Welcome everyone to four guys in the comic ladies and gentlemen. It is time for us to talk about how to step you guys We all really didn't even know about and wish you didn't know about so here. We are again this week with an amazing interview afterwards So guys, what have you been up to hanging in there? It's been hard it's been so hard I've had so many files comics since I had all my wedding stuff going on everything else And I finally have like knocked it down to like this small pile now about and it's mostly comics I don't even care if I get to or not and I'm super stoked that I'm finally here There's just a million comics to read and I saw you little video you did on Twitter with the organizing your collection That's pretty cool.
Oh, yeah No, there's a lot of I got a lot more people on there watching than I actually thought it was funny though because whenever I started putting on the The punk music and stuff I started getting all these little hearts and everything else me jamming out drinking wine Organizing comics it was a nice Saturday. That was the funniest thing you start watching the video the first thing you do There you are you know on the bed with your bottle of wine get yourself on gear up and ready to go Yeah, exactly. I was on the bed though. I was on the floor.
I was on the floor. Oh, is that always the floor? I thought it was the bed for some reason the damn aka his bed aka Where his wife makes him sleep it That's why he was working in comics on a Saturday because he had gotten in trouble Exactly what really happened is a Reagan went with her mom to go see Justin Timberlake in Austin yesterday. It was Saturday.
You didn't go Justin Timberlake, I know you didn't go see JT he's bringing sexy back I would actually really like to go just to say I could have gone but I wasn't about to fork out the money for tickets She got to go for free her mom paid for her and I already Well, you guys are married now her mom should be paying for you Works They paid for all the wedding stuff because the father of the bride pays for the wedding but Shout out to Helen girls. Yeah, I hope it's not a curse on me, but um, yeah No, I spent all the money on ACL the following weekend or the previous week I mean we didn't have a round table for that week So if you're wondering what we were up to I was an ACL the Austin City limits saw the girl is right actually peppers Jay's a mike was missing Michaels in the ER Alex's ACL and I was flying solo Yep, how was the peppers man? I love the peppers God They're off. Yeah, no, it was so cool seeing red actually peppers They had so much energy on stage Flea literally had the microphone in his hand like the whole show just yelling random stuff And it was so good and he even had a face-off on stage with another guy and it was great Like it was really good.
I'll say the group that stole the show though was on Sunday night the gorillas came up And if you don't know they are they usually have a bunch of different people featured in their songs like on different How it's basically just their producers and they invite people to come do songs with them and they had like their old Cartoons, yeah, well it's an animator and a music producer It's the Damon is was the lead singer of that British band Bueller. You might remember from the late 90s You ever heard that song? The same dude totally different style of music but same dude But gorillas had everyone comment like all their features from all their songs and stuff even Dell the funky homo sapien came up and did Clint Eastwood which was so cool. Nice Speaking of music did you guys remember in the 90s rock was it Rock and roll comics never heard you read and never heard of them.
I remember rock and roll wrestling No, they did 65 issues issue number one featured guns and roses I mean they had everybody in there dawn Alice Cooper's easy top Michael Jackson Rod Stewart the who the crew and every issue was basically, you know The backstory about each individual person and how they came to be and just how they got formed and know the whole history of That band or that person so it's basically blue wave comics before blue wave time But done right but done right it was really really not with the not with the weird art No, the art was great in fact. I got a really cool story to tell you It was a 1990 from a member serves there was a metallic I'm not my mom I'm a motley crew concert in California And I was wanting to go to this was so bad tickets were so expensive. Yeah, and I was suspended from school one day And I'm at home listen my favorite radio station and I had my rock and roll comics in front of me and I was going through them and on the radio They're like, okay, so if you can tell us the the the very first album that motley crew did who was the company that? Published the album you will win two free tickets to the concert plus a limousine will pick you up driven by Sam Kinison and I'm just like I just read that holy smokes So you know I'm dialing the phone as I'm flipping through the rock and roll comic book right trying to find that page like I remember reading that You know the person answers the phone all right you're calling number 12 congratulations What is the answer I haven't got a page yet?
And I find that was like yeah, my name is my I'm flipping through there I find something on that page and I actually gave a street address because of the street address It was some kind of name that was similar to like a publishing company the guy was like Oh, I'm sorry you're wrong you hangs up. I mean I look at it and right below the street address in a little block What's the name of that company? I was like oh? My god, it was like the crew drew my Sam.
Oh my god Sam Kinison would have lost his shit when he arrived your house. He's picking up a 13 year old kid Sam Kinison would have been like oh my god Exactly I got the couple was I was oh my god 17 18 at the time. Oh god that would just have been awesome But anyways, yeah If you can anybody hasn't heard of it rock and roll comics check out all the stuff in there in regards to your favorite artists You know it was just it was awesome series really was you know what? It's kind of weird because I mean I guess it's not such a popular thing to do now with like that kind of style comic or whatever but even Marvel did like Alice Cooper comics and stuff back in the day and It's I mean kiss comics are like huge, you know and it's crazy that you know back then that was like a big thing But I guess what those kind of characters, you know Just the personas and they're on stage personality and everything else They were like almost like a comic book superhero or villain or whatever, you know Yeah, especially like you know kiss and all that they're like demons from space and everything else so yeah I'm just looking at I finally found it.
No that issue number one of guns and roses. It went into seven printings A lot it is a lot. I wouldn't want to read a whole comic about Axel Rose just complaining about slash though That's probably what half the comic is no actually like I said it broke it down to each individual person and it was really truly well done It really was but anyways Matt what's been going on with you man? What comics and stuff have you been up to?
Yeah, so a lot of omnibus reading Kind of in bouncing around a few different omnes lately actually So I've been reading beyond stoked. I'll probably finish it here in the next day or so the complete series of Luther strode So the complete saga of Luther strode from image comics Absolutely amazing Justin Jordan tradmore. It's it's phenomenal. Absolutely love that book rust Yeah rusty Alex where the hell I'm calling you these days you should check out this book.
It is ultra ultra violent There's so basically it's a total of 18 issues. It's three arcs broken down in the six issues and so the first one is called like I can't I was like the legacy of Luther strode the The return of Luther whatever I remember all the names were butchering it right now, but it's Luther strode L-U-T-H-E-R-S-T-R-O-D-E basically this kid here's the here's the premise this kid He's like a little weakling. He's like your little stereotypical bookworm. Okay.
He's tired of being picked on at school So he orders this book is kind of like reminds you like those old like Atlas books and like in the back of comics order today You can have a physique like this tomorrow. You know those types of things. Yeah, so he orders this book and it comes in and within like a week or so he's all of a sudden just ginormous ripped dude and the reason is because This book is sent out by the librarian and he's an evil fuck and it kind of goes from there But it's basically Luther strode like well I'm gonna be a vigilante and I'm gonna take out bad guys And it's ultra violent like I mean arms being ripped off blood everywhere I mean it's crazy and everybody knows I've not been too shy about it But I'm not a fan of treadmores art on ghost writer and some other books I was very nervous when I first started reading this one's like don't I'm not a fan of the art But in this book it works wonderfully. I really love his art in this book.
It works so incredibly well. That's cool So yeah, it's absolutely amazing. I'm on his issue 12 right now at 18 But anyways super amazing book. I wouldn't recommend this to rest of you.
You know, I don't realize it Do's been having some bad dreams over here. Oh Yeah, yeah, yeah, I saw that he was getting pulled down into a laundry basket I was creepy dream man by the by the hand from HBO Oh, you see comics for Alex, you know, he's got to go switch to my little pony now Yeah, right What is it black cat mystery comics that I've been rex I got the the paperback for that and then all these I've already seen a Wild and read a lot of black cat mystery stuff and It's something for those of you who obviously don't know about my dream thing I was having a I have open the middle of the night because I was having a bad drink I was having a good dream like everything was hunky dory like it was like a okay I don't even remember if it was like significantly a dream about anything specific But just me like hanging out and I don't know what but I walked by the door to my closet and then randomly A hand just like reaches out and grabs me and pulls me into the closet and like holds me down Like and I can't get this hand to let me go like overpowered me But it was coming out of the dirty clothes hamper and like was like pulling me into it It was it was creepy. It was one of those dreams though to where I Felt kind of really like you could read like move around you can't control what's going on And so I remember reaching behind me to try and feel what was grabbing me and feeling like this cold hand like grabbing the back of my shirt And like pulling me back and like I was like trying to like dig my nails into it and stuff But nothing was happening and it was gross the hands felt gross You know they just had your shirt and just take your shirt off and you would have been free right? No, I should have no I think this is your subconscious telling you that it's time to go get your long dirty laundry washed How long has that been sitting there in the baskets in some for the wedding?
Yeah spooky how appropriate right before Halloween to yeah, really well go check out Luther Strode man I'm telling you it's a fantastic book. I'm I'm so geeked about it And then what else have been bouncing around in oh the new Teen Titans omnibus volume one. I've been reading that nice, you know Bronze Age Teen Titans Marv Wolfman and George Perez It's good stuff man. I never thought I honestly cuz I don't know I'm not a fan of the Teen Titans cartoon the Teen Titans go I'm just not a fan of it So I honestly didn't know what I would think of this book So I was like I'll give it a shot if not I'll trade it off get some else no I actually like it a lot.
It's really really really really well done I'm probably quarter of the way halfway through it and it's good. I like it a lot I remember reading it back in the day and I was like wow this isn't bad, you know No, it's it's good. It's really really really well done And Beast Boys my favorite. I'm a beast boy actually he's called the changeling in that book, but uh, yeah, it's good stuff Oh Ryan omnibus I've been bouncing around in and out of that one.
You know the Jack Kirby fourth world stuff. Oh, yeah That's what that one's fun. You should be I'm gonna go Jordan right now. I actually caught up on yeah I'm gonna play in it and I Ryan kills himself in it, but something happens you'll have to I'll just give you that yeah I'm gonna I need to come back I'm probably six months behind all the reeber stuff so I need to binge read some of that So which I will be doing shortly.
I'm starting to finally kind of get a feeling of a caught up accomplishment I caught it. What do you want to call it? And then what was the other book that I was bouncing? Oh, oh, how can I forget swamp thing omnibus bronze age swamp thing That is actually the that one in Luther strode like the main two that are on my reading list right now When I got Bronze age swamp thing might got it too and so we were talking about how we're gonna read it You know at the same time and compare notes and thoughts and whatnot.
I haven't talked to them I have no idea, but I'm like, I don't know seven or eight issues in it's really really good I had like no expectations going into it. I was kind of like, you know, whatever. We'll see what it's like Bronze age I mean, I like bronze age stuff. I was like, well, we'll see what it's like.
This is like early 70s Bronze age and The writing is phenomenal like if this writing is anything like I know Rusty's been over here pumping out man thing and being on the man thing wagon for a while now and trying to get us to read it But if the writing and man thing is like what I'm reading right now in this Bronze age swamp thing I get why you love man things so much if it's the same type of writing I get it I mean swamp thing is a Len wean and Bernie writes and you can't go, you know, you can't go wrong with that with that team But yeah, Bronze age swamp thing amazing stuff. Oh, but it's like some armies. I did do some Marvel reading Oh, there's a few titles that have piqued my interest with this whole legacy thing So kind of like DC rebirth, you know, the rebirth thing happened Kind of got me re interested in a DC a little bit and then I was on this rebirth train for a while I still am I just need I'm just behind any play catch up. Um, so Marvel legacy's kind of doing the same thing for me So I was like, all right.
Well, let's see what books have come out this week that peak my interest and I read Thor 700 I'm trying to read that one. I have to tell my pile right here, but yeah, no, I read Thor the mighty Thor 700 I wasn't real sure because I've not read any of the of the lady Jane Thor stuff at all But this one was talking about war Thor and Odinson and late and lady Jane mighty Thor So I was kind of like all the characters that I like in it. I'm gonna read it. It's Jason Aaron I'll read it and we'll go from there We'll see what happens because it made it sound like Jane is gonna be dying of her cancer soon And so there's gonna be a new Thor to take up Mule near when she passes because it sounds like she's on the verge of dying soon I really says other making it sound So I read it.
It's really good. I'm impressed. It kind of actually makes me want to go back and read some the other mighty Thor stuff that I've missed out on I read a Ironman whatever the legacy numbering on that one is I don't remember the issue number Six fifty something maybe I don't remember anyway. Yeah, no, it's like six fifty something I think but anyway I read Ironman and they're hinting at a return of Tony Stark Which piques my interest is once again like I think the re-read Williams characters cool ironheart whatever, you know Like it's cool, but I want to see Ironman like I want to see Tony start like that's what I grew up reading That's who I want to read about and if he teams up with I'm like hell yeah, let's have some adventures like that's cool But you know and as we all know, you know, dr.
Doom's been taking over the Ironman arm lately and kind of having this infamous Ironman run So I read the new Ironman and yeah, it sounds like Tony's on his way back. We'll see I mean they don't really give a whole lot of way in this issue, but uh they hinted at it So we'll see what happens. Yeah I've yeah, I'd probably ask you but and then the other one that piqued my interest this week That I'm reading I haven't gotten all the way through it though. I was really tired last night is venom 156 I picked that up on Wednesday, but I haven't read the issue yet Yeah, I got like a few pages into it, but I was really really tired So I said after I read Thor and Ironman and other sides like I'm just gonna I'll hold off and wait some more awake But uh, yeah, I really enjoyed venom 155 so I picked I know I read or going to be reading venom 156 I'm really holding out though for Captain America Mark wades coming back and doing Captain America.
So I'm really holding out for that one. I'm excited for that I was hoping spirits of vengeance too was out, but I don't think it's out yet rest you probably know is it out yet? No Okay, well that I'm waiting on that one too because spirits of vengeance number one was freaking awesome. So yeah Catch my cable yet Uh, yes, well Let me think what's the last issue with cable was that the one that you showed me the blink?
Um, yeah, you saw that cover there that came out this past Wednesday and uh john maelin took over and uh on art And then there's a new guy writing it now of eric brisson Okay, so I have not read that issue, but I did read everything prior to it. So you saw the end of the class today? Yes, yes, I did I read that um the james robinson run I did read that Um, so I am more or less codified that one issue to read still Um, and then uh, you've been trying to get me to read the was it weapon acts? Yeah, weapon acts is pretty good.
Yeah, so I think I'm gonna have to give that one a shot to because some of these marvel books have actually been Kind of now that this whole secret empire things over with they've been uh Peking my interest a little bit in some of these so and weapon x has a Fred van linte with rig pack so Yeah, and actually dude. I really want to go back and read uh after speaking of riley brown and fred I want to I really want to go back and read that incredible Hercules run Yeah, no definitely whatever you're talking about especially when he said it was compared Especially when he said it was compared to archer and archon. That's how they said it I was like, oh, I gotta really want to go read this incredible Hercules run I'm actually probably gonna put that on my read list this week for my digital i have my physical read list and my digital I'll probably make that my digital read list this week Very cool. Um, yeah, talk about legacy stuff.
I know uh, oh, it's we've talked about this a little bit uh recently of uh conspiracy Theories going on within all of this stuff. Yep. No insert the conspiracy theory music here Um, you know, it's if you look at a lot of the stuff that's been coming out within the storylines But particularly also with the covers if you notice a lot of little little little things have been dropping with the ff a lot of fantastic Four every week we're seeing at least two covers that are fantastic four related for seeing stuff within the issues that are fantastic four related Yeah in the uh in the iron man issue thing makes an appearance. So I'm gonna have a nice youtube video stay tuned for our youtube channel where i'm gonna point out every single ff Item within all the legacy comics and follow along with us here for guys because we have a feeling that the fantastic four Gonna be making a triumphant return really really soon.
I hope so as you guys know, I love fantastic four So I I really really hope that they do because that would make my day And then I hope that they do something like I know this uh spirits of vengeance is only like what supposed to be like six or seven issues Something like that sure so if that's fine, you know if they want to create But I want it to at least spin off into some solo books like a blade solo book would be sick We haven't seen a blade solo book in years. I would like blade. I would also like morbius Morbius would be cool. Yeah, have a blade morbius book have a whatever like either so much things that you could do Even if it's only like a 12 issue run or an 18 or whatever it's like there's a lot of things You could do with it.
That would be cool. If they did something like that and have wolfman come back and now write it Yeah, that'd be cool. That'd be neat. We created a character after all it'd be nice to see him take ownership of it again Yeah, I never know though.
I mean it could come I doesn't seem like marvel has a whole lot of interest in that kind of universe right now though You haven't noticed it's been heavy on uh what's to come with uh Thanos and he's been popping up in all kinds of random stuff Yeah You sent me that one picture and I'm like that's like a dream sequence or something There's no way but see the fact that he had ghost writer involved in that too Make like he'll go start as like fanning him or some shit like that makes me think um We'll see is he gonna make an appearance and spirits of engines? Yeah, I mean um I don't know. Well. Yeah, but um now they're doing the whole thing.
Oh, um, I haven't read the issue But it came out this past Wednesday, but it was a guardians of the galaxy issue and um Yeah, I did not He's joining the guardians and there's like man thing dead bull cable and dr. Strange And I'm like, it's obviously dr. Strange, right? No, I don't think so.
It could be then I don't foresee being dr. Strange due to dr. Strange still having his own solo series True, I'd be happy with a man thing, but I don't know how effective man man thing Yeah, man things basically grew 2.0 on the guard I'm not saying it as a character. He is what I'm saying like as a guardian.
He would be like grew 2.0 You know what I mean? Like it doesn't is grute even still current on the on the guardians team is he even still there? Because if grute is still on the team you could have some amazing stuff happening with grute and man thing You'd be like oh, she'd that'd be awesome. I would love to see that actually I don't talk or do anything I don't I don't think it would be Cable because cable's got his own solo thing.
Who was the other one you said? Well, just because the fact they're horing up Deadpool like there's no tomorrow and Deadpool 2 drops next year I could see it being Deadpool. I don't know How does they just give Deadpool a suit and he just flies around in space? Dude, how does Deadpool appear in every other fucking Marvel title?
Like everything over saturated with I look dead pool became dead pool became Wolverine like Wolverine was one of those characters that they just threw in every book because he was such a popular character And people kind of got tired of it like I think Deadpool's in the same thing I mean the DC's doing it was Harley Quinn and they've done it with Batman. It's it's the same Until the sales start dropping significantly Yeah, there's a lot of speaking of sales dropping. There's a lot of people that are really pissed off at Marvel right now now Well, they I mean they have been but especially with this whole in tickular thing like I saw like an open letter from a shop owner who Is unfortunately having to shut his doors The last few months he said has been really really hard on him and he was banking on these lenticular covers to kind of I don't know. I mean he didn't say save his business by kind of got the vibe like It was like an all or nothing thing with these lenticular covers like his business has been kind of been on the decline you know and Part of the reason why things have been on the decline is a lot of what I've heard a lot of shop owners say that people go out and they See these movies You know the marvel MCU movies and then they come to the shop looking for books of those characters Well, the problem is like the Avengers that's not what the Avengers look like the Avengers you see in the movies are not the Avengers that are currently in the book And there's just like a lot of it so then people like oh they said if you want to read the Avengers and have that team here's you know Some great stuff from Stan Lee from back and you know and people don't care about that people want to read the modern stuff now And that's I don't know it's kind of been a shot of anyways This guy, you know, he said that yes, there was potentially some bad business decisions made But he was kind of banking on this whole lenticular cover thing to kind of help him out and Apparently completely backfired.
Nobody gives a shit about these lenticular covers Which we've also heard from a lot of other people as well He tried to cancel some of his orders or like take some of them back He you know he like he's like he's like these aren't these aren't gonna sell like I don't want as many as I potentially ordered And diamond and marvel both basically told him to stick it. He's got a stick with what he bought And so he's now having a 50% off everything in the store sale and he's going out of business rough So and I'm I'm sure that's just one example of many that are out there across you know The world that are that are having issues and struggling right now due to a lot of these decisions that Um a lot of these companies are making let's look at it too. It goes lenticulars, you know Cover price you still paying five bucks, but most shops are aren't giving it to cover price or charging 10 to 15 dollars And it's just ridiculous. We look at the price of some of these issues these days It's just well, that's because it's something shiny so people like oh shiny.
I have to have it Yeah But yeah, no, it's bad and a lot of people you know they are firm believers called a conspiracy theory call it whatever you want But there's a lot of people that are very firm believers in the fact that You know marvel has it out for shop Basically the conspiracy theory is that and it's something that actually mike has been saying for a long time now too Which is that marvel doesn't want to keep making monthly books They want to go the way of trade paperbacks and digital I mean they might be monthly books, but it'll be all digital They don't want to do paper floppies anymore The only type of physical copy that you can buy going forward and this new world that they envisioned is a conspiracy is going to be trade Paperbacks omnibus is things like that and then everything else is going to be digital That is true There is but how many people already like how many people do we know that already read mainly digital anyway? Like how many sales have been lost due to digital and I mean just even a few years ago I was talking to a shop owner here and he said that uh his shop probably won't be there in 20 years He goes, you know, it sucks that you have to you're a comic shop You have to supplement your income with magic the gathering and pokemon cards in order to keep your business afloat because that's what sells People aren't buying physical books anymore people are buying everything digitally or you have companies like or they give people a collect I collect hard covers and things like that, but you have um people that collect a hardcover of trade waders, you know that I mean I don't trade weight I usually read up until and then like it's a hardcover great, you know But you have those people that prefer that binge like it's just part of the world that we That we live in now in the way that things have grown I mean look at netflix people wait for shows to hit netflix and then they binge watch it You know people wait for hb for game of thrones to air all 10 episodes and then they sign up for hb Oh free for a month just to binge watch all the episodes and then they unsubscribe again It's just I don't know it's that world that we live in it's changing I know it'll keep changing it'll be something new something different, you know 10 years from now It was gonna be something brand new that we haven't thought of holla graphic comic books You mentioned gardens at galaxy earlier and I had a circle back because it reminded me Did you see the post those posters of popular comic movies redone? Yes the reimagined ones Oh my gosh that one for with michael jax and star lord for the guards the galaxy of the 1980s movie On to me it was dead on dead on I'm glad it never happened, but yeah Have you guys seen captain eel though? I saw the moonraker no captain eo it was you know revolutionary back in the day or moonwalker whatever the hell it was No captain eo you had to go to disneyland and they had it available there you put on the special 3d glasses Which was basically like when you go to the iamax and watch a 3d movie today This was the beginning of it This was a very first 3d movie with those types of glasses you could ever watch You know which came out like 1984 e5 It's such a long time ago and to debate debut all the stuff they've had captain eo Which was basically it was michael jaxon in space a star lord It's the best way to put it And when you saw that when I saw that cover for that remake I was like that was the perfect choice Yeah, he's completely frozen on my screen Same here He's frozen like this Yep, that's how you're frozen on mine too I think he was talking about star adventures right Captain eo when he said it disneyland and you wear the glasses and stuff and that reminds me of like the star adventure tours or whatever You know what i'm talking about nope you've ever been to disneyland nope what oh?
Oh wow, okay. I've never been disney world but in disneyland and um my family was poor man We never went anywhere. Yeah, I got to go when I was really little but um And I have to go once like a two years ago or something like that I think my wife got to go in high school, but that was because she was a Part of the marching band like she got to do some cool stuff with school, but yeah No, we've never been we've I think it's one of those things where we've talked about like it'd be fun to take the kids But not until they're way older. I mean it's so expensive like you want to make sure they get on Appreciated.
Yeah, and they can appreciate it. It's expensive. I'm gonna shell that much money There's gonna be a memory for life. Oh, yeah, no, and I mean that's something I mean I feel like every kid should get to go to disneyland I mean they watch all that stuff on tv and everything else and you hear about it from your friend That's how what made me so stoked about it when I was a kid and I was gonna go I don't even know what my friends talking about it's so cool I don't even know if my kids know it disneyland exists That is a I know that's a highly doubtful they watch all the Disney movies in the Disney channel, right?
Yeah, but they don't advertise and stuff because they watch it all in demand like we don't have cable They watch it all like via Netflix and stuff That's interesting Well, yeah, I can't watch it. I'm surprised they went there. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know if they even know what it's maybe they do I don't know they'd never talked about it Wow Yeah, it's pretty crazy.
Yeah, I don't even know if they know it exists. They might um They know legoland does but it's only because we went there I was Lago land in florida sick dude. Is everything made out of legos? Yeah, and then like they have a lot of like really cool rides and roller coasters and stuff.
That's a lot of fun I mean, it's mainly geared for kids like five to 11 or 12 Um, but even for adults it was a good time. It was a lot of fun. Let's go. I'm gonna try it out sometime They need to just make a comic book land and then we can all do a four guys trip Well, they kind of do it universal in florida.
They have a marvel island. Yeah, they have adventure island I think it's what it's called, but it's basically all marvel. That's dope They like the spider-man 3d ride or 4d ride. They have the incredible hulk ride the Um, yeah, it's basically like a dr.
Doom ride. Yeah, it's all marvel. They have a dr. Doom ride.
Yeah, that is so cool Oh, okay. I didn't know that that just got me high. Yeah, it's the it's the marvel Experiencing yeah, it's like the marvel. I can't think of the name of it now You'll think about it later and then you're gonna be like aha Yeah, probably Alright, well Oh, well, well taps thinking about You know this one day he'll probably figure it out and he's gonna do the aha moment here in a little bit But um, let's jump into an interview with John Riley.
Yeah, so basically first of all we owe and I want to make this public we owe a huge apology To john riley. We had his interview scheduled Mike, I believe had to work you were at Austin city limits. So it was gonna be me and uh me and michael He ended up having to go to the er last minute. So he wasn't able to record either I didn't want to have to reschedule him.
So I said well, I'm going to interview him I'll just do it solo and he's a wonderful wonderful guy. We had a good time talking Um, but at the beginning of this interview process. He writes a book called herald Lovecraft and tesla and uh at the time I had not read any of it. I wasn't real familiar with the book at all It's through action lab comics and uh, I've said many times in any interview I said i'm gonna read this as well because it actually sounded amazing.
He sold me on it. It sounded incredible So I said i'm gonna go back and read and now I want to say put it out there publicly. I have read um All nine issues that are currently out right now and the book is phenomenal. It is so good It's a fun time And the art by uh tom roger's and dexor weeks is matches The story phenomenally like it just it's such a good fit at all all the pieces of the coloring the art the writing like everything just fits Together like a glove and it's uh a beautiful book and it's a lot of fun And so please listen to this interview jump on to comics ology check out his book.
It's it's a good time All right, you heard right there now. Let's go talk to john Well, everybody it is that time of the podcast where we have our weekly interview and this week We have a very special guest someone that we actually met at nova con while we were all there Uh john riley john welcome to the show hello. How's it going? It's going thank you very much for joining us today or joining me The other guys are my a but thank you for joining me today.
I got the good one. Yeah, yeah, you got the best don't worry So, um, tell us a little bit about yourself. You're a writer. Um, you have a book out uh harold tesla and lovecraft Um, I believe you have what six issues out.
Uh, there's nine out at the nine. Okay. Um, yeah So I uh I wrote the ongoing kind of carol lovecraft and tesla with uh with tom roger's doing the The pencils and texar weeks doing the ink color and letters Um, it's published through action lab entertainment Uh three because of that nine issues that we have we've got three volumes out The next one should be coming out sometime later this year and within the next Um as of the broadcast, I guess, um within the next week or so The tabletop role playing game rulebook should be should be uh released and hard back with their the backers are sending that stuff out to uh To the people that backed on kickstarter. Oh very nice So for those that may not have heard of your book or for those I mean just in the title itself it already captures a lot of people's imagination at that point Um, you got a lovecraft and tesla together.
Um, what is your book about? So it's uh, it's kind of a history soup mash up. It's got uh, it starts off with a million air heart has Who is engaged to nicholotessa? She steals a prototype magnetic engine that he was working on and gets sucked into another dimension while trying to cross the atlantic on a solo flight And tesla's got to find some way of of fixing that while she's off in the elsewhere dimension dealing dealing with that uh, tesla Finds his way to hv lovecraft who knows about You know dimensions and magic and that's where stuff to make people get it out And the two of them end up getting caught up in this whole you know long story art global kathulu conspiracy with harry hudini and tom set us in and mark twain and our dine stein and you know a host of of all your favorite Historical characters just kind of mash in there.
That sounds absolutely amazing That is definitely something that is usually like right at my alley I haven't had a chance to to to read any of it yet. Um, unfortunately, but um, I definitely will be I promise you that within the next week I will have all nine issues read and also I'll be reaching back out to you telling you my thoughts on it Um, but that sounds absolutely amazing. Like I said, that is definitely right at my alley And I know red's kind of sad that he can't be here tonight because he's a huge tesla fan Anybody who writes about tesla he's just he's immediately drawn to so But how did you get your start you said you're with action lab the books? Well, which is great.
They're a wonderful wonderful little independent company We've actually had a lot of dealings with writers and artists and things from action lab love those guys So how did you actually get started and how were you fortunate enough to actually become a part of have your book with action lab? So I think um, I mean the short answer that I that I hate telling people because it kind of you just got to uh, Just get really lucky. I just got really lucky. I think it was I hadn't this is the first Um, I had I had I had been teaching writing for a while.
I've got a phd English. I've been doing that for a while. Um, Literature whatnot. I've got some academic publications.
It doesn't matter. So, uh, this is the first piece of fiction that I have that I've had published Uh, my wife got a shirt some years ago. This is like 2011 maybe That Travis Pitts had done a print called uh, by appointment only that's got the two of them on it Lovecraft and tesla and I said, oh that that that looks like an awesome comic. Let's go by that After a couple quick googles, you know, it said oh, it's not a comic.
I said, well, So what god damn it, it should be a comic Because I mean all these ideas all these stories all this possibility was just kind of exploding out of me and uh, that night I sat down and started writing out the big outline for what eventually became this kind of 54 issue plan that we had to Teleforce. Yeah. Yeah. I mean like I I never written a comic or I'd read plenty.
I've never written one Set down what that actually looks like. So looking back on it 54 is kind of um, is Way too ambitious for the first time out, but I mean I'm sticking to it like it All the pieces tie together. Nothing is superfluous everything that's in the comic comes back in some way There's no I try to make sure that there's no filler in in the story whatsoever It's just 54 pages 54 issues rather of uh of the story the full main plot of the story. Wow I mean, there's there's side plots there, but it's nothing nothing is wasted.
There's always something going on. Yeah, that is incredible So how did you end up getting up with action like that? You came up with this wonderful idea of creating this comic and did you just like? Did you find your did you know your writers and or your not your writer your artists and stuff beforehand or was that something like through social media?
Yeah, it was it was through deviant art actually so I spent about a year um just kind of screwing around with the story and Reading a bunch of biographies and piecing all these things together and trying to make all the all the pieces fit and after about a year of Notes and you know scripts and whatnot. I said, let's let's actually give this a shot This is more than just a kind of a fun thing that I've been doing on the side um And then I we found uh tom through deviant art along with hundreds of other profiles that we went through and email them Kind of a basic pitch and like what do you think about this and We got him and uh to start doing some of the pencils and Dexter weeks who's done a few books with image He's he's got a series. I believe coming out on Netflix soon cat named haiku that he also does the um he does the art for Uh, and he he's actually related to me kind of obliquely through, you know, wife's friend a friend cousin kind of thing Um, so as we were doing all this with tom we were getting some some material out We sent it to dex to say, you know, what do you think to do this? I would have takes kind of thing and I was expecting you know as a as you know a family member Hey, good job, you know, keep it up, you know, aim for the stars kind of thing and within about a half hour he came back and said I want to be a part of this.
How do I how do I get on board? This looks great. Oh, that's that's a lot better for spots But I was expecting so yeah, let's let's get it going Um, and then we sent a we sent a submission package out to action with uh with six The last six pages of the first issue And the pitch for the whole thing and the whole story all the all the twists and whatnot which is Probably one of the hardest things you're ever gonna have to write when you have to take a huge story and just kind of Condense it down into an elevator shot. Um, and they liked it and uh, and they gave us a shot and here we are That is incredible.
Um, that's really cool. And this is your first comic that you've ever you said you had written other things in the past But comic requires this is the first yeah, I mean like academic stuff on how to teach writing to the college students Well, obviously writing's in your background. Yes. Yeah, we should be calling you dr.
Riley the rest of the podcast But uh, that is incredible. You're very first comic right out the gate and like did you ever even have any other ideas for other comics or was this like No, it was first idea for a comic you've even had I mean, I've had plenty of ideas for stories and you write down some notes and they just kind of go on a drawer somewhere and nothing ever happens and uh It you know stuff doesn't actually get have a chance to succeed or fail unless you put in the the chair time To to at least give it a chance to fail. You know what I mean? It has to actually exist for someone to say no to it which which gets a lot of people And not sit down in the chair and start writing but I figured let's you know, let's give it a shot So yeah, this was like the first kind of fully conceived story that I put together I did a whole lot of research on how to get how to break in and how to How to get your name out there how to get a comic how to self publish if you're gonna go that route what do you do?
And so much of the material is how there is is it's like here's how you break into comics don't break into comics It's not gonna happen. Don't bother. It's it's really difficult self publish if you need to But don't like don't think you're gonna make any money off of this. Don't think that you're gonna it's gonna go anywhere Yeah, um, so I kind of took that to heart and then kept going anyway And like I said, just got really lucky and then a few months after action And started putting them out.
This was uh, I guess December of 2013 was the first issue So a few months after that I wrote a screenplay of what it would be like it was a tv show And then sent that out to a whole bunch of people and people liked it and then it got off for tv Um, and you know stuff stuff moves around with that Uh, and then another company came by and said hey, we want the right to do it too I said look up tied up with first people but this was Ravendesk games by the way Um, but I said look I see you guys also do role-playing games and stuff and I'm kind of really into that And it really informs a lot of the way that I'm plotting stuff out the way that I think of these characters So would you guys be interested in turning this into a role-playing game? And and then here we are a couple years later where it's the the book is finally done through savage worlds Wow, that is crazy. So for those that are into a lot of the the tabletop gaming and whatnot Um, what can you tell us about it? Like how is it?
Can you give it kind of like a basic just sort of like a dnd type game or how would you explain it to a new Um, so it's it's think of uh, I guess it's it's got the love crafting mythos to it It's done through the savage worlds role system. So if you're familiar with any of them Um, any of the games that use savage worlds that can kind of be ported to other other themes of the genres I guess So if you think of uh, like a call of Cthulhu RPG, which is normally super bleak and super depressing Which I love which is fantastic, but it's also kind of an Indiana Jones pulp in 1920s Kind of you know radio our adventure kind of story So you're going to be we did a Iran obsession to gen con a few months ago. Whenever that was where we had uh, Ernest Hemiway and and jack demse along with harry udini um flighting some of alish chocolates followers and a giant worm ended up eating earnest Hemiway was It's it's pretty great and then who dini shot a giant crate of dynamite and blue everybody else. It was a fantastic little Little sort of that kind of stuff.
It's like it's like a fun pulpy indiana jones Kind of stuff, but you are one of these historical people you want to be so if you want to be like I say out, you know Salvador dali with a with a with a tommy gun Shooting some kind of ghost With elm rose without in the paramas shetty's next to you hacking up some zombies like that's that work too That sounds epic. No, I'm not I've never really been into the whole tabletop game Not I guess that I wouldn't really enjoy it just I don't know anybody else around my area that plays and so I've just never had an opportunity to Engrowth myself in it um, but roll 20 roll 20 That is your gate way to that because that's you got a free thing where you can do all the stuff online So there's there's tons of people yeah, that sounds absolutely amazing. I actually do know some people They don't live near me they live a few states over but I do know some people that are fans of tabletop games I'll be sure I mentioned it to them as well If maybe they've heard of it or if they're about you said it comes out at the end of this month or into this year Um, it should be it should I mean the book is done the PDF is out to some of the backers They're just getting to print it and shipping out they made little pewter figures that you put on the table They got they got poker chips for the what's called the pennies that you use as part of it to kind of As a special ability almost There's a there's a Tesla a working Tesla pistol gun from the comic that they that they're making for props for some of the people that lights up But yeah, they're packing all that up and getting that out there real real soon That's gonna be absolutely incredible. So you said kind of going into your whole first foray or whatever into the world of comics But I'm going to assume that you've been a comic reader earlier on is that here it?
Yeah, yeah, what is your background then in the world of comics and they're growing up reading comics? So for quite a while it was it was almost exclusively um marvel Um, there was a lot of image stuff when image first came out with with wild cats and young blood and whatnot And this is uh, so around the time that infinity gauntlet happened I think infinity gauntlet and infinity war shortly after that was when I kind of topped off and this was mostly because of um, you know, I've got a full-time job. I've got you know, I'm going to school. I don't have You have that weird paradox where you're a kid where you have plenty of time, but no money And then you're a dough you got a lot more money, but no time So I was kind of in that shifting zone in this this the comics was just something I had to kind of put aside So I kind of ended at infinity gauntlet and then maybe I don't know 10 years ago started picking it back up again because of all the just Actually amazing stuff that image, um has been putting out just I mean, we can list all sorts of stuff But actually a couple students of mine got me into uh walking dead back when it was So my first few the first few trades because I told them that I was I was kind of screwing around with making a little zombie board game And one of them came up to me and said you might like this comic that this guy Robert Kirkman because it's supposed to go on forever And then I started getting back into comics and all the um all the stuff that image does which I'm really pleased with So what are some of your favorite image titles currently?
Um, I think saga is probably Is probably the one that comes to mind the most um pretty deadly I get a get a kick out of I like bitch planet. I like um Uh anything the brine cave on kelly's eukonecta does anything they do Yeah, so um, it's usually it's it's stuff that reminds me and I hope it doesn't sound pretentious, but it's not that reminds me of Uh the kind of literature that I might have been teaching as a professor when there's there's tons of it There's plenty of it. Um, but anything that kind of fits into that That category where it feels like it's taking itself seriously because it needs to when it's doing it's doing something very interesting and unique Have you read postal? I have not yet.
No, oh, I've seen I keep seeing Stuff about it. Yeah, I strongly recommend postal. Um, yeah, it Matt Hawkins brine hill It's absolutely incredible and it only gets better from there and we've actually had matt hawkins on the show talking about postal And um he explained kind of the background story. It's absolutely amazing.
It's such a good book So it seems like yeah, if you like the writing I think you'd really dig postal. Um, have you read birthright? Uh, yes, Joshua Williamson. Yeah, actually.
Yeah, I think that the first the first trader read Yeah, birthright. It's great too. Yeah, no images of fantastic. I think because it's greater own people do whatever the heck they want and there you go Um, but yeah, they do they uh, they have it's like the hbo of comics.
Yes, I think of it You know, it's it's stuff that you're not gonna find although at this point Netflix is like is the hbo of hbo Yes, they do the amount of original content to put together all the more stuff and yep Well, that's really cool. So do you have any so you obviously go to cons to promote because well We saw you at no pecan, um, but do you go to any other cons no pecan? Well, this year was their first year Uh, it was uh, a local con for a lot of people Uh, so do you go to any other cons outside? Is it mainly regional cons kind of what is your Regionally, um, if I can if I can drive with you know, around the DC area like it's uh, it's probably a good chance It would be there.
I've done New York a couple times. Um, awesome combo. Um, there's a there's a local library down in fredgsburg That does like a like a an event once a year. That's kind of my favorite because it's it's like a free library thing and it's just it's just uh Like local creators and people and everybody everybody in the neighborhood dresses up.
It's great. Um, I'm saying Diego a couple times Uh, I just did I mean, it's not comics. But I just did gen con for the for the book. That was that was amazing.
That was fantastic. Yeah Well, you know, I am based in with all of all four of us guys. We're all spread out in different areas of the country Um, I am based in omahana, brassica, but um, we have a wonderful wonderful con down in Kansas city Um called planet comic con and they are actually in the process right now of booking Uh creators for the upcoming show and while they moved it up this year this year, it's in February into February So if you're free and interested, it's a huge con. I think last year we had 70,000 something people like it's a big con Um, not like new yay go big, but it's a big con.
Um, so I'm just throwing it out there. You always got to promote your local stuff, you know You can come out and say hi. We'd love to have you down in Kansas city. Yes.
I mean, some of the details like it. That's probably I mean, that's Oh, yeah, definitely I can definitely do that. That might be that might be doable Yeah, it's a it's a fun con. It's it's a this year's a little bit different because normally they have it in april or may in this year It's in February.
So it's a little bit some people are all thrown off by that But it's a wonderful wonderful convention with tons of people. Um, they have a lot of the local guys there like Jason errand Uh colon bun, uh brian hurt, you know, all the the kind of the big names are in that local area are going to be there b claymore So a lot of good networking as well. He said this was in February. Yes, february 18th through the 20th Okay I got a my job gets has like these really weird like incredibly busy spurts Where we might need to be there at like midnight for a couple nights in a row kind of thing But um, but if I can plan that out ahead of time, I might be able to make it make it work.
Awesome. Yeah, it's a wonderful wonderful And so like I said, we'd love to have you know people out there and I can definitely do all the information as well Yeah, please do Well speaking conventions. Do you have anything booked that's upcoming or is con season kind of over for you now? Um, it's kind of it's kind of winding down.
I think I have um Actually going through my calendar here Uh, there's one coming up. I can't remember There's one coming up in Frederic, uh, fretted maryland. Okay, I need to be I can remember the name of it Uh, Frederick maryland comic con That's not that uh that difficult to remember the Frederick maryland comic con in fretted maryland, uh next to frances scott keem all so yeah, I've got that going on on November 12th Okay, well there you go folks. Yeah, if you're in the area stop by say hello Grabbing i'm assuming you're gonna have trades and things there as well.
Yes. Yeah trades, uh first issue first issue very cover Yeah, so I have to ask i'm a hardcover collector. Uh, I haven't collected singles in a long time I mainly collect hard covers now sometimes trades and nobody trades actually buying them into hard covers Um, so I have to ask being a hardcover collector, um, and I know there's a lot of others out there Uh, when you get, you know, potentially some more issues out and things like that Are there a chance of ever having a hardcover collection of this book? Of harald?
Yeah, absolutely. Um, it's awesome. We had yeah, we'd have to we'd have to talk to the talk to the publisher about it But once we get so I originally broke the whole thing down outline wise into three seasons of 18 issues each Okay, I think that might you know 18 might work that might be a little too thin for a for a hardcover But that'd be good. I mean there's a lot of deluxe issues out there that are 12 to 18 issues Yeah, 18 works.
Um, so that would be like the first there because they're kind of these three big arcs that connect Um, so yeah, maybe that would be great. That is fantastic. I would be so stoked. I like it that I love hard covers It's just yeah, I'm a big collector of those.
Um, actually Mike one of the other guys on the podcast got me I know it's about a year ago and it's just it's the best way to read it's gorgeous on a wall too, right? All right, um, so Uh, issue 10 when for those that are following the book or picking up the book or have read the nine issues and are waiting for issue 10 When do you think um, do you know when issue 10 is gonna be dropping yet? I don't have a specific date. They the uh, tom and dex were actually working on the art for the role playing game book Through through Raven desk games and now that that's done there they're back.
I believe they're I think midway through issue 11 Um, and action doesn't want to release anything until the full 10 11 12 is done and in the pipe Yeah, they don't have like they can release one a month with no delays. Yeah, so I'm thinking I'm thinking uh, either end of the year early early next year Okay, that's not too far off then. Yeah, yeah, so it's kind of so the way that it works in is It'll they wait till you get the three and then it'll drop monthly for three months and then it'll kind of take a little bit of a hiatus and then Yeah, yeah, because then we we got to we got to get cracking on the next issues and everyone's got day jobs and you know Um, but yeah, yeah, that's that's how worst of action I don't know if it's about other companies, but they if it was a six issue trade they would want to make sure that it was all Done and in like I said in the pipe before they before they start putting solicit. Yeah, that makes sense.
So for those that um Our digital readers can they find this on comics. All the G. Yes. Yes.
All the wrong comics. All the G. Yes, in fact, they usually show up Um, a month or two before they hit the paper versions. Oh, wow.
Well, there you go. I guess can't wait go ahead of comics. All the G will find it there faster Yes, that is epic. All right, man Well, thank you very much for coming on tonight and discussing your your book and whatnot with us we greatly Like I said, I'm gonna go binge read the night issues this week Awesome.
Like I said, I promise you I'm going to do it and I will email you or shoot you at twitter or something to tweet and let you know Once I'm done and probably tell you how much I absolutely love your book. So awesome, man. Hey, well, don't don't don't oversell it in your head I don't want to the premise. I'm serious man.
The premise sounds epic Tell people if you like it tell people you like it and if you don't like it tell people you like it Yeah, exactly. Just don't say anything No, the premise sounds absolutely epic and I really look forward to checking it out because that's right at my alley I love that kind of stuff perfect. Thanks, man So awesome Well, thank you once again very much for coming on and if you have anything else that you want to promote or put out there Let us know we'll be more than happy to help you out any kick starters anything like that and uh, we'll help throw that out there And I'll get you the information for planet comic con and hopefully I will see you in Kansas City Awesome. All right.
Well, thank you. We're talking about thanks man. We'll greatly appreciate it. All right