INTERVIEW: Christian Ward

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Hello there, this is Christian Ward, the Comet Book Creator of titles such as Odyssey, Black Bolt, Bloodstained Teeth, Spectrograph, and Batman City of Madness.

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And you are listening to the Oblivion Bar podcast.

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Welcome to the Oblivion Bar podcast with your host, Chris Hacker and Aaron Knowles.

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Hello everyone.

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Welcome to episode 164 of the Oblivion Bar podcast.

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I am Chris Hacker, one of your co -hosts here and joining me this week.

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He is back everyone.

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My BFF and co -host is after a two episode stint away from the show.

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He has rejoined us for episode 164.

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Welcome back, Aaron.

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What are you, what are you rubbing here?

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What is this?

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happening?

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That's my engine baby.

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And I'm ready to go.

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Ready to go.

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That's my batmobile.

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Remember from like the Batman?

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Oh my God.

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I'm not going to go watch that again.

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One of the coolest Batmobile scenes ever.

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Best scene.

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Maybe.

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Yeah, I said the best scene of the movie.

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Maybe I love that car chase.

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Anyway, welcome back, everybody.

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The Oblivion Bar podcast episode 164.

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We are joined by our good friend in the comic book world.

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Dare I say best friend in the comic book world.

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Christian Ward is back on the Oblivion Bar podcast for his fifth time.

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increasing that lead above David Buhr and Tom King.

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So Christian Ward is back to talk about his upcoming, well, sorry, at the time of this recording, was the upcoming Zoop campaign of many worlds, -A -N -Y.

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Not many.

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Worlds.

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Not many.

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Not tiny.

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small.

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Yeah, so many worlds is officially on Zoop.

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And Aaron, congratulations to Christian because it's officially, it's been funded.

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It's over, it's already beat it.

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So amazing.

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Of course.

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Yes.

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I'm waiting for a Christian to be like knighted, like officially knighted so he could be Sir Christian Ward.

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Yes.

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You know, that way, that way we can, you know, welcome back, sir.

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You know, whenever he comes on the show, welcome back.

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can do it.

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Yeah, we could, we could just do it.

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We could knight him.

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He's, he's, he's a knight the oblivion bar.

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The next time that he comes on the show, we'll just, perform that right before the interview.

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Yes.

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Which I'm assuming based on his track record will be next week at some point.

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Yeah.

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We'll just like start the studio up to start an episode and he'll just be here already.

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Just hanging out drawing spectrograph or something.

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with Ward.

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We still need to get that, that segment going.

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Yes.

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We're dragging our feet on that one, but that's a billion dollar idea just waiting on the table.

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But Christian, like I said, it's here on the show.

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again, talking about many worlds, talking about his his inclusion in the DLC for Alan Wake 2, which was a cool surprise.

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And you're a big video game fan.

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Was that what's before we get in this conversation?

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What's sort of your relationship with Alan Wake?

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Or were you a fan of it back in the day?

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Or to be honest, I've actually never played it.

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It's one of those horror games that's kind of eluded me.

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And also it it kind of has its origins at a time where you may not know this, but I've for the long for a long time, I was not a horror fan.

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And that really Alan Wake kind of started before my horror fan like area kind of start my era of horror started, which I actually had a really good conversation with a new friend recently.

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And we talked a lot about current like horror films.

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And, you know, I think one of the ones they said that I should not watch was I know we're going off in a little bit of a tangent here, but immaculate.

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we do.

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Have you seen immaculate of Aaron?

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Who's my dream crush right now?

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Of course.

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It's of Sidney Sweeney, Sidney Sweeney.

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That's why I was like surprised if you had.

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But yeah, they were telling me it's pretty horrible, like pretty like graphic and gruesome and brutal and just just a lot going on.

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The finale is very interesting.

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I will say that I think up to that point, it's pretty much you're paint by numbers, pretty average horror film.

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But the final 10 minutes, I will say, is sort of worth the price of admission, especially if you're wanting to kind of see the range of Sidney Sweeney.

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Yeah, I will say that kind of on that similar boat.

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I guess it's we're already on this tangent.

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And Christian, I hope it's a listing right now.

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You're enjoying this.

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I will say the, the good Omen, I'm sorry.

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The bad Omen, the bad Omen is a far better version of Immaculate.

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if you're, if you've seen Immaculate and you're sort of iffy, if you're, temperature is sort of low on that one, go check out the, the bad Omen.

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I would say it again, the bad Omen, which is a prequel to the Omen.

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So to round this all back to Alan Wake, that's my, that's my history with Alan Wake is not much I know of Alan Wake.

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have just had.

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I have not played the games, which to be honest, like the fact that Christian is involved with it, much like his work automatically draws me in.

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Now I just want to go back and play Alan Wake, you know?

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I've even played Alan Wake one and now I want to play two.

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Actually, I haven't played two either.

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And I just got to get the DLC just because it's got his artwork in it.

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Absolutely.

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But along with that, he also teases a upcoming collaboration with an old collaborator.

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So stick around for that conversation here in just a moment.

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Real quick, I should have transitioned with this, Aaron, a moment ago.

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We were talking about horror films.

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Everyone, if you haven't listened to our previous episode, 163, we were joined by Nick DiDizio from the former FN Nerds to talk about Long Lake.

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So if you've seen that new neon film, very divisive, Aaron, across audiences and critics.

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Device.

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If I've heard nothing but good things about it, critics love it.

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Audiences are sort of lukewarm to average on it, I think, which is understandable.

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If you've seen the film, if you listen to our review, you kind of understand why, Aaron, I'm excited.

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to eventually have you see that film so I can get your thoughts on it.

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soon.

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Yes, I've heard a lot of the things that I've heard from or of it have all been again.

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I haven't heard anything negative.

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I haven't heard anything really like like you were saying, like lukewarm or mediocre about it.

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I've only heard good things.

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I've heard people saying that this is one of the scarier movies that's come out in a very long time.

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And so it only oddly enough that draws me even more.

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What if I told you Nick Cage is in Yeah, yeah.

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He's the he's the I guess antagonist.

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He's long legs.

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He has the long legs.

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Mr.

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Longlegs, Dr.

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Longlegs in this film.

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Yeah.

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So if you're a big fan of Nick Cage, he makes some interesting choices.

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Again, I'm not going to spoil any of that because we're here to talk to Christian today.

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If you want to listen to that conversation and that review with Nick, great, great conversation.

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Really happy with that episode.

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Go check that out.

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It's two hours long to Aaron.

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I don't know if you saw that.

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It's a very long episode.

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it's long legs.

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Long episode about long legs.

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So before we get in this conversation with Christian really quick couple administrative notes to go over very quickly.

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If you want to support the show, of course, as we always say, Patreon .com forward slash oblivion bar pod for your support.

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You could have access to the grid, which is our weekly bonus podcast.

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And I get in front of a mic.

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We just spew out just word vomit right in front.

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Just whatever is on the front of our cranium.

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We give it to the patrons and for better or worse.

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It's a perk.

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Aaron is a perk.

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Is that the correct word for that?

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It's percolicious.

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It's percolicious.

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It's I think PRK.

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Licious.

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I think it's a it's a definitely a perk because you know what?

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Where else can you go where you just hear here like two best friends like talking about everything like there's like there's really not a lot that's off limits.

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And that's the other thing.

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as a Patreon member, depending on the tier that you join, you actually get an opportunity to choose like a topic.

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was going to say like a theme, like a topic, like a narrative.

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Like that's your right as a Patreon member.

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That's right.

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You actually get access to these transcripts that we're using right now.

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And you can get a Patreon nickname at the highest tier.

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If you want to get a nickname from Aaron and I, we've done that a bunch on the show here recently, which is really fun.

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And Aaron will give you a special shout out at end of each of episode.

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He'll do that here in just a bit.

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It's the best way to support the show.

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Patreon .com for slash a billion bar pod.

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Either go there or check our show notes right now.

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If you want to support the show for free, five star reviews on Apple podcasts, Spotify.

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Sorry, I gotta get all the shameless plugs out of here.

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you get for free, they always say you gotta put the plugs into the beginning because you get, gotta get people while they're still listening.

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Right.

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You know, some people skip this part.

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Everybody just hit the 15 second mark.

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If you want us here, Christian talk about many worlds and, and Alan Wake, but actually I take that back, Aaron.

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We need to talk about something very, we need to change the tone just a little bit for just a quick moment.

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Not a fun topic, but we have to talk about it.

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Good friends of the show, sponsors of the show.

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Aaron's Aaron's taking his glasses off because it's going to get steamy in here.

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Yeah.

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Sponsor, longtime sponsor of the show.

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Omnibus officially shut down earlier last week.

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Very, very sad news.

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This was a, mean, truthfully, no, no jokes.

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All seriousness was a total gut punch.

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found out a couple of days before it was officially announced on social media.

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We are just such huge fans of Omnibus, of Travis, of the app itself.

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We really believed in it, Aaron.

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Like when we met Travis and Kenny at that time in San Diego of 2022, was it 22 San Diego 2022?

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No, it was 23.

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It was 23.

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You're right.

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Because I was in middle of chemo.

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Yeah.

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So 23 San Diego 23.

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We were all in, man.

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and they were all in on us, which is kind of my transition.

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I'm going to pass it off to you so you can kind of say what you want to say about Omnibus.

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If nothing else, if you didn't fully believe in the app like you and I did, the fact that they believe in us enough, a lot of the cool things that have happened in the show over the last year are in a direct through line from Omnibus and their support.

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Even things coming.

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Yeah.

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And upcoming things, which we'll sort of tease here in a bit because here in about two weeks, we're going to take some time off.

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And when we come A lot of things that we have sort of in the works or things that will be premiering in the fall when we come back will be in direct correlation with omnibus.

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So Aaron, I'm going to pass it off to you.

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What are your thoughts?

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were your sort of going through your head when Travis shot us that text and told us that omnibus was going away?

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When I read all of that, because I tend to come into the conversations a little bit later.

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I don't like to be on my phone.

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Not saying that you do or anybody else does, but I don't.

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I tend put my phone down when I'm driving and I, you know, and I pick it up and I'll look through texts and things.

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And I saw that.

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And honestly, I read through the conversation as it was happening and it was just heartbreaking, you know, and kind of to echo what you said, it's, is exactly like that.

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When you have a show like we do and you find like, it's just, it's us too.

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This is us.

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This is our team.

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This is what we do.

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And when we met Kenny and Travis, you know, when I first met them and, know, and met the Omnibus app team was and who they were.

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It was almost like a mirror image, know, kindred spirits immediately.

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It was kindred spirits and we got along.

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We hung out, you know, and it just became like this, this, what would you call it?

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Like a, like a, was very easy, like symbiotic.

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was very symbiotic.

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know, we absolutely to, again, to echo what you said, we absolutely believed in what they were making, what they made, you know, cause yeah, things.

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Things are apps are are almost organisms these days.

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They're constantly changing, growing and becoming better.

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We loved what they were creating and it's such it's it is a downer because, you know, business is the way it is.

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And sometimes things just don't succeed despite being an amazing product.

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There are some amazing things that you, especially in this industry of comic reading, you'll read a great book and then it'll just fizzle out for any number of reasons.

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So it just, was, it was heartbreaking to read that.

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And, know, obviously we wish everybody over at Omnibus all the luck in the world with whatever their future endeavors are, you know, this Omnibus will, will always hold a special place in our heart as our favorite comic reader.

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And we hope, I don't know, that's, that's really all I can say is, you know, I don't think anything else will come close to what they created and, and, it sucks.

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to sort of build off what you were saying there, the comic industry desperately needs an alternative.

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reader, digital reader, digital shop and omnibus was, I mean, in my opinion, perfecting it to a certain degree.

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And comixology is bullshit.

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Everybody.

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I'll be honest with you.

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Comicology could come to us tomorrow and say, we want to support the building bar pod.

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We want sponsors of building bar podcast.

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I would say no, because I don't like their product.

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And we've always said that we will never ever showcase or partner with anything, any, any brands or any products that we don't wholeheartedly love and use ourselves.

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And comisology is not Omnibus was that and it's a bummer.

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If you have the Omnibus app and you've been using it a lot recently, you can go and download all the PDFs and sort of a lump sum.

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I've already done that.

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I think Dark Horse, weirdly enough, which is one of our favorite publishers does not allow you to download all of your backup PDFs, which is kind of a bummer.

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But for the most part, almost everything that you've bought on Omnibus is immediately able to, you're able to download it and just transfer it to whatever reader you're to be using going forward.

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There's really no easy way to transition from this.

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There's no easy way to summarize.

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much Omnibus meant to us, how much our friendship from Kenny and Travis both, but specifically Travis in this situation because he believed in us.

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We were going to sign another year, We signed another year.

00:13:37.268 --> 00:13:43.350
I'm fully okay letting the listener know right now that we were ready to go for another year.

00:13:43.350 --> 00:13:48.143
And it just so happened that the month that we signed another year, this happened.

00:13:48.143 --> 00:13:53.241
So it's a I want to give a specific shout out again to Travis for giving us a specific shout out.

00:13:53.241 --> 00:13:57.654
If you actually go to omnibus .app, he, you know, highlights the publishers.

00:13:57.654 --> 00:14:03.957
He highlights the tech, creators that put all the work out there, us, Brad and Lisa over the common book couples counseling.

00:14:04.107 --> 00:14:10.782
of course, all, all the publishers that are the sorry, all the marketing managers that he worked with and his team.

00:14:10.782 --> 00:14:13.644
So forever on omnibus.

00:14:13.644 --> 00:14:16.125
And I'm very excited to see what Travis does next.

00:14:16.125 --> 00:14:17.225
I'll just say that.

00:14:17.419 --> 00:14:22.792
sending big hearts out to all the omnibus team and Travis.

00:14:22.792 --> 00:14:25.413
man, it was a beautiful ride.

00:14:26.254 --> 00:14:30.875
And if you have a good digital reader, shoot us a tweet, an email.

00:14:30.875 --> 00:14:31.716
I don't even know.

00:14:31.716 --> 00:14:32.535
I have no idea.

00:14:32.535 --> 00:14:33.606
I don't even know where to go next.

00:14:33.606 --> 00:14:35.418
I should know, but I don't.

00:14:35.418 --> 00:14:38.399
think global comics or something is an option.

00:14:38.639 --> 00:14:39.119
I don't know.

00:14:39.119 --> 00:14:42.259
Anyway, on to better news.

00:14:42.259 --> 00:14:46.254
next week, actually the week that you're listening to this conversation, I will be in San Diego Comic -Con.

00:14:46.254 --> 00:14:47.413
Wednesday through Sunday.

00:14:47.413 --> 00:14:53.634
If you happen to stop by the Comic Sketch Art booth and Artisdali, think we have like close to 20 creators there for that week.

00:14:53.634 --> 00:14:54.573
Please stop me.

00:14:54.573 --> 00:14:56.053
I'll probably be losing my mind, Aaron.

00:14:56.053 --> 00:14:59.933
I think I have like, I actually have my list of whatnot shows here.

00:14:59.933 --> 00:15:01.433
Jim's, I'm just gonna name off a couple here.

00:15:01.433 --> 00:15:03.874
Jim's is one of the creators I'll be talking to.

00:15:03.874 --> 00:15:04.933
Let's see here.

00:15:04.933 --> 00:15:07.634
Mitch Garrett's, Jason Aaron, Joel Jones.

00:15:07.634 --> 00:15:11.313
I've got Mark Brooks, the entire Radiant Black team.

00:15:11.354 --> 00:15:13.014
We've got Gary Dugan.

00:15:13.014 --> 00:15:16.114
We've got Tom Taylor, Brutal Rendondo.

00:15:16.129 --> 00:15:19.793
We've got, I mean, just so many here.

00:15:19.793 --> 00:15:22.254
Mirka and Dolpho, Erin, you love Mirka.

00:15:22.595 --> 00:15:23.715
Let's see here.

00:15:23.715 --> 00:15:25.375
Tom King and Mitch Garrett's together.

00:15:25.375 --> 00:15:28.258
Sweeney Boo, Rose Besh, so many creators.

00:15:28.258 --> 00:15:35.043
have the ultimate pleasure of sitting down with and talking to you with the Comic Sketch Art team, excuse me, on whatnot.

00:15:35.043 --> 00:15:35.903
So go check that out.

00:15:35.903 --> 00:15:45.163
Follow them over on Comic Sketch Art on whatnot to see me lose my mind slash talk to a bunch of creators and try not to sweat and bubble over my words.

00:15:45.163 --> 00:15:46.455
So that'll be fun.

00:15:46.455 --> 00:15:48.755
If you happen to see me, please say hi.

00:15:48.976 --> 00:15:50.317
Enough of all that, Aaron.

00:15:50.317 --> 00:15:55.623
Are you ready to finally introduce and bring back our good friend Christian Ward on for the fifth time?

00:15:55.623 --> 00:15:56.403
Who?

00:15:56.403 --> 00:15:59.696
Just some English guy we found at a comic, you know, at a con.

00:15:59.696 --> 00:16:02.307
Randomly walking around a convention.

00:16:02.307 --> 00:16:05.370
Just hawking Batman in the city of madness to folks.

00:16:05.370 --> 00:16:06.541
I've got this idea.

00:16:06.541 --> 00:16:09.923
It's Batman the Cthulhu.

00:16:09.923 --> 00:16:10.495
What do you think?

00:16:10.495 --> 00:16:10.855
Yeah.

00:16:10.855 --> 00:16:12.186
All right, everybody.

00:16:12.186 --> 00:16:14.860
Well, let's go ahead and get this conversation with Christian Ward.

00:16:14.860 --> 00:16:27.221
Before we that though, we're gonna take a quick break and we'll be right Hey everybody, our sponsor for today's episode is G Fuel, the official energy drink of eSports.

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That's OBP at checkout.

00:16:59.745 --> 00:17:02.326
GFuel, performance energized.

00:17:07.726 --> 00:17:10.842
And now, this week's special guest.

00:17:13.730 --> 00:17:32.803
Joining us this week on the show is the three times Eisner winning comic book creator behind titles like Aquaman Andromeda Odyssey Invisible Kingdom Black Bolt Bloodstained Teeth Batman City of Madness and Spectrograph.

00:17:32.803 --> 00:17:43.584
This is also his fifth one two three four fifth time on the show continuing to build his lead as the most visited guest in oblivion bar history.

00:17:43.584 --> 00:17:49.736
It is our honor to welcome Christian Ward back onto the Oblivion Bar podcast.

00:17:49.915 --> 00:17:51.086
Thank you.

00:17:51.086 --> 00:17:52.557
yeah.

00:17:52.557 --> 00:17:53.396
Come on.

00:17:53.396 --> 00:17:56.377
I'm only here to obliterate.

00:17:56.377 --> 00:17:56.968
That's right.

00:17:56.968 --> 00:17:59.208
You're you have a two visit lead.

00:17:59.208 --> 00:17:59.858
Yeah.

00:17:59.858 --> 00:18:02.358
He might have his HBO Green Lantern.

00:18:02.358 --> 00:18:03.500
I mean, that's great.

00:18:03.500 --> 00:18:04.299
Sure.

00:18:04.299 --> 00:18:04.809
Fine.

00:18:04.809 --> 00:18:05.329
All right.

00:18:05.329 --> 00:18:06.619
OK, sure.

00:18:06.619 --> 00:18:12.422
But he's not been on this podcast five times.

00:18:12.738 --> 00:18:14.979
So who's the winner now?

00:18:15.319 --> 00:18:16.421
mean, truthfully, it is you.

00:18:16.421 --> 00:18:18.242
And I think you'll continue to build that lead.

00:18:18.242 --> 00:18:23.426
And I got to say really quickly, I have no idea what that cadence was at the beginning, but I kind of like it.

00:18:23.426 --> 00:18:33.405
I kind of like where it was like a prolonged, like sort of Ric Flair pause in between every Aquaman andromeda, Odyssey, Invisible Kingdom.

00:18:33.405 --> 00:18:34.817
Like it was, it built up a lot of tension.

00:18:34.817 --> 00:18:35.798
was, I was in for it.

00:18:35.798 --> 00:18:36.327
Thank you.

00:18:36.327 --> 00:18:37.409
told you I've been practicing.

00:18:37.409 --> 00:18:38.960
Aaron doesn't know how to respond.

00:18:38.960 --> 00:18:41.142
He thinks I'm being facetious, but I'm being serious.

00:18:41.142 --> 00:18:41.862
I do.

00:18:41.862 --> 00:18:44.063
But no, seriously, I've been practicing.

00:18:44.063 --> 00:18:44.823
I have been.

00:18:44.823 --> 00:18:53.726
I've been doing some community management and engagement and it's really helped my cadence and my presentation skills.

00:18:53.726 --> 00:18:54.846
It's been really fun.

00:18:54.846 --> 00:18:55.826
We're all nervous here.

00:18:55.826 --> 00:18:56.406
can tell.

00:18:56.406 --> 00:19:02.188
We have the butterflies and we have to sort of do an icebreaker, I think.

00:19:02.188 --> 00:19:05.528
So we're going to premiere a brand new segment here on the Oblivion Bar.

00:19:05.528 --> 00:19:08.190
We're going to call Quick Hitters with Christian.

00:19:09.102 --> 00:19:16.761
This will be a wrap around of random, a bunch of random questions that you have to answer in under 30 seconds.

00:19:16.761 --> 00:19:21.981
And if you don't, I will start to boot you off that question with this very British buzzer.

00:19:24.750 --> 00:19:25.818
Good joke, boy.

00:19:27.672 --> 00:19:28.682
Are you ready?

00:19:28.981 --> 00:19:30.823
He had to use Doctor Who.

00:19:31.522 --> 00:19:31.893
I am.

00:19:31.893 --> 00:19:32.423
Yeah.

00:19:32.423 --> 00:19:33.683
Aaron, are you ready?

00:19:33.903 --> 00:19:35.003
I'm ready.

00:19:35.003 --> 00:19:37.744
Do you have a, do you have like a ding ding like we're starting?

00:19:37.785 --> 00:19:38.984
yeah, here we go.

00:19:39.665 --> 00:19:42.885
Christian, what's the worst piece of advice an editor has ever given you?

00:19:42.987 --> 00:19:50.828
I haven't had a piece of advice from an editor, but I had a piece of advice from an old college lecturer who said my coloring was terrible.

00:19:51.449 --> 00:19:52.909
Screw you, dude.

00:19:54.271 --> 00:19:55.182
Alright, next.

00:19:55.182 --> 00:19:57.943
How much do you remember from your 18th birthday?

00:19:57.943 --> 00:20:01.056
Loads, because I used to be sad and dull and boring.

00:20:01.056 --> 00:20:06.388
And I think I wore like a waistcoat and had loads of people.

00:20:06.388 --> 00:20:12.031
I had loads of friends around at my house, but it wasn't like a house party because I had all my family there as well.

00:20:12.031 --> 00:20:14.553
It was excruciating bad.

00:20:16.193 --> 00:20:18.315
What was the last movie to make you cry?

00:20:25.651 --> 00:20:27.882
All the strangers.

00:20:27.882 --> 00:20:29.002
Is that the name of this?

00:20:29.002 --> 00:20:30.593
Yeah, all the strangers.

00:20:31.193 --> 00:20:31.763
Very good.

00:20:31.763 --> 00:20:35.537
I think it was once since then, but I can't recall.

00:20:35.537 --> 00:20:37.017
But that's the one I can remember.

00:20:37.017 --> 00:20:37.798
Okay.

00:20:37.798 --> 00:20:38.817
I never heard of that one.

00:20:38.817 --> 00:20:39.338
Okay.

00:20:39.338 --> 00:20:40.258
it's good.

00:20:40.258 --> 00:20:43.800
Three comic creators you want to work with still?

00:20:43.800 --> 00:20:44.661
None.

00:20:50.998 --> 00:21:17.753
Me me and me I mean I'm being facetious there's lots of you know there's lots of people that I probably maybe want to work with but I know I quite like doing stuff myself I like to do stuff with more artists I like to write with more artists, four more artists that's my next thing It's going well, like this.

00:21:17.753 --> 00:21:18.273
good.

00:21:18.273 --> 00:21:18.773
You're pretty good.

00:21:18.773 --> 00:21:20.574
I just wanted to use the buzzer at that point.

00:21:20.574 --> 00:21:22.074
You were well under 30 seconds.

00:21:22.074 --> 00:21:23.374
I just wanted to use it.

00:21:23.374 --> 00:21:23.874
Okay.

00:21:23.874 --> 00:21:25.013
Fuck, marry, kill.

00:21:25.013 --> 00:21:27.253
Pulp Fiction, Interstellar, and Ex Machina.

00:21:28.574 --> 00:21:30.013
How do I know?

00:21:30.013 --> 00:21:31.453
Kill the one I don't want anymore?

00:21:31.453 --> 00:21:32.034
Correct.

00:21:32.034 --> 00:21:32.693
the one gone?

00:21:32.693 --> 00:21:33.493
Yep.

00:21:34.294 --> 00:21:35.134
Shit.

00:21:35.134 --> 00:21:36.453
That's difficult.

00:21:36.453 --> 00:21:37.394
Yeah.

00:21:38.253 --> 00:21:42.634
I mean, I would say kill, and this is gonna, I would say kill Pulp Fiction.

00:21:43.114 --> 00:21:43.594
Oh man.

00:21:43.594 --> 00:21:51.746
I mean, it's great, but Based on those three, of those three, it's the one I've watched, rewatched, least.

00:21:52.205 --> 00:22:01.685
And I would probably marry Interstellar and have a bit of hoof -de -shof -dee with my old friend Oscarizer.

00:22:04.986 --> 00:22:08.746
Who is your favorite comic book creator at age 25?

00:22:09.645 --> 00:22:10.645
Frank Quietley.

00:22:10.766 --> 00:22:11.586
Oh, nice.

00:22:11.586 --> 00:22:12.306
Good choice.

00:22:12.306 --> 00:22:14.425
Any particular any particular title?

00:22:14.425 --> 00:22:17.385
Why that was like there was a one specific one that hang on a minute.

00:22:17.385 --> 00:22:17.806
Hang on.

00:22:17.806 --> 00:22:20.526
Maybe I'm just I've got to think about my age.

00:22:20.526 --> 00:22:22.865
Was he about when I was 25?

00:22:23.105 --> 00:22:24.006
I don't know.

00:22:24.006 --> 00:22:27.205
You were 25 like when he 1963.

00:22:27.205 --> 00:22:28.425
Is that around that time?

00:22:28.425 --> 00:22:30.566
think I'm 47 now.

00:22:30.566 --> 00:22:31.986
I'm 25.

00:22:31.986 --> 00:22:38.705
I mean, it probably I mean, if it wasn't that if it wasn't Frank Wiley would have been Dagger King would have been those one of those two.

00:22:38.705 --> 00:22:39.066
OK.

00:22:39.066 --> 00:22:40.526
Or maybe Joe Mads.

00:22:42.640 --> 00:22:44.080
But that was probably when I was younger.

00:22:44.080 --> 00:22:44.731
I'm still going.

00:22:44.731 --> 00:22:50.266
If you could go back in time and see one band live that isn't around anymore, who would it be and why?

00:22:50.286 --> 00:22:50.846
do you know what?

00:22:50.846 --> 00:22:52.448
wouldn't because you've got to stand up, don't you?

00:22:52.448 --> 00:22:53.019
Do you know what mean?

00:22:53.019 --> 00:22:55.019
All that standing, waiting for the band to come on.

00:22:55.019 --> 00:23:01.885
And that time between the time between when the support act and when the main band, it's excruciating.

00:23:01.885 --> 00:23:03.917
You just stand there like a lemon.

00:23:03.917 --> 00:23:05.318
Just like, come on the stage.

00:23:05.318 --> 00:23:06.490
I don't do gigs anymore.

00:23:06.490 --> 00:23:08.580
I'm like, no, thank you.

00:23:08.741 --> 00:23:09.682
But.

00:23:09.718 --> 00:23:11.358
I know, Bowie.

00:23:11.358 --> 00:23:11.919
Nice.

00:23:11.919 --> 00:23:12.349
Nice.

00:23:12.349 --> 00:23:13.220
Fair.

00:23:13.299 --> 00:23:15.541
But it'd have to be like a sit down gig.

00:23:15.541 --> 00:23:18.722
Obviously, like a grown up thing.

00:23:18.722 --> 00:23:19.213
Intimate.

00:23:19.213 --> 00:23:19.523
Yeah.

00:23:19.523 --> 00:23:21.825
Like an unplugged.

00:23:21.825 --> 00:23:24.987
Repeat the following words after I say them.

00:23:24.987 --> 00:23:26.086
Gutted.

00:23:26.708 --> 00:23:27.827
Gutted.

00:23:28.088 --> 00:23:29.328
Schedule.

00:23:29.750 --> 00:23:30.890
Schedule.

00:23:31.010 --> 00:23:32.090
Missle.

00:23:32.290 --> 00:23:33.311
Missle.

00:23:33.872 --> 00:23:35.093
Quinoa.

00:23:37.304 --> 00:23:39.194
Speak.

00:23:40.596 --> 00:23:41.198
Base.

00:23:41.198 --> 00:23:42.558
You know what?

00:23:42.558 --> 00:23:42.989
What?

00:23:42.989 --> 00:23:44.039
Base.

00:23:44.411 --> 00:23:47.103
there it is.

00:23:47.103 --> 00:23:47.963
Tomato.

00:23:47.963 --> 00:23:50.506
There's another one.

00:23:50.506 --> 00:23:55.289
We just want to see which which words you pronounce in a British way instead of American.

00:23:55.330 --> 00:23:56.382
All of them, darling.

00:23:56.382 --> 00:23:59.214
Go on.

00:23:59.214 --> 00:24:00.695
We don't always that dirty, sir.

00:24:00.695 --> 00:24:01.666
There's two more.

00:24:01.666 --> 00:24:02.186
Two more.

00:24:02.186 --> 00:24:03.241
Here we go.

00:24:03.241 --> 00:24:04.673
Who do you think is a better kisser?

00:24:04.673 --> 00:24:06.595
Etrkin the demon or Ben Grin's the thing?

00:24:06.595 --> 00:24:08.527
Elaborate on your answer.

00:24:08.527 --> 00:24:10.258
It's got to be the demon, isn't it?

00:24:10.258 --> 00:24:13.911
It's got to be because he can like, he's got more, his lips are soft.

00:24:13.911 --> 00:24:15.332
Yeah, he rhymes a lot too.

00:24:15.332 --> 00:24:15.792
Yeah.

00:24:15.792 --> 00:24:17.634
I mean, I don't know whether that comes into it.

00:24:17.634 --> 00:24:19.085
It might lure you in more.

00:24:19.085 --> 00:24:19.425
Yeah.

00:24:19.425 --> 00:24:21.788
But yeah, you wouldn't, mean, I'm sure Ben's lovely.

00:24:21.788 --> 00:24:23.980
He seems like a lovely chap, but I just can't say.

00:24:23.980 --> 00:24:25.590
Hug, maybe a good hugger.

00:24:25.590 --> 00:24:26.942
I don't know.

00:24:26.942 --> 00:24:28.903
Are those stones warm?

00:24:28.903 --> 00:24:30.565
I feel like he looks like a warm guy.

00:24:30.565 --> 00:24:31.788
I think he'd be warm.

00:24:31.788 --> 00:24:32.788
He's getting married.

00:24:32.788 --> 00:24:33.667
He got married, right?

00:24:33.667 --> 00:24:34.159
Yeah.

00:24:34.159 --> 00:24:35.219
least the Masters.

00:24:35.219 --> 00:24:35.929
Yeah.

00:24:35.929 --> 00:24:37.028
I might be changing my mind.

00:24:37.028 --> 00:24:38.980
I think I'm going grim.

00:24:38.980 --> 00:24:39.940
I like it.

00:24:39.940 --> 00:24:41.780
Ben, all up in that ass.

00:24:42.510 --> 00:24:44.020
you've gone too far.

00:24:44.020 --> 00:24:45.442
right.

00:24:45.442 --> 00:24:46.211
Settle down.

00:24:46.211 --> 00:24:46.721
Settle down.

00:24:46.721 --> 00:24:47.021
All right.

00:24:47.021 --> 00:24:49.192
Best modern comic you've read recently.

00:24:49.192 --> 00:24:54.743
I mean, this isn't a plug now because by the time this comes out, it'll have gone out.

00:24:54.743 --> 00:24:59.015
But I read Nice House by the Sea today.

00:24:59.015 --> 00:25:02.006
I got a PDF of Nice House by the Sea.

00:25:02.309 --> 00:25:04.231
and it's phenomenal.

00:25:04.231 --> 00:25:19.807
but like, but I would say from a complete package, Hands by the Lake is probably, regardless of whether I'm working with James or not at the moment, taking that out of the equation, I think Nice Hands by the Lake is probably my favorite modern comic.

00:25:19.807 --> 00:25:22.808
That ties with Something Beneath the Trees.

00:25:22.890 --> 00:25:27.352
But those two are, I would say, the biggest amazing modern comics at the moment.

00:25:27.352 --> 00:25:28.201
Good choices.

00:25:28.201 --> 00:25:31.933
Also all good friends of the podcast, Patrick Horvath, James Tynan the fourth.

00:25:31.933 --> 00:25:33.064
So good answers.

00:25:33.064 --> 00:25:35.884
What did you think of our brand new segment, Quick Hitters with Christian?

00:25:36.665 --> 00:25:38.686
Exhausted, but it was fun.

00:25:38.686 --> 00:25:41.968
Like all good exhausted things.

00:25:42.327 --> 00:25:44.429
Like the old school show quiz show.

00:25:44.429 --> 00:25:44.878
Yeah.

00:25:44.878 --> 00:25:45.808
Yeah.

00:25:45.890 --> 00:26:01.340
Well, now that we're all comfortable, let's talk about the stuff you're really here for, which you've had a lot of cool things recently announced since the last time you were on the show, which as we had just mentioned, was only back in April when you were here with James Tynan talking about Spectrograph.

00:26:01.340 --> 00:26:09.665
Most notably of those things that were announced, it was your art book, your art book collection, excuse me, Mini Worlds that you were crowdfunding through Zoop.

00:26:09.665 --> 00:26:14.288
tell us a little bit about the process of working with Zoop and - Worlds.

00:26:14.288 --> 00:26:16.259
Mini Worlds, Mini, Mini.

00:26:16.259 --> 00:26:17.910
-I -N -I.

00:26:17.910 --> 00:26:19.371
Many Worlds.

00:26:21.291 --> 00:26:22.303
Many Worlds.

00:26:22.303 --> 00:26:22.762
Many.

00:26:22.762 --> 00:26:23.732
Many.

00:26:24.557 --> 00:26:29.239
Like like many worlds like many like like like very mannish.

00:26:29.900 --> 00:26:31.809
Many men.

00:26:31.809 --> 00:26:32.299
Got it.

00:26:32.299 --> 00:26:32.920
OK.

00:26:32.920 --> 00:26:37.642
All Tell us about the process and what it was like designing the book.

00:26:37.882 --> 00:26:42.903
So Jordan from Zupes, like the head honcho over there.

00:26:42.903 --> 00:26:47.724
He came by my table at New York Comic Con last year.

00:26:47.724 --> 00:26:49.144
That's where I met him.

00:26:49.144 --> 00:26:49.884
Yeah.

00:26:49.884 --> 00:26:50.454
Lovely guy.

00:26:50.454 --> 00:26:52.445
Introduce himself and.

00:26:52.811 --> 00:26:58.506
And basically just said, there anything that you would want to be doing at Zoop?

00:26:58.506 --> 00:27:12.445
I was very familiar with them because as you guys might be able to see, I've got the Winter Soldiers Art Collection behind me and I was really impressed by the quality of that book and how it was put together, et cetera.

00:27:12.445 --> 00:27:16.479
And so I was quite open to the idea of doing something.

00:27:16.479 --> 00:27:26.090
I've always liked the idea of crowdfunding, but it You know, I juggle so many projects all the time that I had to be really...

00:27:26.090 --> 00:27:27.471
And obviously, I've been a young family.

00:27:27.471 --> 00:27:29.892
just was like, realistically, was...

00:27:29.972 --> 00:27:36.005
I'm just not going be able to do a crowdfunding because, I could probably run the campaign, but I don't know where I would put the books.

00:27:36.005 --> 00:27:37.394
I don't have the time to...

00:27:37.394 --> 00:27:39.536
That's of like fulfillment.

00:27:39.536 --> 00:27:52.519
And so really, the idea that there would be a crowdfunding company purely for comics that do the lion's share of the work for you in the same way that I published it as the lion's share of work.

00:27:52.519 --> 00:27:59.131
And it felt like a really good partnership in that regard that I was really open to maybe doing something.

00:27:59.131 --> 00:28:02.241
It was just like, what would I do?

00:28:02.241 --> 00:28:06.923
And as we were having a discussion, I had one of my art books there.

00:28:06.923 --> 00:28:11.713
Every few years I'd do an art book for a convention and they always sell out.

00:28:11.713 --> 00:28:12.575
They always do really well.

00:28:12.575 --> 00:28:17.836
And I'm often asked about volumes one and two that have long gone.

00:28:17.913 --> 00:28:24.896
And I thought, this might be the perfect opportunity because the vast majority of these art books are personal work.

00:28:24.896 --> 00:28:26.157
They're not published work.

00:28:26.157 --> 00:28:30.469
might have a selection of kind of some covers and stuff that they cover.

00:28:30.469 --> 00:28:31.400
It's over the year.

00:28:31.400 --> 00:28:38.722
But a lot of it is unpublished stuff, personal pieces, more kind of art pieces.

00:28:38.722 --> 00:28:46.028
And so really it was a perfect vehicle to do it as a crowdfunder to sort of put all that together.

00:28:46.028 --> 00:28:48.680
and do it in a bigger format.

00:28:48.680 --> 00:28:53.532
And so for all these fans that have asked over the years, I republish them?

00:28:53.532 --> 00:29:06.201
It was a way of republishing those, but without kind of stealing the uniqueness of that particular thing if you happen to buy it, you've still got something unique that you bought back in the day.

00:29:06.201 --> 00:29:15.662
And this would be a completely different package that would stand alongside it, but be really cool for kind of like.

00:29:15.662 --> 00:29:18.642
the fans that I've picked up over the last 15 years.

00:29:18.642 --> 00:29:21.422
So that was basically the idea behind it.

00:29:21.422 --> 00:29:21.721
Yeah.

00:29:21.721 --> 00:29:23.842
And then the campaign went live.

00:29:24.701 --> 00:29:30.201
When this is, this goes out, the campaign will have been live for probably around a week or so now.

00:29:30.201 --> 00:29:33.041
you know, hopefully it will be doing really well.

00:29:33.221 --> 00:29:34.882
It's not a recreation.

00:29:34.882 --> 00:29:44.162
Like you said, it's maintaining that uniqueness of those original creations while still kind of incorporating what's, you know, what's been put out before for the newer audiences.

00:29:44.162 --> 00:29:46.413
And so I like that.

00:29:46.413 --> 00:29:52.794
Yeah, because I think kind of you always want to, you know, the fans that have like, you know, the fans who are there.

00:29:52.794 --> 00:29:55.574
mean, the first one I've got, I've got a copy of it here now.

00:29:55.574 --> 00:29:58.534
Like this first one, this was published in 2016.

00:29:58.534 --> 00:30:03.794
This was my first art book and there's stuff in here that is not getting reprinted.

00:30:03.794 --> 00:30:10.773
Not a huge amount, but there's definitely, I would say about 20 % of this won't be in the new book.

00:30:10.773 --> 00:30:12.334
What was the decision in that?

00:30:12.334 --> 00:30:13.693
That was my decision.

00:30:13.693 --> 00:30:23.653
that, so anyone that's got this, you know, anyone that didn't get it will still get the lion's share of what they might missed out on.

00:30:23.673 --> 00:30:33.013
But anyone that did get it, they can still go back to this and go, you know, and it might be that one of those 20 % pieces will be their favorite pieces.

00:30:33.013 --> 00:30:35.134
You know, it'll be like, oh, I love that one.

00:30:35.134 --> 00:30:36.973
And I've got that one.

00:30:37.114 --> 00:30:48.645
So it was just about making sure that, you know, it's like doing, you know, for instance, you know, if you're going to do a And you know, when I sold these, I sold them a hundred, there's a little number, eight hundred copies.

00:30:48.645 --> 00:30:50.196
There's only a hundred copies.

00:30:50.196 --> 00:30:56.098
And so it was important to me that retains a kind of sense of limited edition.

00:30:56.359 --> 00:30:58.790
But then the new book, it's going to be in a different format.

00:30:58.790 --> 00:31:00.631
It's going to be hard, hard cover.

00:31:00.631 --> 00:31:02.511
It's going to be a, you know, much bigger size.

00:31:02.511 --> 00:31:07.183
It's going to be like a standard kind of like comic, hard book, comic book size.

00:31:07.285 --> 00:31:40.946
It'll be a complete, like it's far more like retrospective of the the fast past 15 years and there's going to be stuff that's that's going to be in art you know the volumes one to three of the art books but there's also stuff that's not in any of those books that will only be in this this collection so it you know i think it's going to be quite a special collection what i find really interesting is that the covers of all of your art books including many worlds has this spaceman can you talk a little bit about the significance of the spaceman and why that Many worlds.

00:31:40.946 --> 00:31:41.666
Many worlds.

00:31:41.666 --> 00:31:44.328
Many, many, -I -N -I worlds.

00:31:44.328 --> 00:31:45.808
Many worlds.

00:31:45.909 --> 00:31:46.869
The Spaceman.

00:31:46.869 --> 00:31:53.633
Yeah, it's a continuing motif that I've used many times.

00:31:54.775 --> 00:31:55.535
Many.

00:31:55.535 --> 00:31:57.816
All right, Guy, that was the many.

00:31:57.816 --> 00:32:00.897
I'll tell you where the first Spaceman came from.

00:32:00.897 --> 00:32:07.882
Because it was born from a collaboration with a good friend of mine called Jeremy Radway.

00:32:08.705 --> 00:32:13.880
who, when I used to live in London, he was a musician going by the name of Player Piano.

00:32:13.880 --> 00:32:16.070
You can find his stuff on Spotify.

00:32:16.070 --> 00:32:19.834
And you'll know you found the right one because you will see the Spaceman.

00:32:19.834 --> 00:32:21.355
I loved his music.

00:32:21.355 --> 00:32:28.940
I was really into, kind of more than comics at that time, I was into live music.

00:32:28.940 --> 00:32:31.281
Now I'm like, I can't be dealing with that.

00:32:31.281 --> 00:32:34.933
As your question already - Couldn't even name a live band that you would want to see.

00:32:34.933 --> 00:32:36.944
I know, I know.

00:32:37.877 --> 00:32:46.380
And so I was a big fan of Jeremy's and loved his music, loved him as a person and did him some artwork for his first album.

00:32:46.380 --> 00:32:49.560
His EP, then his album.

00:32:49.560 --> 00:33:07.506
And he had this one song called Radio Love and it was all, it just basically, his stuff has got like almost like, it doesn't really sound prog -rock -y, but it's got that kind of, feels very much like their stories going on in the lyrics.

00:33:07.660 --> 00:33:19.257
And even though the story wasn't this, it kind of felt like this, that it was about this spaceman going to the end of the worlds looking for radio signals because he was looking for a radio station.

00:33:19.257 --> 00:33:22.317
That's kind of how I perceived the song and the album.

00:33:22.538 --> 00:33:36.693
And so I created the image of the spaceman with the antenna in the center and this kind of psychedelic kind of thing spread now based on my friend Jeremy's song called Radio Love.

00:33:36.693 --> 00:33:43.398
It was one of those images that the minute I did it, I just knew it was something very special.

00:33:43.398 --> 00:33:52.005
And out of every image I've ever produced or piece of art or print, it is the thing that's resonated with more people.

00:33:52.125 --> 00:33:55.067
I've sold more prints of that than anything.

00:33:55.067 --> 00:34:02.932
I mean, at this point, probably close to a thousand prints of that one image and nothing even close to that.

00:34:02.932 --> 00:34:04.584
And over my other stuff.

00:34:04.587 --> 00:34:18.577
So it was really just, just every time I kind of did another space man, was, you know, partly maybe cynically trying to recapture that magic, but also just playing in the same field, you what mean?

00:34:18.577 --> 00:34:31.036
And just, that's the sort of stuff I like, that kind of like, looks slightly kind of cosmo, you know, like a cosmonaut and looks slightly retro, but it's also kind of like, quite psychedelic and quite cosmic.

00:34:31.036 --> 00:34:34.277
And then, you know, you guys know from my comics, that's my...

00:34:34.306 --> 00:34:35.367
That's my bag.

00:34:35.367 --> 00:34:45.394
And so it became a kind of series and I've done this, this, this four of them now, four kind of spacemen helmet type things.

00:34:45.394 --> 00:34:48.387
And they will all be in this book.

00:34:48.387 --> 00:34:54.121
But yeah, I think I always stick with it because it kind of came from a place, cause I did it for my mate.

00:34:54.121 --> 00:34:55.432
mean, I didn't charge him anything.

00:34:55.432 --> 00:34:59.387
It was because he needed a cool piece of artwork and I did it and my cool piece of artwork.

00:34:59.387 --> 00:35:00.056
It's nice.

00:35:00.056 --> 00:35:05.414
It's a, I feel it's almost like, no, I don't believe in kind spiritual stuff.

00:35:05.414 --> 00:35:12.201
But it is nice to feel like the thing that's rewarded me the most is something that I made with love.

00:35:12.201 --> 00:35:19.617
is so much like your style and what I sort of I automatically attached to you when I see your work that spaceman is very Christian Ward.

00:35:19.617 --> 00:35:32.481
Like if you had sort of an icon around your body of work and you've done so much right like the variant covers that you've done the series that you've worked on everything that you've done very much that that spaceman.

00:35:32.481 --> 00:35:35.884
is very much sort of like your avatar in a way.

00:35:35.884 --> 00:35:36.344
yeah.

00:35:36.344 --> 00:35:39.445
It's my convention banner.

00:35:39.445 --> 00:35:48.260
For many years, it's been my little, I mean, it's not in the moment, it's the thing that's been my little social media icon more than any other image.

00:35:48.260 --> 00:35:49.460
It's just, weird.

00:35:49.460 --> 00:35:52.782
It's, know, but like I'm really happy with it.

00:35:52.782 --> 00:36:02.068
just one of those, it's a weird kind of thing when you do an art that you kind of, you just have to kind of let yourself be opened up to it, but it was just one of those.

00:36:02.068 --> 00:36:06.831
one in a million images that just happened and it happened really perfectly, it happened really quickly.

00:36:06.831 --> 00:36:10.143
It was just, know, everything came together really nicely.

00:36:10.143 --> 00:36:18.730
So speaking of, again, the Spaceman, Zoop, Mini Worlds, let's talk about the Kickstarter itself.

00:36:18.730 --> 00:36:24.804
Can you tease any of the tiers, like rewards that fans might have access to when the campaign does start?

00:36:24.804 --> 00:36:25.704
No, I'm not.

00:36:25.704 --> 00:36:27.835
I'm just getting started.

00:36:27.835 --> 00:36:31.150
When this goes live, it'll be people, you'll be able to...

00:36:31.150 --> 00:36:33.090
Put a link in the thing that people can see.

00:36:33.090 --> 00:36:34.590
I'll show you this.

00:36:34.750 --> 00:36:41.389
I raided my vault of drawings.

00:36:41.630 --> 00:36:47.050
So there's going to be one thing you'll be able to grab.

00:36:47.050 --> 00:36:49.550
Some of it's like 20 years old now.

00:36:49.550 --> 00:36:51.329
Some of these drawings.

00:36:51.909 --> 00:36:53.429
there's some real...

00:36:53.429 --> 00:37:00.237
Long before I was doing comic book stuff, I was doing illustrations and fashion illustrations and things like that.

00:37:00.237 --> 00:37:02.597
and just doing stuff for fun.

00:37:02.597 --> 00:37:03.998
And that's what this art book is.

00:37:03.998 --> 00:37:14.838
It's, you know, a lot of it is just artwork that I used to do just for fun and like finding my feet and finding my voice as an artist, you know, and that's very much what the story of this book is.

00:37:14.838 --> 00:37:18.338
It's me finding my voice as an artist.

00:37:18.338 --> 00:37:25.737
And so in regards to kind of like the kind of tears that people will be able to, you'll be able to, I mean, look at this one.

00:37:25.737 --> 00:37:28.577
This one's 2007, this one was done.

00:37:28.737 --> 00:37:31.065
But you can see I love my comics.

00:37:31.065 --> 00:37:32.085
Look at the graffiti.

00:37:32.085 --> 00:37:34.405
I've got a little cool watches.

00:37:34.405 --> 00:37:35.686
The watch man.

00:37:35.686 --> 00:37:42.666
Cause even then, even then, mean, it's this, this, this predates me being a comic book artist by quite a bit.

00:37:43.025 --> 00:37:46.766
was a freshman in high school in 2007, not to make you sound old.

00:37:49.726 --> 00:37:52.025
There's lots of little things like this.

00:37:52.025 --> 00:37:53.226
And this is really cool.

00:37:53.226 --> 00:37:55.405
I mean, I get a kick out stuff like this.

00:37:55.405 --> 00:38:02.806
like the drawings like this and obviously it's fun working on a podcast, but you you flip it and there's other things on the other side of the drawing.

00:38:02.806 --> 00:38:10.208
And what I would do is I would scan both sides of the drawing and then I'd be able to manipulate both parts separately.

00:38:10.208 --> 00:38:16.110
You know, I mean, this may, this stuff may have gone by the time this goes live, but you know, they'll all be these drawings.

00:38:16.110 --> 00:38:26.634
I've got another big box down there and I promised Jordan that if they go really quickly, I'll go back to the box and dig out some more, but there's going to be prints.

00:38:26.634 --> 00:38:28.673
You know, I'm a big, I love.

00:38:28.673 --> 00:38:38.278
both as a consumer myself, but also as, you I like putting prints out as an artist who's pretty much solely digital now.

00:38:38.278 --> 00:38:42.480
I like prints as a way of kind of people to be able to enjoy my artwork.

00:38:42.480 --> 00:38:50.264
And so there'll be a line of prints that will go with the book and there's gonna be a signed book plate that will go in.

00:38:50.264 --> 00:38:56.177
You can also pay to get that remarked so I can do a drawing in the book There's going to be a whole range.

00:38:56.177 --> 00:39:00.690
There's going to be a way of kind of like, think we're going to do a digital PDF.

00:39:00.690 --> 00:39:12.170
So if you don't want to spend too much, you can spend just a small proportion of what the final price would have been and get a digital version of the art book.

00:39:12.170 --> 00:39:16.565
If you just want to see the artwork, you can have it digitally.

00:39:16.565 --> 00:39:19.706
So I think it's going to be a really good campaign.

00:39:19.706 --> 00:39:20.588
I mean, here's the thing.

00:39:20.588 --> 00:39:25.572
I'm doing this I want to make a load of money.

00:39:25.572 --> 00:39:29.585
You know, as far as I'm concerned, you I'm working on spectrograph.

00:39:29.585 --> 00:39:32.405
I've got my other projects coming up and that's my day job.

00:39:32.405 --> 00:39:46.851
In the same way that when I take an art book to a convention, the purpose of that art book is not about me making a load of money at the convention because actually because of the cost of the art books, they don't make me a huge amount of money.

00:39:46.851 --> 00:39:49.572
I do them because I know that fans like them.

00:39:49.572 --> 00:39:57.706
And I think it's important when you do a convention, it's about you kind of giving a bit of yourself back to your fans as a thank you.

00:39:57.706 --> 00:40:07.949
The fans kind of support you and the reason why your career or my career has lasted as long as it has is because I've got a good fan base and people like my work.

00:40:07.949 --> 00:40:13.543
And so doing the art books at the conventions is a kind thank you to that.

00:40:13.563 --> 00:40:18.565
And this ZOOP thing is again, it's about connecting with the fans.

00:40:18.922 --> 00:40:20.702
saying, is this something you want?

00:40:20.702 --> 00:40:23.405
And if it is something you want, people can bid on it.

00:40:23.405 --> 00:40:25.255
If it's not anything they want, they don't have to.

00:40:25.255 --> 00:40:29.949
It's not like kind of, you know, it's not a thing that exists that I have to go out and punt.

00:40:29.949 --> 00:40:32.411
It's a thing that can exist if people want it.

00:40:32.411 --> 00:40:38.856
You know, I think that's quite special and feels quite nice and, you know, genuine, like a nice thing, hopefully.

00:40:38.856 --> 00:40:41.007
And, you know, that's why I'm doing it.

00:40:41.007 --> 00:41:08.362
think art books are like the perfect way to champion an artist or just a creator in general that you really I know when I go to conventions, I'm often looking for, like you said, like a print, prints are like sort of the easy impulse buy, you know, at comic conventions, but the art book, if I really love a creator and if you were to see the bookcase behind me here on the bottom shelf, it's just a full shelf of art books that I have from different creators over many conventions.

00:41:08.362 --> 00:41:12.715
I mean, genuinely, not only as, you know, a fan of yours and a friend, I'm very excited for many worlds.

00:41:12.715 --> 00:41:22.150
Like it's something that I only have, I think I have volume three of your art book and I need to figure out a way to get the other two since you won't have everything included in many worlds.

00:41:22.150 --> 00:41:33.818
But I will say that many worlds is going to be one of those display pieces that I, when I have people over and I'm sort of discussing your work in some way, I can go, Hey, many worlds.

00:41:33.818 --> 00:41:34.719
Can we go real quick?

00:41:34.719 --> 00:41:40.844
Actually, while I'm thinking about it, can I get many, can I get a mini version of many worlds, many, many worlds?

00:41:40.844 --> 00:41:42.085
Mini worlds?

00:41:42.085 --> 00:41:43.865
Like a pocket edition.

00:41:44.945 --> 00:41:50.168
That would be a good little mini mini mini worlds.

00:41:50.248 --> 00:41:52.170
Yeah, that would be good.

00:41:52.170 --> 00:41:52.610
Yeah.

00:41:52.610 --> 00:41:53.931
You guys were laughing a moment ago.

00:41:53.931 --> 00:41:56.143
What the hell was so funny when I was boasting you up?

00:41:56.143 --> 00:41:58.134
I was trying to buy you up there and you were both laughing.

00:41:58.134 --> 00:41:58.893
Why was that?

00:41:58.893 --> 00:42:00.034
No, no, no.

00:42:00.034 --> 00:42:06.307
Because we're children and he can't stop doing he can't stop doing the mini worlds thing.

00:42:06.307 --> 00:42:09.210
Every time you say it, it goes back to that first conversation.

00:42:09.210 --> 00:42:12.481
He's like, you can see what he's giggling right now.

00:42:12.481 --> 00:42:13.581
He giggles.

00:42:13.581 --> 00:42:14.802
I giggle.

00:42:15.121 --> 00:42:17.541
I'm over here like Christian, I love your work.

00:42:17.541 --> 00:42:24.001
I'm a huge fan and you guys are laughing because I don't take myself seriously and that's why everyone likes me.

00:42:26.222 --> 00:42:30.242
Well, speaking of many worlds, you got Sam Lake.

00:42:30.242 --> 00:42:41.862
It's also been recently announced that you've been secretly secretly working on three episode Night Springs DLC for Alan Wake 2 that actually premiered recently, June 8th.

00:42:41.862 --> 00:42:43.842
How in the world did that happen?

00:42:43.851 --> 00:42:44.842
Isn't that cool?

00:42:44.842 --> 00:42:46.284
Isn't that cool?

00:42:46.284 --> 00:42:47.273
It's really cool.

00:42:47.273 --> 00:42:48.045
Do you know what?

00:42:48.045 --> 00:42:53.568
like it so like, like my life is so remarkable.

00:42:53.568 --> 00:42:59.382
And sometimes I just have to pinch myself that some things happen to me because I don't like look them out.

00:42:59.382 --> 00:43:04.456
They just these strange things, strange, wonderful things happen and work with Sam.

00:43:04.456 --> 00:43:05.297
That's been one of them.

00:43:05.297 --> 00:43:07.367
So like, I mean, basically, I'll give you some backstory.

00:43:07.367 --> 00:43:13.237
I'm not a huge video gamer, partly because I don't have the time, but I love video games.

00:43:13.237 --> 00:43:18.461
And the one thing I really like about video games is I really love the story elements.

00:43:18.461 --> 00:43:21.304
Games that kind of have like a cool story.

00:43:21.585 --> 00:43:35.096
To me, I find that really fascinating because it's a strange in between of like the storytelling of comics, the storytelling of films, but something else because it's, you know, it's a nonlinear story.

00:43:35.096 --> 00:43:36.617
You are playing a story.

00:43:36.617 --> 00:43:37.938
I really love that.

00:43:37.938 --> 00:43:42.498
And so some of the games I really like are by Remedy, which were...

00:43:42.498 --> 00:43:45.840
you know, either directed or written by Sam Lake.

00:43:46.139 --> 00:43:57.407
I can't remember if I followed him first or if he followed me, but we've been following each other on like social medias, the social medias, you know, a couple of years now.

00:43:57.407 --> 00:44:08.952
And just, you know, every now and again, just like kind of sliding into a DM and just being like, that's cool and blah, And the thing that I really love about Sam is that he's a real consumer of story.

00:44:08.952 --> 00:44:10.873
He loves film.

00:44:11.061 --> 00:44:14.623
and he loves comics, like he really loves comics.

00:44:14.623 --> 00:44:18.244
And I think that's one of the reasons why he kind of like follows me.

00:44:18.244 --> 00:44:21.246
And I'm certainly not the only comic, but greater than he follows.

00:44:21.246 --> 00:44:30.219
But we kind of hit it off from me, we chat as you find with friendship, it kind of like starts off small and then kind of becomes more than what it was.

00:44:30.219 --> 00:44:32.260
And you talk about all sorts of stuff.

00:44:32.260 --> 00:44:34.711
That's what it kind of was like with me Sam.

00:44:35.032 --> 00:44:45.925
And when I did Batman City of Madness, I was sending him PDFs and he was very kind and kind of like give me good pull quotes and talk about it publicly on his Twitter.

00:44:46.425 --> 00:44:48.045
And Alan Wake 2 came out.

00:44:48.045 --> 00:44:49.626
was like, this is amazing, mate.

00:44:49.626 --> 00:44:53.585
So then we have a lot of the same kind of sensibilities in story.

00:44:53.585 --> 00:44:55.846
Like we both like kind of quite meta stuff.

00:44:55.846 --> 00:44:57.806
We both like kind of cosmic horror.

00:44:57.806 --> 00:45:06.585
A lot of these games play with kind of cosmic horror and that kind of like strange clashing of aesthetics between old and new.

00:45:06.585 --> 00:45:08.269
A lot of this stuff does that.

00:45:08.269 --> 00:45:10.929
And we just hit it off.

00:45:11.489 --> 00:45:13.809
And then he just sent me this email.

00:45:13.809 --> 00:45:16.869
This was about four months ago now.

00:45:16.869 --> 00:45:20.329
And was just like, do you want to work on Animate 2?

00:45:20.329 --> 00:45:22.750
We've got a DLC coming out.

00:45:22.969 --> 00:45:24.409
And do you want to do it?

00:45:24.409 --> 00:45:26.170
Do you want to work on a sequence in the game?

00:45:26.170 --> 00:45:31.329
And it was like, was the, you know, and at the point I was already working on Spectrograph.

00:45:31.429 --> 00:45:36.981
you know, it was really tough time -wise, but it was just one of those projects that you would just.

00:45:36.981 --> 00:45:43.885
It's not about saying no, it's about saying yes and then finding out and working out how you're going to make that happen.

00:45:43.885 --> 00:45:48.838
Which turned out to be a lot of late nights and a lot of weekends, which I don't normally work on.

00:45:48.838 --> 00:45:51.710
I'm very kind of like making sure I have family time.

00:45:51.710 --> 00:45:57.172
But this was just, it was just too good to pass up.

00:45:57.733 --> 00:46:05.228
And then for about three months, it was a case of jumping on Zoom calls with Sam and the rest of the team at Remedy.

00:46:05.458 --> 00:46:12.590
and worked with a really good video game director, Anansi, who basically helped.

00:46:12.590 --> 00:46:21.974
We basically had a Sam script and I would take that, I had to take that script because unlike kind of like a comic book script, it didn't read like a comic book.

00:46:21.974 --> 00:46:33.630
I had to kind of design without Anansi's help and how that would flow as a comic and how it would appear on the screen.

00:46:34.769 --> 00:46:37.641
Where was the character, the player interaction with that?

00:46:37.641 --> 00:46:38.351
It was great.

00:46:38.351 --> 00:46:42.492
It was the whole, it was comics, but it was like a whole other level.

00:46:42.572 --> 00:46:49.445
And anyone that's, you know, if you've played it, it's also kind of like, has this kind of like almost like motion comic quality.

00:46:49.445 --> 00:46:56.139
So all the characters were on a different layer to the background and it was all animated and put to music.

00:46:56.139 --> 00:47:01.201
And then the actors, then like speaking the lines.

00:47:01.201 --> 00:47:03.702
was all like, you you had these actors.

00:47:03.702 --> 00:47:08.795
lines coming out of the characters' It was brilliant.

00:47:08.795 --> 00:47:09.925
was so much fun.

00:47:09.925 --> 00:47:14.148
It was just such different way that video game people work.

00:47:14.148 --> 00:47:17.010
I found it really fascinating.

00:47:17.010 --> 00:47:22.315
Me and Sam went for breakfast and we were talking about this one day when he came to the UK.

00:47:22.315 --> 00:47:28.648
There were similarities in how you work in comics with people and also differences.

00:47:28.648 --> 00:47:32.750
was interesting see where the overlaps were.

00:47:32.750 --> 00:47:34.550
industry to industry.

00:47:35.050 --> 00:47:36.449
It was just really good fun.

00:47:36.449 --> 00:47:37.530
It was really good fun.

00:47:37.530 --> 00:47:40.550
It was a lot of work and very tiring, very stressful.

00:47:40.550 --> 00:47:45.070
But it was also amazing to not be able to say anything about it.

00:47:45.730 --> 00:47:49.128
And then the day that I could say something about it, it was out.

00:47:49.128 --> 00:47:52.610
was no wait to see what it is.

00:47:52.610 --> 00:47:57.630
was just like the minute I could talk about it, people could pick up the PlayStation 5 and play it.

00:47:57.630 --> 00:48:03.652
Did you have anyone sort of reach out to you and be like, oh, I saw you were in the trailer for the DLC for Alan It was crazy.

00:48:03.652 --> 00:48:09.985
I don't do a lot of work for Marvel for no particular reason.

00:48:10.306 --> 00:48:17.240
And I got loads of editors who I had worked with and done covers for.

00:48:17.240 --> 00:48:20.753
They would reach out to me and say, just saw your work in Alan Wake.

00:48:20.753 --> 00:48:25.195
And I had people I hadn't spoken to for a while going, was that you?

00:48:25.315 --> 00:48:34.795
And what's nice about it is just that reaffirming idea that you can never smell your own beer, right?

00:48:34.795 --> 00:48:36.715
You can't see your own style.

00:48:36.715 --> 00:48:46.507
So the idea that without even seeing credits, people see like a frame of it and go, you know, it's literally that Leonardo DiCaprio gift pointing at the screen.

00:48:46.507 --> 00:48:48.318
Do you know what I mean?

00:48:48.318 --> 00:48:49.559
It's me.

00:48:50.119 --> 00:48:52.780
And it was, yeah.

00:48:52.780 --> 00:48:54.300
So it's great.

00:48:54.300 --> 00:48:57.420
You know, it's great just to have that thing.

00:48:57.420 --> 00:49:03.327
And it's just another like, you know, one of those moments, you that I'm so fortunate to have.

00:49:03.327 --> 00:49:06.847
I think, you know, I just love, I love story.

00:49:06.847 --> 00:49:08.958
You know, I enjoy working with people.

00:49:08.958 --> 00:49:10.798
I get a real kick out of it.

00:49:10.798 --> 00:49:16.699
How, how, how do you tell a story in the best way possible and the most emotive way possible?

00:49:16.699 --> 00:49:24.592
And it just, to do that, even though was comics, to do that kind of like with one foot in another medium, was an amazing privilege.

00:49:24.592 --> 00:49:27.322
It's really cool to find yourself being like that recognizable.

00:49:27.322 --> 00:49:29.193
Amazing.

00:49:29.193 --> 00:49:33.601
And like it's It's just it's completely accidental really.

00:49:33.601 --> 00:49:44.918
I mean, it's just like I draw slightly wonk You know, I've got quite a wonky style in a way, you know, it's not like My stuff's not like I don't render like shading going on that.

00:49:44.918 --> 00:50:03.373
It's all like quite sketchy and You know just if it works it works, you know, know it does and the other thing that's really cool goes like linking it all back to the art book is Sam's doing me the introduction to the art Which is amazing because the guy's a legend, you know, and he doesn't have to do that.

00:50:03.373 --> 00:50:13.070
But it's, know, it's nice, you know, but just, you know, it's it's I love connecting with people in different fields, you know, and without kind of, you know, freeing to name drop.

00:50:13.070 --> 00:50:31.548
It was the same thing working with Oscar, you know, we, you know, we worked together, you know, it's just like you see these people and you hide, hide, you sort of like see them in such high esteem and just think, wow, they're incredible.

00:50:31.548 --> 00:50:40.255
But then when you're in a room and you're working together and you're just talking about a story and getting excited about a story, it's just a level playing field.

00:50:40.255 --> 00:50:42.137
And you realize they're just people.

00:50:42.137 --> 00:50:42.958
They're just people.

00:50:42.958 --> 00:50:46.161
They're just people that are really good at what they do and have got lucky.

00:50:46.161 --> 00:50:47.431
And it's really nice.

00:50:47.431 --> 00:50:48.322
I really like that.

00:50:48.322 --> 00:50:48.592
Yeah.

00:50:48.592 --> 00:50:51.565
You literally just described our relationship with you.

00:50:51.565 --> 00:50:55.097
Like when we had you on the show initially, we were a fan of your work.

00:50:55.097 --> 00:50:57.510
I think you were about to start Aquaman Andromeda.

00:50:57.510 --> 00:51:02.242
And it just so happened that a relationship, a friendship sort of bloomed out of that.

00:51:02.242 --> 00:51:08.376
And it's been, you know, you've been on the show five times about to be six, you know, sometime in the near future, I'm sure.

00:51:08.376 --> 00:51:09.836
Yeah.

00:51:09.916 --> 00:51:11.688
So, it's, funny how that works, right?

00:51:11.688 --> 00:51:12.378
It's so awesome.

00:51:12.378 --> 00:51:14.139
It's very serendipitous in that way.

00:51:14.139 --> 00:51:25.931
Like you said, where you meet someone and you just, know, you click and it's fun to sort of explore each other's sort of, you know, I don't think what Aaron and I do here is sort of an industry.

00:51:25.931 --> 00:51:27.943
but we do something here.

00:51:27.943 --> 00:51:30.344
This is our way of sort of celebrating the medium.

00:51:30.625 --> 00:51:30.965
you know.

00:51:30.965 --> 00:51:32.356
Well, yeah.

00:51:32.356 --> 00:51:35.409
And I was going to make stupid jokes, but I'm not going to.

00:51:35.409 --> 00:51:38.650
Because actually, it's the same thing.

00:51:38.650 --> 00:51:42.094
It's about connecting with people over a shared love.

00:51:42.094 --> 00:51:44.525
And you connect with people.

00:51:44.525 --> 00:51:47.507
Isn't that what life's all about?

00:51:47.507 --> 00:51:49.438
Do you know what I connecting with people?

00:51:49.438 --> 00:51:56.376
Every time I put a book out, particularly a book that I write, you All I'm trying to do is connect with people.

00:51:56.376 --> 00:51:59.208
All I'm trying to do is like, this scares me in life.

00:51:59.208 --> 00:52:00.429
Does it scare you?

00:52:00.429 --> 00:52:01.929
This thrills me in life.

00:52:01.929 --> 00:52:02.860
Does it thrill you?

00:52:02.860 --> 00:52:04.822
I love this about life.

00:52:04.822 --> 00:52:05.882
Do you love it too?

00:52:05.882 --> 00:52:09.284
That's what every piece of fiction that I do is about.

00:52:09.284 --> 00:52:14.518
It's about connecting with people and hoping that I'm not alone.

00:52:14.518 --> 00:52:22.690
know, I don't feel alone, you know, but it's all about not feeling alone and wanting to surround myself with like-minded people.

00:52:22.690 --> 00:52:30.012
you know, whether they be strangers, readers, fellow creatives, or, you know, all you bozos.

00:52:31.074 --> 00:52:32.193
That's right.

00:52:33.134 --> 00:52:37.646
Well, and you know, I thought it was really cool in the trailer there, we see Lance Reddick for a moment.

00:52:37.646 --> 00:52:41.458
So, you know, everyone knows he passed away in March of last year.

00:52:41.478 --> 00:52:43.289
He narrates the beginning of the trailer, which is really cool.

00:52:43.289 --> 00:52:45.898
And I'm assuming he's probably in the DLC somewhere.

00:52:46.159 --> 00:52:50.130
I mean, I haven't played it yet, but I think so.

00:52:50.130 --> 00:53:02.012
Well, speaking of connecting with people, One thing that we wanted just to kind of quickly comment on is like, how did you connect with Patrick Reynolds for this new Brave and the Bold?

00:53:02.452 --> 00:53:02.753
yeah.

00:53:02.753 --> 00:53:05.715
So they're at all, all out in the wild now.

00:53:06.126 --> 00:53:06.795
you know what?

00:53:06.795 --> 00:53:07.905
That's a great story.

00:53:07.905 --> 00:53:09.789
So I haven't told this publicly yet.

00:53:09.789 --> 00:53:10.818
So I'll tell you guys.

00:53:10.818 --> 00:53:11.880
Yeah, exclusive.

00:53:11.880 --> 00:53:16.333
Work with Patrick on, you know, bloodstained teeth.

00:53:16.333 --> 00:53:18.775
And you guys chatted to him.

00:53:18.775 --> 00:53:19.887
I don't know if you've been back to him.

00:53:19.887 --> 00:53:21.715
like, but Patrick is...

00:53:21.715 --> 00:53:24.487
one of the loveliest people you will ever meet.

00:53:24.487 --> 00:53:26.108
And he's amazing.

00:53:26.108 --> 00:53:32.972
But I found working with him completely frustrating for reasons that I would go into.

00:53:32.972 --> 00:53:39.135
If I had a full head of hair when I started working with Patrick, I would still look like this now.

00:53:39.137 --> 00:53:55.835
Because he was like, I've never met anybody has such a little understanding of how good they I mean, it's beautiful and it's lovely and it makes him the beautiful, lovely man that he is, but he has no idea that he's this sleeping giant.

00:53:55.835 --> 00:54:01.436
Worse still, he doesn't think he's good and he has like crippled himself down.

00:54:01.458 --> 00:54:16.822
Anyway, so we met for the first time last year at Thorpe Obel UK Comic Convention and like, know, lovely, lovely man, him and his fiance, Jen, and got to spend quality time with him and really get to know him.

00:54:18.085 --> 00:54:23.278
Yeah, we became really good friends over blood, stone, And, know, I really, care about the guy.

00:54:23.278 --> 00:54:41.579
And I really want him to, you know, I really, whenever I work with somebody, as an artist, as a writer working with an artist, I really want to be able to go, okay, I'm going to help you and put you on the next, you know, if I can help you, if I am in position to help you, I'm going to help you.

00:54:41.579 --> 00:54:44.201
So that's, I think that's really important.

00:54:44.201 --> 00:54:54.528
And it's always about like, know, you don't kick the once you're at the top, you help people, know, lots of artists helped me when I started out, know, Frank Quietly was very kind to me.

00:54:54.528 --> 00:54:55.157
J .H.

00:54:55.157 --> 00:54:57.110
Williams was very kind to me.

00:54:57.110 --> 00:54:57.710
J .H.

00:54:57.710 --> 00:55:02.291
Williams was the first person that gave my work to Vertigo back in the day.

00:55:02.893 --> 00:55:05.253
had loads of artists that would help me.

00:55:05.253 --> 00:55:06.893
So I was like, I'm going to do that.

00:55:06.893 --> 00:55:11.315
You know, I'm going to like anyone that I work with, you know, I'm going to try and help.

00:55:11.315 --> 00:55:13.907
So we hang out in Thought Bubble, have a great time.

00:55:13.907 --> 00:55:19.733
And then I'm going home on the Monday morning, heading back to Strewsbury where I live.

00:55:19.733 --> 00:55:28.121
And the weirdest thing, I'm waiting for the train and this idea, this fully formed idea pops into my head.

00:55:28.121 --> 00:55:34.465
And I call him up and I'm like, okay, I'm about to, I've got an idea for a story.

00:55:34.626 --> 00:55:36.668
It's a Batman story.

00:55:36.668 --> 00:55:42.492
And it's about a new villain that infects you with self doubt.

00:55:42.492 --> 00:56:02.530
And I said to him, to Patrick, I said, basically what I wanna do is I wanna write a letter, the script is gonna be a letter to you and you're gonna be Batman and it's about me telling you that you're better than you think you are and that by the end of the story, you realize you're Batman and you're full strength.

00:56:02.530 --> 00:56:05.271
And it's all about dealing with self-doubt.

00:56:05.271 --> 00:56:07.692
Every artist deals with self -doubt.

00:56:07.972 --> 00:56:12.686
And I said, look, I know you've got gunslinger for Spawn.

00:56:12.686 --> 00:56:17.369
try email the guys that I know at DC and see if they were up for it.

00:56:17.891 --> 00:56:19.072
And he was like, yeah, sure.

00:56:19.072 --> 00:56:26.527
So then I emailed the guys that I knew at DC and it was the quickest yes I think I've ever got.

00:56:26.527 --> 00:56:29.960
Like it was within hours.

00:56:30.001 --> 00:56:31.862
Within hours it was happening.

00:56:31.862 --> 00:56:33.603
And then of course he panicked.

00:56:33.603 --> 00:56:35.344
I was just like, I don't know actually.

00:56:35.344 --> 00:56:37.708
I'm like, are you kidding me?

00:56:37.708 --> 00:56:40.929
If you don't do this now, I'm gonna kill you.

00:56:41.173 --> 00:56:44.175
I've got your Batman story, you're gonna do it.

00:56:44.195 --> 00:56:45.034
I...

00:56:45.114 --> 00:56:46.295
And it's amazing.

00:56:46.295 --> 00:56:46.996
Like he's...

00:56:46.996 --> 00:56:49.445
And, you know, he's edited Zungun's Stinger Spawn.

00:56:49.445 --> 00:56:56.418
I've been really, really, really understanding and I kind of really gave him the time to kind of like juggle the two.

00:56:57.559 --> 00:57:02.039
And he spent a long time and he's painted a lot of the pages.

00:57:02.199 --> 00:57:04.219
And it's a real...

00:57:04.219 --> 00:57:05.601
You know, I love...

00:57:05.601 --> 00:57:06.791
Blastantium was great.

00:57:06.791 --> 00:57:08.090
Machine Gun was great.

00:57:08.090 --> 00:57:16.438
And I think kind of like I think the closest thing I've come to realize what I set out to do would be Batman City of Madness.

00:57:16.438 --> 00:57:29.777
But the thing that we've done is a 24 page story and it's so tight, so emotive and so like pure that it could be the favorite thing I've ever done.

00:57:29.777 --> 00:57:34.458
It's so beautiful and I couldn't be more proud of him.

00:57:34.458 --> 00:57:39.838
And I think kind of when people read it, they're going to be blown away.

00:57:40.322 --> 00:57:42.163
Did this change his perspective at all?

00:57:42.163 --> 00:57:54.688
I mean, I know we're getting the putting the cart ahead of the horse here, but like, did he have any kind of like response after you like said, like, you know, because obviously you're talking about him having the self doubt.

00:57:54.688 --> 00:57:55.467
Yeah.

00:57:55.467 --> 00:58:00.409
And what did he kind of respond with that when it wouldn't like when you approached him with that?

00:58:00.900 --> 00:58:03.532
he got very emotional and he got it.

00:58:03.532 --> 00:58:05.682
You know, he understood I was very glad.

00:58:05.682 --> 00:58:09.173
I mean, in the script, I'm very like Patrick, this is you.

00:58:09.402 --> 00:58:11.282
We're gonna talk about you here.

00:58:11.282 --> 00:58:14.844
But he put his heart and soul into this artwork.

00:58:14.844 --> 00:58:16.324
His heart and soul.

00:58:16.324 --> 00:58:21.344
You know, I think we're gonna do a story that's gonna make, that are gonna make people cry.

00:58:21.344 --> 00:58:23.576
Now this is a Batman story that's gonna make people cry.

00:58:23.576 --> 00:58:30.347
But they're still punching, they're still swinging for the night, there's still a cool sequence with the Batmobile.

00:58:30.347 --> 00:58:32.128
know, everything you wanted.

00:58:32.128 --> 00:58:36.829
And that's the thing, like, kind of like, Patrick's ambition was to draw a Batman story.

00:58:36.829 --> 00:58:39.599
You know, so I was just like, I was Who's your bet?

00:58:39.599 --> 00:58:41.159
What villain did you want to do?

00:58:41.159 --> 00:58:43.440
What do you, and he was like, I don't want to do this, to that.

00:58:43.440 --> 00:58:46.083
And I put it all in there for him.

00:58:46.083 --> 00:59:03.775
But wrapped in this package, and like, know, the idea that he's got to co -create with me a Batman villain that if this villain resonates with people, you know, who knows how long they might just be in this one story, but you've never known of a Batman villain.

00:59:03.775 --> 00:59:07.516
You know, they could be just become a thing unto themselves.

00:59:08.119 --> 00:59:15.472
But yeah, I think kind of, and the response from the DC editors was amazing, which, you know, did him the world of good.

00:59:15.472 --> 00:59:19.733
think it's, it's really, listen, I can't talk for him.

00:59:19.733 --> 00:59:31.715
You would have to ask him, but, but based on an outside looking and a friend looking at him, know, he seems to have become, he seems to have turned a corner, which is wonderful.

00:59:32.096 --> 00:59:32.786
That's incredible.

00:59:32.786 --> 00:59:33.067
Yeah.

00:59:33.067 --> 00:59:38.077
And I think a lot of times what it takes is someone to sort of notice.

00:59:38.190 --> 00:59:40.581
In this particular scenario, you're absolutely right.

00:59:40.581 --> 00:59:43.331
Patrick Reynolds is a undiscovered genius in the medium.

00:59:43.331 --> 00:59:52.175
It's very surprising that it's like us and seven other people that know that Patrick is a bona fide all star in the medium going forward.

00:59:52.175 --> 00:59:56.896
There's no way that he doesn't have an Eisner in the next near future.

00:59:58.978 --> 01:00:07.938
It's so nice to hear that you are sort of, I wouldn't say like coaching, but you're sort of making him recognize his potential.

01:00:07.938 --> 01:00:09.318
what he's capable of.

01:00:09.318 --> 01:00:15.110
And sometimes that's all it takes is that is those words of affirmation to sort of boost him up and make sure that he knows how great he is because he is.

01:00:15.110 --> 01:00:16.532
Yeah, he really is.

01:00:16.532 --> 01:00:31.788
I think, you know, I think, I think the kind of combination of, of Batman and then doing gun, cause I've seen these gunslinger spawn stuff and it's, it's next level.

01:00:31.788 --> 01:00:36.809
So I think he's going to find himself in a very different place this time next year.

01:00:36.909 --> 01:00:39.650
I think he'll have basically whatever he wants to do.

01:00:39.650 --> 01:00:41.929
He'll have a, the pick of it.

01:00:41.929 --> 01:00:45.309
And it better be something with me.

01:00:47.750 --> 01:00:52.809
You're gonna have a big fall too, because you've got Batman city of madness, hardcover coming out in September.

01:00:52.809 --> 01:00:55.110
And then of course you've got the brave and the bold.

01:00:55.170 --> 01:00:58.690
Uh, you know, this issue, as you said, it was 18 with a UN Patrick.

01:00:58.690 --> 01:01:01.469
So the fall big time for Christian ward.

01:01:01.469 --> 01:01:02.210
Oh yeah.

01:01:02.210 --> 01:01:05.608
And there might even be some big after I can't say.

01:01:05.608 --> 01:01:06.809
Who would know?

01:01:06.809 --> 01:01:08.059
Who would even know?

01:01:08.920 --> 01:01:09.621
Who would know?

01:01:09.621 --> 01:01:10.981
Who would know?

01:01:11.061 --> 01:01:12.824
Yeah, I mean, I can't wait.

01:01:12.824 --> 01:01:18.737
I did the final design approval on the hardcover for Batman.

01:01:18.737 --> 01:01:24.351
I think it's going to be a nice, handsome kind of thing that people can have and own.

01:01:24.992 --> 01:01:32.777
We decided in the extras of the book, because again, that was quite a personal book for me and there was a story behind why it existed.

01:01:32.777 --> 01:01:42.195
So we put like I wrote this little thing up, so talking about what Arkham Asylum meant to me and what Batman means to me and why I wanted to do the book.

01:01:42.195 --> 01:01:48.110
you I think it's going to end up being quite a nice little package that will have some emotional resonance to it.

01:01:48.110 --> 01:01:50.623
So I'm excited for that to be in people's hands.

01:01:50.623 --> 01:01:55.936
I've been wanting to have this hardcover for since, you know, since reading that first issue up and I'm excited.

01:01:55.936 --> 01:01:56.507
you, Anne.

01:01:56.507 --> 01:01:57.108
Thank you.

01:01:57.108 --> 01:01:58.579
It's going to be, it's gorgeous.

01:01:58.579 --> 01:01:59.960
It's going to be cool.

01:01:59.960 --> 01:02:02.081
Gorgeous, man, gorgeous.

01:02:02.081 --> 01:02:05.291
Well, let's end this conversation by talking about Spectrograph.

01:02:05.652 --> 01:02:07.574
At the end of this, because we got to get back to that.

01:02:07.574 --> 01:02:11.534
We got to get back to Ghost Guts and all of these amazing characters.

01:02:11.635 --> 01:02:16.458
At the time of this recording, issue two was just released last week, June 19th.

01:02:16.458 --> 01:02:19.168
If you're missing out on this, you're dumb.

01:02:19.168 --> 01:02:19.829
All right.

01:02:19.829 --> 01:02:24.320
Go out to your local comic shop and pick up every issue that you can find.

01:02:24.320 --> 01:02:25.161
You're dumb.

01:02:25.161 --> 01:02:26.074
You're dumb.

01:02:26.074 --> 01:02:36.003
Last time we had you on, you and James both did a great job explaining the premise while also staying relatively tight lipped about specific details.

01:02:36.003 --> 01:02:38.925
Let's get specific this time since it's out.

01:02:38.925 --> 01:02:46.853
Going to the halfway point of the story, what elements of this process of working with James and Distillery have challenged you the most?

01:02:46.853 --> 01:02:53.922
mean, I think the thing that I found most challenging, and I use the term challenging in positive sense.

01:02:53.922 --> 01:02:58.724
mean, whenever I do a project, it's, you know, why am I doing this?

01:02:58.724 --> 01:03:02.206
What's different about this project to some of what done before?

01:03:02.405 --> 01:03:08.728
And what's going to stop me from getting bored basically, you know, keep me flexing my muscles.

01:03:08.728 --> 01:03:19.405
And so really it was about how am going to do something even though there's a kind of psychedelic quality to it, it's very earthbound.

01:03:19.405 --> 01:03:35.965
It's very reality bound and actually because of James and the way that he writes, 75 % of it is about the physicality and the kind of people relating to each other, very much kitchen sink real life.

01:03:36.166 --> 01:03:41.126
The biggest horror in the book is a baby that's been left at home.

01:03:41.425 --> 01:03:46.826
It's nothing to do with the kind of like the cosmic entrails of some creature.

01:03:48.117 --> 01:04:01.146
the challenge has been, you know, really pushing myself to go, okay, what does my, you know, and I looked at lots of Michael Mann films, because I wanted this to feel quite cinematic rather than the comic booky.

01:04:01.146 --> 01:04:04.820
You know, what does my Michael Mann comic look like?

01:04:04.820 --> 01:04:11.315
You know, what does a grounded Christian Ward book look like?

01:04:11.315 --> 01:04:15.376
You know, and James, you know, James does this thing in his scripts.

01:04:16.449 --> 01:04:23.985
where his characters feel really real and his conversations in those characters again feels really real.

01:04:23.985 --> 01:04:25.858
They're like real conversations.

01:04:25.858 --> 01:04:29.320
It's like he's heard them and, you know, put them on the page.

01:04:29.320 --> 01:04:34.364
They feel completely genuine and completely true to whoever's speaking them.

01:04:34.545 --> 01:04:42.552
And he often, he very rarely will put one person talking or two people talking in one panel.

01:04:42.552 --> 01:04:45.864
Very much like cut, cut, cut cinematic.

01:04:46.072 --> 01:05:07.396
So it was about, how do I translate that cinematic cut within a comic page and bring a different design sense, storytelling sense to that without relying on some of the sort of like special effects of my previous books, you know, the colors and everything else.

01:05:07.396 --> 01:05:14.422
You know, not to there isn't colors in there, but it's a lot more, for the most part, either realistic or muted.

01:05:14.481 --> 01:05:17.103
And that's been really fun to do that.

01:05:17.103 --> 01:05:26.751
Like I'm working on issue three at the moment and there's a sequence, it's not too much of a spoiler, where they kind of go underneath the house and they're in these tunnels.

01:05:27.251 --> 01:05:30.635
And James sort of says, you know, they can't see much.

01:05:30.635 --> 01:05:39.641
And so it's like each panel is like a little, almost we're looking for like a little keyhole because they've just got like this little light that's just lighting up parts of them.

01:05:39.641 --> 01:05:44.269
And it's just fun, just, okay, I'm gonna do something different, try something different.

01:05:44.269 --> 01:05:53.530
and kind of trying to be cinematic and trying to kind of reference films that me and James like and that have influenced this book and the story.

01:05:53.530 --> 01:05:55.190
So yeah, I think that.

01:05:55.409 --> 01:06:08.250
I mean, deadlines of, you're working on a 46 page book and the pages are 50 % bigger than a normal comic book page, you know, and there's a lot of work there.

01:06:08.289 --> 01:06:13.880
That's tough just to keep that, you know, real talk, just to kind of keep.

01:06:13.880 --> 01:06:14.690
Keep that up.

01:06:14.690 --> 01:06:23.302
You work with somebody like James and you bring your eye game, you're up your level because you wanna match them.

01:06:23.302 --> 01:06:30.264
You don't wanna be the, you don't wanna be, I James works with some amazing artists, Martin Alvaro.

01:06:30.264 --> 01:06:32.655
I don't wanna be the weak link.

01:06:32.655 --> 01:06:33.626
Do you know what I mean?

01:06:33.626 --> 01:06:41.653
So it's like, you wanna match what they're doing and do the story that he's giving you credit.

01:06:41.653 --> 01:06:43.934
And do you feel that James has matched you?

01:06:43.934 --> 01:06:46.617
Has he brought his A game to match your art?

01:06:46.617 --> 01:06:47.697
It's hard, right?

01:06:47.697 --> 01:06:52.800
Like I said, I really love my favorite thing that the James has done is probably nice house on the lake.

01:06:52.800 --> 01:06:54.400
I think it's phenomenal.

01:06:54.400 --> 01:06:56.862
And I'm sick with this in the same way and read it.

01:06:56.862 --> 01:06:57.603
It's far more.

01:06:57.603 --> 01:07:01.905
take it apart, you know, far more kind of like forensic quiver.

01:07:01.905 --> 01:07:08.117
Like I do the way I read a script is I will zip through a script really quickly, like really quick.

01:07:08.117 --> 01:07:09.528
Read it all the way through.

01:07:09.528 --> 01:07:16.184
And then as I'm drawing I will have the page that I'm drawing the script open and I'll keep reading the page.

01:07:16.184 --> 01:07:20.086
So I'll read that script page over and over and over as I'm drawing it.

01:07:20.086 --> 01:07:22.057
I'll read what the characters are saying over and over.

01:07:22.057 --> 01:07:23.228
Make sure I'm in the scene.

01:07:23.228 --> 01:07:24.259
Make sure I know what's happening.

01:07:24.259 --> 01:07:25.230
What happened before?

01:07:25.230 --> 01:07:26.951
What's going to happen afterwards?

01:07:26.951 --> 01:07:31.713
So I'm really reading it on a very intense way.

01:07:31.713 --> 01:07:35.755
So there's not a lot of enjoyment there because I'm just, really in it.

01:07:35.755 --> 01:07:42.693
So it's hard for me to say that, you know, that this I mean, it's certainly as good as anything he's done.

01:07:42.833 --> 01:07:49.873
And the one thing I can say is I checked on comic book roundup today and it's the highest rated thing.

01:07:49.873 --> 01:07:51.353
It's like 97.

01:07:51.353 --> 01:07:54.454
And I think Nice House on the Lake was 94.

01:07:55.034 --> 01:08:11.034
No, Nice House on the Lake has got a lot more issues and I'm, you know, we may drop down by the time we've done the four issues, but it's very gratifying to see that the thing that we're doing together is at least as good as Nice House on the viewed by some people.

01:08:11.034 --> 01:08:12.324
I think it's great.

01:08:12.324 --> 01:08:13.155
I love it.

01:08:13.155 --> 01:08:20.606
That was my roundabout way, by the way, of saying that you are a great artist and that he had to bring his A -game to meet you.

01:08:20.606 --> 01:08:21.277
You.

01:08:21.537 --> 01:08:25.837
You shucks.

01:08:25.858 --> 01:08:33.569
I think one of the true hallmarks of your career and your style is the panel layout.

01:08:33.569 --> 01:08:39.435
One of the most interesting panel layout strategies of any creator that I am aware of.

01:08:39.435 --> 01:08:47.592
And I think just looking through spectrograph issue two, and then you can see an issue one as well, is just the insanity that is, you know, the panels.

01:08:47.592 --> 01:08:55.248
And I'm curious between you and James, what's the shorthand in terms of his scripts and how you sort of determine how to lay out each page?

01:08:55.248 --> 01:08:57.940
Because I would imagine, I don't know this for a fact.

01:08:57.940 --> 01:09:02.243
I'm curious of your thoughts on it, but I would imagine that he doesn't really give you a ton of direction.

01:09:02.243 --> 01:09:05.506
He kind of just lets you go crazy with the panel layout.

01:09:05.506 --> 01:09:06.728
Yeah, completely.

01:09:06.728 --> 01:09:26.846
He's pretty like I mean, so basically a script from James would be something like, you know, let's, you know, he's laying out a scene between Jen and, and, and, and had names go out my head, but Vespa.

01:09:26.846 --> 01:09:29.747
So he's laying out a scene between Jen and Vespa.

01:09:29.747 --> 01:09:31.738
it's, it's, again, it's quite semantic.

01:09:31.738 --> 01:09:34.328
So he's kind of doing the stage directions.

01:09:34.328 --> 01:09:45.837
So Jen will do this and then, you know, and Vesper will do this and then, but what's really important and what I really love is he'll talk about the emotional state of them.

01:09:45.837 --> 01:09:50.819
So he'll be like, you know, Vesper's upset, but she's trying to hide it.

01:09:50.819 --> 01:09:53.470
You know, he tells me what's going on internally.

01:09:53.470 --> 01:09:56.891
And that plays a big part into your storytelling.

01:09:56.891 --> 01:10:03.725
So what do I want the reader, what do we want the reader to feel in this situation?

01:10:03.725 --> 01:10:11.280
And Pagelio, is a really good way of kind of like influencing what the reader's feeling.

01:10:11.280 --> 01:10:13.974
know, do you feel claustrophobic?

01:10:13.974 --> 01:10:16.195
Do you feel a little bit lost?

01:10:16.195 --> 01:10:20.500
Do you feel, you know, what are you feeling?

01:10:21.140 --> 01:10:31.010
like the page with, when we see the baby crying, the full panel page, like I don't know why, but I felt like it needed to be cut up to me.

01:10:31.115 --> 01:10:36.158
like it was broken up, like it was in a cage, the baby was in a cage and couldn't get out.

01:10:36.158 --> 01:10:39.371
So there's lots of little subtle things you can do with storytelling.

01:10:39.372 --> 01:10:42.734
But yeah, James is like, you know, he's brilliant.

01:10:42.734 --> 01:10:45.756
He just, he gives me the story.

01:10:45.756 --> 01:10:48.398
He tells me emotionally what's happening with the characters.

01:10:48.398 --> 01:10:53.780
He tells me where all the characters are in any one scene, what they're physically doing.

01:10:53.780 --> 01:10:59.765
And then it's up to me how I portrayed that and how I direct it and how I lay that out.

01:10:59.765 --> 01:11:00.717
You know, it's brilliant.

01:11:00.717 --> 01:11:02.438
Yeah, that's awesome.

01:11:02.597 --> 01:11:07.198
You know, honestly, I think that'll probably that'll do all the time that we have here with you, Christian.

01:11:07.198 --> 01:11:13.037
We told you that we wanted to have you on for, you know, 35, 40 minutes and here we are almost double that now.

01:11:13.037 --> 01:11:17.398
Who would have thought that, of course, when we get you on here, we want to keep you longer than we asked.

01:11:17.398 --> 01:11:19.097
So exactly.

01:11:19.578 --> 01:11:23.917
know, per usual, you know, it's been an absolute pleasure to have you here on the show.

01:11:23.917 --> 01:11:29.942
We will link, like you said earlier, the Zoop campaign for many worlds or many, many worlds.

01:11:29.942 --> 01:11:31.271
in the link in the show notes.

01:11:31.271 --> 01:11:38.073
So many, well, this right now, if you're listening to this right now, go to the show notes and you will have the link for that campaign.

01:11:38.323 --> 01:11:40.045
and, you can get notified when it goes live.

01:11:40.045 --> 01:11:44.055
I think at this point it will already be live, which is incredible.

01:11:44.055 --> 01:11:47.617
and Aaron and will already have, put in our donation or not.

01:11:47.617 --> 01:11:52.557
Our, our, our funds to get that at some point, our support of this amazing man.

01:11:52.557 --> 01:11:53.448
That's right.

01:11:53.448 --> 01:11:54.309
Per usual.

01:11:54.309 --> 01:12:02.483
Can't wait to have you back for a six time in the near future for literally any reason at could be around, I don't know, December time.

01:12:03.024 --> 01:12:04.163
Who knows?

01:12:04.224 --> 01:12:08.145
Or just another quick hits with Christian, another session of quick.

01:12:08.145 --> 01:12:09.206
Yeah.

01:12:09.447 --> 01:12:13.127
Just get me back on every week, every week to do one of those.

01:12:13.127 --> 01:12:14.338
He'll never catch.

01:12:14.338 --> 01:12:15.989
He will never catch me.

01:12:15.989 --> 01:12:19.871
And you know, when I say who, we want you to say who though.

01:12:19.871 --> 01:12:24.382
Tom King throw that gauntlet down plays for Tom King.

01:12:24.382 --> 01:12:28.475
have Tom on the show next He's going to, he's going to come out for sure.

01:12:28.475 --> 01:12:35.176
He'll be crying into his HBO green lantern money.

01:12:35.176 --> 01:12:36.527
Wipe his tears of money.

01:12:36.527 --> 01:12:38.528
All right.

01:12:38.528 --> 01:12:41.179
Well, Christian, before we let you go, is there anything you want to highlight?

01:12:41.179 --> 01:12:42.588
Any, what cons are you going to this year?

01:12:42.588 --> 01:12:44.399
Is there anything you want to say before we head out here?

01:12:44.399 --> 01:12:48.400
I don't know it will be announced, but maybe you'll see me in New York.

01:12:49.621 --> 01:12:50.442
I don't know.

01:12:50.442 --> 01:12:55.172
Aaron, do have anything want to say before we head No, I just again, Christian as always, thank you for being here.

01:12:55.172 --> 01:12:56.353
It's a pleasure to talk with you.

01:12:56.353 --> 01:12:58.913
you being a friend.

01:12:58.913 --> 01:13:01.404
Thank you for being a golden girl.

01:13:01.404 --> 01:13:18.118
But it's a love hate thing when you're on the show because ever since I want to say it was like three times, three like, you know, appearances ago, you've pulled out this poison Ivy, you know, poster behind you print and it's it's it's taunting me.

01:13:18.118 --> 01:13:19.498
This is G Clay, think, isn't it?

01:13:19.498 --> 01:13:20.850
This is G Clay.

01:13:21.738 --> 01:13:23.158
It's taunting me.

01:13:23.158 --> 01:13:24.479
I can see you on.

01:13:24.838 --> 01:13:25.059
yeah.

01:13:25.059 --> 01:13:25.569
There we go.

01:13:25.569 --> 01:13:27.378
See, that's all I ever wanted.

01:13:27.880 --> 01:13:28.529
A little hookup.

01:13:28.529 --> 01:13:29.779
right, Chris.

01:13:29.779 --> 01:13:30.570
Well, thank you so much.

01:13:30.570 --> 01:13:31.310
We appreciate it.

01:13:31.310 --> 01:13:32.711
We will see you next time.

01:13:32.711 --> 01:13:37.641
We'll see you at New York Comic Con and we'll see you again whenever is the next time that you're on the show.

01:13:38.203 --> 01:13:38.722
All righty.

01:13:38.722 --> 01:13:41.082
There's that conversation with Christian Ward.

01:13:41.082 --> 01:13:43.014
Always a pleasure to talk to our good friend, Christian.

01:13:43.014 --> 01:13:46.744
He is again, as we said at the beginning of show, one of our best friends in the industry.

01:13:47.345 --> 01:13:50.314
We've gotten breakfast with breakfast with him and say in New York.

01:13:50.314 --> 01:13:52.154
What, what did you think of Quick Hitters with Christian?

01:13:52.154 --> 01:13:53.636
Were you a fan of that new segment?

01:13:53.636 --> 01:13:54.336
I was.

01:13:54.336 --> 01:13:59.747
I'm, it's just funny because he has like the same like stupid kid.

01:13:59.747 --> 01:14:02.538
like the dumb boy humor that we have.

01:14:02.538 --> 01:14:10.162
Like even though, know, it's like the, you're like, the British are like more, you know, more intelligent, more mature and we're just all being a bunch of dumb dudes.

01:14:10.162 --> 01:14:10.762
know?

01:14:10.762 --> 01:14:11.162
Yeah.

01:14:11.162 --> 01:14:14.854
It's so fun to just bro out with Christian here on the segments, bro -ing out with Christian.

01:14:14.854 --> 01:14:20.755
Yeah, that's I'm excited to see him in New York later this year.

01:14:21.475 --> 01:14:24.345
October will be, think, his only con the entire year.

01:14:24.345 --> 01:14:26.015
and I have sort of played.

01:14:26.015 --> 01:14:29.756
We actually introduced the idea of maybe going to Thought Bubble in November, question mark.

01:14:29.756 --> 01:14:30.797
We'll see.

01:14:30.797 --> 01:14:32.377
If we do, we'll definitely see Christian there.

01:14:32.377 --> 01:14:35.338
But I know definitely I'll speak for Aaron here.

01:14:35.338 --> 01:14:37.458
Very excited for New York in the fall.

01:14:37.500 --> 01:14:39.840
Always, always a pleasure to have Christian here on the show.

01:14:39.840 --> 01:14:41.180
He will be back, everybody.

01:14:41.180 --> 01:14:42.030
Surprise, surprise.

01:14:42.030 --> 01:14:46.253
I'm sure at some point down the road in the near future, as we said, maybe next week.

01:14:46.253 --> 01:14:50.974
Uh, actually, no, he won't be back next week because there's someone very special that we'll be introducing here in just a moment.

01:14:50.974 --> 01:14:54.554
uh, thank you again to Christian for being on the oblivion bar podcast.

01:14:54.554 --> 01:14:56.394
Always, always just a wonderful time.

01:14:56.394 --> 01:14:57.434
He'll be back soon.

01:14:57.434 --> 01:14:59.894
Cause he's that man does not stop working.

01:14:59.894 --> 01:15:13.333
Not only does he not stop coming onto the oblivion bar, but he also doesn't stop just hating, just putting out bangers, just bangers, bangers, bangers next week on the show, Aaron, this is a big deal for a couple of reasons for episode one 65 of the oblivion bar podcast.

01:15:13.333 --> 01:15:15.949
I had the ultimate pleasure.

01:15:15.949 --> 01:15:18.310
sitting down with my favorite comic writer.

01:15:18.350 --> 01:15:24.010
I wouldn't say favorite comic writer, favorite writer, just overall, one of my favorite creators in the world of comics.

01:15:24.010 --> 01:15:32.470
You've known him as the writer of pride of Baghdad, paper girls, ex machina, why the last man lost season two and three.

01:15:32.470 --> 01:15:33.090
Yup.

01:15:33.090 --> 01:15:33.189
Yup.

01:15:33.189 --> 01:15:33.369
Yup.

01:15:33.369 --> 01:15:33.489
Yup.

01:15:33.489 --> 01:15:33.970
Yup.

01:15:33.970 --> 01:15:36.069
And saga saga.

01:15:36.250 --> 01:15:38.750
I had the pleasure of sitting down with Brian K.

01:15:38.750 --> 01:15:40.069
Vaughn for an hour long.

01:15:40.069 --> 01:15:42.970
And I told him, said 30 minutes, Brian, it's all I need.

01:15:42.970 --> 01:15:51.974
I just want to, I just want to introduce our listeners to The return of saga at the end of July with issue 67 comes out the last Wednesday of July.

01:15:51.974 --> 01:15:55.573
he, he and I, Aaron, when I tell you, I'm so proud of this conversation.

01:15:55.573 --> 01:15:58.173
It is, um, it's special.

01:15:58.173 --> 01:16:03.594
think the only thing that would have made it better is if you were there, but I will say, think folks are really, really going to enjoy this conversation.

01:16:04.194 --> 01:16:13.311
I'm so happy that you got this opportunity because you have been like gushing and also like even before that, like working your ass off to get in.

01:16:13.311 --> 01:16:14.801
I'm every favor that I had.

01:16:14.801 --> 01:16:17.842
Yeah, calling in every favor to make it happen.

01:16:17.842 --> 01:16:20.173
I'm just, I'm happy for you.

01:16:20.173 --> 01:16:23.074
Like I told you so many times, like I'm so happy that you got this opportunity.

01:16:23.074 --> 01:16:33.768
Cause you know, it's, I think that's what's kind of truly unique about this medium is that we've, especially you and I, we've got to talk to some of our absolute favorite creators on the planet.

01:16:33.768 --> 01:16:38.679
And it's just been like a wild ride thus far, you know?

01:16:38.679 --> 01:16:40.259
And I'm just, I was just happy.

01:16:40.259 --> 01:16:42.689
Like I was just, know, please does punch.

01:16:42.689 --> 01:16:44.690
that you got to speak to him.

01:16:44.811 --> 01:16:45.511
To your credit.

01:16:45.511 --> 01:16:48.654
You were like immediate, like, please like do it by yourself.

01:16:48.654 --> 01:16:49.185
Yeah.

01:16:49.185 --> 01:16:54.037
And this is big deal for you because he is a, he's a bucket list creator.

01:16:54.037 --> 01:16:56.970
Like I think Aaron, I'd love to hear your kind of thoughts on this really quick.

01:16:56.970 --> 01:17:05.746
If you can think off the of your head really, really quickly, but it's like for me, it'd be like Brian K von Jim Lee, James gun, Chris Evans.

01:17:05.987 --> 01:17:08.488
I'm trying to think of someone else really quickly off the top of my head.

01:17:08.488 --> 01:17:10.550
Florence Pugh obviously would be great.

01:17:10.658 --> 01:17:19.351
Just a couple of those folks, there's a bunch of comic creators I would love to have on the show, but yeah, Brian was at the tippy top of my bucket list creators to have on and I've already done it.

01:17:19.351 --> 01:17:20.662
We can shut the show down.

01:17:20.662 --> 01:17:22.662
I've got the one.

01:17:22.662 --> 01:17:28.966
Well, I sent you a picture the other day and I actually achieved very much multiple bucket list encounters.

01:17:29.445 --> 01:17:30.247
doing his part.

01:17:30.247 --> 01:17:31.497
Yeah, I'm doing my part.

01:17:31.497 --> 01:17:35.878
I literally went to Contropolis, New Jersey, which is a convention.

01:17:35.878 --> 01:17:47.536
I went and basically, volunteered to do some fundraising with my, you know, with the New York City Ghostbusters who I am actually as of the Contropolis in New Jersey, I am now a full-fledged member.

01:17:47.536 --> 01:17:49.506
My probationary period is over.

01:17:49.506 --> 01:17:50.296
I'm official.

01:17:50.296 --> 01:17:52.448
I'm an official busta.

01:17:52.448 --> 01:17:52.908
Yep.

01:17:52.908 --> 01:18:11.131
Not, but during that and I got to meet, speak with, do photos, get autographs of Dina Meyer, Casper Van Deen, Jake Busey, Michael Ironside, Seth Gilliam, all of them, the main cast and guess who's going to be here in New York City for NYCC.

01:18:11.131 --> 01:18:12.431
The same crew?

01:18:12.431 --> 01:18:17.854
Same crew, but also I'm gonna forget her name, but the girlfriend, I forget her name.

01:18:17.854 --> 01:18:18.265
Richards?

01:18:18.265 --> 01:18:18.954
Denise Richards.

01:18:18.954 --> 01:18:19.654
She's going to be here.

01:18:19.654 --> 01:18:20.225
No kidding.

01:18:20.225 --> 01:18:20.645
Yeah.

01:18:20.645 --> 01:18:21.876
For New York Comic -Con.

01:18:21.876 --> 01:18:28.769
So, I may have to, to, to potentially crack open, a, I don't know if I'm going to do it.

01:18:28.769 --> 01:18:29.498
I don't really care.

01:18:29.498 --> 01:18:34.451
She's not my favorite character in the movie, but I sent my book to get graded with all of their signatures.

01:18:34.451 --> 01:18:38.671
Cause I spent that money, which No, no regrets.

01:18:38.671 --> 01:18:41.292
But those those those were bucket list.

01:18:41.292 --> 01:18:45.274
Honestly, like encounters like Dina Meyer as dizzy.

01:18:45.274 --> 01:18:46.204
What is he doing?

01:18:46.204 --> 01:18:51.627
Why is he so attached to Denise Richards when he has Dina Meyer on his jock the entire movie?

01:18:51.627 --> 01:18:52.359
Exactly.

01:18:52.359 --> 01:18:53.439
What are you doing?

01:18:53.439 --> 01:18:54.140
Exactly.

01:18:54.140 --> 01:18:57.221
What a Dumber Casper Van Dude.

01:18:57.221 --> 01:18:58.431
What are you doing?

01:18:58.431 --> 01:18:59.432
What's Patrick Harris doing?

01:18:59.432 --> 01:19:00.302
Why isn't he?

01:19:00.302 --> 01:19:00.833
Why is he coming?

01:19:00.833 --> 01:19:01.673
I have not seen him.

01:19:01.673 --> 01:19:03.824
He's probably too busy being successful.

01:19:03.824 --> 01:19:08.932
He's too busy doing Other things, but I will tell you this, a really cool thing.

01:19:08.932 --> 01:19:20.161
speaking, Michael Ironside, probably one of the most bad -ass awesome guys, like just a complete, like Richter from total recall, you know, like just all this stuff that he wanted the party Richter.

01:19:20.161 --> 01:19:21.020
Yes.

01:19:21.020 --> 01:19:28.166
he was, he was, what's his name in, in Top Gun, jester.

01:19:28.266 --> 01:19:28.506
yeah.

01:19:28.506 --> 01:19:30.127
He's one of the, Yep.

01:19:30.127 --> 01:19:30.408
Yep.

01:19:30.408 --> 01:19:33.189
He was jester and Top Gun, but also.

01:19:33.445 --> 01:19:39.207
If you have not seen turbo turbo kid, all right, turbo kid is an indie film.

01:19:39.207 --> 01:19:42.418
He told me that they're doing a sequel, which I'm fucking pumped about.

01:19:42.418 --> 01:19:44.779
But anyways, it was just great to talk to him.

01:19:44.779 --> 01:19:46.029
So great.

01:19:46.029 --> 01:19:46.930
Yeah.

01:19:46.930 --> 01:19:50.791
OK, so we just need to get the entire crew of Starship Troopers on the show for a rewatch.

01:19:51.140 --> 01:19:51.381
yeah.

01:19:51.381 --> 01:19:52.211
That be incredible.

01:19:52.211 --> 01:19:52.530
Yeah.

01:19:52.530 --> 01:19:53.372
Amazing.

01:19:53.372 --> 01:19:55.671
Starship Troopers is really very important to both of us.

01:19:55.671 --> 01:19:57.443
I don't like we were we were ahead of the game.

01:19:57.443 --> 01:19:58.832
I know people are it's like kind of a cult.

01:19:58.832 --> 01:20:00.443
It's like a cult classic fun film.

01:20:00.443 --> 01:20:02.944
Everyone wants to pretend they've always loved Starship Troopers.

01:20:02.944 --> 01:20:03.814
Not necessarily.

01:20:03.814 --> 01:20:09.597
think for a long time folks kind of it was sort of a punching bag, but I think that it is truly like a classic.

01:20:09.597 --> 01:20:11.099
We should do a show on it.

01:20:11.099 --> 01:20:11.779
We should.

01:20:11.779 --> 01:20:14.360
I don't know why we got on the, we got on the topic of Starship Trippers.

01:20:14.360 --> 01:20:17.672
I was trying to mention that we're having Brian gave on the show next week and that's what we do.

01:20:17.672 --> 01:20:18.344
That's what we do.

01:20:18.344 --> 01:20:18.804
Yeah.

01:20:18.804 --> 01:20:19.954
But I was going to say, I got this.

01:20:19.954 --> 01:20:26.908
So Michael Irons, I got his, his, you know, Gene Ratchack, Funko pop side and on the side, I didn't even see when he did this.

01:20:26.908 --> 01:20:29.380
All he did was see him sign and he put a little smiley face.

01:20:29.380 --> 01:20:35.972
I was excited for the smiley face, but what I didn't see was that on the side of it, he wrote, everyone fights, nobody quits.

01:20:36.453 --> 01:20:38.413
is for you new people.

01:20:38.675 --> 01:20:40.715
I only have one rule.

01:20:41.036 --> 01:20:42.987
Everyone fights, no one quits.

01:20:42.987 --> 01:20:50.586
If you don't do your job, I'll shoot Yeah.

01:20:51.265 --> 01:20:51.865
Well, anyway, yeah.

01:20:51.865 --> 01:20:54.166
So 165 of the Abillion Bar podcast, Brian K.

01:20:54.166 --> 01:20:54.826
Vaughan will be here.

01:20:54.826 --> 01:20:56.025
It was an incredible conversation.

01:20:56.025 --> 01:21:01.086
I talked to him back in early June and I am genuinely so excited to get people's reactions.

01:21:01.086 --> 01:21:01.865
still pumped from it.

01:21:01.865 --> 01:21:02.905
You're still jazzed.

01:21:02.905 --> 01:21:04.105
He doesn't do interviews, Aaron.

01:21:04.105 --> 01:21:05.206
Like the last, I looked it up.

01:21:05.206 --> 01:21:10.886
The last podcast interview he did was with Off Panel in 2021, but that was for the previous return of Saga.

01:21:10.886 --> 01:21:15.993
So it's on a little bit of a hiatus and now it's I don't know that he's, don't know if he's done any other conversations.

01:21:15.993 --> 01:21:17.573
kind of hope selfishly that he hasn't.

01:21:17.573 --> 01:21:22.974
So that way we're sort of the one -stop shop for, you know, saga, returnal, it's full, it's full spoilers.

01:21:22.974 --> 01:21:33.594
So if you have not read up to at least to issue 54 of saga, I would recommend that you get there and then listen to the conversation because we talk about everything up to issue 66, but especially up to issue 54.

01:21:33.934 --> 01:21:36.094
So that is next week on the Oblivion Bar podcast.

01:21:36.094 --> 01:21:38.073
Very excited for that episode.

01:21:38.073 --> 01:21:39.873
Aaron, I think we've done it.

01:21:39.873 --> 01:21:42.854
Episode 164 is in the books.

01:21:43.543 --> 01:21:45.194
Take us out of here.

01:22:09.783 --> 01:22:10.503
We got a couple of new.

01:22:10.503 --> 01:22:12.115
We got like three new patrons last week.

01:22:12.115 --> 01:22:15.698
So thank you to Chris, Zach and Gianni for all joining.

01:22:15.698 --> 01:22:16.828
Brad B is back.

01:22:16.828 --> 01:22:19.350
Danny, a lot of new patrons here.

01:22:19.350 --> 01:22:19.980
Very cool.

01:22:19.980 --> 01:22:32.118
And we just want to put out also, if you want to support the show without spending any money, a five star rating and or review on like a podcast or Spotify anywhere again that you listen to your favorite podcast, any kind of review word of mouth, that stuff helps.

01:22:32.118 --> 01:22:32.439
Awesome.

01:22:32.439 --> 01:22:35.551
You don't have to be a Patreon member to support the show.

01:22:35.551 --> 01:22:45.493
You can do it like free and we just, you know, we're so thankful for Go ahead and follow us on social media, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, blue sky and threats at oblivion bar pod.

01:22:45.514 --> 01:22:45.814
Thank you.

01:22:45.814 --> 01:22:51.014
Omnibus for sponsoring the show for the last time, for the last time, pour one out for Omnibus.

01:22:51.014 --> 01:23:03.314
Everybody, if you're drinking something, do it, do put her in the air because this is the last time we'll mention Omnibus on the show, at least in a like sort of business, you know, way we're always going to like Aaron said earlier, hold them in high regard.

01:23:03.314 --> 01:23:07.757
But yeah, episode 164 is the very last episode that is sponsored by Omnibus.

01:23:07.757 --> 01:23:11.898
You can find official merch to the show at our website, oblivionbarpodcast .com.

01:23:11.898 --> 01:23:14.078
Thank you, Kevin Ziegler for all of our oblivion bar art.

01:23:14.078 --> 01:23:15.938
He's at the ZigZone on Instagram.

01:23:15.938 --> 01:23:17.917
Thank you, Dream Kid for all of our musical themes.

01:23:17.917 --> 01:23:20.417
Thank you, DJ Skyvac for our grid theme.

01:23:20.417 --> 01:23:24.636
And last but not least, don't forget to tip your bartenders 20 % or more.

01:23:24.858 --> 01:23:27.957
And don't forget to say your prayers for Omnibus tonight.

01:23:27.957 --> 01:23:28.997
That's right.

01:23:28.997 --> 01:23:31.518
Everyone, thank you so much for listening to the Oblivion Bar Podcast.

01:23:31.518 --> 01:23:33.978
We will see you next week for episode