NYCC '24 INTERVIEW-A-THON: Michael Dialynas

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Hello there, I'm Michael D'Alinas, comic creator behind titles like Wind, The Woods, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Zawa and the Belly of the Beast.

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And you are listening to Oblivion Barre 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 and welcome to episode 166 of the Oblivion Bar podcast.

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I'm your pointy-eared kid turned wing monster Chris Hacker and joining me is the ancient mountain guardian with a cookie obsession himself, my co-host and BFF Aaron Knowles.

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back everybody to the Oblivion Bar podcast.

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Aaron, we are officially back.

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This is our first episode back.

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We've been gone for four months.

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All I want you to do in this part of the show is put the sound effect from the, was the dinosaur movie.

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We're back.

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Okay.

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You know, like we're back, you know, like I just want that.

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Like it's like, we're back.

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Cause that was the name of the movie.

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Yeah.

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that's time with me.

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Every time somebody says we're back.

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That's what plays in my head is this fucking scene where these animated dinosaurs.

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It's like a terrifying movie by the way.

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like turn into actual dinosaurs at some point, right?

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Well, yeah.

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So like at one point there's like this evil doctor screw eye.

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He's got a fucking screw for an eye and he like gives them the bombs in the first five minutes.

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Sorry.

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No, he's got this cereal called brain drain.

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And it makes them it takes them from being intelligence, not intelligent dinosaur.

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I don't even remember why they're intelligent dinosaurs, but they are.

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And he makes them into monstrous ones, like into like real dinosaurs and they turn like scary as hell.

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And then, yeah, I'm sorry.

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I'm just trying not to yell on the mic because I feel very passionate about this movie.

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But anyways, we're back.

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That's a long way of just telling you what happens in my brain.

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Yes, everyone, we are back.

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The Oblivion Bar is officially back.

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And Aaron, we have a brand new look.

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We've got like a brand new makeover.

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That's what we've been doing the last four months.

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up.

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It's like we've we've grown up.

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Is that correct?

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Glown up.

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No cap.

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No.

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Ohio, I think.

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Is that a thing?

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Riz.

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We're Jigs.

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We're hip.

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Jigs.

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But yeah, so we have a brand new look, as you can see, Aaron.

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I don't know why I'm telling you.

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You already know.

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I should be telling the listener, everybody.

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As you can see, everybody, this is How would you describe this Aaron?

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This brand new look that we have here.

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We went to KXD Studios.

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We were working with him for around two months or so to get this brand new look.

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And as you'll see over the next couple of months, everything from our segment look to our stories on social media, everything is just going to look brand new.

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totally, we put the time and effort into it, but how would you describe this look that we have here?

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I'm going to share my thoughts on the look.

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But what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna preface my thoughts with the two groups of people that we need to thank for this.

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A, the programs.

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Thank you.

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And B, the sponsors.

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We would not be able to put back into this show what we do put into it without the help of those two people.

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And because of those two groups of people, we are able to reimagine and bring ourselves back with such a, with a concept that is exactly what We wanted to represent the oblivion bar with it's retro.

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It's nostalgic.

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It's badass.

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It's like CRT, like VHS late, late eighties early nineties.

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Be kind rewind.

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Motherfuckers.

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Motherfucker.

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That's what we want.

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wanted this.

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We wanted to, you know, with the help of those two groups, we are able to bring the oblivion bar pod.

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And this is what we said as we went through this process.

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that this is the evolution of us going from Charmander to Charmeleon, possibly straight into Charizard.

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Charizard.

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Charizard.

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Charizard.

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Charizard.

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Then we can go Mega Charizard and then all the other ones that they have.

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Yeah.

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And so, I mean, this is our opportunity to show you guys how much we care because again, I don't know if people know, but rebranding is not cheap.

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Nope.

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It's not if you guys think that we're walking around like Wayne's world where it's like I got $500 I got five, you know, she will be mine No, this is not that game.

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Like we put the money back into this we re we what do you call it?

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We reinvested in ourselves.

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Yeah.

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Yeah, I guess that's the best way to say it.

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and and again, we we want to thank the programs we want to thank the sponsors and we want to thank anybody that has supported us along the way because this is truly what we're growing into what we're supposed to be.

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Yeah, 100%.

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You nailed on the head.

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Everybody that not only listens to the show, but contributes to the Patreon, everything.

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As Aaron said, I wish we were walking around with money bags.

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I really, really wish that was a reality.

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But anything that we get from the people that support the show, that listen to the show, we put it right back into the oblivion bar.

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And as you can see, it looks awesome.

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One thing that I've always sort of been slightly self-conscious about with the show, because I think we've grown as a show, as a partnership, everything that we've done within the show, we're constantly trying to make it better.

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But with the Oblivion Bar, the one thing that I was, again, self-conscious about was the look, because we sort of pieced it together with a couple of different creators and a couple of different folks that helped us along the way.

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But what we have here, again, thanks to KXD Studios, who is the mind behind the new look of the Oblivion Bar, it's a cohesive sort of look, which again is a late eighties, early nineties, synthy sort of horror vibe.

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I guess you could say if you want to call it that.

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But let's also think dream kid because honestly, without dream kids inspiration of our sounds for the show, we would not have really discovered like how deep this 80s synth tronny, know, like a grill and look it like runs in our blood.

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It's very much what both of you and I love.

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Like again, the Tron legacy of it all go over to our Patreon.

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It's called literally the grid.

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We call our Patreon members programs.

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Like that is so intrinsically tied into what we love.

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And I think what goes along with that is sort of that aesthetic of grids, you know, polygons and, sent the music and riding down a highway in Japan and a red Corvette with a orange moon in the foreground.

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And like all those things are very much our, our bag baby.

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So, once again, thank you everybody who helped with that.

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Again, day one of Interview-a-thon.

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This is our very first episode back.

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Aaron, it's Interview-a-thon and...

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Yes, everybody, if you're not familiar with Interview-a-thon or...

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It's a week long event where Aaron and I essentially sit down with a creator every single day of New York Comic Con.

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So for the next five days, Wednesday through Sunday, you're going to hear a new conversation with a comic creator of some sort each of those days.

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Why we do this every year, Aaron, I'm not sure.

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It's always very stressful.

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We're already, you know, behind the scenes.

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Obviously we're talking to you in the past because you're listening to us during the week of New York Comic Con.

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It is always so stressful to try to not only schedule all of those conversations, but then have those conversations.

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And then you and I have to coordinate our real lives with these conversations.

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It's a lot, but we love doing it, especially when we're at the very end and we can sort of revel in our accomplishment.

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Well, I also like, I like to think of New York Comic Con now that I'm kind of in the know of the industry, the New York Comic Con scene and the event is kind of like.

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the big finale of the year when it comes to conventions.

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And this is really the, know, and before we get into our last call awards, which we do every year as well, this is a great opportunity for us to highlight those creators that we're going to actually see at New York Comic Con.

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Cause just about every single one of the ones that we've, that we are interviewing for interview with on or guess.

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Why is that as good as yours?

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I switched it up there.

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I wasn't expecting it.

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It's going to be at New York Comic Con.

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you know, we do our best to align our social content.

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we get to go and meet like last year we had David Dal Smashian on and we got to go and like we took pictures with them at the convention.

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And it was amazing.

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I'm still like, we still, I still chat with Leah Kilpatrick.

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She's a great human being.

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Same with Christian Ward.

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Christian Ward was the very first day of our New York Comic Con interview with on last year and he was there.

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It was our first time meeting him in person.

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I can't wait to have breakfast with him again.

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I'm not going to be.

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love you.

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I'm not going to embarrassingly squirt lemon all over his face again.

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But yeah, so again, interview with on we are in full effect.

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Everybody day one we're here for episode 166 and for this conversation day we are bringing on a previous guest, one of our favorite creators in the comic book medium.

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We are talking to the wonderful Michael D'Alenos.

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Now everybody knows we've had him on the show before.

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He is obviously the creator of Zawa plus the belly of the beast.

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He's also a co-creator of the woods and wind over with James Tynan.

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So it was so great to sit down with Michael.

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We talk about it in this conversation, Aaron.

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And I feel like I have to start off before we even get into that interview with a brag, with a shameless brag as I do that you and I are on the back of that trade paperback for Zawa.

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So we are.

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We have a pull quote, which is really cool.

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know, shamelessly and selfishly.

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We love that.

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And here's the point though of me saying that outside of just wanting to brag to all of the listeners and everybody else.

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This book, Aaron, you and I have been championing this book since before it was even out.

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Like when we had Michael on the show last time, which was late last year, this was prior to the first issue even coming out.

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We had a chance to look at it early, but...

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We knew within that first issue that this was going to be special, not only for folks like you and I who are in our thirties and we're old nerds, but for young people, this is a YA book about nature and you know, we'll get into it in this conversation, but there's a lot of, there's a lot of subliminal messages.

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And I guess the overarching theme of this conversation is that this is a spoiler filled review or not even review, spoiler filled conversation with Michael about Zawa.

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Yeah.

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But first, before we get into that interview, Let's go over some, some administrative stuff that we need to get into.

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And that's our Patreon.

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If you guys want to support the oblivion bar podcast, please consider checking out our Patreon for your support.

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You're going to gain access to us bonus episode each week called the grid.

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Obviously we just had a long conversation about how much we love Tron and synth, but we call it the grid.

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It's our play.

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It's our, our sandbox.

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It's our playground.

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It's unfiltered.

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It's unashamed.

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It's unabashed.

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It is the oblivion bar pod after dark.

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It's a, you get a behind the scenes look at how we prepare each episode with episode transcripts and patron polls and a whole bunch of other exclusive goodies that you get for being a Patreon, for being a program of the grid and of the Oblivion Bar podcast.

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You can also give it a shot with a seven day free trial at patreon.com forward slash oblivion bar pod.

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You can check out the link in our show notes, go over there, give it a shot.

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Maybe you'll see something you love.

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Maybe you see something you hate.

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but either way, check it out.

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It's a great time.

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Let us know either way.

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Yes, let us know.

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know, we love interaction.

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One thing that we do that a lot of people don't know about is we put out polls on our Patreon before we interview some of these artists like we're about to with Interviewathon or GuestFest.

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And we let you submit questions that we ask the creators of the creative team.

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And we'd love to see more of that in the Patreon.

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So.

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Again, check it out.

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Seven day free trial, patreon.com forward slash oblivion bar pod.

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Awesome.

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Well, let's go ahead get this conversation with Michael D'Aleana.

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It's like I said, very, very good conversation here with Michael about all things Zawa.

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Please pause this conversation and read Zawa first.

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It's five issues.

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The trade actually comes out October 23rd, but you can find all your single issues at your local comic book shop or you can read it digitally.

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However you read your digital comics.

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Now that how many buses no longer around I'm doing, I'm doing one of those like religious, the father, son, the Holy spirit to omnibus.

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So anyway, find that Zawa, read that, and then you can listen to this conversation that we're about to have here with the creator, Michael D'Alenas.

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And now, this week's special guest.

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Joining us today is the Eisner nominated and GLAAD award winning co-creator and illustrator of titles like The Woods and Wind with frequent collaborator James Tynan IV.

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He is also the sole creator of the boombox hit Zawa and the Belly of the Beast, which tells the story of a group of kids who help an elusive mountain guardian rediscover her purpose with love and cookies.

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It is our pleasure to welcome the wooden king himself, Michael D'Alenas back onto the Oblivion Bar podcast.

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Hello, hello.

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Welcome back, Michael.

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So glad to have you back here on the Oblivion Bar podcast.

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It feels like just yesterday we were hanging out at C2E2 back earlier this year.

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That was in April.

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Yes.

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Yeah.

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You to look at your calendar.

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I was like, when was that?

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Yes, that was in April.

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This year has gone by so quick, hasn't it?

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This year has too many too many convention trips to the US for me.

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Like I just got back and I've already been twice.

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I'm going again.

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It just feels.

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no, I'm a successful artist.

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No, it's great to promote comics, but you also have to make the comics.

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What was the one you just got home from?

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Granite State Con.

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Turtle Con.

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I've been invited before and 40 years of turtles and nine years since I started drawing turtles.

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So was a good like, finally I get to, you know, be at this convention with all these other creators that I haven't met before and all these total fans that I've known throughout the years through Facebook and everything.

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So I finally got to meet all these people.

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It was nice.

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you meet our good friend, Greg Katzman?

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No, he wasn't there.

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I will.

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I will hopefully meet him in New York.

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He's awesome.

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You'll love him.

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He's one of our favorite marketing folks here.

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behind the scenes.

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helped us set up a lot of conversations and obviously he's sort of in charge of promoting a lot of that new Jason Aaron specific turtle stuff.

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So hope you get to meet him and we're excited to see you New York here.

00:15:38.337 --> 00:15:40.738
This is of course day one of our interview.

00:15:40.738 --> 00:15:44.648
Or so you're day one.

00:15:44.648 --> 00:16:02.455
You're the very first conversation we knew that when we said we up this interview or that we wanted to have you on first because we want to talk about Zawa, which is You know, of course we had you on, I think it was in November of 2023, we had you on the show to discuss Zawa the first time.

00:16:02.455 --> 00:16:06.102
This is before issue one and I'll let Aaron sort of discuss that before we get into that question though.

00:16:06.102 --> 00:16:09.429
I just want to, you know, ask you sort of overarching question here.

00:16:09.429 --> 00:16:14.966
Now that we're at the end of Zawa and the trades about to come out here at the end of October, how does it feel?

00:16:14.966 --> 00:16:17.605
How does it feel to have Zawa out there for everyone?

00:16:17.605 --> 00:16:19.167
What's the reception been like?

00:16:19.167 --> 00:16:21.508
Just sort of give us your thoughts on all of that.

00:16:21.508 --> 00:16:24.049
Yeah, it's very weird.

00:16:24.142 --> 00:16:29.542
This is my first time being out solo with no one to back me up.

00:16:29.981 --> 00:16:41.302
It was very weird because I've never actually, I think when we were talking about then, I think I remember saying that I didn't even know if I could write and draw 100 pages.

00:16:41.302 --> 00:16:46.402
And this bloated up to like 140 because I kept on asking for extra pages.

00:16:46.402 --> 00:16:48.772
I even asked for an extra issue and they wouldn't give it to me.

00:16:48.772 --> 00:16:51.422
Like, no, no, no, you're not tested yet.

00:16:51.422 --> 00:16:54.282
We can give you five issues, but not six.

00:16:54.542 --> 00:17:02.662
So I was like just adding all these little extra like going back from the inside of the cover to the back of the interior cover.

00:17:02.701 --> 00:17:12.731
So the first two issues are normal size, but I think every the last three issues are like 29 pages out of the 32, which is back to back.

00:17:12.731 --> 00:17:18.281
So it's minus cover, minus cover, minus back cover and minus inside of back cover.

00:17:18.281 --> 00:17:21.201
So I went all the way as many pages as I could take.

00:17:21.201 --> 00:17:29.152
I remember when we were talking about it and you were, I think you said you were finishing up or working on like issue three and you were like, I just don't know how I'm to this all in here.

00:17:29.292 --> 00:17:32.173
Yeah, it was a struggle.

00:17:32.289 --> 00:17:38.509
Well, and I think it's important that we let the listener know right now that this is going to be a very, very spoiler filled conversation about Zawa.

00:17:38.509 --> 00:17:40.578
We're to go front to back, just discuss everything.

00:17:40.578 --> 00:17:43.010
Spoiler, spoilery, guess you could say.

00:17:43.010 --> 00:17:52.615
So if you haven't read Zawa for whatever reason, go ahead and pause this, go check that out, read that and then come back because we wanted to pick your brain completely about this, Michael, and sort of get into what your process was.

00:17:52.615 --> 00:17:55.467
throughout the creation of Zawa and these first five issues.

00:17:56.607 --> 00:17:58.218
let's get into question one, shall we?

00:17:58.218 --> 00:17:59.348
All right.

00:17:59.348 --> 00:18:16.076
So Michael, when we last spoke to you in November, twenty twenty three, which was the month of the release of issue number one, we discussed how Zawa was born out of your admiration for dystopian optics of Guillermo del Toro with the cute and fuzzy feelings you get from watching one of Hayao Mizaki's Studio Ghibli films.

00:18:16.076 --> 00:18:16.405
Yes.

00:18:16.405 --> 00:18:21.228
Aesthetically speaking, which of those two inspirations do you feel like you leaned on?

00:18:21.228 --> 00:18:22.989
a little bit more throughout this story.

00:18:22.989 --> 00:18:24.401
That's a weird one.

00:18:24.401 --> 00:18:27.923
Yeah, actually, I think it went more to the creepy.

00:18:27.923 --> 00:18:39.653
Like when I was, when I started it, had more of the, I'm going to make this fun world and beautiful food and love little characters and everything to be cute and fuzzy and young adults.

00:18:39.653 --> 00:18:48.721
And then as I was going through the motions of getting to the post issue three, part of the story as I okay, this is getting darker.

00:18:48.721 --> 00:18:50.582
This is getting very dark.

00:18:50.582 --> 00:18:56.981
And I leaning more on on the creepy vibes of a Guillermo del Toro movie.

00:18:56.981 --> 00:19:08.622
And I think now this is a conversation move for later like once I'm done with wind, I think I'm going to lean more into the creepy stuff.

00:19:08.721 --> 00:19:25.362
Like, I think I've graduated elementary school and high school and going into the the perils of youth and then onwards, the darker parts of the YA verse.

00:19:25.362 --> 00:19:26.622
Foreshadowing.

00:19:27.644 --> 00:19:32.366
Well, Aaron, I would say a lot of our personality and our interests align with that.

00:19:32.366 --> 00:19:45.701
kids of the late 80s, early 90s, we were part of that generation where it felt like lot of young adult media, whether that be cartoons or television series and whatnot, had sort darker undertones.

00:19:45.701 --> 00:19:47.123
Even some of the Disney films.

00:19:47.123 --> 00:19:48.272
Yeah, they'll edge to them, right?

00:19:48.272 --> 00:19:51.723
And I think that that sort of speaks to what we love today as adults.

00:19:51.723 --> 00:19:56.555
And also it sort of proves that when you're speaking to young people, you don't have to put a safeguard around them.

00:19:56.555 --> 00:20:01.866
You can sort of code it in a layer of edge or with a little bit of emotion and kids will, they're smart.

00:20:01.866 --> 00:20:02.886
Like kids are smart.

00:20:02.886 --> 00:20:12.705
We shouldn't baby them and sort of put a shackle on them in the way that Zawa is in the story where we can sort of let them embrace certain darknesses.

00:20:12.705 --> 00:20:14.948
within themselves or the stories or whatever.

00:20:14.948 --> 00:20:16.969
I'm to give you the best example.

00:20:16.969 --> 00:20:26.055
Michael, before we before we started the interview, he picked up behind him is a Ecto-1 from the real Ghostbusters.

00:20:26.055 --> 00:20:34.060
So, so if you remember, like that was kind of a little bit before, you know, that was a younger cartoon.

00:20:34.060 --> 00:20:36.932
And then later on, after real Ghostbusters, what did we get next?

00:20:36.932 --> 00:20:45.270
We got extreme Ghostbusters, which had that same Ghostbusters feel with the edgier And we got a lot of cartoons like that, which Chris, you're exactly right.

00:20:45.270 --> 00:20:49.332
And Michael, I'm sure you can echo and mirror the same feeling.

00:20:49.332 --> 00:20:58.054
We just love that kind of nostalgia of those original franchises with a little bit of a darker hue to them.

00:20:58.835 --> 00:21:02.835
Well, thing is, it goes even further back.

00:21:03.236 --> 00:21:11.557
Every good fairy tale is super dark because it's supposed to scare the children into a place of don't do bad shit.

00:21:12.013 --> 00:21:13.993
Think, you know, be good.

00:21:13.993 --> 00:21:15.433
Don't go to the forest alone.

00:21:15.433 --> 00:21:18.673
Don't go, don't take candy from a stranger.

00:21:18.673 --> 00:21:29.003
Don't, you know, don't walk into a person who tells you that you're there, your grandmother, you know, there's, it's a, it's, supposed to scare people.

00:21:29.003 --> 00:21:31.634
That's what Grimm's fairy tales were always about.

00:21:31.933 --> 00:21:37.983
Every good fairy tale has to have the darker undertone so you can get the lighter story.

00:21:37.983 --> 00:21:40.153
All this softening and softening.

00:21:40.153 --> 00:21:41.213
Yeah.

00:21:41.430 --> 00:21:43.511
All the softening, was it softening?

00:21:43.511 --> 00:21:44.471
Not the word.

00:21:44.471 --> 00:21:51.436
Every time you try, every time something new comes out and they try to soften all the edges, it's just, you're not getting the point across.

00:21:52.137 --> 00:21:59.382
So yeah, I'm glad that people of our age are now in the creative seats for now.

00:21:59.663 --> 00:22:04.306
And we get to do weirder and darker, darker stuff.

00:22:04.566 --> 00:22:18.458
Like I, I'm scared, I'm scared for the newer generations who will come out with all the, you know, growing up with like even just growing up with minions like I grew up if cartoon wise and Disney wise, grew up with Beauty and the Beast.

00:22:18.458 --> 00:22:19.978
That was dark shit.

00:22:19.978 --> 00:22:25.798
When I saw Beast for the first time, I was like, Jesus Christ, what is this dark monster?

00:22:25.897 --> 00:22:28.218
And now it's like bubblegum.

00:22:28.218 --> 00:22:30.018
Everything's bubblegum.

00:22:30.057 --> 00:22:39.596
Well, we also mentioned in our previous conversation that this book along with designer Madison Goyette and editor Eric Harburn is 100 % your baby.

00:22:39.596 --> 00:22:45.029
You write, you illustrate, you ink, color, letter, all five issues of the series.

00:22:47.112 --> 00:22:54.097
of my favorite parts of that conversation was when you were talking about the different aspects of respecting the different things that go into the book.

00:22:54.097 --> 00:22:57.490
you even designed the logo and provided covers for every issue as well.

00:22:57.490 --> 00:23:06.047
My question for you is, was the effort and time and lack of a collaborator at all a hindrance during this process?

00:23:07.409 --> 00:23:26.778
Not really, because My my real collaborative collaborator on this book was Eric my editor Like he's always been my wall whenever I have something just throw it to him and he tells me if it's too good or not Or he might just give me a this is how people will see this idea, right?

00:23:27.038 --> 00:23:39.077
and they will have a conversation and we'll see who's right at the end of the day, but He's been always been my my collaborator in this and he was the person who pushed me into Do my first book in the first place?

00:23:39.435 --> 00:23:51.935
Is there anything specific that Eric has given you throughout the process of Zawa that like, is there something that you guys maybe slightly disagreed on or maybe like a really valuable piece of advice that he gave you throughout this process that you can reveal to us?

00:23:52.076 --> 00:24:04.807
I mean, there's been a lot of little things like the first designs for Zawa when she was enslaved in the pits of the factory, she had a giant mask.

00:24:04.807 --> 00:24:06.488
Like she was supposed to look like a monster.

00:24:06.488 --> 00:24:08.819
They had made her look like a monster.

00:24:08.910 --> 00:24:11.079
And then he was like, have you read chroma?

00:24:11.079 --> 00:24:12.769
I was like, no.

00:24:14.809 --> 00:24:16.390
I was like, okay, I see the imagery.

00:24:16.390 --> 00:24:18.089
I see what you're throwing at me.

00:24:18.089 --> 00:24:20.049
I'll have to change the design now.

00:24:20.049 --> 00:24:27.430
Because literally she had a metal jaw and her head was in the middle of the jaw.

00:24:27.789 --> 00:24:28.309
man.

00:24:28.309 --> 00:24:30.440
Do we get a look at that at all in the back, the back matter?

00:24:30.440 --> 00:24:33.049
Like, do you reveal that design at all?

00:24:33.049 --> 00:24:34.690
I didn't have many pages.

00:24:34.690 --> 00:24:35.930
don't see.

00:24:35.930 --> 00:24:39.875
Michael has the actual, if everyone For everyone listening, Michael has the physical copy with him.

00:24:39.875 --> 00:24:42.626
This does not come out till October 23rd, so he's got an advanced copy.

00:24:42.626 --> 00:24:47.019
But I'm just curious, some of the back matter, I'd love to see what that design actually looked like of the mask.

00:24:47.159 --> 00:24:56.804
It's not in here, but I do have one of the first images of Zawa that I here.

00:24:56.904 --> 00:25:01.356
So for everyone, if you're not watching on YouTube, he's currently holding up some of the back matter here.

00:25:01.356 --> 00:25:04.588
And you said it was the very first design you had of Zawa?

00:25:04.868 --> 00:25:06.720
Yeah, and look at the kids.

00:25:08.375 --> 00:25:10.455
Very different up in the corner here.

00:25:10.455 --> 00:25:10.755
Yeah.

00:25:10.755 --> 00:25:13.038
You've got bandit there, Thatcher, looks like.

00:25:13.038 --> 00:25:14.077
Yeah.

00:25:14.097 --> 00:25:17.420
And my original story, she was supposed to be a ghost.

00:25:18.560 --> 00:25:18.771
Yeah.

00:25:18.771 --> 00:25:21.864
You mentioned that in our first conversation that it was supposed to be like a goat.

00:25:21.864 --> 00:25:23.765
You just started off drawing like a ghost girl.

00:25:23.765 --> 00:25:31.410
That was your first thing that you did because you had another story that you wanted to tell and you were like burning over this idea and you couldn't quite figure out how to make it work.

00:25:31.410 --> 00:25:34.592
So you just sat down and you go, I'm going to create a brand new story.

00:25:34.592 --> 00:25:36.053
I'm going to write this ghost girl.

00:25:36.053 --> 00:25:37.683
And then you came up with Zawa.

00:25:38.061 --> 00:25:40.342
Yeah, she was supposed to be a hungry ghost.

00:25:40.342 --> 00:25:44.231
It was actually called a hungry ghost in beginning.

00:25:44.231 --> 00:25:47.842
That's why she has the corpse pain look to her face.

00:25:47.842 --> 00:25:52.541
And I just couldn't figure out how to make a dead girl work.

00:25:52.862 --> 00:25:56.221
Then it just suddenly became, no, she's more than a girl.

00:25:56.442 --> 00:25:57.981
She's a deity.

00:25:57.981 --> 00:26:00.041
She's a mountain goddess.

00:26:00.301 --> 00:26:07.173
And then I brought the death part in as the many lives of how many zawaas have died before her.

00:26:07.288 --> 00:26:15.054
So that's how I got the death part and the ghost part, basically, the zombie part more really into the story.

00:26:15.054 --> 00:26:18.807
But it started as a ghost and became what she is now.

00:26:18.807 --> 00:26:19.548
Yeah.

00:26:19.548 --> 00:26:27.314
You've also mentioned, well, you mentioned in our conversation before that the scripting for the series in the beginning was sort of initially challenging.

00:26:27.314 --> 00:26:28.835
Did you feel that challenging?

00:26:28.835 --> 00:26:33.438
Is that still the most challenging part going into the later issues, into issue five and so on?

00:26:33.971 --> 00:26:38.664
Once the story got started, was much easier to...

00:26:38.664 --> 00:26:41.867
Because the world is breathing after the first issue.

00:26:41.867 --> 00:26:42.989
It's there.

00:26:42.989 --> 00:26:45.349
Everything in the first issue is alive.

00:26:45.349 --> 00:26:46.411
Things are moving.

00:26:46.411 --> 00:26:48.231
Places are established.

00:26:48.231 --> 00:26:51.854
So at that point, it's just following these characters go along.

00:26:51.894 --> 00:26:54.655
And some characters start to deviate.

00:26:54.717 --> 00:26:57.439
And that's when things got a little bit hard.

00:26:57.439 --> 00:27:02.125
I had five issues and then suddenly the mother, the kid's mother...

00:27:02.125 --> 00:27:06.715
became way bigger character than she was supposed to be.

00:27:06.715 --> 00:27:11.375
I was like, okay, now I need more room for you, and now I'm gonna need more room for this one.

00:27:11.375 --> 00:27:17.996
And now the mayor, who was supposed to be just a background character, has now, you know, has a bigger part of the story.

00:27:17.996 --> 00:27:20.766
So then suddenly all these characters just needed attention.

00:27:20.766 --> 00:27:23.786
And that's when things got a little bit hard.

00:27:23.786 --> 00:27:31.115
And the thing Eric hates me for this, he says, we are never going to work on the story in the same way.

00:27:32.173 --> 00:27:34.355
But I just say to him, this is how I'm an artist.

00:27:34.355 --> 00:27:36.685
I'm an artist first, and this is how I do it.

00:27:36.685 --> 00:27:37.476
I visualize.

00:27:37.476 --> 00:27:39.557
can't write.

00:27:39.557 --> 00:27:44.398
I can write the story, but I can break it down visually.

00:27:44.558 --> 00:27:52.082
that's how, and as I've read into other people's creative process, most people who draw and write, that's how they work.

00:27:52.082 --> 00:28:00.875
We draw out the thumbnails, and we think how things look on the page and how it flows, and that's how we write.

00:28:00.942 --> 00:28:02.741
And then we're going to be able to write down scripts.

00:28:02.741 --> 00:28:06.442
I can write down a, want four pages for this.

00:28:06.442 --> 00:28:07.711
want two pages for this.

00:28:07.711 --> 00:28:09.442
And then this will happen and this will happen.

00:28:09.442 --> 00:28:13.041
And then I'll just figure it out as it goes.

00:28:13.402 --> 00:28:15.192
That's an artist specific perk right there.

00:28:15.192 --> 00:28:16.781
You can't do that as a writer writer.

00:28:16.781 --> 00:28:20.751
have to, you have to like sort of prepare, you know, sort of showcase what you want the artists to do.

00:28:20.751 --> 00:28:22.652
The artists can just go, Hey, it's all open here already.

00:28:22.652 --> 00:28:23.432
It's, it's good to go.

00:28:23.432 --> 00:28:25.541
We can just go ahead put this on the page.

00:28:25.642 --> 00:28:26.122
Yeah.

00:28:26.122 --> 00:28:27.981
I'll just figure out what the same.

00:28:30.221 --> 00:28:32.169
Well, Let's get into the actual story here.

00:28:32.169 --> 00:28:34.940
So I found it really interesting in this first issue.

00:28:34.940 --> 00:28:44.566
Once we meet Bandit and Thatcher and the gang, we keep getting comparisons between Bandit and his father, who was this incredible cook that the entire town sort of adored and loved.

00:28:44.566 --> 00:28:49.067
Why was it important for you to create the parallel between Bandit and his father in that first issue?

00:28:49.729 --> 00:28:52.089
Going in deep.

00:28:53.131 --> 00:28:57.978
I am a person who I lost my dad when I was 16.

00:28:58.826 --> 00:29:08.808
And the whole wooden crown, wooden king aspect that I have is because I come from a line of carpenters.

00:29:08.808 --> 00:29:20.701
So I felt that that was a very big part in my story that I wanted to tell, like the looming, who your dad was and what people thought of him in the town.

00:29:20.701 --> 00:29:26.614
Like I grew up in a small town and everyone kept saying, you we loved your dad, that your dad did this, that did the other.

00:29:27.086 --> 00:29:31.165
And everyone always had like expected things from me.

00:29:31.425 --> 00:29:42.506
So I channeled that into that storyline and also bringing up my mom and how she dealt with some things and how everyone is a person at the end of the day.

00:29:42.506 --> 00:29:48.846
And some people might just, you know, do the best that they can for the kids.

00:29:49.357 --> 00:29:50.077
That's really cool.

00:29:50.077 --> 00:29:54.127
was a hard first question, I told you we're going to get in here deep.

00:29:54.127 --> 00:29:54.698
And you know what?

00:29:54.698 --> 00:29:55.837
Thank you so much for sharing that.

00:29:55.837 --> 00:30:03.877
I really love the fact that you were able to sort of maneuver that in because if we're just going to go ahead and show our underbelly here, Aaron, if you don't mind, you know, I grew up without a father myself.

00:30:03.877 --> 00:30:18.377
So I feel like I always sort of lean into or gravitate towards stories where the father is either this sort of absentee beacon in the background somewhere or, you know, the child and the mother sort of overcome the idea that the father is not around.

00:30:18.377 --> 00:30:32.548
So I just really love the fact that you included that because you can tell throughout the story, we keep getting sort of rumblings or mention of his father and how he was just this sort of beacon of hope through his cooking and how Bandit sort of resembles his father in that way.

00:30:32.548 --> 00:30:37.421
And I just, really love that comparison and it felt significant enough to where it was a deliberate decision.

00:30:37.421 --> 00:30:40.201
And it's cool to know the actual reason behind that now.

00:30:40.321 --> 00:30:40.741
Yeah.

00:30:40.741 --> 00:30:46.998
And the, you know, taking over the business and trying to make it work as, as something.

00:30:46.998 --> 00:30:50.070
It's like the business is there, but it's become something else.

00:30:50.070 --> 00:30:57.047
But you know, he tries to bring out the family tradition, even though the world doesn't want it anymore.

00:30:57.047 --> 00:30:58.988
They just want bad food.

00:31:00.049 --> 00:31:01.701
Sort of resembling our modern day, right?

00:31:01.701 --> 00:31:02.991
Like that's we all do that right now.

00:31:02.991 --> 00:31:14.561
So, you know, ever since we ever since I finished the book, I've been on a nutritional diet because I succumb to my worst devices.

00:31:14.827 --> 00:31:17.108
while working on the actual book.

00:31:17.108 --> 00:31:23.442
was like, energy drinks are bad, but I was drinking energy drinks just to get through my deadlines.

00:31:24.123 --> 00:31:28.565
So now I've become literally, I learned my lesson while making the book.

00:31:28.605 --> 00:31:32.926
So now I'm like, salads, protein.

00:31:33.768 --> 00:31:35.989
I've lost 50 pounds since then.

00:31:36.232 --> 00:31:36.679
wow.

00:31:36.679 --> 00:31:38.089
Congratulations.

00:31:39.167 --> 00:31:41.329
Interesting enough, you know, when we meet Mrs.

00:31:41.329 --> 00:31:47.193
Blackbird in the story, and you know, you said earlier that she's become like a much bigger character than she initially was supposed to be.

00:31:47.193 --> 00:31:50.726
She seemed like a hardworking single mother just trying to take care of her kids.

00:31:51.007 --> 00:31:54.739
And then in issue three, we find out that this is not at all what she's up to.

00:31:54.739 --> 00:31:59.732
In fact, she's working for the mayor and specifically against Zawa.

00:31:59.732 --> 00:32:06.867
Was it her husband's death that in turn caused her to kind of, you know, do take this 180 against Zawa?

00:32:07.117 --> 00:32:12.877
Yeah, yeah, she puts all the blame on that weird thing that she has locked up.

00:32:12.877 --> 00:32:16.897
Like this is the this is the reason why her husband isn't around.

00:32:16.897 --> 00:32:22.557
So you just channel all their hate against something that wasn't it wasn't their fault.

00:32:22.577 --> 00:32:24.178
100 percent wasn't their fault.

00:32:24.337 --> 00:32:25.337
and we do that, right.

00:32:25.337 --> 00:32:33.637
As humans, sometimes we we often try to find something just to put our energy into, whether that be negative or positive or what have you.

00:32:33.637 --> 00:32:37.278
We we sort of channel all of that energy into one projecting.

00:32:37.342 --> 00:32:37.922
Yeah, exactly.

00:32:37.922 --> 00:32:53.909
Like a pillar, we feel better about ourselves as humans if we can just find where to shift that energy, even if it's not, even if we know in our heart of hearts that is not correct, or if that's you know, morally or what have you correct, we need that direction, right?

00:32:53.909 --> 00:32:55.750
It was weird how I channeled all that.

00:32:55.750 --> 00:33:02.853
I just started, I started this pitch and this book to do something weird and fun.

00:33:02.853 --> 00:33:26.981
And it suddenly became a, you know, therapy lesson So I was putting I was putting a lot of my my inner thoughts and just things that piled up in the last you know so many decades like my dad died when I was 16 so I Was 39 when I was drawing the book so I had a lot of baggage that in realize I needed it.

00:33:26.981 --> 00:33:39.010
I needed to Put it out somewhere because I was saying before I used to like being a Greek artist and starting off here in Europe.

00:33:39.010 --> 00:33:45.686
Everything that we do as Greek artists and Greek creators is basically we create our own things.

00:33:45.686 --> 00:33:47.439
So we write and draw.

00:33:47.439 --> 00:33:48.608
We don't have writers.

00:33:48.608 --> 00:33:53.893
We have a few writers, but not everyone does the combo system.

00:33:53.893 --> 00:33:59.048
We all go in for 100 % solo books or solo issues.

00:33:59.229 --> 00:34:08.019
So before James kidnapped me 10 years ago, My whole thing was writing my own books.

00:34:08.019 --> 00:34:17.887
So after those 10 years of me working with James, I just suddenly just got to that point where I was like, I think I need to write something because it's been a while.

00:34:18.329 --> 00:34:22.231
I just have all these things just rattling around the back of my head.

00:34:22.733 --> 00:34:24.313
Make comics, guys.

00:34:25.454 --> 00:34:26.976
Free therapy.

00:34:26.976 --> 00:34:30.159
Zawa became like an emotional lightning rod for you.

00:34:30.429 --> 00:34:31.059
yeah.

00:34:31.059 --> 00:34:33.811
So now I want to do it again.

00:34:33.902 --> 00:34:41.021
I I found, you know, how to project my, you know, my shit.

00:34:41.621 --> 00:34:48.561
you know, you, Aaron and I, were lucky enough to sort of, I'm definitely not going to say anything, but we were lucky enough to sort of see what you've been working on here recently.

00:34:48.561 --> 00:34:50.481
That's going to come up here in the near future.

00:34:50.481 --> 00:34:51.202
And we're very excited.

00:34:51.202 --> 00:34:51.731
I'll tell you that.

00:34:51.731 --> 00:34:59.141
I think speaking on sort of the Zawa being your therapy being, the story is better for it, in my opinion.

00:34:59.141 --> 00:35:02.190
think this comes across pretty clearly in this book.

00:35:02.190 --> 00:35:03.480
We'll get into it here in just a bit.

00:35:03.480 --> 00:35:07.090
think we butter you up a lot in this conversation, Michael.

00:35:07.090 --> 00:35:12.963
It's one of the easiest books to champion because of that.

00:35:12.963 --> 00:35:17.023
think you see so much love and care in this book.

00:35:17.023 --> 00:35:20.724
I think it's pretty evident almost immediately that this is very much your baby, as we've said.

00:35:20.724 --> 00:35:24.235
And I think that, again, it's better for it, again, based on what we know now.

00:35:24.996 --> 00:35:27.697
mean, it's the big cliche.

00:35:27.697 --> 00:35:29.358
Write what you know.

00:35:30.751 --> 00:35:47.704
And I had a few things I didn't know I didn't know I knew that to tell so and Yeah, I think I'm have to you know, follow all the cliches of pulling out little pieces and Making them reality.

00:35:47.844 --> 00:35:54.309
There's no there's no reason to make things up if you suddenly have all these little things swimming around in your head Absolutely.

00:35:54.710 --> 00:35:58.682
I mean kind of like I feel like this is gonna hit on it as well.

00:35:58.682 --> 00:36:01.751
I feel like this is kind of It's a building block.

00:36:01.751 --> 00:36:04.081
It's a building block and emotional aspect of the story.

00:36:04.081 --> 00:36:11.085
But we find out also in issue three, which is expanded upon in issue four, that Zawah essentially has like two personalities.

00:36:11.085 --> 00:36:15.047
One is this cute and lovable bringer of the greenery and life.

00:36:15.047 --> 00:36:16.759
And we all know and adore.

00:36:16.759 --> 00:36:27.224
And then there's this decrepit spawn version that it sees the humans of Mesa Boone as a plague that needs to be eradicated and wiped out for the preservation of the planet.

00:36:27.706 --> 00:36:41.639
It feels like we get at the, you know, what we get at the end of issue five is a version of both, but which of the two versions of Zawa do you think has the stronger claim on how to exist as that last guardian?

00:36:41.920 --> 00:36:48.146
thing is, they both, as you said, they both exist.

00:36:48.726 --> 00:36:50.947
One has to happen first.

00:36:51.248 --> 00:36:57.293
Like you have to create a new slate and that's what the end of the Zawa is, create a new slate.

00:36:57.791 --> 00:37:07.626
And restarting, which is a feeling that I seem to have a lot last few years with humanity.

00:37:07.786 --> 00:37:10.907
That I think we just need to restart.

00:37:11.387 --> 00:37:16.148
Like all our problems are just man-made problems.

00:37:16.690 --> 00:37:21.532
We have all the power of nature and the world on our side.

00:37:22.231 --> 00:37:27.244
Yet we decide to stick with man-made issues.

00:37:27.592 --> 00:37:33.246
And these man-made issues are just going to constantly bring our downfall.

00:37:33.246 --> 00:37:40.150
Look, the problem is, I think the darker side has the biggest claim.

00:37:40.150 --> 00:37:42.983
Like, she's been the one who's gone through everything.

00:37:42.983 --> 00:37:50.036
She's lived hundreds of years, she's dealt with humanity, and she's only seen the bad side.

00:37:50.036 --> 00:37:56.240
Every time a new version of Zawa comes up, she just gets the worst.

00:37:57.494 --> 00:38:15.023
Our Zawa is hope and for us to get hope we have to destroy everything because things are not the way they should be and you know nature comes first and humanity doesn't want to do that.

00:38:15.384 --> 00:38:27.059
So I think right now in the story both versions have their place but for us to get to the fuzzy cute version of Zawa we have to go through the bad.

00:38:27.606 --> 00:38:31.275
Isn't that an interesting parallel with like today's world in general?

00:38:31.275 --> 00:38:38.686
You know, we have a lot of pessimists, a lot of people who believe that, you know, everything that they do is for nothing and that there's no good left in the world.

00:38:38.686 --> 00:38:45.545
But it's almost like we need someone like that, like our Zawa to sort of inspire the hope to keep the good going.

00:38:45.545 --> 00:38:53.195
Because if we let the, you know, sort of the pessimistic folks rule the land, it will just be darkness.

00:38:53.195 --> 00:38:56.202
We sort of have to put the light into the world that we want, right?

00:38:56.202 --> 00:38:58.641
In today's 2024 life.

00:38:58.641 --> 00:39:05.262
And it's interesting to hear you say that the older, more broken Zawa has the stronger claim.

00:39:05.262 --> 00:39:06.461
I don't disagree either.

00:39:06.461 --> 00:39:12.262
I think you're totally right that throughout her life, she's seen this, you know, cycle repeating, you know, time is a loop.

00:39:12.262 --> 00:39:15.942
She keeps seeing that she gives hope to the humans to help them as the mountain guardian.

00:39:15.942 --> 00:39:20.782
And then eventually at some point we fuck around and then Zawa finds out, you know what I mean?

00:39:20.782 --> 00:39:23.746
Like something happens in our lifespan.

00:39:23.746 --> 00:39:29.097
where Zawa has to turn against the humans because we are greedy or what have you.

00:39:29.097 --> 00:39:37.110
Yeah, the whole point of the story was because each Zawa gets killed off the moment she appears.

00:39:37.289 --> 00:39:39.309
So all she gets is death.

00:39:39.309 --> 00:39:52.074
And at some point, the mayor has to, you know, the mayor's family, the previous mayors found out that if they, the only way they could stop this angry version of her showing up is just to lock up the version that shows up.

00:39:52.173 --> 00:39:58.773
And that version had just been stuck there for hundreds of years, brainwashed of all this bad food, bad food.

00:39:58.773 --> 00:40:01.143
So that's how the break happens.

00:40:01.143 --> 00:40:06.134
Like this version doesn't know death, just knows being locked up.

00:40:06.134 --> 00:40:11.534
But all the anger is stuck with the head that's been severed.

00:40:11.534 --> 00:40:13.233
It went very dark, this story.

00:40:13.233 --> 00:40:15.114
don't know how this happened.

00:40:15.114 --> 00:40:17.384
Everyone, this is a kid's book, okay?

00:40:17.384 --> 00:40:18.974
This is for your children.

00:40:19.054 --> 00:40:20.014
All ages.

00:40:20.014 --> 00:40:22.853
All ages, All ages.

00:40:22.853 --> 00:40:24.373
made a cute foot.

00:40:24.373 --> 00:40:30.114
Look, at the end of this, I saw a friend of mine the other day, was it Saturday?

00:40:30.114 --> 00:40:33.034
And they told me that they read the book.

00:40:33.193 --> 00:40:36.704
And the first thing they told me is that at the end of the story, you made me cry.

00:40:36.704 --> 00:40:39.494
I was like, yes, that's all I wanted.

00:40:39.494 --> 00:40:40.403
That's all I wanted.

00:40:40.403 --> 00:40:42.153
I wanted to make you cry.

00:40:42.153 --> 00:40:43.994
Aaron, that's theme you're on the show.

00:40:43.994 --> 00:40:46.724
Every time we have a creator on, they're always like, did it make you cry?

00:40:46.724 --> 00:40:47.764
Because that's what I was going for.

00:40:47.764 --> 00:40:48.942
I want you.

00:40:48.942 --> 00:40:52.922
to feel emotion at the thing that I created because of emotion.

00:40:53.581 --> 00:40:56.302
I was crying while drawing it.

00:40:56.762 --> 00:40:57.572
There you go.

00:40:57.572 --> 00:40:57.851
Yeah.

00:40:57.851 --> 00:40:59.472
I was saying that that was my whole thing.

00:40:59.472 --> 00:41:01.222
Like the moment the idea came to that.

00:41:01.222 --> 00:41:01.742
Okay.

00:41:01.742 --> 00:41:04.661
The only way I can get out of this story.

00:41:04.702 --> 00:41:06.782
I'm just going to have to destroy everything.

00:41:06.782 --> 00:41:11.141
Like that was when we spoke the last time I hadn't gotten to that point yet.

00:41:11.141 --> 00:41:15.541
And I just got to where the climax was supposed to happen.

00:41:15.541 --> 00:41:18.414
And it was supposed to be this very different climax.

00:41:18.414 --> 00:41:24.376
I was like, I think the only way out of this story is to be an nihilistic.

00:41:24.476 --> 00:41:27.358
I have to destroy and force a reboot.

00:41:27.358 --> 00:41:28.617
That's the only way.

00:41:28.617 --> 00:41:32.880
I think that's where my inner thoughts start coming out.

00:41:33.039 --> 00:41:34.840
Yeah, we need to start again.

00:41:34.840 --> 00:41:37.641
Humanity needs to start again.

00:41:38.318 --> 00:41:42.431
Well, it's you set me up so perfectly because the next question I have is around this idea.

00:41:42.431 --> 00:41:45.985
You've sort of answered my question, but I want to dig a little deeper if we can, if you don't mind.

00:41:45.985 --> 00:41:57.994
You know, at the end of issue five, again, we see Zawa overcome and our Zawa I'll say our Zawa overcomes and brings peace to the many troubled versions of herself or that previous older version that we're attacking the town.

00:41:57.994 --> 00:42:02.929
However, that didn't stop the final desolation and the complete destruction of Mesabun.

00:42:02.929 --> 00:42:11.365
So, you know, based on that final issue of the series, you mentioned how in order to bring a better tomorrow, we have to sort of destroy yesterday, right?

00:42:11.365 --> 00:42:12.686
Elaborate on that a little bit.

00:42:12.686 --> 00:42:14.985
How can we do that in 2024?

00:42:14.985 --> 00:42:23.166
How can we do that outside of Meso-Boon in today's world without the collapse of civilization as we know it?

00:42:24.226 --> 00:42:28.786
Look, I just think we need to be better to the newer generation.

00:42:28.965 --> 00:42:31.306
I think that's the only thing we can do right now.

00:42:31.306 --> 00:42:34.786
We as a, what am I, millennial?

00:42:34.786 --> 00:42:35.918
I think I'm a millennial.

00:42:35.918 --> 00:42:37.838
I think a millennial is 80.

00:42:37.838 --> 00:42:39.577
Is it 82 to 95?

00:42:39.577 --> 00:42:40.797
Is that millennial?

00:42:40.797 --> 00:42:45.157
Yeah, we started off with we had bad structure.

00:42:45.157 --> 00:42:47.818
Like we started off in a everything's great.

00:42:47.818 --> 00:42:49.257
Look at all these amazing things.

00:42:49.257 --> 00:42:57.137
And then as we started to go through high school, you start noticing that things aren't as amazing as they should be.

00:42:57.137 --> 00:42:58.498
And inflation happens.

00:42:58.498 --> 00:43:02.498
in Europe, we had the we lost all our currency and became euros.

00:43:02.498 --> 00:43:05.059
And then everything just got way more inflated.

00:43:05.070 --> 00:43:19.929
you know, for no reason, like something, cause we had Drackners before then and going out for coffee with 500 Drackners would get you, get you your coffee, would get you something to eat, would get you a lot of things.

00:43:20.090 --> 00:43:28.809
Those 500 Drackners became five euros, which does not make sense because that suddenly inflated prices by triple.

00:43:28.989 --> 00:43:32.190
So everything just got out of whack after that.

00:43:32.690 --> 00:43:44.500
So generally, We're a generation who had the hopes of just living a normal life and doing what our parents and our grandparents did.

00:43:44.500 --> 00:43:46.362
And then suddenly we got stuck with the bill.

00:43:46.362 --> 00:43:48.483
Everything is way more expensive.

00:43:48.804 --> 00:43:50.144
Nothing makes sense.

00:43:50.144 --> 00:43:53.867
Going to school and coming out with profession doesn't get you anywhere.

00:43:55.927 --> 00:44:00.672
So we just need to make a better, like I'm sounding like an old man now, but we just need to make it better.

00:44:00.672 --> 00:44:02.043
Go off, Keep going.

00:44:02.043 --> 00:44:03.373
You're preaching the choir right now.

00:44:03.373 --> 00:44:04.914
Aaron and I think the exact same thing.

00:44:04.914 --> 00:44:05.677
Keep going.

00:44:05.677 --> 00:44:06.887
Well, so does the next generation.

00:44:06.887 --> 00:44:07.958
They feel the same exact way.

00:44:07.958 --> 00:44:10.170
They feel like we left them with the pile of shit.

00:44:10.170 --> 00:44:11.030
worse.

00:44:11.030 --> 00:44:12.141
Yeah, they're even worse.

00:44:12.141 --> 00:44:12.945
They're starting off school.

00:44:12.945 --> 00:44:15.373
They're like, why are we even in school?

00:44:15.893 --> 00:44:20.577
Well, they don't even want to go through school because the world is in such a bad place and they're so like idealistic.

00:44:20.577 --> 00:44:25.442
They're like, I'm willing to give up my entire education or my chance at this education at this college.

00:44:25.442 --> 00:44:30.195
because nobody's fighting for these people that are going through genocide, going through all this stuff.

00:44:30.195 --> 00:44:41.672
So they're actually like, they're actually being like, fuck the institutionalized, you know, system of, you know, certifications and, and collegiate bullshit.

00:44:41.672 --> 00:44:44.914
So, you know, I'm just going to care about my fellow man.

00:44:44.914 --> 00:44:47.135
And we're like, what the fuck are you doing?

00:44:47.317 --> 00:44:47.757
Yeah.

00:44:47.757 --> 00:44:51.639
Because it's, comes down to what is a job if you don't have a world to live in.

00:44:51.980 --> 00:44:52.530
Exactly.

00:44:52.530 --> 00:44:53.420
Yeah.

00:44:53.420 --> 00:44:54.282
You know, it's crazy.

00:44:54.282 --> 00:44:57.074
And I don't, I'm not trying to like put my mom's business out there.

00:44:57.074 --> 00:45:05.494
I'm not trying to put my business out there, but at 33 with no kids and a dog, I make more money than my mom did at my age where she had two kids and was a single mother.

00:45:05.494 --> 00:45:09.594
And yet somehow I cannot afford to buy a house in 2024.

00:45:09.594 --> 00:45:11.213
Isn't that, that's wild to think about that.

00:45:11.213 --> 00:45:15.514
My mom had a four bedroom house with two kids working a factory job in third shifts.

00:45:15.514 --> 00:45:19.793
And I make upwards of 15 to $20,000 more than her now at my day job.

00:45:19.793 --> 00:45:22.849
And yet I am living in a three bedroom house that I rent.

00:45:22.849 --> 00:45:26.351
that I'm paying way too much for, by the way, with a dog.

00:45:26.351 --> 00:45:27.021
It's wild.

00:45:27.021 --> 00:45:28.291
And I totally get what you're saying.

00:45:28.291 --> 00:45:29.751
It makes so much sense.

00:45:29.931 --> 00:45:31.061
And I agree with you 100%.

00:45:31.061 --> 00:45:32.293
I think Aaron does as well.

00:45:32.293 --> 00:45:38.403
And I'm sure the listener does as well that as millennials, seems like and I'm sure Gen Z will believe this.

00:45:38.403 --> 00:45:43.606
And I think it's alpha after Gen Z, whatever the next generation after that is that Gen A.

00:45:43.606 --> 00:45:45.418
Yeah, exactly.

00:45:45.418 --> 00:45:46.416
That should be.

00:45:46.436 --> 00:45:48.757
That is it is it's going to Gen A.

00:45:48.757 --> 00:45:49.197
Gen A.

00:45:49.197 --> 00:45:50.847
I was going to be born with J.

00:45:50.847 --> 00:45:51.068
I.

00:45:51.068 --> 00:45:52.018
as a thing.

00:45:52.365 --> 00:45:52.706
Okay.

00:45:52.706 --> 00:45:53.635
I mean, it would make sense.

00:45:53.635 --> 00:45:53.905
Yeah.

00:45:53.905 --> 00:45:54.356
Yeah.

00:45:54.356 --> 00:46:02.326
But we're left sort of thinking like we can't go the same route as the previous generation because they've climbed up the ladder and then kicked it out from underneath them.

00:46:02.326 --> 00:46:03.065
whole thing.

00:46:03.065 --> 00:46:03.876
remember, what was it?

00:46:03.876 --> 00:46:09.626
10, 20 years ago when everyone was like, you got to turn the lights off for an hour because we need to save the planet.

00:46:09.626 --> 00:46:13.396
I was like, many lights did we turn off since then?

00:46:13.396 --> 00:46:15.835
How many, how many, how many times have we saved the planet?

00:46:15.835 --> 00:46:16.766
Like nothing is happening.

00:46:16.766 --> 00:46:19.005
It's just getting worse and worse and worse.

00:46:19.005 --> 00:46:26.456
And everyone is just keeps on signaling, signaling the the big issues and then all the people that are in charge are just like, no, no, those issues don't exist.

00:46:26.456 --> 00:46:29.697
We need to focus on your human rights.

00:46:29.697 --> 00:46:40.581
No, no, we need to figure out the planet rights, world rights, and then we can start playing around with the, individual country by country and state by state and stuff.

00:46:40.581 --> 00:46:44.123
We have way bigger issues to deal with and no one wants to deal with them.

00:46:44.123 --> 00:46:50.016
It's just a very simple thing of just stop using fossil fuels, stop fucking up the earth.

00:46:50.286 --> 00:46:54.826
and it comes down to like Zawa, you gotta give people better food to eat.

00:46:54.826 --> 00:47:01.666
Like here's a fun story, whenever I come to the States, I go to the bathroom so many times.

00:47:02.545 --> 00:47:05.905
Food just goes through me.

00:47:05.905 --> 00:47:07.565
Welcome to America.

00:47:07.766 --> 00:47:09.405
Yeah, that's kind of the thing.

00:47:09.405 --> 00:47:18.215
I struggled because as I mentioned before, I've been on a specific diet and I knew my diet would go off the rails when I'm traveling.

00:47:18.710 --> 00:47:21.851
It was so hard to get basic things.

00:47:21.851 --> 00:47:22.311
Yeah.

00:47:22.311 --> 00:47:26.452
And the fact that in the U S a bottle of water costs how much?

00:47:26.452 --> 00:47:27.353
Yeah.

00:47:27.353 --> 00:47:28.389
Like $4.

00:47:29.114 --> 00:47:31.014
It costs 50 cents here.

00:47:31.014 --> 00:47:31.804
That's yeah.

00:47:31.804 --> 00:47:32.735
It's insane.

00:47:32.735 --> 00:47:33.815
Let's bring this back around.

00:47:33.815 --> 00:47:38.338
Cause you know, very similar to the conversation we're having here about sort of modern day issues and whatnot.

00:47:38.338 --> 00:47:44.561
In Zawa, as you said, the desolation happens and in order to create a better tomorrow, we have to destroy today.

00:47:44.561 --> 00:47:48.032
And that sort of happens again at the end of issue five, where we see.

00:47:48.032 --> 00:47:59.704
a time jump at the end of issue five where the gang survives and Bandit seemingly returns to Mesabun with his son and daughter, telling them the story of how he had helped Zawa and hope to see her again at some point.

00:47:59.704 --> 00:48:04.536
And then we see that new version of Zawa and she's being called now the heart of the mountain.

00:48:04.536 --> 00:48:13.548
So selfishly, I have to ask here for everyone and the listeners and everyone else, does this mean that we could see Zawa again at some point in the future?

00:48:15.748 --> 00:48:18.050
I don't know yet, but.

00:48:19.335 --> 00:48:25.788
My original idea for the book was it was supposed to be called Zawa and the Heart of the Mountain.

00:48:26.449 --> 00:48:28.829
That was the original title of the book.

00:48:28.829 --> 00:48:40.255
But my conversations with Eric brought me into making a title that brings out the message of food and monsters.

00:48:40.735 --> 00:48:43.235
So that's how we got to the Belly of the Beast.

00:48:43.235 --> 00:48:48.297
But in my heart, the original title was the Heart of the Mountain.

00:48:48.302 --> 00:48:58.681
So that's why I got to bring it in at the end and put a little bow saying, no, this is the Zawa that I always wanted, the heart of the mountain, the good version.

00:48:59.001 --> 00:49:03.181
I don't think there's going to be a continuation.

00:49:03.181 --> 00:49:13.481
At some point I thought there might've been a continuation, but I think the story is up to the reader to interpret what's going to happen after that.

00:49:13.481 --> 00:49:26.474
Even like at some point I was considering maybe doing a couple more books and doing something like a disc world where I would make other things happen in this world.

00:49:26.896 --> 00:49:31.657
Like Zawa didn't have to be a part of it, but she could still be a part of the world that we live in.

00:49:31.657 --> 00:49:36.320
She's kind of off in the background somewhere or the events of this story may have happened somewhere.

00:49:36.541 --> 00:49:36.951
Yeah.

00:49:36.951 --> 00:49:42.923
And then maybe if I figure out how to make it work, do a little crossover somewhere and bring in the version.

00:49:42.923 --> 00:49:46.222
But I think we'll leave that up to time.

00:49:46.222 --> 00:49:47.791
to how I'll deal with that.

00:49:47.791 --> 00:49:52.822
Like right now, the next thing I want to do, it could even still be in that world.

00:49:52.822 --> 00:49:54.722
I'm still not 100 % sure yet.

00:49:54.722 --> 00:49:56.481
The next thing I want to do.

00:49:56.481 --> 00:49:57.581
It could happen.

00:49:57.581 --> 00:49:58.322
I could see it.

00:49:58.322 --> 00:50:03.222
I could see a link, but I'm not sure if that link is anything more than a reference.

00:50:03.222 --> 00:50:03.862
Okay.

00:50:03.862 --> 00:50:04.882
Right now.

00:50:04.882 --> 00:50:05.882
We'll see.

00:50:05.882 --> 00:50:06.677
We'll see.

00:50:06.677 --> 00:50:07.277
I love that.

00:50:07.277 --> 00:50:11.702
I love that you're not feeling you're not pressuring yourself to continue on with the story because it would be too easy, right?

00:50:11.702 --> 00:50:13.617
This was a successful story for you.

00:50:13.617 --> 00:50:17.547
I think your fans, myself included, Aaron included, love this book.

00:50:17.547 --> 00:50:25.594
And I think if it was up to us, we would say, hey, hop on the we would just strap you to a Jack Kirby drawing board and make you continue on with the story.

00:50:25.594 --> 00:50:31.500
But I love the fact that you're willing to sort of step away from it for a bit and maybe go back to it at some point, but maybe not.

00:50:31.500 --> 00:50:39.027
And I think regardless, we've got ourselves an incredible all ages book that anyone can enjoy an eight year old can enjoy it and an 80 year old can enjoy it.

00:50:39.027 --> 00:50:40.697
And there's something special about that.

00:50:40.697 --> 00:50:46.597
There's something very unique and important about being able to just sort of step away from a good thing, you know?

00:50:46.597 --> 00:50:47.318
And not just that.

00:50:47.318 --> 00:50:53.237
So I come from a background of I like reading books and not every book needs to be a series.

00:50:53.237 --> 00:50:54.797
Some books are just a book.

00:50:54.797 --> 00:50:57.157
You have the whole story you need to say right there.

00:50:57.157 --> 00:50:59.507
If there's a continuation, there needs to be reason.

00:50:59.507 --> 00:51:02.438
I'm not going to force a sequel on it.

00:51:02.438 --> 00:51:03.597
Boom did ask me.

00:51:03.597 --> 00:51:11.637
if they want to, if I had a Zawa 2 in my mind, I was like, I don't think I have a Zawa 2, but I do have some other things, but we'll see.

00:51:11.637 --> 00:51:12.878
We'll see how it goes.

00:51:12.878 --> 00:51:17.197
Like let's focus on the work I have to do right now.

00:51:17.197 --> 00:51:20.197
And there's time to figure things out.

00:51:20.197 --> 00:51:22.157
But yeah, like I did my one book.

00:51:22.157 --> 00:51:26.438
That was the whole point to have a one book story.

00:51:26.677 --> 00:51:28.773
yeah, we'll see.

00:51:28.782 --> 00:51:29.371
Awesome.

00:51:29.371 --> 00:51:31.052
You've got some wind coming up, right?

00:51:31.052 --> 00:51:33.525
And you've got some secret things happening as well.

00:51:33.525 --> 00:51:34.704
So you're going to be busy.

00:51:34.704 --> 00:51:36.826
You've got, you've got things going on.

00:51:36.826 --> 00:51:43.750
mean, wind wise, I've drawn like 90 pages already since, since finishing Zawa.

00:51:43.750 --> 00:51:49.893
And I think I have 250, I think around 250 pages to go.

00:51:49.963 --> 00:51:50.824
my gosh.

00:51:50.824 --> 00:51:51.704
Wind is not ending.

00:51:51.704 --> 00:51:58.617
Like this is the one thing, wind's commu the communication on the new wind series starting, which is going to be the end.

00:51:58.670 --> 00:52:04.289
People have been a little bit confused on what we mean by the end, but it's actually like two books.

00:52:04.289 --> 00:52:06.070
The end is two more books.

00:52:06.070 --> 00:52:07.010
Okay.

00:52:07.010 --> 00:52:07.400
Yeah.

00:52:07.400 --> 00:52:09.050
It's gonna be eight issues.

00:52:09.050 --> 00:52:10.269
It's the beginning of the end.

00:52:10.269 --> 00:52:13.639
Like it's not going to be a four or five issue series that will come out.

00:52:13.639 --> 00:52:15.289
It'll be eight issues.

00:52:15.289 --> 00:52:19.409
And those each eight, each of the issues will be 45 pages long.

00:52:19.530 --> 00:52:24.650
So I've done two issues, I'm two issues in, but I'll be starting on issue three soon.

00:52:24.650 --> 00:52:35.391
But yeah, we have the whole roadmap of how the whole of the the wind side out land and it'll be a very, big, be my longest series to date.

00:52:36.092 --> 00:52:38.523
That's saying a lot to you with what you guys did with the woods as well.

00:52:38.523 --> 00:52:41.434
And I think it's important to know that over a thousand pages.

00:52:41.606 --> 00:52:42.615
wow.

00:52:42.936 --> 00:52:45.849
Well, the wind, the power of the blood was announced here recently.

00:52:45.849 --> 00:52:52.722
You recently put up not only a post on your website, but it's been announced through boom as well that when it will be returning in November.

00:52:52.722 --> 00:52:56.802
So everyone listening right now, as you're listening to this pick up Zawa at the end of October.

00:52:56.802 --> 00:53:03.384
And then you've got new wind coming out in November and two weeks after, like two, two weeks after we got three weeks.

00:53:03.384 --> 00:53:03.764
Yeah.

00:53:03.764 --> 00:53:04.063
Okay.

00:53:04.063 --> 00:53:04.403
Yeah.

00:53:04.403 --> 00:53:17.487
And then, you know, we were talking about this a little bit before the conversation and I don't want to spend too much time on it, but I think for fans of yours and fans of James, the, Kickstarter, the first, the beginning years of Tynan, was very successful.

00:53:17.487 --> 00:53:20.528
it surpassed its goal, I think within the first hour.

00:53:20.528 --> 00:53:23.838
So I will say as, as a fan of yours, as a mega fan of Michael D.

00:53:23.838 --> 00:53:26.329
Alenos, I can tell you, I'm so excited to get that.

00:53:26.617 --> 00:53:29.367
Kickstarter exclusive, the wind omnibus.

00:53:29.367 --> 00:53:31.760
It's going to be this tome of wind.

00:53:31.760 --> 00:53:32.639
The woods.

00:53:32.639 --> 00:53:40.003
mean, generally this November is going to be kind of crazy because my first book is coming out at the end of October.

00:53:40.003 --> 00:53:42.233
So we have end of October Zara.

00:53:42.233 --> 00:53:49.206
We had the first week of November will be the retailer version of the woods omnibus.

00:53:49.442 --> 00:53:54.353
Then the week after would be the first issue of the new Wind series.

00:53:54.353 --> 00:54:01.599
Plus I think the 40 year anniversary edition of Turtles thing that we did.

00:54:01.599 --> 00:54:03.402
I think that comes out as a hard cover.

00:54:03.402 --> 00:54:07.918
So it's like a whole big, is what I've been doing the last 10 years of my life.

00:54:07.918 --> 00:54:11.228
Here's Woods, here's Wind, here's Zawa, here's Turtles.

00:54:11.369 --> 00:54:13.090
Everything just comes out then.

00:54:13.994 --> 00:54:17.876
You also, you own like the back half of the alphabet from like T back.

00:54:17.876 --> 00:54:21.681
You've got turtles, you've got Zawa, you've got wind, you've got woods.

00:54:21.681 --> 00:54:26.554
So everything, if you ever want a Michael D'Alenos book, just go to your local comic book shop and go to the end of the bookcase.

00:54:26.554 --> 00:54:27.844
Cause it's all there.

00:54:28.585 --> 00:54:32.233
Well, yeah, we'll see.

00:54:32.233 --> 00:54:35.692
I might have to change the, the next one would be different letter.

00:54:35.692 --> 00:54:36.483
Could be different.

00:54:36.483 --> 00:54:36.938
We don't know.

00:54:36.938 --> 00:54:37.684
I have no idea.

00:54:37.684 --> 00:54:39.474
Everyone wink, wink.

00:54:39.614 --> 00:54:42.891
well, Michael, it's been such a pleasure having you back on the Oblivion Bar podcast.

00:54:42.891 --> 00:54:44.862
I have one more question for you before I let you go.

00:54:44.862 --> 00:54:45.422
Yes.

00:54:45.422 --> 00:54:51.543
We like to end every conversation here recently by asking the interviewee, what's something you've been enjoying recently?

00:54:51.543 --> 00:54:56.106
it, know, comic, a movie, a television series, a podcast, what have you?

00:54:56.106 --> 00:55:01.646
Is there one thing that you want to sort of highlight for the listener or something you've been really enjoying that you'd be willing to share?

00:55:02.086 --> 00:55:03.608
I do watch a lot of anime.

00:55:03.608 --> 00:55:06.128
I think the same thing happened last time we spoke.

00:55:06.128 --> 00:55:07.588
Yeah, it was anime and manga.

00:55:07.588 --> 00:55:09.628
Anime and manga.

00:55:09.648 --> 00:55:16.670
So this past season, We had a couple of good shows that I was watching over the summer.

00:55:16.670 --> 00:55:20.994
My keen, what's the name?

00:55:20.994 --> 00:55:22.914
Something Losing Heroines.

00:55:23.516 --> 00:55:24.956
Very good show.

00:55:25.318 --> 00:55:26.659
No clue about this show.

00:55:26.659 --> 00:55:33.204
Amazingly animated, great story about B characters, C characters.

00:55:33.204 --> 00:55:34.806
Nobody's the protagonist.

00:55:34.806 --> 00:55:36.422
There are no protagonists in this story.

00:55:36.422 --> 00:55:38.739
It's just all the characters that get.

00:55:39.362 --> 00:55:46.606
Like the story is about three girls and a guy and each of these girls are not the protagonist of their own story.

00:55:46.606 --> 00:55:50.070
Like they wanted to find their love interest.

00:55:50.070 --> 00:55:54.983
The first one got shot down and had to help him find the girl of his dreams.

00:55:54.983 --> 00:55:57.726
The second one was too late to confess.

00:55:57.726 --> 00:56:00.777
The third one confessed and everything went bad.

00:56:00.777 --> 00:56:06.784
So all the protagonists are just not the ones who are going to win at the end of the day.

00:56:06.784 --> 00:56:08.373
And that was the amazing part of the story.

00:56:08.373 --> 00:56:09.755
It was very well done.

00:56:10.177 --> 00:56:26.231
And out of the fantasy stuff, I was watching Wistoria, Sword and Wand, which I just clicked on it one day and it just happened to be the best combination of Shonen and Harry Potter that I've ever seen.

00:56:26.231 --> 00:56:26.650
cool.

00:56:26.650 --> 00:56:28.231
Very, very strong story.

00:56:28.231 --> 00:56:29.222
Great animation.

00:56:29.222 --> 00:56:31.815
Is this not Crouchyroll?

00:56:31.954 --> 00:56:32.635
Yeah.

00:56:32.635 --> 00:56:33.025
Okay.

00:56:33.025 --> 00:56:33.657
Yeah.

00:56:33.657 --> 00:56:34.608
I got my subscription.

00:56:34.608 --> 00:56:35.496
I sit there.

00:56:35.496 --> 00:57:06.141
I've like I watched like I watched like five shows a season Yeah, but the the big thing that I want to watch and I can't wait to the starts is down to them which starts next week I cannot wait for that show because it has everything That I love It has a teenage romance sandwiched between paranormal ghost stuff and UFOs So I'm ready for this show to start I'm sad that Aaron's done by my favorite come on I was just sad that Aaron's not here right now because he's a huge anime fan.

00:57:06.141 --> 00:57:07.541
That's his guy like anime.

00:57:07.541 --> 00:57:09.512
I'm sort of a very passive anime fan.

00:57:09.512 --> 00:57:11.021
A big fan of Studio Ghibli.

00:57:11.021 --> 00:57:16.061
You know, I like a lot of the classics, Paprika and know, Perfect Blue and a lot of that stuff.

00:57:16.061 --> 00:57:21.992
But you know, it comes to like, you know, your show anime, I guess you would say outside of like Dragon Ball Z and One Punch Man.

00:57:21.992 --> 00:57:27.612
I am so inept when it comes to anime, but it's interesting to hear you say this sword and wand sounds interesting.

00:57:27.612 --> 00:57:29.442
I'm going to have to maybe check this out.

00:57:29.442 --> 00:57:31.438
It was very good for what it was.

00:57:31.438 --> 00:57:36.608
Just looking at it, you're like, that's Harry Potter, this is Hermione, that's Dumbledore, that's Snape.

00:57:36.608 --> 00:57:40.157
And then you're like, that's Bakugo, that's Todoroki.

00:57:40.157 --> 00:57:46.097
You're seeing the best anime shown in which I'm a big fan of My Hero Academia.

00:57:46.117 --> 00:57:50.197
And that just gets sandwiched into a Harry Potter world.

00:57:50.197 --> 00:57:52.137
And it all works.

00:57:52.938 --> 00:57:56.878
And plus the end of My Hero Academia was very...

00:57:56.878 --> 00:57:58.318
I liked it.

00:57:58.318 --> 00:58:00.333
A lot of people weren't fans, but I liked it.

00:58:00.333 --> 00:58:05.313
I was gonna say, I started watching My Hero Academia and I got to, I was enjoying it.

00:58:05.313 --> 00:58:09.083
I think I got about 15 episodes in and just sort of fell off because of life and whatnot.

00:58:09.083 --> 00:58:15.333
But I think I got to the point where the school was attacked.

00:58:15.333 --> 00:58:18.054
That's the last thing I remember watching was the school was attacked.

00:58:18.054 --> 00:58:19.213
Not far enough?

00:58:19.213 --> 00:58:21.094
A little further, a little bit more.

00:58:21.094 --> 00:58:22.753
That's still season one.

00:58:22.753 --> 00:58:23.483
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:58:23.483 --> 00:58:25.634
Season two is the good one.

00:58:25.634 --> 00:58:28.077
Season two is where you're like, hey.

00:58:28.565 --> 00:58:40.231
Season one is like all the set up and then yeah, you know, it's all like the basic These are the characters is the world when season two starts and you get like the power You know get the what's it called?

00:58:40.771 --> 00:59:02.380
the battle royale you know showing off the powers like power Olympics, whatever it was and People just like you just seen all the characters and how they work and how they work against other characters It was just so good and he get all the character the back stories and the emotions We need to have you on for just an anime talk at some point.

00:59:02.380 --> 00:59:08.344
have a segment here on the show called Midnight Rewind where we go back and look at old animes that we want to just sort of celebrate.

00:59:08.344 --> 00:59:12.887
We've done Princess Mononoke and Paprika so far.

00:59:13.106 --> 00:59:16.269
sort of wild spectrums of the anime genre.

00:59:16.269 --> 00:59:18.490
we'll have to you on sometimes.

00:59:18.490 --> 00:59:26.195
I've been trying to go down a rabbit hole of 90s weird stuff.

00:59:26.697 --> 00:59:29.268
Like going down and find all the demonic...

00:59:29.730 --> 00:59:35.594
demonic hardcore 90s anime that I never saw when I was a kid, but I knew were out there.

00:59:35.773 --> 00:59:40.617
The stuff you would see at midnight on midnight run on sci-fi channel, stuff like that.

00:59:40.617 --> 00:59:43.940
Yeah, just like you'd see images and you're like, what is this?

00:59:43.940 --> 00:59:45.231
But you can never buy this.

00:59:45.231 --> 00:59:46.641
You weren't allowed to buy this.

00:59:46.641 --> 00:59:50.103
But there's so much anime out there.

00:59:50.103 --> 00:59:51.503
That's the weird thing.

00:59:51.565 --> 01:00:01.427
Talking about anime series, it gets very hard because I think in a given year, it's about 200 plus shows a year.

01:00:01.427 --> 01:00:03.769
So it comes, they come out every three months.

01:00:03.769 --> 01:00:07.393
So you get three, every three months you get a new, a new core.

01:00:07.393 --> 01:00:10.054
And then in that core you get 50 shows.

01:00:10.275 --> 01:00:12.748
So for those three months you have 50 shows to pick from.

01:00:12.748 --> 01:00:14.159
They're running right now.

01:00:14.159 --> 01:00:16.771
And then once they're done, another 50 shows.

01:00:16.771 --> 01:00:19.324
You got another 50 shows.

01:00:19.324 --> 01:00:21.965
So every three months you're like, what's the new thing we're watching?

01:00:21.965 --> 01:00:25.139
Or you're just watching what came out in the previous three months.

01:00:25.139 --> 01:00:26.940
So you're just like bingeing.

01:00:27.425 --> 01:00:29.137
which is so much stuff out there.

01:00:29.137 --> 01:00:30.326
It's amazing.

01:00:30.326 --> 01:00:32.246
That's how I about comics.

01:00:32.507 --> 01:00:34.547
It's a totally different level.

01:00:34.648 --> 01:00:34.947
sure.

01:00:34.947 --> 01:00:39.972
Yeah, that is way, that's a lot for anime, like for comics, feel like every week I go to my comic store.

01:00:39.972 --> 01:00:41.880
I'm like, God, there's so much good stuff out right now.

01:00:41.880 --> 01:00:43.880
I don't even know where to like, where did I leave off?

01:00:43.880 --> 01:00:44.670
What would I pick up?

01:00:44.670 --> 01:00:46.032
What's new stuff that I'm missing?

01:00:46.032 --> 01:00:47.742
Like it's just sensory overload.

01:00:47.742 --> 01:00:49.853
You're drinking out of a water hose type of stuff.

01:00:49.853 --> 01:00:50.253
Yeah.

01:00:50.253 --> 01:00:52.472
So I sort of empathize in that way.

01:00:52.653 --> 01:00:54.463
I find it very hard to read.

01:00:54.561 --> 01:01:02.503
So most of the things that I'm doing is like watching things while I work or taking a break and just watching my episode or something.

01:01:02.523 --> 01:01:07.985
But when it comes down to reading, I'm falling off a bit and I try to find that whenever I can.

01:01:07.985 --> 01:01:10.387
Like I did a lot of reading on the plane.

01:01:12.027 --> 01:01:14.481
of watching things that most people do, I was reading.

01:01:14.481 --> 01:01:21.849
So was like, I need to be cornered somewhere and just like sit down, take the screen away.

01:01:22.092 --> 01:01:24.882
and now just enjoy all the books that you bought.

01:01:26.184 --> 01:01:32.007
I buy constantly new books and I just end up flipping through most of them, picking out some.

01:01:32.007 --> 01:01:37.170
I buy a lot and just read the first half and I'm like, okay, that was a good start.

01:01:37.170 --> 01:01:39.692
If it didn't hold me, I'll go into the next thing.

01:01:39.692 --> 01:01:48.815
But I still like, do my support with my money on the book end, even if I don't get round to reading it.

01:01:48.815 --> 01:01:52.128
Like I recently got the omnibus of Deadly Class.

01:01:52.192 --> 01:01:53.262
I'm ready.

01:01:53.262 --> 01:01:53.952
Yeah.

01:01:53.952 --> 01:01:55.862
It's a baby book.

01:01:57.166 --> 01:01:58.166
I do the same thing.

01:01:58.166 --> 01:02:03.570
The other day I was planning on just sort of starting Firepower by Robert Kirkman and Chris Somney.

01:02:03.570 --> 01:02:03.972
Yes.

01:02:03.972 --> 01:02:06.353
And I read the first issue or two issues.

01:02:06.353 --> 01:02:09.255
like, by the time I was, I was like halfway through the book.

01:02:09.255 --> 01:02:10.867
didn't, I didn't realize that I was going to continue on.

01:02:10.867 --> 01:02:12.548
I was just going to start it and then like go back to it.

01:02:12.548 --> 01:02:16.121
But I had ended up almost finishing book one by the end of my read.

01:02:16.121 --> 01:02:19.543
I think I've only read the first zero was it?

01:02:19.664 --> 01:02:19.947
Yeah.

01:02:19.947 --> 01:02:22.159
They put out like a Okay.

01:02:22.159 --> 01:02:24.271
Ash cans kind of issue.

01:02:24.271 --> 01:02:24.911
Yeah.

01:02:24.911 --> 01:02:28.132
That's everyone, but you know, great, great talents.

01:02:28.132 --> 01:02:28.711
Absolutely.

01:02:28.711 --> 01:02:32.532
Well, Michael, it has been an absolute pleasure having you here on the oblivion bar podcast.

01:02:32.532 --> 01:02:40.704
You know, once again, discusses Awa, you know, I think it's a great opportunity to not only thank you for including us on the back of Zawa.

01:02:40.704 --> 01:02:44.335
We haven't talked about this at all during the conversation, but we have a poll on the back, which is incredible.

01:02:44.335 --> 01:02:45.896
Thank you so much for that.

01:02:45.896 --> 01:02:56.586
once again, that comes out on October 23rd, but also thank you so much for just creating this wonderful story, know, Aaron and I both absolutely adore if that doesn't come across in this conversation.

01:02:56.586 --> 01:03:00.771
We absolutely adore Zawa and never miss an opportunity to champion this book.

01:03:00.771 --> 01:03:06.985
So for that, we believe this book, we think Zawa represents the best that the media can offer.

01:03:06.985 --> 01:03:08.476
We fully believe that.

01:03:08.476 --> 01:03:11.224
my God, dude, it's under my first book.

01:03:11.224 --> 01:03:11.690
Don't do this.

01:03:11.690 --> 01:03:12.431
Don't do this now.

01:03:12.431 --> 01:03:14.942
We're putting you on a pedestal already.

01:03:15.543 --> 01:03:16.663
No, no, no, no, I'm not ready.

01:03:16.663 --> 01:03:17.385
I'm not ready for this.

01:03:17.385 --> 01:03:18.945
But yeah, it was.

01:03:19.853 --> 01:03:22.764
I put a lot into this book and I'm happy that I did it.

01:03:22.764 --> 01:03:26.483
Like it was a, it was a hard 10 months making it.

01:03:26.483 --> 01:03:29.494
Like that was the one thing I didn't, I didn't realize when I started it.

01:03:29.494 --> 01:03:32.554
Like I thought I was going to be, you know, I'm fast drawing.

01:03:32.554 --> 01:03:33.793
I got this.

01:03:33.793 --> 01:03:38.474
Like by the time the first solicitations would be out, like I'm nearly done.

01:03:38.474 --> 01:03:39.353
Nope.

01:03:39.353 --> 01:03:41.554
Took me 10 months.

01:03:42.494 --> 01:03:43.034
Yeah.

01:03:43.034 --> 01:03:47.123
For 140 pages, which is way too much for me personally.

01:03:47.246 --> 01:03:50.195
Well, I'm normally, yeah, I did it.

01:03:50.195 --> 01:03:56.425
And that's why I'm kind of like, okay, if I want to go bigger, how much time am I going to need?

01:03:56.985 --> 01:04:02.606
As an artist, as an artist, I'm a 250 pages guy per year.

01:04:02.606 --> 01:04:08.186
But as an artist writer, I don't think I can do more than 150.

01:04:08.186 --> 01:04:09.306
Right.

01:04:09.646 --> 01:04:12.846
It's a hundred pages that just for the writing part.

01:04:13.505 --> 01:04:14.025
Yeah.

01:04:14.025 --> 01:04:16.750
Well, before you head out, is there anything that you want to?

01:04:16.750 --> 01:04:20.010
Say to the listener, anything you want to plug or highlight before we get out of here?

01:04:20.010 --> 01:04:24.280
And not really, but if you're in New York, come by the artist's alley.

01:04:24.280 --> 01:04:36.289
I'll be at table a 33 and know, going to be a kinetic kinetic collectibles.

01:04:36.289 --> 01:04:39.469
Like we have the whole aisle and I have one of the tables there.

01:04:39.469 --> 01:04:42.170
So yeah, come by and say hi, give me a cookie.

01:04:42.170 --> 01:04:43.989
What was down for a cookie.

01:04:45.322 --> 01:04:47.492
yeah, and that reminds me, congratulations on Kinetic.

01:04:47.492 --> 01:04:50.822
You've recently signed with them as your new art dealer, so that's awesome.

01:04:51.581 --> 01:04:56.041
They've got themselves quite the cast of creators thus far.

01:04:56.461 --> 01:05:00.702
yeah, we're all good people, all good friends.

01:05:01.601 --> 01:05:10.101
I've known Andrew for a while and they've been a good help, especially when you're European artist traveling to the States for cons.

01:05:10.342 --> 01:05:15.340
know, having an art rep is always helpful for cons.

01:05:15.373 --> 01:05:16.134
Sure.

01:05:16.355 --> 01:05:18.846
Well, Michael, excited to see you at New York Comic-Con.

01:05:18.846 --> 01:05:20.297
Again, this comes out the week of New York.

01:05:20.297 --> 01:05:23.548
So hopefully by this time, by the time people are listening to this, you and I already hanging out.

01:05:23.548 --> 01:05:37.467
So we just so appreciate again, you coming on the oblivion bar and we hope to have you on in the future for whatever you're working on at the time, whether that be that secret thing that no one knows about or some wind or whatever.

01:05:38.708 --> 01:05:40.168
Give me two years for you.

01:05:42.161 --> 01:05:44.103
Well, hopefully we have you on before two years.

01:05:44.103 --> 01:05:45.922
That'd be my hope at least.

01:05:46.184 --> 01:05:50.905
I'll come back for if not earlier than the end of wind.

01:05:50.905 --> 01:05:51.445
Okay.

01:05:51.445 --> 01:05:52.005
All right.

01:05:52.005 --> 01:05:52.235
Yeah.

01:05:52.235 --> 01:05:52.806
I love it.

01:05:52.806 --> 01:05:55.117
That'll give us a good opportunity to talk about wind and its completion.

01:05:55.117 --> 01:05:56.447
So yeah.

01:05:56.447 --> 01:05:56.717
Awesome.

01:05:56.717 --> 01:05:57.539
Well, Michael, thank you so much.

01:05:57.539 --> 01:05:58.909
And we'll talk to you next time.

01:05:59.108 --> 01:06:00.128
Thank you.

01:06:00.449 --> 01:06:00.969
Alrighty.

01:06:00.969 --> 01:06:02.181
There's that conversation with Michael.

01:06:02.181 --> 01:06:03.960
Once again, thank you so much to Mr.

01:06:03.960 --> 01:06:05.311
D'Ali Nass for coming onto the show.

01:06:05.311 --> 01:06:10.380
Once again, his second time here on the Oblivion Bar podcast, talking about all things Zawa.

01:06:10.380 --> 01:06:12.891
Gosh, dang it, Aaron, do I love that book?

01:06:12.891 --> 01:06:13.630
I really do.

01:06:13.630 --> 01:06:19.132
I'm not just saying that again, because we like Michael, not only because we're on the back of the first trade.

01:06:19.132 --> 01:06:26.284
I really, really honestly, this is like my favorite book to hand new book fans and go, hey, this is what's great about comics.

01:06:26.284 --> 01:06:27.594
This is why comics are cool.

01:06:27.594 --> 01:06:31.856
Zawa best represents what I think comics do so well.

01:06:31.856 --> 01:06:32.536
Absolutely.

01:06:32.536 --> 01:06:39.322
This is a perfect representation of what a creator owned like I guess, what would you call it?

01:06:39.322 --> 01:06:41.063
Like franchise or a property?

01:06:41.063 --> 01:06:43.045
Yeah, I'd say like a title or yeah.

01:06:43.045 --> 01:06:43.385
Yeah.

01:06:43.385 --> 01:06:46.009
This is the, this is the perfect example.

01:06:46.009 --> 01:07:01.481
And you guys can hear it in the conversation that this is a perfect example of the creator getting out of his head, what he wants, but also it turning into him getting out of his head and out of his emotions, what he needs.

01:07:01.481 --> 01:07:01.922
Yeah.

01:07:01.922 --> 01:07:09.773
And There's so many times where actors and artists and creators are like, just, didn't know I had these emotions in me.

01:07:09.773 --> 01:07:14.914
And that's what makes a book like this, like very special because you can, you can see it.

01:07:14.914 --> 01:07:31.914
And when you hear him talk about the choices that he made, whether it was with the mom in the book or with, you know, Zawa herself or the ending and how things just needed to be kind of restarted and go to Bula Rasa, you know, when you need to go finally, just go back to a clean slate.

01:07:31.914 --> 01:07:37.315
You can hear in his voice that he needed this story to come out and turn out this way.

01:07:37.315 --> 01:07:41.998
He said, even after issue one, this was a living, breathing story.

01:07:41.998 --> 01:07:43.398
And I love that so much.

01:07:43.398 --> 01:07:52.972
you can, and I'll go back and listen to the first, you know, interview with him about Zawa when, when he had, was working on issue three, when not even issue one had released.

01:07:52.972 --> 01:07:59.755
And you can hear the change, but still the excitement and the love and the energy that went into this book.

01:07:59.755 --> 01:08:01.675
And I absolutely echo what you're saying.

01:08:01.675 --> 01:08:03.226
This is a book for all ages.

01:08:03.226 --> 01:08:06.347
This is a book that anybody can pick up and find value in.

01:08:06.347 --> 01:08:12.268
And we highly recommend October 23rd going and picking up the trade again, not just because we're on the back of it.

01:08:12.268 --> 01:08:14.769
And I that's pretty cool, but that's pretty cool.

01:08:14.769 --> 01:08:18.511
But that's going to be something in years coming down the road where it's going to be a collectible.

01:08:18.511 --> 01:08:19.511
That's right.

01:08:19.511 --> 01:08:21.701
And we will sign Zawa if you want us to.

01:08:21.701 --> 01:08:23.492
We will sign it for you.

01:08:23.492 --> 01:08:25.351
Yeah, no, just kidding.

01:08:25.372 --> 01:08:27.563
We would never do that, Michael, if you're listening for some reason.

01:08:27.563 --> 01:08:31.985
But you know, will say to kind of build off what you're saying there, I thought it was really cool.

01:08:31.985 --> 01:08:47.386
Michael shared with us about the loss of his father when he was 16 and how this really played a part into bandits sort of relationship with his father and how everyone in the town of Mesa Boone very much compared him to his father, not only with his cooking, but how he looks and sort of his personality.

01:08:47.386 --> 01:08:48.565
I just found that really touching.

01:08:48.565 --> 01:08:51.905
I'm so grateful that Michael was able to share that with us.

01:08:51.905 --> 01:08:53.326
Cause I had no idea.

01:08:53.326 --> 01:08:58.255
we pulled that sort of out of him on accident because I just had a question about how bandit and his father have this.

01:08:58.255 --> 01:09:05.449
I mean, when you, when you read that first issue of saga or saga, when you first read that issue, you go back and listen to that conversation with Brian K.

01:09:05.449 --> 01:09:20.917
Vaughn for the episode before this one episode 165, but no, you can hear when he's talking about that first issue of Zawa that the dialogue, everything about bandit in that first issue is everyone comparing him to his father who had since passed away, which is also why his mother is so against Zawa.

01:09:20.917 --> 01:09:22.452
And that's why she's obviously turned against him.

01:09:22.452 --> 01:09:27.805
You all just heard that in this conversation, but Michael, One of the coolest people in the comic industry.

01:09:27.805 --> 01:09:29.006
So happy to have him on the show.

01:09:29.006 --> 01:09:29.916
It's always such a delight.

01:09:29.916 --> 01:09:30.886
Sweetheart.

01:09:30.886 --> 01:09:31.945
Yeah, absolutely.

01:09:31.945 --> 01:09:34.086
And Zawa is one of those books again.

01:09:34.226 --> 01:09:36.646
know, my niece, she recently just started getting into comics.

01:09:36.646 --> 01:09:42.957
I gave her Batman year one and then I gave her a, know, know, Marvel does those like condensed collect.

01:09:42.957 --> 01:09:45.921
mean, DC's have been doing it here recently as well, but they'll do like the condensed books.

01:09:45.921 --> 01:09:51.100
They're sort of smaller and they're like a, you just hand it to a new reader and they can sort of pick up the story right then and there.

01:09:51.100 --> 01:09:52.340
It's all in one.

01:09:52.434 --> 01:09:54.765
I gave her one of those for Gwen Stacy and she loved both of those.

01:09:54.765 --> 01:09:59.775
So I think Zawa honestly might be the next book that I give her, I hand her, and I know she's going to love it.

01:09:59.775 --> 01:10:00.515
Absolutely.

01:10:00.515 --> 01:10:06.467
It's so again, it's so just an amazing experience to get to talk to these creators.

01:10:06.467 --> 01:10:11.658
And I keep saying the same thing over and again, but I'm not going to keep doing it we don't want to make this last forever.

01:10:11.680 --> 01:10:20.981
But to hear somebody speak so passionately, passionately, passionately, to hear somebody speak so passionately.

01:10:21.033 --> 01:10:28.198
about something that they obviously went through hell to create, but wants to do it again.

01:10:28.198 --> 01:10:42.365
And we're not going to spoil anything, but we, we got to talk to Michael about some of the stuff that he's coming out with later on and go pick up Zawa, go pick up wind, go pick up the woods, go pick up anything that's, that's got his name on it.

01:10:42.365 --> 01:10:45.307
And you're going to see this evolution of where he's going.

01:10:45.307 --> 01:10:50.426
And when you guys see where he's going to get too soon, God damn, I'm excited for you.

01:10:50.426 --> 01:10:51.985
I'm so excited for you.

01:10:51.985 --> 01:11:01.246
That's my favorite thing about talking to these creators is that sometimes we'll hop on the line with them and before we can even get into the conversation, they're like, Hey, let me show you when I'm working on him that I'll be releasing in 2026.

01:11:01.246 --> 01:11:05.805
And I'm like, Whoa, we've got like two years, but like they're always just so excited.

01:11:05.805 --> 01:11:08.166
And that's so refreshing, right?

01:11:08.166 --> 01:11:13.355
To have a creator who's so willing to just sort of show their underbelly, not only with their work, but also what they have upcoming.

01:11:13.355 --> 01:11:18.286
And we've been very lucky in that sense to make a lot of friends in the industry that are willing to do that for us.

01:11:18.286 --> 01:11:18.720
So.

01:11:18.720 --> 01:11:20.850
Once again, thank you so much, Michael, for coming on the show.

01:11:20.850 --> 01:11:30.577
I will say just to sort of point out the obvious, if you couldn't tell everyone there at the end, Aaron, I know you were really upset about this, but Aaron sort of disappeared there at the end of that conversation.

01:11:30.577 --> 01:11:31.337
Not a big deal.

01:11:31.337 --> 01:11:33.253
He just had to go pick up his wife from the bus station.

01:11:33.253 --> 01:11:34.460
It's not a big deal, everybody.

01:11:34.460 --> 01:11:36.881
But, you know, Michael and I were able to finish the conversation.

01:11:36.881 --> 01:11:40.833
know Aaron was pretty bummed that he couldn't talk about anime with Michael there at the end.

01:11:40.833 --> 01:11:44.692
Believe it that.

01:11:44.692 --> 01:11:48.412
Well, we'll talk about anime next time he's on because we know we'll have Michael on the show at some point down the road.

01:11:48.412 --> 01:11:50.663
He even said he wanted to come on.

01:11:50.663 --> 01:11:57.565
I'm guessing when they finished wind, I think is when we decided that we wanted to have him back on again, which wind is also an incredible YA book.

01:11:57.565 --> 01:12:01.466
If you're not familiar, go check out wind with him and James Tynan, the fourth good friend of the show.

01:12:01.466 --> 01:12:03.646
So once again, thank you, Michael.

01:12:03.646 --> 01:12:04.408
Next.

01:12:04.408 --> 01:12:13.453
Well, I was gonna say next week, tomorrow on the Oblivion Bar podcast for episode one 67, we are going to be talking to Sweeney Boo and Sue Lee, or as we like to call them, Aaron.

01:12:13.453 --> 01:12:15.274
The Sue Boo Crew.

01:12:16.213 --> 01:12:16.833
Right?

01:12:16.833 --> 01:12:17.873
The Boo Sue Crew.

01:12:17.873 --> 01:12:18.594
Is it Boo Sue?

01:12:18.594 --> 01:12:19.573
Boo Sue Crew?

01:12:19.573 --> 01:12:21.314
I guess we can switch it up if we really need to.

01:12:21.314 --> 01:12:23.394
You gotta keep it like alphabetical.

01:12:23.394 --> 01:12:23.884
know?

01:12:23.884 --> 01:12:24.724
Like the Boo Sue Crew.

01:12:24.724 --> 01:12:25.413
The Boo Sue Crew.

01:12:25.413 --> 01:12:25.774
Yeah.

01:12:25.774 --> 01:12:27.524
So we're talking to Sweeney Boo and Sue Lee.

01:12:27.524 --> 01:12:31.333
Of course, Sweeney Boo is the illustrator of Harley Quinn with Teenie Howard.

01:12:31.333 --> 01:12:35.713
She was also the sole creator on the HarperCollins book Over My Dead Body.

01:12:35.713 --> 01:12:39.304
And of course, Sue Lee, who is currently working on Cheetara over at Dynamite.

01:12:39.304 --> 01:12:41.073
She also worked on Maleficent.

01:12:41.073 --> 01:12:44.034
As did Sweeney on Corrella De Vil.

01:12:44.034 --> 01:12:49.757
And then we also have Sully working on an upcoming minor threats book with Brian Michael Bendis, which is very, very exciting.

01:12:49.757 --> 01:12:51.018
Again, good friend of the show.

01:12:51.018 --> 01:13:01.903
And make sure you go check out Sully's Carmilla, which is phenomenal, phenomenal vampire LGBTQ plus friendly vampire hunter.

01:13:01.903 --> 01:13:10.152
Just it's an incredible story that spans like the country and you just get a feeling of being there and it's amazing.

01:13:10.152 --> 01:13:11.823
I got a feeling.

01:13:13.704 --> 01:13:16.967
The tonight's gonna be a good night.

01:13:16.967 --> 01:13:20.710
That tonight's gonna be a good, good night.

01:13:21.612 --> 01:13:22.511
Let's move on.

01:13:22.511 --> 01:13:23.382
All No more black eyed peas.

01:13:23.382 --> 01:13:26.435
We've got to get out of here because we have more episodes.

01:13:26.716 --> 01:13:30.219
We have four more episodes this week, everybody, for New York Comic Con.

01:13:30.219 --> 01:13:34.902
And if you're listening to this right now, Aaron and I are currently going to keep going with the black eyed peas.

01:13:36.804 --> 01:13:46.099
As you're listening to this, we're going to be losing our minds like As you are currently listening to if you're listening to it the day that it comes out, and I are currently losing our minds at the Javits Center in New York.

01:13:46.099 --> 01:13:48.350
So pray for us that that's what you do.

01:13:48.350 --> 01:13:49.451
Send us your good energy.

01:13:49.451 --> 01:13:52.872
Send us your spirit energy via like Dragon Ball Z style.

01:13:52.872 --> 01:13:57.073
Ooh, maybe I'll bring my Goku costume.

01:13:57.073 --> 01:13:57.673
Love that.

01:13:57.673 --> 01:13:58.594
Do it.

01:13:58.715 --> 01:13:59.284
Do it, please.

01:13:59.284 --> 01:14:00.885
All right, buddy.

01:14:00.885 --> 01:14:03.657
That'll do it for episode 166 of the Oblivion Bar podcast.

01:14:03.657 --> 01:14:07.148
Aaron, if you will, please, now that we're officially back.

01:14:07.148 --> 01:14:09.259
We got again, everything's refurbished.

01:14:09.259 --> 01:14:11.761
Take us out of here with our brand new call to action.

01:14:11.761 --> 01:14:13.140
Because you said please.

01:14:13.140 --> 01:14:15.082
So pretty please.

01:14:15.082 --> 01:14:16.823
sweet summer child.

01:14:17.524 --> 01:14:18.573
All right, here we go.

01:14:18.573 --> 01:14:25.097
Subscribe to our podcast, Apple podcast, Spotify, YouTube, Audible, iHeartRadio, wherever you listen to your favorite podcast.

01:14:25.097 --> 01:14:25.819
That's where we are.

01:14:25.819 --> 01:14:26.719
Thank you to our patrons.

01:14:26.719 --> 01:14:27.850
You still got everybody.

01:14:27.850 --> 01:14:28.939
Thank you to our patrons.

01:14:28.939 --> 01:14:35.640
Alex, Alice, Aaron, Bodder, Brad, Chris S, Chris White, Christie, David, Elliott, George, Gianni, Greg, Haley, Hamsticks, Jake H.

01:14:35.640 --> 01:14:40.573
Jeremy, Kenny, Kyle, Lossy Mac, Miles, Mike, Olivia, Ryan, Robert, Travis, Zach, and Brad and Lisa.

01:14:40.573 --> 01:14:52.845
If you want to support the show without spending any money, a follow on your preferred podcasting platform and a five star rating and or review on Apple podcasts and Spotify helps the show a ton.

01:14:53.945 --> 01:15:02.012
Please, follow us on social media, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Blue Sky and threads at oblivion bar pod.

01:15:02.092 --> 01:15:03.405
What the dog doing?

01:15:03.405 --> 01:15:07.917
Brand new official merch for the show is on our website, www.oblivionbarpodcast.com.

01:15:07.917 --> 01:15:09.569
New t-shirts, everybody.

01:15:09.929 --> 01:15:11.539
New logos, because we've got a new look.

01:15:11.539 --> 01:15:12.649
We've got to get new merch.

01:15:12.649 --> 01:15:15.332
We've got to update that wardrobe, son.

01:15:15.332 --> 01:15:15.771
That's right.

01:15:15.771 --> 01:15:18.422
Thank you, KXD Studios for all our Oblivion Bar art.

01:15:18.422 --> 01:15:20.953
He's at KXD Graphics on Instagram.

01:15:20.953 --> 01:15:24.115
Thank you, Dream Kid, for all of our musical themes.

01:15:24.115 --> 01:15:26.546
Thank you, DJ Skyvac, for our grid theme.

01:15:26.546 --> 01:15:34.788
And last but not least, Do not forget to tip your bartenders 20 % or more because guess what?

01:15:34.788 --> 01:15:38.159
It's gonna be a long weekend at the Javits Center.

01:15:38.159 --> 01:15:45.301
And if you want those doubles and those top pours and those top shelf, you better give them 20 % or more because they will remember you.

01:15:45.301 --> 01:15:53.423
Also just remember it's a, it needs to be said that Aaron and I are going to be surviving off like hot dogs and Gatorades and just all the crappy stuff they have at the Javits Center.

01:15:53.423 --> 01:16:03.350
I'm just gonna have a pocket full of jelly beans, hot jelly beans, the Harry Potter ones that have like Ear, ear wick and far.

01:16:03.350 --> 01:16:03.680
Yeah.

01:16:03.680 --> 01:16:04.649
What is it?

01:16:04.649 --> 01:16:05.909
I got bogies.

01:16:05.909 --> 01:16:06.890
Bogies.

01:16:06.890 --> 01:16:07.199
no, no.

01:16:07.199 --> 01:16:09.710
It's troll bogies or some shit.

01:16:10.229 --> 01:16:11.510
All right, everybody.

01:16:12.170 --> 01:16:13.829
Harry Potter.

01:16:13.829 --> 01:16:15.010
Come to die.

01:16:15.010 --> 01:16:18.609
The boy who lived come to die.

01:16:19.029 --> 01:16:20.949
All right, everybody.

01:16:20.949 --> 01:16:24.159
Thank you so much for listening to episode one sixty six of the Oblivion Bar podcast.

01:16:24.159 --> 01:16:25.319
Post credits right there.

01:16:25.319 --> 01:16:28.569
We will see you tomorrow for episode one sixty seven.

01:16:28.569 --> 01:16:29.569
Bye, everybody.

01:16:29.569 --> 01:16:30.405
Bye.

01:17:10.551 --> 01:17:13.354
And joining me is the ain't ain't goodness.

01:17:13.354 --> 01:17:15.323
Now joining me is the anal mountain guardian.

01:17:15.323 --> 01:17:16.662
I got to reset.

01:17:16.662 --> 01:17:17.395
All right.

01:17:17.395 --> 01:17:18.087
go.