 00:27:46.643 --> 00:27:46.952 right. 00:27:46.952 --> 00:27:47.746 Eliminating. 00:27:47.746 --> 00:28:05.631 Well, it actually wasn't even Kirkman's would Valentino said it's a, it's basically the story to back it up for everyone who's who hasn't heard it before is like the twisted invincible, which, you know, I'm not going to say it, but everyone, you know, probably knows what it is. 00:28:07.372 --> 00:28:09.762 originally was supposed to happen much later in the comp. 00:28:09.762 --> 00:28:22.566 Can I just remember hearing that, You know, the, book was struggling or something and Kirkman was talking to Valentino and was talking about, well, this is going to happen. 00:28:22.566 --> 00:28:25.125 know, issue 12, it'll, it'll be great. 00:28:25.125 --> 00:28:25.685 Everyone read it. 00:28:25.685 --> 00:28:28.605 And then Valentino was saying like, he's like, the fuck are you doing? 00:28:28.605 --> 00:28:33.746 Like, you're not going to get an issue 12 if you, uh, if you don't move this thing forward. 00:28:33.746 --> 00:28:34.105 Right. 00:28:34.105 --> 00:28:35.026 And then he did. 00:28:35.026 --> 00:28:44.445 So that's kind of like with lost fantasy, it was kind of, uh, kind of just trying to, trying to, to not. 00:28:45.678 --> 00:28:48.077 be decompressed in my storytelling. 00:28:48.077 --> 00:29:00.077 another thing I kind of referenced that was a big inspiration on the storytelling and it's not, don't think very visible, but it's like Grant Morrison's Batman and Robin, where it was all three issue arcs. 00:29:00.077 --> 00:29:08.218 And like, they're still like super satisfying to read and good beginning, middle and ending, but like they're jam packed of cool stuff. 00:29:08.218 --> 00:29:12.057 so like that was, but that was my goal for this. 00:29:12.057 --> 00:29:15.046 Even though was very different book, I wanted just to be. 00:29:15.438 --> 00:29:18.198 it, the pacing to be relentless. 00:29:18.198 --> 00:29:18.857 Right. 00:29:18.857 --> 00:29:23.038 And so that's why Lost Fantasy is kind of, it's a four issue arc to start it. 00:29:23.038 --> 00:29:23.198 Right. 00:29:23.198 --> 00:29:27.278 But it's more than four issues of story, I guess. 00:29:27.718 --> 00:29:29.597 They're kind of oversized issues. 00:29:29.978 --> 00:29:31.958 So it's, it's a bit experimental. 00:29:31.958 --> 00:29:37.458 I think that the future of comics is not like 20 page comics. 00:29:37.458 --> 00:29:45.486 think it's like a little bit bigger, you know, 499, 599, depending on the size, but. 00:29:45.486 --> 00:29:47.445 more of a meal, right? 00:29:47.445 --> 00:29:57.925 So I liked what I think the, you know, kind of close what we're doing here is the Black Monday Murders did something where it's like the issues were bigger, right? 00:29:57.925 --> 00:30:03.945 I don't like the design page as much as Hickman does, but I like that idea. 00:30:03.945 --> 00:30:09.105 think it's the right one where it's like, okay, I want you to have a meal, not a snack. 00:30:09.105 --> 00:30:12.826 And let's just make each issue super satisfying. 00:30:13.294 --> 00:30:14.233 I love that idea. 00:30:14.233 --> 00:30:20.574 I just spoke to Aubrey Sidderson not too long ago about his new image book that's coming out, Free Planet. 00:30:20.574 --> 00:30:22.634 And that baby is dense. 00:30:22.634 --> 00:30:22.973 All right. 00:30:22.973 --> 00:30:26.653 It's got graphs and it's like reading a prose novel in a comic. 00:30:26.653 --> 00:30:31.173 It's 20, it's 22 pages, but it is like 58 pages of content. 00:30:31.173

--> 00:30:34.594 And I love the idea that both of you guys are sort of setting up in comics. 00:30:34.594 --> 00:30:38.334 I love having too much to chew on rather than not enough. 00:30:38.334 --> 00:30:39.213 You know what I mean? 00:30:39.213 --> 00:30:55.372 So That's a great thought and I think that if the writer and the one the creative team in general are down for it that always makes for a better reading experience for the for the Reader right because there's no rule in place that says we have to finish this comic in one sitting Right, you can read a couple pages sit on it or go back and read it again. 00:30:55.372 --> 00:30:56.752 There's no wrong way to read comics. 00:30:56.752 --> 00:31:04.777 I don't think No, but I think there's two, there's such a thing as too much information into common. 00:31:04.777 --> 00:31:09.878 22 pages, but with 58 pages of that could be problematic. 00:31:09.878 --> 00:31:24.944 mean, it's like Alan Moore said, there's a reason there's a sort of a, a maximum amount of information you should overlay into a panel because sometimes I'm reading a comic and I'm just like, well, I would just go read a book if I wanted to, to be reading this many words. 00:31:24.944 --> 00:31:27.630 And so I don't know. 00:31:27.630 --> 00:31:29.529 I hope that his experiment works for him. 00:31:29.529 --> 00:31:31.210 don't know if I feel exactly the same way. 00:31:31.210 --> 00:31:36.829 I'm more talking just about sort of expanded, uh, issue size, right? 00:31:37.690 --> 00:31:40.349 I think comics is all about rhythm, right? 00:31:40.349 --> 00:31:43.868 So if you're really good, you can totally land that. 00:31:43.868 --> 00:31:53.809 Like an example, I would say, as you just talked about map fraction, Casanova is a book that's jam packed, but it's like, he's so good and his collaborators is so good. 00:31:53.809 --> 00:31:56.029 He pulls it off, but that's definitely hard mode. 00:31:56.029 --> 00:31:57.221 So it's like. 00:31:57.486 --> 00:32:02.383 uh I want to see how that one turns out because that sounds interesting. 00:32:02.383 --> 00:32:03.756 I haven't read that one yet. 00:32:03.756 --> 00:32:05.827 Yeah, I mean, I will say that Aubrey nails it out of the park. 00:32:05.827 --> 00:32:09.640 He and his collaborator Jed, they absolutely murdered that first issue of Free Planet. 00:32:09.640 --> 00:32:12.301 But it is sort of intimidating when you first see it. 00:32:12.301 --> 00:32:15.404 And I agree that should not be the standard within comics. 00:32:15.404 --> 00:32:21.558 But I think it does provide an interesting sort of parallel to the idea of comics can be flexible. 00:32:21.558 --> 00:32:23.540 They also can be broken, too, as you said. 00:32:23.540 --> 00:32:28.625 Like it can be too dense to the point that it's not, you know, an enjoyable read. 00:32:28.625 --> 00:32:30.647 But I feel like they can be flexible like. 00:32:30.647 --> 00:32:32.098 There was a book that came out by J.H. 00:32:32.098 --> 00:32:39.643 Williams a couple of years ago from Image where it was sort of like, it wasn't read sort of vertically, it was read landscaped. 00:32:39.663 --> 00:32:40.664 yeah. 00:32:40.664 --> 00:32:41.881 And it can be played around that way. 00:32:41.881 --> 00:32:43.736 And think that's sort of the main point here. 00:32:43.736 --> 00:32:45.156 And I do want to continue. 00:32:45.156 --> 00:32:47.148 I want to ask you about Luca a little bit. 00:32:47.148 --> 00:32:50.111 You you guys have done three books together and I'm going to try to his last name. 00:32:50.111 --> 00:32:52.511 Tell me if I say this incorrectly or correctly. 00:32:52.511 --> 00:32:54.753 So it's Luca Casalunghita. 00:32:54.753 --> 00:32:55.903 Is that correct? 00:32:56.309 --> 00:32:57.986 I, you know, you might be right. 00:32:57.986 --> 00:33:00.586 think it's Castle in Guida or Castle in Guida. 00:33:00.586 --> 00:33:01.167 I don't know. 00:33:01.167 --> 00:33:02.228 Sorry, Luca. 00:33:02.228 --> 00:33:05.556 Luca, we're sorry, but I think we're both pretty close. 00:33:05.750 --> 00:33:08.864 Yeah, I mean, I don't think he'd be too offended. 00:33:09.589 --> 00:33:10.250 Right. 00:33:10.250 --> 00:33:11.701 Well, you guys have done three books together now. 00:33:11.701 --> 00:33:15.464 You've done a New America, you did money, and then now you're doing Lost Fantasy together. 00:33:15.464 --> 00:33:19.217 And I'm curious, what makes him so uniquely suited for this book here? 00:33:19.217 --> 00:33:25.692 And is there something that he brought, something surprising maybe that he brought to the table that changed you from your original idea or script? 00:33:26.253 --> 00:33:27.314 You know, there's a couple of things. 00:33:27.314 --> 00:33:33.294 He's got a really good command of black and white, which, know, again, I'm, I'm a Frank Miller guy, like I said, so I like that. 00:33:33.294 --> 00:33:34.953 Reminds me a lot of RISO. 00:33:34.953 --> 00:33:42.354 You know, he's very fast and he can also handle, he can do kind of action as well as the talkie pages, right? 00:33:42.713 --> 00:33:46.354 Uh, and, you know, like I've said before, to me, comics all about rhythm. 00:33:46.354 --> 00:33:48.894 So I like to work with guys who can kind of do both, right? 00:33:48.894 --> 00:33:55.094 I don't want to just work with guys who splash pages, but couldn't draw a conversation to save their life. 00:33:55.182 --> 00:34:00.021 But Luca, yeah, Luca's I'd sort of, he's sort of, his work just is effortless. 00:34:00.021 --> 00:34:06.481 I don't know, you know, it's not the most elegant way of saying it, but he, have a high degree of confidence in anything I tell him to draw, can. 00:34:06.481 --> 00:34:16.061 And what's so interesting about Lost Fantasy is that the first two books we did together are a lot more grounded and almost, you know, dramatic in their nature. 00:34:16.061 --> 00:34:24.630 And then this is the first one where it's really, given him a lot of over the top

stuff to draw and he draws it just as well, if not, you know, cooler. 00:34:24.630 --> 00:34:31.335 because he brings that sort of realism and uh grounds things as well as just making it larger than life. 00:34:32.161 --> 00:34:36.423 You know what I found really impressive about Lucas work is that I feel like he's a really good actor. 00:34:36.423 --> 00:34:44.449 Like the way that he draws those intimate scenes that you were talking about where people are just talking, you know, I think that that was really impressive because of course he can draw the action. 00:34:44.449 --> 00:34:51.094 You see that pretty clearly again without spoilers, but you see that very clearly towards the back hack back half of that first issue. 00:34:51.094 --> 00:34:57.760 But I really impressed with the beginning half where we're starting getting a lot of the exposition and sort of the back story of this world. 00:34:57.760 --> 00:34:59.918 So I wanted to at least highlight that with you. 00:34:59.918 --> 00:35:08.237 I mean, stuff, which now that you're bringing it up, is what I found crazy and was unexpected was the Mignola influence he brought into it. 00:35:08.237 --> 00:35:18.297 Where those panels, where there's, we're laying out the lore of our world and there's just some beautiful Mignola inspired stuff that was like new for me. 00:35:18.297 --> 00:35:19.818 And I'm just like, man, this is so cool. 00:35:19.818 --> 00:35:22.677 Like, I think it's definitely his best work he's done. 00:35:23.257 --> 00:35:26.458 yeah, I'm just proud of it. 00:35:26.458 --> 00:35:27.525 He's just... 00:35:27.898 --> 00:35:38.219 The first few pages of number four coming in the last week or so as we wrap up the first dark and it's like, man, there's so much cool stuff in there. 00:35:38.829 --> 00:35:43.190 You can definitely see that Magnolia sort of vibe inspiration on the cover. 00:35:43.530 --> 00:35:45.690 The monster specifically, think that. 00:35:45.690 --> 00:35:46.650 Oh yeah. 00:35:46.829 --> 00:35:47.329 Yeah. 00:35:47.329 --> 00:35:48.949 It's, totally Magnolia. 00:35:48.949 --> 00:35:58.889 Like it's even the eyes, like it looks almost like now I'm spacing it, but BPRD it's got Abe, it's got the guy with the dome head and then it's got the, monster guy. 00:35:58.889 --> 00:36:00.150 It looks like the monster guy. 00:36:00.150 --> 00:36:04.070 I'm spacing his name right now, of course, but yeah, it's, it's incredible. 00:36:04.070 --> 00:36:08.068 You know, I want to sort of bounce over to your distillery work. 00:36:08.068 --> 00:36:10.291 Now we talked about Lost Fantasy and again, I hope people are excited about it. 00:36:10.291 --> 00:36:11.023 I know I am. 00:36:11.023 --> 00:36:21.213 Again, as we talked about, seems like a lot of people are, but I do want to slightly pick your brain on your upcoming distillery work, specifically Galactic, which is, you know, your upcoming work with artists. 00:36:21.213 --> 00:36:25.038 And again, I'm going to probably say his name correctly here, but Amilcar Pena? 00:36:25.038 --> 00:36:25.673 that? 00:36:25.673 --> 00:36:27.157 I'm a carpina. 00:36:27.157 --> 00:36:28.820 think I don't know. 00:36:28.820 --> 00:36:31.594 I mean, it probably be messing it up as well. 00:36:33.739 --> 00:36:34.630 Right. 00:36:34.670 --> 00:36:36.130 That's right. 00:36:36.251 --> 00:36:39.193 Again and again, here's the synopsis here for this galactic story. 00:36:39.193 --> 00:36:50.579 So a hype kinetic blend of syncopactic blockbuster action and interstellar escapism galactic follows the roguish bounty hunter hired to retrieve a runaway princess on a psychedelic death bender. 00:36:50.579 --> 00:36:58.943 What should be an easy payday escalates into a collision course with an intergalactic war and maybe just maybe an unexpected romance along the way. 00:36:58.943 --> 00:37:02.525 Also, there is a talking dog named Wolf that pilots the starship. 00:37:02.585 --> 00:37:11.677 Now, I've heard you talk about how your work is often a meditation on ideas or feelings that you're expanding on in these stories that you write. 00:37:11.677 --> 00:37:14.782 And I don't want to get into specifics because again, this book doesn't come out till July. 00:37:14.782 --> 00:37:20.840 So I wanted to ask you, what would you say sort of broadly is your meditation on galactic and your work over at Distillery? 00:37:20.844 --> 00:37:45.871 Well, feel like so Galactic is a kind of I was thinking about this today that, you know, lost fancies, me finding a way to do fantasy storytelling that feels cool and not overly trope laden and kind of stale and galactic is me kind of doing the same thing, but with like Star Wars and and and sci fi because I love Star Wars and I love this stuff, but it just sucks so terribly now. 00:37:45.871 --> 00:37:49.693 And so I was like, why don't? 00:37:49.985 --> 00:37:52.047 What does my version of this look like? 00:37:52.047 --> 00:37:58.492 And I just, I've wanted to do a, a, a version of this story for a long time. 00:37:58.492 --> 00:38:12.025 I actually, for years, I had an earlier version of the story that was, was a little more Indiana Jones, uh, where the main guy, it still had the, the, was like a treasure hunter instead of a bounty hunter. 00:38:12.025 --> 00:38:15.436 And it didn't work out because it was kind of like undercooked. 00:38:15.436 --> 00:38:19.010 And then I kept thinking on it more and I got really. 00:38:19.423 --> 00:38:45.184 interested in the idea of uh it being like a folding in this like relationship slash like love angle to it because it just makes it so much more interesting I think when you have a human drama element in the midst of uh a big intergalactic sandbox. 00:38:45.184 --> 00:38:51.804 And so was thinking of like the way saga is like a family family drama, it's about becoming a parent. 00:38:51.804 --> 00:39:14.291 ah Galactic is sort of about a guy who's kind of like a lone wolf, no pun intended, and him falling in love against

all the chaos of the universe and stuff, which is something that when I started working on it, I kind of was also going through and relating to it. 00:39:14.358 --> 00:39:23.864 Now you've you mentioned just a moment ago how, you know, you sort of like the idea of having a little more room to breathe in terms of pages or landscape even. 00:39:23.864 --> 00:39:26.947 And I don't think there's really a better place for that than distillery. 00:39:26.947 --> 00:39:27.197 Right. 00:39:27.197 --> 00:39:37.253 Like they're sort of uh putting up their pillar currently as the place to let your let your legs stretch in terms of the storyteller, both artistically and as a as a writer. 00:39:37.253 --> 00:39:40.315 Have you found that to be true in terms of like getting over there? 00:39:40.315 --> 00:39:40.936 You're working on it. 00:39:40.936 --> 00:39:42.967 What I think is three books at the story. 00:39:42.967 --> 00:39:43.847 Is that correct? 00:39:43.847 --> 00:39:45.708 I have more than three, but. 00:39:46.628 --> 00:39:48.360 We've been down to three. 00:39:49.398 --> 00:39:57.677 Yeah, I mean, like, I think the cool part about them and what I like so much about it is, like you said, the format so cool. 00:39:57.677 --> 00:40:00.257 It's basically the IMAX of comics, right? 00:40:00.617 --> 00:40:07.057 like, I think you have to tailor the books to the formats, right? 00:40:07.057 --> 00:40:13.637 So Galactica kind of, me and Amilcar engineered it to have a lot of double page spreads. 00:40:13.637 --> 00:40:17.418 And even when there's higher panel count pages, there's stuff. 00:40:17.599 --> 00:40:23.492 spread across, you know, two pages and stuff, because it's, it's, that's sort of what it's made for. 00:40:23.492 --> 00:40:30.956 And I think the really, the great books that Distillery has put out that are the ones everyone's really excited about are the ones that use it. 00:40:30.956 --> 00:40:31.246 Right. 00:40:31.246 --> 00:40:38.889 Like I think, you know, like Spectrograph is probably their, their best book or blood brothers mother. 00:40:38.889 --> 00:40:39.148 Right. 00:40:39.148 --> 00:40:43.920 And those are both books that use a lot of the, the widescreen format. 00:40:43.920 --> 00:40:54.233 So I'm just like, if you're doing a It's kind of like, uh, it is like IMAX where I hate when you go to see a movie and IMAX and none of it is a full IMAX thing. 00:40:54.233 --> 00:41:02.271 So, uh, I'm trying to do as much full, you know, widescreen stuff as we can. 00:41:02.478 --> 00:41:03.518 Sure. 00:41:03.518 --> 00:41:12.237 Now I appreciate you because you let me get an early look at that first issue and I really enjoyed it and I had a thought while reading it and you can tell me if I'm incorrect here. 00:41:12.237 --> 00:41:17.958 But this and I it's funny that you're saying that the story is the IMAX of comics and I totally agree with you. 00:41:17.958 --> 00:41:23.137 This book Galactic feels maybe like your most cinematic book thus

far. 00:41:23.137 --> 00:41:24.422 Would you agree with that? 00:41:24.492 --> 00:41:28.565 Yeah, I think it kind of does just because of the, of the format, right? 00:41:28.565 --> 00:41:33.590 It's kind of like a lot of widescreen and splashy stuff in there. 00:41:33.590 --> 00:41:51.905 And I love the, the intro to Galactic and sort of just the, the, each issue Galactic has sort of a title spread that's really designed to, to, uh, to showcase the distillery format as well as just like cool. 00:41:51.927 --> 00:41:54.449 graphic design and our great logo and stuff. 00:41:54.449 --> 00:41:59.264 but that was something I kind of the first time I saw something like that. 00:41:59.264 --> 00:42:05.369 No, this is totally kind of where I, stole it from, I'm bending it in my own direction is the umbrella Academy, right? 00:42:06.050 --> 00:42:19.320 And I love the, the double page title spreads at Gerard and Gabriel Bha would do, uh, where it's like the, the big future of font and all that stuff. 00:42:19.320 --> 00:42:26.181 uh And so the hard part of this was actually I working to make it look different enough from that, right? 00:42:26.181 --> 00:42:31.838 Because I'm like, just, I didn't want it to just be like, they're just doing the umbrella Academy thing. 00:42:31.838 --> 00:42:40.217 So it's like, kind of went through five different versions of the fonts we used on there until I landed up on the one I was happy with. 00:42:40.311 --> 00:42:40.882 Sure. 00:42:40.882 --> 00:42:42.563 Well, you know, it's funny you're talking, we're talking about this. 00:42:42.563 --> 00:42:47.898 We've talked about saga, you know, just a moment ago and Brian, when he was on the show, he mentioned that original. 00:42:47.898 --> 00:42:53.172 I mean, everyone can have the same idea, but no one's going to tell the story the way that you do. 00:42:53.172 --> 00:42:55.487 So like everything is original matter, no matter what. 00:42:55.487 --> 00:43:02.880 And I find I've always found that really interesting and uh true, honestly, like, you know, even saga he said is just Romeo and Juliet in space. 00:43:02.880 --> 00:43:06.554 And while I guess I see what he's saying there, it obviously is a lot more than that. 00:43:06.554 --> 00:43:09.646 And you can make that sort of correlation with most. 00:43:09.646 --> 00:43:11.965 comics and all that thing, all those things. 00:43:12.106 --> 00:43:22.326 I do want to ask you, know, again, you've done some work both at Dark Horse, Boom, Comixology, but between Image and Distillery, some of your recent work has been at those two publishers. 00:43:22.326 --> 00:43:24.385 And I want to sort of key in on that. 00:43:24.385 --> 00:43:25.766 And this is not gotcha journalism. 00:43:25.766 --> 00:43:28.985 You can totally be as transparent as you want. 00:43:29.005 --> 00:43:32.025 You know, both of these publishers are very creator centric. 00:43:32.025 --> 00:43:35.126 They sort of give you guys the boat and let you steer however

you want. 00:43:35.266 --> 00:43:41.628 What would you say some of the main differences are between Distillery and Image and whether that be creatively, commercially, however. 00:43:41.972 --> 00:43:44.903 I mean, it's just, set up very different, right? 00:43:44.983 --> 00:43:53.210 The image model, since it was founded, it's basically, you know, image takes a small fee, you own everything else. 00:43:53.210 --> 00:44:02.856 They provide you with, with infrastructure, but, uh, you know, a lot of the work you do have to, you do have to your elbow grease into it, right? 00:44:02.856 --> 00:44:10.161 You know, like, and you know, it's, it's a typical deal. 00:44:10.222 --> 00:44:15.782 in comics because it frankly doesn't really make a lot of sense. 00:44:15.782 --> 00:44:28.342 It's almost a utopian sort of ideological pursuit that image has where they think creators should own their stuff and this stuff. 00:44:28.342 --> 00:44:37.641 so it's like, Image, it's kind of, you can bet on yourself and you can win huge. 00:44:38.070 --> 00:44:39.300 And so, so I think it's great. 00:44:39.300 --> 00:44:41.889 And I want to really be, be careful here. 00:44:41.889 --> 00:44:52.711 Cause I think there's a lot of times people misconstrue that like the image provides infrastructure for creators and there is resources and all this stuff. 00:44:52.711 --> 00:44:59.858 Like I've been helped immensely on the last fantasy launched by, you know, the, the, backend staff at image. 00:44:59.858 --> 00:45:03.670 So I'm not trying to say that image doesn't provide help to creators. 00:45:03.670 --> 00:45:06.914 saying it's just very different structurally speaking. 00:45:06.914 --> 00:45:24.487 from what distillery is doing, where I think if you look at what distillery is doing, you can see they're building, you know, a lot of innovate, innovative, uh, digital products and, uh, tech alongside the comics, right? 00:45:24.889 --> 00:45:31.204 the, David Steinberger is like crazy smart guy. 00:45:31.204 --> 00:45:43.601 mean, I'm really smart guy and And some of the shit they're doing, just, when I see it for the first time, I remember seeing the remark, digital remark stuff in person. 00:45:43.601 --> 00:45:45.981 I'm just like, how did you guys think of this? 00:45:45.981 --> 00:45:48.704 And so they're just very different. 00:45:48.704 --> 00:45:53.418 And I don't know that necessarily makes sense for me personally. 00:45:53.418 --> 00:45:55.411 It makes sense to do certain things at Image. 00:45:55.411 --> 00:45:58.467 It makes sense to do certain things at Distillery. 00:45:58.467 --> 00:46:19.309 I think it's uh really up to the creator and it's sort of, You know, it's sort of about managing your own brand as, know, it's kind of cringe to say, because I hate people who engage in like super serious marketing talk, but when you're a creator, you are kind of your own brand. 00:46:19.309 --> 00:46:30.489 so, you know, if you're not controlling the product you're putting out or thinking carefully about who you work with, then your brand suffers. 00:46:30.489 --> 00:46:34.510 so they're both great partners, just different. 00:46:34.670 --> 00:46:38.889 different, you know, they're in different businesses at the end of the day. 00:46:39.130 --> 00:46:43.190 Like image doesn't own any of my IP or any of that stuff. 00:46:43.190 --> 00:46:54.349 And it's like with distillery, I'm happy to, to partner with them on some of that stuff because, you know, I probably wouldn't still be in comics today if wasn't for Chip. 00:46:54.690 --> 00:47:02.289 So it's like, want him to have some of my shit because it's like, I want him to, if, if. 00:47:02.525 --> 00:47:06.188 if one of these things hits big, then I want them to benefit also. 00:47:06.188 --> 00:47:08.130 that's, you he's my friend. 00:47:08.130 --> 00:47:13.454 ah So it's kind of, it's, it's a very complicated topic. 00:47:13.655 --> 00:47:20.469 But I think broadly speaking, the issue in comics is not the deal structure. 00:47:20.469 --> 00:47:23.262 It's how the people behind the deals act. 00:47:23.262 --> 00:47:23.521 Right. 00:47:23.521 --> 00:47:28.226 So, know, it's, it's more about working with people who act in good faith. 00:47:28.226 --> 00:47:29.126 think. 00:47:29.574 --> 00:47:35.565 The companies you see creators working with over and over again are the ones that probably treat people the best. 00:47:35.670 --> 00:47:37.369 Yeah, that's that's a good point. 00:47:37.369 --> 00:47:43.981 And I will say that one of my big gripes and again, this is coming from someone who hasn't written any comics and only talks to creators. 00:47:43.981 --> 00:47:52.715 But one of my biggest gripes as a reader is I think the marketing should not fall on the shoulders of the creators or at least not totally fall on the shoulders of the creators. 00:47:52.715 --> 00:47:57.815 uh I really wish that publishers would make a better effort to market. 00:47:57.815 --> 00:47:58.215 Right. 00:47:58.215 --> 00:48:00.126 uh And some are better than others, of course. 00:48:00.126 --> 00:48:02.956 Like I really like what only press is doing right now. 00:48:03.077 --> 00:48:05.581 I think that Booms Studios does a pretty good job. 00:48:05.581 --> 00:48:11.498 I'm mostly kind of looking at the big two, unfortunately, but you know, they're some of their characters kind of sell themselves. 00:48:11.498 --> 00:48:14.231 So I guess I kind of get it to a certain extent, but not really. 00:48:14.231 --> 00:48:21.438 But I think to be fair though, think the all in stuff they've done has been tremendously successful and that's been very well marketed. 00:48:21.438 --> 00:48:26.853 And so I would say they are capable of doing it. 00:48:26.853 --> 00:48:32.697 It's a way harder ship to steer when you're up underneath a publicly traded umbrella, right? 00:48:32.697 --> 00:48:37.902 When you're underneath the acts of Zaslav or everyone to say it to do that. 00:48:37.902 --> 00:48:42.125

And so the fact they pulled that off, I think is extremely impressive. 00:48:42.125 --> 00:48:49.179 ah But I'd say actually do agree with you the biggest problem in comics and it's not even like big two. 00:48:49.179 --> 00:48:54.472 It's it's Indie comics is uh it's churn and like too much content. 00:48:54.472 --> 00:48:58.153 And when you see that people think, oh, you you're being hated. 00:48:58.153 --> 00:48:59.284 You don't want people to able to break in. 00:48:59.284 --> 00:49:01.746 It's no, I want you to be able to break in. 00:49:01.746 --> 00:49:12.920 But I want you to break in and publishers that will do their job and adequately market your book and not just vacuum up your IP and then shit it into the marketplace. 00:49:12.920 --> 00:49:15.079 to like end up in a dollar bin. 00:49:15.914 --> 00:49:17.135 You know, I get it. 00:49:17.135 --> 00:49:17.726 I get it, Kurt. 00:49:17.726 --> 00:49:19.449 Yeah, it's one of those things that I see all the time. 00:49:19.449 --> 00:49:20.181 A great book. 00:49:20.181 --> 00:49:23.085 You know, honestly, I love this book. 00:49:23.085 --> 00:49:29.235 I didn't know about this until it came out on trade, you know, and that's I mean, it's image, but still like that's a problem, I think. 00:49:29.235 --> 00:49:34.690 oh Yeah, I mean, Olympia just didn't have the money to market the book. 00:49:34.690 --> 00:49:36.193 Sure, I guess that makes sense, yeah. 00:49:36.193 --> 00:49:38.121 I mean, this is one of your earlier books, right? 00:49:38.445 --> 00:49:41.746 Yeah, I was like five years ago, I was still pretty much broke. 00:49:43.065 --> 00:49:49.565 yeah, I I hired a marketing guy and all this stuff, but it's like, yeah, there's only so much marketing you can do. 00:49:49.565 --> 00:49:52.945 And I think also that it's really hard to market. 00:49:53.445 --> 00:49:56.306 It's just a weird kind of superhero adjacent thing. 00:49:56.306 --> 00:49:58.461 It's just those books never going to be huge. 00:49:58.461 --> 00:49:59.233 Sure, sure. 00:49:59.233 --> 00:50:00.262 All right. 00:50:00.262 --> 00:50:03.465 Well, I've taken a lot of your time here today and I appreciate you sitting down with me. 00:50:03.465 --> 00:50:07.047 I do have one more segment if you have a little bit of time. 00:50:07.047 --> 00:50:11.391 And this is a newer segment that we've been doing here on the Oblivion Bar here recently. 00:50:11.391 --> 00:50:13.291 And this is a work in progress. 00:50:13.291 --> 00:50:15.333 It's name is called Hey Kids, It's True or False Time. 00:50:15.333 --> 00:50:20.356 uh And basically the rules. 00:50:20.356 --> 00:50:22.027 I should ask you firstly, are you willing to do this? 00:50:22.027 --> 00:50:23.378 Do you want to do this? 00:50:23.422 --> 00:50:23.759 All right. 00:50:23.759 --> 00:50:24.039 Good. 00:50:24.039 --> 00:50:24.331 Good. 00:50:24.331 --> 00:50:24.590 All right. 00:50:24.590 --> 00:50:28.038 So basically for everyone who is only is hearing this for the first time. 00:50:28.038 --> 00:50:35.621 Hey kids, it's true or false time again, name pending is basically it's a 10 true or false speed round where I asked Kurt a question. 00:50:35.621 --> 00:50:38.103 He says true or false as quickly as possible. 00:50:38.103 --> 00:50:39.744 He can only answer true or false. 00:50:39.744 --> 00:50:43.547 And if he gets eight questions more, uh eight or more questions, right. 00:50:43.547 --> 00:50:47.918 We will donate our entire months of oblivion bar, patron earnings to the hero initiative. 00:50:47.918 --> 00:50:50.860 If you're not familiar with the hero initiative, please look it up. 00:50:50.860 --> 00:50:57.461 I will have a link in the show notes, but it basically helps a comic creators, older comic creators help with bills. 00:50:57.461 --> 00:51:00.224 and travel to cons and all the things. 00:51:00.224 --> 00:51:05.269 currently our highest score is Michael Allred at nine correct answers. 00:51:05.269 --> 00:51:09.833 Kurt, do you think you have it in you to beat Michael Allred with nine correct answers? 00:51:09.911 --> 00:51:11.748 Definitely not, but let's try. 00:51:12.469 --> 00:51:13.231 All right, here we go. 00:51:13.231 --> 00:51:14.333 I'm going go ahead and start us off here. 00:51:14.333 --> 00:51:17.898 Again, the name of the game, quick as possible, only true or false. 00:51:18.702 --> 00:51:19.463 All right. 00:51:19.463 --> 00:51:25.253 Question number one, there are six Harry Potter books in the main storyline. 00:51:26.132 --> 00:51:26.987 else. 00:51:27.447 --> 00:51:29.902 Correct, it is false, there are seven books. 00:51:30.083 --> 00:51:35.974 Question number two, Squall Lionheart is the main antagonist for Final Fantasy VIII. 00:51:36.588 --> 00:51:37.831 Antagonist, that's false. 00:51:37.831 --> 00:51:38.913 I'm sorry. 00:51:38.913 --> 00:51:39.501 I apologize. 00:51:39.501 --> 00:51:40.106 It's protagonist. 00:51:40.106 --> 00:51:40.516 You're right. 00:51:40.516 --> 00:51:43.458 Yeah Okay, so if he's protagonist, true. 00:51:43.458 --> 00:51:44.938 Yep, that is correct. 00:51:44.938 --> 00:51:49.041 Calgary is the third largest city in True. 00:51:49.041 --> 00:51:50.262 That is true. 00:51:50.481 --> 00:51:57.246 Question number four, 1993's Daredevil, The Man Without Fear is written and illustrated by Frank Miller. 00:51:57.793 --> 00:51:59.882 false is drawn by Ramita. 00:52:00.206 --> 00:52:00.688 That's right. 00:52:00.688 --> 00:52:01.920 Your buddy, John Romita. 00:52:01.920 --> 00:52:04.478 We didn't really get to talk about John Romita in this conversation. 00:52:04.711 --> 00:52:11.519 out Well, the next conversation I have you on, we're talking about Junior Junior. 00:52:11.974 --> 00:52:12.293 All right. 00:52:12.293 --> 00:52:13.465 Question number five. 00:52:13.465 --> 00:52:18.333 Metal Gear Solid debuted on the PlayStation on September 3rd, 1998. 00:52:20.077 --> 00:52:20.978 true. 00:52:21.293 --> 00:52:22.193 That is true. 00:52:22.193 --> 00:52:23.313 We

are five for five, Kurt. 00:52:23.313 --> 00:52:24.594 You're doing good. 00:52:24.614 --> 00:52:32.833 Question number six, Pulp Fiction beat out Shawshank Redemption and Forrest Gump for best picture at the 1995 67th Academy Awards. 00:52:33.101 --> 00:52:34.289 That's false. 00:52:34.360 --> 00:52:35.126 Do you know who won? 00:52:35.126 --> 00:52:36.434 That is, it is false. 00:52:36.565 --> 00:52:37.166 No, I don't. 00:52:37.166 --> 00:52:40.188 just know they wouldn't give it to Pulp Fiction over that other... 00:52:40.188 --> 00:52:43.001 That other stuff's way more in line with the Academy. 00:52:43.001 --> 00:52:48.096 Didn't Pulp Fiction win for screenplay or something? 00:52:48.096 --> 00:52:52.317 Yeah, I two other ones that I think supporting actor for Samuel Jackson. 00:52:52.317 --> 00:52:53.349 I'm pretty sure. 00:52:53.550 --> 00:52:53.989 All right. 00:52:53.989 --> 00:52:54.829 Question number seven. 00:52:54.829 --> 00:52:59.833 The Calgary Flames celebrate celebrated their one and only Stanley Cup in the 1988-89 season. 00:53:01.592 --> 00:53:02.471 True. 00:53:02.702 --> 00:53:04.643 That is true, seven for seven. 00:53:05.003 --> 00:53:06.465 Question number eight. 00:53:06.465 --> 00:53:15.603 The director of the cult classic PlayStation classic Parasite Eve was Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy V legend, Takeshi Takeda. 00:53:17.358 --> 00:53:18.675 You finally got one. 00:53:18.675 --> 00:53:22.697 I never play like I think it's false Nope, that is true. 00:53:22.697 --> 00:53:23.701 Takishi Takita. 00:53:23.701 --> 00:53:25.565 I said it wrong the first time, Takita. 00:53:26.871 --> 00:53:29.284 That's like my, I never beat Chrono Cross. 00:53:29.284 --> 00:53:37.304 I never played Parasite Eve, even though I meant to because the one with the two hot chicks with the big guns and then, know, it's right up my alley. 00:53:37.304 --> 00:53:37.753 That's right. 00:53:37.753 --> 00:53:38.135 That's right. 00:53:38.135 --> 00:53:39.967 I See, again, I knew we were kindred spirits. 00:53:39.967 --> 00:53:43.317 I thought you may or may not have played that one from back in the day. 00:53:43.317 --> 00:53:44.981 It gave me nightmares, but total body horror. 00:53:44.981 --> 00:53:46.643 um Okay. 00:53:46.643 --> 00:53:47.463 Question number nine. 00:53:47.463 --> 00:53:50.266 So we're, we're, uh we're seven for eight right now. 00:53:50.266 --> 00:53:54.610 Jack Kirby was 33 years old when he co-created Captain America with Joe Simon. 00:53:55.534 --> 00:53:59.525 33 S ah 33 years old. 00:53:59.576 --> 00:54:00.793 Damn, I think that's false. 00:54:00.793 --> 00:54:02.179 think it was younger. 00:54:02.711 --> 00:54:05.358 That's correct, he was false, he was 22 years old. 00:54:05.358 --> 00:54:16.958 Yeah, I've researched it quite a bit and he created like right before the war, which went and fought in, so wouldn't have been 33 going to fight in World War II. 00:54:17.121 --> 00:54:19.244 Alright, we are currently eight for nine. 00:54:19.244 --> 00:54:21.126 Last question here, question number 10. 00:54:21.126 --> 00:54:25.550 The late David Lynch wrote a comic strip called The Angriest Dog in the World for over 10 years. 00:54:26.583 --> 00:54:27.561 True. 00:54:27.938 --> 00:54:28.898 That is true. 00:54:28.898 --> 00:54:32.079 Shout out to the the goat David Lynch for writing some comics. 00:54:32.079 --> 00:54:33.130 All right, Kurt, great job. 00:54:33.130 --> 00:54:36.202 You tied Michael Allred with nine out of 10 questions right. 00:54:36.202 --> 00:54:36.913 Congratulations. 00:54:36.913 --> 00:54:37.842 That's awesome. 00:54:37.842 --> 00:54:42.675 And you are currently our April contributor for the hero initiative. 00:54:42.675 --> 00:54:43.956 So thank you for that. 00:54:44.097 --> 00:54:44.849 That's awesome. 00:54:44.849 --> 00:54:45.400 Yeah. 00:54:45.400 --> 00:54:47.264 Those were good questions, man. 00:54:47.264 --> 00:54:49.447 They're perfect because they're like stuff. 00:54:49.447 --> 00:54:49.768 Yeah. 00:54:49.768 --> 00:54:51.077 You did a good job picking them out. 00:54:51.077 --> 00:54:52.117 I'm really impressed. 00:54:52.117 --> 00:55:05.295 We like to I like to sort of key in on the things that I think you might like so And then make them like slightly challenging that maybe or you may or may not know so it still makes it it makes it fun So thanks for doing that nine out of ten is awesome. 00:55:05.295 --> 00:55:19.347 You're currently again tied for first So Kurt, what a pleasure man Thank you so much for coming on to the Oblivion Bar podcast and just a reminder for everybody listening Lost Fantasy hit shelves on April 30th So make sure everybody reach out to your local comic book shop Add that to your pull list. 00:55:19.347 --> 00:55:24.552 Again, as I said earlier, this is the perfect first issue to hand someone to let them know that comics are awesome. 00:55:24.552 --> 00:55:33.612 uh know, Kurt, I don't want to like ask you on a second date while we're on our first, but I'd love to eventually get you back on the show to talk about Galactic down the road or whatever you're working on at the time. 00:55:33.612 --> 00:55:34.422 Let's do it. 00:55:34.422 --> 00:55:38.465 feel like that's the move when you're on a first date with a girl you really like. 00:55:38.465 --> 00:55:50.483 You want to get that lock in that second date before you end the first one, the odds are a more in your favor if you're still there, right? 00:55:50.483 --> 00:55:52.014 If you're still with her. 00:55:53.237 --> 00:55:54.918 But also you could just tell, right? 00:55:54.918 --> 00:55:59.081 Some girls you go on a date with and it's like, I don't want to go on a second date with you. 00:55:59.081 --> 00:56:01.101 Let's just end this. 00:56:01.378 --> 00:56:06.275 Yeah, you if you've done your job correctly, you can usually get a pretty good gauge on how they're feeling. 00:56:06.275 --> 00:56:07.266 And I agree with you. 00:56:07.266 --> 00:56:11.795 I

am the eager type that if I've ever went out with someone and liked them, I always, I'm like, Hey, do want to go out again? 00:56:11.795 --> 00:56:14.387 I don't care if I sound eager or whatever, you know. 00:56:14.478 --> 00:56:16.498 Yeah, I don't really care either. 00:56:16.577 --> 00:56:17.858 What's the point? 00:56:17.858 --> 00:56:18.996 Oh, wow. 00:56:19.217 --> 00:56:23.097 It's like, if she doesn't want to go with you, she's just going to say it. 00:56:23.257 --> 00:56:26.177 Who are you trying to look cool for yourself? 00:56:26.177 --> 00:56:28.478 Like, I don't care anymore. 00:56:28.577 --> 00:56:29.617 I'm over it. 00:56:29.617 --> 00:56:33.717 Let me know if I, if I'm moving on or does it go somewhere. 00:56:33.717 --> 00:56:42.597 Hey, you guys, your relationship pod, uh, new relationship podcast with vice from a 32 year old single man. 00:56:43.170 --> 00:56:46.931 and a 33 year old recently partnered, but mostly single most of his life. 00:56:46.931 --> 00:56:56.898 So we were clearly the right people to ask and Kurt, before I let you go here today, before we give off any more very expert driven relationship advice, how can people follow you? 00:56:56.898 --> 00:56:59.539 How can people catch up with your work? 00:56:59.539 --> 00:57:02.931 And is there anything that you want to sort of highlight before I let you go? 00:57:03.150 --> 00:57:04.079 Oh, don't even know. 00:57:04.079 --> 00:57:13.476 just, I've just been doing the Instagram lately because it's, it's less toxic than um any of the other social networks I find a little more functional. 00:57:13.476 --> 00:57:19.820 And there's still a lot of people on there where it's like the rest of them, feel like kind of just slowly melting away. 00:57:19.942 --> 00:57:22.402 So I guess, you know, follow me on the Instagram. 00:57:22.402 --> 00:57:24.864 It's it's Kurt Antonio appears. 00:57:24.864 --> 00:57:29.237 Uh, do that if you want, if you want to follow me, I don't know what else to tell you. 00:57:29.237 --> 00:57:31.929 don't like following people on. 00:57:32.179 --> 00:57:33.686 on social media too much. 00:57:33.686 --> 00:57:38.432 not going to beg you to follow me, but if you want the updates. 00:57:38.507 --> 00:57:39.940 Wait, hold on really quickly. 00:57:39.940 --> 00:57:41.170 Did you just say peers? 00:57:41.170 --> 00:57:43.166 Have I been saying it wrong this entire time? 00:57:43.231 --> 00:57:44.143 I did say it right. 00:57:44.143 --> 00:57:50.862 Yes, but 99 % of people who have me on kind of say it. 00:57:51.211 --> 00:57:53.353 Yeah, they say it very differently. 00:57:53.414 --> 00:57:54.364 It's Portuguese. 00:57:54.364 --> 00:58:00.472 So it's like, kind of, you got to take into that, like, uh, they have like the weird like fish accent, right? 00:58:00.472 --> 00:58:01.342 Sure. 00:58:02.827 --> 00:58:03.947 All right. 00:58:05.333 --> 00:58:06.215 Kurt Pierce. 00:58:06.215 --> 00:58:09.050 It was such a pleasure you having here on the building, building more podcasts. 00:58:09.050 --> 00:58:11.626 And I can't wait to have you on sometime in the near future. 00:58:11.938 --> 00:58:14.097 Yep, thanks for having me guys, appreciate it. 00:58:14.097 --> 00:58:16.889 uh Alrighty, there's that conversation with Kurt. 00:58:16.889 --> 00:58:18.829 Thank you so much for joining us here on the show Kurt. 00:58:18.829 --> 00:58:19.329 We appreciate it. 00:58:19.329 --> 00:58:23.349 And again, Lost Fantasy number one comes out on April 30th. 00:58:23.349 --> 00:58:29.289 So make sure you guys go and grab that again, as I said in the conversation here with Kurt, it is already getting a ton of buzz. 00:58:29.289 --> 00:58:32.489 I understand it's already sold out at distributor, which is incredible. 00:58:32.489 --> 00:58:34.469 It was a, it was a pleasure to have Kurt on the show. 00:58:34.469 --> 00:58:38.110 We will definitely have him back because he's always doing something in the comic book world. 00:58:38.110 --> 00:58:41.909 He is definitely an ascending star in the comic book space. 00:58:41.909 --> 00:58:44.570 And it was just, it was a great time chatting with him. 00:58:44.570 --> 00:58:46.121 So I just wanted to ask you this real quick. 00:58:46.121 --> 00:58:46.503 Yeah. 00:58:46.503 --> 00:58:49.983 Have you looked at the variant covers or lost fantasy? 00:58:50.059 --> 00:58:50.985 I have seen a couple. 00:58:50.985 --> 00:58:53.458 there something that's catching your eye? 00:58:53.485 --> 00:59:01.119 To name drop, I'm gonna have to call up our friends over at uh Endless Comics Games and Cards. 00:59:01.119 --> 00:59:04.471 I need to see if they can get me a copy of this. 00:59:04.471 --> 00:59:13.956 But there is a Final Fantasy VII variant cover of basically, you know, where Cloud is standing in front of Shinra, the building. 00:59:13.956 --> 00:59:14.835 it's, yeah. 00:59:14.835 --> 00:59:15.865 So that's the cover. 00:59:15.865 --> 00:59:17.797 It looks fucking sick. 00:59:17.797 --> 00:59:19.577 I want it so bad. 00:59:19.831 --> 00:59:21.443 The Alex Diato variant. 00:59:21.443 --> 00:59:22.293 Yes, I'm seeing it now. 00:59:22.293 --> 00:59:31.492 It's looks, yeah, it is a, it is an homage all the way down to the image comics on the side, looking like the black label of the original PS cover, all the things. 00:59:31.492 --> 00:59:32.503 Yeah, it looks awesome. 00:59:32.503 --> 00:59:33.994 And I'm definitely going to want that one as well. 00:59:33.994 --> 00:59:35.943 So uh thank you, Kurt Pierce. 00:59:35.943 --> 00:59:37.778 And also I'm sorry for getting your name wrong, Aaron. 00:59:37.778 --> 00:59:41.280 was saying it wrong pretty much until the very end of the conversation. 00:59:41.280 --> 00:59:44.402 Then he very offhandedly just says his name the correct way. 00:59:44.402 --> 00:59:47.204 I've been saying it Kurt Piers for years now. 00:59:47.905 --> 00:59:48.750 yeah, Kurt. 00:59:48.750 --> 00:59:52.291 Piers is he says Piers it is Piers. 00:59:52.291 -->

00:59:59.096 So everyone, if you've been making the same mistake as me, now, know, and knowing is half the battle. 00:59:59.096 --> 01:00:09.762 So next week on the Oblivion Bar podcast, Aaron, you've already seen this and we talk about it in episode 160, spoiler free, of course, on the grid. 01:00:09.762 --> 01:00:14.875 But Thunderbolts is out this next week and you had a chance to see it for everybody who didn't listen to the grid. 01:00:14.875 --> 01:00:16.664 Aaron, we briefly just discuss. 01:00:16.664 --> 01:00:23.101 sort of how you saw Thunderbolts and like give us a little bit of a teaser on your thoughts in that movie. 01:00:23.583 --> 01:00:25.179 I wish it were better. 01:00:25.358 --> 01:00:26.458 Okay. 01:00:26.577 --> 01:00:32.110 Also talk about like the, uh, the night of like what we're, how, what was the night of seeing that movie? 01:00:32.110 --> 01:00:34.632 Okay, so it was really cool. 01:00:34.632 --> 01:00:40.036 I uh an early invite through Fandango to go see it. 01:00:40.036 --> 01:00:43.208 they, you know, they were giving out popcorn soda, like all this stuff. 01:00:43.208 --> 01:00:48.423 The popcorn came in the Weethis box with the Thunderbolts on it. 01:00:48.423 --> 01:00:50.324 And it was a great experience. 01:00:50.324 --> 01:00:52.737 Got to see the Ares, Tron Ares trailer. 01:00:52.737 --> 01:00:58.132 Yeah, it just, it is a great looking movie. 01:00:58.132 --> 01:01:06.219 It is a fun movie, but it's Once again, it's one of those, unfortunately, it's one of those Marvel movies that's just not hitting the mark. 01:01:06.661 --> 01:01:08.873 I will not knock everything about the movie. 01:01:08.873 --> 01:01:11.989 There is a lot of amazing things to take out of this movie. 01:01:11.989 --> 01:01:12.570 All right. 01:01:12.570 --> 01:01:16.713 Well, I was going to ask more questions, but I'm just going to save it for next week because I want to discuss this thing in full. 01:01:16.713 --> 01:01:19.195 And again, I haven't seen it yet as most people in the world have not. 01:01:19.195 --> 01:01:27.643 So next week on the show, as Aaron said, there will be discussing in depth the Thunderbolts, you know, the, the newest entry in the Marvel universe Thunderbolts. 01:01:27.643 --> 01:01:32.106 So join us next week and Aaron, if you would please take us out. 01:01:32.423 --> 01:01:37.101 When you do see it, make sure that you absolutely stay for the mid credit and post credits. 01:01:37.101 --> 01:01:38.835 Two credits, or two credit scenes though. 01:01:38.835 --> 01:01:40.860 Yeah, like you said, mid credit and credit. 01:01:40.972 --> 01:01:42.166 Do not skip those. 01:01:42.166 --> 01:01:47.525 Like you will be sad and mad and, and unglad at yourself. 01:01:47.525 --> 01:01:50.371 I'm like to stay for that. 01:01:50.371 --> 01:01:52.717 You said the end credit was actually really good too, right? 01:01:52.717 --> 01:01:56.478 The end credit was the first end credit in a long time where I lost my shit. 01:01:56.478 --> 01:01:57.257 Let's go. 01:01:57.257 --> 01:01:58.878 Let's fucking go. 01:01:59.657 --> 01:02:00.898 Let's fucking go. 01:02:00.898 --> 01:02:01.657 OK. 01:02:01.737 --> 01:02:03.617 Jackie Jackie Jackie. 01:02:03.617 --> 01:02:04.757 Subscribe to our podcast. 01:02:04.757 --> 01:02:06.378 I will podcast Spotify YouTube audible. 01:02:06.378 --> 01:02:07.097 I heart radio. 01:02:07.097 --> 01:02:10.617 Whatever wherever wherever wherever we'll be together. 01:02:11.277 --> 01:02:12.869 You'll listen to your. 01:02:13.550 --> 01:02:14.695 Little Shakira? 01:02:15.699 --> 01:02:17.036 listen to your favorite podcast. 01:02:17.036 --> 01:02:18.351 That's where we'll be. 01:02:21.485 --> 01:02:35.989 Thank you to our patrons, Alex, Alice, Aaron, Bodder, Chris S, Chris Y, Chrissy, David, Elliot, Erica, George, Yanni, Greg, Haley, Hamstick, Jake, Jeremy, Kyle, Lucy, Mac, Miles, Mike, Olivia, Ryan, I, Robert, A'shantar, Sean, Trevor, Travis, Zach, and Brad and Lisa are a couples. 01:02:36.891 --> 01:02:46.204 If you want to support the show without spending a frigging dime, a follow on your preferred podcasting platform at a five star rating and or review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify helps us a ton. 01:02:46.204 --> 01:02:47.594 Please go do that. 01:02:48.269 --> 01:02:51.291 Follow us on Blue Sky Instagram, Tik Tok and Twitch at Oblivion Bar Pod. 01:02:51.291 --> 01:02:53.434 Please go follow the Twitch channel. 01:02:53.434 --> 01:02:56.536 Please, please tell your friends to as well. 01:02:56.817 --> 01:02:58.114 Follow official merch. 01:02:58.114 --> 01:02:59.509 The show is on our website. 01:02:59.509 --> 01:03:01.659 OblivionBarPodcast.com. 01:03:01.760 --> 01:03:02.556 Get the Tide I want. 01:03:02.556 --> 01:03:03.643 It's super comfy. 01:03:03.643 --> 01:03:05.903 Official, yeah, already got the merch. 01:03:05.903 --> 01:03:09.489 Big thank you to Oni Press, Endless Comics Games and Cards for spying on the show. 01:03:09.489 --> 01:03:12.869 I already texted him while we were recording this to see if I could get that cover. 01:03:12.869 --> 01:03:15.501 Thank you, KXD Studios for all of our Oblivion Bar art. 01:03:15.501 --> 01:03:18.126 He's at KXD Graphics on Instagram. 01:03:18.126 --> 01:03:20.788 Thank you, dream kid for all of our musical themes, DJ Skyvac. 01:03:20.788 --> 01:03:21.807 Thank you for our grid theme. 01:03:21.807 --> 01:03:30.894 And last but not least, do not forget to take your bartenders 20 % or more because last night I went to sushi with my sister and there was a family next to us. 01:03:30.894 --> 01:03:39.000 They were a horrible, horrible family of like four kids, food all over the floor, dumping food all over the table. 01:03:39.000 --> 01:03:40.380 It was disgusting. 01:03:40.561 --> 01:03:43.623 They left and I was like, holy crap, that's horrible. 01:03:43.623 --> 01:03:46.175 And the waitress was like, yeah. 01:03:46.175 --> 01:03:47.798 And the only tip like $5. 01:03:47.798 --> 01:03:48.952 my gosh, of course they did. 01:03:48.952 --> 01:03:53.646 Because people who have that kind of self-awareness also don't have the awareness to tip correctly. 01:03:53.646 --> 01:03:55.177 So it's not all you can eat sushi buffet. 01:03:55.177 --> 01:04:00.208 So like you realize that if you leave too much or you don't eat it, you're supposed to pay for what's left. 01:04:00.208 --> 01:04:00.608 Right. 01:04:00.608 --> 01:04:03.010 And there was food everywhere. 01:04:03.010 --> 01:04:04.371 It was horrible. 01:04:05.132 --> 01:04:07.472 Anyways, they deserve a much better tip. 01:04:07.472 --> 01:04:12.480 So I made sure I gave a little bit of extra just to make sure I supported the establishment because they are great people. 01:04:12.480 --> 01:04:15.411 Aaron, I'm proud of you for that because we need to be the good in the world. 01:04:15.452 --> 01:04:18.485 So thank you, everybody, for listening to the Oblivion Bar podcast. 01:04:18.485 --> 01:04:21.878 We will see you next week for episode one ninety two.